"Where's Claude?" Gusion said irritantly as he ran along the corridors alongside Guinevere.
"I think he got locked outside." She answered. She was trying to figure out which way to go.
"That damn rascal." He cursed.
"Let's just keep going." Guinevere urged as she led the way to another corridor on the right.
It was confusing enough for Gusion.
There was too much corridors that went around each other, and it didn't help that almost all of them looked exactly the same.
A few turns later, Guinevere stopped running and looked around.
"You think the others could hold them long enough to find whatever we're looking for?" She asked, though Gusion couldn't figure out if she was serious or not.
"I don't know." He answered. "But I don't want to find out."
He grabbed her wrist and they kept striding along the corridors, filled with purpose and urgency with the lack of direction.
"If only Claude didn't stray..." He said irritantly.
"What did he mean by he could feel her though? Is it the same way I could feel your presence whenever you co—"
Gusion looked at her over his shoulder just before she caught herself from what she was saying.
He suppressed a smile, his heart skipping a beat.
It was amusing to know he wasn't the only feeling too aware of the other's presence.
"Glad to know the feeling's mutual." He jested.
Guinevere suddenly spun to a direction. "What's that?" She blurted out, her eyes round as she stared far ahead at an empty corridor.
But Gusion knew what she was talking about.
The eerie feeling he was having in his gut, as if his entire system was alarming him of the danger ahead but his mind was being pulled by an inevitable force at the certain direction.
Both of them paced cautiously along the corridor, Guinevere's hand gripping his tightly as if what was ahead was taking too much of her attention to be aware of what she was doing.
He gripped it tightly though, glad to have someone with him and ready to pull her at the first sight of danger.
He could feel the power getting stronger as they got closer to whatever was calling them.
They came at the end of the corridor and entered a room that was eerie and weird.
Giant tubes were everywhere, filled with green liquid that were boiling at some and stagnant at others.
Guinevere let go of him and headed straight to the aisle, walking along it towards the back rows.
"Guinevere, we shouldn't be barging recklessly around——!" He stopped talking the moment he came right behind Guinevere who had stopped and he saw what she was staring at.
A girl.
A girl was inside one of the tubes, and she was floating halfway through the water in a curled position, like a cat that had gone into some sort of hibernation.
Staring at her, he knew that the weird aura he was getting was coming from her. And it made him grab Guinevere's arm as she started walking towards her.
"That must be Claude's friend."
"It's her, alright." He answered certainly. "And I think I quite get the idea why he keeps saying that she was the rightful bearer of the cube."
"Right." Guinevere agreed. Only then did Gusion notice how she was too stiff and she seemed to be breathing a little too hard than normal as she stared back at the girl. "She's got this...energy that makes all the hairs on my arms standup. It's... ancient. And unarguably powerful."
"Alright, I'm sorry to say this, but I think getting near her would do any good to us. We have to leave." He started dragging her the way they came in but Guinevere kept resisting his pull.
"Paxley, don't be too selfish!"
He spun around to face her. "You said it yourself, Guinevere! That girl has ancient power inside her. And whoever she is, I know her mere presence threatens our safety. Your safety. So please, just let me be selfish for once, Guinevere!"
"See? This is exactly the reason why we couldn't be together." She blurted out and shrugged his hold off her. "We become selfish about each other and we get people hurt."
Gusion sighed. "How many times have we gone through this?"
"That's it. We're talking right here, right now." She started stepping closer to him, her eyes determined and her lips firm.
Gusion knew exactly what was coming. So he walked away from her. "No! I am not hearing any more of your crap!"
"This isn't and this is my word, so listen!" She grabbed his arm and made him face her.
She looked at him straight in the eyes. "We just can't be together."
"No, I love you." Gusion muttered, trying not to hear what she was trying to say or see the seriousness in her eyes.
"Love isn't gonna make us have our happy ever after. Do you think we could be happy? Both of us would have to betray our families. The whole empire would hear about the boy who took his own brother's fiancée. No one would acknowledge you—!"
"I love you, Guinevere." He said firmly.
"No, listen to me!" She snapped as Gusion kept trying to turn away from her but everytime he did so, Guinevere would just come right in front of him and look at him in the eyes.
"I know you, Paxley." She said after him when he started going around the tubes, Guinevere insistently a step behind him. "You seek glory for yourself. If we ever listen to what we feel right now, you would lose your stand in the empire and you would hate me for that. I will be too stubborn and you would be too sad and we'll argue, and we'll fight and we would be unhappy—!"
"I said I love you."
Guinevere merely sighed, her eyes teary and her lips pursed in pain as she looked at him, apologetically shaking her head.
"I can't fight for you." She cried. "Not if I know where it could lead you."
He heard yet another piece of his already-shattered heart break yet again, and this time all he could do was sigh and look down, a tear escaping right on his left eye even before he realized it.
But he didn't care if he appeared weak in front of her.
He wanted her to see how much she had hurt him.
"This is becoming a habit of yours, aint it? Breaking my heart."
"I'm sorry. But I know. Years from now you're gonna look back on this day and just laugh about all this. And you'll be in the arms of the one who truly deserves you."
"Damn it." He cussed and walked along the other cubes to get away from her, but then he came right into something that made him halt.
Floating inside one of the tubes was a cube, glowing despite being inside a green liquid.
”I found it." He announced to Guinevere, who came behind him a second after.
"Is that... the cube?" Guinevere asked.
"It is." He pressed his palms right against the glass that was separating him and the cube as he tried to figure out how to get it out of its container.
"Maybe I could climb up your back and——."
"No." He cut her off. "You mustn't touch the cube with your bare hands."
"Why not?"
"Imagine every a million ounce of magic suddenly placed right against a single person's hand, what would likely happen?"
"It would corrupt the person. Like Argus."
"Exactly."
"Then why did you want to have it in the first place?"
"I plan to use it right from its pedestal." He explained. "But not this pedestal."
"So how do you suppose we get it?"
As if to grant an unclearly stated wish, tubes broke all around them, making the room rain with shards of shattered glass that they instinctively ducked and covered their heads.
They saw how the cube fell on the floor and slid a few meters away from them.
"Well, there you go then." He muttered.
"You dared enter this place." A mechanical voice echoed from across the room.
Both of them turned to his direction.
He was all wrapped up with his armor, a different armor this time and they still couldn't see his eyes. All they could see to confirm there was still a human inside was his visible jaws, which were clenched tight, letting them know he wasn't there to help.
"Alpha." Guinevere called, and scrambled to her feet and started heading to him.
Gusion grabbed her instantly. "Are you trying to get killed?"
"No. We should let him know we aren't the enemy."
"Guinevere, look at him." He said firmly, glancing at Alpha who had his spear gripped toght and ready to swing as he started pacing to their direction. "He's completely brainwashed!"
"We shouldn't give up on a person!"
"You should learn to give up on some in order to survive!" Gusion snapped, grabbing her by the waist and spinning both of them away as Alpha swung his spear to their direction. "You can not save everyone!"
"Are you seriously telling me that?!" She said, a frown on her forehead as she stared at him in disbelief. "You, who jumps in head first to save someone?!"
"That was before." Gusion argued, pulling her behind a column as another swing came from and Alpha and ruined the wall instead.
"Then why aren't you giving up on me?!"
Gusion temporarily forgot the threat they were currently in to look at Guinevere.
Was she seriously using that against him?
"You're different." He said honestly.
"I am as such a lost cause as the others and you know that!"
"You are the one thing I couldn't give up!" He blurted out impatiently and grabbed her to duck a split second before Alpha had hit the wall where they had been leaning against.
Crumbles of cement came falling over their backs. but they rolled over the floor before Alpha could take another hit and be successful this time.
"No matter how I try to do so, I just couldn't get myself to give up on you!" He added as soon as they came on their knees and feet a few yards away from Alpha.
Gusion caught his breath. There it was again, the pull in his gut as if something powerful was influencing his logic.
He heard Guinevere breath audibly, letting him know she was feeling the same thing.
He followed her gaze and realized she was looking at Claude's friend, now lying on the floor with the pool of green liquid.
"Let's get out of here." Gusion said.
"But what about the cube? And the girl."
"Just... head to the door!"
"What are you planning to do?"
"JUST GO! NOW!" He exclaimed, giving Guinevere no choice but to do so.
As soon as he saw her disappear out of the door, Gusion ran towards the cube, judging Alpha's blows.
He grunted as soon as his fingers came in contact with the cube.
It was whirling with energy, white hot and sparkling that it made his whole body tremble in pain.
But he gripped it and headed towards the unconscious girl.
"Damn it, Claude!" He exclaimed as he dropped the cube right over the girl's chest.
As he had guessed, she wasn't affected by the cube's power. She remained unconscious as Gusion slid both of his arms under her and yanked her up.
He wasn't in contact with the cube anymore, but he felt the hair at the back of his neck stand on ends, the heat inside him worsening, his head feeling like it was about to explode.
Even his venom armor which was so keen at protecting him stirred in their place and went wild over his skin.
"Gusion!" Guinevere yelled anxiously as soon as he came running out of the room, followed by Alpha's miniature jet that shot bullets after him.
But Alpha became the least of their concern as Gusion's knees buckled, making the cube and the girl fall on the floor with him.
"Are you alright?!" Guinevere asked as she sat on the balls of her feet next to him.
His breathing started going fast, sweat streaming down the sides of his face as he tried to grasp at whatever he was losing in his mind.
"Get away from me, Guin."
"What? No. We have to go." She held both of his shoulders in an attempt to helo him up.
But he was starting tosurfacing feel afraid of the strong sensation inside him.
"I SAID GET AWAY!!!" He snapped, then screamed as he felt himself losing the internal battle in his head.
It was like a demon had messed with his head and now he was feeling a lot angrier, a lot more desperate, and a lot more greedy for the cube.
"I am not leaving you here!" Guinevere yelled, her hands gripping his back desperately as he burried his head within his arms.
"GO NOW, GUINEVERE! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
"But—!"
Guinevere's voice had faded into the background as Gusion heard something snap inside his head.
Enormous heat travelled into his chest, bringing extreme anger, desperation and greed into his logic.
Right. Why was he holding back anyway?
The world was leaving him battered in every step of the way.
This world was too full of loathing, too full of evil, too full of selfishness.
So why was he stopping his desire of ending the cruelty once and for all?
Why not give it the chaos that it deserved?
It was not too late thought.
He had to start now.
He had to start punishing this harsh world he was in.
And he would start in this sinful wretched mess of a city.