Episode 39/Chapter 40
Episode 40/Chapter 41
Episode 41/Chapter 42
Episode 42/Chapter 43
Episode 43/Chapter 44
Episode 44/Chapter 45
Episode 45/Chapter 46
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They walked into a library which had a few undead walking around, but Theo took care of them. They were groaning, attracting the attention of more undead.
Now these things are just getting annoying. Yuna thought.
"Hey, Mr. Collins," Theo said thinking.
"Yeah?" Noah responded.
"What would you do if someone you care about turned into one of these monsters?" Theo asked, "I can kill these things without hesitation because I don't know them but... Azael is my brother."
"Who knows... I wonder."
"Even Mr. Collins who seems to know everything doesn't have answer to that..."
"Stop pretending to be a nice guy, Noah. You know damn well what the answer is," Neo added, almost spitefully.
"Neo, it's not that... simple," Noah said.
"Says you. Don't make me laugh."
Yuna wondered. Neo says that, but could he really kill Yuna without any hesitation? The same with Yuna. What would she do if she had to kill Neo? He was already an undead, but he had control over himself so that shouldn't be a problem. However, if Yuna was faced with Neo as an enemy, would she be able to kill him?
They walked up the stairs, Wyn said there could be a place to hide.
Knock
Knock
"Alix!" Theo said.
She opened her mouth, but nothing was heard.
Damn, it's soundproof. Yuna looked at the door, maybe it can be opened.
"The door is locked," Noah said trying the handle.
Yuna looked around the room, as Theo was trying to listen to Alix. She heard a strange noise. She looked up. There was Azael.
"Theo!" Yuna shouted.
"Behind you!" Noah yelled.
Theo turned around. Azael, who was clinging to the ceiling, lunged toward his brother, but Theo held up his axe, blocking him.
"Huh?! Azael?!" Theo said. Normally Theo would knock the undead away, maybe even decapitate it. But being faced with his brother. He couldn't. He froze.
Azael was about to strike again, but Noah came in with a strike to his neck.
"Do you want to die?! Don't just stand there!" Noah said.
"My bad..." Theo said.
"He's back up," Neo said.
Azael cracked his bone back into place.
"Azael..." Theo said.
"Stand back. This one isn't normal," Noah said.
The normal ones didn't seem to know how to crack a bone back or how to ambush people. Yuna thought.
Azael shook a little before rushing at Noah. Theo jumped in front of Noah and grabbed Azael by the elbow before throwing him over the shoulder.
"Theo, I got this, you don't have to-" Noah said.
"He's my brother. Let me at least take care of him," Theo interrupted.
"...Fine, I understand. Just be careful... this one isn't normal. This guy is faster than a normal undead... and even knows how to ambush. It's risky to fight him in close range. Don't do what you just did again," Noah basically coached.
Azael started to dash for Theo again. Theo swung the axe he just picked up, but it ducked.
It dodged? I'm not surprised. Yuna thought.
What surprised her more, was that it ran for Neo, and didn't attack Theo or even glance at Yuna. Noah pulled Neo out of the way and Theo went in to attack him again. Azael used his arm as a shield and Theo couldn't pull the axe out. Azael flipped his arm and the axe handle almost hit Theo, but he stepped back. Azael pulled the axe out of his arm.
"Enough," Noah said holding Neo from Azael.
Theo turned his head.
"It's one thing to sort things out with your 'brother.' It's another thing when he's clearly aiming for Neo. I'm sorry, but I don't want to take any risk. We don't have time to spare."
He took out a switchblade.
"You three go get the door open. We're getting out of here as soon as I can get rid of that thing."
Theo's fist tighten, "Understood."
"Pay attention," Noah said dropping the now bloody switchblade and running towards Azael. The latter swung at Noah, but he dodged and used his blood again. It cut through Azael's arms and knocked him down.
Tik
Tik
He left the sound function on? Whatever, he'll finish him off. Yuna turned her attention to the door and quickly grabbed the axe.
"Your attention should be on this door, not over there," Neo said to Theo.
"Sorry," Theo said.
She passed the axe to Theo. Theo tried breaking the glass to get through to them while Yuna was checking out the metal door.
"You... impossible!" Noah said.
Yuna glanced over at the fight. Azael was decapitated, but it was still moving. So it was one of the abnormal ones.
"Mr. Collins-" Theo opened his mouth.
"Shut up! I'm busy here!" Noah snapped, "Just focus on getting the damn door open."
"U-Understood," Theo said, "Is he really okay?"
"He's Noah, he'll be fine," Yuna said.
The door wasn't making any progress. Instead Yuna grabbed the axe and tried scratching at the glass. Maybe it would easier than cracking it.
Azael ran past Noah again, making an attempt at Neo. Yuna turned, her heart dropped when she thought Azael almost reached Neo. However, Noah used his blood to block him off.
Azael gave up for a moment, it probably figured it needed to kill Noah if it wanted to get to Neo.
Yuna let out a small sigh of relief and then went back to the window. She made slight progress, there was a scratch, but the glass was pretty thick, it would take a while to get through.
There was a light thud behind them, Yuna turned to see the Azael's arm on the floor.
"Theo! Crush that arm!" Noah yelled, making Theo freeze.
"A-Arm??" Theo asked.
"That one!" Yuna pointed.
"Hurry!" Noah said.
Azael rushed over, the enhanced speed let him catch up quickly, but Theo had a much shorter distance to cover. He brought up fire extinguisher in his hand and slammed it down on the arm, destroying it and cracking the floor.
Bwoon
"What...?" Theo said confused at how the floor ended up like that.
Azael was one second away from hurting his own brother, but it stopped and fell over.
"How did you break the floor?" Yuna asked.
"It was a gamble but he really went down..." Noah said.
"Mr. Collins... what did you do?" Theo asked.
"What did I do? What did you do?"
"I only crushed it liked you asked me too..."
"He's been trying to break the glass, but it's sound-proof, so it's probably pretty strong," Yuna informed Noah.
"?" Noah looked over at Neo, probably checking his condition.
"Mr. Collins?" Theo said.
"Ah yeah," Noah said, "From the looks of it, I'd say it's probably strength enhancement. Congratulations."
"Strength enhancement? Me?" Theo asked looking at his hand.
"No, the fire extinguisher," Yuna said sarcastically.
Noah laughed, but went on. He told Theo to open the door, it should be easier than trying to crack the glass. Theo doubted himself, he didn't know how to control it like how Noah controlled his.
"It can't be more complicated than manipulating blood," Yuna said.
"Right..." Theo said.
"Sorry that took longer than expected. Neo, are you okay?" Noah asked.
"Better than you for sure," Neo said.
"How cold..."
Theo was staring at Azael's body for a second. Even if he was an undead, even if he did try to kill him just now, that was still Theo's brother.
"You okay?" Yuna asked.
"Yeah," Theo replied.
He gritted his teeth and made a salute. Theo stood for a moment and then got back to work.
Crack
Thud
Theo teared the door down and Noah confessed that he didn't think that Theo would be able to do it on the first try.
"That's really encouraging, thanks..." Theo responded sarcastically.
So then Noah complimented, "Strength enhancement sure is useful, I'd never be able to do this with my power."
They stepped inside and Alix was leaning against a bookcase, "Good work out there Mr. Collins. You were super cool!"
She gave a thumbs up.
"What would we ever do without you?"
You most certainly would've died in here. But I'm don't think you'd even make it to this point. Yuna thought.
"Spare me the chatter. How did you even manage to lock yourself in this room anyway?" Noah asked.
"Well, you see, that's actually a really funny story!" Alix said they found this room when they were trying to hide from Azael and got locked in.
Tia passed out a while ago, she wasn't hurt, just got scared because there was an undead in the room. Alix took care of it.
"What was that amazing strength? I knew you have supernatural powers, but I didn't know Theo had them too," Theo said.
"It only just manifested for them. I'm not the only one in this world with powers. Slowly more and more will appear too," Noah replied.
"Hey, will I develop powers too?"
"How should I know?" Noah stepped out.
Blood? Yuna noticed.
"Mr. Collins, is your eye okay?" Theo asked noticing the blood.
"My eye?" Noah asked.
"Your left eye is bleeding," Yuna said.
Noah took off his glasses.
Rub
Noah looked his hand and saw blood, more of it dripping from his eye. The blood shouldn't have been from his powers, it might've come from that golden power that let him see where the core was. Neo told Noah to sit so he could wrap him up.
"W-What for? If I need to bandage this up... Theo can lend me a hand..." Noah asked.
"Please don't drag me into this," Theo commented crossing his arms into an X shape.
"What's wrong with me doing it? Hand them over already," Neo said.
When Neo finished, they situated themselves.
"Hehe," Yuna laughed at Neo.
"Shut up," Neo said.
"I didn't say anything~" Yuna said.
Neo rolled his eyes. They headed back to the house almost immediately. Even if the library was pretty cleaned out now, it wasn't safe to stay so far from their base. Wyn was waiting at the door, and spotted them. He let them in, helping Alice with Tia.
"There's something more important!" Wyn said, "Do you remember the goth looking girl in your group??"
"Sounds familiar... What's her name again?" Alix responded.
"Esther," Yuna replied.
"What about her?" Theo asked.
One explanation later...
Li said they locked the now undead Ester in her room and wanted to wait for Noah to return before making any moves.
"I told you she was infected, but nobody would listen to me! She had a very nasty wound on her leg!" Axel yelled from downstairs, "It was your brother who saved her. And look what karma repaid him with, hah."
"Don't be a jackass, Axel," Wyn said.
"It's fine, Wyn. He's not entirely wrong," Theo said.
"Keep taking like that and you'll be the next Ian," Yuna said.
"What?" Axel asked.
"Your shitty attitude will get you killed in this environment."
"Like you're any better!" Axel shouted.
"I am actually," Yuna said, "What exactly have you done?"
Axel didn't say anything in response. Yuna was right, Axel hadn't done anything more than any other person in the group. He clicked his tongue and glared.
Ester groaned, reminding everyone that she was still a problem. Instead of dealing with her, Noah said to rest for tonight and get ready to leave in the morning.
Then Noah warned everyone of the abnormal undeads. Be prepared that most of them from now on will be harder to kill.
"Wait, did he just say there was an undead that wouldn't die even after you crushed their head?" Wyn asked.
"Azael was one. We had some trouble putting him down."
"So Valens was right... Your brother did turn... Why? When? What happened? Was he somehow bitten?"
"I guess..."
"I heard about the blue haired guy. Sorry, should have warned you beforehand. I did have a bad feeling about it," Mana said. Maybe she was trying to validate her own powers. Her instincts were right, she wanted everyone else to know that.
"Thanks for the late warning," Noah said.
"Eh, what matters is that you're all still fine, right?"
Tia asked Mana why she didn't predict Azael's turning, which eventually went to her yelling Mana, almost blaming her for the two men's deaths, but Alix chilled her out, Mana was still a child.
"Papa! You're back!" Abel said, "!! W-What happened to your eye??"
"It's nothing bad, just a little scratch. It will heal soon enough," Noah replied.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Pipe down. It's not like he's blind for good," Neo said. He was sitting on the couch. Yuna was next to him, Hail in her lap. She was playing with Hail's fur and Iva was petting him as well.
The two mini-Collins argued for a bit, Abel telling Neo to keep Noah more safe and Neo telling Abel that it's none of his business if Noah gets hurt.
Despite wrapping Noah up after? Yuna gave Neo a knowing smirk.
Neo rolled his eyes, knowing what she was thinking.
The conversation went a little more productive after that. Due to both Azael and Ester turning after an injury from undeads, it's safe to assume that people turn after being bitten. Because of the large group, they decided to isolate anyone with injuries for 24 hours since that's how long it took Azael and Ester to turn.
"Um..." Mrs. Baron said.
"Did you have any luck with the fuel? I didn't see you bring anything else back," Mr. Baron said.
"You bet!" Wyn said, trying to bring the next topic into place, "Hey kid, show them!"
"..."
"Hey!"
Neo ignored him, turning his head away.
Disappointed but not surprised
Yuna laughed while Theo patted Wyn's back.
"The kid ignored me..." Wyn sulked.
"Neo, it's fine, you can show them," Noah said.
"...Fine," Neo said. He raised his hand and his earring shined. Containers of gasoline appeared with red lights and hit the floor. "Was that enough?"
"Wah! Lots of boxes came out of thin air!" Iva said.
"What-" Valens said.
"What the..." Mrs. Baron said.
"Where did those things come from?" Parish asked.
"The kid has powers too then? When!?" Tia asked.
Wyn explained Neo's pocket dimension. They discussed powers for a moment, wondering if more people will develop powers as well.
"Maybe the officials in Koxu city would know more than us," Valens said.
You'd think they would've broadcasted a warning or something by now. Yuna thought.
Mrs. Baron got worried, she was pregnant in this hellhole. Hopefully it wouldn't last long. Mr. Baron tried to help her relax, being stressed would hurt the Baby.
Noah shut the conversation there. It wasn't bad or anything, but things needed to be done. Keep some people on guard and check inventory one more time before they leave tomorrow. They verified that the food should be okay for the trip.
"Is that all, sir?" Li asked.
"Ah yeah, then I guess we can have dinner... Eveyrone must be exhausted-"
"Alight, but before that I beg your pardon but please allow me to take a look at your injuries," Li said, a more, um... intimidating aura circulating her.
Uh-oh, someone's in trouble. Yuna chuckled.
Noah froze up, realizing the deep shit he was in now, "...Okay."