Episode 172- Kal's children
Eugene glanced around at her surroundings. Her eyes trembled in disbelief and confusion over the fact that only their area wasn't affected by the explosion. Eugene stepped forward and squinted her eyes only to notice that the air appeared to be trembling.
'Shield?' Though it was transparent, it was obvious that there was something in front of her. Something big enough to protect everyone, and the area behind them from the explosion.
Eugene realized something and turned to Aernest, "Aernest?"
He glanced at her and shook his head to indicate that he was fine. He then moved his gaze and glanced at the person in front of them.
Eugene's mouth opened slightly and she stepped forward to Euria. However, the moment she saw Euria's face, her eyes widened and she reached for Euria's face, "Euria!"
Euria evaded Eugene's touch, froze slightly, and quickly shook her head, "I'm alright." Her voice sounded soft as if she didn't mean to evade Eugene's touch. Using her forearm, she wiped her nose that was bleeding.
Eugene furrowed her eyebrows tight and stared at Euria. It wasn't only her nosebleed, but her appearance that looked as if she was going to fall at any given moment. Just then, a thought rushed in her mind and she asked her,
"Did you perhaps… saved us back then too?"
"..." Euria stayed quiet. Her pale face looked weak but it neither denied nor confirmed Eugene's words.
When Ario exploded, except for the blood that soaked them completely, the explosion did not hurt them. But seeing as how the explosion exploded everything to smithereens, it was impossible for Ario's explosion not to hurt them. So it must've been Euria who contained that explosion to just Ario for a brief second.
"Euria? Honey? Are you alright?" Moniqua rushed to Euria following Eugene's words of concern and kneeled in front of her. Her face was filled with a look of apologetic as she raised her palm to rub Euria's face gently.
Euria grabbed Moniqua's arms, "It's not over yet." Her eyes stared straight ahead, beyond the area that had exploded.
Eugene's eyes followed Euria and saw Darius and the young teen standing staring at them. Like them, they were not affected by the explosion and were out of harm's way.
"Are they just like you?" Eugene mumbled unconsciously as she stared at them with complex emotion. All she could think of was that they were doomed if an explosion like that occurred again. Or if Darius and the teen have the same power as Euria. Euria looked very weak as if she would faint any minute and did not look like she could muster up the same shield if such an explosion were to occur again.
"No." Euria denied immediately. "There are only three people in this world who are special." She turned to Euria briefly before turning back to Darius.
"They weren't affected because the explosion wasn't aimed at them," Euria explained.
'... It can be aimed?' Eugene was speechless.
"Euria…" Moniqua's hands trembled as she grabbed Euria's shoulders.
"As expected, your powers have mostly recovered. Just that your strength is very… limited."
Everyone turned to Darius with their guards raised.
Euria did not reply to Darius and merely looked at him.
"As expected, we should have killed you then El-" He paused and shook his head, "Lady Ria." No one understood what this man was saying, but when Euria responded to him, they immediately understood.
"Yes. You should have killed me when I was just a sprout."
What incident occurred when Euria was just a 'sprout'? The incident at the Imperial Palace. If it was back then, Euria was technically a sprout and had almost died.
The knights, Aernest and Eugene, weren't sure if what they were thinking was right, however, Moniqua was confident that they were referring to the incident at the Imperial Palace. Back 6 and a half years ago, this incident was brought up again and they re-evaluated that the target of that incident was not the Crown Prince but was Eugene due to the note they had found in Zene with her name written on it. However, now, Moniqua could confirm that there was a slight mistake to the note and that the person Exitium had been targeting this whole time was Euria.
"It is a pity." Darius' lips curved up. He thought for a moment before saying, "Do you know how angered that person was when those special children were slaughtered?"
'Children?' Eugene's eyes twitched.
"If we had killed you from the start, Kal's children would have lived. But because they had died, our plans were delayed until it was eventually scrapped."
-Badum-
Eugene's heartbeat skipped a beat. She remembered. Kal had accused the Xenperian people of killing his 20 children. Back then Eugene thought that this incident wasn't related to them at all… But...
She turned to Euria with her heartbeat racing.
"You killed such good products."
As soon as Darius mentioned products, she once again remembered something Ario had said. Back then he mentioned that Kal was a mere chest piece and that…
-Flashback-
Ario shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Eugene and the group with laziness in his eyes, "How can a mere chest piece kill me? He only killed my subordinate disguised as me." he explained his 'death' incident in simple words.
Eugene felt a pang of headache, "Chest piece…?" she repeated. Kal… was a chest piece?
"That's right."
Hal's eyes trembled and he mumbled, "Then... manipulating everyone..."
Ario shook his head with eagerness, "No, no! That he did by himself. Though it proved to be rather convenient for me, especially since such good products came out from this…" he laughed sweetly as he confessed.
-Flashback End-
'Was the products he mentioned back then… Kal's children?' Her eyes were huge as they burned through Euria's shoulders.
"You gave us no choice but to take you instead." He shrugged, "But didn't you already know from the start that if we can't have those children, we would have no choice but to take you? After all, we are Exitium and seek destruction."
Euria said nothing and only stared at him.
-Flashback-
"Because life's just starting… To protect." These words are repeated repeatedly in the figure's mind.
Clouds drifted slowly to cover up every last bit of the twilight stars. Stars high up in the sky were nonexistent tonight, as clouds sheltered them as if hiding them for what's to come. Then, another cloud drifted over slowly to cover the moon but failed to do so as the moon's shine was brighter than the cloud's density.
The moon wanted to watch over its children during the night no matter if it was watching them sleep or watching them as they breathed their last.
'The humidity feels suffocating tonight.' The figure thought as it hoped through the silent night. The figure was none other than a small child with beautiful grey hair and deep red eyes.
She did not have to look to know that her hidden guard was following her. The hidden guard must've been confused, but she had no intention of stopping or any intention to hide away from the hidden guard that was following her. Because either way, her hidden guard will come to know who she was sooner or later.
Darkness was a part of her life and she was accustomed to it which was why she had no problem moving around in the dark as if it was bright out. She jumped from palaces to palaces together with the hidden guard that was following her from behind and arrived at the destination.
The greenhouse.
'Such low taste.' Euria scoffed as she glanced around. She felt disgusted and many other negative emotions as she scouted around the abandoned area inside the palace ground. Just when she was about to feel bored, she thought of a fun game as she felt a gaze behind her back.
-Crack-
She cracked her neck, making a sound to distract her guard who was hiding before reaching for a branch that was by her feet.
"Impetus. Celer," she mumbled a spell and with the branch, she picked up, hurled the branch with great force towards her hidden guard.
WOOSH!
There was no way the hidden guard could keep up with Euria's strength, not to mention the branch that was brimmed in power. Therefore the only way the hidden guard could defend from the branch was to expose herself by getting off from the tree.
THUD!
The branch Euria threw struck the tree, embedding half of itself into the tree. The force was so powerful that you could even smell the friction that came from the branch when it dug itself into the tree.
The hidden guard who wasn't hidden anymore had a terrible expression on her face. She was flabbergasted and looked at Euria with a terrified expression on her face. It was worse because Euria was already standing in front of her with her red eyes staring deep into her eyes. The darkness paired together with the red orbs sent shivers down her spine.
"Whose order do you follow?"
The guard's sweat trickled down her forehead as her lips trembled. She did not answer Euria's question and instead asked Euria from nerves, "H… How.." What she wanted to ask was, how did the child in front of her become very strong all of a sudden.
Euria tilted her head and her lips curved up into a smile, "No matter.." She shrugged.