Nero had not thought of a way to explain the silver light, so the best solution would be if he didn't have to explain it. Pushing Bael into the blood would be so easy, and there would be no fight to leave any traces. Even if there was an investigation, no one would be able to prove that Nero played any part in his demise.
Death by curse was the most common kind of death in this world, and regardless of how strong or well prepared he was, how could Bael survive a curse that even Nero could not face?
He did not intend to do it, but his brain naturally presented him with possible flaws in his plan. Maximilian had used a space card, which meant that it wasn't impossible that others had them too. More importantly, the kinds of cards were so diverse that Bael could literally have any kind of card hidden for his survival with effects that he could not anticipate.
The threat of the unknown was too great. After all, with such a powerful father, Nero did not believe that Bael did not have a few last resources.
That was not even considering the influence of the mysterious organisation Unity.
There were a lot of risks, but the benefit of keeping the silver light a secret might be worth it.
But Nero's brain, which was used to analysing situations thoroughly, did not stop there. He even began to consider the benefits and drawbacks of not killing Bael.
The exposure of the silver light was the largest risk. He would need to come up with a convincing way to justify it. But the thing was, it would be impossible for Virtuous Moonlight to remain a secret forever. Eventually, someone would see him using it. That, in itself, was not a risk. In fact, as long as he exposed a false hand now, no one would look deeper into this matter.
He would, at most, seem like he was hiding a very valuable card he got from the chamber. No one would suspect that he received another innate ability.
A gleam flashed through Nero's eyes as a plan began to form. He could kill Bael, but he could also make use of him.
Both of those paths had potential risks, but they also had their potential benefits as well. He just had to choose which one he wanted to take.
Nero did not, even for a second, feel bad or guilty about deliberating whether to kill Bael or not. He was in this situation because of Bael to begin with. The organisation Unity was just making use of him, and that came with associated risks. If he wanted to make use of them, he also had to accept the risks that came along with it.
Although he himself was still a teenager, this world did not give him a chance to act like one - not that he was too interested in it anyway.
Nero quickly made his decision, just in time to swipe the Test2 card from the second chamber door as they passed. They kept running till they were dead in the middle of it before yelling, "stop!"
With all his attention on running, and all of Bael's attention focused on holding on, no one noticed Silas open a single eye, look at Nero, then close it back as if he were still unconscious.
They exited the tunnel at last, and saw how the pool of blood seemed to be draining into a brick shaped hole in the wall, as if it too was escaping the incoming fog.
They didn't slow down and kept running, though fortunately soon they escaped the limits of the blood pool which meant that Nero could deactivate Virtuous Moonlight and preserve his nearly elapsed aether.
The duo did not stop running though, and now without the need to worry about Bael keeping up, Nero bolted forward.
A berserker appeared in Nero's path, angry and ready to fight, only to receive a flaming fist right in the face, launching its massive body across the room.
Completely out of breath, Nero finally reached the ground floor of the library, where Ascendant Oana was waiting for him.
"Bael is right behind me," Nero yelled.
"You're cutting it close," she said as she wrapped an invisible force around Nero and Silas, waiting a few seconds longer for Bael.
As soon as he exited, without waiting for him to say anything, she wrapped him in her energy as well and then dashed out of the library as if her life depended on it. Already somewhat familiar with the blur, Nero was fully expecting not to be able to see his surroundings at all once more.
But what he didn't expect was that as soon as Oana exitted the library, she ran in a straight line away from the library, giving Nero a clear view of a massive wall of fog rolling over the city.
Nero saw as the research facility was engulfed by the thick fog, completely vanishing from sight, as if it had entered the maw of a terrifying beast. The rest of the city followed right in its example, with the library engulfed less than a minute later.
The fog was moving fast, but fortunately, the Ascendant moved faster, and soon they crossed the boundary of the city where the fog previously stopped. But the Ascendant kept running, and soon they exited the walls of Lumina.
Nero didn't understand the urgency, until he saw that the whole city itself was soon covered in fog, with no indication of the wall stopping any time soon. It was as if the fog was chasing after them, demanding back the secrets Nero had stolen from within Lumina.
But ultimately, after proceeding forward a couple of kilometres, covering land that had never felt the touch of the fog before, the wall stopped, as if its momentum was lost.
Nero finally breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally out of Lumina. The most urgent threat was gone, but Nero was far from safe just yet.