The shock on Rise’s face, his blood, and the wound he inflicted... the scene repeated on Kamille’s mind as he fell.
How...
Why do things always go wrong? He should be protecting him...
Then...
Kamille’s half-lidded eyes stared blankly ahead of him, where the destroyed ceiling had been. His body lay limply deeper underground, and his own blood gushed out and pooled around his body.
And yet, not one grunt of pain escaped his lips. His mind was preoccupied by the image of Rise’s injury instead. Kamille wanted to get up, but his body was not listening to him.
He could not move; only his crimson eyes rolled and looked up, glancing everywhere.
"Ri..." Kamille’s mouth opened painfully, blood poured out of his mouth and dripped in the corners of his mouth to his jaw.
His lips quivered at the force. Kamille could not even utter Rise’s na in full.
Rise needed his help. Kamille scread in fury, his crimson eyes turned darker and darker until they spread to around of his pupils. Black veins took root once more on his cheek, bulging and spreading at an alarming rate.
His appearance almost resembled the mory Kamille they had seen at that gate. But if one saw him at this mont, only one thought would co to mind.
An esper on the verge of losing control.
His fingers moved slightly, but it was too weak.
Kamille let out a sound, but barely audible, almost like a gurgle. He kept on thinking about Rise, forgetting the fact that he himself was in a precarious condition.
Neither expected the sudden turn of events.
Perhaps it was also a lesson. Kamille and Rise had taken this too lightly. They were prepared, but it was not enough. Or it was also because they were too confident.
Cautious but reckless at the sa ti. In the end, it was still recklessness.
His face twitched, and so did his body. Kamille tried to awaken and took control of his body. His blood continued to gush out of his body, his face becoming so pale.
The dark veins that took root under his eyes spread to his neck, and his whole right eye turned completely crimson. They shone and flickered nacingly; the dark mana around him multiplied.
Suddenly, Kamille’s bloodied vision flickered, and a continuous glitch began occupying his sight. Sounds beca inaudible, ringing through his ears in the sa manner as though sothing was malfunctioning.
Huh... Kamille found this scenario familiar.
When did it happen?
A mory suddenly flashed across his mind. It was from long ago... but he could still vividly rember them.
Ah, during that ti, Kamille had heard this sa sound.
[Y^&*%]
They were not loud, but it felt like his head was about to explode, and recently, he had the sa dream. He could understand the source of the sound there.
Kamille focused his mind and stopped controlling his body for a while, listening to the voice. Doing so, an unbearable pain surged from within him.
It was a kind of searing pain that directly tore his soul. Kamille’s crimson eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his body convulsed. Blood dripped down his nose, ears, and eyes as he coughed blood.
Despite that, Kamille’s mind was awfully awake. Like a madman, not caring for his own condition one bit. He only focused on wanting to hear that voice, even if it costs his life.
[TOLD YOU]
It was like a roar despite it being a hushed whisper. It was like a voice that directly spoke within the very essence of Kamille’s soul.
Kamille’s berserk symptoms intensified after hearing that voice, and he could only understand it, but the tone of the voice itself was still a mystery.
He did not know if it ca from a woman or a man, or what age. Kamille was already hanging on to his life just hearing those two words.
And yet, he did not stop.
Kamille wanted to hear more. To understand the words better.
The glitch in his vision intensified, and so the black roots that now also appeared in his chest and were spreading to his shoulders. Kamille focused through the limits his body could bear.
[I TOLD YOU. I’LL DESTROY YOU... BOTH]
Hearing that, Kamille’s pupils rolled and then steadied at the center. The trembling of his body stopped, as though ti itself had paused.
Sothing snapped within him, and Kamille’s struggle stopped, and so did his breathing. His heart stopped.
And so...
Kamille died.
***
There were a lot of things Kamille had thought of doing after he retired. He had been a tool since he was young, an esper who only had a mission to raid gates.
He thought... maybe, he would purchase an unknown gate sowhere and spend his retirent alone there. That was the plan of Kamille, age 9.
If soone heard him, people would probably mock him, saying it was too early to plan for retirent. He was not even an adult yet.
However, Kamille did not think so. After all, he would never had a chance to be an adult. That much was clear to the young Kamille.
And so, retirent thoughts were rely that... only thoughts.
"I will buy you a huge mansion." He proudly declared, looking smugly at a woman as if asking for praise. The woman was probably only in her late twenties.
She looked beautiful, only if you looked at the side view. Or so they said. It was because there was a huge burn mark on the other half of her face.
She smiled. "Is that so? I’m looking forward to the mansion you’ll give ." Although she said that, it could be discerned that she was rely playing along and not expecting that much from the young Kamille.
"Hehehe." The young Kamille grinned, satisfied by the woman’s answer.
Kamille, at that ti, was not yet perceptive to the moods or thoughts of others, and his innocence still held a greater part of himself.
The woman brushed young Kamille’s hair with a genuine smile. However, the light of her eyes dimd slightly when he was finally reminded of sothing.
She sighed. "Kamille," She called. Young Kamille stared back at her and waited for what she was about to say.
"Is there a mission?" Lately, young Kamille loved doing missions, not necessarily because he wanted to, but because he overheard so of the guards that each missions pay a lot.
Although he had not seen his paynts, he naively thought the ’servants’ in charge of them by the organization were keeping them. The woman was his servant, but Kamille mostly saw her as his mother.
Most of the children here did know they were a weapon, but did not yet know the extent of being one.
Kamille was one of them.
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