Chapter 30: Run, White Rabbit

  "Run, Kairo! Run!"

  The words tore in my throat, and every breath was burning. We were running in the belly of the city, in the dark sewer network that had become our only refuge. Behind us, the echo of heavy metallic footsteps resonated, mixed with low, unsettling laughter. Three clowns, each with a single broken star on his chest. Strong. Very strong.

  "We can't win against them right now!" Kairo shouted, jumping over a channel of dirty water.

  I manipulated reality for a moment, creating an illusion of a wall collapsing in a side tunnel. We heard them stop for a second, and that gave us the seconds we needed. We jumped inside an abandoned house through a hole in its floor, and covered the opening with a rotten wooden board.

  Silence reigned, all we could hear was the sound of our ragged breaths and the drumming of our hearts against our ribs.

  "Damn this hell," Kairo whispered, leaning against a crumbling wall. "How far have you gotten with saving that damned magic? I want out of this place!"

  I took a deep breath, feeling dust fill my lungs. "It looks like this situation will last for months... or we will die trying." I looked around the destroyed room. "The problem is the food. The food is not enough."

  "Can't you make some damned food?" Kairo said desperately.

  I laughed a humorless laugh. "I am not a god."

  My mind, enhanced by the chip, was working at full capacity, analyzing the sounds and vibrations in our vicinity. "There's someone 500 meters away. Moving. Come on," I said quietly. "We have to get out the back."

  We moved silently through the house. It was once a family's home. On a dirty wall, I saw a faded photo. A small girl smiling, her hair tied in pigtails, standing between an elegantly dressed father and mother. The girl was wearing an "Elysian" Academy uniform.

  Damn it. My heart clenched. I turned my face and ran.

  We cautiously approached an old residential building, known to be one of the secret shelters for survivors and run by Victor. But before we could reach it, the smell hit us. The smell of burnt meat.

  I froze in place. Kairo looked at me, and I saw the same fear in his eyes that I felt. When we reached the corner of the street, we saw the scene.

  The building was just a charred black structure. And in front of its entrance, on an improvised spear, a head was hung. His face was charred, but I knew him. Victor.

  I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I stood there, looking at the ashes of the last hope I was clinging to. The shock wasn't sharp; it was a cold, heavy wave that slowly drowned me, freezing everything inside me.

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  "It was a short acquaintance," I whispered to the wind. "I swear... I swear I will be what you wished for. I will be the hope that will burn this damned world."

  Two weeks passed. Lutetia became our jungle. We learned how to hunt in it.

  On the first day, we ambushed a single clown in a narrow alley. I waited for hours in the shadow, while Kairo made noises from the other end to lure him. When he walked in, I attacked. I felt the Ash Blade pass through his body with disgusting ease. There was no triumph, just a filthy necessity.

  On the fifth day, we shared a piece of moldy bread we found in a ruined bakery. We ate in silence; there was no longer a need for words between us. We understood each other through a look, through a gesture. We became a single unit, working for survival.

  On the tenth day, I sat on the roof of a shattered building, looking at the gray, smoke-filled sky. I closed my eyes and imagined Clara's face. Her image no longer brought just warmth; it was now an ember of pain and rage. I will do this for you. For our son.

  We were evolving. Kairo, the cheerful genius, became silent and lethal. His magic was no longer showy; it was efficient and deadly. And I... I became colder. Every soul I extinguished, every corpse I saw, added a new layer of ice around my heart. It wasn't the chip. It was the situations, it was the death, that was changing me.

  We were running from a patrol of unexpectedly strong clowns. Kairo led us to an old underground garage, a place he knew. "We'll be safe here for a while," he said, panting.

  We entered. The darkness was thick, and the smell... was the smell of old death. When Kairo lit a small fireball, we froze in place.

  The garage was not empty. It was a grave.

  On the floor, their bodies. Decomposed, but recognizable. I saw Eva's blue dress that she always wore, which we used to mock, now torn and stained with dry blood. I saw Leonardo's massive body, which used to seem like a mountain of security, now just a limp pile. And I saw Alessandro's body... headless.

  Kairo fell to his knees. It wasn't a human sound that came out of him. It was a howl. The howl of a wounded, dying animal. He crawled toward Eva's body, hugged it, and started screaming, screaming her name over and over, apologizing. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry I was weak... I'm sorry I'm a child... Wake up and scold me... Please... Wake up and scold me..."

  I remained standing like a statue. I looked at the scene before me. The woman who raised me and protected me in my hardest times. The big, foolish man, the drinker, the smoker, the affectionate one. My rival who became my brother. I couldn't cry. I felt that all the tears in the world wouldn't be enough. The pain was deeper than that, cold and burning at the same time.

  "Kairo," I finally said, my voice hoarse and devoid of any emotion. "Let's go."

  He looked at me, his eyes bloodshot and insane. "Are you going to leave them here?!"

  "What do you want us to do?" I shouted at him for the first time. "Bury them and die with them?! Come on! Run! Run until we become strong and kill every one of them and punish them! RUN!"

  Two months passed since that day.

  Kairo and I became machines. We kill, and only kill. We only run from Jack himself, and that won't be for long. I will become stronger, and I will kill him. I will torture him and every Saint with them. Even my father and Philip. I will show them the meaning of the word Magic Swordsman. Kairo was gaining strength at a tremendous rate, trying to keep up with me. He was truly the best genius, but I was advancing ten steps for every step he took. The barrier around the city was weakening. Only two months left, and it will be destroyed.

  We started hanging the clowns' heads on lampposts as a warning. And once, as we were hanging a new head, we saw Jack at the end of the street. He yelled, laughing: "Deo, Star of Change! Didn't you say you don't run from a fight? Fight me!"

  He chased us, and we ran. I turned to him and raised my middle finger. "Just wait for me! I'm coming for you and your Saints and I will destroy you! Wait for me, you bastard!"

  That night, I sat on the roof of a ruined building. The moon was full, casting a ghostly silver light on the rubble. I closed my eyes, and wrote a message in my heart.

  To my wife,

  95 days, ten hours, 31 seconds have passed. I dreamed of your face many times during that time. I have become stronger, yes. But strength feels empty when you are not by my side to mock it. In every ruined place we passed, I searched for your shadow in the rubble. And in every surviving face, I searched for a flicker of your eyes. I am coming for you, Clara. I swear I will burn this corrupt world to find you.