49 As Paths Diverge (1)

373 sat up and pulled Leon's body up with her. She turned her attention the boy who had released her arm from his jaws. His eyes were starting to gain clarity. The blue waters behind his orbs turned turbid as he regained consciousness. His gaze met hers before scanning the room that was ablaze. His gaze fell on his hands.

They were tainted with blood.

Leon's body was wracked with tremors. His eyes widened. An ear-splitting yell left his mouth. His blood-stained hands clawed at his chest as he shivered uncontrollably. The fire around them flickered and flared with his shouts, dancing dangerously to the tune of his unstable emotions.

"I killed them… Again, I-..." Leon choked on the tears that fell from his eyes. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry – I killed… them."

The female inched closer towards him. The boy quickly flinched and squirmed away from the 373. Brown eyebrows furrowed as she extended her hand towards him. But she couldn't reach him - not from where she sat.

373 stood up. When he made a move to back away from her, she took a huge step towards Leon and gripped his wrist firmly in her hand. She knelt beside him and placed her hand on the side of his face.

"It's not your fault," she said, her voice soft. 373 looked at him with seriousness. "You didn't do it on purpose."

He refused to look at her. "Again- I did it again…I killed them. I murdered them."

"Look at me." When the boy still didn't turn to look at her, she released his hand and stood up. Her hair floated around her face as red flames scorched the ground that she stood on.

Eyes as wide as saucers stared at the fire the burned at her feet before finally meeting the black orbs that stared at him. 373 sighed and held his gaze, her eyes never leaving his for a single second.

"I took it. You don't have to be afraid of it anymore," she said.

"Let's erase our pasts. Let's go and find a place where nobody knows us, where nobody knows what we've done." 373's voice softened. "We'll be children – ordinary children. No one will know a thing."

A small hand extended towards Leon. Black orbs stared at him earnestly. "Let's go."

Turbulent blue orbs stared back at her. A question was on his lips. "What if they find us? What if Elisium comes back to haunt us again?"

The petite female closed her eyes and remember the girl with dark skin and eyes the color of burnt umber. A smile played on her lips as she unveiled the obsidian orbs that hid beneath her eyelashes.

"Then we'll get stronger than they are and crush anyone that stands in our way."

He took her hand and she pulled him up. They stood side by side as the flames around them burned brighter than they did before. If the images the phoenix had shown them were accurate, a canister of Aurum Fulminans was located close to Elisium's operating theater. The fire was bound to reach the container in a few moments. It was time for them to disappear.

It was time for Elisium to disappear.

373 extended her hand and aimed her palm at where the cannister of Aurum Fulminans should be. Energy gathered in her hand. She looked at the seemingly unbreakable white walls of Elisium. This time, she was going to tear them down for good.

"Ignis."

A bright red ball of fire shot out from her hand and plowed through the barriers that stood between it and the container filled with Fulminating gold. With the strength she had left, 373 cast one more spell. It was a spell she had used too many times in Elisium – a spell she had learned from watching Michael Caelum.

"Adicio." Her lips moved ever so slightly as her eyes glistened with tears that she refused to shed. A warm glow enveloped her and the boy beside her. As a blinding light enveloped the walls of Elisium, two children became one with the night that silently blanketed the sands of Ara Desert.

***

A sudden flare of energy woke Silas Fidi up from his sleep. The illusion he had been caught up in instantly dissipated as he came to. Instinctively, he sat up and summoned a barrier around him and his surroundings. Unnatural waves of flame burst towards him from outside the operating theater. His upturned eyes narrowed.

Aurum Fulminans. Nothing else except Aurum Fulminans could create the explosion that was unfolding right in front of the Great Apothecary. The man didn't need to think deeply into it. Only Jeorge Marcus Grin had the capability to quickly scatter the cannisters of Aurum Fulminans around Elisium without detonating the explosive liquid on himself.

Around him the guards he had trained personally had regained consciousness and had also set up protective shields around themselves. In the floors above and below him, multiple explosions were being set off one after the other. Soon, the beams around them would give way. Elisium was going to be destroyed.

"Sir. We need to leave," Brandish stated. He knelt on the ground like a knight waiting for his master's orders.

Silas Fidi remained seated. His voice was flat. "Take the men with you and tell Asha Claire that Elisium has been lost."

The other male signaled the group of elite Spellcasters kneeling behind him and the men dispersed with a blink of an eye. Brandish remained kneeling beside Silas Fidi, his eyes staring at the scene unfolding in front of him. The Magno Deorum's thin lips twisted into a scowl. "Brandish."

"Sir." The guard remained unmoved.

"Leave. That's an order."

"I'll leave once you leave, sir."

Silas Fidi stared at the world outside his barrier, at the destruction that continued to ravish Elisium's halls.

"What if I'm not leaving?"

Brandish's face remained stoic. Not a hint of surprise was on his face. "Then, I'll stay here right beside you, Sir."