Smoke of Deception - Final

I was facing the queen of the assembly. Merely looking at her was enough to tell me I was weak. Facing her would inevitably lead to death no matter what abilities I used. Charlotte is away as well so I have to run away as fast as I can but I also can't let eye of Tryam fall into hands of evil.

I flew upwards out of the basement because letting people stronger than me handle this is better. I glanced down only to see her going after me instead of the eye. I can't say whether that's good or not because I don't want to die yet.

As I dashed out of the basement, I kept flying as fast as I could but the screams and cries on the streets burdened me a lot. We lost to destiny yet again. It's like we are mere fools.

I sensed Charlotte nearby and decided to go to her. She might be able to handle the queen.

...

After about five minutes, I landed next to Charlotte and Kristine who had already woken up too.

"Don't ask! Charlotte, we have to kill her!" I shouted as I charged at Asha. She moved sideways and slammed her palm on my back making me fall onto ground. Something popped in my back as I laid on ground wondering. Did she break my back? I started healing myself while Charlotte overtook the fight for me. I don't know what was happening but at least I was able to heal myself. I woke up and Asha switched her attention to me. She pushed away Charlotte with ease and charged at me. Was I her target?

I activated my shield and charged a wind attack at her with pressurized collapse to reduce her defense but she kept moving unfazed. She punched right through my shield with ease and punched through my chest. I coughed up blood and felt too weak to do anything. My body started giving up on me and till she was pushed away, I can't begin my healing magic.

Charlotte switched her location with Asha using teleportation magic and held me.

"Heal." She healed me instead and I was back to my peak.

...

Kenji and Charlotte made a decent team even though the two had never worked together. Kristine could only watch knowing she would be a hindrance if she tried to interfere.

Charlotte dashed towards Asha and got into hand-to-hand combat with her. Charlotte's powers came from her eyes as they stored all her elemental energy but why? No one knew. Why she existed or where she came from or who she truly is: No one knew. All people knew was to never make an enemy of her. She flawlessly dodged every single attack Asha tried landing on her. She used gravitational pull to create a massive boulder which sealed Asha in it. Asha easily managed to burst out of the boulder and dash past her towards Kenji completely ignoring Charlotte.

"Why is she after him?!" Kristine cried out and tried jumping in but before anyone could do anything Asha fazed through Kenji and landed behind him.

Kenji's t-shirt turned red and them top half on his body fell onto ground.

"KENJI!" Kristine ran towards Kenji's body but Asha teleported away.

She held onto his torso weeping into his chest. Seeing her classmate and boyfriend die in such a manner would've shaken her to core.

Charlotte slowly walked up to Kenji's body too with a grim expression.

"Why?!" She looked at Charlotte. "AREN'T YOU THE SECOND STRONGEST?! THEN EXPLAIN! You bastard couldn't even protect a single life! NOT A SINGLE! Kenji is dead and all the people in the capital are suffering or dead! WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU DO!? What is the point of your powers..." 

Kenji's healing was not that good... He is dead.

Three members are dead, she thought to herself. Something like that hadn't happened since the last great war.

Charlotte wasn't exactly that much weaker than Asha but the circumstances changed so drastically. Existence of such corrupted water underneath the nation of Shulian was not something they had expected, nor did they expect it to erupt at such a short notice. The reason they'd come here was to acquire the eye of tryam and deal with opposing factions as a compensation for the eye. Askai's wrath was unexpected.

Regardless, it costed lives of dozens of thousands of people. They lost yet again.

...

A week had passed and Kristine had returned to Grumania and had told everyone what happened. All the classmates had learned the truth but even then hated him for being too full of himself. They were still looking for ways to hate him otherwise they'd have to accept they were wrong.

Kristine was in her dorm, laying on her bed. She had no energy to move. Her depression had taken over and with each passing minute, she felt more and more emotionless. She couldn't cry or smile anymore. She couldn't even lift a finger. It just took too much energy that she didn't have. It happened so quickly and she couldn't do anything. Like a stupid person, she just stood there and saw her beloved be killed. Kenji's death left a scar on her heart that could not be healed.

Why was he targeted? What did he do wrong? He never deserved it, she kept saying to herself over and over.

Jennie knocked on her dorm's door before entering without caring about permission from Kristine. She stood next to her and placed a plate full of her favorite food on bedside table.

"Hey? Everyone's worried. Please talk to us. We are your friends and family." Jennie spoke which set off Kristine. She grabbed the plate and threw at her.

"FRIENDS?! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES! You two-faced bastards are no one's friends! WEREN'T YOU AMONGST THE FIRST ONES TO THROW AWAY YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH KENJI!? Don't you DARE call me family OR friend!" The anger, dread and despair combined to create a sense of doom in her. "I TRIED giving you fuckers benefit of the doubt but y'all are still holding onto the idea that Kenji was in the wrong! YOU STILL BLAME HIM! You immature asses can not comprehend being in the wrong and even now! Don't you have a slight bit of respect for him!? If you actually give a fuck then stop talking to me." She used all last remaining strength of her to create a fire blast which shot Jennie out of the room. She slowly got up and locked the door and fell onto the floor.

Jennie felt pure rage after being humiliated by Kristine. In fit of rage she unleashed some uncalled-for fire magic before storming off to the meeting room of the class.

"How did it go?" James asked but Jennie rolled her eyes in irritation.

"She is still head over heels for him and EW!" She used a cloth to wipe off the food off her clothes. "She tossed the food at me too. She can't think for herself and depression is taking a toll on her. We might have to restrain her before she goes out of control. Last time she went out of control, head hunters had to join in. Even then, they barely restrained her. Now... I doubt anyone can control her."

"She has gone the deep end, hasn't she...?" Varun sighed.

Sirens started going off, so, the class peeked out of the window to see knights of some nation charging in.

"Oye! This is bad! They're the knights from before but this time in hundreds... if not thousands!" Liam started sweating profusely.

"We have to join in." Varun said and James agreed. The other side's leader killed Kenji, so, the enemies are definitely stronger than anything they had on their side but even then, they wanted to at least survive.

"We can't even kill a single one! How are we supposed to fight... thousands?!" Kyle cried out.

"We can run away while we have the chance." Liam suggested.

"Run away?" James got confused with his proposal.

"We are chosen by the Gods, so, our survival matters more. Kenji was never the favored one. He somehow cheated and got his powers through evil means and died. But all of us are different. Our survival matters."

"Shulian is already under attack, now Grumania is under attack too. Hughwards is currently under a politically unstable condition. Where are we supposed to go exactly?!" Jennie asked.

"Yea... Commeiku favors Kenji. If anyone finds out we are there, we will be removed. Four nations are useless... Any other nation you have in mind?" James asked.

"I don't know the geography of this world that well. Are there any other nations that would take us in?" Liam asked everyone.

'Who knows if other kingdoms aren't either under attack or already destroyed. It's best to retreat to somewhere secluded. Like mountains?" Jennie suggested and everyone accepted the proposal.

...

"It pains me to inform you that Ace has gone missing and Kenji has... passed away." Jeoma sighed. He looked completely disheartened.

"Charlotte, you were there so, how?" Ezekiel growled.

"Not only was she simply stronger than me, her eyes were set solely on Kenji. She wanted him dead and... I tried. He even healed twice but third hit... it took his life." Charlotte responded.

"Kristine... His lover. How is she doing?" Verga asked.

"My informants told me that she is not doing well." She responded.

"It's been a week and ... Lizette would not be happy either. She would be promoted back to number four." Jeoma said.

"But to say someone so easily killed him and also managed to push you away. Princess of the assembly truly lives up to her name. Why is she moving now is the real question." Captain finally spoke.

As Others kept the discussion going, entrance doors flung open as Lizette stormed into the room and grabbed Charlotte by her collar. 

"You had ONE job! JUST ONE!"

"Lizette, calm down." Professor grabbed her hand.

She looked around to see everyone was there. She walked back to her chair as number five and sat down.

"You're pr-"

"I refuse." Lizette cut off Ezekiel before he could even finish his sentence. "Number four will always remain empty. He singlehandedly drove us to the right direction and gave us the information that we could not find for her hundreds of years. He deserves to keep that chair."

"She does make some good points." Ezekiel shrugged.

"I do think that chair holds significance and as all of you are okay with it... then number four chair will always belong to Kenji who passed away on a mission." Jeoma spoke. "Funeral will be held in five days from today."

"Funeral?" Professor asked. "Where is the body?" He asked. As he was in-charge of funerals, he hadn't received body of Kenji.

"Where-..." Lizette looked at others in utter disbelief. "You don't even have the body?!"

"Wait..." Charlotte thought to herself. She did tell her informants to return the body of Kenji to Commeiku. "They should've handed it over to professor."

"So his body is just missing?!" Lizette was losing it at this point at the utter incompetency of her colleague and their sub-ordinates.

Charlotte telepathically talked to her sub-ordinates and sighed.

"The body was already missing by the time they got to the location."

"Is he alive?" Lizette asked but Jeoma shattered her newfound hope.

"Ascendants are connected to me. His magic signature is no longer here. He is in fact dead."

"His body was chopped in half. The two halves were completely separate. Even I would not survive." Charlotte spoke.

"Someone stole his dead body then... but for what reason...?" Captain wondered.