The Glaydus twins

Alarm—

"huuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Aaron woke up the next day and remembered that he had to go to Nova's house to go somewhere as it was the weekend. After shutting the alarm down, Aaron prepared to go for a run.

"I can take my time to run today. Nova probably wakes up at 10 a.m. or something, so I have all the time in the world."

Aaron thought to himself as he left his house for a run. After a good run, Aaron returned home, took a hot bath, and ate his breakfast.

"It's still 9 a.m."

Aaron exclaimed, looking at his watch. He went to his sister's room to wake her up, but was surprised to see her already awake.

"Wow! You woke up by yourself?"

Aaron asked Annie with a surprised face.

"Yes, Aaron, Nova invited me too, so I'm ready to go," Annie replied while doing her makeup.

'Why is she putting on her makeup? Who does she want to impress?'

Aaron thought to himself as he left the room.

'Wait, does she like Nova?' Aaron barged back into Annie's room.

"Why are you putting on your makeup?"

Aaron asked with an annoyed face.

"Why do you care?"

Annie replied, which seemed to annoy Aaron a bit.

"Are you putting on your makeup just to see Nova?" Aaron asked as his facial expression completely changed from annoyance to curiosity.

"Yes, what are you going to do about it, Aaron?"

Annie replied with a stoic expression.

"Okay, whatever. Nova's probably still not awake yet," Aaron told his sister. She turned around and showed him her phone.

*********

Hey Nova, Are you awake? [Annie]

^Yeah, I just woke up^ [Nova]

Okay, great. Me and my brother will be there by 10.

^Sounds great^

*********

"Okay, he's awake, I guess," Aaron replied after seeing the messages, and he walked out of Annie's room.

After Annie was done with her makeup, both of them left the house and walked slowly to Nova's house.

"Annie, do you like Nova?" Aaron asked Annie out of nowhere, which made Annie blush a bit.

"What are you talking about? Nova has been our friend for the longest time. I like him, yes, but as a friend," Annie replied, looking away from Aaron.

"Your word"

Aaron replied and started walking faster.

"Hey, wait up, don't go so fast."

Annie exclaimed while trying to catch up to her brother.

***************

The previous night:

"Hey Eve, what are you doing here? Didn't you go on the trip with your friends?" I asked Eve as she had come to our house.

"Is Rowan home?" She asked, to which I nodded my head.

"Come in; you can go to his room if you want," I replied to her, and I let her in.

"Thank you," she replied, and she headed upstairs to Rowan's room.

***

It had been a while since she had been to Rowan's room. I could hear mumbling sounds coming from upstairs.

Bang— Bang—

Someone knocked on the door. So I rushed to the door and opened it. It was my mom.

"Hey Nova, how did your exams go?" My mom asked me, but I was quite annoyed because she hadn't even entered the house yet, but she started asking me about my exams.

"I did well, Mom. I did better than I expected," I replied to my mom while letting her come into the house.

"Okay, good. I'm happy for you," she told me with a smile on her face. I felt kind of at peace that she was back home.

As I was about to speak again, I heard a door close upstairs and saw Rowan and Eve coming down from his room.

'What were they up to?' I thought to myself, but my thoughts were interrupted.

"Hello, Aunt Ruby," Eve greeted my mom with a huge smile on her face.

"Hi, Mom," Rowan followed up after hearing Eve.

"Hi, guys. I'm quite busy right now, as I have work to do. I'm sorry I can't talk to you guys, but I have to go," my mom replied to Rowan and Eve and left the kitchen, heading to her room.

"It's fine, Mom," Rowan replied as he saw Mom walk into her room.

"Let's go outside," Rowan suggested to Eve, and they both left. I was just standing there, looking at Rowan. It felt like something was going on between Eve and him.

I watched them leave the house, and I felt kind of bored, so I thought of inviting Aaron and his sister to my house the next day. But I just had to bear being bored today. I messaged both of them and asked them to come over the next day, as it was the weekend anyway.

They both agreed to come over, so I went to the kitchen, had my dinner, and went to my room to sleep.

*************

The next day:

I woke up pretty early today and helped my mom by cleaning the house. She was kind of surprised, but not surprised at the same time because she had asked me to help her anyway.

"I guess they'll be here by 10," I thought to myself.

After I was done helping my mom, I took a shower, ate my breakfast, and waited for the twins to arrive.

Nova carnegie

After the twins arrived, we were walking to the bus stop.

"What do you guys want to do right now?"

Annie asked Aaron and me.

"Let's go to the mall," I replied, to which Aaron nodded, so we decided to go to the mall.

*****

We reached the bus stop pretty quickly.

"How's practice, bro?" I asked Aaron

"It's going. Well, I'm joining the main team, so I'm pretty excited to play in the tournament," Aaron answered, looking towards the empty street.

"What about you, Annie? What have you been doing?" I asked her while she was looking out for the bus.

"No much; I've been going to volleyball practice now and then," she replied.

"The bus is here, guys," Aaron broke the conversation, and then we got on the bus and headed to the mall.

After we got on the bus and sat in our seats, the bus started to move again.

"Do guys want to buy anything in the mall?" I asked the twins. Annie nodded, but Aaron didn't.

"I want to buy a volleyball for practice. I've decided to go more often," Annie replied.

"Ok, sure," I replied, and then I looked out of the window as the bus halted at the next stop.

A lot of people came onto the bus. A few of Annie's old friends got onto the bus, and they were talking.

"Don't you want to buy a soccer ball or something, Aaron?" I said, breaking the silence.

"No, I'm good, but I want to get a real Madrid jersey," Aaron replied, and then started to stare outside the window.

"Why, Madrid, though?" I asked, but I got no response.

The bus came to another halt, and a lot of people got off. This stop was one of the main stops, so a lot of people got off and got on.

The bus usually stands there for around 5 minutes or so.

"Nova, do you see that dark figure there behind that ad sign?" Aaron spoke in a hurried voice.

"Where. What figure?" I asked Aaron while trying to find the ad.

"They're behind the dude wearing the black hoodie," Aaron replied.

As I searched for the dude in the black hoodie, I saw the ad. I saw the figure hiding behind the ad. It had confined its soul emanation, which meant it was a Novice-level Crier or higher.

But I then remembered that Rowan had told me that only criers above Warlord-level can have a human figure.

'Shit, I have to kill it before it causes any trouble. It's a warlord-level crier as well. I don't even know if I can handle a novice-level crier all by myself without getting hurt.

I thought to myself as the bus conductor announced that the doors were about to close.

'The doors are closing faster than normal,' I thought to myself until feeling a hand on my shoulder. It was Aaron.

"Nova, can you see it or not?" He exclaimed at me with a low voice.

"Yes, you can either stay here or come with me."

I replied and left the bus.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Aaron screamed and followed me. Due to the commotion we caused, everyone was looking at us.

As I left the bus, Aaron came out, and Annie ran behind him too.

'Why did he come? I have to protect him while fighting a warlord-level'

I thought to myself, and I saw Annie leave too.

"Shit, Annie, why did you follow us?"

I exclaimed and turned towards the ad sign.

'No, where did it go? Shit, I lost track of it' I thought to myself.

"What are you screaming at me for? You guys caused the commotion in the bus first," Annie screamed, as did me and Aaron.

"What is going on? What was the figure, Nova? Ask me," Aaron replied calmly, asking me after hearing Annie nag at us.

"You guys need to take cover. Just run away from here!" I exclaimed at the twins.

"Why should I listen to you?" Annie replied but could not talk anymore as Aaron held her hand and started running towards the bus.

"It's too late now." A creepy voice travelled throughout the air.

As I turned around to look where the voice came from, a huge pressure bore over the area, which paralysed my body for a moment.

'Where is it, dammit?" I thought to myself.

"Shit. Guys comeback. Stand behind me!" I screamed at Aaron and Annie.

Both of them rushed behind me.

I closed my eyes, and it felt like time had suddenly stopped moving.

The sky had lost its colour, and I felt like I had entered a void.

I heard several footsteps around me.

"Kikei. I need your help," I said, which broke the silence in the timeless world.

foosh–

I heard a sound behind me. I turned around and saw Kikei holding something. The object was censored, or, more like, not visible at all. He was playing around with it.

"I've been attacked with a warlord-level crier." I broke the silence again.

"Fight against it. You can win, Nova. Just be careful when you're carrying yourself. Anything might happen," he replied.

"Be careful? Help me defeat him. I cannot win him again," I replied to Kikei.

"Yes, you can win. You can win against anyone you want. Even against the soul god," he replied, which threw me a bit.

'Soul God? Rowan never told me about a soul god' I thought to myself.

"It was too early to tell you about the soul god. That's why he didn't tell you," Kikei told me. I was surprised he could read my mind.

"Ok, I'll defeat him, but how do I get my sword? I don't even know how to do that. Do I just call your name out or something?" I replied to him, to which he shook his head.

"Didn't your brother already teach you how to summon your blade?" Kikei replied.

"No, he only taught me how to put my sword away," I replied to his question.

"First off, it's a 'BLADE' not a sword. Second, just use the same method to get your blade out," he replied with a complex expression.

"Ok, do I just pour soul emanation into my palm?" I asked him to, and he nodded.

'Seems easy enough.

I thought to myself. I concentrated all the soul emanation in my body into my palm.

My palm started to split, and I saw a blade coming out of my palm. I felt kind of weird looking at the blade coming out of my palm.

"Nice, I've got it out. Now how do I get out of here?" I asked Kikei.

"Stop the flow of soul emanation in your body. And boom, you'll be back to the present," he replied. I nodded and tried to stop the flow of soul emanation in my body.

It was futile, as I couldn't stop it. I was just overflowing with soul emanation.

"I didn't expect you to grow this much after releasing me once. I'm truly surprised." Kikei broke the silence this time. I was confused about what he was talking about.

"Let me help you. Bring all the soul emanation into your palm and close it. That way, you will be able to seal it so you can go back."

"Later on, you have to learn how to stop the flow of soul emanation, or it will be hard for you when you come 'here'. I expect to defeat the Crier with ease.

He spoke as I was listening to him.

'Here? Why did he emphasise here? I thought to myself as I brought all the soul emanation into my palm.

I closed my palm, and the sky gained colour again, and everything started to move again.

"It looks like I'm back," I exclaimed loudly.