sunny climbs the rubble with pain in his wounded shoulder.
"This... really hurts!"
Behind him, Yona, Aso, and Neir climb as well.
Neir, who was just below him, says,
"So... you're Lilith's brother?"
sunny goes quiet, then answers in a calm voice,
"...Yes."
Silence fills the air between them before Neir asks,
"Can... I know your name?"
sunny answers in the same calm tone,
"Charles... my name is Charles."
The silence continues. Neir whispers to Yona,
"What's with him? Why is he this quiet?"
Yona replies,
"Idiot, he just lost his sister in the rubble. Do you expect him to talk and laugh with you?"
Neir stays silent and continues climbing.
They all soon reach the top of the rubble pile.
From such a high place, they could all see the state of the prison: corpses were scattered everywhere, and the screams of the wounded filled the area.
Yona placed her hand over her mouth in horror, while the cowgirl lowered her head.
Everyone took a second to take in what this explosion had caused. After that second, sunny said,
"Come on, we don't have time."
They all continued moving and climbed down the rubble. The pain in sunny's wound clouded his thinking. On top of that, the thoughts of the injured and the ones who couldn't even scream filled his head.
Yona noticed how exhausted sunny was, but decided not to stop him or make him rest. She knew he'd refuse anyway.
Once they all reached the bottom, sunny began yelling,
"Lilith!!... Where are you!? Liliiiith!!!?"
But it was no use. His voice could barely be heard amidst the screaming.
sunny felt hopeless, realizing his cries were useless.
He turned his head left and right, searching for any sign of her.
He turned again and saw a girl with short white hair lying on the ground with her back facing him. A wall started forming behind her. He rushed toward her and screamed,
"LILIIIIIITH!!"
Before he could even reach halfway, the wall had already formed.
"Damn it!!"
sunny began punching and kicking the wall.
"Damn it!! What now!?"
sunny quickly turned to Yona, who had followed him with the group, and said,
"We can open this door with those chips, right?"
Yona, surprised, answered,
"Ah... yes, we should be able to... but—"
Before she could finish, sunny cut her off with an enthusiastic voice,
"Yes!! Of course, can you open the door for us?"
Yona replied,
"But we can't go in there without the badge. Besides, the chip I had was with Eva, so we can't pass."
sunny looked down at the ground, his eyes trembling.
In a shaky voice, almost a whisper, he said, "There has to be a way."
He quickly turned to Neir and Aso and shouted,
"Cowgirl! Red-haired guy! Do either of you know anything about this?"
Neir stayed silent and shook his head.
"Sorry... aside from the badge stuff, I don't know anything about this."
Silence filled the air again, a silence heavy with frustration.
After a moment, Aso said,
"Wait, can't we take a badge from one of the dead cops and use it to open the door?"
Everyone went silent and turned to Aso like she was their savior.
"I-I mean, it's not like we have to do that..."
sunny stepped toward her and grabbed her shoulders.
"Exactly!!! You're a genius! It was right in front of us all along!"
Aso blushed from the compliment and said playfully,
"Hehe, it wasn't that big of a deal."
Neir watched sunny holding Aso by the shoulders and thought,
'This isn't fair. I'm not allowed to do this, but this Charles guy is? Lilith, you really need to discipline your brother properly.'
Everyone began searching for a police corpse with a badge, but it was difficult since most of the police had been directly under where the debris fell.
After a lot of searching, sunny found a policeman surrounded by a lot of rubble. He was alive, but... his face was deformed. He looked like a mutated zombie.
The cop opened his mouth, but no sound came out. It was clear to anyone he wanted help.
sunny stood still, watching the man die slowly.
After a while, when the man finally calmed down, sunny reached toward his chest and took the badge.
The man didn't die. He was watching sunny take the badge, helpless.
sunny noticed the man was still alive, so he picked up a large rock and held it above the man's head.
The man didn't say anything and didn't even try to speak as he had before.
In one final moment, the man smiled faintly—maybe dying would be kinder than staying here in pain.
sunny dropped the rock on the man's head and crushed it completely.
The man's blood splattered on sunny's face.
In silence, sunny whispered,
"Are you happy now?"
sunny returned to his group holding the badge.
"Guys, I found a badge!!"
Everyone ran toward sunny with smiles on their faces.
Neir said,
"Awesome!! So we can pass through now."
sunny calmly walked toward the wall, holding the badge, and passed through it.
He reached the other side and pressed the button to open the wall.
The wall began to fade, revealing an entrance.
Everyone entered, and sunny said,
"Let's go, no time—we have to follow them quickly."
Everyone nodded firmly.
"Yes!!"
They all ran straight ahead.
From a distance, sunny saw a group of people standing.
Neir said,
"Who are those people?"
Suddenly, a group of men began running toward them—not just because sunny's group was approaching, but because they themselves were running toward sunny. Fear filled their faces.
"What?"
Everyone was surprised and quickly ran to sunny's side.
sunny shouted to his team,
"Wait! Don't worry, they don't want to hurt us!"
Neir asked,
"What do you mean? How do you know?"
He answered calmly,
"I just know..."
Yona turned the same way as sunny.
"Okay, if you say so."
Neir was puzzled by Yona's response. It's not like he's reading minds or anything... right?
Neir sighed deeply and turned as well. He placed his hand firmly on sunny's shoulder.
"Alright, lead the way, captain."
sunny smiled slightly, then returned to his serious expression.
They all rushed forward, passing through the terrified crowd.
sunny read some of their thoughts:
Person 1: [I can't believe this!! This is pure insanity!]
Person 2: [How is this even possible?? Can a human do this??]
Their frightened, astonished thoughts described what was happening.
Someone... someone was making things explode just by touching them.
How the hell could such a person exist??
Tension overwhelmed sunny, but he had to keep going. His dear sister was there—he was sure of it more than ever.
He clenched his fist tightly and pushed forward.
From a distance, sunny saw a girl with short white hair, her features exhausted, her blue eyes shining amidst the dark air.
"There she is!!"
Lilith heard a familiar voice—a beautiful voice she was used to hearing. Not hearing it had become strange.
She turned toward the voice, a tear flying from her eye.
"Brother!!"
"Lilith!!"
The siblings shouted each other's names with longing.
sunny ran toward her, and she ran toward him in return.
She ran like she had just seen her hope of survival. Maybe she didn't think of it that way, but she ran with strength.
As soon as she was close enough, she jumped and hugged her brother.
In a tearful, broken voice, she said,
"You idiot, what kind of fool leaves his sister in a situation like this? You're seriously a failure as a brother."
sunny didn't reply. He just reached his arms around Lilith's head and hugged her back.
"I'm sorry... your stupid brother is sorry."
In the middle of their embrace, a voice behind Lilith said,
"So you're Lady Lilith's brother."
Lilith turned her head to see Michael, his face covered in blood.
Her eyes widened, and she began to tremble.
sunny noticed her reaction—and from what the others had said, this must be the man who makes things explode upon touch.
sunny took caution and said,
"Yes... may I ask who you are?"
With calm expressions, the man replied,
"Oh, forgive me. I got excited at the idea of meeting this lady's brother. I'm Michael—"
Before he could finish, a punch hit the back of his head from James.
"Didn't you know it's stupid to leave your back exposed?"
Michael grabbed him by the neck and said in a sharp, harsh voice,
"Didn't you know it's rude to interrupt someone while they're speaking?"
And he exploded on the spot.
sunny was shocked and didn't know what to say.
Then suddenly again, behind Michael, James struck him in the back of the head.
Wait a second—didn't the blonde-haired guy just die?
James said sarcastically,
"Pretty sure that would've really hurt me."
****
**Author's Note:**
I know I'm a lazy writer, and I apologize for this. The other writers write approximately two to three chapters per week, while I write only one chapter per week, and I'm late with that chapter. I am truly a failure of a writer. I am grateful to everyone who reads my work, and starting today I've decided I will write two chapters per week. The new release schedule will be Tuesday and Saturday. Because I will not release this Saturday due to Eid al-Adha (I am Muslim, BTW).Finally, I want to thank everyone who reads my work. I am truly grateful to you all.