Chapter Sixteen

As he followed Lucelia’s father, Dimitri's emotions began to subside. Taking deep breaths, he noticed something in his pocket. Something sharp was scraping his legs. Annoyed, he decided to pull it out. To him, it looked like a pearly dragon-like scale. Shrugging it off, he placed it back gingerly. “That woman... Was she the one you were talking about?” he asked.

Kyle looked over his shoulder at him, "Yeah. She's the one who killed my Lucy in front of me."

“She looked like my best friend,” Dimitri commented. “She was in all white however.” His regret started to heighten. The more the truth was revealed, the more he beat himself down for it.

"Yeah, Ametsu and her look the same, but the bad one wears black."

“That makes sense.. I guess?” As Dimitri shrunk down, his sweat beads up on his forehead. “I owe my friends and family an apology,” He confessed, “But they’re probably dead by now… then again… my sister’s very smart.”

Kyle didn't reply. He just kept walking in front of Dimitri. The land they were walking through was extremely changed. Town buildings reduced to rubble and ash. Here and there Dimitri could see flames burning and broken glass. The most unsettling part to him however, was that the scene was topped with a blood red sky and dark clouds.

After a few minutes of silence, Kyle spoke up again. "This sister of yours… She's a type of scientist?"

Dimitri, caught off guard, asked, “How did you know?”

"Back when I was studying robotics there was another female student who looked extremely similar to you. She was even a bit hotheaded."

“Hot headed, huh?” Dimitri always knew Blanche as a collected and calculated woman, but she was also sarcastic and passionate. “How old were you two?” Dimitri asked.

Kyle sighed. "I had gotten into the school later in life," he said calmly, "I wanted to save up first so I had no debt. I was almost in my thirties and she looked fresh into her twenties. We partnered together on a few projects.”

“You’ve met Nyx right?” he asked, “Ametsu told me about something before I ran away, but I don’t remember.”

Kyle hissed, "I've met Nyx, yeah: when she killed Lucy in my own home.”

“Lucelia is a strange girl,” He admitted, “Was anyone else killed in that house?”

Kyle shook his head in response. "Thankfully my wife and I were spared.”

“Do you think she-- doesn’t want to kill everyone?” He asked, “Only her?”

Kyle stopped walking and finally turned around, giving Dimitri an unsettling grimace and startling him. "If that was the case, then her angels wouldn't be trying to kill everyone." Kyle sighed looking away. "Ametsu did say something about Lucy being her gate though."

“G...gate?” he stuttered. “That doesn’t make sense, unless.”

“As a desperate attempt, the defeated sister made a barrier, creating a limit on what the destroyer could kill. That barrier is broken now, and we can’t fix it-- none of us can”

“A barrier,” Dimitri murmured, “Perhaps Lucelia was a barrier to a gate.”

"That would make sense," Kyle said, "All of this mayhem seemed to happen right after Lucy died."

Shaken as to what happened, he glared at the scars of where the glass had hit him. Of course the blood had stopped since his shower, but for how long? “She… looked like my best friend,” he choked, “I should… I…”

Dimitri felt Kyle's hand on his shoulder. "Don't think too hard about that right now. We're almost to safety anyway."

Looking around, Dimitri realized they had walked very far. The ruined houses were all ones he hadn't seen before and there was less rubble on the street. Strangely, the haunting song of the angels couldn't be heard here; almost as if they avoided this place.

“They aren’t here,” Dimitri remarked.

"Indeed," Kyle replied, "I had set up some safeguards around my house before I left. It seems like they are working."

“You have a safeguard? Did you know this would happen?” Dimitri asked, raising his eyebrow.

After a moment of no response, Kyle hesitantly answered, "I was honestly preparing for a different large-scale threat."

Dimitri darted his eyes, then sighed, “Well whatever it was, I’m confident to say that the threat is gone now.” Refusing to ask questions, he decided to pull out that sharp scale once again. As he peered up, he noticed the crimson sky gradually becoming dark. The only things illuminating what was once a beautiful suburban town were now just the dying flames, and the silvery moon.