Chapter 25:

Silence shrouded the silver-metallic room as each person stared down with their head in their hands. They had been in the bridge, utterly in absolute silence as the weight of the situation lingered within the air. No one dared to speak; no one knew what to say. They couldn't believe what happened.

In the corner of the room, Luciel sat there, his knees pressed up against his chest as he wept and wept uncontrollably. His words muffled against his knees as Ren glanced over to him every so often. His sky-blue and black dyed hair created a cloud-like image atop of his head as his tears glided across his skin.

Throughout the room, everyone was experiencing the situation differently. From ones who just cried and wept uncontrollably to ones who were absolutely stunned and didn't know how to react. Some of them had their faces coated in tears while others eyes' were still wide from shock.

One person who didn't know how to react was Marcus, he didn't know how he felt about the whole situation. While on one hand, he could feel his grief and sadness eat away within him, but in his mind, he realised that he may never receive an answer now.

"What... How..." He mumbled, his words locked in his throat as he tried to express his thoughts.

"I just can't believe it..." Ren said, his head in his hands as the words Luciel said rung within his mind.

"It all happened so suddenly..." Aria whispered, her hazelnut eyes stared at nothing as she the scene played over and over again in her head.

Taking a deep breath in, Adrian cautiously asked, "could one of you explain what happened?"

~~

"Watch out!" Chronos yelled as he leapt behind Luciel, the sharpened spear punctured into his body. Blood splattered across the area, the crimson liquid began flooding the vicinity as Chronos collapsed to the ground.

Snapping his head around, Luciel's black eyes locked onto Chronos' scarlet body as he reflexively yelled, "Rylie!"

His mind absent from what just happened as he swiftly tried to lift Chronos up and help his bleeding friend from dying. Screams and cries echoed around the area as Aria and Skylar dashed for the men, their eyes flooded with fear as they approached closer and closer. The hoard of inhabitants still chasing far behind them, but through the look in their perceptive eyes, the four could tell that they were still locked onto them.

"Luciel! Get up!" Marcus yelled, hauling Luciel to his feet as he tried to drag him off Chronos' body, "we need to get out of here."

"No! No no no!" Luciel screamed, thrashing out of Marcus' grip as he crouched back down next to Chronos, still trying to save the breathless boy, "he-he can still make it! I-I'm not going to let him die too!"

"Luciel-"

Marcus' words were interrupted by Chronos as he tried to sit up, his hand gripping his wound as he looked directly into their eyes. Marcus recognised the expression in Chronos' eyes, one that he didn't always see.

With his face expressing everything the youngest boy felt, he stared directly at Luciel and Marcus, yelling, "I didn't do all this for you both to sit here and let yourselves die with me!"

"But Rylie-"

"Leave me alone!" He yelled, wincing as he felt more blood pour out of his body, "go away! Run away! You are not going to destroy my plans now!"

"But you-"

"Luciel! Marcus!" Aria screamed as she and Skylar reached the guys, "we need to go! We can't save Chronos."

Biting back his objections, Luciel, his eyes filled with tears, abruptly stood up and raced across the sand with Aria, Skylar and Marcus not too far behind. Chronos watched as the four of them fled over the sandy hill, seeing their little figures disappear as the hoard of inhabitants grew closer to his weakened body.

Sighing, he allowed himself to lie back, his hand still trying to lessen the blood pouring out of his body as he whispered with a slight chuckle, "he called me Rylie."

~~

After the Skylar and Marcus finished the explanation of what happened, Luciel still balling his eyes out as Aria comforted him, Adrian tried to put things together. In his head, he imagined how the scene played out, repeating everything that each person said during the whole situation and fully analysed the words used.

"Hold on," he said as he noticed something important, "Chronos said that he didn't want you both to stay and destroy his plans... Do either of you know what he meant by that?"

Aria shook her head, "no idea. I wasn't there when he said that."

He then turned to Marcus who seemed slightly hesitant to say anything, "Marcus?"

Biting his lip, he slowly said, "recently, I've been talking with Chronos about Earth and his origins."

"Wait- what?!" Darius exclaimed, "he told you something?"

He shook his head, "not exactly. He didn't say anything explicitly."

"Well, what did he say?" Ren asked, "maybe we could infer something."

Taking in a deep breath, Marcus explained everything Chronos had said to him, from breaking rules to the hero analogy and then the flower metaphor. He further explained how he and Luciel had ideas and their own interpretations of what he meant but nothing was proven by Chronos. Towards the end of what Marcus was explaining, he said, "however, I don't think we'll need Chronos to say whether our assumptions were right or not."

"Why's that?" Ren asked.

He glanced across the group before slowly saying, "because we'll find out soon."