The Moment Before Disaster 2

"Why...?" I questioned him silently, I couldn't even lift my head to look straight at his face.

"Why, you ask?" He spoke with an irked tone as he then placed both of his hands to the side of his head.

"Every day, every month, every year I did my best to make my parents acknowledge me. I tried and tried again, yet it was still not enough. Because of you, I desperately seek for help, I did every possible thing to improve myself to make them acknowledge me!"

"I know I don't have any 'talents' in particular that can make them look at me like how they look at you, and unlike you, I can only desperately cling to this label called 'son' while hoping they won't lose their love for me."

"You can never escape your past... You've made my life miserable, but..." He placed his hands to my head, "What I hate the most about you is that all your life, you've wanted to run away from this fact... You're the imperfect, yet you dare go against your own creator!"

I...

"You're just a fake version of him, who was created in an inhumane way!"

I'm real...

"You're just a clone...! The most defected version."

No...

"I'm suppose to be you, and you are suppose to be in my place!" He clutched his hair and laughed like a maniac with a twisted expression, "And yet, they still chose you because of that so-called 'talent' of yours that made you an exceptional subject."

Stop...

"Because of you, I became like this!"

Shut up...!

"Look at me, I am the monster YOU created!"

"Enough!!!"

I finally snapped.

[Warning!]

I heard a robotic voice in my head.

"Between the two of us, I'm the perfect version!" I said as I lifted my head up to look at him.

[Warning!]

"Your parents created me to become 'him' and not you... The perfect version of him!" I clutched at my heart. I knew I was showing an ugly expression, however, I couldn't care less about that now.

"I am not the imperfect version... It's you are!"

As soon as I said this, a panel, that look similar to the panel back when I was transported inside the body of Lucius, appeared in front of my eyes.

[Due to the immense emotions the «Player» is experiencing, the «Hiatus Break» is temporarily activated.]

[Hiatus Break : 1%]

"You're already panicking?"

He look at me, then turned his attention to the thing that suddenly popped up on my vision. It was as if he could see the panel appeared before me, that he abruptly stopped speaking for a moment before continuing.

"Rejoice," He chuckled. "I'll be back to take that face, and SOON that life...."

BAAAAAM!

As soon as he said this, I heard a loud explosion far away from behind me.

When I turned around, I saw...

"No way... Why is it happening now?!"

[Hiatus Break : 3%]

The whole academy was set ablaze. Dragon-like monsters was flying above the sky, people that had reddish horns in there foreheads while wearing what seems to be a uniform with a reddish cape was riding the monsters.

"You took my life away from me... I'll be taking yours."

[Hiatus Break : 5%]

"Wait..!!" I tried to reach out to him.

"Remember this, Athan." Said the man as he turned around.

"You're not the protagonist... Neither do I... However-" He extended his arms out as his grin became more wider, showing his white teeth, "He he he... I'll be the only one that deserves to live in the end."

[Hiatus Break : 6%]

"It's not you...

Nor this world's and the other protagonists...

Only me."

Was the last thing I heard from the man before he vanished on his spot.

[Hiatus Break : 9%]

....

...

..

Earlier before the attack...

At the academy,

"Where's Athan? I need to talk to him about something." Lilian said as she thought about what happened the night before yesterday.

The person she was having a conversation with, William, took a sip at his drink with a straw. He blinked his eyes a few times before he shook his shoulder as he responded.

"Now that you mentioned it, I don't know... I haven't seen him much since yesterday." He closed his eyes to think, "Umm.... Also, have you seen Persia? She suddenly disappeared before Arthur's match begun."

"No, sorry..."

"There's no need to apologize. I'll just find her later...." William made a hand gesture, secretly playing with the black ring he was wearing using his thumb. Just where could she have gone to? Was the question he asked himself after losing Persia's connection earlier.

Seeing that the prince in front of her was useless, Lilian proceeds walking with her hands inside her pocket.

Lillian gazed into the arena outside before looking at the people from below. Her eyes landed on a family, and a vision of her older brother, little brother and her hanging out while buying stuff suddenly overlaps her mind.

"Just when did everything started going wrong?" She questioned herself. Sadly, Lilian couldn't find a proper answer to this as she thought about what happened to the both of her siblings.

The first one got traumatized, while the other one committed suicide in front of the princess.

While what happened to the two of them are like coincidence, adding the fact about what happened to her family, Lilian began to get suspicion about that all of those was planned. She wasn't sure why, but she knew that something was definitely wrong.

First is what happened to her little brother, then to Michael, following that, her whole family suddenly got banished from the kingdom. If it wasn't for the fact that Lilian and Roche was a student from the academy, they would be thrown away from the kingdom without any explanation.

All of this was suspicious... All things lead to one person.

Athan Von Lohengramm.

He was the boy who made her little brother suffered from some unknown causes, the only person that she saw walking alone near her older brother's office... What could possibly be the percentage of him being the mastermind of her suffering?

Though he was not connected to her family, causing her suspicion to be little, she couldn't deny the fact that he was acting weird for almost about two months. She was carefully observing him... It was not because she like him or anything, but the main reason is because it was her habit to observe new students, that had a huge possiblity of becoming her substitute after graduating from the academy.

She hadn't asked for his opinion as of yet, however, Lilian had already been thinking from the start of asking him to become the Student Council President in the future after she's gone.

However.

Why is he doing this to her? Why is he making her and her family suffer without even having any reasons for it?

Did her family do something to make him do something like this? If so, what is it?

She wanted an explanation.

And by that, she needs to find him first.

"Athan, Athan.... Just where the hell are you right now?" Lilian's fist clenched hard like a rock that her nails pierced though her palm, that it started to bleed.

By the time she realized this, Lilian took a deep breathe to calm herself down.

"Huuu...?"

"Have you seen where Athan is?"

When she heard someone mentioned 'Athan' at the corner, Lilian leaned her arms slightly on the wall and took a glance to see who it was.

"I haven't seen him." Leigh replied with a light head shake. He looked at Arthur in the eyes in confusion.

Arthur thought for a moment, "I see... Sorry for troubling you." When he saw Leigh nodding, he heaved out a deep yet short sigh in contempt as he walked away with his dropped shoulders.

While he was not on guard, Lilian secretly follows him from behind by hiding her presence and keep herself calm.

"Just what is he up to? Alicia's match is about to begin while he's still not there..."

Just as he said this, a loud announcement was heard from the speaker.

[Alicia from class 1A and Roche from class 4C, please enter the waiting room and get ready for the your match.]

"Damn it!"

...

..

.

"Are both competitors ready?"

"Yes." Roche emotionlessly respond.

As for Alicia,

"....Yeah."

Alicia took two seconds before she could even respond. Her mind was wandering around with full of thoughts, asking herself if Athan would come and fulfill his promise to watch her match.

"Let the match..."

Chopping his hand down in the air,

"Begin."

The match had finally started.