The Exchange

"H-How did you know about me- D-Don't tell me, you too were inside that world-" Tezin stutters the more he speaks. Rudy once again opened his goggles and showed the heterochromia eyes. The index finger brings closer to his lips.

"Shhhh~" Rudy smirked as he saw the look inside Tezin's eyes.

"Take a good look, do you know who my identity is if you were to look at my face? No? That's fine, I would've killed you right here right now if you did know about me..." Alex couldn't hear the conversation between Rudy and Tezin as he was busy gathering up the corpse in the air which supposedly had a bomb inside them.

"Rudy, what do I do with these?" Alex meant the corpse that had a bomb inside it. Rudy, scratches his head and picks up the remote which has a button to trigger the bomb.

"Can you move them a bit upwards? I'm gonna get rid of that bomb by making them explode midair."

"O-Ok, sure!" A minute passed, and Alex managed to move the mountain of corpses above the building.

"Ooookay~ What do you think about watching some bloody-ass fireworks?"

"Eh? W-Wait!" Alex didn't think about the flying pieces of flesh that are gonna might or might not be dropped on him. Just the thought of it reminds him of when he bathed in a bloody shower at an underground prison. The moment he thought about it, vomit almost came out of his mouth.

Rudy pressed the button on the remote control, but nothing happened.

"Hmm? Is it broken?" Rudy once again wears his goggles, realizing what's gonna happen.

"7 seconds delay... Alex, I'm sorry but it's gonna be a massive fireworks that's gonna take out those buildings- No, everyone around here." Tezin, laughing at Rudy's mistake about the output of the explosion. Which covers the whole 500 meters from where they are.

"You fools! Looks like you're just arrogant like you are!"

(Damn it, I should've killed him when I had a chance his tone is triggering me...) From Rudy's perspective, the bomb was actually inside the weapon that was held by the dead bandit. One source of mana appeared, and then from every bomb. And then, the mana was aligned to each other like some sort of spider web. At that point, Rudy could expect how strong the explosion was gonna be.

Rudy used the blue shield and tried to drag Alex inside with him, but Alex ran off to the incoming explosion.

"Oi, wait!"

(Huh, guess that's one dead guy. This is why these types of people died so easily.) Rudy greets his teeth as he watches Alex run to the mountain of corpses.

...

Hutogi, slightly opened his eyes, realizing he could barely move when he exchanged Alex's injury for himself. And then, a sight of a child watching him as he lying down.

"Who?" It appears to be a child that was part of the group of civilians that Alex just saved. Hutogi noticed that the child was holding the vase with the small plants that were planted on it. 

"M-Mister... Are you going to die?" Hutogi has his eyelids opened but for some reason, the child didn't seem to be scared of his eyes. Perhaps in his current state, the child feels pity as she's looking at him. Hutogi, with a kind tone, answers the child...

"No... Mister is not going to die. By the way, I can tell that you're really taking good care of your plants."

"Ah, its name is Nilite. It's a herb. The teacher said people often make healing potions with this herb. Oh! Maybe I can make one to heal you!" As the child said it, she then tried to pluck its leaf, but Hutogi's hand raised as he was holding the child's hand.

"No, I'm simply fine with it if I rest easy. Moreover, healing potion won't work on mister."

"It won't work?..." The tears were visible in the child's eyes. As Hutogi explained it, the healing potion has no effect on him. But, he never said there wasn't any other way for him to heal himself.

"But, if you were to entrust this herb to me, I would've healed right away." Hearing Hutogi's words, the child simply hands it over to him. But, Hutogi still has some doubts.

"But, would a person like myself be worthy of this herb that was carefully planted and taken care of and handed over to me?"

"If it were to save you, mister. I would've gladly sacrificed it." Hutogi, after hearing the child's words, closed his eyes...

"I thank you for this life you've exchanged for me, I will pay back for what you've done for me in the future," Hutogi reveal his right eye that was used to send himself to this very poor state.

"Devil Eyes: Exchange..." The herb which is called Nilite, slowly withers as the second pass by. When the child knew it, Hutogi had woken up as he was sitting on the ground. 

(The bone is healed, but the flesh wound is still opened)

"Much thank you... But there's still many things I have to do in this chaos." Hutogi got up and left the fort of concrete, leaving a child with her guardian. Hutogi sprints as fast as he can just to see the two figures standing below the mountain of floating corpses.

(That's... Alex and Rudy!) 

The moment he realizes it, the corpse emanates in a shining light. Hutogi couldn't react to what happened.

"STOP!!!" Upon hearing the words, it takes a second for Hutogi to realize that Alex managed to stop an explosion with his Unique. But it's only temporary as Hutogi realizes that every second takes a toll on Alex's body which is breaking apart.

"Alex-" 

"GO! Save the civilian! I couldn't hold this for much longer!" Hearing the response from Alex, Hutogi uses his left eye which can see people's souls. From right where he was, Hutogi jumped to the 3rd floor at lightning speed. Rudy too helped him by sending multiple flying prosthetic arms as it's going inside the building.

The crack in the building was noticed, but Alex still held on to stop the explosion as if the time were stopped. One minute, two minutes 3 minutes and 11 seconds are all both Hutogi and Rudy take to save the civilian. At that moment, Alex sighed in relief as he knew he couldn't hold the explosion for long.

*BOOM!*