Chapter 23: Flames Of Change

(Silver's POV)

Who is this woman? Lily mentioned that she was her sister, but why does she feel so familiar? And why does Lily call her brother?

Anyway, what exactly are we even doing here? Is she going to buy me clothes or make me carry stuff?

"Lily... why did we come here again?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm going to buy you a suit," she said happily.

"But why?" I asked, raising a brow.

"Because I want to thank you for protecting me. Who knows what would have happened if you didn't?" she said with a sad frown.

But anyone could tell that she was acting.

"I am pretty valuable, after all," she added, throwing glances toward me.

"Lily..." I sighed.

She giggled before walking toward a suit hanging on the wall in what looked like a frame of sorts.

"What do you think about this?" she asked, pointing at the suit.

"I think it looks beautiful," I vaguely answered, staring at the suit.

"What about it?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she stared at me.

What should I say? I really don't care, but it would be rude to say that. Let's just make something up.

"Well... the white looks great... and the black stripes on the trousers make it stand out more," I answered, not even certain what exactly I was saying but acting confidently.

"Wow! I didn't know Silvey knew so much about clothes," she said mockingly before giggling.

I looked away from Lily because my cheeks started to turn red, but then my eyes met her sister's. I could see her trying to hide her laughter.

"Lily... I'm leaving now. Have fun, you two," she said, throwing a smile toward me and waving.

"Okay... Broth—"

Boom!

"What was that?" I exclaimed, quickly turning around.

It sounded like it came from outside. It was extremely loud—we, on the tenth floor, could even hear it.

"Kids, stay here. I'll go check what happened," Lily's sister said, rushing slowly toward the elevator.

She had to lift her dress to run. Why was she wearing such a dress anyway?

"Lily, shouldn't we also go check? What if a fire broke out and we're stuck here?" I asked, glancing toward the elevator and back at her.

"Yes, you're right, brother! Wait up!" she yelled, signaling toward her sister.

But why does she keep calling him brother? That surely can't be his name, right? I chuckled.

We both ran toward the elevator at a steady pace, arriving inside just before it went down.

The elevator began to descend. We didn't speak a word. When we arrived at the ground floor, as I thought, a fire had broken out.

Its flames were almost reaching inside the elevator. I could barely handle the heat, not to mention the smoke filling the air. I also heard a noise—was it a woman's voice?

"Hello, is anyone there?" Lily's sister asked, raising her voice.

"Help! My daughter! She's trapped!" a woman yelled loudly in a panicked state.

"Mommy!" a small child's voice.

Lily and her sister desperately tried putting the fire out using high-level wind spells, but it wouldn't work.

"Silvey, can't you use a water spell?" Lily asked, focusing on extinguishing the flames.

"What?! You have the water element—why didn't you use it earlier?" Lily's sister asked, also busy extinguishing the flames. She didn't even make eye contact, but I could hear the suspicion in her voice.

"I don't have a strong enough water spell!" I yelled, coughing.

"What do you mean?!" Lily asked sharply.

I didn't answer. My mind was wandering. What should I do? I have two new spells, but they aren't strong enough.

Damn it, I can't let a mother lose her child. I know how painful it is to lose family.

The only choice I had was to combine the two spells—not even worrying if it would fail.

I combined Water Bubble with Water Prison to create the skill [Vortex].

[Vortex] created two water currents rapidly twirling around, sucking in anything they touched. But it required extreme concentration so that I could specify the target.

"Silver!" Lily yelled, looking back at me.

"Lily, you and your sister should stand back," I calmly spoke as I walked in front of them.

"What?!" she exclaimed.

"Silver, what are you doing?!" her sister yelled, grabbing onto me.

"Move!" I yelled louder than I intended.

I didn't have time to explain—I was losing magion by the second while trying to select the target [Vortex] had to absorb.

I could see them looking at me with shocked and confused expressions as they stepped back, but my magion was depleting faster than I expected. I didn't have time to care what they thought.

I used my new skill.

[Vortex]

I focused all my senses and absolute concentration, meaning I had to stop breathing. The target was every flame inside this building.

It sucked in the flames in a circular motion, not even making a sound. The smoke still remained, as it was not selected as a target.

It took a few seconds, but to me, it felt like an eternity for all the flames to disappear.

The skill worked as expected. I fell to my knees, violently exhaling and coughing.

"Silvey, are you okay?" Lily rushed toward me, holding my shoulders.

"Silvey... what's happening? Your hair... it's turning black," she exclaimed, flinching.

"What do... Cough..." I coughed, holding my hand in front of my mouth.

When I looked down at my hand, it was filled with blood.

Huh? What's happening? What's Lily saying? Why does she look so concerned?

I lost my hearing for some reason. I could only hear a ringing sound in my head.

"Sei..." I mumbled, barely audible, breathing violently.

I needed to know what was happening to me. No—to my body.

Race: Vampire (Ancient)

Age: 16

Magion Amount: 50,000 / 25,000

Stats:

Strength: 30

Speed: 25

Reflexes: 20

Skills:

Race Skills: [Sei], [Ei], [Regeneration: Mid], [Night Vision], [Accumulation]

Accumulated Skills: [Accelerate], [Copy], [Sound Control]

Created Skills: [Compress], [Vortex]

Copied Skills: [God's Sense], [Immunity], [Poisoner]

Magic:

Element: [???: Locked], [???: Locked], [Water]

Spells: None

How? No, why did it happen again? Last time, it happened in the cabin because I ate too many magion fruits. So why now? I don't see any reason why I'm experiencing this again.

***

(Lily's POV)

"Brother, what's happening to him?" I asked as I held Silvey by the shoulders.

"It's magion overload," my brother said calmly, analyzing the situation.

"Brother, how can you be so calm?!" I yelled, glaring at him.

"Lily, calm down. There's nothing we can do. In fact, we need to step back if we don't want to get hit with the discharge," he replied.

It wasn't that Brother was cold toward Silvey—in fact, he sounded more concerned than I did—but he always had a habit of hiding his feelings in front of me. Why?

"Oh... what do I see? Three little mice trapped in a tree."

A man wearing a large hat and pitch-black clothes strolled into the shop with a grin.

"Not that this is a tree, but let's just go with that. Why? Because it rhymes," he jokingly added, swaying as he walked while swinging a sickle on a chain in a circle.

"Who are you?" my brother asked, frowning as he took a defensive stance.

I also took a defensive stance, shielding Silvey, who was still on the ground behind me.

"Hmmm... that's a difficult question to answer. Just call me what you hate the most," he replied, staring into space, holding his chin.

"And what would that be, you ask? Well... a Fallen," he added, gazing back at my brother with a menacing grin.