Crownless: The Fallen World - Chapter 36

Upon hearing Kael’s order, they all looked at their Holowrist and saw that the signal was even greater than what they had in the High Order. They all gaped then fumbled to change their clothes before checking their contacts. Then they realized who will call who.

“I’ll call Sir Aires,” Axel declared and scanned his group, “I’ll call him once I knew about the other two.”

“I’ll call Cielle,” Kaia immediately connected the call and it was quickly answered. They sighed in relief when they saw how better Cielle was.

“I’ll call Bonham,” Trystan said while typing in his Holowrist, since he was the only one that Bonham never blocked. But he heard Cielle laughed loudly and redirected the camera to Bonham, who was being carried like a sack on someone’s shoulder.

“Don’t bother with this boy. He’s paralyzed, better call him next time.”

“Oh…” Trystan sat near the busted van and sulked.

Axel smiled at them and decided to call Aires now. He browsed through his contacts but he didn’t even saw Aires’ profile, “What the heck?”

They all turned at Axel, “What happened?” Kaia asked, worry glinted in her eyes.

“I… I can’t find Sir Aires’ profile…” He scrolled and scrolled again, but there was something peculiar in his contacts. There was a grayed out name, “Hey… guys… what does it mean when one of your contacts were grayed?”

“Oh! I think when my grandma died. She was an alumnus in the High Order and I got her contact. When she passed away, I saw her profile was grayed out, it was a really disturbing event for me… I can’t delete it or even move it.” Adelaide informed as she continued eating her packed lunch.

Axel’s eyes went wide and his trembling finger tapped the grayed out name. There it was, the thing that he always feared. His face paled and he looked at Adelaide.

“Wha… what are you looking at? Do you want a fight?” Adelaide munched her food like a chipmunk as she gulped and pointed her spoon at Axel, “Are you bored? Wanting to fight and all that…”

Kaia elbowed Adelaide, “Shut up.”

“It’s… the grayed out name is…” Axel’s voice was trembling and the group was now worried in their co-leader’s behavior.

“I-it’s Sir… Ah-Aires…”

Silence engulfed the group. Kael’s face was filled with rage, a red hue coated her cheeks. She spoke through gritted teeth, “Stop fcking with me, you btch! You expect me to believe he’s dead?! HAH?! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!”

Her huge wings grew out, black in color. It emitted the aura of death, regret and revenge. The air around her created a whirlpool at her feet. The group covered their eyes with their forearm from the strong gust of wind.

“What else do you want to believe?! Just fcking look at this!!” Axel yelled furiously and enlarged his Holowrist screen for them to see. Kael’s black eyes glanced at the screen and saw it.

Sebastian Aires was the content of the grayed out profile. Kael grabbed a huge stone and threw it at the screen, hard. It shattered like glass and the stone continued to ascend the sky.

Kael’s breathing was ragged as she flapped her wings to fly to the sky. She closed her eyes and tried to sense Aires’ energy reaction which she activated it. However, she sensed nothing and horror filled her face. Her heart felt heavy when she thought of it.

She still hadn’t done anything she liked with Aires and it broke her, she then took off to release some of the heaviness she was feeling. Just wherever her wings take her to, Kael didn’t care. 

Axel, Adelaide, Kaia, Trystan, and Julian watched the female dragon with pity in their eyes. They have no time to calm their anxious heart when the dragon raged. Axel exhaled shakily, “Let me call Sir Hale to… know if it’s really true.”

***

Hale and the child were nearing a tunnel arch, signifying that they were entering the main tunnel. It was all too sudden when they got caught by the strong wind, never knowing where it would take them–the older male screamed. Hale grabbed hold of the child and stuck himself on the curve of the wall.

“Sht… that was close.”

But the little boy was sniffing the air and pointed at the one where it was going, “I can smell Dad there, but there are two lingering scents too.”

Hale’s eyes went wide but closed it again because the strong wind hit his eyes, “The heck,” then he looked over the arch near the curve he was at. He smiled then started crawling there while the child latched his body on Hale.

Battling the desire to go with the current, he finally arrived inside a dimly lit room. The room was huge and the ceiling was high, there was a stand with a floating orb of energy at the center. Then he saw a figure behind it and a small human hologram sitting at the edge of the stand.

He became curious but the boy said to him with serious eyes, “It’s Dad.”