"Do you really think we're letting you go alone like this?" barked out Vane as he looked over at Zrelekai going away. The confused scientist turned back, not understanding what he meant.
"I gave you her, what do you need from me anymore?" Zrelekai spoke with an annoyed tone, and after the sentence, he let out an irritated deep breath.
"You know damn well, you fucker… after what happened with Mary, you can't go alone like this," said Vane angrily. Right when he was about to transform and jump to kill Zrelekai, who didn't even have his pistol anymore, he stopped for a moment after hearing Zrelekai's words.
"I'm sorry," said Zrelekai as he turned his head and looked down. The group looked at him with confused faces as they realized that his tone might actually be sorrowful.
But unlike the others, Vane was the only one who didn't believe him. "After killing someone, saying sorry just isn't enough… you can't go away like this!" Vane was now gritting his teeth, and with his fists clenched, he wanted to rush and kill Zrelekai directly with his own hands.
"Oh? In some stories I used to read, when the villain said this, they would simply let him go like it was nothing." Suddenly, Zrelekai turned his head and a huge smirk appeared on his face.
"You were never sorry at all… you never cared about her at all!" shouted Vane angrily. Zrelekai, without any fear, nodded his head.
"Would you care about an object that you barely need?" said Zrelekai as he spoke with a provocative tone. 'Ashikunz was the one who needed her to defend the city in case outsiders came… I don't think he has ever seen her as a person, though,' he thought.
"I don't care anymore… I'll fucking make you explode like you did to her!" shouted Vane. Right when he was about to jump on him while turning into a polar bear, someone put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's useless… you'll just lower yourself to his level." Liro, in pain, tried to raise his injured arm; he was barely able to do it, and in fact, once his hand was positioned on Vane's shoulder, some blood began to flow out again.
Vane, still gritting his teeth, couldn't calm down. "After we kill Ashikunz, we'll give him a punishment worse than death," spoke Liro with a calmer tone.
"He doesn't deserve to live… especially not after how he treated everyone around him," said Vane as he looked at Catripple next to him, still in the chair with her hands bound.
"And that is why death isn't the right punishment; he can't just escape from his punishment like that," said Darian as he positioned his hand over Vane's other shoulder. Vane stopped gritting his teeth and was slowly calming down.
After Zrelekai watched Vane calm down, he simply turned his head back and began to walk away. "And even if you're going to kill Ashikunz… it doesn't matter how many futures you can see, there won't be a single one in which the victory is yours."
"We'll see about that," said Tyel with an almost challenging tone, but Zrelekai had already gone out the door and didn't care about them anymore.
"SISTER!!" shouted Orechin as he could now finally untie Catripple from the chair.
"Orechin!" she shouted, as the two could finally hug again after all this time.
"I… I'm so glad to see that you're back unharmed…" Orechin, who couldn't hold back his tears anymore, began to cry uncontrollably.
"I… I'm back…" Catripple said, unable to hold back her tears either after her brother began to cry too.
"Finally… after all this time… I've missed you so much, Catripple…" Orechin started to hold her tighter, as it was clear that he didn't want her to go away for this long ever again.
"Finally… after all these weeks, we've finally saved her," pointed out Syrmax as he wiped away a tear falling down his face.
"It was yesterday when we literally arrived in Ardoris with her…" said Lily happily, and the others agreed with her.
The siblings remained there, silently hugging each other for a few more minutes, when suddenly Catripple was the first one to speak and break the silence.
"Thank you so much, everyone… I'm finally back," said Catripple as tears began to flow once again down her cheeks. Her eyes were now focused on the other members of the group that saved her; each of them, looking at Catripple's warm smile, had a happy face in their own way.
"Really… thank you, everyone… we would have never saved her without your help," said Orechin as he spoke with a thankful tone. "I don't think the three of us would have ever been able to save her… Darian… Liro… Vane… and Lily, thank you for everything," added Orechin as he looked at the only people who, less than a month ago, weren't even part of the rebels.
"Don't worry, it concerned us too," said Darian as he spoke with a reassuring tone.
"We're always ready to help…" said Liro while nodding his head.
"And to kick some Krukin ass," added Vane while clashing his two fists together.
"I'm just glad that one of our objectives is finally complete," pointed out Lily. After she said that, the mood in the room suddenly shifted.
"We still have to find a way to escape Ashikunz… that is the hardest part," said Martheel as he gritted his teeth in anger.
Catripple, having so many questions, began to speak again. "Still, I've got a better question…" said Catripple as she turned to Tyel. "Have you awakened your power?" she added, as she couldn't believe her own words.
Tyel finally removed Timehors' mask and nodded his head. "Exactly," he said while smirking and nodding his head. "And as you heard from before… I can look into the future," he added. After that, Catripple's eyes lit up.
"So you know what I'm about to say?" she asked with sparkles in her eyes. Tyel, before answering, looked for a moment at his clock. 'It isn't midnight yet… I can't restart after everything that has happened,' thought Tyel before shaking his head.
Catripple, seeing his reaction, felt slightly confused. "I still haven't gotten used to my power; it makes my head hurt so much… and we have to escape from Ashikunz soon… I'll do that another time," said Tyel, almost feeling sorry, but Catripple positioned her hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, we just need to escape Ashikunz now… still, I don't get it… what has happened in these last few weeks?" asked Catripple, confused. Everyone else scratched the back of their heads awkwardly.
"Well, I guess we have time to tell you everything," said Tyel. As he looked at the clock, he realized that because a lot of time was remaining until the start of the next day, he had enough time to update Catripple on the latest events.
"Well, you see… after you were kidnapped, after you returned, tons of things happened…" said Orechin as he sat down on the floor like everyone else. And with that, around one hour passed after they finished explaining everything to her.
After Zrelekai got away from his enemies, he started to walk down the dark hall, lost in his thoughts.
'Traitor… this is the word Ashikunz hated the most.' Zrelekai still remembered the words the Krukin had told him three hundred years ago. 'I never asked him why… but it felt like he had bad experiences in the past…'
'I still remember how he told me there was a human among the most important Krukins… maybe he saw this alliance as a sort of betrayal?' Zrelekai's boots echoed against the cold floor as he walked away, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He didn't look back at the group; they weren't following him anymore, and there was no need to.
'He suspected that there was a traitor in our ranks… someone who sent information to the rebels… but who sits closest to him? Who creates the weapons, who knows the infrastructure, who has the power to build and destroy? Me.'
'I've always helped him in these last three hundred years… if there were a traitor, why would it be me? I've been loyal to him my entire life…'
Zrelekai, while clenching his left fist inside his pocket, felt a cold sweat flowing down his mutated black skin. All the times Ashikunz's spear had almost pierced him or created a cut on his body were playing back in his mind.
'He has gone crazy after his plans stopped working… his plans, as far as I knew, never had any flaws…' Zrelekai began to remember the only plan against the rebels that had failed.
'We had checkmate… if they hadn't arrived, they believed that Catripple would have been killed… but as it was all a lie, we believed they were about to fall right into our trap…' Now Zrelekai clenched both of his fists while gritting his teeth.
'Ashikunz has never believed that they could outsmart him…' As he thought about this, Zrelekai shook his head. 'They could have done it… but we know, especially because their bonds are too strong, they would have never let Catripple die by our hands. The plan was never supposed to fail,' pointed out Zrelekai.
'But that Alterid could look into the future… they called him Tyel, right?' As he thought about this name, a small light bulb turned on inside his head.
"Tyel… it isn't the first time I've heard this name…" whispered Zrelekai while scratching his chin. As he got far enough from the group, he leaned against the wall and stopped thinking for a moment.
"It's that guard!" Zrelekai almost shouted. "The one who didn't have any power…" Zrelekai clearly remembered how he saw him not many years ago as someone who was, in his eyes, a bare experiment. But unlike the guinea pigs he was used to, this one meant even less than them as he didn't even have a power, so he simply let him go.
'Then has he always had it?' thought Zrelekai before shaking his head. 'That's impossible… they would have countered countless of our other plans.'
'Then it actually awakened not many days ago…' Zrelekai thought for a moment about this whole situation. 'I don't think it is actually a bluff. If he can actually see the future, he knew that my intention was never to kill Catripple… and if I had shot her, I would have walked straight into a trap I didn't know anything about…' Zrelekai gritted his teeth in anger as he thought about Ashikunz's plan, which he was never told about.
'If I fail, Ashikunz won't see a loyal servant who tried; he'll see a failure. Or worse, a traitor who let them slip through on purpose.' He let out a sharp, bitter breath, his eyes narrowing as he stared down the empty corridor ahead.
'I'm no one's scapegoat. He decided to keep everything to himself? Then it doesn't matter what I do; knowing him, he has already predicted everything, whether they killed me and kept Catripple for themselves, or if I killed her and survived… but I let them take the girl. I want them to march right into his trap. If they die, Ashikunz's perfect plan wasn't flawless after all… but if they somehow manage to win against him…' Zrelekai now kept walking towards the dark hall in front of him until he reached a dead end.
Zrelekai's lips suddenly twitched into a dark, cynical smirk.
'…then I won't be buried alongside the dead tyrant. If he wins, he will still keep me alive, as I would tell him about the future power.' Zrelekai created a pickaxe in his hands and smashed the wall in front of him.
A room was revealed behind this wall. Inside of it were countless books on a huge shelf. 'If he dies, I'll simply hide here and I'll keep making experiments; the rebels don't know about this.' Zrelekai then proceeded to create a new wall to block the path into this room.
'And if Ashikunz wins, I'll be free like nothing ever happened. Go on, future-seer. Take her and run right into the conqueror's jaws. I'm done playing a game where I'm the only one who doesn't know the rules.'