Lies followed by more lies lies that Yazmod wished to believe himself. But in his head, he had known one thing.
He can’t escape from whatever is headed his way. He can’t hide and will eventually face retribution for all he has done in this city. And even if it was not him taking part in these cruel activities personally, he was equally if not more so responsible for them. So was his wife, who knew every bit of it.
Due to this, others around him will suffer, including his toddlers who are barely able to stay awake these days.
It was then the thought of sending his wife ca to him. Sending her away with his kids to a safe place, or at least hiding them until this was all over, where they would be able to start a new life again.
He was ready to make a sacrifice and die at the hands of the avengers who were obviously targeting people involved with the company. Maybe, this was the only way to eke out a safer life for his family.
Yazmod Sltver had started to regret the decisions he had made, but only a little, because at the end of the day, it had made his family bigger, fulfilling his as well as his Wife’s dream of their own children.
So, even if the ti were to turn back, Yazmod knew that he would still make the sa choices and it is for this reason, that his end won’t be a peaceful one.
"They started to cry again. Don’t think of anything weird, I will go and handle them." His wife Aimar said, before leaving the room.
Leaving her husband to his weird thoughts as his mind did over ti, finding a way for his family to survive this predicant.
As for the reason for his predicant? The man that brought him so much worry?
That man in truth was busy with sothing else.
*****
In a small hut away from the village, a malnourished boy looked around for a bit, finding the place familiar. First, looking toward the chimney and finding that no one was there, he turned to the other bed where "he" usually slept.
But there was nothing there, no one to greet him in the morning like he was used to. Which was odd, because he could see the light coming down from the broken roof, which was a sign it was morning. At this ti, his teacher would usually boil so water.
"Ah, the old man probably went for firewood." the boy said, before noticing the empty basket next to the chimney.
Shaking his head at his master’s senility, he got up and put the basket on his back. He had to hurry, or the old man would probably be back with only a few sticks at this point.
A kind old man who picked wastrel like him with no place to go. Soone whose parents abandoned him out of pity.
A boy that should have died in the jungle, if not for the tily arrival of that old man in his life.
So he can’t be cruel to such a kind man, he can’t let that man make a fool of himself by forgetting the firewood basket.
So he opened the door, welcoming the morning sun on his face.
But what appeared in front was the sa room. Darker than before with a lit-up chimney where he can see an old man slowly cooking so sort of broth in it. "You were here?" The boy says, forgetting about the basket on his back, he cos next to the old man and sits down beside him. "Slls like mushrooms, when did you find them?" The boy asked with a smile on his face.
But the old man whose eyes were focused on the broth didn’t look as happy.
Instead, he gave the boy a deep look, which made the boy ask. "What happened?"
"I should have warned you." The old man said, putting his hand on Max’s head.
The boy, hearing these words, made a confused face and asked. "Warned ? Are these mushrooms poisonous?" A young Max who had experienced too much for his age, a boy who should have died but ca to him during his last years.
To his question, the old man just shook his head. Giving him a deep look, he continued. "Find a disciple, if you don’t want to... MAX?"
The expression of the old man turned worried, and he cried again. "MAX!"
"Max who?..." Confused he was for a bit before the old man kept repeating the alien na of Max again and again. Scared the boy, who got up and shook him.
Before he felt a similar shaking in his body, dragging him out of his dream and to reality.
"I.. am Max." He said, waking up from his sleep, finding his whole body bandaged up, with Sheva looking at him with worried eyes. "You are awake, finally." She took a sigh of relief.
Max reached the safe house in a tattered state, his whole body was covered in blood and mucus. His sudden arrival surprised Sheva and his state horrified her. But before she could have asked what happened, Max had hit the floor.
Which made Sheva hurry to bandage his body with the antibiotic balm she had carried with her for a long ti, while using any old clothes she could find and boiling them before using them on Max’s body due to lack of bandages.
It took her a whole night to make sure his injuries didn’t worsen and another two days to go out and buy so ds, hiding from the eyes of police and any public that might be hunting for her as well as Max.
Making the last three days as grueling as possible, made worse by the fact that Max would suffer from bizarre episodes where he would only say one thing. "Find... Disciple." In his screams.
With his last episode being the worst, Max had started to flail his body around and fall from the makeshift bed. Which ended up waking him from his deep sleep again.
And as his mind beca clear again, he said. "Sheva.. Thank you." He tried getting up, but stumbled, making Sheva co to his rescue again and help him get on the back. "No worries... rest for now, we will talk later." She ca to him and handed him a small concentrated juice bottle, which would usually be drunk after diluting it with water. But for Max, this was good enough.
He hadn’t eaten much during these last few days. And even with his body that could sustain itself without food for long, the amount of nutrients that his body burned while healing itself had put a huge strain on it.
Not to ntion, the imnse growth of muscle and strength he had experienced after entering Master rank.
"Thank you." Max felt drained. Taking the bottle and slowly drinking it, he watched as Sheva moved away from him, giving him so room to think things through.
Not to ntion, she was still setting up the safe house and there were a lot of things to do. But more than anything, she understood what it was like to be in Max’s place. He can be considered lucky to retain his consciousness so soon after waking up. In her case, she was in a state of delirium for days on end before her mind had cleared.
"Seems like I was able to reach the safe house on ti." He thought to himself while enjoying so peace. Then he started to recall the events that transpired and the fact that he had ascended to Master rank.
’I feel worse than before.’ He can recall the burst in strength last night or however long it was. It was as if his body was on overdrive and he could do anything, kill anyone. Everything felt so clear at that mont, so vivid.
But he knew, it was mostly adrenaline pushing him to take those actions. His body was broken due to the bizarre attack he had suffered and if he had fought that weird maid instead of running away, he would have died by now.
But then, he rembered the dagger, he couldn’t find it anywhere on his body, nor by his bedside. Causing him so worry. "Sheva, have you seen my dagger?" He asked, but no reply ca, she was not here at the mont. Nor was Max in any state to sense her, with how broken his body was.
’Fuck.’ he cursed, before recalling how his dying master had handed him the crystal dagger, asking him to keep it safe.
’I lost it.’ He cursed at his fate. Before finding the finger that was still kept on his side.
A finger next to which was a centipede.
"Hmm!" With so thought, he put his finger next to the centipede, which willfully crawled up to his finger, before entering Max’s ear.
"Finally, I was waiting for you to wake up... And before you say anything. Let tell you, Sheva had already taken out the treasure you brought back in your stomach... not out of her own will, mind you. You puked a lot."
"Stop, just tell ... what actually happened there?" I can feel his anger, he was confused over why I abandoned him at that mont. Which made almost laugh. "That dagger of yours spoke so words that caused a total of 11 deaths on my side, with barely surviving. After that, I had no visuals."
"Eleven deaths?"
"Of course, there would be deaths, the na of a god was called in it, and even if it’s a dead god. The proxies still died after hearing his voice. And thanks to them, I survived."
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