11.1 — THE SOURCE

ELEVEN PART I

Night after the incident at Romulus household . . .

"Kaaaaaaaai!"

Kaizo instantaneously looked up from working on his study desk to find the source of the sing sang voice. His molten orbs fell upon the auburn-haired Astrēon of Ferguan Clan who unceremoniously barged in without reservation in his study, arms dramatically widespread on either side after opening the doors with such force the hinges must have shook.

"Can I have a word with you, kid?" Miran asked, making herself comfortable at the velvet plush couch across him. She added with a shrug: "It's kinda important, you see."

Taking off his rimless reading glasses, Kaizo pinched his nose-bridge and breathed out an exasperated sigh. "What is it?"

Miran's expression caught on a softer take as she peered with evident concern on him. "You didn't sleep a wink, did you?"

"After last night's frenzy?" Kaizo shook his head grimly. "Who would?"

"Yeah," Miran drawled, eyes straying above the ceiling. "After witnessing your well-hidden gift last night, neither did I."

Kaizo paused halfway from wearing back his eyeglasses and locked eyes with the vivacious, petite Astrēon who was sporting an atypical expression of bemusement he had never seen before. It might have been a minute that had passed when Miran broke off the tense atmosphere with her usual hearty chuckles before bringing her legs in an Indian seat position. Even so, Kaizo remained passive.

"Don't give me that look, kid," Miran pointed out still chuckling. "You look like you're about to swallow me alive. Jesus Christ!"

"I'm not," he pressed evenly.

Miran rolled her eyes dramatically with a groan. "Convince me more after you drop your glare."

"I'm not glaring."

"Ha-ha." Miran frowned. "And women don't have vagina."

At that, Kaizo couldn't help to grimace. He had learn years ago to best ignore the promiscuous remarks she often uttered, but it didn't mean it couldn't take him off guard most of the times. Just like it did now.

Ignoring the heat accumulating in either ears, Kaizo went on, "Just cut the chase and tell me what you came here for, Miran."

"Stay away from Verēna," Miran declared in a heartbeat, unusually cold and distance.

The merry chirps of the birds along the gentle breeze rocking the branch trees to rustle outside were the sounds left to be heard as an air of uneasiness fell into the room with the mere four words the female guardian averred.

Kaizo searched Miran's face for any hint of jesting, but found none. For almost a decade of being acquainted with her, Kaizo barely seen her unsmiling and dead serious. Rare as having a snow in the country, the sudden shift in the Astrēon's mood straight out confounded him.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Kai. Stay away from Verēna." Miran smiled ruefully. "Stay away while you still can. Stay away while she can still keep it together. Stay away so none of you will regret anything in the end. Stay away while your destinies aren't fully intertwined yet."

"You're confusing me more, Miran." His probing eyes regarded the woman across the room critically. "Explain it well."

"No need!" Miran spiritedly jumped off from her comfortable seat and stretched her legs, bending them from side to side before standing upright. "All you have to do is heed my piece of advice and everyone will live happily ever after─no matter how boring and cliché that may be."

"Hold up! You can't just barged in and left me racking my brains out for what you meant," he grumbled when Miran went to leave.

With an audible tut and frown, Miran turned back to Kaizo. "I've been chosen as a guardian of this country for a reason, Kai. There are things I know that can only be imparted through warnings and advices. I just give you both, so I beg you─listen." A wave of forlorn cracked her bizarre bearing. For a brief second, Kaizo almost thought he saw her eyes gone misty before the latter spun to her heels, leaving one final remarks: "Just listen if you don't want to be each other's hell disguised as paradise."

* * * * * *

Kaizo didn't know why of all times, the last encounter with the Astrēon suddenly chipped in to his mind as he struggled to dodge the sizzling, dark whips of tentacles slashing through his direction for the last few minutes. Every single one of it meant to cut through him─to take him down for good.

"Priestess! Stop it!

Beads of sweat started to break out of him all the while trying to wake the Priestess up from her berserker trance. Only that he would bet on his life that it wasn't the Priestess anymore. The biting intensity of the vindictive presence that was now housing the Priestess body was far more wicked and lethal as it get.

A niggling anxiousness settled in his gut. Looking at the once amber eyes minutes ago now nothing but an abyss of pitch black pit, Kaizo feared reasoning with the enraged lady won't be enough to get through her. She couldn't be that far beyond, can she?

"Stop this instance, Priestess!"

A slash hurtling to his right. Shadows beneath his feet instantaneously formed a fortified barrier enwrapping him to safety. For now.

"Pries─shit!"

Onslaught of hissing dark tentacles molding into one huge whip pounded relentlessly at his protective walls. Kaizo braced himself, arms crossed over his head, until the sturdy shield gave in and sent him flying across the living room.

Strings of more curses flew out of his lips as his back painfully collided with the wall behind before falling down beside the ripped L-shape couch. Cold breeze caressed his bruised cheeks. His eyes darted towards the ajar door. If only he could bring her outside. He sure had a fat chance of turning the tide into his favor without harming the Priestess. Just neutralized the malevolent force taking full control of her body.

I have to try.

Without much of second thought, Kaizo quickly moved to make a run for it only to get all the air in his lungs got knocked out as he had whacked back up to the walls with so much force it crackled under his weight. Large cracks marked his landing at the impact.

Falling limped to the ground on his knees, Kaizo retched forward, coughing out a damn crimson blood. The metallic stench and tang was too much to his nose and tongue. He spat it all out, swearing in his mind. The will to get up left his system as he propped himself up against the ruined wall. His chest heavily rose and fell. The entire midsection of his body bloody hurts like hell. He would bet on his life that blow broke a rib or more bones than he ever cared to bother at the moment.

Not when there was some bat shit, psychotic lady peered down at his dire state with such spine-shivering crazed smile of a certified serial killer. It looked dead straight into his hard eyes as it crouched down before him, tilting its head─probing and searching his face. The arm's length proximity parched his throat.

Kaizo daringly stared back to its seemingly bottomless, murky orbs. With his body singing its pain in soprano, that was all he could actually do. And observed. Observe how it propped its elbow on its knees and grinned sheepishly at him.