The Author's POV

Drip! Drip! Drip!

"It can't be… no…"

"Uwaaaa!"

Incomprehensible mutterings, a loud wail, and the sounds of rain dripping against the ground.

All of it reached my ears, and yet at the same time didn't.

Standing where I was, my mind was blank. I couldn't think of anything, and the noise around me came from one ear and left from another.

I was numb, so numb… Staring at the figure that lay before me, I didn't know how to react.

'He's dead…'

I tried to check up on him moments prior, but his heart and breath had stopped. There was nothing I could do at the moment, and it was this sense of helplessness that made me numb.

Why? …why did it have to happen again? Why did someone else have to leave me? Especially my father, of all people… the one person I was supposed to protect?

I closed my eyes, the rain still trickling down my face. Images of the past flashed in my mind, moments that I had shared with my father.

'Is this how he felt?'

At last, I was able to understand the constant agony that the other version of me had to endure on a consistent basis, and I noticed that something was beginning to eat away at my chest.

"Haa… uhaaa…"

Breathing was becoming incredibly difficult at the moment, and if not for me being used to this, I would've already lost it at this point.

'Not yet… I can't show weakness just yet…'

I held back everything that was threatening to come out at that moment and kept it to myself.

There would be a time later when I could show weakness… The time wasn't now.

Not yet, at least…

The rain continued to pour down, drenching my clothes and making me feel cold. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of raindrops hitting the ground.

"B,brother."

It was upon hearing Nola's voice that I turned around. The pain that I was feeling further intensified when I caught her gaze, and I raised my head to look up.

She had grown up since I had last seen her. With the time she spent in Immorra, she was now 14 years old… a teen. She had grown into a beautiful young girl and was no longer the little girl that I used to know.

Unlike before, she was aware of what was happening, and I couldn't bring myself to look at her.

"B,brother."

She called out again, but I didn't respond. I didn't want to face her. To see the look of sadness and confusion on her face.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The silence was deafening, the only sound being the raindrops hitting the ground. It was as if the world had stopped for a moment, frozen in time.

"Hiek… b,brother… answer me…"

The rain masked her soft whimpers, and my heart ached at the thought. I really wanted to go to her at the moment and give her a hug, but I stopped myself.

Now was not the time…

'Not yet.'

I couldn't mourn just yet.

I still didn't have the time to mourn Kevin's

"Huuu."

the first time

Even so…

It hurt like hell.

"Nola, mom..."

my family, my voice trembling as I struggled to contain my

hung heavily over

face them, I could feel their eyes upon me, their concern palpable in the air. I knew I had to be

"Uhh."

a small house in the distance, my heart aching at the thought of

go over there.

my voice shaking

as she spoke up, her voice thick with

"You're leaving?"

unable to meet

can't. There are things I

I regretted them almost immediately. Nola's reaction was swift and fierce, her grief and

just died,

growing louder and

Dad is

"No... wait..."

how could

"Nola, calm down."

mother intervened, trying to diffuse

reason, her

Mom, why are you taking his side?! Did you not hear what he

he meant,

arms wrapping around Nola's trembling

did he

her eyes flashing

to handle the situation. She nodded her head, a subtle signal that

your brother. We're

Damn it!

arms, but she was perfectly restrained by her, and she continued

"Fine, go!"

unable to escape from our mother's grasp. The tears that streamed down from her eyes were masked by the gentle

"I… I…"

our mother's

"Uwaaaa! Daaaad! Whyyy!?"

biting my lower lip and turning my head to look in a particular direction. My vision began to blur, and the next thing I knew, I was floating on top of the

returned to my surroundings, and when I thought back at what just happened, I

"Haa…haaa..haaaaa…"

'Not yet.'

again, but unlike before, it proved to be a much harder task. The pain… it

"Fuck!"

I needed to let out what was built up in me, and slowly, the pain that I was feeling turned into something

Rage…

right then, as if something within me snapped, the world around me

hand in a certain direction, the

Rumble! Rumble!

brought my hand down as the projection of a massive sword soon materialized on the surface of

***

"Do you see it?"

space the two of them were in. His gaze was currently fixed on

able to see

happened is a consequence of

reaction. It frustrated Jezebeth to no end, and he knew that the man in front of him was not

I've severely underestimated how