BLADE

Chapter 6: The Secret

"Does he know you killed his mother because she was way below your standard and too insignificant for you to protect?"

"Seems your wound has healed that's why your mouth can't stop being runny" Elder Hans replied, his irritation written all over his face.

"What exactly is irritating you, brother? The fact that you didn't have the chance to experience love or the fact that Viper would turn against you when he finds put how you treated his mum?" Elder Viper was deliberately provoking Hans.

The tension in the room was thick and dense but what cut it into two, was the cough of the little girl on Blade's back.

Immediately, the two Elders had their heads turned to that area. Elder Hans immediately knew that they had company.

Seeing as his location was already found, he took to his heels down the dark spiral stairway, making sure a glimpse of him wasn't found. In the process of fleeing, he slipped and down the stairs he and the little girl rolled, he tried his best to protect the girl's head from hitting the floor while his head continued hitting the floor like ping pong.

Seeing as they were already discovered,  His father held the legs of Elder Hans to keep him from moving location where the sound was heard but just a bullet in his arm, paved the way for Elder Hans. Not even his brother can block his way now.

But the gunshot didn't stop him from trying to get in Elder Hans way. "It's me you want, take me instead!" Elder Viper pleaded, hanging unto his brother's leg with that one good arm he had.

Without Hesitation, Elder Hans shot his second arm off him, running towards the place he had always wanted too.

In gritting pain, Elder Viper tried to think of a way to stall, "Why exactly do you hate my son? Is it because your son has never beaten mine?" First attempt of stalling, failed.

Elder Hans ignored him and tried looking for the mechanism to open the secret passageway.

"I'm sure you've always wondered how Blade got to be so powerful, even more than Regent, right?" He tried his second attempt.

"That is for Regent to think about, not me" Elder Hans replied, not deviating from his original course of finding the mechanism. Second attempt failed.

"Then, why do you hate my son?!" His third attempt.

This time, it worked, Elder Hans stopped to look at his brother on the floor, "Your son is a living threat to mankind. Too powerful to even be authorized"

"But he obeyed...every order...given to him" Elder Viper, gritted in pain.

"That was because you were there to keep him in check. Imagine if he finds out you died in the hands of the Regent, you think the Citadel will be blood free? The Serpent must be killed before it becomes a dragon and kills us all" Elder Hans replied, before moving the picture on the wall, the wall opening up immediately.

Before Elder Viper could stop him, he had disappeared into the dark stairways.
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Snapping twigs and crushing fallen nuts on the way, he held the girl to his chest like his life depended on it, while his heels were almost touching his  back as he ran as his father had ordered him.

  Fighting back wasn't a problem but if anything happened to the girl his father put in his care, the guilt would never leave him, so running was the best option.

  In the course of him running, he heard some shout in the distance, and some fire torches a few meters away.

Soon, he could see the gates to the Valley of skulls wide opened, giving him hope that he would soon reach his goal but out of nowhere, an extremely swift something moved past his ear, hitting the tree bark behind him before he heard the sound of the gunshot.