~ Chapter 53: One last smile ~

[Cassandra's point of view]

 I was afraid... I cried and screamed in my mind.

I didn't want to die. I didn't want to feel pain and see my own blood flowing, so when I felt my end near, I called out to my big brother. He was the only one who could help me, the only one who could save me from this monster.

“Now... die.” said the man covered in that spooky shadow aura.

Save me, brother! I screamed in my mind as I saw his hand pointed at me.

Out of reflex, I closed my eyes and waited to feel an excruciating pain, but... the pain, it never came.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” I heard my brother shout.

I opened my eyes and saw the man in front of me being pushed to the side by an invisible force. Whatever it was, I knew it was brought forward by my brother, so I let out a sigh of relief.

“You came...” I said with a soft smile on my lips and tears flowing down my cheeks.

I was happy, and for a moment, I felt safe.

“Of course! I will always come to the rescue of my cute little sister!” he smiled brightly as he stood in front of me.

Little did I know that it might be the last time I saw his smile...

“How touching, but this power of yours... I want it!” the monster said.

A chill ran through my body and then I saw him appear behind brother. The dark shadow covered his body, but it looked as though the earlier attack managed to injure him a little. I could feel the scent of blood in the air.

“Look out!” I shouted.

“Huh?” brother turned around, but he was too slow.

This monster moved faster than our aunt Eliza during training.

The hand covered in darkness once again was aimed at me, but this time, my brother stood in its way. No, I wasn't the target... brother was.

Unable to defend himself from this attack and unwilling to let it pass and strike me instead, brother received it at full strength.

The back of his clothes bulged out a little and a red stain appeared on them. I sensed brother's blood, so different than aunty's, mother's, father's, Luthecia's, or even this monster's. It was a bit sweet and maybe just a little thicker than theirs. It was filled with vitality and somehow, I knew it was connected in some strange way with me...

This red stain was the blood of my twin brother, the ten-years-old little boy who had always been there by my side since I was born. No, he was with me even before that...

“B-Brother?” I asked in shock.

The man shrouded in darkness, the monster in human form, pulled back his hand and within its grasp, he held something red... something moving, beating... something that smelled of brother's blood.

“Hm? I wonder what delicious Blessings you are going to give me?” the monster said.

Turning around just enough for him to look at me, I saw with horror the state he was in.

A gaping hole was in his chest. His clothes were all stained with his blood, and the pulse of life was no more... Then, I realized that what the monster was holding was nothing else other than my own brother's heart, his still beating bloodstained heart.

I couldn't breathe...

I looked up in brother's eyes, and with that last spark of life, he told me, his useless little sister, his last words I'm sorry... Run...

I was in shock.

Then, his body fell on the grass, right next to me. His eyes had lost the spark of life.

“Brother?” I said, but I knew he was never going to reply.

Leonidas Drakarys... was dead.