District 42-Chapter 286: Not late anymore

The Punctual Aesir had his hand closed into a fist, frowning slightly. He didn’t like to remember the past too often, but he knew that everything that happened before was necessary to form the person he was nowadays.

It was painful to remember his weaknesses and his mistakes. All the way until he became a Ridire was difficult and full of deaths and sorrows. He never could feel proud of himself for finally becoming one, not even when he turned into an Aesir.

His path was predestined to be made of melancholy. Since he left his house to become a city guard, he was marked with some kind of curse, in which he began to see his childhood shatter in front of him. It was an exchange for all the power and prestige that he got.

He stared at Loki, who was still standing on the roof, looking at him. His memories passed in a flash. It was too fast to make him lose too much time there.

"You said that I am late now, right?" He asked, suddenly.

Loki chuckled, waving his cane around again.

"Just as I explained, yes! The only ones that you wanted to save, which was the people inside this Healing Center, are now going to die. In a couple of seconds, there won’t be any way out!"

"I think that you aren’t looking to this situation properly... There isn’t just one Aesir inside this floor." He smiled wryly.

In the next moment, the Healing Center began to sink in the ground as a huge portal appeared under it.

"W-What!?" Loki yelled, giving a step in front.

Ari jumped to a near building, which was closer to the one that the Vanir was on top of.

"I think you didn’t even know the people who were inside here, right? That’s kind of reckless on your part. And I was even wondering if you were really that intelligent." The Aesir mocked. "Those explosions out there weren’t just to show my power or my proficiency with explosives. It served to wake HIM up."

"Canute... the only Aesir that could mess with our strategy... I thought that Rat had irreversibly harmed him."

"Hahaha! Canute? That stubborn guy? He will just afford himself to die after he finally gains the love of all woman in this Castle!"

"Don’t fool with me! It still won’t change the freaking situation! The citizens are still inside the city and your Ridires are in the middle of the toxic battlefield down there!"

Ari took a controller with a single button in the middle of it from his pocket.

"You know what, Vanir? I have been organizing a project for a while these months. It took so long, but it was worth it in the end.

"I am not late, just to note. Since that day in which I was too late to save the ones I loved, I never lost track of a single second. You think that I am two or three steps behind you, but the truth is that you are the one behind. But not by a step or two, but by kilometers of distance."

Ari giggled slightly, placing his finger on the button.

"Thank you for filling this dome with so much gas. It surely will help me now. And I would advise you to prepare yourself... Bye!" He pressed the button.

At first, nothing happened, which left Loki relieved for some seconds. However, right after, a cataclysm could be sense under their feet. One so potent and terrifying, that could shake even the foundations of the buildings.

The Vanir looked to the side, trying to identify what was happening there, and where that power causing such an effect on the ground came from.

Another cataclysm made the Vanir lose his balance and nearly fall to the ground. His breath was unsteady, the man was starting to get desperate with that situation.

’Is it because of this man? What the hell does this guy planned all of a sudden? What kind of trump was he hiding under his sleeve?’

What terrified more the Vanir was the look on Ari’s face. He was clearly smiling behind the mask. A hint of sadness could be seen in his eyes, together with confidence and relief. The Aesir probably was still a bit stuck in his past but was using it as a source of power to make him do better in the present.

A sequence of various cataclysms of the same strength befell on that floor. Together with it, a white gas began to spread around the city, a consequence of numerous and dense smoke explosives placed everywhere.

’If those things really are smoke explosives then... Are these earthquakes made by explosives as well? This freaking Aesir, he...!’

Before he could end his reasoning, the continuous explosions made him finally lose his balance and fall. His body was trembling from fear. He couldn’t believe that such a thing was happening.

’Is this guy planning to just explode everything and everyone with him? I don’t think that his pride is so big to this point, though.’ Loki was looking desperately for any ways in which he could run away from there.

"I bet you are thinking that I am doing it as a final suicidal attack. It would be a reasonable thing to do instead of letting you alive to accomplish your plans, but that’s not what I want, even more because there are other people inside here with us.

"I don’t know if you noticed, but these explosives aren’t exactly causing any harm where the citizens and we both are. The massive smoke that is being expelled isn’t just for show as well."

Loki reasoned for some minutes more, then realization appeared in his eyes.

"A-Are you implying that... You are going to break..."

"Of course. After all, that’s the most annoying thing that we are dealing with now, right? The fact that this dome still exists makes things harder, you know? However, I noticed that your gas is very dense, most of its quantity is underground, and this dome isn’t unbreakable, of course."

"You are pressuring the gas in order to force the dome and break it," Loki muttered after hearing part of his explanation.

"Exactly. And, by consequence, your gas will spread around and go up with the pressure, so the citizens and the Ridires will be safe."

Loki stood from the ground clumsily, trying to equilibrate his body, even though the earthquake was still strong.

The Aesir followed, jumping onto the building he was on top of and standing in front of him. Just some meters separated those two.

Ari closed him for a bit, remembering the time when he needed to pull the trigger and kill his own father in order to keep his brother alive and fulfill his duty.

’Don’t worry, dad. I am not late anymore. I will never be late ever again.’

Those two opposite forces kept staring at each other. They didn’t move an inch. None of them knew when to start, but they were certain that they didn’t have any choice except to fight there and then.

The explosions kept happening in the background. The gas localized underground was going to the surface. The white smoke was finishing to fill the entire dome.

Just in those seconds of hesitation, the dome got thoroughly filled with the smoke of those two types.

The Aesir and the Vanir couldn’t see each other anymore, but they could feel their presence in the air.

The dome cracked with a loud sound. Then another crack. Another one... Finally, it shattered completely, its shards falling like glass.

Loki’s gas, together with the white gas, got instantly propelled to the skies, cleaning the city in one minute.

Just when the loud sound of the dome breaking was heard, the two warriors stomped the ground and ran towards each other.

...

On the floor where the Royal Family’s mansion was, the Healing Center appeared. It was a place far away from the mansion, so they couldn’t notice the commotion that was happening in front of it, where Freygar and Rat were battling.

Canute was out of his room. Half of his body was laying on Vick’s bed.

She got sedated at some point, so the ruckus of the evacuation wouldn’t make her organism get worst, since it was already degenerated because of the poison that got injected into her.

In the end, the Healing Center’s evacuation didn’t go well, so it was useless.

The sedative got her a bit aloof, but she was aware of what was happening.

Canute could, somehow, managed to gather strength in his body and crawl to her room.

Vick’s bracelet was always full of Indigo Energy, which was necessary to make his staff work to create a portal big enough to teleport all that huge structure.

He was now resting with his head on her lap.

"You did it, Canute. Congrats." She patted his head slightly.

"Yeah... I will always do my best for you. Now, let me sleep, I think I am dying."