Eudokia pulled herself up. A ringing still hung in her head. “…damn…” Her eyes locked on to Yumi and then noticed Yuki, his sciousness returning. The fact that he started to move surprised her. “No! It ’t—“ A bst of wind kicked her forward, throwing herself back across the chamber. “Sit down, Yuki!”

  He didn’t seem to be listening to her. Grindieeth together, she saw Yumi. Eudokia raised her cws. “Damn you! I’m going to KILL you!”

  I few timeters before her cws sunk into Yumi’s chest, a hand stopped her. The sudden stop threainful force through her body. “YOU—“ Eudokia groueeth and bare them in anger.

  “What’s going on?” The crity had returo Yuki’s eyes. He tightened his hold on Ayumi’s hand trying to figure out why he o stop her from killing Yumi. “Ayumi? What are you doing?”

  Growling through her teeth, she lost all of her trol. “…that…bitch…”

  Still fused, Yuki tried to figure out where he was. ‘Why ’t I remember ing here? What have I been doing? I remember beatihenes…’

  Coughing, Yumi grinned a little, pleased to see Yuki retur the end. “…Yu…ki…I’m…gd…”

  “Yumi?!” Yuki threw Ayumi to the opposite side of the chamber. He didn’t uand what she was trying to do, but she seemed to want to hurt Yumi. “You’re…” Kneeling dowo Yumi, he couldn’t believe how much blood he saw. “…all this…blood… Yumi…you…”

  Yumi stretched her hand up to Yuki’s fabsp; This was all she o see. “…it’s…okay…”

  “NO!” The Field he had disappeared and then a ripple ran out quickly. Faint lights rose up from the ground gathering around Yumi’s body. “You’re still alive! I’m not going to allow you to die! I’m not losing anyone else! EVER!”

  Chapter 273 – Returned Mind

  Another cough came up from Yumi, but this time didn’t sound so deathly. She rested her hand on his cheek just staring at him for a moment. If time could just stand still she would be happy. However, her of them had such luxury.

  Nearly sounding like a wild animal, Ayumi roared from the opposite side of the chamber. “YUMI!” She staggered to her feet, almost hung over her waist. “You’re DEAD! DEAD!”

  Yuki gnced over his shoulder at Ayumi, pletely fused. ‘She’s pletely lost it! What happened?’ He looked back at Yumi, who seemed to be calling him. “Yumi, tell me what did I miss? I feel like everyone knows something I don’t.”

  Most of her wounds had already healed with her severed arm being grown. The sensatio strange. Despite their powers and even her own, it still felt unreal. It felt like she was in some movie she would go to see. It didn’t feel like it was happening to her.

  She pulled herself up to sit o Yuki. Her mind tried to process everything that she o tell him. It almost felt like something that would lose her for hours. She needed a pce to start. “Eudokia…Ayumi, she’s been hiding the truth from all of us.”

  “Huh?” It came as a bit of a surprise to Yuki, but deep down he knew something had to be off. The Demosthenes fight gave him enough of a gut feeling that things didn’t add up correctly. “What did she hide?”

  “I don’t know how much of it is actually true, what she’s told us. But she old us about what it means to be the King of Atntis, about that thing, the Throne of Atntis. Or price you have to pay to be King.” Yumi stared over at Eudokia with Yori’s words eg through her mind. “I believe her iioire time was only to take you to Atntis and force you to bee the King without telling you anything about the reality.”

  “Reality? Yumi, what are you talking about? You’re not being very clear.”

  “Sorry, my emotions are still not pletely cooled over what she nning.” Just the thought about what she was willing to do to Yuki made her blood boil again. She never po give him a choibsp; “We just got in her way. We plicated her pn. I see that now, that’s why she told us the lies a quiet about certain things.”

  Yuki grabbed Yumi by the shoulders. Most of the healed had finally finished, so she was safe. “Yumi, what are y to say?”

  “I’m saying she po leave you here to die!”

  His eyes widened and pupils shrank to pin dots. “Die?! Yumi?” Yuki turned his head over to Ayumi wanting to know it was an exaggeration. “Ayumi? You po kill me?”

  “He’s supposed to be King!” she roared again.

  “Being King is a death sentenbsp; You were ning him to death without even telling him! You po kill him! EUDOKIA!” Yumi tried to get ba her feet, wanting another piece of Eudokia. However, Yuki held her babsp; “Don’t stop me, Yuki! This womao die!”

  “Yumi?!” He couldn’t believe what he heard ing from Yumi’s mouth. His hands tightened further oo keep her charging into the fight. “Do you hear what you’re saying?! This isn’t you, Yumi!”

  Her eyes went wild once again. Harsh lines drew up around her eyes pletely fixated on Eudokia. “You ’t stop me, Yuki! I’m going to KILL her! It is what she deserves! She doesn’t care about any of us! We were all just in her way! I’ll make her suffer!”

  Nothing seemed to be getting to Yumi. He couldn’t believe that this was the same girl he saw in the hallways in school. ‘How did she ge so mu such a short period of time?’ Yuki khat he couldn’t just hold her. He spped her across the face trying to snap her out of her rage. “Yumi! Do you hear yourself?! Kill? She deserves it?!”

  A sp could do nothing to temper the rage in her heart. She gred fiercely at Yuki. “I don’t want to hear anything from you! You want to kill Demosthenes for killing Kazuhiro! So you don’t get to stand on yh morality speech when you aren’t any different!”

  She was right.

  It was difficult for Yuki to ter her. He knew he fell into the same pit that Yumi was in. He khat feeling. In fact, it wasn't the first time. Twiow, he wao kill someo of revenge. They deserved it for hurting the ohat he loved. It was all justification. He robably the wrong person to try actually to say anything to Yumi about revenge. But he was the only ohat stood in front of her. The only ohat could stop her.

  Tightening up his fists, he prepared himself for the round. “Yes, I’m just as guilty. I’m a hypocrite. I tell people they shouldn’t kill, but fall to the same traps.” His hand shook. He could still see Kazuhiro in his mind. His friend was left not avenged, even though in his heart he could feel it screaming for it. “But it’s because I’m human! I’m human, so I make mistakes! I’m going to stumble and be ed. But I still stand even with that weight on my back because I haven’t crossed that li. We aren’t justified even with everything screaming in our hearts saying we are right!”

  “She wants to kill you!” Yumi threw out her hand to point at Eudokia. There was niveness in her eyes. “She doesn’t care about your life!”

  “That may be true, but it’s my life. If it is my life that she wants then it’s me that she should face.”

  “Yuki!”

  He shook Yumi trying to get her to stop. “Yumi! You’re in no position to fight even if I didn’t stop you! Kazuhiro’s already dead! I’m not going to lose someone else I care about!”

  “…Yuki…” It finally broke through to her mind. She stared at Yuki rather than her enemy. Yumi could see the look in his eyes. The pained look endlessly haunted by ghosts. A future robbed from him.

  Sighing, she worked to calm her emotions. It was nearly impossible to get the shaking out of her body. Her fingers still wao choke the life straight from Eudokia’s nebsp; But she would have to let it go. He was right. Though healed, she still had trouble feeling like she could move her body. “Fine…I uand. But this isn’t over yet, Yuki.” She g Eudokia over his shoulder. The wild look didn’t seem like one ready to give up.

  Yuki turo look at Ayumi. He saw the same thing Yumi did even though it was a sight pletely o him. “Ayumi…what’s happeo you?”

  “Yumi! You ruined everything!”

  “Ayumi…”

  “Don’t give me that pitiful look!”

  “You get upset over a single death! Insignifit, oh is a small price!”

  It seemed like she had already pletely lost it. Yuki didn’t know what she was talking about. He gnced back at Yumi. ‘Yumi never really answered me clearly about what's going on. I still haven’t a clue what this was all about. Why I’m at this…Throne of Atntis. Or why I’m going to die…’

  Yuki stepped out from around the stone chair. The light from it disappeared. It stood in silence, just a simple block of stone waiting for the o to sit on it.

  Using the pieces that he had and some of his own ideas, thanks to his literature, Yuki tried to put together the events. “You tried to get me to sit here. This is the Throne of Atntis, the pake your Kings, right?”

  “You will still sit there!”

  ‘She’s a little difficult to talk tht now… I sort of wish I had the old one…’ Yuki still o get all of the pieces to fit together. “Why will I die if I sit on that throne?”

  “It feeds off your life to keep Atntis alive!” answer Yumi. She wasn’t about to let Eudokia twist words around in her favor.

  He looked back at Yumi. “Keep Atntis alive?” In the , he checked with Ayumi. She didn’t seem tue the point. “But why? What danger is Atntis in?”

  “Without the King, Atntis will disappear,” Ayumi answered instead of Yumi. “The King is the strength of Atntis, the will! The King is Atntis’ savior. With their life in honorable sacrifice, Atntis live!”

  “You’re sending someoo die! You’re telling them to sacrifice themselves for the selfishness of everyone else!”

  Ayumi threw out her arms to deny Yumi’s opinion. She roared, “You uand nothing! The death of one is a small pribsp; Millions will die otherwise!”

  Yuki stared back at the Throne. It made him stagger a little, finally uanding the weight. He uood the importance of the position finally, why the people were so afraid without a King. It made so much sense now to him.

  Even Ayumi’s stories finally made sense. ‘The King…my father… He wasn’t ill because of some disease. It wasn’t some natural cause or illhat killed him. It was this thing that killed him!’ Yuki stepped away from the Throne.

  It carried so much blood within its stone. All he could see was the blood. The millennia upon millennia of tless sacrifices all for the good of Atntis. ‘How many willingly became King? Did they regret it? Knowing that they’d die a short and slow death…’ The impact of the truth was more than Yuki expected. He fell back with his legs bug.

  Yumi rushed over to Yuki’s side. He finally uood everything. “You’re not going to bee King! She ’t force you to do it!” She gred over at Eudokia.

  Eudokia bent down a little prepared for more. She bore her teeth with the rage reag to the surface more. Her pn wasn’t ruined. “If you don’t bee the King willingly, then I’ll just force you!” Her voice roared through the entire chamber. “I’ll KILL that bitbsp; And then you’ll put you under my trol again!”

  Her eyes locked on to Yumi immediately, the threat to her pns. She charged across the entire chamber on all fours with her cws aimed for a quick kill. However, Yuki stepped in front of Yumi. Mist surrounded his hands grabbing her cws before she could do anything. “You’ll have to gh me if you want Yumi!”