If I can start over: A new world

XI. Keep your enemies closer. Part 2

Delyth, the banshee, got out of bed without a wrinkle and crawled through the air behind us. She had no visible feet, so if you stopped noticing her for a moment, you forgot she was with you. We approach the door of the room.

"Benjamin, Vuk, put your hands on one of my shoulders each." We did as he asked.

He opened the door, and we left the room. Everything turned white, and we were lost in a whirlpool. It was still night, so I couldn't tell if we had made the jump or not. The chill increased, and the small gardens of the residence were bulging with a thick layer of snow, even more than I remembered.

"The snow hasn't set yet. We're in the right place," Bastian said.

"I don't want to say, 'I told you so' later, and I won't enjoy doing it either," Francesca complained.

"I'll go to Nicolete's room," Bastian explained. "When my father arrives, I will launch him into the air into the open field, and the real brawl will begin. Measure the spaces well, go back in time, and catch him."

"Got it," I nodded.

"Do you want me to go with him, boy?" Vuk asked me.

"Yes..." I replied. "Help him put an end to this once and for all."

I hid in front of building one, in building three. I went into the kitchen, invisible, which didn't stop the light from coming on. The place was silent. It was already three-thirty in the morning. Most would be peacefully sleeping. I waited, crouched behind the glass when I saw the first sign of movement. Nicolete came out of his room terrified, as did his roommates, while, at the other end of the building, on the north side, an unusual bald head entered the outer corridor. From the look it was wearing, I could compare it to Vuk's tale. It was Varick.

He hurried to the room, seeing that Nicolete escaped, but when he passed through the door, a tremendous blast of the fire pushed him into the void. It fell in a thunderous crash against the dry snow. It sank to the bottom, hitting the grass and the ground that had originally lay before the snow. I noticed a woman, a beautiful greenish-blue adolescent, crawling between the columns of the building. She was looking at Varick from afar, intending to help, but was startled by the terrifying scream that Delyth let out. It was heartbreaking, like fingernails scratching a chalkboard.

Everyone present writhed in pain, including me. I saw her chase the beautiful girl down the track that leads to the parking lot. Then Vuk, turned into a three or four-meter wolf, I couldn't tell, perched on the metal railing of the third floor, then leaped on top of Varick and kicked him with his legs while still hovering in the air.

Varick parried the attack with both monstrous hands and threw Vuk against the bars of the small lobby garden. Bastian left the room and leaped into the void, where a moment ago he had thrown his father. He landed gracefully, arms outstretched, in a swirl of sleet and billowing flames.

"But what does this mean?" His father growled. "How dare you..."

"Shut up! It is time for your reign of terror to end, father..."

Before Varick could defend himself, Bastian conjured a blaze of fire, I would say almost as big and fierce as his father's thunder that Vuk told me about in his story. But Varick stopped him effortlessly, moving his hands gracefully in the air, creating circles.

Vuk intervened, tackling Varick down the left flank. The weight of the wolf knocked them both into the snow. Varick used his legs to get rid of Vuk, but Vuk, stubborn and brave, returned to the fight. Vuk had at least three heads over Varick, but Varick was so stocky he even looked like an even fight.

The wolf approached quickly, intending to claw at his opponent's face, but the latter stopped the claw with both hands and used his right elbow to strike Vuk on the muzzle. As the wolf fell, he managed to lash out with his free hand and rip his opponent's tunic.

Streaks of blood began to speckle the snow. Vuk fell to the ground, stunned. Bastian then, tried the flare one more time, but it wasn't enough. For Varick, his son's level was poor compared to his. He stretched out the fingers of his outstretched right hand and deflected the attack effortlessly. Varick stretched out his fingers again and knocked Bastian down with his back to the snow.

Vuk came to his senses after the loud blow he received to the jaw, and with all the strength of his two enormous hind legs, he launched himself at Varick with his arms open and outstretched. It took him by surprise, hitting him square in the chest and throwing his legs off balance. They rolled in the snow until they hit the metal fence. Already on the ground, with his huge hands, Varick hit him back in the guts, and with a typhoon of wind, he threw the wolf away again, hitting him against the columns of building two.

Every step Bastian took melted everything in his path. He set his hands on fire and threw colossal flaming balls at his parent.

"What are you doing, you f*****g bastard?" Varick yelled at him.

"That's enough father, you won't murder more innocents!" Bastian yelled back, and with both hands, tried to seize him.

"Now," I thought. I walked through the kitchen door, and appeared in the front, just seconds before the last part happened.

"That's enough father... you won't murder..."

I intervened in the last blow Bastian could land, and I entered the fight with the box in my hands. I pulled out the stone and put it in my left hand, reaching for Varick with my right. I waited for something spectacular to happen, but instead, the tragedy awaited me.

Nothing happened at that moment. I was standing beside a big murder demigod with a tiny stone as my only weapon.

Varick pushed Bastian with one arm and lifted me up with the other. I hadn't seen it before, but he had a knife on the back of his belt, made of gleaming steel and a wooden handle carved in such a way that it kept the stone grooves in it, indicating where each finger should go for a better grip.

"You... you did this..." he said as he looked at my face.

The last thing I heard was a growl, a growl that was fading.

I opened my eyes, which I closed for fear of dying, and there was Vuk, between my body and the knife that could have cut me in two. He pushed Varick back with what was left of his strength, and they both slid to the bottom of the thick snow.