CHAPTER 5:

  The tension had lessened in the household

  The AC in the back was working quietly, the water droplets from the sink resonated in the kitchen

  Overall it was a normal atmosphere

  “What will we ever do with the boy?”

  Shirou’s expression and voice sounded bored

  Kuse spoke up as she put on a jacket

  Sliding her arms through the sleeves

  “Your son, your responsibility”

  “Don't you dare get smart with me of all times now woman”

  He poured some liquor in an empty glass

  Although, he knew they both secretly liked their banter

  “Hard drinking again, I see. No wonder you retired so early”

  “You know it had nothing to do with drinking. It was the right move at the time”

  Shirou put the vodka on his lips and drunk

  “On a serious note, how will we hide his mana from demons and angels and all sorts of beings in the ethereal kingdom?”

  Kuse’s face straightened, her voice becoming clearer

  “That's almost impossible to do for one who is part of the 9, for now we have to stall for time”

  “Easier said than done when they're on your tail 24/7”

  He drank the rest of the vodka

  Putting a towel on his lips to swipe the remaining liquor

  “Is it generational inheritance, or do you maybe think that the theory of the holy relics being sentient is true?”

  Kuse raised an eyebrow in question, by how what Shirou had seen even he wasn't sure

  “I wish there was a straightforward answer myself, honey, but for now, we have to deal with our son being a holy being”...

  On the other end, the school hours for Haru were cut short as the school was closed due to the fight with Annabelle

  He had to go to Smithrowe's funeral

  At the same time, he couldn't bring himself not to

  (This is the worst…why must I be at a funeral of all places?...)

  The funeral went on as usual with the priest giving a speech

  “Today we have gathered here to honor a great teacher and citizen first of all who died on greek soil despite eyeing american”

  The priest went on about theological rumblings and whatnot, the families beside Haru grieved

  Grandmas were now kneeling in front of the grave while keeping a tissue to their nose

  While the kids stayed silent, the adults all looked down

  Some of them moved to comfort their grandma's

  While others stayed in place…he dragged his feet as he exited the cemetery

  Soft sobs filled the cemetery and cries of other people nearby, which only served to bring his mood even more down

  Just a few blocks down from the cemetery where Haru was walking

  Sylvia met him, her eyes flashed, whether it was anger or resentment, one couldn't tell just by looking at her

  Her hand moved to grab his wrist, instantly teleporting them both to her room

  Haru didn't even react to her grabbing his wrist, in fact, his body didn't move an inch

  “You idiot, you didn't even bother to call or even text me. What's wrong with you? Why won't you just tell me?”

  “You think I have the energy to put up with you too?”

  Haru spat out his response which was filled with numbness

  “You've been like this ever since the fight in the school! Just tell me why don't you, we don't have all the leisurely time in the world for you to be lounging around”

  He slammed his fist on the table, the last thing that came to his mind now was keeping his cool

  “I just lost the only teacher that I cared about. There's no way I'm down for any of this world saving crap right now”

  Sylvia could feel the anger and desperation from him, this was exactly what she had expected of him

  A soul blinded by anger and desperation would shut itself off to try and heal, she slowly walked towards him

  For a mere moment she tried to reach out to him, a single thought appeared in her head

  (I can't…I just can't comfort anybody…)

  Rather abruptly her hand was pulled back, but she couldn't give up now

  “...”

  “And what do you think that teacher would be thinking of you right now? Instead of weeping all day why don't you put her work to use, use what she taught you, it's now or never to truly prove that you cared about her, so do it by respecting her wishes”

  Haru took a few deep breaths, trying to contain himself as uncontrollable tears streaked his soft flesh

  Sylvia reluctantly handed him a handkerchief, using it he quickly wiped his remaining tears away

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  “So what is our next move?”

  “Mount Sinai would probably be it, the order of what I'm telling you is from weakest to strongest(in her opinion), Matthew was indeed the weakest but annabelle showed up out of nowhere”

  Haru didn't object to it, but he still had a question in mind

  “Should I go there now? Or stop by my home first?”

  “Normally I'd give you the time to properly heal, but time is off the essence here, but before that, you have to answer some questions first”

  “I could smell that from 2 planets away, I still haven't forgotten about it, don't worry”

  Sylvia sighed, although it was more of amusement than anything

  “Well just answer me then. Why did you mean exactly, by “anything would do for now?”

  Haru looked at her for a brief moment, contemplating what to say next

  The hard metal floor created a sketching sound as Haru walked past her

  “Let's just say that…that's my way of expressing my desire to be useful, to be useful to others”

  Sylvia looked down just below her chin, she was quite the mature one but not even she did know how to feel about that exactly, ultimately she decided that it was too personal to judge

  Different people different goals after all, in truth, she wanted to avoid directly confronting him about his emotions do early on

  (I better not pressure him this early on)

  “How noble of you, yet a bit stupid”

  They both smiled at each other, Haru didn't bother to respond, aware that Sylvia would also be smiling

  “.....”

  Without wasting much of time, Haru teleported near Mount Sinai in Egypt using a rune card

  “That damn idiot”...

  The dizziness of teleportation was still felt greatly, as if to wake himself up he shook his head

  His hair shook entirely, which caused some follicles to fall off

  The dryness of the new land immediately got to him, it made hard for him to properly walk or talk in this heat

  The sand was scorching everywhere, especially due to the recent climate change in Egypt

  This time, he called Sylvia and not the other way around, mainly for advise

  Sylvia answered rapidly, she was already typing on the keyboard of her computer

  “Apparently this time you're dealing with 2 people, specifically twins, they are interconnected, whatever that means, and are considered as one as the host of the stone tablets, ohh yeah forgot to add they're both girls, sorry, the databases info ends there”

  Haru could hear her loud and clear despite the scorching sand being everywhere

  “I'd like to find out myself this time if you will. If you have any critical information, send them over text. We better not call now because I can't concentrate much”

  “if I reach a shadow, I'll call you back, bye for now”

  Sylvia stretched her limbs and sat on her bed this time around

  The more Haru walked in the desert, the more he kept dragging himself because of the heat

  (What a bad streak for me…)

  Eventually, Haru did reach the hills of Sinai

  Which brought him a lot of sweat and vigor all over his body

  Looking around, there were 2 girls sitting on rocks near the hills of the mountain

  Mount Sinai itself was not too big or anything to admire at, after all it was just a regular mount

  Its appearance was that of a barren large rock, with scratches all over it and sand dropping from its cracks

  Haru could hardly even see the place with all the wind that caused the sand of the desert to to scatter

  He approached them anyway, seemingly happy to have found other people in the desert

  Once he came close enough, an epiphany came over him, he was in the middle of a mission and Sylvia had mentioned something about twin users

  His subconscious started cursing at himself

  The two girls stood up from where they were, their footsteps rattled through the desert like that of a snake's tail

  “We have been waiting for you, imaginary codex, took you long enough”

  The one on the right said, er voice calm and composed

  “I gotta say it sucks to be out here in the desert to be waiting for someone”

  The one on the left spit on the ground as she spoke, her voice much more aggressive than the one on the right

  Haru thought for a moment, not moving a muscle

  (Are holy beings drawn to each other?...)

  “You two seem like you are twins or something, then shouldn't you be classified as two separate holy beings?”

  “That'd normally be the case, but we are interconnected, so no, the stone tablets are considered one holy relic in 2 people, ironic, isn't it”

  “Wait, since you two are a holy being, where do you guys keep the relic?”

  “You stupid? We use teleportation magic for it”

  Scylla, the one on the left, explained, her voice sarcastic

  “We could make a peace deal if you want, don't bite us and we won't bite you”

  “Nah, I think you'll double cross me, i prefer to run my hands”

  “What a brute-”

  “Oh quit your yapping already, sis"

  The one on the right, Charybdi, propped herself onto both elbows while speaking

  She then propelled herself high into the air

  “WOOSH!”

  The air whipped around her as she went in directly with a kick

  Haru quickly put his arms up to guard, the kick landed right in the bones of his backhand

  The impact of the kick caused the wind to rile up even more and the sand to mix with it

  “Goddamn you're a crazy one”

  With a grunt he pushed Charybdi off of him, staggering backwards

  “Not too shabby for a worthless proxy”

  Charybdi landed on her feet, she was eager for a fight, her silver hair cascaded down her back

  “Now now, let's not be too hasty here. We still have an advantage”

  Scylla said while walking calmly towards her sister, interestingly enough her hair was equally as silver

  “So what exactly is it that I should be scared off?”

  Haru asked, tucking his clothes to remove the sand

  “It's not us that you should be afraid off, but our sheer hax”

  Haru put his arms up to cover his face, the wind was mixing up with the sand yet again, it blurred his vision as sand was getting in his eyes

  “This wind is really unusual. It shouldn't be this wild, I guess that this is part of your abilities, too?”

  Scylla raised an eyebrow in amusement

  “You catch on quick. Perhaps we underestimated you”

  Haru struggled to even keep himself on the ground with that much wind, stones were flying all over the place

  The twins looked at each other for a moment before nodding their heads to one another

  A knife slipped from Charybdi's pocket, falling directly into her grasp

  With it she began carving out a line in the sand while walked along its length as she was making it

  It was a circle around Haru, which surprisingly didn't faze out immediately because of the wind

  “What is this? Wait, how can the sand not be fazed out, wait earlier you said the stone tablets? The ten commandments are there, but they are purely moral, wait I got it”

  “You can bend them to your will and change them however you want? The power of absolute authority”

  Haru monologued to himself

  “With this bad boy, you're as good as dead!”

  A laughter of a deranged person was heard, Although Haru couldn't tell, it was mostly likely Charybdi

  The circle around him slowly started to a bright red across its line, the interior design itself was that of a star

  (When did she carve that interior?!...)

  Scylla crossed her arms and spoke

  “She's right actually, if you dare cross that line, your body will be melted, it's flames, and even if you wanted to, there's too much wind and flying stones around”

  Both the twins laughed, feeling quite confident as to having secured a win

  Haru rolled his eyes in character, yet another god complex as he was prescribed by Sylvia

  Then proceeded to say his catchphrase

  “What a drag”

  With great effort, he stepped up, his bashfulness vanishing

  In a single moment his whole persona changed as he walked through the small storm

  The stones hit him left and right, tearing him apart but he kept regenerating over and over again, the pain caused his limbs to weigh heavy

  He then crossed the line and instantly the flames enveloped him like a blanket

  The circular wall of flames reached an outstanding 30 meters that soared the sky, from afar it seemed like a miracle being performed on earth

  Yet he walked through it, the burning was so intense that any other living animal on earth would have crumpled

  The fires slowly thinned out as the skin kept burning and regenerating back and forth

  It was excruciating to bare but he did not care one bit, just as he did in the fight with Matthew

  The twins watched in absolute shock, no one would walk through all that even with healing, they'd first negotiate not to get hurt…

  That had never happened before

  “How is it possible that this guy can tolerate so much pain?!”

  “I don't know. The codex only has the ability to heal, the pain is still there”

  Charybdi instantly took action, using the Holy Relic to imprison Haru under a pile of rocks

  “Commandment switch!”

  Effectively stopping the fire, they wouldn't go down without a fight or else they'd hate themselves

  Haru stuck out his arm through the pile of rocks, through sheer will, he weaseled his way out of there

  His skin tearing and regenerating, while his clothes ripped apart and got dragged into the flames

  For a moment it looked like he might fall, in a split second he regained all mobility, catching himself before on the sand with two feet

  (That was so close…)

  The rocks slowly dropped to the ground one by one but just barely scraping by with the edge of his toes

  It felt as if a bulldozer had stuck to him and he'd have to keep walking while he was getting skinned alive

  It was fully clear to him that no matter how much sheer he had, this would be an endless fight, the stakes were running at an all-time high

  When something out of the blue happened

  BAM!

  An explosion was set off, the sound echoing in the wild desert

  It destroyed part of the Sinai mountain behind them, thousands of rocks fell upon the land, the tornado that the twins had created vanished

  “Grab onto my hand!”

  Scylla shouted at Charybdi

  Without much thought Charybdi grabbed her hand, Scylla with all her might used dash

  A special technique that was basic to anyone who knew the supernatural to get away

  She dragged her sister along with her, they seemed like a blur to the naked eye

  Haru also took cover, running behind the pile of rocks that he had just escaped from, his knees hitting the ground abruptly

  They formed a wall that was about 10 feet tall, the land was being completely decimated as the rocks fell at full force from the falls huge gusts of sand covered up the entire area

  The explosion was so great that the ground shook, both the twins and Haru waited for the sand to clear off, reluctantly getting out of their respective spots

  (Who the hell could have caused such an explosion?...)

  On top of the side of Mount Sinai stood a man in a niche suit with elegant hair and glasses on his shirt

  “Who are you?!”

  Charybdi yelled immediately

  The man, Matthew, sighed but answered anyway, his voice dropping a bit low

  “Someone who got here to help, now is it that bad?”

  On the other hand, Scylla ignored Matthew completely

  She was left speechless, Maybe the rumors were true about him

  And maybe the prophecy did indeed arrive about the end of the world…they had no other choice now but to retrieve

  With a hiss Charybdi grabbed her sisters wrist

  “Guh!-”

  In a blink of an eye Charybdi teleported them both away

  Which left only Haru and Matthew there, rather awkward…

  “Well look at you. You did hold up to your own words”

  Matthew spoke up first, with a simple hop he came down from the side of Mount sinai

  “What's this for? All of a sudden coming to help me?”

  “Don't be thinking that I have gotten soft. It's just that from that last fight, you have gained my respect”

  Haru thought for a bit, he was doubtful, nevertheless

  He decided to take a shot at it, it didn't matter if it was illogical or not but what mattered to him is recruiting the holy beings

  After all, that was his mission

  (There is no way, might as well…)

  “Do you want to be friends?”

  Haru exclaimed softly spoken

  Matthew looked at him weirdly, raising his right eyebrow, for a moment he looked conflicted and debated within himself

  (Really? That's a long shot, I guess it could work, but you're a weirdo)

  “As you wish, but be warned, we aren't best buddies, and I do expect consistency from you”

  Haru chuckled, he was now grinning, oddly relaxed

  “Right back at you”

  Matthew grinned at his response, he himself was amused, it was rare to find a companion that wasn't arrogant

  Of course, he shouldn't be talking…

  The area around Mount Sinai was completely decimated, the rocks were all over the place

  And the mountain itself was half destroyed from the top, what once was a holy place now remained a wasteland

  Haru turned to look fully at Matthew before asking

  “Wait, did you blow the mountain?”

  Without sneering or glaring, Matthew shrugged

  “Yeah, it was the best that I could think off, I used some dynamite that I had brought in Jearulseum”

  He paused a bit before continuing

  “I had no reason to honestly, but I felt compelled to do it”

  Haru's eyes frowned in thought

  (Don't tell me it's that fate crap..)

  “There is no way that you brought so much dynamite to blow half a mountain off”

  “You're right, I didn't, but I did amplify the tnt with Mana. It's a simple spell that, the key is to concentrate it to the small points for more pressure”

  “Makes sense, so I guess all holy beings have even a little control over magic”

  Haru spoke to himself while looking around the desert…