INRIN

Silence. Dead silence surrounded the city of Erihina, the capital of Westeft.

Every man, woman, and child were outside on the main street, all homes emptied as this massive crowd out on the street stood side by side; not a word was uttered, only silences, as all of their heads faced upwards at the sky. Two entities were spotted in the sky afloat. The two entities are just standing in the sky.

……..

“Adam, please kill me. I can’t do this anymore; I can’t kill any more.”

"Tim, your being controlled, right?”

“How did you? Yes, but I don’t know who I am being controlled by and where he might be. I don’t know what to do. What if he can see my memory and then he will know where my wife and kids are? Then he will make me kill.”

“Stop Tim, just relax. I already moved your wife and kids, so even though you don’t know where they are, right now we have to find a way to stop you from destroying the capital.”

“I can only control myself for 2 more minutes afterwards; he will take over my body and start wreaking havoc in the capital. How many have I killed? Tell me honestly, Adam.”

“Around 800,000 people in less than 24 hours. There are two ways to find the controller. The first way takes about 2 hours, and I have to be near you so I can track your link with the controller. The second way requires around a minute. I can track the controller by observing your heart where the link is strongest.”

“That great, then go with the second option and do it quickly; I am starting to lose control,” said Tim with his first smile of the day.

Adam stood up in the air with his eyes closed, his black hair moving with the breezes of air, his long black coat waving with the air. After he took a long breath, he broke down the news to Tim: “Tim, to observe your heart and track him down quickly, I need to hold the heart in my hand. I cannot observe it inside of your body. I would need to remove your heart from inside your body.”

The two minutes had not passed yet, but Tim heard the reality of option 2: give up on life for a second. In just one second, the controller completely oppressed control over his body, and Tim's body was consumed.

Tim charged ahead, facing Adam head-on. Adam realizing that Tim had lost control and prepared for coming attacks, Tim brawled with his fists, which were easily dodged by Adam. Adam saw an open space and counterattacked as the two fought. The folks of the capital just watched as this result of the brawl will determine their survival.

Adam was having no problem facing Tim. Whatever Tim threw at Adam, he would give back double. The fight was one-sided, but that was only because the controller did not have access to Tim's complete power. With time, Tim would get stronger as the link between the two would grow.

Adam knew that and wanted to end the fight quickly, so he drained Tim's stamina and hit his back neck hard enough to knock him out. As he landed in the capital holding Tim with both hands, he asked in a loud voice, “Can I please borrow someone's house?”

The crowd, looking at Adam instead of congratulating him, turned on him. “Why is he still breathing?"

“Why were you talking with him for so long?”

“Are you both of you in the act?”

Adam ignored these accusations, and just then an old man walked up to Adam, offering his old, rusted house.

Adam nodded, and the old man guided him to his house.

Adam gave the old man a warning: “Tell everyone to stay away from the area as it might be dangerous.”

The old man nodded and assured Adam his message would be conveyed and walked off to the central square.

Adam rushed inside, found a bedroom, locked it along with the windows, and put Tim on the bed. He chanted "barrier,” and around Tim's body, a purple barrier formed.

He chanted again “barrier”

Around the purple barrier, a yellow barrier formed.

Adam started breathing heavily; he then chanted again “barrier” around the yellow barrier; a white barrier formed. Adam feels to the ground, relaxing all his muscles and gasping for air. He remained like that for a solid minute before getting back up and sitting on a chair. In front of the three barriers he formed around Tim, and he started looking for the link.

Adam had lied to Tim about it taking 2 hours to find the link, as he was afraid if the controller was able to hear the words; in reality, it only took 1:30 minutes. Adam kept trying to pinpoint the location of the controller; he had already found which continent the controller was on.

Just then the purple barrier shattered Adam quickly, realizing this knew he had little time to locate the country the controller resided in. The yellow barrier shattered.

Adam started thinking where he would hide if he was the controller.

Adam deduced the city; however, just then the white barrier shattered and the rusty house started shaking. Adam maintained observing the link; however, Tim had stood up from his bed, looking at Adam with his eyes fully black.

Adam realized late he tried to dodge the Tim punch; however, with how fast it was, Adam was unable to dodge it.

As the collusion occurred, Adam was thrown outside and inside of three houses next to each other, with the walls being broken down by the raw strength of Tim, who had awakened after 1:23 minutes after Adam had knocked him down.

As Tim begins to walk slowly towards Adam, he is surprised to find that Adam has vanished, as he could not be seen anywhere after the smoke cleared out, which was caused by the destruction of 3 houses.

….

Adam was flying high in the sky, almost reaching a distance of 100 km from Tim, as he had no choice but to find the controller in the city, Luxi, where he located the whereabouts of Luxi within 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Adam arrives in Luxi by remembering the structure of the link and being close to the controller. Adam was able to find the pinpoint location of the controller within 58 seconds as he stood outside a warehouse. Adam didn’t have the time to open the warehouse manually from outside, so he blasted inside with speed, and by carving a hole in the metallic wall inside the dark warehouse, he sensed breathing.

“You found me already; you are a quick one; however, my goal is already accomplished; the king would have already died by now. Oh, how much money I would have given anything to see his dying face; may he rot in the deepest, darkest floors of hell.”

“I am afraid to tell, but the king still lives; I had already informed my subordinates to keep the royals safe before I went to stop Tim,” Adam says in a serious tone.

“If you say what I say, you wouldn’t be saying this.”

"Enough, I don’t have time; revert the spell; otherwise, the rest of your life would be in the torture chamber.”

“You really think it wouldn't; I tried killing the king; of course my life is in the torture chamber no matter what, but don’t worry as I prepared for this day.”

Adam watches as the man sitting with both legs crossed suddenly hits his head. Adam walks up to the man; he has dry and old skin and looks to be a man in his 70s. Wearing an earring in his left ear shaped like a pink fox, he turns to his face, and an aqua colored liquid is pouring out of his mouth. “He poisoned himself.”

Adam checks his vitals and confirms his dead before rushing back. As he is in the sky, he hopes that Tim didn’t destroy too much of the capital. As he nears Erihina, he sees large smoke clouds above the capital. Upon reaching the capital, he is stunned. Almost 80% of the capital is in ruins. He quickly tries to find Tim and locates him.

In the middle of some shattered houses, a crowd had gathered as Adam went down to the ground to walk up to the crowd. He says destroyed infrastructure, building skyscrapers, and so many dead bodies buried inside their own homes’s children crying, asking for help, mothers looking for their lost sons. Among this chaos, Adam wondered for the first time how many people could be saved if he was a bit faster. Upon reaching the crowd, he heard Tim

"No, please, Becca, don’t go. Where are the children? Why aren’t they with you? Are they safe? Please tell me something.”

Adam goes upfront into the crowd and sees Tim with his body bruised up and his clothes ripped, and him lying in front, calling out her wife’s name, "Becca, please say something.”

The blond girl finally stops with tears in her eyes. “The children hate you; they told me they didn’t want to be near you. Luckily Adam came at the right time and moved us away. I would never ever let you see my kids again.”

Becca walked away as Tim just watched her leave. The people in the crowds started picking up rocks and hitting him as they were still scared to go near him. Adam quickly walked over to Tim and stopped the people from throwing rocks.’

“What happened? How is the city almost destroyed?" Tim answered, “I don’t know when I finally opened my eyes. I was lying here. Anyway, thanks for helping my family.”

Adam looks at Tim with a confused look. “You know Becca lied just now; your kids never said anything of the sort; actually, they were really worried about you.”

“I know” Tim responded, smirking a little, “It's not the kids; it's my wife; she is terrified of me because of what she saw I did; she is terrified of that power and the people I killed.”

Adam did not respond and just tilted his head downward.

Tim asked, “So where was he?”

“Luxe was an old man who had a grudge with the king.”

Tim's eyes got serious. “Wait, I went there last week with my wife. Was the old man wearing an earring shaped like a pink fox?” Tim shouted in a serious tone.

“Yeah, he was what happened.”

Tim immediately asks Ada to check his liver.

Adam thinks nothing and checks, “Wait, what are these chemicals? How can someone digest them?”

Tim asks what it is.

“Substance that can produce a large enough explosion around 200 km radius; how is it inside your body?”

“Probably something an old man put in my food when I went to his restaurant with my wife.”

Adam asks, “Then your wife could also have something; let me go and check.”

After 2 minutes, Adam comes back to Tim, who is being hit by rocks. “I told you all to stop enough already.”

He turns around and tells his wife she is safe.

“Thank god”

“Now just keep lying there; I will find a way to stop this bomb,” Adam says cheerfully.

“No, this bomb cannot be stopped with your abilities, and besides, even if I make it out of this, I will still be hanged.”

“What are you talking about?” Adam asks.

“A PEDITION IS BEING HANDED TO EVERYONE TO SIGN TO HANG ME IN THE CENTRAL SQUARE.”

“I will not allow that. I will make light of the situation and inform everyone of the real culprit.”

Adam says with furious eyes, looking at Tim.

“It will not work; you do not have any power of influence, or do you have citizens by your side right now? The worst-case scenario would be that they hang you too." Tim responds calmly.

“So, what? I just stay put and watch you being hanged.”

Tim stands up enough that his knees touch the ground.

"No, dying by hanging is a tough and painful way to die,” he says, looking at Adam as he smiles for the second time. ”

"ADAM, END MY LIFE HERE INFRONT OF THESE PEOPLE AND GAIN THEIR TRUST SO THAT NEXT TIME YOU MAY SAVE ANOTHER IF HE WERE CAUGHT IN THIS SITUATION.”

Adam is baffled with the words with these words as he refuses swiftly

“How much longer are you going to act like a child? Look at the bigger picture: if you kept acting like this, you would never be able to change this kingdom. The poor will root out on the street while the rich will drown in luxury. You have already taken many steps toward making your own organization and getting the king's favor. Take your first big step. End my life.”

Tears start rolling out from Adam’s violet eyes as he shed his sword. The crowd around the two starts making voices: “Kill him, end him, banish his soul to hell.”

Adam stayed quiet while cursing the people around him in his mind.

As he pierced his sword around Tim's guts

“I swear I will never lose another like the way I lost you.”

“I know the look on your eyes had already told me that.”