Amity

Chapter 51: The Ultimate Good and the Ultimate Evil

The leather-bound book laid on Michael's lap, paged turning by the lethargic wind, for what felt like eons. He kept his eyes to the sky, listening to the alarm blaring through the city, his brows furrowed. With his Amian History teacher out for the day, both he and Keiko had taken to studying in the garden in between the academy gates and the front entrance. That was until the alarm began blaring. He placed a hand over his studded choker hoping to ease his scar burning on his throat. Something was wrong. "Keiko," he said, "can you sense anything wrong in the city?"

"Do you mean because of the alarm?" she asked, looking up with him. "No. For some reason, I can't feel anything out there. The alarm is ruining my concentration. What do you think we should do?"

He winced at the searing pain. Closing his eyes, he saw an image flash before his eyes, far too quick for the naked eye to see. He would've missed it, if not for his enhanced senses. He saw Dre in the middle of a city, fighting against an army of Edge Walkers, with the arm of one of the monsters jutting through his chest. Once the image went away, so did the searing hot pain. "We've got to go out there. Now."

"Wait, what's going on?"

"Dre's going to die if we don't go and help him."

"Dre?" Keiko's face hardened as she jumped to her feet. Michael knelt in front of her, allowing Keiko to clinch on his back. "I'm ready. Let's go."

~~~~~

Oh, this really don't look good," Dre stated. He could feel cold sweat running down the back of his neck, his chest heaving as he, Kim, Megumi, and Katherine awaited the Edge Walkers. Memories of the last time that they ran into Edge Walkers invaded his thoughts, when both he and Megumi were almost killed. He shook the thought out of his head. That was two months ago. They both had gotten stronger. They could handle some Edge Walkers, right?

A black ribbon seemed to sprout up from the cobblestone road. The ribbon was familiar to Dre. Too familiar. It was the same one that he'd seen whenever he was strangled by Dixon. He remembered how McManus reacted whenever Dre had told him about it, almost as if a foe that he'd slain had come back to life. And there was what Hiro and that silver fox had told him. It was all coming together. His destiny. His fate. His battle; the battle between the ultimate good and ultimate evil, the battle chosen by whatever gods that Amians believed in, was here.

Something metallic glinted in the dark veil. Above it, he could make out a pair of stone-gray, soulless eyes peering at him. The shadows swiftly flowed into the man's black gloves before he folded his arms in front of him, his brows furrowed. He could sense the smirk underneath his silver mask. "Well, well. Four little lambs stumbled onto a slaughterhouse. You're quite the brave ones." His eyes went to Dre. "Luckily for you, I'm too preoccupied with a mission to play with you, so I'd go run along before you get hurt out here, boy," he told Dre, spitting out the word "boy" as if it were an insult.

"Are you the one behind the Edge Walker invasions?" Megumi asked.

"I might be. While we're on the subject, I've got a meeting with a certain... character."

Kimmy winced at the man's crazed voice. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"He means he's here to kill me," Dre said, his eyes glued to the man. "Am I right, Abraham?"

"Oh? So, you're actually the one, huh?" Abraham gave a demonic laugh. "You've got to be kidding me. Out of all the people, Reiax decided on a shrimp like you? Man, he really is a dumb-ass, ain't he?" He clinched his fists, cloaking them in the shadows. "Come on then, crippled horse. Time to put you out of your misery."