De-Bugging Another World

VOL.3 The price of a life.

"Kanrish, you fucking asshole I thought you were gonna die there!" Misuki shouted at him, tears still running down her cheeks as she hung in his arms with Akane who still cried rivers of crimson.

"Y-you know how heavy my backup plan was, jerk!" Akane thundered at him and Kanrish called out surprised when he saw her eyes.

"A-Akane, what happened, your eyes?!" He exclaimed worriedly and she just punched him in the chest again, this time with force behind it.

"Did you think I wouldn't try to keep you from death's grip if I can help it?!" She countered and Kanrish nodded, wiping the tears of blood from her cheeks, revealing the rosy stained skin underneath.

As Kanrish helped the twins into the carriage first of everyone, he laid Akane down, who could not hide her wings at the moment because of her extreme usage of Divinity, but she said she would explain once the kids were asleep.

When they had all boarded the carriage, Aelanna didn't even wait for Kanrish' opinion and whipped the drakes into motion as she had already untied them from the tree they had hooked them to.

"We're getting the hell out of this city!" Aelanna shouted at him, clearly also angry with him as she guided their drakes past the gate once more.

The entire day was spent by Kanrish apologizing with all he had to the three women who had been scared beyond belief, especially the twins who saw him charge at his death, unarmed.

When later that night, Lyya offered Aelanna to switch out the steering of the carriage, they kept riding through the night to get as much distance between them and the doomed city of Shiwah.

While the kids were asleep, Akane lay, resting in Kanrish' lap as she explained why she had literally cried blood once they were out of the palace's remains.

"It takes a heavy toll on me, but I can rip a soul from the hands of death, to revive that person. But... b-but this is one result of it..." She spoke meekly as all the strength was gone from her.

Akane could not even sit upright without help at the moment. She wished to protect Kanrish at all costs and that had triggered one of her most rarely used powers.

"It's a power called {Restraint of the Reaper} and it allows me to protect someone from dying at a great price. My body is weakened for weeks after it and I literally take severe injuries whenever a life threatening 'occurrence' is coming at the target of my protection. So even if you had that weird spell Inari sent you, I still took the blow in your place, even if it never connected with you." She spoke, her voice a weak resemblance of who she was, faint and soft, there was barely any volume.

"Please, Kanrish, Darling... never tell the kids about that power, I can't use it as freely as some of my others, but I only can when someone dear to me is about to die." Akane's voice cracked a few times as she begged Kanrish to remain silent and Misuki's deathly glare at him made clear exactly how important that was to keep secret.

"That Sis can cheat death herself is no secret amongst our family here, but that she can cheat death for others should never be spread. Please, Kan-Kan, never tell anyone about this, okay...?" Misuki began pleading him for his silence as well and he pulled her closer, while embracing both sisters to calm them.

"It's okay, I know how dangerous it can be to know you can cheat death, so I don't want this getting out there either. But please, Akane, don't use that power again. I lost my mind when I saw you crying blood." Kanrish spoke while he kissed her on her forehead and placed a kiss there on Misuki's as well before he chose to lay down with the two of them for the night.

The road rolled on beneath their carriage while Lyya and Aelanna alternated steering duties that night so they could all keep moving and soon a cold wind woke them all as the sun was cresting the horizon far above them.