She''d only opened her eyes but I hugged her, I hugged her tight.


    I was so worried- so, so, worried. But now- sigh. I could feel my heart speeding up, my blood rushing. Perhaps this was an exaggerated reaction, but I really loved her and that''s why I was so afraid. And that''s why I was so exhrated seeing her, opening her eyes.


    "What?" She stared, slightly confused. "What''s wrong?"


    "You don''t remember?"


    "Thest thing I remember… oh yeah, how''d your run go?"


    So, she didn''t remember? And yet- she was actually worried about me instead.


    "Sixth."


    She smiled slightly. "We''ll get ''em next time." Her sleepy voice was weirdlyforting.


    "Right!" I hugged her tight, but I made sure it wasn''t suffocating. "But I''m really d you''re okay."


    I kind of had this irrational fear that she wouldn''t open her eyes, that I''d lose her.


    "What happened?"


    "You got trapped in the ninth dimension."


    "Really? And you went there to rescue me?" She stared at me, utterly dazed.


    I guess it didn''t quite make any sense to her.


    "Uh-huh."


    She hugged me too. She didn''t say anything but I could tell she was really, really happy.


    Knock!


    "Sorry to intrude on your little reunion but I have bad news." The Lieutenant entered the room with a knock.


    The old man also followed him in.


    Bad news?


    "That being?"


    "Apparently, there''s been a raid in your house." The lieutenant paused. "OR the whole ind to be more specific."


    "Wait, what?"


    "Yes, and there''s a signal-blocking field over the whole ind, so we can''t quite contact anyone there. We don''t know what''s going on there and we can''t get into the ind either, as there appears to be argescale barrier in ce."


    "Then I guess I better go there."


    But with a ne, it''d take me at least three hours.


    And the lieutenant probably couldn''t teleport. Marg was totally out of the equation.


    Wait- I was forgetting something.


    "I can fly!" That''s right, I could fly!


    Probably.


    The geezer grinned. "Well, lead the way kid."


    "Youing along?"


    "Why not?"


    Oh yeah, he did mention he could fly- or more like he suggested he could.


    "Since when?" Marg asked. "And who are these people?"


    "Sorry, don''t really have time to exin, but from now on, you''re forbidden to teleport unless it''s an absolute emergency." I stood up. "And rest well. He''s Lieutenant Demeris: You can trust him."


    Marg didn''t seem totally convinced but she didn''t quite create a scene either. "Alright."


    And so- "I''ll leave her in your capable hands." My stare kind of had a re mixed into it.


    We both nodded.


    "Alright geezer, follow me." I jumped out of the window.


    And a secondter realized- oh yeah, the earth had much stronger gravity than that in the ninth dimension.


    Shit- I pulled out my saber, made a barrier, and pumped mostly infrared.


    I didn''t even float, let alone fly. We were back to square one.


    "You mean follow you and crash?" The old man was right behind me, grinning like a fool.


    Sigh.


    The ground wasing up quickly. We were maybe about a hundred floors up but it was nothing since we were falling and all.


    I closed my eyes and focused. ''Remember the feeling… that feeling… remember- feel…'' Or we were going to break bones!


    The wind slowed and then it was gone.


    I opened my eyes- I was above the ground- just one meter. I was sweating- I was breathing hard- panting. But- I was flying.


    Alright!


    I tried moving up- sess.


    I tried speeding up- sess!


    "Are you sure, you can fly?" The geezer was behind me, still.


    I didn''t really say anything and just sped towards the academy. I''d downloaded the map of the whole route just before setting out on my Holo, so I knew exactly where I was going.


    I could fly- probably.


    ''I really hope I didn''t download the wrong map.''


    ***


    Flying on earth was tough.


    There was air resistance, bug resistance, and more importantly, birds!


    I used my barrier as a shield against all those but- still, it was annoying.


    But still- I could basically fly around 6X the speed of sound. Not quite perhaps as fast as John, but definitely fast enough.


    "That''s the best you can do?" And yet, it wasn''t enough to outpace this geezer, who was basically lying on his back like he was swimming or something. Apparently, this was a cake-walk to him.


    I couldn''t really hear him, but I could make out what he was saying... mostly.


    "Kind of. This is only my second time flying."


    "Heh!" He snorted. "I guess it''s fine. We''ll arrive a bitte and maybe that way the party would be over?"


    Was he consoling me or trying to make me worry?


    Sigh.


    I tried to go faster- my limits were already being stretched but I didn''t have a choice.


    I knew it was impossible for something to happen to my family but still- but still I couldn''t stop worrying. After all, there was always a chance something could go wrong.


    The feeling, really was weird.


    But- I went faster the more tried. It was almost as though I didn''t have any limits and everything was just arbitrarily set up by me. Honestly, I was more surprised about this than anything else.


    The more I tried the faster I went.


    "See, you can go faster." He chuckled.


    This geezer, for crying out loud!


    But he was definitely being helpful. I had to at least acknowledge that.


    ***


    We reached the academy in under half an hour.


    There was smoke everywhere, I could see a faint barrier-like thing, round thing all over the ind. I''d seen something simr before- way back then when Devrok had attacked the gym.


    ''Did hee back or something?''


    "Is this supposed to be a barrier?" The old man knocked on therge barrier-like thing. "Heh!" He snorted and punched a hole in the barrier the very next second. "Guess, not." He grinned.


    This dude, was something else, seriously.


    We both got in, but the barrier regenerated itself.


    Anyway, I went for my house- straight.


    I didn''t see any smoke, but I did see debris.


    As for my house- there was no house.


    "What the hell?"


    I dropped from the sky, to the ground, got up a secondter, and stared around.


    My house- our house- was gone.


    Obliterated.


    There were two girls on the floor, both bleeding. Elsa and the bunny girl. Raea was in the distance, also on the ground. To my right, father was lying next to mom''s feet, bleeding. Mom was also bleeding, but she was thest one standing.


    Some of them had broken bones but most of them were just unconscious.


    The foe- a ck thing that looked like a Mutor but wasn''t.


    "What''s going on here?" I asked, rather calmly.


    I couldn''t believe my voice wasn''t shaking. I couldn''t believe my blood wasn''t boiling.


    Now that I looked carefully, there were ck things everywhere. And there were two here, and mom kept both of them at bay- but she was losing.


    "Kins." Mom said, panting. "They''re everywhere."


    Bam! Aria flew through the air and crashed into a building behind me. Another ck one- Kin.


    "They did this?" I couldn''t think straight.


    I was very sane, and very calm but I couldn''t think straight.


    I really couldn''t.


    Something was wrong with me.


    My blood wasn''t boiling but my veins were popping up and I was steaming.


    Something was wrong with me.


    I couldn''t really hear anything. I couldn''t really feel anything.


    I didn''t even want anything other than just one thing.


    I walked.


    I walked normally.


    I had my saber in one hand.


    I had my sword on the other one.


    Perhaps, what happened here wasn''t my fault, and it certainly was something I didn''t know anything about. Perhaps it could have been avoided if I was here.


    But I wasn''t.


    It almost felt like this came out of nowhere- I never saw thising.


    I never even bothered to worry about Kins as they went extinct.


    I never cared about those, I only read about them.


    But now, now that my family was literally beneath my feet, now that they were bleeding, now that they were… Yeah, I didn''t care about anything.


    All I wanted- was- to kill. I wanted to kill those damn things that did this.


    I wanted to destroy them!


    "UAARGHHH!" An inhuman roar. One of those ck things roared and headed straight for mom.


    "Move, mom." I picked up speed and started running.


    Mom moved aside on instinct and I moved past her.


    The ck thing wasing my way but- at thest possible second it oddly slowed down and I just shed and I shed it hard. I cleaved the damn thing in two- just one sh.


    I didn''t hesitate for a second, there was no need.


    ck blood dripped.


    Two more to go.