Flip the Coin [BL]

Chapter 502. Angel Miners

Henry’s POV

"I don’t care." You can use anyone to survive, anyone but one person.

I stepped closer to the bed and bent down to look into the dimming eyes, pronouncing each word as clearly as possible.

"If you receive these memories, let me warn you. Learn from his mistakes. Don’t use this power to harm your counterparts, because if you do..." I let out a bellowing laugh.

"You might harm someone VERY~ close to me, and then you will die just as painfully." I stepped back again.

I thought about the difficulties the maestro’s death brought with it while inside the train and car.

First: The Maestro being killed by me could influence Kenny’s psyche if they shared a link.

Yet, I don’t think the Maestro had killed every one of the counterparts he had sucked into his space.

Because if he wanted to do so, he wouldn’t have made such spectacles out of the instances—it seemed rather that he profited more from them being alive and suffering.

More importantly, if he had killed so many counterparts, he would have already healed completely or mutated into something like the giant.

So there should be a counterpart out there with an already established link, who would bear not only the power but also the brunt of his linked counterpart dying at someone other than the linked person’s hands.

Yes, the power and memories going to one of Kenny’s counterparts could be seen as a pity—but that wasn’t the case; on the contrary.

Did Kenny need more power that would either change or harm him?

Absolutely not.

And that at the price of his psyche getting damaged?

Impossible.

A little warning for the prick that had a link with the Maestro and would receive his powers and memories didn’t harm him, though.

Second worst case: How can I get back into Kenny’s space?

When I had bitten into my arm through my sleeve while watching the big fire, it worked—my teeth were able to pierce through the fabric straight into my skin.

When the Maestro had grabbed my head covered by the hood, his fingers dug into my scalp but didn’t pierce the fabric or my skin.

When the first white mask had tried to stab me, the fabric protected me, and I felt just pressure instead of receiving a real stab wound.

So I thought, was this hoodie brought from Kenny’s space behaving according to my wishes? Giving me pain when I wanted it, shielding me when I needed it?

If yes, then I could use that fact to distract the opponent by letting him injure me gravely.

And if the hoodie had this ability, then wouldn’t the bow, which yes, was part of the Maestro’s memory but had been provided INSIDE Kenny’s space—meaning it could be manipulated by me, contrary to other objects of the past—be able to kill him?

If I didn’t have these things, I would have never been able to kill the Maestro.

However, my journey from Kenny’s space to the Maestro’s memories and from there to the Maestro’s space would eventually bring me to the Maestro’s reality.

And if the Maestro died, then the connection between him and Kenny would be cut, leaving me behind on this dead planet that was in another world.

I thought that I would find Kenny here, so the way back was not only guaranteed; it was irrelevant. Even if we were stuck here together, it didn’t matter for me; maybe it would be even better.

But now I was alone.

I looked down at my clothes and saw them flicker, feeling my heart drop.

They seemed to change between the hoodie, the loose jeans with ripped knees, and the things I wore when the plane crashed.

The connection would soon be severed.

I had to go back.

How to go back?

My eyes fell onto the dying body in front of me, and I saw the Maestro touching the white violin bow to his solar plexus, not interested in it or having understood what I had just said to him, which didn’t matter, as I didn’t address his dying self.

He stroked the white bow, just as he had the first time when the couple brought it and the violin out for him to perform.

The bow embedded in his neck flickered just as unsteadily, making his blood gush out faster.

My thoughts raced as I tried to come up with a solution for the second worst case I was currently facing.

The possibility of asking the dying Maestro for help didn’t even enter my mind; it was too risky in more than one way.

I took a look at my hand and tried to wrap it in shadowy energy.

’Connection in the midst of getting cut’ meant ’distance from Kenny’s space widening and my powers no longer being suppressed’; it should partly result in my powers coming back.

I saw the dark smoke lingering on my skin, but not nearly as thickly as I knew it to be.

But it would hopefully be enough.

Letting the acid spread through my body, excruciatingly slowly and much more painfully than usual, I chanted inside my mind, ’Back to the circus. Back to Kenny.’

My body dissolved; I flew fast and wide to the targeted position before the foreign power pieced me together again.

I stood on a big flat ashen field.

It was empty—no wagons, no vendors, no circus—but about three big strange plant buds were scattered across the field.

I ignored them and looked at my clothes, seeing that they had now completely turned back to how they were before the crash.

I touched my head; the soft ears weren’t where they should be.

"No..." I looked up; no stars.

To my side—not a bit of green.

Biting into my arm, I forced my raging heartbeat down.

Find a solution! NOW!

I walked around the field until my shoes touched much harder ground.

I let go of my arm and crouched down, wiping away ashes.

A stone street.

I looked back and scrutinized the field.

This was the area of the circus.

It had existed in this world, which was logical if the Maestro had memories of this place.

But what did this have to do with Kenny and his space?

Did it really all just get mixed up?

It didn’t matter.

I tried to teleport, covering myself in shadowy energy.

TO KENNY.

PLEASE!

PLEASE!

PLEASE!!!

No success.

The wound on my back started bleeding again when I crouched down and clawed at the dark earth beneath me.

Was it a mistake to come here?

No, it wasn’t. A big threat to Kenny had been eliminated.

"Kenny... can you come and get me?" I looked into the sky.

Don’t go; don’t leave me behind.

No. Get a grip.

It is your own fault.

This feeling of abandonment is unjustified if it was you who left.

"KENNY! WHERE ARE YOU?" I roared and jumped up.

"KENNY, YOUR DOG IS LOST!!"

"YOUR DOG RAN OFF; COME AND PUNISH HIM!"

I fell back on my knees, not knowing what to do.

Did he feel like this when Henrietta sent him to his own personal dead planet?

It’s my fault—why did I follow the maestro?

I should have forced the Maestro, begged him to send me back before he died.

I looked down at my dirty hands.

"Kenny..." What should I do now?

I heard a sound and turned my head.

One of the big dark buds moved.

"So not completely alone?" I chuckled, feeling as if I were losing my mind.

The bud’s leaves moved, revealing that there were only two of them, meticulously folded to shield what was inside.

"Kenny, is that you?"

A man—no, an angel.

He was taller than me, naked, with no eyes, just skin covering the spot where his eyes were, silver hair, and huge beautiful dark wings.

"Will you bring me to Kenny?" I laughed, full of exhaustion, when he tilted his head.

The next second, he ran to me, his wings giving him an inhuman head start as he lunged at me.

He was atop me, lowering his head speedily to bite me.

I wrapped my hand in shadowy energy to acidify him, but the moment I did, he shielded himself with his wing, which seemed to absorb the energy instead of being harmed.

He attacked my face, ripping part of it off.

I laughed, incredulous about my own past thoughts that this planet would be empty when it had shown the same symptoms as our world after the portals started to open.

What were you doing all this time? Hibernating?

His wing pressed against my arm, so I let the shadowy energy envelop my whole body.

He hissed and flew up, approaching the sky speedily, while I lay in the ashes and watched him.

My back hurts; my face does too.

What should I do when Kenny doesn’t like me anymore?

I sent shadowy energy after him, but he seemed to have already vanished.

However, I knew it wasn’t over yet.

I forced myself up and oriented myself on the stone street while concentrating on my hearing for when the bird would come back.

When the stone street ended, then the dirt path on the left, through the non-existent wagons and vendors, and then right—a few steps later, the big circus tent should have begun.

I ’entered’ it.

The hay path that went down past a few onlookers, then over the small red and white barricade.

Now ’inside’ the circus ring.

I stood on the spot where my pool of confessions was and looked up.

Here should be the rings of fire, above the flexible diving platform.

I teleported up to where my position would always reset.

When I reappeared in the air, I let myself fall while yelling the familiar words,

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

Because of the impact, ashes spread in the air as I looked back up.

I teleported.

"MAY I PRESENT TO YOU?" I landed on my feet as before.

Teleported.

"HMMM IS IT A LION? A WOLF? A MONSTER...?" I imagined myself falling into the pool full of paper planes, yet instead I fell on hard, burnt earth.

I teleported.

"LADIES AND..."

Landed, teleported,

"MAY I..."

Landed, teleported,

"A MONSTER...?"

Landed, teleported.

"EXCLUSIVELY ONLY..."

After falling and screaming dozens of times, I was exhausted and dizzy.

I knew at that moment it would be the perfect time to attack.

I looked up into the sky and saw the angel coming for me.

"Come here," I motioned to him, but didn’t have to, not only because of his nonexistent eyes but also because he was already coming down to me.

I forced the last bit of shadowy power out of me, thinking I would kill him and, hoping that he was my counterpart, gain new power that would make me able to leave.

That was when my dizziness increased, and I heard faint music, voices, and Mr. Lawrence on the speaker again.

"In addition, we have...an ordinary tiger."

It was faint, but it was there.

While the bird sped down to me, I teleported back into the air, this time much higher, so that I could speak with the faint voice I was hearing.

"THROUGH THE RINGS OF FIRE!" I fell while yelling.

The bird changed direction, speeding to me while I was still in the midst of falling.

"AND CRASHING INTO THE POOL OF PLANES!" The black spots in my vision grew, and the voice in my ears became much more prominent.

I sucked every bit of power out of my body to cover myself in the shadowy energy.

The angel crashed into me, screamed, and darkness engulfed me, letting me hear a voice from behind me right the next moment.

"JUMP!"