“The choice is in your hands, Noah. Are you going to hand over your dragon, or are you going to let countless people die? You hear that, Eleonora?! I will see you again soon!” The glimmering in Adrian’s green eyes was held a mixture of emotion; hate, love, admiration, and inferiority. He had tried hard to receive her love, but in the end, all he’d accumulated was wounds. All this madness had been for Eleonora. 

Noah could not help but feel sorry for him. However, that still did not excuse the reckless behaviour he had been exhibiting. Kidnapping countless people to form replicas, forcing her to choose between giving him Muell for his own selfish desires, and threatening to blow everything up if she didn’t comply with his demands. 

“I truly feel sorry for you from the bottom of my heart. But you really cannot do this!” She said, looking down as the crowd below all screamed and dispersed. In the middle of the clearing that had just formed was a figure with their arm raised. And as she heard the oh-so-familiar screech of a dragon, she smiled to herself. 

Kyle had found her, and his aim was locked onto Adrian. There was no need to fear that he would miss and accidentally shoot her, either. His aim was always deadly accurate, and she knew he would shoot Adrain even from such a long distance. 

She turned her head again toward Adrian, a smug smirk of satisfaction plastered on her face.

“I will never give you Muell.” She said as a gunshot echoed through the air.  Within a few seconds, she felt the shockwave of the bullet whizzing past her face. Adrian’s face contorted with pain as the bullet shot through his hands and embedded itself into his shoulder. 

“Kyle Leonard… So, you’ve come here. For what purpose?” Adrian said with a dark smile. Blood poured down from his wounds and soaked into his clothing. A heavy object dropped out of his intact hand, clattering to the ground. Noah reached out and snatched it up before he could bend down and retrieve it.  

In her hand was the switch to blow up the whole hotel and the replica process. Without any hesitation, she looked over the railing and waved it in the air. She hurled it over the railing, where it was promptly destroyed by another bullet that fired from Kyle’s gun. The debris from the remote control fell down to the ground in dozens of tiny little pieces. 

With the immediate threat dealt with, Noah turned to face Adrian. He was hunched over, clearly in pain, with dark veins popping out of his forehead. Every movement he made was jerky and stiff, as if he had been injected with something. 

Or like the bullet that was lodged into his shoulder was laced. 

“A paralytic poison… You’re a scary man, Kyle…” Adrain muttered, coughing up some blood. He collapsed onto his knees, one hand on the balcony and the other clutched over his injured shoulder. “Damn it… I was… So close…”

“It’s over, Adrian.” Noah tried her best to sound triumphant and in control, but she was still terrified at how close she was to dying in a fiery explosion. It was only thanks to Kyle and his frankly terrifying aim that she was still alive to stand over Adrian as he lay motionless on the floor. 

It was a brush with death she would rather not face again. 

With the adrenaline starting to wear off, Noah’s knees began to buckle. She wobbled over to the wall next to the railing and slid down, bringing her knees up to her chest. It was difficult to breathe, her mouth dry and her throat feeling like it was beginning to close up.

Her breathing was erratic as she tried to calm herself down, to convince herself that she was no longer in danger. Adrian was lying in a bloodied paralyzed heap on the floor, and the switch to detonate everything had been destroyed. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not calm her breathing down. 

Her hand, which was barely holding onto the railing, was soon covered by a large, warm hand. She glanced up and almost cried in relief at the sight of Kyle wrapping his arm around Noah’s shoulder and pulling her toward him. He hummed a soothing song as he stroked her hair, making the occasional shushing sound like he was trying to console a lost child. And to Noah’s relief, it worked. Soon, her breathing was under control and her nerves were no longer frayed. 

“That’s it, Noah. Nice deep breaths.” Kyle ran a hand down her arm. “I was scared for a moment there. Me, scared. Can you imagine?” He let out a hollow laugh. “But we’re alright now, aren’t we? Everything will be alright.”