Atticus watched with a neutral gaze as Dell’s head hit the ground violently, bowing in front of him, his form trembling as he started mumbling incoherent words.

Atticus turned his focus towards his artifact, drafting a comprehensive contract in under a second. Dell’s artifact suddenly lit up as Atticus sent it to him.

“Sign it,” the sound of Atticus speaking frightened Dell, as he flinched, the disgusting hot liquid started streaming out faster, gathering around him. The intensity of his mumbling increased.

Atticus simply looked down at him without a single hint of remorse, “I won’t repeat myself,”

Dell’s body moved on its own as he instantly started rapidly tapping his device frantically as though his life depended on it.

Seeing that the contract was signed, Atticus shifted his attention away from Dell’s pathetic form on the floor and focused them on the remaining individuals present in the area.

It was about 30 minutes to 7 pm, and the evening sun bathed the now crimson garden in its golden radiance. The entirety of the beautiful garden had turned into a brutal landscape laden with blood.

Given the current time, it meant that Atticus had tortured Dell for close to 7 hours. Just the thought of that alone would make a fully grown adult shudder, not to talk of a bunch of teenagers who had watched it happened live.

The area had long since been cleared, leaving only Zoey, Ember, and Lila.

The latter looked at Dell’s current state, her form completely frozen. One wouldn’t even have to be a genius to know that she had watched every single moment of Atticus torturing Dell, her brother.

The both of them had never been close despite growing up together in sector 4. But it was a normal thing; siblings bicker a lot and many might even openly show hate.

But at the end of the day, when it came to the times that matter, their relationship would not change. They would always be family.

It was after Atticus walked away from Dell that life seemed to enter Lila. She regained strength in her legs as she immediately rushed towards Dell on the floor.

Atticus had healed his body flawlessly, with him having no scratch on him. But despite this, with all she had seen Dell go through today, she felt like the healings could never be enough.

The same identical greenish tattoos snaked their way upwards towards Lila’s neck as her eyes radiated a green glow.

In the next instant, vines covered up Dell’s form.

Tears welled up in Lila’s eyes as she focused her attention on her vines. Immediately after Atticus started torturing Dell in the garden, she had wanted to step up and stop the situation.

But Lila had always been a smart girl. No matter how her emotions wanted to push her to step up, she knew that doing so would be the worst mistake of her life.

Lila didn’t even look at Atticus. She didn’t scream or stare daggers at him. She simply stood while focusing on healing Dell, her hands clenched.

Atticus didn’t turn back again as he walked towards Ember and Zoey a few meters away from him.

Ember met Atticus’s gaze and turned her head towards Zoey, silently regarding the both of them.

And in the next instance, she turned back towards Atticus and smiled while giving him a nod. Then she turned and started walking away.

Ember left the scene and walked towards the third year building. Of course she knew about the ‘relationship’ between Atticus and Zoey, and she truly had no problems with it.

Atticus was someone special to her, and he would always have that place in her heart. But she had never once thought about getting into a romantic relationship of any sort with Atticus or anyone for that matter.

In fact, Ember had suitors, a lot of them at that, but her head wasn’t focused on that.

Many might deem Ember as too plain or simple, and truly, she was. But this was Ember in her entirety. She had always been simple.

Her emotions had always been straightforward.

Either like or dislike. Love or hate. Friend or enemy.

She had never dreamed of becoming anything, nor did she see a need to. Ember only wanted to live her life in peace with the people she loved.

Her hyper brother Caldor. Her cousin who always seemed to know and solve any problem in a calm demeanor, Atticus, and her father whom she loved more than anything in the whole world, Ariel. This had been all she wanted.

But they had taken that away from her.

Ember clenched her fist so hard that blood started dripping out of it.

Her emotions had always been simple and straightforward.

And currently, Ember wanted nothing more than to crush the head of every single person or thing responsible for her father’s death into a gory mess until there was nothing left.

In order to achieve this, she would make sure nothing would stand in her way.

…

Atticus approached Zoey, his once icy expression having turned into a smile, “So how did I do?” He asked with a cheeky grin.

But instead of the response he had been expecting, he only received Zoey’s silent, expressionless stare.

Atticus’s face soon lost his grin as he looked at Zoey, utterly confused. “What’s wrong?” He asked and just like before received no response, just Zoey’s stare.

After a few seconds, Zoey abruptly took her gaze away from him and started walking away.

Atticus’s expression was the personification of confusion. ‘Did I do something wrong?’

Seeing that she had no intention of stopping, Atticus started following her, catching up after a few seconds.

“Did I do anything wrong?” Atticus’s voice sounded from behind as Zoey entered the elevator of the first year building.

Atticus quickly entered it before the door closed, his confused gaze fixed on Zoey’s quiet form.

Zoey still didn’t offer any response and started walking towards her teleportation room after the elevator reached the top floor, with Atticus in tow.

This was the first time Atticus would see Zoey angry and couldn’t understand why that was. His thoughts raced until they suddenly settled on something. 𝑖𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ𝘮

He instantly asked, “Did I go too far with him?”

Atticus’s question made Zoey’s walking gait suddenly stop.

She was just a few steps away from her teleportation room.

Zoey suddenly turned, and as swiftly as lightning, she unleashed a punch at Atticus’s stomach, landing brutally. 𝘳.𝑐𝘰

Atticus, of course, could have avoided that punch, but chose not to. He played the part perfectly as his hands grasped his stomach and feigned pain on his face.

Zoey’s amethyst eyes locked with Atticus’s, her gaze intense as she spoke, “I don’t care if you’re angry, but if you ever ignore me again, I’ll make sure you regret it! Hmph!”

Without even waiting for a response, she immediately turned and entered her teleportation room, leaving Atticus with his hands clenching his stomach, his expression completely and utterly baffled.

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