Elenbel shifted to a serious cold face saying 'for I am the strongest in this room'
Bang.
A loud sound of the door being forcefully breaking open came followed by the footsteps and a mysterious yet gentle voice of a man 'Haha. You do not have to worry about that… We will remember it.'
Elenbel instinctively looked at the door not of his own will but because the presence was so huge, that it couldn't be ignored by mortals and immortals alike.
A man came through the door. The same tall handsome red haired guy from before. He just smiled as he walked down the stairs which should be impossible as some one else can not enter when one group is already inside.
'Tsk… These red hairs…' and his expression became confused 'No wait… did he just break in?' He seemed more "annoyed" rather than surprised.
The red hair paused as he saw the boy grabbing the Elenbel finger towards his head while smiling.
He covered his eyes but peeked through a pretty obvious gap between his fingers 'Oh umm did I interrupt you guys?...'
'Haha' Elenbel laughed sarcastically 'no need to worry. We were almost done—' His expression turned serious 'Till you came along'
As he looked at him and questioned in a serious tone 'So— what are you supposed to be exactly?'
'The strongest you mentioned of' as the red man simply smiles. 'You see. I have a business with that boy you are about to take out so why don`t we lower our weapons?'
The man smiled gently, seemingly harmless as he raised his hands a little higher to his chest level to show he had no weapons on him and beneath cloak or even a possible gesture of surrendering.
Elenbel said smiling, not arrogant but a simple smile 'Strongest huh? You have no right to say that when you are already surrendering. Why should I listen to someone weaker than me —?' but suddenly paused, lost in thoughts.
The red man said 'You see… This is not a request but a warning' as he kept on smiling but Elenbel ignored it completely still lost in thoughts.
The Kid yelled warning the red man man 'Get out of here, he can grow back his whole body. You can not win—' but in the middle of his sentence as he noticed he was already falling to the floor. His legs had given up as he yelled out with little strength he had.
'No… He will die here too…' the Kid closed his eyes as he started to fall head first onto the ground.
Elenbel finally snapped back and looked at the Kid falling back towards the red man at the door with his eyes widened in realization and felt wind splashed from where the kid stood.
'Haa~ Not again… No- Calm down. You can still save this' Elenbel for the first time panic.
The red man who stood there just disappeared. He had not looked away for more than a second and yet the red haired was already missing.
Elenbel's gaze was locked onto his left where Ananke flew towards. He found him in front of him, holding onto and supporting the kid with his left arm. Not allowing him to fall onto the ground head first as the kid slowly opened his eyes.
Elenbel mumbled 'It`s alright, he is not the smart one' and coughed 'Cough cough. Pitiful Soul—' but as he tried to raise his finger just to find that he was now missing his fingers. Not separated but entirely missing.
The red man had not only covered the distance without any notice but also managed to cut off the fingers.
The red man responded 'I warned you'.
But he noticed the body of the kid was too cold to even touch normally. At least for a normal person.
He looked at the kid and said 'Stand proud, for you are not weak. Now leave the rest to adults…'
His smile instantly turned a foolish smirk as he said 'Did I sound cool?' while softly patting him on his back in excuse of checking for injuries.
The kid rotated his head and looked at him confused. The red man said 'Sorry… It was a joke to lighten things up but' as he put the kid down leaning against the wall as he gently said 'You can rest now. Leave the rest to adults.'
His red hair was unique yet felt familiar and nostalgic to the kid as he thought while struggling to keep his eyes open 'Have I seen him before…' but he could not recall seeing anyone so foolish like him.
Elenbel recovered his finger and aimed it right back at the back of the red man 'You are lightening things too fast, weak- pitiful soul' as he charged up the wind gust with all two fingers.
…
Nothing much happened, Elenbel was just now missing his whole right arm, as if it was reduced into nothingness, as if it had just simply "stopped existing" overall before he even charged his attack.
Elenbel spoke mighty but bored 'Pitiful existence, can you stop putting me through the hassle of regenerating it?' but as he tried to regenerate it, his right forearm was regenerating slower than usual.
Elenbel raised and calmly rotated his arm, examining it as he looked towards the man 'Hmm- what did you do?' but his expression was almost bored and tired. Opposite to how he spoke with the boy.
'Give it up.' the red man said as he leaned the kid against the wall and inspected the kid's wounds.
The kid was bleeding from his head. The right side of his face was now covered in his own blood. His clothes had multiple sharp cuts but only a few of them had blood pouring out of them and his face was a bit swollen yet not a single wound on it. He had not much strength to move and was freezing to death even when it was not cold. His eyes had now changed its color completely to yellow-ish orange shade.
What even more odd was that the man saw a half bloomed rose in the cracks of the floor where the boy's blood had fallen. A single rose that was covered in blood was blooming on the surface where others can never hope to survive.
Just then another drop of blood fell from the boy onto the rose and the rose started blooming into a flower whose petals were translucent and of color yellow, matching with the eyes of the boy.
The rose reviving itself to survive even if it has to drink the blood of others.
Red haired looked towards the crack on the wall which made him enraged.
The red man gently smiled as he said to the kid 'Rest up. I am not that weak to die here'
But the kid was not resting up, still stiff and not easing up. Be it fear of Elenbel or Red haired man impending death.
'You know you came at the wrong time?' said Elenbel as he was slowly raising his hand.
'Shhh.' The red man put a finger on his lips smiling 'Can you not see the kid is trying to rest.'
Upon which the red-haired man finally looked back at him with a finger on his lips which were smiling yet intimidating with one eye closed while others whose iris veins were glowing bright crimson red-ish. A bit romantic~