With each apology, Felix kept growing bigger while his appearance changed to match his real one. Still, his undead cousins refused to let him go as they piled up on him and kept uttering the same sentence over and over again.
To make matters worse, an unfathomable number of undead exiting the ruined city and nearby towns or suburbs were all heading in direction of Felix, making Asna feel a sense of dread for him.
She knew that Candace had stopped altering the dream and everything happening right now was due to Felix’s own imagination.
Asna and the rest of the tenants could only watch as Felix’s family members left their mansions and began to pile up on him as well, making it close to impossible to spot Felix any more.
Still, Felix managed to peek from underneath the pile and spotted his grandfather walking slowly in his direction…His skin was grayed out and cracked while his eyes were nowhere to be seen.
Yet still, instead of piling up with the rest of the undead and blaming him, his grandfather reached out to him with his wrinkly hand.
He had a kind smile as he looked at Felix with empty eye sockets, seeming like he was beseeching him to take his hand.
Even when Felix was consumed with unimaginable guilt and his thoughts were extremely negative, his subconsciousness could never imagine Grandfather Robert blaming Felix for his death, unlike the others…
“Grandpa…”
With reddened eyes and a heart completely broken, Felix reached out slowly with his shaky hand toward his grandfather, hoping just for one last slight touch…
“Take it, take it…”
Asna and Felix’s masters kept watching this with hopeful eyes, knowing that all it took was one person to forgive Felix.
Just one person would tip the scale and make Felix wake up to his senses.
If it came from his grandfather, it would be even better.
Alas, the moment their fingers touched, Felix’s hand crashed into the ground after the pile of undead suddenly tripled in size.
It buried Felix completely and separated him from his grandfather…
“Candace, it’s time.” Lady Sphinx sighed.
“Are you sure about this?” Thor asked with a deep frown, “If we gave him such false hope, he might break even harder when it fails to meet his expectations.”
“We will deal with that when it happens.” Lady Sphinx said, “Now, we have a student to rescue.”
Lady Sphinx hoped that Felix could overcome this on his own completely, but alas, the trauma and guilt were just too much for anyone, who had never gone through such experiences before…
‘It’s not over yet.’ Candace had another opinion.
Without further ado, she dove deeper inside the dreadful mountain of the undead until she reached Felix.
She saw him lying on his back this time with his eyes closed shut, seemingly like he was allowing the undead to do as they please with him to vent their hatred.
Instead of pulling him out of the pile or even removing the undead from him, Candace merely spoke softly in front of Felix, “Felix, can you hear me?”
“Candace…” Felix opened his hazy eyes slowly and saw Candace’s pretty face mushed up with his cousins.
“Felix, I am not here to help you or tell you that it’s all going to be better in the future.” Candance disclosed with a soft tone, “I am merely here to tell you that you have a chance to make things right again…A small chance that is almost certainly likely to fail.”
“But, I believe that if you truly want to make things right for everyone, you owe it to them to give it at least a try.” Candace reached out with her hand and said one last time, “If you feel the same, take my hand.”
‘A chance…A chance!’
Without needing to say any further, Felix’s hazy eyes cleared right away, showing a burning flame of hope!
He clearly heard that the opportunity to save everyone was extremely slim, but he didn’t care one bit.
Just as Candace stated, Felix knew that he owed it to everyone to give it a try instead of hiding here!
So, even though he had no idea what she was talking about or if she was lying to him or not, Felix reached out and caught her hand tightly.
“I knew you won’t give up so easily.” Candace smiled genuinely at Felix and pulled him out from the undead pile.
As Felix was piercing through the undead, who were trying to hold into him, he felt like someone had held his hand.
When he burst through the pile and flew into the sky with Candace, he looked down and his eyes almost gave up on him at the sight of his undead grandfather holding into his hand…
Grandfather Robert smiled at him kindly and mouthed a single sentence.
-Let me go…-
It turned out, Felix was the one holding his grandfather’s hand tightly, refusing to let go of him!
Whether he accepted that there was a chance to save everyone or not, Felix still felt deep down that he was incapable of letting go of his grandfather…
“I don’t want to…Please, don’t make me…Please.”
Tears fell down Felix’s cheeks as he kept hearing his grandfather’s encouraging words…Even in his dream, he was always encouraging him to do the right thing.
-I was always destined to die when you were seventeen…Every year after it was a bonus, which I greatly appreciate.-
Grandfather Robert gave Felix a soft look and mouthed one last time, -So, don’t feel too sad for me and let me go…It’s time to visit my son and daughter-in-law.-
Before Felix could acknowledge his grandfather’s wish, he realized to his terror that his grandfather’s hand was slipping from his fingers no matter how tightly he tried to hold it…
“No..no..no…no!!! Nooo!!”
Alas, regardless of how much he shouted painfully, his grandfather’s hand ended up freed from his grasp…
“Grandpa!!!”
Felix could only howl with an aggrieved tone as he watched his grandfather’s body fall back into the mountain of undead, which now became unmoving corpses…
They weren’t the only pile of corpses around as the higher Felix flew, the more visible other mountains of corpses began to show up.
When they arrived at the exosphere, Felix’s tears were frozen solid on his cheeks as he kept staring without a single blink at the crumbling Earth…
Felix hadn’t really seen what happened to Earth, making him imagine this destructive scene of Earth breaking into pieces akin to a small pebble…
This sight ended up completing two of Felix’s three great fears in life…A bloodish red gloomy sky, mountains of corpses placed everywhere, the death of his loved ones, and apocalyptic destruction in his home.
His greatest fear was his inability to protect them from this scenario…Yet, it ended up happening and instead of providing protection, he played a major role in causing it.
“Felix, it’s time to stop blaming yourself and focus your anger and hatred on the true culprits.” Candace advised with a solemn tone as she glanced at Felix, whose eyes were frozen on the crumbling Earth.
The moment Felix heard so, he closed his eyes shut for a few moments.
Eee Eee…
Even Nimo jumped on his shoulder and started licking his face, trying to appease him if just for a little.
When he opened them again, Earth was nowhere to be seen…What replaced her were the Darkins hovering in a single line with astronomical sizes, making Felix resemble a mere grain of sand before them.
All of them had glacial expressions as they kept looking down on Felix like they were taunting him to do something.
Felix neither was frightened nor was he provoked to make a move.
He merely kept staring back at them with the most chilling glare, knowing deep down that he wasn’t ready yet to deal with them.
That’s why they were portrayed with such an unfathomable size in his dream.
“I am not strong enough right now to make you break a sweat, but I swear on my late grandfather’s that your heads will be decapitated by me and only me…I swear on it.” Felix stressed with a sinister tone as pure killing intent was bursting with each word leaving his mouth.
For the first time ever since Felix learned about the Darkins, he truly and wholeheartedly desired nothing but to erase them from existence.
This time, he wasn’t going to do this for his masters’ sake or to keep his promise.
It would be utterly for his selfish reasons and nothing was going to make this resentment go away besides their death!!
“Thanks for everything, Candace.” Felix spoke coldly even though he was being appreciative, “Let’s return now…I have too many unsettled matters to handle.”
“Okay…” Candace could only oblige with a bitter smile, knowing that the old Felix was never going to return.
If he did return, it wouldn’t be until his heart was fully cleansed and reached the final stage of grief, Acceptance.
With such resentment burning in his seven hearts, it was clear to all that Felix was never going to reach that stage until the day he exert his rightful revenge on the Darkins…
‘We have awakened him and unfortunately, the monster within…’
