The Least Common Denominator

II.III Difference

My lungs burned as I braved the searing flames.

He should still be alive...

I made a beeline for Father's workshop where the fire was most intense, covering my mouth with a torn piece of my partly singed shirt. It didn't matter if I was running around naked anymore, what mattered was that I can at least find Father through all of this.

Not like this...

"Father?!" I shouted to the top of my lungs as I entered the workshop. "Are you here?!"

The crackling of burning wood greeted me as I cautiously walked through the burning workshop. My eyes watered at the intense heat but I powered through with pessimistic hope.

The fires of the forge were hotter than this. Surely Father wouldn't burn to death now.

"Father?!"

I shouted once more as I carefully walked my way through the molten puddles of metal strewn throughout the workshop. Absently, I grabbed hold of a katana prototype of mine that seemed to survive the fire relatively intact. Wouldn't do for me to be unarmed in such a dangerous situation.

*Crash!*

I startled a yelp as a piece of the roof suddenly collapsed in front of me, the smoldering piece of hay and cobblestone kicking up some of the burning embers into my face.

"Fath- *cough* -er?!"

I furiously waved the embers off my face with my katana, my left hand still covering my mouth as I exited the burning workshop and out to our backyard. It was there that I saw the one thing I didn't want to see happen.

*SHLLLICK!*

A sword...

*SCHLLICK!*

A woman...

*SQUELCH!*

A body...

"HAHAHAHA!! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR DEFILING YOUR BETTERS!"

A bitter taste rose to my mouth as nausea and disgust filled my very being, the grief intensifying the roiling inside me as I couldn't help but vomit out what little I still had in my stomach.

Father...

"Huh." The woman turned to me as I struggled to process the sight before me; my knees threatening to give out on me. "Didn't know Lady Flame had a kid with this trash."

I couldn't even begin to understand what she just said as my eyes fixated on the one sight that I hoped hadn't come to pass. My knuckles whitened on the grip of my katana as grief and rage quickly replaced the horrified disgust in me, my focus constantly flitting between my father's brutalized corpse and the blue-haired bitch that did the deed.

"Awww~ Is the little girl scawed?~" The bitch taunted as she raised the tip of her bloody rapier to her lip. "Is Mommy not coming to save you?~"

I grit my teeth as I slowly assumed the stance Mother drilled into my head for years. I put my left foot forward as I lowered my body closer to the ground. With my right arm outstretched and my katana pointed edge-forward, I readied myself to slash with all my might should I charge forward. A primal part of me wanted to just throw all caution to the wind and go in on the woman sword-forward. It was all too easy; to run in like a madman possessed while waving my sword in hopes of landing a hit.

If it didn't work on games, it sure as hell won't work in the real world.

I huffed to myself at the dark joke thrown at me by my mind before immediately dismissing it. I really wanted my sword to slash this bitch down for what she's done, and me running in sword blazing won't do me any favors on accomplishing it.

"Oh? Trained, are we?" The woman chuckled as she put a hand behind her back while pointing her rapier towards me. "I guess I'll humor you~ You're Lady Flame's daughter after all~"

That name again... Flame... A moniker?

"Show me your Mother's fire, cutie!~"

My eyes widened as a ball of liquid condensed on the tip of her rapier, the dark-red color of blood coalescing before moving to coat the rest of her blade. Another Numerator then, one that can control water?

I breathed deeply as stood my ground, ready for whatever this bitch had to throw at me.

Calm down, Crimson... Remember your training...

I'm not gonna die here. I still had to find Mother.

*GUSH!!*

I felt something pierce my stomach as the wind was knocked out of my lungs. A numbing pain radiating from my stomach as I felt blood rise up to my mouth.

Huh?

"That's it? No fighting back? Not even a wild slash my way?"

My legs gave out I put a hand on the gaping hole on my stomach. I felt the blood pour out of me as my vision started to fail me.

What just happened?

"CRIMSO-Urk!!!"

My head hit the dirt as I heard a familiar voice call out to me. Mother?

"How the mighty have fallen~" I heard footsteps leading away from me towards where I heard Mother's voice. "Never thought it'd be this easy, considering that it's Lady Flame that we're talking about."

"I'm kinda disappointed actually." A familiar voice, the one that attacked us out at the open field. "I mean, this is what the Flame's been reduced to?"

I tried to force myself to move but to no avail. I can't even lift my head to see what they were doing anymore.

"You traitor..."

"Still have some fight left in ya, Flame?~"

*SCHLIIICK!*

A sickening sound of metal rending flesh... Mother...

*Thud*

A fire burned inside me as what I assumed to be Mother unceremoniously hit the ground. These fucks...

"That takes care of that."

I'll make them pay. If I didn't die here, I'll make sure they regretted it.

"G-Good thing I never got pregnant~ If this is what having a kid meant, I refuse to even think about it!~"

I strained my ears to get at least some information out of the two, my consciousness still with me as I silently bled out on the ground.

"Not even for that one special someone you always talked about?"

"No... N-Not anymore, I think~"

A brief pause went between the two, the crackling of my home filling the silence as I fought to remain conscious. White spots appeared in my eyelids, my body feeling colder by the second as I suddenly felt myself being lifted by my waist.

"S-So... what about this cutie?~" The woman asked. So she's the one that picked me up.

"Take 'er to the capital. She's bound to be either a Num or a Den."

Cut the crap. Talk about why my parents needed to die, freaks!

"I don't think she's going to be a Num, Arjay~"

"Does it matter? She's bound to be as soft as her mother, Arya."

Arjay and Arya... Names I'm far from familiar with. I mentally file everything I can remember about these two fucks into my head before my body could fail on me.

"But still~ She's Lady Flame's daughter! I can't-"

"Can't what, Arya?"

A schism? Was there something here that I can use?

"Never mind," I heard the woman sigh.

I heard the sound of howling winds pass through me as I felt my body move for a little bit, the speed almost the same as Mother's as I still fought against my failing consciousness.

"Time to go back then?"

"Lead the way, brother."

Siblings huh...

I felt my consciousness fade, the last sensation I had being the wind fluttering through my blood-spattered hair. In my mind, I had but one final thought before I truly and utterly passed out; a feeling so intense that there was only one word adequate enough to describe this utterly despicable feeling:

Revenge.

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