With the wall of the empire behind them and the sprouts in front it was clear which place they shouldn't be.
"Soon the horses will begin panicking, I should free him and get us out of here, I don't think that number of sprouts is one I could take on alone.
His hands should still be in a handcuff, I can't leave it that way.
They will soon be upon us." Leo turned around and placed his hands on the person's handcuffed hand.
He poured aura into their hand protecting them from the aether that came next.
"Leo what's going on, how did you get uncuffed, is that fire coming out of your hands?
Why are we on a horse with these people." the voice asked.
"If possible I wanted to do this without seeing your face." Leo thought with a regretful look etched on his face.
Leo raised his head slowly to look at the person's face.
"Asking so many questions at once is my thing,... Marcus." said Leo in a light hearted manner.
"Leo…are you crying?…and why are your eyes amber?!" Marcus asked him.
"Amber, yes at this time he said something similar.
My eyes always turn black when I use aether…"
[Sniff] "I'm not crying dude" Leo wiped off his tears with his sleeve.
"You're acting weird today, tell me what happened to dad and everyone else." Marcus looked desperate to find out.
Leo turned around and faced forward, he looked up and the slab was edging closer.
He pulled out the spear and held it in hand, then gave the sword to Marcus.
"First we have to survive this, then I'll tell you all that happened!" Leo screamed to get his voice across.
"And what do you expect me to do with a sword?!" Marcus replied.
"...Self defense of course." Leo scoffed, then a wide smile went across his face.
"Are you crazy, aren't you seeing what's in front of us? We don't stand a chance!" Marcus replied.
"Or course we're not going to be doing that…" Leo muttered.
"What was that I couldn't hear you!" Marcus gripped the sword tightly, then looked at it.
"I said, do you see that up in the sky?!" Leo diverted the Marcus's attention to the slab falling from the sky.
Marcus looked up.
"The sky looks normal, what are you talking about?!" Marcus asked.
"I see…he can't see it huh…" Leo thought.
"Face your regrets, how do you even do that, I guess she would mean to deal with it but my question remains.
Should I ask Marcus... could his fabrication even give me an answer…hahaha, it's been only minutes and I feel like relying on him again." He broke the spear in the same way he had on that day.
The horses began panicking, with some stopping and rearing up, the prisoners on their back slid down to the floor.
Some fell on their head dying in that moment, while others were injured, but much more than that the tumbling began.
"Here goes nothing…" Leo inhaled.
He enhanced his legs with aether and jumped down of the horse grabbing Marcus on his way down.
They entered a spiral while the other horses dodged them, though they were hit by some Leo took the damage whilst covering for Marcus.
The horses passed them by and the slaughter by the sprouts began.
"Marcus run!" Leo said to him as they began sprinting.
They ran towards the wall at full speed to the wall gaining some distance from the sprouts.
But Leo was in conflict. "There is no way they're catching on to us, yet still no signs of any picture frame.
With this there would be no regrets any more, since I took away the root cause…this should count so where is it!
What do I look for?" Leo kept his eyes peeled whilst running towards the formation that had formed in front of the wall.
[Boom! Bang!] explosions set off in the distance from the cannons atop the wall.
"Leo, I can't keep this up for much longer, my legs might give up." said Marcus with a sweat filled face.
"Don't you dare stop Marcus!" Leo said in desperation, he was nearly out of breath.
[Huff...Huff]
His body was the same as it was on that very day, he hadn't recovered either, but it was either this or stopping and letting the events play out again.
"Leo there's a limit to how much you can run, we've been running for so long from those critters.
I'm getting tired and so are you…" Marcus's voice echoed strangely.
"No, I can't let you die Marcus!" Leo yelled as he looked up again.
"But you need to accept the fact that we can't survive this." Marcus's words drilled deep into Leo.
Leo had a stare at Marcus with pained eyes. "Even in a moment like this you're still somehow guiding me." Leo looked up then closed his eyes.
{Only at that moment did I understand, or maybe a part of me had known but my whole refuted it.
In the end trying to change the past was just a form of denial, ignorant on the fact that the past can never change.
Past events both positive and negative are consolidatory in a person's growth, ignoring, denying or latching on to those events stunt it.
Regrets are on the negative side of that spectrum, mine was not being able to save you and in my case the only way I could truly face it…}
–
The reality that existed in the fabrication changed, it nearly aligned with the events that occurred in reality.
He held the lifeless body of his friend in his arms as he walked slowly towards the formation, they were directly in front of him.
A shadow casted upon the empire as the golden slab enshrouded in black aether was about to fall upon them.
Leo looked at Marcus's face with sad eyes, but with a sense of relief. "...The only way I could face mine was to accept it — the fact that the there was truly nothing I could do."
The formation split open for Leo as he passed by them, behind them was a giant picture frame and on it was a picture of a boy with a bright face.
He had dark red hair that was properly kept, wore glasses and had black eyes with a smile emblematic of passion; it was a picture of Marcus.
Leo used his fingers to close Marcus's eyes gently as he laid him gently on the floor in front of the frame.
The slab began crushing the mountains of the empire with no sign of stopping.
"Reach out for the picture frame." Leo repeated the ladies words.
By the time he did the slab was already tearing through the wall.
As he laid his hands on the picture frame it his hand sent a ripple through its surface and it sucked him in.
He felt like he was drowning in water and kept on sinking deeper and deeper, at that moment he had only one thought in his head.
"Goodbye our researcher"