Chapter 8 Edge

Acero was on all fours, hands, and knees on the ground. He looked up and watched the two men enter the building. Biting his bottom lip, he tried his best not to let his tears fall. The skin of his palms and knees was scraped raw. It made him hiss in pain at the sight of it. Some of the other children rushed to his side. Meanwhile, the others tried to get a better look at the men who carried weapons. But the door was as far as they could go; Mama had forbidden all of the children from entering the building, especially during the hours that it was open. “Did you see his swords? They were hiltless, all blades!” One of them exclaimed. “The hammer that the big one had was as big as a man!” The other kid raised their hands in the air, trying to show how big it was. “I-I-I don’t t-think they were nice people,” the small boy stammered. “L-Look at what they did to Acero,” he pointed out. Acero stood up and wiped his hands on his shorts, holding the tears back. “I’m fine,” he grinned, flashing all three of his teeth. “See, he’s fine. A Leveler should be tough!” Yelled the rowdy-looking boy. “I saw their eyes, it doesn’t look like they’re here for business!” The meek boy insisted. “Loosen up, you worry too much, right, Acero?” “Yeah, you shou-” he tried to say. He was cut off by several screams coming from inside the building. All of the children were too stunned to move, and he rest of the adults nearby ignored the screams and walked away. The curtains were too thick for them to see what happened inside. The screams slowly stopped one by one. They didn’t move until the two men walked out of the door, their weapons covered in blood. The children took a step back as they looked in shock and awe at the smaller man’s floating blades. Acero stared at the man and took it all in. Apart from his blades, the rest of him was clean. He had a big, well-groomed mustache with hair to match it. His clothes were practical yet showy and stylish without being gaudy. But that wasn’t his most defining feature. His blades were hiltless for a reason. First, his Concept enabled him to wield them without the need to touch them. Second, he didn’t have the arms to hold on to them even if they had handles. The shirt he wore even had the sleeves removed and tailored to be closed. On his belt hung a metal hand with thumbs on both sides. The imposing man stood in front of the children, his back elegantly straight. He looked into each of their eyes as he cleaned the blood off his swords by swinging them quickly to the side, splattering it away from them. “Do we deal with them too?” The big man next to him asked. “Hm, they probably won’t pose a threat. They look too young to remember this in the future,” the armless man said with a calm voice, and walked away. The big man with the hammer grumbled something before following after him. For a few minutes, the children stood there trying to process what had happened. Acero looked at the building, and its doors were now wide open, revealing the bloody mess inside. Mama’s head was on the floor by the entrance of the door. A shocked expression remained on her face. Acero sprinted inside, worried about his actual mother. He stepped over the dead bodies and opened every door in the building. The two men killed everyone, even the customers. The other kids followed him inside, looking for their parents. In the seventh room he opened, he finally found his mother. She lay bloody and lifeless on top of the bed. A huge gash on her stomach. Littered on top and around her were pieces of shredded paper. Something sharp cut his forearm as he tried to hug her body. Acero ignored it along with the sounds of the other children mourning their mothers. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t. Acero woke up, his head resting on Sola’s lap. She looked down at him. The worry on her face left when she saw him wake up. “You have to stop this fainting gimmick you have going on. This is the second time,” she grinned at him. It has only been a few minutes since he fell to the ground. Narra stood nearby, observing the sword on the ground. “Looks like you can only summon it once. You’d probably have to rest for a while before you can safely summon it again,” Narra said, his eyes still glued to the hunk of metal. “I remember,” Acero whispered to himself. “Huh?” “Remember what?” She asked. “The person who killed my mother,” he said, sitting up. “He had these two hiltless blades that floated in the air and a thick mustache. He massaged his head and hissed at the pain. The inside of his head felt heavy as if there was pressure building up inside. “There are thousands of metal and weapon manipulators in this kingdom alone. It would be impossible to find him, even if he were a citizen here,” Narra said. “How many don’t have arms and a metal hand with two thumbs?” He asked. Sola and Narra were stunned by this information. “The only one that matches that description would be General Bulsara. You know, the one that I think is hot,” Sola said. “The strongest Leveler in the kingdom right now. Are you sure you’re not remembering things wrong? Maybe the hit to the head did more damage than we think,” Narra said, skeptical of the validity of his vision. “This is the first time you’ve remembered anything from before I picked you up.” “No, it has to be true! I remember it so clearly now,” Acero shook his head. “But Acero, why would General Bulsara kill a prostitute? He was probably still a low-ranked soldier during that time, too,” Sola tried to reason with him. “You sound crazy right now.” “It was him and another guy. They wiped out the entire brothel of The Gutters!” He insisted. “It could have been orders from superiors or the kingdom. You know that The Gutters is a rebel breeding ground,” she said. “They weren’t in uniform.” Narra looked at his watch and sighed. “True or not, what are you going to do with that information?” He asked Acero. “I’ll,” he didn’t know what to say or what he wanted. “Revenge? Even if you do manage to miraculously kill him, it won’t bring your mother back. It would only put a target on your back,” he finished the rest of his water and cleared his throat. “Both of you get cleaned up. We need to go to the library in a few minutes, we’re fixing their roof.” Acero stormed back into the house.