Chapter 228: *A gaping hole in the wall*
Kevin said to him honestly, "Continuously, like now, I would say no more than an hour at the moment, but if I only use it for a few minutes here and there, I would say at will without any problem."
Axel nodded reassuredly, and he hugged him. He rested his chin on Kevin’s head and said to Liam and Ian, "I would like to go back and see how Alan is doing... He looked really messed up earlier. Do you mind if we go first and let you finish here?"
Ian nodded and then said to him, "Give me a minute to create another Teleportation Talisman paper; I’m worried about him too. It’s the first time I’ve seen him like this."
Once Ian had finished and handed it to them, Liam said, "We’ll finish collecting everything here, and we’ll contact you once we’re back at the Sun Sect too."
Axel and Kevin nodded, and Axel opened the portal to go to their pavilion first. He put his arm around Kevin’s shoulders, and they walked through the portal together.
........
When Alan arrived in their pavilion and recognized their living room, he fell to his knees, and while hugging Erik tightly, he finally let go and burst into tears.
But completely unexpectedly, Erik then grabbed his collar and pinned him to the floor using a lot of force to do so, and while straddling him, he saw him pointing one of his axes toward one of the corners of their living room.
Alan cursed, and all he could think of was what the hell was going on. However, when he saw that Erik’s head was down and his eyes were still closed, he understood at once.
Kevin had had the same reflex to protect Axel when he was still unconscious, so he looked toward where Erik was pointing his axe and saw two figures covered with long black cloaks, and they both had hoods, which, because of the darkness of the room, hid their faces.
At least, Alan didn’t feel any killing intent from them, so he put one hand on Erik’s waist to try to calm him down and wiped his face of all his tears with the other while cursing those intruders in his mind.
After he had regained some composure, he said to them in a slightly irritated tone, because he would really have preferred to be alone right now, "I advise you to show me your faces and not to move forward or make any sudden gestures; otherwise, he will kill you on the spot without hesitation."
Dilan, who had come with Nolan following Liam’s request, knew that Alan was now aware of everything.
Liam had told him that he knew the truth about his banishment, that it had been ordered by the council of the organization, and that he had only agreed to it to be able to protect him.
He had also told him that Alan believed he didn’t think him worthy of their family, and so, before meeting the new bearer of the Pentagram Mark, he had first wanted to wait for his son’s return so that he could make him understand how proud he was of him and that he regretted not having been able to find another solution to be able to protect him.
He just hoped that Alan would forgive him and let him and his brothers slowly come back into his life, but he hadn’t expected to see his son and son-in-law come back in this state.
He signaled Nolan to lower his hood, and he said to Alan, without moving so as not to upset his son-in-law any further, who curiously didn’t even look at them, "Alan, it’s me..."
The words he wanted to say to him stuck in his throat when he saw the shock on his son’s face, and the distress in his eyes at that moment really made his heart ache.
He then asked him worriedly, because he knew his son’s temperament well enough—even if he hadn’t seen him for years—to know that he wasn’t the type to break down easily, "What happened to you? Are you both alright?"
Alan laughed, feeling helpless, and he said more to himself than to them, "Why did you have to choose this exact moment to reappear in my life, huh? I guess I couldn’t have been more pathetic than I am right now."
Nolan didn’t understand why his father remained frozen like that; obviously, something bad had happened to put Alan in that state.
So following his heart that was screaming at him to go and join his twin, he started to move forward to tell Alan that he had to pull himself together, but against all odds, his father held him back and immediately pushed him with all his strength to the other end of the living room.
When he hit the opposite wall, he heard a deafening noise and Alan swearing and yelling at him, "Damn it, Nolan! I told you not to move."
Nolan at first didn’t understand why his father pushed him away. He could have stopped or avoided the axe his brother-in-law had just thrown at him, which, by the way, was undoubtedly aimed at his head. But his father had been faster, and when he saw that the impact of the axe had destroyed an entire part of their living room wall, he was not so sure that he could have stopped it so easily.
Nolan exclaimed, without moving this time, "What the hell? How did he do that?"
It was technically impossible to create that much damage with an axe, especially since Erik had thrown it without momentum.
And as he was looking at his twin waiting for an answer, Alan just said again, "Just don’t move anymore. Erik is no longer conscious, and he just wants to protect me. He can’t distinguish if you are friends or enemies, so don’t blame him too much, okay?"
This situation was really frustrating for Nolan. He still didn’t know if Alan was hurt or not because he still hadn’t told them anything, but he nodded his head because he didn’t want to upset his brother when they had just found each other after so many years.
Alan finally smiled at him, even if it was a very small smile; it was better than nothing. Then he saw him turn back to their father and say, "Give me a few minutes; let me calm him down and put him to bed... He needs to rest."
Dilan, who had also been shocked by the gaping hole in the wall that Erik had just made with his axe, had been even more shocked after what his son had just told them about him.
