The Ancient Genes

Warehouse Yard, Trinity.

"Will you stop squirming?" Axel frowned at Erina. She was twisting and turning all around. He was afraid of his body reacting wrongly in such a situation. That would certainly be something he didn't want.

"I don't have an option here…" Erina muttered with scrunched brows.

"Finally, found you..." A voice suddenly sounded from above and it immediately made the two silent.

In the end, they slowly raised their heads up above to see a person sitting above on the tree.

It was Max.

Or more accurately his clone…

"Gosh! You scared me there for a second." Erina sighed in relief. She almost had her heart leaping through her mouth and Axel was in no better condition than her.

"Why are you here though? I thought Wilson was about to come." Axel looked at him in confusion.

"That guy got caught up in some mess so here I am," Max said with a smile. "Anyways, this is my clone. My real body is searching for you guys elsewhere, it will arrive here soon. We can just fly out of this place then."

Max had split himself in order to search for the two of them. After all, having more people was definitely a good thing on his side. And, now that the clone had found them and conveyed it to the real body, it was on his way here.

Erina looked at Max with a frown on her face. There seemed to be some kind of hesitation on her face.

"I don't think we should leave now." Axel suddenly spoke, and it took Max by surprise.

"Why?" Max looked at him in interest. He knew that Axel wouldn't be just saying such a thing without any valid reason behind that.

"We have a major clue regarding her mother's situation here," Axel said with a serious look on his face as he explained everything that Erina had told him moments ago all while Erina kept looking at his face. 'Even though he says mean stuff, he really is helping me till then end…I guess he is-'

"Hmmn?" Axel suddenly seemed to have noticed Erina staring at him, and his face instantly turned ugly, " What the hell are you looking at?"

Erina's face twitched as she turned her head aside, 'Nope, he is still a jerk….' She paused and threw him another glance for a second before further adding, 'but could be nice...only on some occasions.'

Max on the other hand processed the newly received information about this woman called Anya, who might be an important clue to understand about Erina's mom and her relation to the artifact.

"It seems we can't return empty handed after all." Max shook his head with a smile. They would be taking someone along it seemed.

Soon, Max's real body arrived at the place and the clone dissipated.

Axel and Erina couldn't help but be amazed at that. The ability was certainly something which existed. Even Erina could make a flame clone of herself, but it was very tough to maintain. And, there was no way that she could make it realistic the way Max did.

"By the way, are you guys sticking to each other like that? Are the rumors turning true or something?" Max asked with a curious gaze as he looked at the two.

"Huh?"

It was only at this moment, that the two realized that they were still sticking close to each other. With Max here, there wasn't a need to worry about people coming around. He certainly would be able to sense everyone's presence.

Erina looked at herself and saw that Axel's arms were still wrapped around. "Get away!" She immediately pushed the guy away in a fluster before retorting, "Who in hell will fall for this guy?!"

Axel on the other hand really wanted to curse this girl, she really had used all her strength there. It wasn't pushing, but smashing his chest. He really felt that his ribs had cracked there. But, he couldn't do anything about it. It was better not to mess with her at a close range, so he could only glare at Max, "Stop spouting nonsense. You know I am a 2D lover."

Max shook his head looking at the two.

"Anyways, how about you two get into my spirit world. I will deal with things here," Max said with a confident look on his face. He could see that there wasn't a single Master Tier around. It was going to be an easy job.

"No, I want to settle the score with that guy." Erina refused. Now that the chance was going to be presented to her, she would definitely like to smash the sh*t out of Neo.

"Well, I will leave that to you then." Max smiled, and then gave Axel a look. It was clearly a signal for him to look after her. She was not the best in the emotional department after all. It certainly would be bad if she got caught in another emotional trap like earlier.

Axel just gave a nod to Max and then they parted ways.

…

Max began to move towards the place where he felt the strongest presence around.

"You guys go and exercise yourself a bit, show me how much you have improved." He muttered in a low voice and the next instant blurry figures shot out from his shadow.

They were the Shadow Leopards. All of them were back with Max now. Even Twice and Juju, the centipede, who were with Lisa all this while had returned.

"Khu-Khu!"

Max looked at his arm, and saw that the Juju had coiled around him and was moving onto his shoulder.

"What? Don't wanna go with your partner today?" Max asked, looking at it. This guy was always sticking with Twice. He wondered what was with this change of mind today.

….

On the other side…

"Crackle!"

Sweat slid down Wilson's forehead. He was up against dozens of people and all of them were stronger than him. There was no way for him to win. He had already taken a few hits and had started to have wounds all over.

The only good thing was that these people weren't serious in their attacks. It seemed that they were trying not to kill Lesia in the process who was behind Wilson. That was the only thing that had kept Wilson alive until now.

But, he wasn't sure how long he could hold onto like this.