I Slept Through The Apocalypse

As Elise neared him, he began to tear up.

"...E-elise? Is that you?" Bryce muttered weakly before falling weakly into her arms. His hands shook as he reached to feel her face.

It was like she was struck by a bolt of lightning. Emotions poured out of her as she started crying uncontrollably. Her tears dripped down her face, onto Bryce's c.h.e.s.t.

I'm a genius. Bryce was so excited that it worked so well. Hehehe, nothing can stop me now.

"Big Brother, where have you been the last two years? Why are you injured?" Elise didn't stop crying, she felt her brother's face still shocked that he actually appeared.

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"..."

This guy… deserves an Oscar. Clover was speechless.

Am I the real Clover or is he the real Clover?

That level of commitment made him question his own identity for a second there.

"Hahaha! Isn't that you? Gyahahahaha! That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life!" Pringles was rolling on the floor laughing.

"..."

Pringles had notified him that his doppleganger wasn't really injured. They seemed to be using some illusion arts.

Who was his doppleganger talking to? Why was he trying so hard to make such a convincing performance?

At this distance, they couldn't really hear what the doppelganger was whispering. Clover thought the girl looked a little familiar.

"Hoooooo…. Ahahahaha!" Pringles was still laughing at him.

"Shut up!" Clover shushed the little chicken who was almost peeing himself laughing.

"What the heck is going on?" He needed to get a closer look. He grabbed the chicken rolling on the ground and headed closer.

They went to the bush closest to the girl and the doppleganger.

Clover reminded Pringles to shut up. He then turned back to watch the scene unfolding in front of them.

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"I don't remember much after the Awakening, I think I hit my head on a rock or something, because my memory is all jumbled. I just remember wandering through the forest and somehow making it here. " Bryce sounded out of breath.

Elise was silent.

Bryce thought she was just in the moment, so he continued, "I… remember you though. It was the memory of you and mom that kept me going all these years. "

Elise took his hand and studied the back of his hand. She stayed unusually silent. Her tears now had dried up.

"Big Brother, do you remember when I was nine? We had a campfire when we went up to the mountains."

Bryce had no idea where this was going, he just went along with it, " Uh… I do have a faint recollection of it.. Yeah."

Elise continued, "I didn't know what kerosene was and I tried to put some in the fire. Do you remember what happened next?"

"...Actually my memory is quite terrible. What exactly happened back then dear sister?"

For a moment, it seemed like the potted plant Elise had placed to her side shook unnaturally.

"You noticed in time and grabbed the kerosene bottle out of my hand, spilling some onto your hand on accident. That day, you got a severe burn on your hand" Elise said as she held on to his hand.

Bryce noticed Elise had stopped crying altogether. Instead she gave Bryce a gentle and warm smile. But there was something off about the smile.

"I have another question for you. How did you know it was called the Awakening?" Her grip on Bryce's hand got stronger. The little potted plant she was holding began swaying.

Bryce realized that the angel that he knew was turning a little scary. He started sweating. "Uh… I m-must have heard it from some other survivors. I don't quite remember where I heard it from. You said it was called the Awakening? Huh, I really don't remember who told me that, how strange. Word really gets around. Hahaha" He laughed nervously.

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"What an idiot… " Clover realised something was about to happen.

He already knew who it was when he saw the glass jewel necklace around her neck. He wanted to rush out of the forest right now and hug his baby sister. But he held himself back.

It'd be rude to interfere with another's reckoning. He thought to himself.

Boom! The fake Clover flew like a ragdoll into a nearby tree. He coughed up a mouthful of blood for real this time. When Clover looked over at Elise, he saw a bunch of large green vines, swaying around her violently. She resembled a demon, with her hair flowing around crazily and a vicious look on her face.

"Who are you! How dare you try and impersonate my brother!" Elise's tone was dripping with malice. She waved her arms and the vines wrapped around the fake Clover and the tree. The vines weaved the tree and the doppelganger tighter and tighter, causing the doppelganger to cough up another mouthful of blood.

"Enough!" Bryce turned back into himself, knowing that his operation had failed. His eyes were red and there was blood dripping from his mouth. He screamed, "Elise Rosswell, if you stop your assault right now and become my woman, I'll forget this ever happened. But if you continue, I can't promise that Brother Duy won't hear about this."

Elise's face darkened when Bryce revealed himself. "So it was you all along, I was wondering why you weren't in your usual stalker position. Here I thought you had given up."

She didn't stop the vines. Instead they continued constricting tighter around Bryce and the tree. Bryce let out a bloodcurdling scream as he felt a rib break.

"Nobody. Impersonates. My older brother!" She furiously waved her hands again and the vines got even larger. They wrapped around the tree and uprooted the entire thing with Bryce still attached to it. With another fling of her sleeves, the tree with bryce was sent flying into the distant forest by the massive vines.

Elise's face was full of tears again. She was so frustrated. For a moment, she thought her brother had really came back to her. But it turned out to be a creepy stalker. She had no way to actually retaliate, because Bryce had connections to people who would give her and her mother a hard time. Picking up her potted plant, she slowly headed home.

"Wait! Elise!" a voice rang out. She paused and turned around to see another Clover. This time, he was tan and had a chicken with him. She broke into a furious rage. Bryce still hadn't given up toying with her brother's image. He even had a chicken with him to mock her!

"You're the worst Bryce!" She screamed crazily. The vines came out again and uprooted another tree before launching it at the second Clover.

Clover didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Wait, I am actually your brother! He saw another tree get uprooted.

"W-w-wait… wait! Wait! Stop!"

Pringles who had been massaging his cheeks which were cramped from laughing walked in front of Clover. " Don't worry kid, I got this."

The chicken jumped up and swiped the air. The tree that was headed for them split into two.

"OOOF!"

Pringles heard a loud grunt from behind him. He turned to see Clover getting hit by one half of the tree instead. "Oops.."

Clover's eyes bulged out of his sockets as he took the tree half to the stomach. Groaning in pain and the wind knocked out of him, he was sent flying back into another tree.

"...You had one job Pringles...." he g.r.o.a.n.e.d weakly.

He sweated. It's a good thing I cultivated my body otherwise I might have really died there. When did my baby sis get so powerful?

He had to clear up the situation.

Neural Overclock! Sparks flew out of his eyes. He broke into a sprint towards Elise.

"Not done yet?" Elise waved her arms again.

Boom! Boom! Vines exploded out of the ground. More trees and rocks flew towards him. Clover looked around. It was like everything was moving in slow motion for him, but in his case, he was just thinking really fast. If I manage to gather those few million lightning particles I wonder how fast I'll be then.

Elise was shaken. She had never seen anyone deal with her Frenzy Plant by just dodging everything! How fast would their reaction speed have to be in order to do that?

Clover ran and leapt and dodged through all of the obstacles. Pringles could help but be proud watching Clover dodging and weaving, knowing he played a part in training him.

As Pringles had his dad moment, Clover finally broke through Elise's Frenzy Plant. He embraced her tightly and didn't let go.

"Don't touch me!" Elise struggled furiously out of his embrace, still thinking it was Bryce being weird.

"You're still wearing that stinky necklace?" He asked her in almost a whisper. Elise who was struggling to escape the hug froze. Her eyes had tears in them as she pushed him away for a second, grabbing his hand.

Clover knew what she was trying to do and let her examine his hand. The scar from that incident never went away.

Her eyes widened, feeling the familiar scar on her brother's hand. Tears streamed down her face as she remembered the incident.

"It's been over four years since you've said anything to me and the first reaction to seeing me is to throw a tree at me?" He teased. "Do you hate your brother that much?"

"Woo…. Big Brother….I'm sowwyy… Woo..." Elise buried her face in his c.h.e.s.t and began sobbing. Tears also blurred Clover's vision. He didn't hold them back. Instead he smiled as they streamed down his face.

He rubbed his sister's head. "It must have been hard on you…"

He felt his shirt getting more and more wet as time went by. There was even a fair amount of snot.

I guess I'll have to get a new shirt.

The current shirt had been tugged and cried and snotted on till it stretched out abnormally like a tumor.

"Wooo..."

Elise still wouldn't let go of him. She gripped onto his shirt with her face buried in his c.h.e.s.t and continued sobbing uncontrollably. He held her without voicing any complaints as she cried in his arms. It was like the old days he sighed. I guess some things don't change. He circulated Dream Assimilation to heal his wounds from the massive tree hitting him.

Elise sensed a strange energy flowing into her body. Her swollen eyes had returned to normal. Her depleted energy from attacking and crying for so long was restored to the brim. She was shocked. Restoration techniques were very rare in the city. How did Big Brother acquire one?

She finally stopped crying and calmed down. Still hugging him tightly, she looked up at him. He seemed to be staring off into the distance.

"Humph!" she pounded on his c.h.e.s.t lightly. That got his attention.

His doting face returned to see his cute sister looking at him with a pouty face. In the two years he hadn't seen her, she had transformed into such a pretty girl. Her long eyelashes resembled fluttering butterfly wings as she blinked at him. Her skin was as smooth as white jade. He smiled as he pinched her soft cheeks and stretched them playfully. Hehehe this is quite fun.

She blushed and pounded his c.h.e.s.t again. "Where have you been for two years?" She pretended to be angry but it didn't fool Clover.

"I'll tell you when we get home. Oh yeah, this is Mr. Pringles." He gestured to the chicken with a bow tie snoring on his head.