Chapter 29: Goodbye *

(Author Note: This Chapter contains extremely disturbing scene.)

━━━━━━━━ [SOUL BIND] ━━━━━━━━

Soul: Alex

Race: Human

Target Vessel: Frost Dire Wolf

Tier: Elite

Condition: Deceased

Soul Compatibility: 92%

[Transfer Soul to Vessel?]

[ YES ] [ NO ]

[System Error]

[Soul already exists at the targeted beast.]

[Do you want to transfer the ownership of the beast to yourself?]

[ YES ] [ NO ]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Rael chose yes.

The red in the wolf’s eyes bled away to pure black. Something locked into place—an old loyalty rewritten in a single breath. The beast knew the voice that called it was not Aurelia’s.

Alex came running and lunged towards Aurelia.

Jaws closed on her shoulder and dragged her backward through blood and torn cloth and he kept running. She screamed, more shocked than hurt at first, staring at the creature that had always obeyed her.

"What—why?!"

Rael could hear her voice fading while going distance away from him.

Rael did not wait. He used Fireball flared against the ropes at his wrists. The fibers blackened and snapped. He rolled free and staggered upright, hands raw.

Alex had already pulled her deep into the trees. The sound of their struggle rolled back like distant thunder. Rael turned from it. One thought remained.

He has to find Lila.

He pushed into the mountain of corpses. Bodies shifted under his hands—cold, heavy, wrong. Faces he half-remembered from the first day stared up with empty eyes. The smell coated his tongue. Blood soaked through his clothes until he could no longer tell what was his. He kept turning every girl over, every time praying the face would not be hers. He has already let Nathia die because of him. He blamed himself if he was never in this city Aurelia would have never came here in the first place.

A soft, rhythmic sound cut through the silence.

Clk... clk... clk...

He followed it.

He saw a straight tear hung in the air, edges glowing. Light spilled out in all directions, bending the space around the wound. He knew about it. He has seen this image hundred of times it is an exit gate. The realm itself was trying to throw him out. It wanted him to leave.

A crash came from the forest where Alex still fought. He heard a loud boom and at distance between saw four red tentacles flown up in the sky. The wolf was losing. Rael felt the ownership of the soul straining. He should run. The gate was open. He was near enough to the gate.

He didn’t.

He reached for the Soulbinder class again.

Thousands of dead voices pressed against him at once—cold, blue, resentful.

Kill. Kill him. Cursed one.

The words hissed in overlapping layers, dry as dead leaves, sharp as broken glass. Fingers that were not quite there scraped across his skin and failed, stopped by something he could not see. His own soul burned orange against the tide. He closed his eyes and forced himself to listen past the hate.

Then, faint as a dying ember, another orange spark flickered.

Inside a cave. Half-buried under the dead.

He never noticed the cave before because of all these corpses covering it. He tore the bodies aside and got in.

The air inside was colder, thicker, wet with the smell of old blood and stone. Darkness clung to the walls. Only a thin shaft of light from the gate outside reached the far end. Lila hung there, chains biting into what was left of her. Her head hung forward. For one heartbeat he only saw that she was still breathing.

"Lila. I’m here."

He punched the rock until the chains cracked. She stirred at the sound of his voice.

"Ra... Rael..."

"Yes. It’s me. You’re safe. We’re leaving."

She didn’t reply to him at first then said "I... I can’t do that Rael."

He lifted her chin with careful fingers.

The world stopped.

Empty sockets stared back at him—dark, wet, wrong. No eyes were there. Only raw hollows where light should have been.

His hands began to shake.

He slowly looked down.

Below the waist there was nothing. Only ragged ends and dried blood where her legs should have been.

The shaking worsened. His breath came short and thin. All the speed, all the fighting, all the running—and he was still too late.

A weak smile touched what was left of her mouth.

"Ra... Rael"

"I’m happy... I got to hear your voice... before the end."

She dragged in a thin breath.

"I’m glad... she didn’t take my ears."

Tears came without warning. One, then another, then a steady fall he could not stop.

"Rael... are you crying for me?" Her voice was almost gone. "Don’t. I’m happy you’re here."

"Lila—"

"I love you." The words came slow, each one costing her. "First person I ever loved. And the last I ever will. I wish we knew each other from before."

Her chest hitched. Air caught in her throat.

"I wish we had more time."

"Wait. Please. I’ll find something. I’ll heal you. Don’t go. Don’t leave me alone."

She smiled the way she never had before—soft, certain, finished.

"I’m not leaving. I’ll stay just by your side. Just look for me there."

Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. Her heartbeat stuttered once, then stopped.

Rael pulled her against him, he hugged her dead body tightly against himself. Her body started to stiffen as time passed.

"No. No, no, wait—please—"

He pressed his face into her hair and whispered the words she would never hear.

"I... I love you too."

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