Page 26

“Has he already started stripping you of your humanity little by little, leaving you vulnerable and bare?” Aaron paused, then shook his head, amused. “I guess that’s not necessary. You were vulnerable enough if you willingly colluded with the kinds who were responsible for your mother’s death.”

One moment, Evan was sitting slumped against a tree, and the next, he was forcefully tugged underwater. Cold, icy water gushed into his lungs, tormenting breath after breath out of his body until he succumbed to the claws of suffocation.

A blue spark fluttered between his fingertips despite Thousand Knots binding him. “What the fuck did you say?”

“The truth. Remember what happened that night, Evan,” Aaron crouched before him, staring at him with those strange, glowing eyes. “What did happen seventeen years ago? The night Mercy Blackwood died.”

Evan couldn’t recall. He had tried so many times throughout the years. But his brain had simply erased that traumatizing night from his memory to spare him from suffering the horrors of that night over and over again. Only a few hazy bits remained scarred across his conscience, none in order. One of which was his mother combusting into flames.

Had…his mother been killed by a demon? Had Xen—

No!

Evan flinched. The sudden cry that echoed from within him startled him back to the present. He shook his head, slapping away the thought before it rose.

Xen had been locked away for a long time in the containment mirror. Even if Evan wasn’t sure whether it was for three hundred years or just a few decades, he remembered how worn that mirror looked. There was no way Xen was around that time to hurt his mother.

And even if a demon had been responsible for his mother’s death, how could he blame Xen for that? Xen had come to Evan's rescue more times than he could remember, without expecting anything in return.

Evan thanked that small voice at the back of his head for clearing his thoughts. He inhaled deeply, then raised his eyes to Aaron again. “Dude, what kind of logic is that? If a mad, rabid dog bit my cat, do you expect me to slaughter all dogs in my neighborhood?”

Aaron’s brow arched. “You talk.”

“Untie me, and I’ll show you what else I can do.”

After regarding him for a moment, Aaron chuckled, “The same face, the same voice, yet your soul…is broken in half,” he mused. “You aren’t what you used to be, are you? You don’t remember.”

“No wonder you chose Aaron as your host. You have a habit of rambling too.”

Delos chuckled in a corner. Only then did Aaron notice his presence. Even though Delos was a remarkably “bright” figure in the ghostly setting, Aaron had only sought out Evan.

Aaron’s narrowed purple eyes widened ever so slightly as they met Delos’s. He shot up to his feet and barked to the limping subordinate, “Why is he here?”

The subordinate jumped, then bowed his head deeply. “I d-don’t know, M-My Lord. He was brought in earlier by the p-patrolling guards.”

A muscle fluttered in Aaron’s jaws as he glared down at Delos, and the silver-haired lad grinned in response. “Hi.”

That seemed to irritate Aaron even more. “I see you’re as annoying as I remember.”

Delos tilted his head. “And you’re as persistent as a cockroach.”

Evan choked on a laugh, muffling it with a cough.

Aaron’s chest heaved with barely restrained rage. “Why are you here?”

Delo’s silver eyelashes fluttered as he glanced at the limping cult member with a playful look. “Your people invited me to become a disciple.”

The limping guy shook his head vigorously. “N-No, My Lord! He’s lying, don’t believe him!”

Of course, Aaron didn’t believe him. Delos’s amused expression made it more than obvious he wasn’t serious.

Ignoring the way Aaron’s nostrils flared, Delos chirped, “Come now. I still believe there’s a path of redemption for you. Why not step down while there’s still time?”

“Redemption…” Aaron scoffed, then ran a hand through his dusty brown hair. He seemed to want to retort, but the light in his eyes suddenly blazed. He froze.

Boom!

As lightning struck above, Aaron crashed to his knees, hugging his head, screaming in agony.

Evan flinched, never having heard his best friend wail like that, then reflexively leapt to his knees. Reaching forward with his bound hands, he grabbed Aaron’s shoulder. “Aaron, what is it? What’s happening? Aaron!”

Hurried footsteps marched in their direction, and several cloak-clad figures emerged from the darkness around them.

Aaron growled low in his throat and looked up, teeth bared. For a moment, the light from his eyes faded, brimming with recognition as he stared at Evan.

He lunged forward and caught Evan’s shoulders as the figures closed in. “Don’t let them cut it! Don’t let them cut it down, Evan! You have to stop them!”

Evan gasped as his fingers dug into his skin. “What…?”

Nine pairs of arms grabbed Aaron, dragging him off of Evan. But he persisted, clutching onto Evan’s bound hands, eyes pleading. “Stop them, Evan.”

“Let go of him!” Evan barked, but the cult members ignored him.

It took over a dozen of them to hold Aaron down, while one individual emerged from the crowd, face hooded under the cloak. He raised two fingers, the tips glowing with spiritual energy as he struck the back of Aaron’s neck.

Soundlessly, he collapsed.

“You fucking freaks!” Evan tried to stop them from carrying Aaron away, but with his feet bound, he couldn’t give chase. “Leave him alone!"

But they were already gone, along with the unconscious Aaron.

With another string of curses, Evan flopped back on his heels, fuming as he looked around, searching for something. Anything. He had to get out of these bindings. Or maybe try to summon Xen, or fucking crawl away on his stomach to help Aaron. There was no way he could sit still anymore. Things were getting out of hand.

“Evan,” Delos called softly. “Do you want to get out of here?”

With a frustrated huff, Evan turned to him. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do all this time?”

Delos’s eyes were calm, but his smile had vanished. “I didn’t say ‘chase after your friend’ or ‘stop the ritual’ . I asked whether you want to get out of here.”

Evan fell silent at that. Could he leave Aaron behind, in the midst of these monsters who were trying to melt his brain into a pulp? Could he let them sacrifice those fifteen innocent lives and unleash a disaster into this world?

In response, Aaron’s dark blue eyes flashed in his vision, warm and friendly. A smile that could brighten any room. That vision was followed by his pleading eyes just now, his screams of agony.

With a clench of his jaw, Evan looked away. “I’m not going anywhere. You can leave.”

A beat of silence passed, then Delos said, “Why are you trying to help these people?”

Evan chuckled, mirthlessly. “Fuck if I know.”

“Perhaps because you’re not as bad as you think you are?”

“Are you done?”

With a chuckle, Delos was back to his bubbly self. He snapped his fingers behind his back, and the ropes binding his upper body loosened and dropped around his hips.

Evan’s mouth gaped open when Delos reached forward and softly tugged at the Thousand Knots binding his wrist. The spell-bound rope, sizzled and turned to ash without so much as a spark scorching Evan’s wrist.

It took him a few seconds to look away from his free hands to the crystal blue eyes smiling at him. “You could’ve done that all this time? Why didn’t you?”

Delos winked. “Where’s the fun in that? Come on, let’s go.”

As he grabbed Evan and started dragging him in the opposite direction from the Tomb of Ascension, Evan frowned. “Wait, where are we going? I’m not leaving without Aaron.”

“We’re not escaping,” Delos led the way, weaving effortlessly through the overgrown forest. “We’re going to get reindorsement.”

Evan face-palmed himself. “Re inforcement ?”

“Exactly.”

As they moved through the forest, lightning roared across the sky again. The distant rumble of the gongs vibrated across Evan’s skin. Owls hooted, beasts howled in the depths of the woods, and the trees swayed aggressively, their crowns almost grazing the ground. It seemed as though the forest had come alive.

“What is happening?”

Delos slightly quickened his pace. “Keep an eye out. The forest will try to stop us from leaving.”

“Why?”

Before Delos could respond, something leapt out of the darkness ahead of them, and the pair came to an abrupt halt. Dirt and dry leaves flew into their faces.

Evan coughed, waving his hands through the dust. When his vision cleared, his heart leapt up his throat. “Holy f-fuck…”

He was looking at… Was that a dog?

No, a wolf maybe.

No, no, no. It wasn’t an animal from this world at all.

The dog-like creature towered at over twenty feet, baring a maw full of razor-sharp fangs that were each longer than Evan’s forearm. Two scarlet eyes glowed in its face like molten lava. And as if that wasn’t horrifying enough, a third eye cracked open vertically in the center of its forehead.

A low growl rumbled in its throat as the hound prowled forward, its tails swishing threateningly behind it.

Yes, tails . Not one, or two. Not even five.

Seven unnaturally long tails danced in a haunting rhythm behind the beast, each stretching over six feet, and ending in a venomous spike.

If there ever was a visual representation of “devil’s pet,” this would be it.

Evan motionlessly stared at the hound, Delos equally still beside him. Slowly they started backing away—

Thump!

The pair spun around and craned their necks once again, coming face-to-face with another giant, humanoid structure.

Thump. Thump.

By now, Evan was familiar with that noise.

Rocks tumbled from the body of the creature, raining boulders as its steps quaked the earth.

Just what was missing. A Hellguard.

“Stay calm,” Evan whispered, glancing between the incredibly sharp-eared demon and the three-eyed hound. “Just stay calm.”

Delos replied softly. “I’m calm though—”

“ I was talking to myself! ”

The hound growled, closing in with a predatory glint in its eyes. But they couldn’t step back; the Hellguard behind was blocking the route of escape. On the remaining two sides, there were thorny bushes that exceeded Evan in height, threatening to tear through flesh just as viciously as the two beasts.

They were completely trapped.

Delos started, "Evan—”

“Just stay where you are. Don’t move,” he tried to summon his spiritual energy into his palm to conjure a weapon, but the after-effects of the Thousand Knots was still lingering in his system, restricting the stable flow of energy.

Light flickered weakly between his pressed palms but quickly faded away. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! You seriously can’t be acting up right now.”

He punched his abdomen where his core sat, as if hitting a malfunctioning television to get it working.

Delos moved forward to stop him. “Evan, listen—”

“Watch out!” Evan shoved Delos, sending him stumbling back against a tree as the Hellguard swung a rock his way, aim precise. The rock shattered on the ground right where Delos had been standing a moment ago. The rock cracked at the impact, a small chunk striking Evan straight in the face, knocking him back into the dirt.

Pain burst in his skull, and his vision swam as he gritted his teeth to muffle an irritated scream. When he sat up, warm blood oozed from the gash across his temple, painting half of his face red.

Delos was stuck to the tree like a fly, eyes wide. He seemed more shocked at seeing Evan’s bloody face than he was while witnessing those horrifying creatures.

Evan couldn’t focus enough to feel offended at being judged for his ragged state, when Delos’s attention suddenly moved from him to somewhere over his head. A gust of hot air blew against Evan’s back.

He stilled, then gingerly turned his head.

The three-eyed hound stood a few feet away from him, sniffing in his direction. When it smelled the blood on him, its three eyes blazed brighter.

…fuck.

It lunged.

Reflexively, Evan ducked and shielded his head, as if that could protect him. With a maw that huge, it could chomp off half of Evan’s body with a soft nibble.

But the chomp never came. Instead, something whooshed over his head at an inhuman speed. When Evan blinked up, his mouth hung open in disbelief at the scene he was witnessing.

The hound leapt, maw clamping down on the rock arm of the Hellguard. It thrashed, whipping its head violently as if determined to rip the limb off the body. Even though the demon’s body was solid rock, the hound’s fangs sank into it like it was nothing but slightly hardened meat.

The demon growled in pain and blindly grabbed the beast’s scruff, trying to pry it off its arm. When it didn’t relent, the Hellguard slammed a huge fist down on its head.

The hound jumped away with a whimper, circling its target before lunging forward again, this time from the back. It bit down onto the junction between the demon’s neck and shoulder. Those three eyes had all but turned to a live fire, sizzling amidst the greyish fur. It seemed to be looking at the figure sprawled in the dirt.

Evan stared back, holding onto his bleeding head.

Why had it not attacked him? Was Evan perhaps so tiny that he didn’t think eating him would do much for his appetite? Maybe it was saving him to use as a toothpick.

As the two raging beasts clashed, a gentle hand landed on Evan’s shoulder.

Delos’s eyebrows, for the first time since Evan had ever met him, were furrowed in tension. “You’re injured.”

Evan pressed his palm against the gash on his temple, blue sparks flickering from his palm as he tried to supply some spiritual energy to heal the wound. “Just a scratch.”

Delos helped him up, his frown deepening. “Forgive me. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have…”

Just managing to partially stop the bleeding with his spiritual energy, Evan glanced at him. “What?”

With a shake of his head, Delos grabbed Evan’s wrist. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

They once again set off in the direction where Delos was leading them, and soon came across the tree that encompassed the Old Temple. Or what remained of it.

The tree had been huge, as wide as a small house, but now it had all but reduced to ash. Charred bricks and pieces of walls of the old construction were lying in the midst. Although one stump of the temple was still defiantly standing, refusing to fall.

Delos had not let go of Evan’s wrist throughout the way and only stepped away from him when they crossed the Old Temple.

They walked across the length of the thorn walls that had been destroyed by Zeev in his frenzy last time. Crossing the overgrown shrubbery, when they entered the abandoned residential area, Evan and Delos both abruptly halted.

The thick scent of earth and fire and…resentment permeated the air. It was difficult to tell whether it was human or something else, but the heavy energy that saturated the atmosphere was too strong.

And it was headed their way.

With a mutual look of understanding, they both ducked into the nearest abandoned house. The inside of the dingy house was charred, walls plastered with a lifetime of accumulated ash and dust.

The last time when he’d come to this residential area with Xen, Evan was so engrossed in finding the relic and asking Xen questions that he’d not paid much attention to the place.

The houses were all blackened from the outside. Not due to lack of use or the heavy resentment in the air. But because they’d been burnt.

From the looks of it, this entire residential area, which could easily cover a small village, was burnt to a crisp a long time ago. If people had died in such an unfortunate event, that could explain the dense resentment and haunting of this particular patch of land.

Yet, strangely enough, no spirits had appeared before Evan even though he’d been there twice already. He didn’t even have his ring, Crimson Eye, to protect him, so why…

Creak. Creak. Creak.

The sound echoed from a distance. Evan cautiously moved to the window, Delos following close behind him. Moving the tattered curtain on the window aside, they both peeked outside at the source of the strange metallic noise.

At first, there was nothing in sight in the dark, the moonlight shedding only enough light to see the shadows of the dead trees dancing on the ground. Just when Evan was beginning to think he had imagined it, the same sound disturbed the dead silence of the night, closer this time.

Creak. Creak.

Evan’s ears twitched, and his eyes darted in the direction of the noise accurately, catching the sight of two shadows moving through the darkness.

Two tall silhouettes emerged from the overgrown bushes, gliding soundlessly across the ground. Their movements were so eerily silent, so smooth, it almost looked like they were floating. As they drew closer, Evan realized they were men, both in black hoodies. One of them was carrying something that made the strange creaking sounds.

They seemed to be talking to each other, but their words were too soft, so low that not even Evan’s sensitive ears could pick up on it. It was like a spell circled their hazy forms, restricting any ears from eavesdropping.

When they crossed the house where Evan and Delos were hiding, Evan leaned closer to the window, trying to see what the man was holding in his hand.

Silver. Chains. Smoke.

An incense burner.

A soft breath left Evan’s lips as his curiosity was sated, but that inaudible sound seemed to alert the two strangers.

The hooded silhouettes halted a couple of meters away from the house, then turned around.

Evan quickly ducked behind the curtains, one hand still holding his wounded head. With the other, he pressed his index finger to his lips as he stared at Delos, silencing him.

The silhouettes outside stared at the fluttering curtain, then looked at each other.

“Did you hear that?” the one holding the incense burner asked.

The other shook his head.

“I think it came from that house. Didn’t we already round this area once? Do you think we missed a spot?”

His partner shook his head again.

The one holding the incense burner looked at the house again, then sighed. “Probably a rat or something. Not sure I wanna run into one of those.”

As they turned away, the quiet guy glanced over his shoulder at the house, straight at the window. Under the cover of the hood, a pair of eyes narrowed.

Once the two figures disappeared, Evan finally let out the breath he was holding, afraid breathing a little too loudly would attract their attention again.

They weren’t human. Their aura was unreadable. His intuition was telling him that keeping away from those figures would be best.

When he turned, Delos was quietly frowning at the ground.

Evan tapped his shoulder. “Hey, you good?”

Delos looked up, eyes red. His chin quivered. “I’m sorry.”

Woah.

Slightly alarmed, Evan reared back. “Uh—what? Why are you apologizing? Wait...are you crying ?”

Delos looked away, using his dirty sleeves to wipe at his tearing eyes. “No.”

Evan was thoroughly dumbfounded and confused. After all, how often did a grown man unscrew his tear ducts in front of another grown man?

However, Evan wasn’t the best person to seek comfort from in such situations. It was awkward and uncomfortable, and he was more than certain he’d just make the person cry even harder if he said anything. After pondering over his words for a moment, Evan stared at the blood on his hands, then glanced back at Delos.

Was he perhaps apologizing because Evan got hurt while saving him? But crying would be a little too—

Actually, no. Considering Delos’s personality, it was possible he was traumatized looking at Evan’s bloody state.

Softening his tone, Evan nudged Delos with his elbow, not wanting to smear blood on his already soiled white clothes.

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault. Stop apologizing.”

Delos sniffled but didn’t look up. After a long pause and several more sniffles, he said, “Have you seen those people before?”

It took Evan a moment to realize he was talking about those two mysterious figures in hoodies. He glanced outside the window. “I haven’t. Though, I recognize the incense they were carrying. I’ve used them myself several times before.”

It was oak wood incense.

Something not really popular in temples or shrines. Because oak wood incense was primarily burnt to summon spirits. No matter how weak or strong, resentful or lost, every soul within a fifty-meter radius would follow the scent of the incense. The older the oak wood, the stronger its spirit-invoking powers.

Evan’s brows furrowed. “They did not have an aura, nor any traces of spiritual energy on them.”

Black clothes, no aura, wandering in the night with an incense to lure spirits… Something clicked in his head.

“Grim reapers,” Evan said, turning to Delos for confirmation. “They were grim reapers.”

Delos wiped his running nose on his dirty sleeve. “They’re patrolling the area before the Reaping Moon.”

“But don’t they harvest souls on the Reaping Moon? That’s two nights away. Why do they need to patrol now?”

“Some spirits tend to be harder to deal with than others,” Delos said. “The reapers seek out and eradicate such souls before they cause havoc on the Reaping Moon.”

That made sense. If some resentful spirits stirred up trouble, the other weaker spirits would use that commotion as a distraction to escape from the grim reapers. And their traces were so faint that hunting them down would be another headache to deal with.

“Then what about that three-eyed beast?” Evan asked, shivering involuntarily when he recalled its size. “It didn’t attack us. Instead it went for the Hellguard’s throat. Was that the reaper’s pet?”

Delos’s look of distress cracked, and he chuckled. “It certainly was a pet. But not of the reapers, I’m afraid.”

Before he could explain further, a few voices echoed outside the house again, not so far away. On guard, Evan quickly peeked outside the window through a hole in the curtain, and his eyes widened when he saw the familiar faces. With a huff of relief, he grabbed Delos and ran out of the abandoned house.

Three pairs of eyes snapped in his direction.