Electrical Shock

Aries absorbed the corrupted soul from the body of the guard. It was the heaviest essence he had devoured in the House of Pitcher.

Both he and the guard had collapsed on the ground.

"Can you still get up?" Aries asked the guard as he pulled his blades away.

The guard weakly nodded.

"Then go," Aries commanded.

As the guard got up on his feet and ran away from there, Aries observed his surroundings and made sure that the guard could successfully escape.

"You've changed," a woman standing near the closed gate had spoken.

Nearly twenty corrupted souls were circling around her that Aries failed to notice her presence the moment they arrived in that area.

Another Celestial Knight must be possessing that vessel.

Aries changed the form of his dual blades into a bow and shot at the hovering corrupted souls. Absorbing one dark essence was like devouring blocks of rocks. And the weight of all eighteen corrupted souls had drained his energy, caused him to cough out blood, and forced him to drop on his knees.

"You were cold and decisive. You will never hesitate to kill a person for the success of your mission. This world had weakened you."

Those words made Aries uneasy. He never wanted to make a conversation with a Celestial Knight until he had absorbed them. But that one made him extremely curious.

"Who are you?" he asked since he also needed time to recover his strength.

"You cannot recognize me. This is getting more disappointing."

As the woman marched slowly towards his direction, her impassive face had become clearer. But Aries could only glimpse the form of the vessel and not the corrupted soul possessing the body.

"You've become weak and now you failed to recognize me," the woman unsheathed a dagger and knelt in front of him. "You broke my heart again."

Aries was too confounded that he failed to fully dodge the dagger aimed at his chest. Though it failed to pierce his heart, the blade had caught his left shoulder. He ignored the pain and pushed the woman down on the ground and pierced her shoulder with one of his dual blades.

Instead of gasping in pain, the woman laughed.

"You used to aim at people's throats. The people in this world had weakened you."

"Who are you?" Aries asked again and pointed his other blade at the throat of his dreadfully familiar opponent.

"You will take my soul, won't you? Do it and you will eventually know," the corrupted soul was challenging him.

For a moment, Aries could neither speak nor move. He should take all the corrupted souls he encounters but that one was awfully different. He had this feeling that it was wrong to absorb that essence.

"Hell is where we should be. We can conquer that place," the woman pulled the blade from the shoulder of Aries. "Let's go there together."

Those words made Aries realize that his intuition was wrong. That corrupted soul was not the person he thought it might be. He grabbed the blade aimed at his chest and stopped it from piercing his heart. While resisting the dagger, he began absorbing the corrupted soul.

Shocking electricity flowed from the vessel but Aries did not let go of the blade. He had to absorb that infuriating corrupted soul who made him think that his beloved had become one of them.

It was unforgivable.

He endured the jolting electricity radiating from the corrupted soul.

"Will you… kill me again?"

Aries froze. A thousand thoughts came flooding in his mind as he heard that familiar voice.

The corrupted soul must be playing with his mind. But what if it was truly his beloved?

The first time he tried to summon her spirit, there was that jolt of electricity. But he also felt it when he absorbed the soul of Venera. Female souls must have a shocking effect the more they resist his devouring ability.

But what if she was truly his beloved?

"Come with me to Hell."

Aries got a glimpse of the corrupted soul but he was not sure if his mind or the corrupted soul was only playing tricks on him, or if he was seeing the true form of that dark essence.

Was it was truly his beloved?

The dagger touched his chest but it did not pierce his heart. It was the woman who had been stabbed. A sword had punctured her back, cut through her heart, and sliced her chest.

"My Aries…" the corrupted soul cried as she had been ejected out of the body. "I… will wait for you."

The dark essence had floated away from him and vanished past the misty barriers. Aries remained frozen. Whether it was the truth or not, he could not absorb that soul no matter how corrupted it might be.

"Aries, what happened?"

The one who had killed the vessel was Princess Pieffer. She had carefully placed the dead body away so she could kneel in front of Aries.

"Is that another Celestial Knight?"

"Can a Celestial Knight cast an illusion?" Aries finally managed to open his mouth.

"I'm not sure if Mercielle can cast an illusion but she knows a lot of forbidden crafts. It might be possible."

Aries sighed. It would be easier to believe that the corrupted soul was Mercielle instead of his beloved.

His Pieffer would never be a corrupted soul.

"I'm sorry. I let one of them slip away," Aries glanced at the misty barrier.

"You will get her anyway," she put her healing hands over his wounds.

Aries noticed only then that Princess Pieffer was pale and her blood-stained hands were trembling.

"The barrier here had more cracks than the Western Border," Princess Pieffer was staring anxiously at the misty barricade. "We should inform the guards."

"I'm sorry. You had to kill that woman because I was a fool," he held the trembling hands of the princess. "I failed to save her. It was not your fault that she died. It's all mine."

"I'm not regretting anything," Princess Pieffer smiled nervously. "And this is not the first time. I'm just… like this every time. I will be fine."

"We should take a rest," Aries carried the princess in his arms.

^########^

The guard who talked privately with Princess Pieffer earlier had welcomed Aries and the princess in his house.

"Forgive me, Sir Aries," the guard dropped on his knees and lowered his head on the ground. "I should not have listened to the corrupted soul. I should not have taken Princess Pieffer away…"

"It's already done," Aries was sitting on the window sill, feeling drained. His mind was restless and his heart was pounding unevenly. "The important thing was that the borders are safe for now. We will only rest for an hour. You can go and check the woman that we failed to save from the corrupted souls."

"Thank you, Sir Aries!" the guard hurriedly marched out of the house and a deafening silence had followed his absence.

"That guard is Jerry Nails," Princess Pieffer had broken the uncomfortable silence. "He was telling me a lot of annoying things. I thought I was good at listening to people's troubles but when he shared his problems with the recipes he was creating, I nearly yelled out my frustration. Fortunately for both of us, the guard that came with you had returned. When I saw that he was wounded, I was worried. I told Nails to take care of the wounded guard then I ran to check up on you," she paused for a moment before cautiously asking, "What happened back there? Did she… make you see unpleasant things? Or…"

Her voice faded as her body vanished.

At the same time, Aries heard a distant voice calling his name and he felt himself being pulled with a speed that was nauseating and blinding. Everything around him became flashes of white and black lines then, after an agonizing eternity, his body suddenly stopped moving and he found himself standing on the Central Island.

Princess Pieffer was also in there but she was not as dizzy as Aries had been. Though her face was pale, it was not because of their sudden transportation.

Prince Sunrei was in deep trouble and he was the one who had summoned Princess Pieffer and Aries in that place.

The prince was badly beaten and desperately struggling while he was being pinned on the ground by two of the guards there on Central Island. Merrick was kneeling over him with a hand over his forehead. He must be reclaiming his true body.

Aries and Princess Pieffer moved to help the prince but ten guards and ten household maids had blocked their way. All of them were possessed.

Princess Pieffer unsheathed her sword and faced the household maids. Aries wielded his dual blades and fought the guards.

They were both surprised as all the guards and the household maids possessed excellent fighting skills. It seemed that Quaria had trained them well and the corrupted souls were maximizing the use of their abilities.

It was the first time Aries had difficulty landing his blades at the possessed vessels. Princess Pieffer was also having a tough time but she was gracefully battling them out.

Though not as fast as before, Aries was confident that they could defeat the corrupted souls but right at that moment, they had to get to Prince Sunrei.

Aries could not see the soul from the body of Prince Sunrei but he could sense the soul of the Celestial Knight Sunrei. He was starting to enter his true body.

They had to knock every vessel unconscious as fast as they could.

"Are you worried?"

A housemaid attacked from behind Aries just as he was done absorbing the corrupted soul from the sixth vessel. He quickly turned around and blocked the blade of the woman.

He glanced at the princess and was a little relieved that she already knocked five enemies and she was now battling four housemaids at the same time.

The one that came to attack Aries managed to escape from her strict offensive.

"If you want to save my brother, you have to kill these vessels," the housemaid took a step backward before slashing her blade.

Aries caught the dagger with his dual blades but he was slow to counterattack because that feeling of uneasiness came rushing back to him.

"That will be faster," the woman smiled wickedly.

"You…"

"Yes, my love," the look on the face of the woman had softened and so was her voice. "I am your Pieffer."

^#######^