102 Mistand 4

Fast.

It raced down and tore a hole into the delicate flesh. A red flower bloomed and laid it seeds onto the ground, slowly dripping and running down the sides of the pale and thin arm.

The sharp tip of the blade stirred inside the hole and moved to the right threatening to sever the veins, nerves and bone.

"Hurry up," Third said, "The arm belongs to me!"

A nauseous, suffocating cloud welled up inside Lia and her teary eyes drowned the scene before her. The agony of having her arm about to cut off was too numbing to even recognise anything else.

Losing an arm through an ordinary weapon wasn't harming to an immortal. After all, the limbs would grow back and any scars healed on their own, however, pain was still vibrantly felt.

Misty fog and vibrating steps enveloped the space of the house and poured through the windows and the open front entrance. The blood puddle ran along the ground, carrying a path of unforgiveness and no return.

The wet drops falling from glassy eyes echoed in silence before it was destroyed by muffled screams and shouts. Weightlessly, a body was taken into strong and gentle arms, carried out of the house.

Hair fell over the stained face and the limp arm hung in the air and the fingertips released the last drops of colour painting the scene left behind into a justified disaster.

Lia slowly turned her head to look back and saw the gradually smaller sight of the house with the four men chased by the ghosts, vanish. She looked up and saw Mika's young but determined face. She looked further down and saw a talisman sticking out of his clothes close to his chest.

And then she closed her eyes and drifted into a deep slumber to replenish the blood loss and her mangled flesh. Her tears of torment evaporated in the white mist and so long a lone figure with a frail body in his arms marched through the endless white of Mistand.

The surrounding ghosts curiously looked on but couldn't dare to get closer and so formed a path for the lone figure to walk through.

A path befitting for victory, at the sidelines left behind evil, followed and accompanied by loud screams and shouts reminiscing a triumphant and glorious symphony.

And for a while, this self-justified march carried on until the person in the arms awoke and thawed the cold atmosphere tainting the holder.

"Mika?" Lia cautiously asked and stared at him. She moved around and Mika's arms only held her tighter. Lia didn't know what to do. She looked at her wound. It has fully healed already.

"I'm fine now you can let me down."

Yet Mika neither heard nor did what Lia said.

"Mika," Lia pinched his face and startled Mika stopped.

"Oh," he let out and put Lia to the ground and then gave her a talisman. Astonished Lia viewed it, "You can summon this now?"

Mika also couldn't explain. When he saw how Lia pushed him down the stairs while she was captured by the men, when he saw how they held her down and tortured her, when he was aware she was saving him, sacrificing herself for him, something inside Mika snapped and he used every cell of his body to pray, pray and pray he could help her.

Anything was fine. Mika knew he was no match against these men and he only dragged Lia down, so how could he beat them?

Simple. By using his power.

It wasn't easy luring the ghosts to the house and summoning the talisman to let the ghosts kill the men while he saved Lia. He had no idea how he was able to but for a brief second his power gave him a chance and he gladly took it.

If he were to do it again, he was afraid he couldn't. Only after training relentlessly could he go on a higher level and protect what he wanted.

If he was honest he never thought Lia would do something like this, prioritising someone else's life over hers, over her goals and wants.

But here he was being proved wrong by the person he would serve as her loyal ally. Being proved wrong by the one and only person he'd acknowledge as the Immortal King.

Yet he would never admit it. Never. To him, Lia still wasn't worthy enough.

He tore his gaze off her and walked forwards evading her stare.

"I guess so," he answered her after a while. Lia followed him by grabbing his clothes. She wasn't hurt anymore but she still felt a bit exhausted and had no strength left.

Being carried by Mika was comfortable but awkward. Especially his expression was ferocious, he looked like he'd tear anything down that'd come into his way.

"Thank you. For saving me," Lia said and Mika briefly stopped before moving again.

"Next time don't do something reckless again. It's a pain."

Lia felt helpless. In his eyes she would always be reckless.

"Ok," she simply answered.

"And there's no need to thank me. I only did what I should after you… you… whatever," Mika accelerated his pace and Lia had a hard time catching up.

"Wait," Lia huffed and at once Mika instantly slowed down his pace.

"Are you angry?"

"Yes I am!" surprisingly Mika admitted and faced Lia, "You have no regards for anyone's or even your own life! There was no need to get yourself hurt like that!"

"What else could there be done?" Lia was at a loss at his anger.

"Instead of pushing me down, we could've just run!"

Lia didn't want to argue with him and only said, "Yeah ok. We'll do what you say next time."

"There's no next time!" with that Mika stomped away again.

Lia was amused. Mika was quite endearing like this. The mortals had a word for people like him. What was it again? It started with a T.

However, there was something else that pestered Lia and it was the identity of the men and their goal. They talked about eating her, so she concluded they were cannibals but for immortals to eat others wasn't normal.

Mortals needed to eat because they wouldn't survive but immortals only ate out of enjoyment. Either these men were crazy and truly liked eating immortals or they had another reason.

Thinking about it, it might be the latter. The former was simply too frightening. Since an immortal could heal, they can be endlessly eaten.

This was one of the worst tortures there could be.

"Mika, who do you think they were?" Lia pulled on Mika's clothes.

"I guess they were the ones building the gate. They might have held many people like this."

"So, they're deliberately living in Mistand but how? They only have ordinary weapons and there are ghosts everywhere, so how are they able to survive until now?"

If they really lived in Mistand the whole time, this simply didn't add up. They didn't have powers and their weapons couldn't kill ghosts, so why would they stay here?

"You're right. That's weird," Mika also found it strange.

"And did you hear? They wanted to eat us, talking about having a big feast."

Mika shuddered, "Inhumane," was the only thing he could say which was a bit funny because immortals were literally inhumane.

"Because they aren't from here," a clear and deep voice caught Lia's and Mika's attention, seamlessly integrating into their conversation.

Mika and Lia froze.

Who was this? Where did it come from?