CHAPTER 25: REUNION? (3)

Elias walked closer and closer towards me. He showed no signs of hesitation.

"Eli! You really don't remember me?" I shouted in a mix of anger, sadness, and desperation.

"...What are you doing, woman?" He answered me. His husky voice had a hint of anger, and he did not even spare a glance towards my sign.

My heart sank.

I let down my arms, and my legs felt like jellies.

I'm... I'm very sure he was the same Eli as the one in my dreams. No doubt about it, from the appearance to the voice, they all matched. But something was definitely off with him.

And the biggest difference was... He no longer looked at me the way he did before.

He really didn't remember me.

"You... How the hell did you forget about me!?" I lashed out at him with my fists at my side, trembling.

"Stop spouting nonsense. Hand me the soul." He extended his arm towards me.

"I don't have it on me. More importantly, what happened to you!?" I replied.

"If you don't plan to cooperate, then I won't play nice." He sighed, and all of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain on my neck.

"Kkh--!" I winced as he strangled my neck tightly with his right hand, leaving me no room to struggle.

"I don't go easy on women." He glared coldly at me. I've never seen his cold gaze before in my life.

I tried to pull his elbow down to escape his hold, but no matter how hard I pulled, his tough arm never budged, not even by an inch.

His eyes scanned me from the top of my head all the way down until he stopped at my right pocket.

"There, huh?" He reached into my pocket with his free hand, and pulled out a little blue stone.

"...Wh-what?" I let out a question in the middle of my gasping breaths.

How did the stone get into my pocket? It was definitely with general Zhang before...

"Damn, you found it, huh... Even though I went through the trouble of slipping it..." General Zhang spoke.

Elias said nothing and put the stone inside his coat.

"No-- ugh!"

He landed a powerful blow to my stomach and threw me aside to the ground. I curled up into a ball while holding my stomach. It was so painful that I felt as if the air had escaped my lungs altogether.

"Chaerin!" Jeanne crawled to my side.

"Kkh! Cough!" I wheezed and tried my best to stabilize my breathing.

Elias didn't even bother to check on me and instead started to walk towards where general Zhang was laying down.

"You think you could fool me with your petty trick?" Elias stomped on general Zhang's hand, making a cracking sound.

"Heh, I didn't expect the edgy prince to be this perceptive." General Zhang smirked at him even though his hand was misshapen.

Elias took out the stone again, and put the stone in his mouth.

'Crack!'

"See this? If it was real, the mission would've already been completed," Elias said as he ate the stone, "this counterfeit is well-made. I don't know where you got it from, but--cough!" Elias suddenly grabbed his chest.

"Cough--! Is this... Poison?" Elias stumbled backwards.

"Jeanne! Get the stone!" General Zhang shouted.

"Yes!" Jeanne immediately used her wind magic to retrieve the real serpent's soul from inside general Zhang's pocket.

The moment the stone fell into her grasp, I saw a black coat flutter in front of me.

"Too bad, but poison won't do much against me." Elias had recovered and was now stomping on Jeanne's injured leg.

"Arghh--!" Jeanne screamed in pain as her leg's wound opened up, and warm blood started to trickle down her leg once more.

"Eli, you're out of your mind!" I kicked his leg as hard as I could, but it heeded no result.

My pupils trembled as I saw Jeanne gasping for air while Eli kept stomping on her without a shred of emotion on his face, aside from anger.

This wasn't the Eli that I once knew.

"I'll take the soul." He leaned down to grab the stone in Jeanne's hand.

I reached out and snatched the stone first before he was able to, and popped it into my mouth out of spite.

"Fuck you, Eli."

'Crack!'

--------

Meanwhile, Owen was heading straight to the serpent's lair on his cheetah earth golem. He was approaching with a tremendous speed.

'Why are there no signs of monsters here? Did general Zhang's squad kill all of them? ...Or did they all flee?' Owen thought as he looked around the barren terrain.

"Damn it, what the hell is happening?" Owen cursed as he tried to think of any possible events that might have caused this.

Out of nowhere, a voice echoed in his head.

"Help!" A woman's voice alerted him.

"Yoo Chaerin?" Owen's eye widened upon hearing her voice.

"Yoo Chaerin, is that you? Report to me! Where are you? What's happening?" Owen responded with loads of questions.

However, silence was the only thing that answered him. No reply came from her.

Owen bit his lip, and commanded his golem, "faster, boy! We're almost there!"

--------

...

It hurt.

It hurt so damn much.

I couldn't see anything. Everything around me was pitch-black. I couldn't even sense or feel anything.

How long had it been since I ate that damn stone?

I tried to call out to anyone, but nothing came out of my mouth. I tried to grab something, anything, but nothing was there.

Was this the afterlife? Was I doomed in hell for all the sins I had committed? ...I didn't like this place.

[Well, well, well... A new child, I see...]

...The fuck? Who was talking?

[Calm down, child. No need to be so aggressive. You've cursed twice here already.]

It could read my mind? Really? Um, cereal first or milk first?

[Cereal. It's been long since I've had some, though.]

It really could read my mind. Oh god, that was so freaky. I hope I didn't accidentally think about weird stuff. Bread bread bread bread bread...

[Child, it's pointless to ignore me.]

Two plus two is four. Minus one that's three. Three by three equals nine.

[Child, listen to me. Do you want to go back or stay here forever?]

Huh? I could go back? How?

[Finally, you're listening.] The voice let out a deep sigh.

[I am the serpent's soul. The third one. It's been long since I've had a visitor.] It chuckled a little.

Well, serve me tea or something then, since I had gone through the trouble to visit you, a lonely old serpent.

[First of all, you can't eat or drink here. Second, I'm not old. If converted to human age, I'm just a bit older than you, so you should call me big bro or something.]

...Could you just get to the point?

[Fine, fine. Let me go inside you, and you can come back.]

Excuse you?

[Yeah. To activate the serpent's soul, which is me, I need to fuse with your mana. Don't worry, I will help you unlock your potential. It's a win-win situation for both of us.]

By fusing, did you mean like, taking over my body?

[No, of course not. You see your white-haired friend over there? Well, you will sort of become like that. He has a tiger, and you will have me. With the added bonus of me unlocking your unexplored mana. Great deal, huh?]

This felt shady... What were the drawbacks? There was no way it could be this good.

[Well, the drawback is, if the fusion failed, you just die. Not a big deal.]

What the hell? That was a big deal for me! Sigh... So this was how it feels to be scammed. Jeanne, Dmitri, I'm sorry for lying to you guys...

[Hey, I'm offering you a chance here! If you don't take my offer, you'd die anyway.] The voice huffed.

So I didn't have a choice. Man, I was scammed hard. Oh well, let's just get on with it...

I sighed.

[It's a deal then! Nice to meet you~]

Suddenly, my vision was filled with a flash of light, enabling me to see my surroundings.

I was drowning in some sort of bright blue water, and yet I could breathe without a problem and I could see clearly without the water stinging my eyes.

"Hey there!" A chirpy voice came from behind me.

I turned around, and saw a tanned, well-built man floating around. He had long, dark blue hair that turned bright blue at the tips, which perfectly complimented his pair of piercing yellow eyes. His locks fluttered softly alongside his robe that barely covered his chest and abs.

"Why do you look like this?" I frowned. Oh, wait, I could talk now?

"Why? Don't you like it? Ladies used to love it when I'm in this form." He tilted his head to the side.

"Context matters. In this situation, I would prefer it if you'd just use your serpent form..." I facepalmed myself. I'd much rather fuse with a serpent than a human. It would be creepy as fuck to fuse with his human form, although he sure was pleasing to the eyes.

"Well, if you say so..."

In the blink of an eye, the man before me had turned into a cute little chubby snake with huge eyes staring at me.

"Y-your snake form is this cute!?" I shouted as a rosy pink blush crept into my cheeks.

I subconsciously extended my hand to give him pat-pats on the head while I squeal internally.

"Hm-hm. Praise me, the almighty serpent." He proudly raised his cute little head.

"Hehe, good boy, good boy~" I eagerly scratched his neck, earning a soft purr from him.

"Wait-- no! I almost got carried away. Ahem-- let's start the fusing process."

"Ah, wait--"

I couldn't finish my sentence as a blinding light engulfed me, and I lost my consciousness.

--------

"Chaerin!" Jeanne shook the unmoving body in front of her.

"Foolish. Did she think she could endure the fusing?" A frown appeared on Elias' face. He clenched his fists as he felt his emotions swell up.

He didn't know whether they were anger, annoyance, pity, or probably worry. All he knew was unknown emotions started to fill his heart, and he didn't know how to handle it.

He quickly turned around, getting ready to leave because he had failed to retrieve what he came for. But more so because he didn't like the sudden emotions he was feeling.

"Tch. That little cub was too feisty for her own good." General Zhang squirmed on the ground, trying to break free of Elias' shackles, while his gaze was fixed on the unconscious girl beside Jeanne.

Jeanne put a hand on the girl's chest, and her expression suddenly became horrid. Her eyes widened, and her mouth gaped.

"Her mana has disappeared."