Not Willing to Lose You

This scene… she probably had seen it at least. No, it was incomparable to the sights of the old world so it couldn't be a stray memory from the past. The land was consumed by sand that darkened considerably from the edge of Ellis Plains and into the horizon. There were shadows of mountains where the night sky and the dark sands met. If anything, it looked like some kind of barren land from thereon… before arriving in the oasis of Ellis Plains.

"Ah, I see him!" Artie wanted to familiarize herself with the sights, but the counter was ticking down like crazy. She needed to prioritize Miel more than anything even if she didn't know why she needed to choose between the two people. After a few minutes of flying, she looked down into the distance and saw a cream-colored horse rushing towards a direction. Far before that figure was a group of black horses.

Cold light kept on glinting from the black horses, and the cream-colored horse was swaying left and right. He was under attack! The cold light must be from arrows that were shot back towards Miel and Sepia. Artie then growled as she moved her wings to prepare for a dive. She was determined to make use of her indestructible body and her zero-percent mortality to act as a bomb to derail the black horses.

"I'm diving, Larkin! Be ready to jump off so you wouldn't get caught in the explosion!"

Larkin tried to stabilize himself on the changing motion. He was getting ready to jump anytime Artie wished to crash into the sand. "Be careful, Artie. Those men know no death from a simple whip of wind."

Soon, the altitude dipped as Artie screamed and attracted the attention of the riders of the black horses. Larkin jumped off of the bird's back and summoned the Black Kodiak from the shadow the humongous bird had cast. The horse caught him without a problem and even slowed down to meet Sepia.

The black riders were indeed trying to shoot down Sepia, but Miel was good at controlling her slightest movements. It's just that… the wind was too strong that Miel couldn't attack back!

Luckily, they were too focused on running and shooting down the seneschal that they didn't see that a humongous white bird had flown overhead. The next thing they know was that something made a shrill cry on top of them. When they looked up, a white bird turned into white light and nosedived into the center.

Boom! The sand exploded from the impact, throwing the horses and riders into the wind. Larkin held his left hand out and created a force field up ahead to keep the gust from hitting him and Miel as they both slowed down just before it. Miel's eyes were wide from all the action he had seen, but he was more concerned about a certain body within the group of black riders.

"Miel, stay here!" Larkin gave an order as he dispersed the black force field and rode ahead to deal with the black-clad riders. Before Miel could speak, the black mist dropped a battered woman on his lap. He then gasped as he held onto her: "Jillian! You're alive!"

"...Miel?" Jillian could barely move. Aside from the exhaustion of interrogation and staying inside the castle's dungeon for a few hours, Jillian was also beaten up by the black-clad riders. Moreover, she was fed with poison that would soon spoil her entire body, leaving nothing but gray-veined skin and an insufferable stench.

She then stared into the eyes of her childhood friend before trying to touch his face with her purpled hands and broken nails. "Miel… you shouldn't have bothered. The poison in my body… it can only kill me now. You shouldn't have cared… now, you're all alone again. This is betrayal… they will… never forgive you for letting me escape…

"Even if you… didn't let me do so… they will tell you those words. You… we… we are nothing but tools to the rich. Soon… the capital and the archduchy would go to war..." She choked out some saliva that had already produced a putrid smell. "I wanted to save you… but I am… very incapable..."

Miel gasped. "Stop with the nonsense! Jillian, you need to hold on. I will find you a herbalist. You will not die."

He then pressed her against him as if offering his body warmth to the dying woman. "I need to find you a source of warmth. And the poison… it wouldn't be able to kill you that fast. As long as you hold on, Jillian… we will live. Everyone else… I already fulfilled my promise to everyone else… but you…

"Don't you dare die on me. I might not be a hero, but I will still be able to give you a good life. Jillian… you need to stay with me… I won't… I'm not willing to lose you again..."

However, he couldn't just leave. Larkin had jumped into battle for him. If he left without a word, what kind of person would he be? Besides, they were too far from the archduchy. Even if he rode back, what was his guarantee that Jillian's body could still be salvaged from the poison? Wouldn't he just be bringing a poisoned corpse back?

On the battlefield, Larkin summoned his black mist and swatted against the men in black robes. These whips were supposed to be so sharp that it could slice through bone like how a sword could cut a fruit. However, his attacks could only slap and bruise the already disoriented riders. 'What is this? Demon servants?!'

"You can't kill the immortal, archduke!" The leader of the riders laughed out and evaded a whip. Another rider threw something at Kodiak's feet and blasted the archduke off of his back. The leader then pulled out a sword and ran to strike at Larkin. "You will die!"

Larkin rolled to stick a landing. He then rolled some more to evade the slashes of the leader. However, his eyes strayed to a spot where Artie was pathetically running around to avoid getting cut by the other riders. "Artie!" He then used the black whips to throw the leader away before running to get to Artie's spot.

The angel was practically helpless. Even if she had the Authority Conquest activated, she had no actual weapon against these riders. Unlike before where she could make use of Callum's blade and bow, even Larkin's shadow whips were nothing against these demon servants. She could only clench her teeth as she shook the System to help her out… however, it just kept on initializing something…

[Initializing… initializing… initializing...]

'Come on! I don't care what you do! Just do it!'

[Threat detected! System shutting down!]

'What?!' Artie gasped as she felt like she was losing something from inside her. However, when she turned to the side, a rider swung down an ax to cleave at her. Without the protection of Heaven's Creation, she might die. Her world slowed down to a quarter of a second as she watched the cold light of the blade reflecting the moon's glow.

Bang! When the blade hit, her vision went black!