Eight Stained Clues - Final Chapter (2/2)

Eight Stained Clues – Final Chapter: a new chapter of my life

(Part 2)

When I opened my eyes, the world around me made me shiver, even after having visited it so many times. I tried to breathe, but I remembered it was impossible; I felt cold when my bare foot touched the land, although temperature was non-existent either. That place was so sad… It was like getting inside an old movie, a mute one from before color TV and cameras were invented: all monochromatic, with the exception or purple hues, and silent. I didn’t hear voices, I didn’t feel the breeze or the light of the sun, as there wasn’t light either… I lifted my eyes to the sky, pitch black with moving, thin grey “glitch” motives several meters above my head. Those weren’t clouds; that was unthinkable. When I took some steps on the grassy field, I perceived the grass but did not hear that soft sound of stepping. I always felt as if a small knife was piercing in my soul when I got there, hence I tried to avoid it unless my injuries didn’t give me another option. Dhorenthz had created a plane that was a mirror of his own soul, a place to stay with his minions out of our grasp. We could access that world too, but we Shadow Slayers preferred staying in the human plane for obvious reasons. It was so different from the human world… or maybe not, in some way.

I had a look at myself and growled. Each Shadow Being (and Slayers too, by definition) had its own real form, which was revealed in that plane. The human aspect was that one we all had to stay among humans without them noticing we weren’t one of them… However, since everyone left his or her body behind when getting into the plane, the soul was the only thing allowed, thus we always showed our real nature, our real aspect. We could switch whenever we wanted after dominating our Shadow Self while in the human world, but we Shadow Slayers liked staying in human form, among other reasons because it remembered us that we still kept our humanity, or part of it at least. Each Being had its unique form and I wasn’t an exception. My outfit was simple: I was wearing an old, dark grey dress which covered my shoulders and reached my knees, with a few scratches that revealed part of my white skin and torn at its edges. I was barefoot and I wasn’t wearing my hairpin or my necklace; only that dress. My eyes were sewed, yet I could fully open them, the skin and the muscles of my hands and wrists had fallen off and the bones were showing without bleeding and my feet were fusing with my shadows, so they were completely black but gradually turning to white upwards. Only my eyes had their color intact, yet they glowed slightly. I looked at my bony hands with an impassive face, thoughtful… My real self… That was me, the real Angela Schatten. I looked up and sighed. I looked like the Grim Reaper, very similar to my mother’s form. It was like a kind of sick joke from destiny, considering that death had been walking with me, almost taking my hand while slashing those I loved and those I hated alike.

I lowered my eyes and walked straight to the point where I perceived Dhorenthz’s soul. “It’s time…”

While crossing the land, a thought came to my mind. Dhorenthz had taken all my partners as prisoners, but he could have simply killed Zalgo and finish the war. Why? Why did he only kidnap my friends? “Well… it’s clear he wanted me to come…”, I murmured, yet it was reduced to the moves of my lips. Why didn’t he kill me? He could have done so at that moment if he had wished to. I opened my eyes a bit when I had that idea. “If he had wished to…”, I repeated. Of course, he didn’t want to. We wanted me to go to the Reflection Plane, obviously alone. I, knowing the risk, went there. But what for? To kill me easier? No, because he could have done that earlier, when I was younger. “He didn’t kill me… because… because… he needs me.”, at that moment, I froze. It sounded like an insane idea, but what if I was right? Also, I heard a Shadow Being referring to me as “weapon” when they brought me to the room where he was waiting. A weapon… What would Dhorenthz need me for? I wasn’t so strong and he controlled more elements than I could. Why a weapon? And why me? “I guess… there’s only one way to find out.”

I reached one of the many cities that the Pillar –just another way to call the current boss of the Shadow Beings- had created for his fellow minions. Since there was no air, no one could speak; however, communication was possible thanks to the thoughts. We were connected to Dhorenthz because of the changes we suffered in our souls and the fact that he was who we “owed” our existence to, so we were connected to each other and we were able to hear others’ thoughts, nonetheless only the ones we wanted to share. Fortunately, that only worked in that plane… Even still, I’d have loved to have a switch to turn those words off or keep them out of my mind… I usually took another way that didn’t implied going through a city, but it was often unavoidable… and that time was one of those. The cities looked pretty much like the ones from the human world, with the difference that nobody had cars or radios or TV’s or any way of transport or communication and no ads of any kind. There wasn’t any food or drink either; there was no need for that. The “inhabitants” of the cities were Shadow Beings and Shadow Selves, being the latter ones more numerous by far than the first ones. There was a Shadow Self per non-converted person in the world, no matter its age, condition or gender. Their thoughts didn’t differ much from the complete ones…

“Oooh, that woman has got such a nice butt… I’ll follow her until her house. Come here, little boy, I’ll give you sweets… Damn, I’d so fuck that child’s ass… Arg, I’ll kill him as soon as no one’s watching… Mmm, his meat smells so well… I wonder how it’ll taste if I fried him. I’ve got my meal~… Eugh, I must remember shaving cats and hamsters before eating… Ah~ Yes~ I knew this corpse had it hard enough~. Mmm~, and it’s still warm~… I’ll burn this orphanage at once. I’m fed up of burying children one by one… Hm, I wanna try fucking with a horse today… Don’t hide, my dear guy! I’ll get to your crotch, whether you want or not! And you’d better scream! Ah, I found you~…  Oh, boy, my first orgy~ I’m so excited~… I’ll have meat and bones for a week after I finish this… If they don’t come with the money, I’ll throw him to the river…”

I growled to not hear those “voices”. It became as annoying as my Shadow Self when it suggested me banging any man I saw. At least I was “lucky” that she only suggested with alive humans. “Can’t you shut up for a moment?!”, I said, but the thoughts were so loud that mine drowned immediately. I covered my face and walked among the crowd that turned their faces to me, confused. They never recognized me as a Shadow Slayer for some reason, but I wasn’t going to waste time wondering about that. I had people to save and

A strong pain in my chest made me stop moving and let out a mute yell. I knelt and bowed my head and body while holding it. No blood came from it, my mouth or ears, but it hurt as hell, like an actual wound. “W… Wha…?”, I couldn’t even talk for the next ten seconds, moment when the pain started to fade. I felt empty, with despair, filled with fear and sadness… and then, nothing. I was back to normal. I blinked at checked if I was ok. “Nothing… I’m ok. What was that?”, I murmured worried. “And why do I have this bad feeling from the morning again?”, I kept the tears that had formed in my eyes and shook my head. “No time for pauses. I must keep going.”, I looked up and lifted my body. At least, I could fly while in that form. There had to be an advantage, hadn’t it?

That made the way much faster and easier, not only because my speed was increased, but also the voices were faint from that height. I breathed a sigh while trying to spot the location of Dhorenthz’s soul in that enormous zone. Finally, after several minutes of scanning and searching, I spotted it at the top of a lifeless mountain, of the highest one more exactly; nevertheless, it wasn’t a big deal for me in that form. It took me a while to get there, but when I did, I noticed something… “What’s that?”, I got closer to it and had a look.

It was a small pillar with a kind of orb. Inside it, there was an insanely huge amount of energy, a type that was used as a boost. I blinked surprised: what was that thing doing there? “A boost… What?”, I perceived it didn’t have anything inside. “It isn’t boosting anythi-”, I covered my mouth. Of course… “It’s for me…”, I looked down at the orb again. “He wants to… boost my power… and use me as a weapon…”, I took some steps away. “He wants to use my Soul and Shadow powers…”, I put my hand down slowly at the instant I realized the last part. “… He wants to use me… to finish creating his empire. With a Soul user, he can get into someone’s soul and convert it with a 100% success rate. He wants to change… every human. And it must be me… and only me…”, I felt an uncontrollable rage and I bowed my head as I gritted my teeth, “because I’m the Last Rebel. Using the last Shadow Slayer to fulfill his goal… A perfect victory… How twisted.”

“You found out…”

I turned around and stared at the expected visitor. His Real form was a big black wolf with grey line-like segments and symbols on its fur, as tall as I was, with purple eyes looking straight to mine, sharp white teeth and claws and a coal shackle on its front left leg. It also had horns on its head… A demonic wolf… Quite what I had expected of him. He was growling, bowed and ready to pounce at any moment. “You are right… my Weapon.”

“Your weapon?”, shadows came out of my body like flowing honey, “No, Dhorenthz… I’m an executioner…”, I put a hand on the ground and multiple shadows emerged at once around me, “and the crowd is begging for your head.”

Shadow branches dashed towards my opponent, who dodged them by jumping with ease. He sprung and jumped trying to enclose me among his legs, but I moved on a side and he landed on the rock that was on my left. I made a hammer and performed a few hammer blows, all of them missing or smashing the spiky stones around us. Then, Dhorenthz summoned light spears, which I deflected hitting with said weapon and, afterwards, I hit the ground to summon more shadows forming a cage. Unfortunately, Dhorenthz was too fast and he managed to get out before it was complete and he got the chance to push me. I rolled a bit and tried to stand up again; he stomped on me with its paws and claws and a growl that slipped into my thoughts. I gathered some Soul and made a pulse that threw him far for me before he scratched me more and started biting, which gave me some time to get on my feet and make an axe. He recovered fast and shot some more spears that I dodged by inches and used my item to stop the upcoming bite. He pushed fiercely, same as I did, but he had created a rock behind me and he hit my head with it. The wolf pushed me again, this time against the wall of stone he had made in a second, and obliged me to lie down facing the dusty ground with a paw on my head. I struggled without success… He was heavy and physically stronger, and anyway it didn’t make me stop trying either way. I perceived he was smelling me… and then he growled again, pissed. “You’ve been profaned… but it’s ok…”

I roared in my thoughts and released more shadows from inside as spikes that damaged his nose and one of his paws. He landed on his left side with what would have been a loud slam and used a rock hand to be back on his four. After that, he created both rocks and light lances to counterattack my shadow spikes and my soul spheres. He could stop the shadow weapons with ease, but the soul attacks moved through the “matter” and were about to hit their target… Sadly for me, Dhreotnhz was fast enough to dodge. I buffed and spread more shadows in the rocky surface, in hope that I could catch him in a few moves. He didn’t see the black lines that were drawn below our feet, as he was too busy caring about the swords I had made. The blades got stuck as the big wolf blocked them with ice shields; the hammers were destroyed by rock fists; the animal’s growl kept drilling my mind, same as mine to his. At a point, he summoned a bunch of rocks, some to hide behind and others to distract me in a –vane - attempt to approach to me. I stayed as neutral as I could, keeping the urge of releasing the trap. While he followed said path, I dodged jumping on strategic points and breaking the projectiles with shadows; it was getting harder, as I was feeling more and more tired, but I perceived he was attacking slower too. I took in a breath and sunk the scythe in the surface, which released more shadows that spread under the animal’s confused eyes. After that, purple mist was surrounding us as the black circle started to produce waves and little spikes and act more randomly. Dhorenthz tapped the ground with a paw to create a few rock pillars and watched me from up there. Fool…

I closed my fist with a grin and my eyes glowing a bit brighter. I released the black lines I had drawn earlier, which were actual long double saws. The pillars were cut into pieces as if they were mere butter heaps and the big wolf was swallowed into the shadow pool I made... Unfortunately, the second part, performed by the saws, didn’t work so well, as he managed to cover his body with a thin layer of rocks that protected him from almost all the damage, as well as shattering my weapons with a white blast of burning light shot from his mouth. I could teleport myself, yet not soon enough: my left hand had been burnt a bit. Nothing to worry too much thanks to the fact I was at the Reflection Plane, but I wouldn’t be able to use that hand for a while… “I was too slow… Pay attention, Aerial!”

“Angela… You’re a strange Shadow Slayer. You’ve been killing humans since you were very young, but then you managed to shut your Shadow Self’s voice and even overcome her without any kind of training. Even after losing everything you loved, you still resist, you can still smile, your sanity and humanity remains, you stand against me… Why do you keep fighting for something you will eventual and irremediably lose?”, he produced a light explosion at the moment he finished the question; it didn’t work, though, as I wrapped myself with a black sphere. The pressure of the attack was huge, nonetheless, enough to push me almost a meter.

I coughed before answering. “Because… I’m as tough as my father, as stubborn as my mother and there’ve been people supporting and teaching me. As simple as that. I know that there’s a bright future far, further from my eyesight’s reach, but I have to swim into poisoned seas first. I haven’t got any clue of this; it’s… a belief... sort of.”, I cackled lowly with a sad smile, “In the end, he could revive faith in me, in some way…”, I thought at the same time that some purple energy started to grow and get thicker, “I doubt you understand… You’ve never lived those experiences. All your empire is built on pillars of sand... awaiting for a wave to erase its futile existence. Your minions will never let you down because they have no choice, no freedom.”, he didn’t answer; only a stare came from my foe, a silent, serious death stare. “Tell me, have they ever thanked you? Have they ever smiled to you sincerely? Yes, because they had no will. You’re like a kid playing with dolls… A King of Nothing…”, more shadows came out of my body; meanwhile, Dhorenthz’s body was getting brighter and brighter. “En la nada has vivido, en la nada morirás y a la nada te reducirás…”  [You’ve lived in nothingness, you’ll die in nothingness and to nothingness you’ll be reduced….]

Dhorenthz’s pupils shrunk as a loud and piercing yell drilled in my head once more, albeit this time it was accompanied by a triple light beam from three giant spheres. I kept calm and simply created three shadow walls. I thought that would be enough… and it was, although I witnessed two of them giving in and the third one being close to. I blinked… He wasn’t supposed to do that; light was an element he wasn’t able to use with such skill… Dhorenthz’s potential seemed to grow each second we spent there. That detail would make everything harder, but victory more satisfying…

Right after the beam faded, I saw the claws of the wolf right in front of my face, too late to avoid it. One of the claws grazed my right eye and cut my cheek whereas the other one made a deeper cut near my mouth’s corner and damaged my left eye’s eyelid –but not the eye itself, fortunately. He pushed me back to the ground again and trapped me with rock chains and shackles. His sharp teeth were showing as he stared at my opened eye, same as I was doing towards him. We both were growling and exchanging hateful stares… like the two beasts we were. I was tired, probably more than he was and I needed to end the battle soon. But how? “What can I do? He’s too strong for me…”, I thought desperate. Nothing I did seemed to work. I needed to reach his soul… Otherwise, it would be impossible.

Hold on…

“Once you finish your duty, I’ll have your vessel as my favorite doll…”, Dhorenthz made a kind of grin while the lustful thoughts passed in front of his eyes.

“I see…”, I pushed him with shadow fists and created others to break my shackles. I stood up a bit clumsily at the same time he started talking once again.

“Nobody can escape their destiny…, he ran as fast as he could.

“I know of someone who disagrees…”, I sighed and performed the most suicidal tactic I had never done.

When Dhorenthz pounced on me after summoning a bunch of light beams and rocks, I put my right hand on my chest and took my soul out of my “body”, to put it in front of me when the attacks were about two meters away from me. When the wolf saw that, he made a gasp-like sound and surrounded me with rocks in order to protect me of the light beams and the other attacks, after which I noticed he collided against the barrier he had just created. At that instant, I threw a Soul hook directly to his body. “Where is it? Where is it?!”, I looked for the purple source very anxious. He was getting on his four again, I needed to be faster. “Come on, come on!”, I murmured in my mind.

“HERE!”

I pulled the chain and brought Dhorenthz’s soul to my hand. I gripped it with a shadow claw, which made him flinch and let out a shriek after another. Once he stopped moving, I approached to the pillar in which the orb floated. “This is what he wanted me to use to eradicate humans… but I bet I can use it to find Shadow Beings.”

“You…”, I shut him up by clawing his soul softly.

I focused my attention on the orb between my hands. My Soul power flowed inside it and connected my soul with it. All of a sudden, I felt a burst of power that would have sucked the air of my lungs if I had been at the real world. It was a source of such an immense power level that I wouldn’t be able to keep for long on its entirety; I had to ration it so that it didn’t destroy me. I was shocked by such power source: when did he got it, and where? “Well, let’s see…”, I looked up and let my soul stretch out and fly towards the real world and above the Shadow Beings and Shadow Selves at that plane. I counted them as they were within my range… There were so many, more than I could have imagined. Millions… There were millions! They were all around the world… I opened my eyes and spoke to all those beings that were connected to my soul and Dhorenthz’s. My voice sounded dark, grim terrifying, like a reaper’s. “Los rebeldes ganan…”. [Rebels win.] A purple ray was shot and divided into millions of smaller parts. Each bit travelled between the two planes until they found their target and shattered their source of life. I heard each agonizing shout, each corpse falling on the ground and their lives fading like smoke in a windy day. I smiled as I counted the number of Shadow Beings and Selves decreasing at high speed...

I didn’t know long it took; like it mattered. The war was over and I had won. The suffering had ended… I was free! “I’m free… finally…”, I smiled wider feeling my heart beating faster. “Wait, will I be able to see how’s Mexhor doing?”

I heard Dhorenthz was saying something, although I didn’t pay attention. I searched for his soul throughout the realms and planes of existence. At first I didn’t find anything… then I looked at other places and didn’t perceive him either. I started to worry… “Where are you?”, I murmured as I kept searching. Then, in a flash, I felt a pain on my chest, just like when I was looking for Dhorenthz, but that time I perceived as if my soul was fading… and back to normal. I had found a little trace of his soul that was vanishing... I panicked for a moment… It took me a couple of seconds to “see” what had happened: he had been skewered… right in the chest… and… and…

“Died…”, I looked up, paralyzed. I didn’t want to believe it… I couldn’t! “He… died…”, I repeat that sentence again while my legs lost their strength and I fell on the floor. My eyesight blurred as tears married the blood on my hands. “Mexhor… died… in that assault…”

“I told you… that you wouldn’t like what you’d see…”, Dhorenthz grinned and coughed hard. I didn’t react to his words; I was there, sitting motionless like a ragdoll…

The orb shone brighter and brighter; then, it shook slowly; and then, it creaked. Finally, it shone so bright that looked like a tiny white sun before exploding in multiple pieces, to disintegrate and not leave traces of its existence. The wolf was astonished of watching such item being destroyed without hesitation. I bowed my head and stood up, tumbling a bit and sobbing quietly while wiping the tears with the back of my right hand. The power coming from the orb I had borrowed disappeared quickly, along with my will to end my job.

“_{What… will you… d-do… now…? Kill me?}”

“There must be a Pillar, so that the Reflection Plane doesn’t fall and destroy itself. My father’s documents clearly state that the death of the Pillar and the lack of an heir or heiress would result into its destruction and the death of Shadow Beings, Shadow Selves and Slayers alike. If I let another Shadow Being take your place, my effort would mean nothing. So… I’m obliged to take your place and become the Pillar. However, I’ll reject the inherited dons except for the ability of linking planes. I’ll also block the entrance to any Shadow Being. I’ll be the Pillar only on the paper…”

“_{Such a waste… of power…}”

“I don’t need it…”, I tilted my head a bit and a faint mischievous smile was drawn. “but I want a companion in my journey. There are exactly five hundred Shadow Beings which have escaped my execution’s grasp. They’re at another worlds and could spread this disease… I need to find them and… a bodyguard would be great.”

“N… No!”, his eyes opened widely and he tried to get on his legs again, yet he flinched again when I gripped his soul tighter.

“In the end, I will be the one ending with a perfect score…”

My shadow got inside his soul and started to damage him. His thoughts filled with roars of pain and yells accompanied by the wolf itself convulsing and attacking randomly in a poor attempt to stop me. Then, my Soul power dove into the core and started erasing Dhorenthz’s personality, taking what I didn’t need and leaving only what interested me. It was like playing a piece of piano: it required attention and care to not press the wrong key and interrupt the heavenly music. A mistake and the magic vanished...

“Stop moving. It’s almost over…”

Dhorenthz crawled towards my feet with his eyes closed. He could barely talk at an audible volume and his body was almost dead. He was clinging to the last remnants of he that resisted. “_{I knew that you would come back… but you… you surpassed my expectation. Ah, you would have been a… great heiress… as well as… the children you would have given birth…}”

I gripped the soul for a last time. “Silencio…” [Silence...]

I sighed and turned more serious. “Devuélveme a mis compañeros.”, I ordered, command he accomplished immediately. [Give me my partners back.] The souls floated around me, all of them shining with happiness for my victory. I opened a portal to reality for them and told them to go back and not wait for me. “I… just need to be alone… Please.”

They seem to hesitate, but finally left the Reflection Plane. Once I made sure everyone was fine, I closed the portal, gathered all my strength and let out the loudest yell of my life be heard in a long distance. I went down to my knees yelling again and started to cry desperately. I couldn’t keep it anymore… “You promised you’d come back! You promised you’d be careful! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD SURVIVE!! THAT WOULD STAY WITH ME!!”, I yelled again scratching my face so hard that it bled. “This can’t be happening… NO, NO! MEXHOR…!”, I lied down on the grey surface and cried hiding my face between my arms and under my hair. I rejected it… I didn’t accept it…

---

-EPILOGUE-

*Seven days later*

“It’s just like the time we came here…”

I took my boots off and approached to the murmuring sea with my eyes closed. Memories played in my mind at each step I took: swimming, having a walk along the shore while chatting, laughing, going to the restaurant at the edge of the beach… while holding his hand. I opened my eyes again and looked at the vast indigo ocean. Clenching my fists, I put my feet into the water and kept walking deeper until my ankles were under the pristine sea. I remembered of the moment that he was about to drown, when Roby and Lasno managed to rescue him and I saved him with first-aid techniques. I was so afraid that I could have lost him… I couldn’t help but imagine what it would have been if we hadn’t been able to help him and he had died. At that moment, the day I went back to that beach of our first holidays, I answered my own question. I sobbed and bowed my head, just before breaking down and falling to my knees as I let out another shout like previous days. I covered my face, let the pain flow along with my tears, yelled so loud that my throat hurt and felt a lump that grew faster and choked my breath. The soothing sea caressed my legs and arms in a weak attempt to calm me down. Nothing could repair my broken soul.

How could I be repaired? I had lost the person that had changed my life and had saved me from the prison my own pain and fears had built. The metal fist that smashed the thick bricks and took me out of the dark room would never come back; so would happen with my heart. Those wounds would never heal; not even time was powerful enough to erase… The thorns stretched each day that passed and bled me out from the inside... I knew that he wouldn’t like me to feel like that, but, even if I had ordered myself not to give in, I knew that was a promise I wouldn’t be capable of keeping. The roses, the wind, the metal, the silver moon… Everything reminded of him… Nature seemed to whisper his name and the night starry sky showed me the worlds that he wanted to visit with me. He wanted to live with me in another place, live a normal life, in a big house and possibly with children, like I had always wished. Again, just like twelve years ago, destiny stole my possibility to achieve my dreams.

“Oh~, how sad~ Still crying for your metal weirdo~?”

“No, not you again…!”, I faced the ghost bitch behind me. “I’m not in the mood for a pointless fight now…”

Blitz simply grinned and guffawed. “Oh, no, I come here to end what I left undone that night!”, she zapped and grabbed my face, after which she slammed me on the ground and kicked my stomach. “Defend yourself!! Ha,ha! Oooh, why aren’t you moving~?”

“Gah…”, she stomped my head several times, as well as my back. Each time I tried to move, she kicked or electrocuted me while laughing and mocking me. She was making fun of the death of a person… of half of me… “You prefer not playing fair… huh?”

“Fair game is for dummies! The only important thing is… WINNING!”, she punched me with an electrified fist… but her attack landed on the sand. “Uh? Oh, now you’re getting serious~. That’s more I like it! The game begins!”

“No, the game is already over…”, I  gripped her right leg with her own shadow and bent it by its midpoint. The crack was followed by a yell of pain, and then the other leg was broken too the same way. She perceived I was behind her, but when she turned around, she realized I had disappeared and… “WHAT?!”, she looked down, where my hands were. Just when she blinked, I was gone once again. “Stop playing hide and seek!”

And so I did. The shades of the trees and the shadows of the objects nearby grabbed her just before I dashed completely transformed into shadows and dug a hand wrapped with Soul inside her body, then lifted her and her screams began. She was seeing my Shadow Being form and was horrified at my real’s aspect sight. I enjoyed the delicious fear reflected in her dull eyes… I approached her until our faces were close enough for her to feel my breath on her skin.

“Claire Mitchell…”, I took a breath and growled, “I've put up with your game... and even taken part in it for many months... However, I'm tired. I don't want to keep wasting my time... neither fighting you nor hearing your nonsenses. You've hurt a lot of people of this world... You've laughed of me, of my suffering; you've made fun of the death of the person who I wished not to die in the war for, of one of the reasons why I fought for when everything was lost. You've made fun of my broken dreams, of my stomped hopes... but that's over. I won't tolerate...”, I pressed Blitz's soul, making her yell more and even cry, “any more offenses.”. I held the ghost with a hand, ripped Blitz's soul out of her fake body... and bit the soul with strength without breaking it. Part of my shadow moved into it, which made Blitz shout so loudly that she'd have been voiceless after that if she were human. My voice seemed to be a whisper at that moment… “You won't feel it ever again... Neither from your killings, from the recharges after work or from the touch or kisses of your boyfriend. Not getting pleasure from anything...”, I kept the white soul inside me and tossed Blitz, “If you try to kill me again... if you try to threaten me... if you have the smallest, the tiniest idea, of harming the people I care about... I'll destroy your soul until there's nothing left but ethereal dust fading...”

Blitz fainted when I finished the sentence. I turned to my human form and walked away not saying a word as I wiped a last tear. After drying my feet, I put my boots on again and sat down. I was thinking of what I had perceived when I looked for Mexhor… Yes, I didn’t perceive him at all, but… there was something else. It was as if he had faded, but… he was still there. As if changed… “As if changed…”, I murmured and gasped. “That’s it!”

I stood up quickly. He told me once that when a person died, he divided into two beings, which reunited after both parts died. He had died and his other half had been eliminated before… “Oh, God!”, I covered my mouth. “He’s alive! HE’S ALIVE!”, a tear ran down my cheek as soon as I realized it. My heart beat again… “I knew it! I knew I was wrong!”, I cried of joy for a short time. There was still hope for me!

---

That day, I went to visit my friends, both from the mansion and from the human world, to tell them about my journey. I promised I would visit them once a week, during the weekend, and spend five days searching for my boyfriend. They wished me good luck and told me to be careful and tell them about my progress. I nodded and then said goodbye. Once in the Reflection Plane and with my two companions floating beside me, I looked for the aura I sensed while in the trance phase. I focused on it and mentally caught it while I opened a portal to an unknown world… I was impressed; I thought Dhorenthz could do that kind of things just with human’s plane.

Who knew where I’d arrive… and even still, fear wouldn’t stop me. I was going to keep my promise and find Mexhor, no matter where he was. I was fuelled with energy and hunger of adventures, of discovering and exploring new dimensions. It’d be dangerous, yet enjoyable. I was sure I would be a new, stronger person after that journey was over… I wanted to show him how much I’d have improved by the time we met again. I was excited; I was nervous… and happy. Very happy…

With a playful grin, I jumped into the unknown.