Godfrey disappeared. Like a cloud of smoke in the wind, he was gone. A single gasp of desperation escaped my lips when I felt his abyssal form abandon me. His hand under my feet was no longer holding me up. And I went down to embrace the ashen earth, screaming all the way.

  A painful snap went up my back and my ears were ringing to the point of making me deaf. I groaned and whimpered and tried to move but each limb of mine felt as if they were strapped to boulders.

  As the weird fog that had been clouding my mind dissipated, I finally felt the harsh reality of the moment wrapping its cold fingers around me. And I screamed in pain while I lay surrounded by mangled, disfigured corpses and crimson puddles of that thing that gave the blood walkers their bodies.

  All my hopes hadn't left me yet--that was until I was struck by two ominous realizations. One, with Godfrey gone–I'd lost my biggest trump card. Two, the war still hadn't ended.

  “Idiot,” I muttered to myself, forcing myself to get back up. Every joint in my body clicked and clacked as I moved and every inch of me was throbbing with pain. “You massive idiot,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Smokewell was right. This wasn't our war. Why didn't I listen?! What came over me?!” I slammed my fist to the ground and instantly regretted it.

  Tears streamed down my face. But I still forced myself back on my feet. In the distance, I could see more than five dozen crimson silhouettes stampeding my way.

  I could barely stand so running the other way was not an option. I still had one last curse channeling card left. I laughed and instantly made my chest hurt. But I was still amused. A single card won't do anything to protect me against a whole army of blood walkers. “Maybe I can use it on myself.” I laughed again and then winced in pain.

  The walkers were getting closer. That's when I heard Smokewell's shrill voice shouting at me from a far distance. The words were quite low and muffled because of how far she was. But I made them out just right.

  “Use the red potion.”

  I paused. That's right. I dug into my reticule to whip out the bottle of red potion that Lily had given me. I threw it to the ground, shattering it to pieces.

  The liquid inside turned into a thick wave of smoke and flew up into the air, exploding into a large cloud like a signal flare. And with whatever strength I had left, I started running.

  Every step pushed knives and daggers up my thighs but I had to buy myself whatever time I could till Lily came to my rescue.

  I was never someone with a lot of pride in my previous life. But my previous life was a pathetic one to begin with. Ever since I became Elsa I've been acting a lot more dignified than I ever had any right to. But the thing about dignity is--it also came with a certain amount of ego. I never had that in my previous life either.

  So as I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, waiting for Lily to come save me, I felt my recently found pride taking several hits. I was the one supposed to be looking out for Lily. I was supposed to be the smart one. The responsible one.

  Oh, Elsa, I don't think you chose me on purpose. Because if you could choose anyone to be you, it certainly wouldn't have been me. Hell, even I wouldn't have chosen me.

  I laughed again. I winced again. Then my legs gave out and I went down.

  It didn't take the blood walkers much longer to dogpile me after that. In my last pathetic attempt to survive, I used the last curse channeling card. The fire provided by burning one of the blood walkers gave a momentary distraction. It allowed me a window to get away from the horde surrounding me but I couldn't get very far.

  One of them shot at me with their crimson arrows. I was fortunate enough to trip and fall and the arrow just grazed my shoulder. I shrieked and quickly brushed off the red residue that was left on my clothes. I didn't want the nano blood walkers invading my wounds and tearing me up from within.

  I was still struggling to get up, the walkers were laughing at me now, preparing their next attack when a sudden, shrill screech tore through the air. Something that resembled a pterodactyl was flying over the battlefield.

  And then the creature swooped down on me. A strong hand grabbed at my shoulder and hoisted me off the ground with ease and I found myself riding the large creature. There was a man sitting behind me who gave me an awkward smile as a greeting. And the one sitting in front of me, steering the creature was of course–

  “Lily!” I grabbed her in a tight hug from behind, unable to stop my tears.

  The girl patted my thigh reassuringly. “You should've used that potion sooner, Miss Elsa,” she said. “But no worries anymore. I'd promised I won't let anything bad happen to you. You didn't think I'd go back on it now, would I?”

  I was so overwhelmed with gratitude I was almost incoherent. So instead of trying to give a comprehensible answer I simply tightened my hug and cried harder.

  “Gee, it's a real mess down there,” the man behind me said.

  “Looks like a war, Rowland,” Lily said as we flew past the battlefield.

  I sniffled and wiped my tears. “We should hurry,” I said in a half-hoarse voice. “Those creatures, they are weird shapeshifters that can–”

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  I didn't get a chance to finish since more crimson arrows and spears flew at us. The creature carrying us did some weird aerial maneuvers to dodge the attacks.

  That's when Rowland screamed behind me. “Those arrows and spears just fused together to form a griffin thing!”

  “That's so cool!” Lily whistled.

  “That's a problem,” I said. “Those things are hard to kill and we are running out of time. We don't want to get trapped here.” Then I paused as I remembered. “And Madam is in trouble!”

  Lily looked at me over her shoulder. “What happened to her?”

  I told her what I'd guessed about her situation.

  “So she is down in that red lake.” Lily said as we were getting closer to the crimson reservoir. “And the heaven in the heart of hell is on that mountain up north.” Then after a moment of contemplation she said, “I'll go and rescue madam. Rowland, you stay with Miss Elsa. And Miss Elsa, head to the mountain without me. This is Opal. She is very obedient and good with directions. Good luck.”

  Before anyone could voice their concerns, Lily jumped off of Opal right as we were soaring above the red lake. Rowland and I watched her in stunned silence as she went down, slicing through the air and disappearing in a crimson splash.

  More blood walkers were transforming into aerial creatures of some kind or another. Each of them more grotesque than the last one.

  Opal was deft at dodging their attacks, swirling and zigzagging in the air, weaving her path through the narrow windows between the walkers’ strikes like liquid fire. My head started to spin from all the aerial acrobatics. And I'm pretty sure Rowland was just very close to throwing up.

  The blood walkers were still fierce in their pursuit. That's when Opal did something dangerous. She took a nosedive. The sudden move threw the blood walkers in confusion but they still followed us on our way down.

  Wind blew in our faces, sharp enough to slice skin. I desperately clung to Opal as the ground grew bigger and bigger in our vision. I screamed, begging Opal to stop the descent, my tears were flowing out of my eyes.

  Our speed only seemed to get faster. The ground was much closer now.

  “Opal, stop!” I screamed again but the wind ate up most of my words.

  Opal didn't stop. Instead she launched herself upwards after coming to the hair's breadth from the earth. We were back in the sky in a couple of minutes.

  The walkers couldn't keep up with Opal's skill. Most of them splattered in a puddle while trying to imitate Opal's maneuver. My stomach turned once we were back in the sky again. And Rowland finally threw up.

  Opal sliced the wind sharply with her wings to boost herself forward. The shadow of the mountain behind steel gray mist was getting more prominent. It was just a few more minutes of flight before we got to our destination.

  I hoped Lily and madam were okay. I almost had the urge to go back and try to help them out. But I had wasted enough of everyone's time already. If I wanted to help in any way, I had to get to that mountain and strike a bargain with the Butcher King.

  As the ember of hope was growing bigger in my heart, it disappeared in a blink. A gargantuan crimson hand flew into our view. And then the fist closed in on us.

  “Miss Elsa!” Lily screamed somewhere as the big hand ate my vision. Opal slipped out of the space between two massive fingers. She managed to escape but Rowland and I bumped into the inner side of middle finger that was the size of a cedar tree.

  We went crashing down through the air while another gigantic limb was moving to grasp us again. Rowland and my screams were loud enough to tear our lungs.

  I saw myself falling past a giant knee when a long rope coiled around my waist to hold me steady. I gasped, my stomach was churning again.

  After a moment I realized that the long rope around my waist wasn't a rope at all. It was a tongue. And it belonged to one of Lily's familiars.

  “Good boy, Aquamarine!” Lily shouted, clinging to Smokewell's back. They were both standing at the foot of the crimson giant. “I can't summon Opal again. She is only in her base form right now.”

  Aqua took a large leap and landed a few feet from Lily and Smokewell. We didn't waste any time once we hit the ground and were running for the mountain again.

  “What is that thing?” Rowland screamed as the frog carried him and I through the battlefield.

  I froze in Aqua's grip as I took in the sight of the giant.

  “It used to be a lake,” Smokewell said. “I swam to its depth and tried to shatter the thing that gave it power. I just ended up pissing it off.”

  “That thing was a lake?!” Rowland gawked at the abomination.

  “That's so cool,” Lily gasped.

  “No, it's not!” Rowland screamed again. “I want to go home.” Tears ran down his face as he squirmed in Aqua's grip. “And I want to apologize to my sister!”

  “We will, soon!” Smokewell said as she ran alongside us.

  “We need to get Miss Elsa to safety first,” Lily said. “The giant ignored us both and went straight for her, didn't it madam?”

  “Yes, send her away.”

  I could make out the words as if I was hearing them from somewhere far away. But I was too captivated by the giant. Or more captivated by what it had on its shoulder.

  The monster finally noticed me.

  “Aqua, salire!”

  As soon as Lily snapped the command, the massive frog took a much much higher leap than before. Almost covering five hundred metres in a single bound. But it wasn't enough to outrun the giant. Not even close.

  As Aqua took his second leap, the giant crimson hand reached down to grab at the frog. But the frog was agile, sticking his paws to the giant's knuckles and using them as a launch pad to take another massive leap. But the giant's other hand was already blocking our way. The frog turned mid-air to protect Rowland and I from smashing headfirst into the crimson wall of the giant's palm.

  Aqua disappeared in a mist of flour on impact. The giant let Rowland fall off but he closed his fingers on me. He wasn't trying to crush me to death though. Not yet. It was only for the sake of trapping me.

  I was locked inside the red darkness of his hand for one…two…three…minutes. When the hand opened, I was staring into a massive scarlet iris floating inside a jagged crystal globe.

  Being in its vicinity hurt my brain, my body froze, all thoughts seemed to cease at once. And then I heard a voice piercing right into my brain.

  “Ruler…of…Abyss…”

  I didn't know what the voice was talking about. Or maybe my head just felt too hazy by the sudden invasion of the voice.

  “Give…me…the…key…”

  Oh no. I had a feeling that everything was very close to making sense. But I felt too terrified of trying to understand.

  “I-I don't have it…” I blurted out.

  The crimson iris stared at me for a minute that lasted an eternity.

  “Liar…”

  Two red shackles erupted out of its palm and locked around my wrists, dragging me down until I was on my back on his palm. A humanoid figure took shape out of one of the massive fingers.

  The shape carried a bident of some kind in its hand.

  “Liars…get pain…until…they speak the truth…”

  I began to stutter as the humanoid shape drew closer to me and raised the bident over his head. “N-No wait, I-I'll speak the–”

  But it was too late. I hadn't even finished my sentence yet. The spikes of the bident were already coming for my eyes.