24 Who Wins? 2

His tear fell tracing his fair cheeks. He noticed he was in fact trapped in his own illusions about his old memories which he had burned down in the deepest of his heart and mind. It surfaced once more and brought him shaking when he remembered those events. He hated it! He hated it! He hated it so much what was happening to him when he was still innocent and fool!

"Pathetic." The piercing woman's voice reached his mind making him snapped back to reality. Blood flowed out from his mouth, his surrounded was broken into pieces of glasses. The town square village reduced to ashes, the place he once lived wasn't there anymore, the horrible events which took place years ago were gone as well. He couldn't proceed what was going on when he suddenly surrounded by red hallow which shined on his face. His sight turned black once more, and the only thing he could see the smells forming shapes.

He looked up and saw Sarah's scent in front of him who was covered with another scent. 'Ah, that thing.' He guessed. It was Sarah, but it wasn't her, it was actually her Maht sword instead, who took over her body control once again. Her eyes were lifeless, her facial expression showed a poker face. Since when did she wake up? He felt this time there was something different. Her crack lips were moving, she was talking to him.

"Have you finished dreaming your useless dream? Do you want me to kiss you back just like you did to Sarah?" Maht asked as she used Sarah's body to talk to him. She commented, "You're not reliable, aren't you? I thought you already formed a contract with this woman, so I already place my trust on you to protect her. But, it looks like I'm wrong."

Maht watched and quickly scanned his body. "Aha... That's why you couldn't let out your potential power. I was wondering why didn't you use your current strength to fight them? As far as I observed, you could at least did that, plus the high boost strength you got from forming a contract with this woman. I never thought it's because you got a side effect from the black creature you fought previously. Interesting..."

"W-Wha-Cough!!" Another mass of blood came out from his mouth. He looked down and saw his chest got thrust by something like a sword, it was, in fact, Sarah's black sword. Maht held it as she gave it more pressure when she thrust it into him.

Neel gazed sharply at the woman in front of him. "Get out from Sarah's body," Neel ordered the sword's soul with difficulty.

"Don't worry, you're not going to die. I stab your chest in the most corner position without touching your heart. I'm doing this to pay back because you hurt this woman for the second time in a row. Plus, it looks like you need someone to help you..." Maht explained as she gave him a smirk. Neel was confused, since when did he hurt Sarah? The time he knocked her out many times? Was that it?

She clicked her tongue felt annoying, then she pulled out the sword from his chest. She left Neel alone who was trying to hold and covered his chest as he gasping like a maniac. "I'll guard you, in this short time, try your best to recover."

Maht tumped the short sword on the ground and created another red hallow barrier. Neel did as she said as he observed his pitch-black surrounding. He set his heal power and chant a few words to boost his recovery. Blue light hovered to his body, healing him bit by bit. "What happened? Do you know anything?" He asked her.

Glancing at him, she turned her back facing at him. "How should I know? The moment I open my eyes, this woman was in a panic condition and so I came to protect her. But, the only thing I see was you who was in a dream state. I could feel other demons in this room, that was why I had a guess you were trapped by their illusion. That's why I set this barrier so they couldn't bother us." Maht elaborated with a calm tone.

Realizing her intention, he asked with frowning. "Was that the other reason you stab me because you want to wake me up or just because of the actions I did to Sarah? I'm also wondering why didn't you become berserk today?"

Lifting her eyebrows, she answered, "Both reasons are correct, if you couldn't wake up and die, what do you think will happen to Sarah? She will die too, right? Then, I couldn't live again. It has been a while I found a comfortable owner like her since the last war with 'the three wreckers'. I've finally got my chance again, so I'm going to stick with her until the end." Sighing, she mumbled, "Unfortunately, she wasn't strong enough to accept my power, so sometimes it could overcontrolling her. This situation isn't good for her body. If she didn't fully master me, she will die sooner or later."

Neel widened his eyes and absorbed what she was saying. Even though she said quietly, he could pick up her words crystal clear. 'Sarah will die?' Neel thought. Maht blinked her eyes and realized, "Wait, why am I explaining this to you? Ah... right, you're her life partner." She turned around and faced him down. She advised, "That's why it's your job to protect her if you don't want to die. That's what you've wished and the main reason to keep her by your side, correct?"

Thump! His heart stopped when he felt that Maht sword who was in Sarah's body was trying to make a threatening expression as she pressured him with her dark red aura. Her eyes pierced through his soul and made him slightly guilty for no reason. He tried to divert her attention by asking her, "How do I know when Sarah will die?"

Lessen up her guard, Maht relaxed her facial expression to normal poker again. She lifted her hand and showed him her right palm. "You may not see this, but there's a small black dot in the middle of her palm. By the time the black spot covers her hands full, she will die or maybe, if luck has on her side, there's 'only' a side effect impact on her body."

"How can I help her?"

"You want to help her? Really?" Realizing something, she reluctantly told him, "Training. She needs to train, or at least, for instance, she could call me out without me indeliberately taking over her body and mind again. How to do that? Well, it depends on her will. For that, you need to find a way to encourage her? Hmm... I guess... Well, whatever. Then-" Her voice was cut due to surprise attack of the four owls. Those birds were trying to crash her red shield which made the two of them turned their head up. They were slightly stuttered from their sudden appearance.

"Focus on your recovery, in the meantime, I'll buy more time with them." As soon as she said that, she came out of her shield and fought the three owls. Neel saw her back which radiated her red aura as it flowed through the black sword. The sword showed red veins glows as her body dashed forward to attack the owls.

Swish! They dodged her. Flipping her sword to the back side, she sliced Preen who was hiding behind her. "KYAAKK!" Preen screamed. "You damn woman!!" She swiftly ducked down from his peck attack. Claw and Clicker combined their attack as they shot her with wind slices using their wings. It gave her small wounds on body and arms. Maht bit Sarah's finger and slight blood dripped to the sword. The red glow shined even redder.

Lifting the sword to her face, she chanted, "Maht Heama." Blood burst out from the sword forming chains to the three owls' direction. They avoided as they flew faster than before, yet eventually got caught by her chains. "I swear you! Gahh!!!" They cried for help, but the next second without their readiness, their body and soul were crushed and splat all over the place. Their drops of blood brought the sword even more energy. Swung her sword to clean it up, Maht felt something watching and coming right at her.

She reacted slower making her body flew as it making her way crashing the ground, yet before she could say goodbye to her good body, someone caught her and protect her from behind. Maht grunted and realized it was Neel who was in werewolf form. She could see her red power were combined with his blue power. He complained to Maht, "You forgot the last owl, idiot."

"I don't want to hear that from you. Now, we just need to deal with this stupid demon and get the hell out from this dark place. I'll help you just this once because it's an emergency. Sarah's couldn't hold on again, her body is too weak. So, we need to hurry." Maht told him as she let out the black sword again through her palm.

Pluck looked at them quite and didn't say anything. He raised his wings and gave a slight flap, and in an instant, the three owls who were dead coming back to alive. Maht who saw that finally realized something. Scoffing, she wanted to laugh, she spoke in a small voice, "He was the mastermind all along. Those three owls were only his dolls. We've been fool by him."

"Tsk! I knew he's bad news since the start I couldn't see his scent trace." Neel ridiculed himself for not after him in the first place.

"How about now? Can you see him?"

"It's better now, rather than a while ago, I couldn't see him at all. But this time I can see his blur scent. Finally, I could define him. Maybe the time I recovered minutes ago helped me to raise my strength back." Neel explained to her.

Maht turned her head and spoke to him. "No, it's because of me. I killed the thing who slow down your power."

Turning his head to her side, he asked baffled, "What do you mean?"

Maht placed her index finger onto his chest, pressing it and uttered, "Ask your heart. Now, let's just get this sh*t over." They nodded at each other and sprinted to the owls as they kept charging them like a cannonball. Maht sliced them precisely as she chanted a few words. Sarah's hair flew backward as she slid through the opening gap in the middle of Clicker's feet, slashed him from down. Clicker was cut into half.

Neel didn't want to lose as he followed her the same by releasing his lighting struck once again to Preen and Claw. Shooting them, the two owls fell down from the air, burned to ashes as the remain blue fire still ignited on their body.

Pluck's black eyes widen wider than before. He couldn't follow their fast movement. In the end, before he could revive his brothers again, Neel and Maht reached his side and cut him from the left and right direction. His body burst of black blood as it formed an X scar on Pluck's body. He chuckled instead of screaming pain. He muttered, "It's not going to be easy for the two of you. Gahh!!"

"Shut up." Maht didn't give freaking care what he wanted to say as she kept slicing his body into minced meat. Neel followed her as he could see the owl weakness, he grabbed Pluck's heart who was still in function and pierced it with his sharp nails until it stopped moving.

...

Later in the next minutes, the black place blurred out into the forest scenery. Snow falling from the cloudy sky, as their surrounded covered with white snows. It looked like the blizzard was over by the time they fought the demons. Neel estimated the time with his instinct and it was around afternoon time. He realized it had been long hours they stuck inside the cave. It gave him annoyed feeling how much the times he wasted. "It's over, for now. Good luck taking care of her." Maht bid goodbye to him as she left Sarah's body returned to her original form, the black sword inside Sarah.

After that, Sarah's consciousness fully recovered, yet she wasn't in good condition to stand firm now. Neel quickly held her fallen body and carried her on his embrace. Her pale face was still there as she kept shivering from the cold breeze. She mumbled pitifully, "Mommy, Daddy, I'm cold..."

Staring at her frowned brows and pouting lips, Neel quickly diverted his attention to healing her as he also gave her warmth from his heat fur body, and carefully, trying not to wake her up. He let herself cuddling his chest like a baby. "Soft... Doggy..."

"..."