“Cora, Cora, my dear, Cora. Don’t leave me. Don’t ever leave me, okay?”

  The voices jolted Cora back to her senses.

  Glancing sideways, she could see nothing but endless grey fogs and with them, came the immense numbing cold. This cold was too much. Every bone in her body was shuddering uncontrollably and she could feel that her muscles and tendons were starting to tense up. Furthermore, she found herself standing in the middle of nowhere, slowly freezing to death.

  “Was I standing here, waiting to die? Wait, what happened?”

  She was with Merik, just a moment ago and she was starting to leave but then, she heard a helpless yearning of a child.

  She ran straight towards the voice through this endless mist and there, she saw a blur silhouette of a woman figure, similar to who she saw at the beginning.

  But then.

  Once she got close to the shadow....

  She couldn’t remember anything that happened after that.

  All she remembered was...

  Cora gasped and started to shake uncontrollably. She fell onto the ground and these shaky yet intense hot breaths were rushing out of her mouth. Because that was.... what even was that?

  She could feel some warm liquid started to flow from her nose and onto her mouth. Tasted like rusted iron.

  For the first time in a while, she felt intense and ominous fear from all these situations happening around her. She knew what she had to deal with once she got into this field. It was her dream even, but this... this was a bit much. THIS WAS TOO MUCH.

  The voices. They... they won’t stop.

  Surely, she could take on whatever she was tasked with, be it criminals or abominations. She knew that she could deal with them.

  Since she could at least see them!

  But this. The kind of enemy who hid from her visions, who assaulted her mind until she was left with nothing but hopelessly intense fear.

  She wasn’t aware of such creatures to begin with, and she was experiencing it real time.

  Cora was sitting in the middle of nowhere with nothing in her hand with no one beside her.

  “Merik...”

  The irony of wanting to save someone but only to realize she had become that “someone” to be saved.

  This is where it ends?

  “You, my dear, should just act like a lady like you’re supposed to.”

  An image of a certain man was drawn from her hidden memories, full of regrets and shame. And extreme longing.

  She could not let it end here. At least not yet. Not like this.

  She wiped the blood off her nose and got up slowly. The shakings didn’t stop but they were lowered to a certain degree. She could clearly form thoughts once again. With her thoughts came emotions.

  Intense emotions.

  Right then.

  An ear breaking shrill rang in her ears and it kept ranging into the deepest parts of her mind. She felt her consciousness slowly fading away again. She was slipping away again and almost collapsed. In the back of her mind, she faintly saw a shadow charging towards her.

  Seemed it was the one who kept screaming into her ears.

  Well, she was an experienced officer as well.

  Like her father said, “When the time comes, experiences and memories are what determine a human’s life.”

  Fire burns, fire consumes for fire is the destroyer itself.

  A faint yet fiery flame slowly erupted in her hand. Feeling her hand burning, her consciousness became clearer and with it, all her senses returned to her.

  She gritted her teeth to the point of almost shattering them but she didn’t let the flame die down. She let them spread towards her forearms and she could feel that the little flame was slowly gaining its momentum.

  This was the first time she was letting it freely burn away despite her father’s warning for, Light knew, all her life. Granted, her father was right.

  Because Fire devours everything.

  With tears rolling down her cheeks and her nose filled with her own flesh burning, she waved away the ever-growing flame all around her.

  A radiating and fiery scene were formed beautifully amidst the eerie thick fogs and brightened the whole silent hills, driving the obscuring fogs away to where they came from.

  Nothing.

  “Merik!!!”

  “NOOOO. HOW DARE YOU!!!”

  The creature was startled beyond words and didn’t dare to approach anymore. It was strolling left and right around the fire, making all kinds of mumbling noises. Voices were hard to make of as if there were multiple people whispering over one another. But what’s clear now was its appearance.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  For the second time, Cora saw it again and couldn’t help holding her breath.

  It was a just woman in a tattered white dress, seething with intense anger over her face. On her right shoulder was a figure of a young person, possibly a boy and around her left armpits was a young girl.

  What’s more is that they were forcibly merged as if they were a creepy, unfinished clay puppet. Each is eerily alive in their own way!

  The woman, seemingly the mother, had five irregular sized eyes on her face and her mouth was in the middle where the nose was supposed to be.

  Two of her eyes were functioning normally but the third one was moving with erratic patterns. The rest was closed tightly.

  Furthermore, a creepy smile was plastered tightly onto her face, the mouth tearing at the corners and even revealing her bloodied skins.

  Now the woman was missing her right hand and shining red liquid were gushing from her severed limb. Despite the smile, Cora could that she was angry.

  And sad.

  It was saying something. No, they were saying something.

  “HELP ME. DON’T COME HERE. PLEASE HELP. I’M SCARED. MY CHILDREN.”

  Despite feeling her knees going weak, Cora prepared herself with a fighting stance. The flame burnt up most of her hand now. Considering the fact that Merik couldn’t find her yet, she had to prepare for the worst. Cause she was against time itself, as well.

  What’s the point of possessing a hand as a Souless.

  She threw a lump of flame resembling a ball towards the creature and dashed right behind it. Another fire was ignited in her left hand at the same moment.

  The creature let out a mocking laughter before lunging towards the fireball and Cora herself. Right before the fireball reached the creature, it dodged and swiped with its intact left hand towards Cora, baring its fangs like a winner.

  Cora didn’t drop her guard as if she was anticipating for it all along. She killed her own momentum before splashing a fire wave with her left hand towards the creature’s face.

  This time it was Cora’s turn to smile.

  Because the fire reached its left hand and instantly burned it.

  Startled the burning once again, the creature shrilled to its lungs. Through all this, Cora heartbreakingly saw that the children on her body were screaming in pain as well.

  The creature took a step back and glared at Cora. The fogs were dispersing but the view wasn’t back to its original state yet. It was still blurry and grey. But Cora could clearly see her with a faint flame, burning on the creature’s hand. Before she realized it, the flame had already died down.

  However, it was hurt.

  “It could deal with the fire so it is somewhat intelligent but what could possibly leave her hand in a state like that?”

  The creature’s right hand was spilling blood there and there and visibly, Cora could see that it was taking a toll as it was starting to drag its own legs to stand and walk.

  Suddenly, the woman-like creature made a noise that resembled an ear breaking shrill. Cora felt all her nerves were starting to go haywire again.

  It was the creature’s attack, after all!

  Still, a person could only fall into the same trap so many times.

  The intense pain and her emotions were already helping her to stay sane. Because the mind attacks, once realized, were not as strong as they were before.

  Cora noticed that the abnormal third eye on its face was almost closed with traces of blood around it. The creature lunged at her the next moment, letting out the mind attack at the same time.

  Sudden change of pace caught Cora in a surprise and she had to pay dearly with a wound in her abdomen. Still, she managed to throw her fiery fist towards the creature’s shoulder where the young child was.

  Right before the punch landed on its face, the “child” seemingly cried out in terror asking for help. Cora gritted her teeth and twisted her body to get away from the deadlock with the monster.

  Cora paid heavily this time with the blood from her abdomen sprayed all over the ground. Still, she was already numb from the pain from her hand and from the suffocating fog.

  She had to admit that things weren’t really looking good for her.

  Seemingly noticing the frustration, the creature lunged again while making laughing noises. It wore the expression of triumph over its wicked face.

  Cora had to desperately fend off with her almost charred right hand but to no one’s surprise, the creature easily blocked it.

  Cora couldn’t help but be intimidated by their height difference. Looking up close to the creature, she saw that the creature was a lot uglier and hideous than she originally expected of. And she couldn’t deny the domineering aura that it was giving as well.

  Furthermore, she was losing the strength battle. The blood-soaked nails from the monster’s hand were getting closer to pierce her very eyes.

  A satisfied snort softly escaped from Cora.

  A bolt of flame suddenly burst out from Cora’s left hand, the hand which she was letting the creature assumed, she couldn’t properly use. The creature dodged in panic but in the end, it was what Cora was waiting for all along.

  The flame from her left hand died out in a moment and instead, a bigger one formed in her injured hand and she waved right at the creature’s face.

  SCREEEEECCHHHHH!!!

  It took several steps away from Cora and even in the blurry fogs, Cora could see that half of its face was completely burnt off, even worse than her right hand.

  Heartrending sounds of children’s cries sounded out from the creature, specifically from the merged areas. Cora felt that her heart was tightened with their cries. Cause who wouldn’t?

  Despite its injuries and its supposed children’s endless cries for help, the creature decided to lunge once again. But this time, faster than ever before.

  Cora’s face paled at the sight because with her last attack, she hoped to finish off the creature, if not heavily injure her and taking away her mobility. Cora used most of her powers already and these endless mind attacks and this painstaking injury on her right hand, while not fatal, were slowly leading her towards her limits.

  As a final resort, Cora threw a fireball once again to catch the creature off guard. But this sudden intense pain assaulted her right to her nerves. The throw was off point and the fireball went onto the sky.

  “Oh, no.”

  She deliberately endured herself and prepared for the attack but it never came. The creature was already retreating, still keeping a close eye on her. It was disappearing into the mists!

  “OH, NO.”

  It was worse. She didn’t have the upper hand but at least; her resolve didn’t let her surrender even if it took her life. She needed to stand her ground and save the poor.

  But if this kind of intelligent creature got away, the whole situation could reset to zero and it could hurt a lot of innocent people. It could lurk where it could really hurt. And it would all be her fault.

  I could no longer save them.

  Her heart sank with intense sense of failure and despair. She wasn’t cut out for this after all.

  BANG.

  Cora was startled by a gunshot before an uncontainable smile gradually found itself onto her face.

  From the direction where the creature was escaping to, the fogs dispersed and two figures were slowly formed.

  One was an unsightly abomination losing its balance on the ground and another was a man but all she could see was a pair of crimson eyes, filled with cold and imposing expression. He seemed to be holding a revolver in his right hand and an azure lantern in his left.

  Despite through all this, Cora felt that she could hear his footsteps as clear as day.

  When his face was finally visible to Cora, she saw that the man was pointing his gun towards the creature without giving her as much as a glance. He put his finger onto the gun’s trigger before slowly saying these words:

  “Hey, Cora.”