Merik felt indescribable emptiness inside his heart, having to see this whole tragic and heartrending ordeal.

  Looking at the poor creature roaming near the well, he couldn’t help but keep sighing to himself.

  He knew they had just fought to death a while ago but still, he felt awful, and sad.

  No living beings should go through the same tragic fate as them.

  Getting exposed to such mysterious existences and got their whole life snatched right under their breath, Merik could at least sympathize for them.

  Merik couldn’t judge Mallory for what she had done because who was he to judge?

  He was still floating above the grotesque creature who was creepily strolling around, making eerie noises.

  He understood the whole situation now but he was still unknown of what state he was in.

  A spectral figure destined to float around endlessly forever?

  Also, he couldn’t make sense of that savior whisperer of his. He knew he had heard of the voice before but he couldn’t recall.

  At this moment, Merik noticed a rather peculiar thing had happened to him.

  He no longer had his right arm.

  Merik was horrified because even as a spectral figure, his arm still disappeared along with the whole sensations of his arm.

  He rechecked again and again to make sure; his mind wasn’t playing games.

  It really was gone, right up to his forearm. As he was a specter, the seemingly severed part was blurry and resembled a greyish smoke.

  Needless to say, he no longer felt anything in where his right arm once was.

  Merik’s whole body trembled violently at the thought of the worst-case scenario.

  “What if I lost not just my arm, but my whole body? Will I disappear forever?”

  His thought hadn’t even reached its end yet - Merik noticed that his left hand was slowly vanishing into thin air as well.

  What he feared was really happening!

  Merik flew up higher up in case the existence from below was the one behind it.

  However, no matter how high he flew up to, he could only helplessly watch his limbs vanishing into nothing.

  He was high above the clouds, but instead of feeling the thrill of height, he felt an overwhelmingly ominous feeling over his own life.

  Now, both of his legs and arms were gone. Not able to move your legs or arms was really a terrifying experience.

  Merik still could feel the intense chilling in his backbones and his unrelenting nerves.

  He started to panic, not knowing what to do. All in all, this realm was unexplainably mysterious from the beginning and it was really careless of Merik to think of it lightly.

  And because of that carelessness, he really was going to disappear. Just like this.

  “Is it really over?”

  It couldn’t be. He still needed to make that promise.

  “Promise?”

  Merik, follow the light. Merik, follow the light.

  He raised his head up and saw that in the expanded blue sky, he saw a faint blackish light, forming like a whole of black smokes.

  Without any hesitation, he rushed straight towards the smoke though it didn’t look anything like the light.

  It was extremely hard to direct himself towards the desired direction without his arms and legs to control the balance.

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  Now, only his head and chest were left, the rest were already consumed by the void.

  Merik’s speed slowed down gradually. He was reaching his limit.

  It was exceedingly taking a toll for his whole body and mind, even if it wasn’t fully complete.

  Don’t stop, Merik. Don’t stop, Merik. Don’t stop, Merik.

  Merik gritted his teeth and put all of his strength into reaching the black smoke.

  When he’s about to reach it, only his head was left and he felt that he was about to collapse in any moment.

  Losing consciousness here would be his final.

  The moment his eyes started to roll back; he was blinded by the blackish lights.

  The next moment, he saw that his whole body was back.

  His legs, arms, chest; everything was back!

  He was now floating in the peculiar endless blackness from before. Filled with gratitude for the helpful whisper again, he glanced back at where he came from.

  The bright scenery that he saw as a beach was now slowly disappearing and moments later, it was completely gone.

  Merik had no idea on what was happening with him or where he was, though he could take good several guesses.

  To confirm his doubts, he closed his eyes and whispered gently:

  “I am dreaming.”

  He slowly opened his eyes again and he saw that the blackish space from before was now replaced by his actual reality; before he was ensnared in the final attack of the creature.

  Instantly, his whole body was ravished by the ceaseless pain from his own powers.

  He felt that his own fleshes were tearing apart, gradually eating away at each other.

  Still, he gritted his teeth and slowly got up onto his feet.

  Balancing himself though hellishly exhausting, he picked up his beloved revolver from the cold ground.

  He checked the revolver and saw that the bullets were all gone but he didn’t worry since he took a spare of bullets.

  He just didn't want to face a situation where his only specialty was rendered useless, again.

  After reloading the gun, he pointed it at the creature.

  The creature was standing still, seemingly in a deep slumber and beside it was Cora who was similarly in a deep state of sleep as well.

  Merik slowly but steadily dragged his legs towards the creature and when he reached point-blank, he cocked the trigger.

  He made sure to aim at its head, to be exact, the center of that huge grotesque eye.

  In the corner of his eyes, he noticed the two children, Timmy and Tina, in a deep sleep.

  This time, his emotions within didn’t resurface onto his face.

  Instead, what emerged from him was deep and unfathomable blackish flames that resembled a bottomless abyss. And those devouring flames were slowly circling around Merik in a form of vicious torrents, and at an exceedingly fast speed, they were flowing into the very revolver Merik was holding.

  The moment these blackish flames started to appear; the whole atmosphere abruptly darkened as if the lustrous nature of the night was completely devoured by its terrifying hunger.

  Soon, all of the flames were gone; heavily condensed into a tiny, steel bullet.

  “Merik, what... what are you doing?”

  Merik glanced at Cora, who was now shaking her head to ward the sleepiness off.

  “Merik, don’t...”

  An ear breaking bang resounded deafeningly and enveloped the freezing night whole.

  Then, all of a sudden, Merik lost consciousness before finally being consumed by the blinding lights.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________

  I have always... wanted everything to go my way.

  I love my old man; the same way he adored us.

  I love my coffee as bitter as it can be, the same way I like my women, harsh and violent.

  I have a lot of things that I want still, I was content with the way it was.

  Funnily enough, for the longest times, I would wish time would sit still, even if it meant not achieving my dreams.

  Never thought of myself as selfish nor arrogant but time and time again, I was proved wrong.

  Seemed that I was pretty selfish from their perspective.

  “Conceited.”, they said.

  Still, I consider myself humble and considerate, I mean, does any of us ever think of ourselves.... defective?

  If so, how would they live?

  Would they just lie themselves to sleep?

  What’s really in front of them started to torment them in any way, would they cling to their false dreams desperately?

  As humane and natural as it is, I hate it. I hate them for acting like completely normal humans.

  Rather than facing the vicious reality, one can’t stop indulging themselves in the sweet and delicate gentleness called “Lies.”

  You liars. You are all liars. Fucking awful liars. Each and every one of you.

  Even you, Dad and even you, Amara.

  You all should be like me, who’s not afraid to grasp his desires, right into his hand.

  You all should be like me, who is true to his own feelings.

  You all should be like me, not cowering under any pressures.

  For I only have myself to rely on, it will be me who will solve these past, shrouded in heart-rending traumas all by myself, and without fail.

  I will keep my own promise and I don’t need anyone else.

  For you, Dad. For you, Amara.

  At least, that is what this beloved “conceited” bastard of yours will do for you.

  Just you wait.