Shun POV:
A woman sat in the corner beside the bed. Greyish-blonde hair wrapped around her lonely frame and clung to the sweat on her forehead.
Trembles.
Quakes.
They banded together with no remorse for the plea she requested to be granted. Pink irises gazed into black ones; her love still present despite the execution about to be carried out.
She crawled.
The woman who had lost her standing and her power used her hands and feet to move forward, only stopping once she reached Death. Her head rose, but Death offered her no solace. What right did she have to even beg for mercy? What right did she have to be excused for the sick abuse she put another through?
None.
The woman bit her lip and crawled on.
[The Creed will now carry out punishment on those who dare to go against the Ravendawn Family.]
At last, Justice would b—
A figure, concealed by the darkness, appeared from thin air; their blade angled toward the heart of an innocent baby, sleeping in peace.
“NO!!!”
Chloe splayed her hand, shooting the cot forward right when the sword sliced down. Its force splintered the floorboards and made a heart re-awaken from its slumber, thumping loud enough for it to reach my eardrums. Chloe rushed to her feet and grabbed the baby.
She glanced back at me with pained eyes before bolting toward the window. More dark figures surrounded her, preventing her advance when my body moved. I knocked four of them back and stood guard in front of Chloe to protect my daughter.
“Don’t you DARE lay your hands on my family!!”
Bloodlust exploded over the entire room, complimenting the shrinkage of my pupils. Ki erupted out of me when a dark-skinned man with plaited rows down his head appeared. He folded his arms and examined me.
“Family? Did you not just throw them away?”
‘...Tch.’
I ignored the squirming sensation along my body and shifted into a stance.
“I... can’t let you kill them.”
“Kihahaha!! What’s this?! He was so eager for both of them to die, but now he’s playing hero?”
The strange material peeled back; its fibres rippled away to reveal the fair skin and yellow eyes of a man underneath. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead from the unfavourable situation. I couldn’t sense any of them, but they must have watched the entire interaction I had with Chloe from the moment we reunited.
“Look, kid. We’ll kill them far away from you. How about that?”
‘...’
I lowered my hands. I wanted to save my daughter... I had to save my daughter, but that meant saving Chloe too.
“You’ve improved, Yoke. Whether he wanted a child or not, it’d be hard for any father to watch their offspring be stabbed to death in front of them.”
“Kihaha! I’m still nowhere near your level of reading people, Tembo!”
Yoke dipped his head toward Tembo, who stared at me with... an empathetic gaze.
[The Creed claim to understand the difficulty of your experience and offer you one final ultimatum.]
[If you choose to accept, Chloe Ravendawn and your daughter will be killed in an unknown location. If you choose to refuse, you will face punishment for going against The Creed.]
The flashing red windows soon faded. The System’s method of communication indicated that the difficulty level was increasing at a rapid rate. Whatever choice I made here would affect my entire life in Ayadell.
‘Damn it...’
Chloe tugged on my sleeve, prompting me to look back into her shimmering eyes. She held my daughter close to her large chest when I smacked her hand away. The Creed members laughed at the scene, and Chloe’s tears streamed down her cheeks but failed to change her loving smile.
“I guess the kid’s made his decision then?”
Yoke stepped forward and cocked his head to the side. The likelihood of negotiation was too low to consider. This was a matter concerning a member of one of the Ten Families; I couldn’t talk my way out of this.
“Yeah.”
My lips curved into a slight smirk.
“Screw you.”
I swept Chloe off her feet, held her body close to my chest, and shot forward. Several currents of air aided my acceleration when I crashed through the barrier and the window. I sprinted across the rooftops of Chunhae, only to look back in time to see The Creed flickering in and out of view.
They closed the gap in an instant, but walls of water separated the two sides. Katherine dropped from the sky; her eyebrows furrowed when Aiden, Gerard, and Phoebe appeared behind her.
“Shun, is this your final decision?”
Katherine’s lips formed a gentle smile once we made eye contact. I held my daughter closer to my chest. This was my child, so I didn’t need to think any further.
“Yeah.”
She gave me a warm nod and faced The Creed alone.
“...Go, Shun. We’ll... buy you some time.”
Phoebe couldn’t look at me; her hands continued to tremble until her back faced me. I closed my eyes. I bit my lip at this outcome before turning around.
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“I’m... sorry, and... thank you all.”
I dashed forward without wasting any more time.
[The Mission Log has been updated.]
[Mission: Proof of Love
Difficulty: X
Show The Creed that your love for Chloe Ravendawn is true. If you are defeated in battle, or if any life-threatening harm comes to Chloe or your daughter, you automatically fail this mission.]
‘X... Damn it!!’
The veins around my mouth popped while my hands trembled. I navigated through Chunhae at full speed and manipulated the wind around my daughter to make sure she didn’t suffocate.
“Super Atlas V3.”
A light silver object appeared by my side; its surface was no longer rocky but smooth. The map that projected forward was no longer limited but vast. It showed hundreds of areas I had marked across parts of Sharir with small red notes that could be viewed by touching them.
“Testing Ground.”
The map zoomed in on the area where it all began. The place where I first trained and tested the possibilities of Ki far away from civilisation: The Duram Mountains.
I directed Super Atlas V3 to the side and stared ahead. Cold sweat ran down my forehead as I organised thousands of plans into the appropriate categories. This wasn’t about growth. This was about my family.
That was why...
‘I can’t fail this mission.’
***
Torches lined the inside of the cave. Their light illuminated the entire area, leaving little room for shadow to form. I embraced the darkness, but I wouldn’t let my daughter do the same.
‘...’
I stood by the tunnel’s entrance. The pre-made cot Chloe took out of her Soul Realm was simplistic: four diagonal legs attached to a boat-shaped bed. However, hidden intricate designs were carved across its surface: a feature my daughter noticed and pointed out.
“Why did you change your mind?”
Delicate fingers wiped the blood away with a gentle motion. My party couldn’t block everything; stray attacks cut open the skin, but it didn’t matter. Once it was ideal, I smacked her hand away.
“Don’t touch me, and don’t talk to me.”
Chloe lowered her head. Long eyelashes fluttered back and forth, accompanied with a permanent blush that occupied her cheeks. Any man would fall for her. Any man would be mesmerised by her uncanny ability to merge cuteness and seductiveness into its own form.
“But I love you.”
Then her voice: a sound laced with honey. Its sweetness could melt hearts when it wanted to, but poison others when it needed to.
“Love? You call this love?!”
Chloe’s cheeks rose before she spun around. She sat down and placed a hand on the cot. I observed the way her flawless skin creased from thin lips spreading out. The way slender fingers adjusted the padding before rocking the cot side to side and the way she bonded with my giggling daughter, there was no trickery at play here.
It made me stumble.
It left me with the same question.
‘Why... Why couldn’t you have been normal in the first place...’
Chloe’s eyes swivelled toward me. The bright smile that shouldn’t be bright. The pure smile that shouldn’t be pure. My fist struck the wall in silence before I disappeared down the tunnel, unable to watch their interaction any longer.
***
I sat with my arm over my knee beneath the moonlight. The wind continued to move. It carried the sounds of the dense forest toward me in a clearer way, keeping me aware of any sudden changes.
My own senses were expanded to the limit, supplemented this way due to Ki Sense being an area I struggled in.
“Would you like to get some rest, Shun? I can keep watch inste—”
“Shut up and get back inside the cave.”
I didn’t want to be near this sick freak. However, I couldn’t be careless; this involved my daughter’s life, so I took note of the fact that despite being on the run, Chloe hadn’t used Ki once. The most plausible explanation was The Creed placed some sort of seal on her when they confirmed my decision.
In other words, Chloe was useless right now. So why was this psycho making such a stupid suggestion? Is there something else she’s not telling me?
It wouldn’t benefit her to hide information right now. If there was another clear condition for this mission, she would have told m—
“I know you love me.”
A harsh breeze brushed past the space between us. I stood, but no words broke the status quo. I looked, but only pain greeted me. The memories made my eyebrows fall. The torture made my fists shake, but the sheer audacity to stand there and look me in the eyes and say a statement like that was inconceivable.
“THIS ISN’T LOVE!!”
The area shook from a pained scream. Birds turned their heads before covering the sounds of their children crying.
“You twisted sicko!! This... This is a result of what you did to me!”
I peered down into a gaze that once enchanted me. It was a face that took my heart; it ripped it out of my chest and chained me to her. No matter how far I ran, she was always with me.
“I have no affection toward you.”
This should have ended with her death.
“The slightest touch of our bodies makes me want to vomit.”
But how could I kill my daughter’s mother?
“I despise everything about you, Chloe Ravendawn.”
I couldn’t.
The hatred and disgust caused no reaction. Her lips remained in the same smile she thought was loving. Chloe was the embodiment of delusion: reality slapped her in the face, but she warped the outcome into the opposite.
“Behind all of that hatred is love. If I’m wrong, look me in the eye, and tell me you love me. I know you won’t be able to do it.”
Chloe’s eyes formed a faint curve; smooth creases provoked me to refute her point.
‘It should be easy. It’s nothing more than a childish statement, right? Your hatred was deep enough to sleep with me by choice in order to escape, so what are a few words compared to that? Or... is your resolve not as strong as you claim?’
That was what she implied.
However, the reason the blood wrapped over her nose before rippling across her cheeks was simple: we both were engaging in mental warfare, and she was confident that she would win again.
“Do I look stupid to you? That proves nothing.”
This damn woman was playing on past trauma to justify her own deluded version of reality. The facts didn’t matter when she could make them up and had the power to force others to agree.
She also knew my responses were limited. I... almost watched my daughter die because of my own selfishness.
“It proves how much you love me. If I’m wrong, then say it, Shun.”
It would be easy to ignore her, but that was factored into her plan as well. The reason she waited so long before speaking was to build frustration within me. Once that reached a certain point, Chloe knew I would never back down from a confrontation with her.
She forced me to play her damn game.
“...”
Her bright fuchsia eyes drew me in. The golden ratio of her facial features couldn’t be denied either.
“I...”
And before I knew it, my mouth opened. Shivers ran down my spine. Shivers that blended into tremors, freezing me in place. Sweat drenched the clothes I wore when I looked down at clammy hands.
‘After... all this time?’
I bit my lip and looked to the side. How deep... did this wound go? Deep enough that I couldn’t see the end of it? What I overcame was nothing more than a small fraction of the past.
“You know it yourself. Deep down inside, you love me.”
“...”
My eyebrows quivered at the damage I became aware of. I knew I was broken, but... could I even be fixed at this point?
“Kiss me.”
Two alluring lips peeled away the confusion. They rose my head and offered me endless comfort: a safety that would never allow questions to interfere with the path forward.
Once they pressed together, I lost control of my heart. It raced. It flipped and soared until, somehow, the gap between us was only a breath awa—
Fingers coiled around a perfect neck before a force gripped it in place. Death peered down at the one brave enough to try and entice him. Deep wound? Don’t make me laugh. Everything he put himself through was to kill this pathetic human being, so his lips rested beside the woman’s ear. They parted to give her some words of wisdom and a warning.
“I’m not the same weak man I once was.”
Chloe didn’t move. A sweet but disgusting smell rose from her skin. It interacted with my own, spiralling over one another—intertwining until I looked down at a hand holding my wrist to the side.
‘...?’
Lips locked. Hands ran through pitch-black hair, pushing their other half closer. The intensity increased with every second that passed by. It grew with every meeting. Then the mountain shook.
I smashed this crafty little psycho into the entrance’s side before glaring at her curved eyes.
“You’re beautiful but hopelessly disgusting at the same time. Stop trying to manipulate me. Stop messing with my head, and stop misleading my heart. Stay... THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!”
Chloe’s lips rose, but a kiss on the cheek was the only reply she gave me. I resisted the urge to punch her face in when she walked off.
‘Damn it...’
I watched her greyish-blonde hair sway behind her back. Chloe twisted her head toward me, letting the moonlight add to the glow in her bright fuchsia eyes.
“I really do love you, my Shun.”