A Hell Called Serestral - Chapter 25

Before Aries had been stabbed to death, he felt that he was a lucky person. None of his mission had failed. He never had a hard time on anything. He was good at being an assassin.

Now that he had decided to change his career, he could feel that the heavens, or maybe hell, or probably both were not fond of it and they would never make things easy for him.

The moment he and Princess Pieffer stepped at the crowded southern border, Aries had spotted two corrupted souls.

He was not sure if his ability was malfunctioning or advancing. Previously, he could only glimpse a dark smoke around the head. Sometimes the dark fumes were from the eyes and mouth. But right at that moment, he could glimpse the original form of the corrupted soul. It was overlaid with the shape of its vessel.

He must have stared too much that both corrupted souls realized that he had recognized them.

Princess Pieffer was probably watching him too closely that she noticed him glaring at the two suspicious people a few meters away from them.

“There are two?” the princess asked him in a whisper. She looked away from the possessed people but it was too late to pretend ignorance. They had already been busted.

It would have been easier if the two possessed people are standing in the same place. But they were meters apart from each other. They were near an alley where they could easily run and hide. Aries could shoot an arrow but they were in a crowded place. Though he had a lot of practice at the House of Lion, he was still not that confident in hitting his target. And an arrow flying through the crowd would definitely instigate panic.

Tauren said that causing fear to the people would only make them more inviting and vulnerable to the corrupted souls.

“Let’s call for backup,” Aries suggested for the two possessed people were smiling at him as if mocking him.

“We can do this,” Princess Pieffer was determined. “Let’s split up.”

“No,” he strongly refused.

“You don’t trust me?” the princess smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. “I know you feel like I’m a stranger to you. But you have to believe in me even for just a bit. I can handle one possessed person. If something goes wrong, I will call my brother. I will not let myself die. Not even after we saved Serestral. I will live for as long as I want and until my hair turns white.”

Aries was silenced by her determination and she had taken that as an approval.

“I’ll run after the one in the left alley. You take care of the one in the right,” Pieffer instructed.

Aries could only nod and as Pieffer dashed to the left, he rushed to the right.

The possessed person he was chasing had run to the alley. He was grateful that it was an empty one. He quickly called Vermillion in the shape of a bow and released an arrow. He thought it would easily hit his target but the possessed person lowered his upper body without losing agility and successfully dodged the projectile.

Aries fired five more arrows that only passed through the air and hit the concrete walls. He finally decided to switch into close combat as the possessed person stopped moving and laughed scornfully at him.

He charged at the possessed person with caution. He only needed to stab one of his blades at the vessel and he could easily absorb the corrupted soul inside it. But with the swift movements of his opponent, it became difficult to land a paralyzing blow.

That corrupted soul was different from the previous ones he had absorbed. For a moment he thought that it was another Celestial Knight but Tauren would have warned them about it.

Remembering the Bull House Leader, Aries thought about the bottles of holy water in his pocket but decided not to waste such precious items on an enemy that moves around so swiftly. Right at that moment, he could only rely on his blades.

His opponent was like a gymnast. He could stretch his body like rubber and at a speed that was truly annoying.

Aries kept on attacking. He was now using the shadows to help him surprise the enemy and land a paralyzing blow. But his foe could still sense where he would reappear.

Aries refused to be defeated by his frustration. He hid behind the shadows, reappeared at the back, left, right, and front of his elastic enemy but all he managed to do was left a scratch on both shoulders of his foe.

But he was still making a progress.

He only had to do it all over again.

He stepped behind the shadows but as he was about to leave, a stunning figure had caught his eyes.

Pieffer was traversing through the darkness.

At first, he thought that it was the Pieffer he loved, but at a second glance, it was the blue-haired Princess Pieffer.

The princess also noticed his presence and was as stunned as he was.

He thought about following her but remembered that he was still fighting a hard to pin down enemy. When he reappeared near his opponent, a blade had pierced his stomach.

“Getting tired?” the possessed person smirked at him.

“No,” Aries grabbed the weapon hand of the enemy to prevent him from pulling the weapon away then with his free hand, he stabbed at the shoulder of his foe.

He pushed the blade deeper and absorbed the corrupted soul as fast as he could but he stopped midway when he felt that the soul of the vessel was hurting. That was the first time he had seen that.

The corrupted soul laughed, “You cannot get me out of this body without killing the host.”

Aries stared coldly at the corrupted soul as he pulled the blade from the shoulder of the vessel and stabbed him right through the heart. As the possessed person died, pulling the corrupted soul out had been effortless.

“I like it when you become so ruthless,” someone from behind him had whispered.

Aries froze at the coldness of that voice and his vision was momentarily obscured.

“You’ve seen the princess. She is covered with darkness. That woman is wicked. You must kill her.”

He had heard that voice and those words before. He could not remember when but it was certainly the same voice and words.

Kill the princess.

A wicked smile curved on his lips and he jumped into the shadows. He was going to find the princess.

It did not take him long. A minute was enough to locate her. She was fighting the possessed person and she was doing well. It was like watching a feather moving gracefully with the wind. Her movements could either be slow or fast, depending on the actions of her opponent. Her body could bend elegantly as if she was a ballet dancer that was wielding a sword.

Even though her foe was as fast as the wind, she was just moving along, dodging, parrying, and countering at the right moment.

The corrupted soul inside the possessed person was getting frustrated. It reminded Aries of his recently concluded fight and much more memories from a distant past. He was just trying to ignore it all.

Princess Pieffer became more aggressive in attacking. Her opponent was shocked as Aries was astounded. After fighting for more than an hour, she could still surprise her foe.

Her sudden fierceness caused her opponent to panic, stumble, and hit a wall. The princess wasted no time to pierce the possessed person in the shoulder. She had quickly reached inside her pocket, pulled the three bottles of holy water, and shattered it at the head of the screaming vessel.

Aries thought that it would fail but the corrupted soul had been successfully ejected from the body and Aries had quickly shot an arrow to claim that dark essence.

Princess Pieffer turned to look at him.

“When did you arrive?” she asked with anxiety in her eyes.

“Just now,” Aries lied. “I saw you…”

“Yes,” the princess quickly said. “I can also travel through the shadows. You learned that from me.”

“What?” Aries was confused. He remembered that the Pieffer he loved can also use the shadows to her advantage. He never had the chance to ask where she had learned that. But he was certain that he did not gain that skill from her.

“I am Princess Pieffer,” she approached him and put her hands over his stomach.

Aries had forgotten that he had been stabbed in there. He was confused and that was all he could think about.

“Can you read my mind?”

The princess smiled and answered, “No. I can only guess based on the look in your eyes. You are probably thinking that since the Pieffer in the world where you came from can also traverse through the shadows, there might be a possibility that I am her. But I am certainly not her.”

“How did you know that she can do that?” Aries was getting more confused and his head was hurting more than his stab wound.

Princess Pieffer calmly replied, “I met her a few times.”

“What?”

It was the only word that Aries could mumble. His heart was pounding real fast and his brain felt like it would explode from excessive throbbing.

“Let’s bring this person to the hospital then I will tell you everything that you want to know,” the princess said after healing his wound.

“Lead the way,” Aries sighed then carried the injured person in his back.

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