Chapter 102: Chapter 102

Estyshana’s POV
   On their way to exit the hospital, Esty notices that the humans who passed by her and the Hero are keep on staring at her. It happened a lot whenever she was at school or outside in general, and she never got used to it.

   “Why are they staring at me?” she asks the Hero softly.

   He shrugs. “Japanese tend to be curious about foreigners. Especially pretty ones.”

   Esty blushes and smiles at the casual compliment, then she remembered that she’s supposed to hate him.

   “Don’t think you can flatten me with those cheap words…” she growls between gritted teeth.

   “Am I supposed to ignore that happy smile you flashed?”

   Esty stops walking and glares at him. He looks away almost immediately.

   “My bad…” he mumbles.

   Satisfied, Esty continues to walk towards the exit.

   “So, where is this Niagara Fall thing located?” she asks once they’re outside and way out of sight from other humans.

   “Hold on.”

   He takes out his phone and taps on it rapidly for a few seconds. He then hands the phone over to her. The screen shows the location of the waterfall and more importantly, its exact coordinates. Esty looks at them and opens up a portal in that location. A few seconds later, one appears right in front of them.

   Before they step inside, they decide to put on disguises just in case there are other humans who happen to be in the near vicinity: the Hero equips his usual armor, while Esty puts on her mask and changes the color of her hair with Illusion.

   Standing in front of the portal, Esty realizes that she’s getting a bit nervous. After all, one of the Four Demon Marquis might be right beyond this portal. One of her supposedly dead comrades, a comrade whom Esty has to put down just like how she did Sulgran.

   “Man, I really wish we’re going to fight any other demons rather than him. Even your dad is preferable.” the Hero grumbles all of a sudden.

   “Did he give you that much trouble the last time the two of you fought?”

   “All of them did, that’s for sure. No, I didn’t want to fight him again since the last time we fought, he plain refused to shut up the entire time we were trying to kill each other.”

   Esty giggles at that.

   “It’s true that he simply loves the sound of his own voice.” she agrees.

   “Right? I know a few talkative people throughout the short life I’ve lived through so far, but he really, really needs to shut up.”

   “Trust me, it gets a lot worse when he starts talking about the life he had been living.”

   The Hero groans loudly at that.

   “Don’t even get me started with that! It’s bad enough if an elderly person does that, and he’s like, what, four thousand years old? That’s a LOT of life story!” he complains.

   “You think you had it bad? I lived in the same castle as he did, remember? Imagine listening to his endless prates for centuries.”

   “To be honest, I’m extremely surprised that your father never obliterates him.”

   “You think he never thought of doing that? It’s just that the chatterbox was one of his top executives. Meaning, he’s really hard to replace.”

   “Lucky him…”

   Fun as this conversation is, Esty wonders what’s the point of having it. She then realizes that she’s not nervous anymore.

   “...Don’t expect me to thank you.”

   She wanted to kick him or something, but it would be pointless since he’s covering himself from head to toe with his metallic armor.

   “Whatever. We’ve wasted enough time as it is. Let’s just get this over with.”

   Esty takes a deep breath. “Yup. Let’s.”

   The two of them step through the portal and are rewarded with the sight of a huge partially frozen waterfall. Not that it really matters, but Esty could be considered lucky by opening up a portal at a location right in front of it, instead of on top of it.

   Esty quickly looks around. No one else, human or otherwise, is here. There are snow everywhere she sees and that’s about it. She activates the Eye of Truth to scan for any beings with mana stored inside his/her/its body. She can’t find any so far.

   “Do you see anything?” she asks the Hero.

   He probably replied. He probably couldn’t even hear her since the waterfall is being too loud. She lets out a sigh. The temperature here is so low her breath came out as water vapor. At least, Esty thinks that it’s low. She has survived at harsh conditions where normal animals are frozen in an instant for weeks, after all. Compared to that frozen hell, this is nothing to her.

   She takes out her phone and types out the question before showing the screen to him. He takes out his own phone and types something and shows the screen to her.

   “I saw nothing too.” he wrote.

   “Does that mean what he told your sister was complete baloney?”

   “How should I know? You know him way better than me, right? Is he a liar?”

   She shakes her head before she starts typing. “No. Despite how he usually acts, he’s honest to the core.”

    “Then that means that he’s not here yet, or he’s around here somewhere.”

   Esty looks around some more.

   “This is a huge place. It won’t be easy to search for him.” she notes.

   “Do you have anything better to do?”

   “I guess not.”

   The two of them begin to wander around aimlessly as they have no idea on where to begin searching. No matter how hard they try, there’s still nothing but snow everywhere they see. And the waterfall is still loud.

   More than she would care to count, Esty finds her eyes wandering towards the Hero. She hates this. She really does. She has kept on telling herself that things will never progress positively between the two of them, and yet here she is, sneaking glances towards him like she’s some kind of maiden in love-

   Suddenly, the Hero looks towards her direction. She feels her cheeks blushing in embarrassment. Just as she’s busy thinking up an excuse, he takes out his phone and types something on it. He then shows her the screen.

   “This isn’t going anywhere. You talked to him a lot in the past, right? Is there any clue as to where he might be?”

   Esty takes out her own phone and starts typing away. Once she’s done, she shows the screen to him.

   “Why on earth would a random conversation we had ages ago provide a clue on his whereabouts?”

   “The reason we’re here is because he told Shino he loves to come here and swim.” he reminds her.

   “...Fair enough. Just give me a moment.”

   That’s way easier said than done, though. Esty is talking about at least one whole century worth of memory. This might take a long while-

   Suddenly, a random conversation appeared in Esty’s brain. After a few seconds of recalling, she realized that it wasn’t random at all. She looks around immediately.

   “Got something already?” the Hero asks.

   “Sort of. Our best bet right now is a cave. A water cave, to be exact.” Esty replies.

   “Well, we can begin the search by looking behind the waterfall.” he suggests.

   As per his suggestion, the two of them fly towards the end of the waterfall.

   There wasn’t a cave behind the huge waterfall, but there sure was a hole in the middle. A hole big enough for a humanoid to pass through. A hole that looked like it wasn’t formed naturally. Esty gulped audibly. Once she enters this hole, HE might be waiting. She takes a deep breath and enters. Even without looking back, she could tell that the Hero is right behind her.

   The interior of the hole is surprisingly huge. It’s around the same size as an underground arena that Esty wandered in by accident at a city she couldn’t remember the name of back at Ifezan. The finer details of it are unimportant. Right now, Esty is fixated on one thing and one thing only. There’s a sphere made of ice in the middle, and it’s thin enough to allow outsiders to see its content: Igmis, one of the Four Demon Marquis.

   Esty activates the Eye of Truth. The mana flowing inside him proved that he’s indeed the demon she has known all her life. The only crucial difference is that he’s wearing a set of clothes befitting those who lived long enough in this world just like Sulgran did: unzipped black leather jacket, a pair of black-and-white camo pants, and a pair of black boots. He’s not wearing any shirt, so his upper body is half-exposed.

   The same blue eyes, white hair, lots of magic rings on his fingers-

   What a minute. White hair? His hair used to be black.

   “It’s really him…” Esty whispers. “What happened to his hair, though?”

   The Hero shrugs at that. “We could ask him once he’s thawed.”

   Esty looks at him. He has already taken off his armor since he probably finds it unnecessary while they’re inside here. Esty decides to take off her mask and undo the illusion cast on her hair as well.

   “I’ll be the one to do it. You just stay there and think of what to say to him.” the Hero tells her.

   “...Thanks.”

   In truth, Esty wanted to tell him to mind his own business. Unfortunately, she has to take up his offer as she has way too many things to tell Igmis. While she’s pondering, the Hero reaches out his left hand towards the sphere. It melts away into a puddle of water immediately, freeing the trapped Igmis within.

   “Wait, you’re done already?” she asks.

   He shrugs. “He didn’t freeze himself very thoroughly.”

   Igmis stretches his body while grunting like an elderly human. After he is done, he flashes an overly bright smile at them.

   “Boy, am I glad to see you guys! I was in there for like, what, one week? It was so boring! You won’t possibly know how it feels to be frozen like that. I know I did it to myself, but still, it was TORTURING. I can’t eat, I can’t drink, sleep, and most importantly, I can’t go swimming! Can you imagine? Me, not being able to swim around like a fish?”

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   He shuddered violently for a few seconds.

   Esty couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Yup, he’s the same as ever. She feels stupid for being emotional to seeing him alive again for a second there.

   “Are you done?” the Hero asks with a tired tone.

   “Of course I’m not! Like I said, I’ve been stuck here for so long. At least, I think that it was long. I desperately needed someone to talk to.”

   “Like you also said, you did that to yourself.” the Hero reminds him. “Why did you even do it in the first place? Before you answer, though, remember to make it short and quick.”

   Igmis sulks at the last part.

   “I insist.” the Hero says firmly.

   “Fine, fine. Short and quick it is.” Igmis grumbles. “I take it that you guys know about what the UCI had been doing until Austin Graylock killed all their researchers?”

   “You mean how they were experimenting on humans and animals alike so that they could create the serums that grant supernatural powers?”

   “That’s it. See, those serums take time to make, just like how those finest wines and alcohols you humans made do. We’re talking about weeks and even months here. That’s where I come in.”

   “So, you were forced to use your Bloodline Magic over and over again? Is that how your hair turned white?” Esty asks fearfully.

   “Yup and yup.” Igmis confirms.

   Igmis’s Bloodline Magic, Chronokinesis, allows him to slow, speed up and even pauses time altogether. However, this ability of his comes at a huge price. The more he uses it, the more his own time, or more precisely his life force, will be taken away from him.

   “I know I’m supposed to pay them back for reviving me and stuff, but I still think that I had enough. I mean, if I have to go down anyway, I might as well go down with a bang.” he continues.

   “And how do you plan on doing that?”

   Esty already knows the answer, but she asked it anyway.

   Igmis shows her a sad smile, one not befitting of his overly cheerful personality.

   “By being killed in a battle for the second time, of course. Unlike last time, though, I could even choose the place I die in.”

   Ah, yes. His obsession with dying inside a cave near somewhere with lots of water. The obsession that helped Esty to find him in the first place.

   “You could have made it easier for us to find you, you know?” the Hero grumbles.

   “Hey, don’t blame it on me! Myself and the rest of the gang was expressly forbidden from telling an outsider our whereabouts, so I was troubled on how to make things work. Thankfully, your younger sister showed up at the right time. I told her about my usual hang out spot in the hope that she could pass on the word to you.”

   “How did you even know that she was my sister?”

   Igmis grins. “For one thing, the two of you kind of look alike. Most importantly, though, she was constantly letting out a gloomy aura just like a certain someone.”

   Esty lets out a giggle.

   “That’s something we all could agree on.” she laughs.

   “Yes, yes, I know I’m being a sourpuss all the time. No need to point it out loud…” the Hero grumbles.

   “There, there. Now that you’re a pair with Esty, her overly positive attitude might rub on you and make you just as cheerful too.” Igmis comforts.

   Esty snorts. “I honestly doubt it. He’s so gloomy that-”

   She freezes as her brain finally registered what Igmis just said.

   “Hey, wait a second!” she demands.

   “Hmm?”

   “What do you mean by, now that we’re a pair?”

   Igmis points at the Hero, then at Esty.

   “You guys aren’t going out with each other?” he asks.

   “No! What gave you that idea?”

   “Um, based on how the two of you were constantly flirting with each other back when we were at Ifezan. I mean, even-”

   He zips up all of a sudden.

   “...Never mind. I should shut up or my wish on dying by battle will never be granted.”

   The Hero raises his eyebrow in surprise.

   “You, afraid of speaking up? What exactly were you about to say?”

   “Don’t ask. Please.”

   The Hero shrugs. “Sure, if you insist that much.”

   “Thank you. Now, back to the topic at hand. Even if you guys aren’t going out, you can easily fix that. I mean, the two of you are totally in love with each other.”

   Esty groans loudly.

   “Not you too! Seriously, why are you pretending that HE never ended your life?”

   She said the last part while pointing angrily at the Hero.

   “There were no hard feelings involved.” Igmis says with a shrug. “Right?”

   “Yup. None at all.” the Hero agrees.

   Esty shoots him a murderous glare. Needless to say, he’s just ignoring it.

   “Say, you said not me too just now.” Igmis begins with a rather serious tone.

   “Yeah?”

   “Does that mean that you were the one who finished Sulgran?”

   Hearing about the female Marquis made Esty all depressed.

   “...That’s right. He helped out, but I was the one who dealt the last blow.” she replies quietly while glancing towards the Hero.

   “I see. Was she at peace towards the end?”

   Esty nods mournfully.

   “I see,” he says again. “Well, I guess it’s my turn next.”

   Esty lets out a mournful sigh.

   “To be completely honest with you, I don’t really want to do this.” she confesses softly.

   “Oh, come on! Are you getting cold feet at this point?”

   Esty could only lower her head in shame.

   “Think of it this way. Once you kill him, you’ll never have to listen to his endless prattling ever again.” the Hero tells her.

   “That’s an excellent way to get motivated.” Igmis agrees cheerfully.

   There were a few seconds of silence. Esty had to lift up her head in order to see what’s going on. Right now, the Hero is giving Igmis a surprised look.

   “So you know that you’re being annoying?” the Hero asks.

   “Sure do. I enjoy annoying others too. Why do you think I talk so much in the first place?”

   The Hero rolls his eyes.

   “And this is why I hated fighting you…” he mutters.

   Esty takes a deep breath.

   “All right, I’m going to do this.” she declares. “Not that I find you annoying or anything, mind.”

   “That’s the spirit! Now then-”

   Igmis snaps his right fingers. Esty swore that she didn’t even blink. Even so, at the next second, she finds both herself and the Hero being surrounded by dozens and dozens of different elemental Spells.

   “Try to evade this if you can.”

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