CHAPTER 4- I LOVE YOU

Her point of view

My long black hair follows the waves of the wind blowing. The heat of sun that scorches my face, the
blue yonder that reflects the tranquility of my life and the singing of hummingbirds echoing in the
entire place. All of these creations give me a single message --- Despite how cruel the world is, there
is still happiness to be discovered in living.

‘Thea’ a serious voice called me. I look behind and see him smiling. His eyes are innocent. A guy
almost two heads taller than me, handsome and kind.

I remember the time when an old woman left this guy to me when I was just 5 years old. He was
barely speaking that time. I know he had no one just like me so I took care of him ever since.

‘Is something the matter?’ I responded.

‘Well. The people are already waiting outside. Are you ready or you still need more time?’ He calmly
asks.

His voice is husky but even so it has an unusual kindness in it.

He’s indeed the guy that turns my world upside down. My knight in shining armor that everyone would
want to have.

But for now he is wearing a role as my assistant in doing a responsibility my family have left unto me.

I am certainly lucky he is by my side.

Inside the shrine, I fix the table cloth of the little round table and put my tarot cards, talismans and
other significant things on it. I sit down and pray.

Although I’ve been doing this for ten years, it still makes my heart pound like crazy. I know this will
be another exhausting day but as long as he is with me, I can do everything.

‘Please let them in’ I politely ask him.

Bunch of people come inside the shrine. I see different colors of aura and honestly, it makes me sick.

As a priestess, I have the power to see into the future, the power to talk to the spirits of another
world, the power to give curses and to heal sickness.

One by one, each of them approaches me and tells their requests.

One lady asks what digits she should gamble in casino in order to win. In response, I speak the
numbers she needed but in exchange she should pay me with a high price. Moreover, there’s a man
who wants to know who stole his money and demands me to curse whoever the culprit is. I also do it
but with proper pay of course.

There are also persons who ask for curing of unidentified diseases, look for ways of making somebody
fall in love with them and requests to exorcise a demon and other spirits. Frankly speaking, I never
reject any favors because all of them are willing to pay large sums of money in order to fulfill their
requests.
After a lot of rituals, meditations and incantations, all of them finally leave with a face full of relief and
happiness knowing that they get what they want, but if I am going to be asked, I pity them for they
do not know the consequences of what they did.

In this regard, I pity myself too.

As I’m about to close the shrine, a young woman arrives. Her eyes are red because of crying, she’s
catching her breath and her bare feet are covered with dirt and wounds. I know she come from
somewhere far away. I can feel it through the aura surging from her. Her despair and her
hopelessness. There is something wrong.

‘What can I do for you?’ I ask her knowing that it’s obvious she wants some help using my power.

She begins untying the knot of a white cloth tied around her body and carefully reveals that inside of
it, is an infant.

A baby girl with no signs of life in it. A corpse to be exact.

She starts crying.

‘Sorry but I cannot help you’ I quickly but softly uttered.

‘I heard about… you, so I travelled so far just to ask…’ I can barely understand what she says. ‘Please
do not reject me… please resurrect my daughter.’

I shake my head. I don’t want to give any false hope. That is the limit of my power. I cannot bring
back life.

She then kneels in front of me and begs helplessly. I can see the pain through her eyes. Her agony
and suffering enters my soul and crashes me inside. I start shedding tears. My heart is slowly
shattering.

To my ancestors, Grandma… Dad and Mom.

I’m sorry

Please forgive me…

I believe in my power but in all the history of my family for generations, they only manage to revive
two people. One of those was a tyrant king who ruled the five greatest kingdoms ever and the other
one was a brave samurai who conquered the battlefield during the 3rd Trade War.

Furthermore, the ritual of resurrection requires a sacrifice. A hefty one so no one dared to do it again.

Despite of all of this, I still draw the ritual circles and asks the lady to sit inside of it together with her
child. I then gathered all the talismans and place it around the circle according to the order indicated
in Book of Spells.

I am nervous but I am determined to help her. There’s something inside me that is telling me to
conquer my limits and exhibit my full power. I know I can do it. All my life, I read and memorized
every incantations in that book, even the power of resurrection which is considered a taboo.

I glance at her and she nods signaling me to begin the forbidden ritual. I kneel in front of them, raise
my hand and begin meditating.

My focus and concentration are gradually becoming perfect. I can feel the spirits emanating from the
shrine and all the other souls surrounding us. A cold wind blows.

Stop it! Don’t do it! You’ll fail.

The voices… They want me to stop.

I will not falter. I will do it.

I start chanting the words, little by little, carefully as I can. I cannot risk forgetting even a single a
word or else the ritual will be deemed unsuccessful.

The wind blows much harder. It gives me goose bumps. I feel the presence of demonic spirits,
enveloping us right now, laughing and mocking me.

Just three more words and the ritual will be done.

‘Restore’ I said the first of the last three words when I feel a flame circling us. Its heat is burning that
I start opening my eyes. I see all of them both malevolent and benevolent souls.

‘…Thy… life’ I uttered the remaining phrase and a strong light blinds my eyes.

Right away, the wind calms, the flames stop and all the souls vanish. I succeeded.

As soon as my vision becomes normal again, I immediately look at the lady and her baby daughter.
She smiles at me.

‘Thank you…’

But after saying those words, she falls to the floor.

I am startled. I cannot move but I know that she is already dead.

Her baby is still not breathing too.

All of sudden, my world stops.

I failed.

‘Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!’

I scream as loud as I can and the last thing I see before I faint… is his face.

As I open my eyes, I am already on my bed surrounded by a smoke from a rose incense. Its aroma
eases pain and stress but even so, it isn’t enough to relieve my broken soul. Everything is still clear to
me. I failed to do my job and I killed somebody because of that failure.

The door slowly opens and I see him holding some sort of herbal leaves. I look at his face and he is
obviously worried. I lift my body to sit on the bed while he puts the herbal leaves above the drawer
and swiftly sit beside me after that.

The ticking of the clock. The beating of my heart. Those are all I can here inside the quiet room. I tie
my hair while he continues to stare at me, silently. Even I’m inches away from him, I can still feel his
warmth and it courses inside me.

My broken soul and shattered spirit. Is it possible to mend them?

I crawl towards him while he just keeps on leering. He’s indeed waiting for me, I know it. I gently
touch his face and damps his dry lips with a kiss. He then pulls my body closer to him and hugs me
tight.
I feel his heart beating. His warm body melts the coldness of my dying heart. His lips are shaking but
I feel his passion, his lust and his love all at the same time.

This man who is always there for me in times of happiness and despair. This man who knows how
weak and strong I am. This man who I want to spend my life with forever. I love him. I want him.

And now with each passing second, as he greedily explores my naked body, I feel my soul restoring
itself. Meanwhile, I little by little find the lost pieces of my shattered heart on him.

He definitely completes my being.

That night…

…our souls that are both lost

…our spirits that are both broken

… our hearts that are both empty

and our body that both needs somebody

… finally become one…

I love you.

This was our last day on that world and our lives will change forever

FOREST AREA

‘See that?’ He boastfully said. ‘That’s what they get for asking for provoking me’. He is smirking while
he fixes some of the displaced parts of his silver armor.

I look at his eye. He is different.

‘Those weaklings gave less experience than those pesky humans I killed last time.’
He then checks his own information.

Matthew

21

Paladin

Rank 20

‘Damn! Still at Rank 20!’ He’s clearly disappointed.

He changed a lot. The man I love will not think of killing someone or even hurt them.

From the moment we arrived in this world, he is constantly changing that I feel like I’m with a whole
other person right now.

‘Heal me Thea and let’s look for other opponents, I hope they would be stronger, though.’ He then
laughed.

I lift my staff and cure his wounds.

He is indeed different but the fact that he is still the guy who owns my heart doesn’t change.

Even though I don’t know him anymore, I can see a little hope that after achieving his goal of
conquering this world, he will be back.

The kind and loving Matt that I know will be back. I just hope so.

For now I’ll stay by his side, just like he always does before. That’s all I can do.

My dream… is to live. To live with him.

I want to live for OUR sake.

STONE AREA

Iris’ Point of View

I want to die. Even in this world, it’s all that matters to me.

I thought during my battle with Stella I already forgot my willingness to end my life but now it is all
clinging back to me. I despise to feel the weakness of a human heart, once again.

Pain, suffering and…

Love--- for this thing is superficial

I point my sword in front of Franco’s throat.

I want to kill him and end his suffering.

That is what my mind is telling me and yet, my hand and my whole body is throbbing.

‘Do it’ He declares. His face is determined and the look in his eyes is definitely not eyes of someone
who is afraid to die.

‘Kill me!’ He shouted.

Instead of following him, I calm myself and slowly bring the sword down to my left side. I couldn’t do
it and I don’t know why.

His face still hasn’t changed. He steps forward and hold the edge of the sword. He pulls it back to his
throat. I am astounded. Does he really want to be killed? I ask myself.

Blood drips from his right hand. Even though I only created the sword, it still has the qualities of a real
one--- both sharp and deadly.

‘Are you scared?’ He sarcastically asked while his right brow is arched. ‘Proceed with your betrayal and
kill me!’

‘I am… not betraying you.’ I finally speak my mind. He is not agreeing with what I said.

‘In this world, do you think you have the time to be influenced by your damn emotions?’ I ask him.

I said that to point out that he is clearly affected by his anger to Stella and his sadness because of
what happened to Zane that’s why he cannot think straight.

He snicker. ‘So you did it to open my eyes? Is this what are you getting at?’ He still isn’t believing me.

The sword disappears but he asks for another one.

‘Create a sword again and kill me!’ He shouted in anger. ‘Don’t play…---‘

‘Stop!’ Stella interrupts. ‘Aren’t you two comrades?’ I look at her and she is trying her all to stand up.
Franco glares at her and he is shaking in anger.

‘The one you need to kill is me!’ she continues and this time she is already on her two feet. I realize
that her black suit might have some resistance to electricity that’s why she can already move.

She limply walk towards us and as Franco is about to attack her, I hold his arm as tight as I can.

‘Unhand me! He yelled. I realize he is the type of guy flared by his emotions.

‘It’s enough, Franco!’ He gazes at me with great disbelief fused with rage on his face.

‘Zane is still alive… I know he is.’ I quickly uttered. He uses his left hand to remove my grip on him.

‘He’s alive but he isn’t waking up. How is it different from being dead? Ha?’ He rudely answered.

‘Iris… just let him do what he want!’

Stella’s response make Franco more pissed but before he can say anything, she tells something
surprising. ‘Nonetheless, I will find the healer myself.’

‘What?’ I am surprised and Franco is, too.

‘I saw her before and I’ll bring her here to cure your comrade.’ She declares. ‘But make no mistake,
I’m not planning on becoming your ally. I just wanted to help because of what I have done to you
guys.’

‘I don’t understand. What do you mean by you see her before?’ I ask in confusion.
Franco is still angry but he wants to know more about Stella’s statement.

‘When I was still preparing myself to be a spy, two persons passed by my hiding area. I saw with my
own two eyes how the girl with a long black hair cured the wounds of her comrade using her staff.’

‘Really? Who would believe your babbling?’ Franco questioned her. Stella fixes her things and ties her
hair afterwards.

‘If you want to kill me badly, do it after you are healed. If you don’t believe, it’s fine too.’ She lately
responded.

Franco just silently stares at her. He must have figured out that he doesn’t stand a chance against her
because of his condition. After all, she easily defeated him before.

‘Let me join you. I want to find the healer as well’ I uttered.

She gazes at me ‘That’s good! I will be surely needing your help. Let’s go!’

She begins to walk, still a bit crippled. I follow her.

I glance behind and see Franco watching us. He quickly looks at other direction when our eyes meet. I
realize that despite of what he said a while ago, he may actually think that Stella is saying the truth.

‘We’ll be back so wait for us’ I muttered. I wonder if he heard it.

In a pitch black room, a man wearing a golden suit is looking at a monitor full of numbers.

‘Out of 100, only 30 remains’ He speaks in a peculiar and creepy voice. ‘It seems I overestimated the
humans. Can they survive or will they all be wiped out?’

While we are walking, Stella tells about the comrade of the healer we are looking for. She warns me
that the healer is with a skilled swordsman who also has magical capabilities just like me. With what
she said, I remember that swords master was my favorite character when I was still playing RPG
before. I liked how they slash the monsters and how they cut their opponents in half using their big-
ass swords or blades.

As we continue talking, we notice that someone is following us. It is Franco, with Zane on his carpet.
She instructed me to just let him be because he is the type of guy who isn’t true with his emotions
and a bit immature. I certainly agree with her on that but at least, I’m a bit relieved that both of them
are just on my back, after all, they are my…

Never mind.

I throw a pair of stamina bottle to Franco because I know that levitating the carpet surely exhausts
him. He ignores it at first but he sips a drink when we aren’t looking.

After hours of striding, we finally reach an enormous steel gate. It was taller than the Stonehenge like
rock where the medicine bottles are located. As Stella tries to open it, a red inscription appears telling
that only rank 10 participants can enter it.

I look at Franco and he’s at rank 9. Zane and Stella are both rank 9 also. I realize that whether you
lost the battle or win it you still level up. Also you can increase your rank with just exploring and
discovering things just like Franco and Zane. After all, all of that are considered experiences.
As I see my own information, I am surprised to see that I’m at rank 13. As far as I remember, after
battling Stella I was just rank 10. So I gained three levels with just discovering something about this
world.

That’s cool. Now, we are all aware that we can level up even without fighting involved.

But still knowing that actually doesn’t help the situation. I myself can actually enter it but the others
will be left out. But I have no choice… I need to find the healer as soon as possible so I’ll go in alone.

As I open the gate, Franco calls me and asks me to read Zane’s notes first. He points at a certain
phrase which reads ‘Level Sharing’. I scan and look for it inside my information and find it.

I click the ‘Instructions’ button below it and find out that a Rank 10 individual can share his/her level
to his/her comrades. This is the answer we are looking for. I am amazed with the notes of Zane but
then I remember he is a strategist that’s why he should know many things better than any of of us.

As I continue reading the instructions, I find out that comrades refer to those people who let you
see their faces in exchange of showing your face too.

So all of them are technically my comrades.

I click the share button below and type Rank 1 beside of the plus sign then type the names of Franco,
Zane and Stella and finally click the Transfer button. All of their information pops up and successfully
reads that they reach rank 10. Stella is smiling while Franco is on his poker face, obviously hiding his
happiness. I already forget his cheerful face when I first met him.

And as we are all now at RANK 10, we enter the gate without fully knowing that this is the start of a
real battle for all of us.

IN A POLICE STATION

‘Hey! Is Iris already back?’ A young guy curiously asks seemingly worried while talking to another
person using his cellphone.

‘Okay. Please update me. Thank you! Thank you!’

He puts his phone inside his pocket and starts running.

Where are you Iris? What happened?

_________________________________________________________________________________

I am at my limit right now. I keep on forgetting that my powers actually eats up my mana and
stamina. I manage to defeat three of this human-like monsters but I still have two remaining to take
down.

Unlike the first area we’re in, this forest place is full of colors and is definitely livelier. Ranging from
trees with shades of green up to those birds and other animals with rainbow hues. Of course, this is
more dangerous too.
The lady-like ballerina monster approaches me and attacks me with her spinning kicks. She is
certainly skilled. Her face is deformed and her skin is comparable to a zombie. I dodge her kicks and
create a dagger to attack her close range but she quickly deflects it with her feet. My mana is super-
low so I don’t want to waste any time. Since I figured out that her way of attacking motion is similar
all the time, I devise a plan to counter her.

She then runs towards me and attacks again using her kicks, I swiftly throws the dagger up in the air
and use my own kick to sweep her foot off the ground. She tripped herself and the daggers fall on her
head. She was down.

‘Need some help with another one?’ Stella asked me as if she is mocking me. She already beat all her
enemies and that is without using her electro spear. After all I am keeping her mask so she can’t use
her weapon.

‘I’m fine. How about lending a help to Franco?’ I replied.

She disagrees and states that she will just stay there and watch me in order to know my battle
strategies.

A big foot player guy is my next opponent. I’m glad the creator of this world, didn’t allow the
monsters to attack us simultaneously. We’ll surely be dead if that happens.

My dagger is now gone so I need to think of one item to beat this enemy. By the way, ever since I
achieve level 10, my creations now lasts for 15 seconds so it gives me much more time to strategize.

As he throws the ball, I evade it through jumping to the nearest bush but I ended up all wet because
of a puddle. I look at him and he is searching for me. I see my stamina bar only at 10 so I think I can
evade his attack just one time.

I quickly dash towards the vines to catch his attention. He once again produce a football and throws it
to me but it is much stronger and much quicker than before.

I duck as fast I can and holds up my creation--- a circle trampoline to reflect his football. It bounces
back but misses his head and hits his chest instead. He still isn’t down but he is badly hurt.

I swiftly close our distance and put the trampoline on the ground and jumps on it to launch myself
towards the enemy. I strike his face with a punch and we both hit the acacia tree. It hurts.

I fall on his chest and he’s finally incapacitated.

As I’m about to stand up, I hear some unusual sound from him.

‘Urgggh…’ His voice is lower than a whisper. I put my ears near his mouth. ‘Heeelp ergfhu’.

I cannot understand what he says so I stare at him and finds out that he looks more human that I
ought him to be.

Stella comes near me, applauding. ‘That trampoline strategy is perfect. It is reckless though.’

I just grin at her in response when an information box appear in front of me. It reads…

Franco.

S.O.S! – S.O.S!

‘He’s in danger!’ I couldn’t even walk properly so I ask her a favor. ‘Stella, please help him!’
FOREST AREA--- BEHIND A BUNCH OF BALETE TREES.

‘A wrestler twice as big as Franco clutches his wound on his right arm. ‘Where is Iris--- Ugggghhhhh!
He screams in pain.

It is the fourth opponent he is fighting and he is clearly helpless because of his injuries.

His mana and stamina are both zeroes while his HP is at 10/100.

The enemy lifts his body and plans to slam him to the ground.

‘Is this my end?’ He asks himself.

As the wrestler is about to throw him, spiky vines cripple the enemy’s arms then cuts it.

Franco falls unto a bed of flowers. He is surprised.

As he looks around, he notices two ladies with blurred faces.

‘Who are you?’ He asks them.

The tall girl chuckled. ‘Is it a right manner for a cute guy like you to ask our names?’

‘Sister, look! The other girl speaks in a high pitched voice. ‘This guy on the carpet, I’m sure he’s cuter
than him.’ Then they both laughed. Franco is confused.

‘Let’s stop flirting and do our business!’ The tall girl exclaimed.

‘Yeah! Let’s show these zombies, the true power of Flora and Fauna!’ the other girl shouts in
agreement.

TO BE CONTINUED ON CHAPTER 5- OXYGEN