?ude fell from the skies and straight to the ground. His head smacked against the dirt as a stone went into his mouth.


    Tension left his body as his strained muscles rxed all at once. Like a stretched rubber band, he felt that every pore in his body had met a sudden rxation as strength seeped out of him.


    Tiring.


    A five in the Gardar was too tiring. No, it would have been impossible without Elric.


    With superhuman strength, ude pushed his arms against the ground and flipped over on his back.


    His eyes turned to the skies above.


    Stars had filled the dark canvas to the brim. He spat the stones in his mouth as his eyes remained fixed on the skies, now clear of the clouds.


    "The sky is always the prettiest on the worst of nights."


    "You only look at them on those nights." A beauty not iparable to the night sky appeared in the path of ude''s gaze. "You alright?"


    "Yeah," ude nodded. "Just a small headache."


    Elric looked as if he had someins, but didn''t say a word. He just touched ude''s cheeks with his shoes.


    "Get rid of those things."


    pαndα,noν?1,сoМ ude pulled his hand up to the amulet hanging from his chest and muttered something. All the items that he had summoned, including the cloak, turned into mist before flowing into the amulet.


    And with them, went the voice asking for his body.


    With a much clearer mind, ude looked at the sky again.


    He couldn''tpare anymore.


    He hadn''t seen the sky on a good night.


    Elric yawned as he twisted his body. Sensing danger, ude raised his legs and stopped Elric before he could fall on the ground.


    "What are you doing?"


    "Going to sleep."


    Here? In the middle of the blood soaked battlefield? Right next to a decapitated snake? ude didn''t know what Elric''s guts were made of, but if he let him lie down right now, Elric truly would go to sleep.


    "Stay up a little longer."


    "You already ruined my sleep once. I can''t"


    "Please."


    "No."


    ude wracked his mind for an excuse. At least he won''t be able to spend the night like this, and he had no strength to carry Elric along.


    "D-don''t you want a good bed? We''ll look for the house with the best bed together, so just wait, will you?"


    Elric was tempted at that offer. After a few seconds of consideration, he stopped pushing his weight on ude and stood upright.


    "Deal," he said.


    ude nodded and closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh.


    All this was too much, way too much. From the snake to the vigers, the head, the drawings, and even the corpse. He couldn''t understand why, but he could cook things up. Horrors he didn''t want to imagine flooded his mind.


    Yet, at the end of it all.


    It was that he and Elric were alive, that mattered. The rest, he didn''t care about it as much.


    A couple minutes passed and ude felt some breath returning to his muscles. Right then, a tap rang out.


    The pair turned their gaze to the side, and saw a young blonde apparition walking toward them. Dust had filled the apparition''s dress and its hair was in a mess as the tiny figure leaned against a stick to walk.


    "Ghost again?" Elric raised his hand. The ghost stepped back and wildly shook her hand.


    Elric found it amusing, and threatened her in different poses, all of which ended with her shaking her head even further.


    "Hehehe…" Elric let go after he left the ghost girl panting.


    The ghost rushed over and grabbed their sleeves.


    "What the heck?" ude muttered as the ghost tried her best to pull the boyying on the ground.


    Wordlessly, she pointed at the debris of the church.


    "She wants us to follow," Elric said. "What a drag…"


    "The underground passage—"


    "What did you say!?" Elric''s eyes twinkled. "There''s an underground passage!? Let''s go, ghost girl! That''s cool as hell!"


    Elric almost set off, more enthused than the ghost.


    "Hey, at least help me up."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Ah, right."


    Elric walked back and lended a hand to ude. ude leaned against Elric''s shoulder and the two of them made their way behind the ghost.


    She led them past the debris of the church. After kicking a small wooden nk aside from the mound of dirt and ss, an encasing in the ground revealed itself.


    The underground passage had turned into a simple hole in the ground, which made Elric rather displeased. Yet, he followed behind the ghost.


    The two carefully descended the rocks and the dirt and followed toward the end of the hole.


    A deep stench of blood assaulted Elric''s nose. His eyes flitted about as he saw bits of flesh and blood sticking against the debris of rocks.


    The ghost pointed behind a small stone, but did not move there herself.


    "Elric, take a look."


    Elric let ude rest against the edge of the hole and walked ahead. He passed by the ghost girl and peered behind the stone.


    Turned upside down, was the head of the blonde woman they had previously seen. Elric picked it up and turned back, only to see the ghost girl looking away.


    He sent a gaze toward ude, and the two of them nodded.


    The ghost girl set off first, trying to find her way out of the hole.


    Elric moved over to ude and supported him with his shoulder.


    "If we had that head, we could have used it to distract the snake."


    "Come on, ude, I didn''t expect you disrespect the dead like this."


    "What? Heh?"


    "Tsk. Tsk. Disappointing."


    Elric was thest person to say anything about that, but he wasn''t going to realize that. Just as the two took another step, ude''s feet struck against a small stone. He looked down, and saw a ck tome sticking out of the ground. Blood and dust had smeared its cover, but there was no doubt that it was a book.


    ude leaned down and picked it up.


    As he flipped the cover, he saw a small drawing.


    A drawing made with crayons. Of a familiar group of blonde stick figures.


    A sigh left him as he ced the book in his pockets, and the two of them moved out.


    The ghost girl had already gone ahead. Elric pushed ude up first, handed him the head, and then carefully climbed out of the hole.


    Then, the two of them scaled the debris with the head in their hands. As they stepped out, they saw the young ghost girl standing quietly in front of the snake, her head low.


    The two of them shared another gaze, and decided to walk away. As they passed her by, the left the head of the blonde woman.


    Of the ghost''s mother, behind her.


    That night, a cry that reached no mortal spread through the night skies.


    ***


    The night deepened as the two of them let the ghost have her time. After exploring the huts around, they found the best andrgest one. It apparently belonged to a merchant that frequently went out of the vige.


    Elric found the bed in the room and pushed ude on it first, before moving over to the other side andying down himself.


    Trash suspension. Stupid upholstery, almost worn out. No maintenance. At least the material wasn''t jute. Slightly ufortable, Elric closed his eyes.


    Next to him, ude grabbed his aching head with one hand. Then, he reached into his pockets and pulled out the book again.


    "Elric. Do you want to know—"


    "I am not interested," Elric answered.


    ude closed his eyes.


    "There were too many clues. I already know."


    A sigh left ude.


    Elric turned away and faced his back toward ude.


    Even if he had. ude hadn''t.


    No, maybe he had his theories.


    But ude wanted to know.


    How it happened. The vigers. The mansion. The corpse


    The head. The snake.


    The ghost.


    ude flipped the book open.