My lips felt hairy. It was as if keratin had started forming under it, as if hair roots had magically grown and now my lips were no different than my scalp; a mess of smooth silky hair and cracked lips. I tasted it and it felt like…
"Ump…cough cough…"
I opened my eyes.
A big braid of black hair was inside my mouth.
I spit it out.
"Hey! Is that how you treat the one who saved you?"
I looked at the person who was making all the unwarranted noise.
It was a little girl.
"I am not a little girl."
She thought she wasn't a little girl.
"I am telling you! I AM NOT a little girl!" She pinched my cheeks.
"Ouch!" I sat up due to the insane strength of her fingers.
Are kids this strong these days?
"Stop it Ray Astraeus. You are not dead."
She let go of my cheeks and turned around.
"I understand what you went through but denying reality is a cowardly thing even for you."
She put her arms over Taeyang's abdomen.
"Who…are you?"
"Me? I'm a spirit healer."
She brightly smiled at me.
Taeyang's injuries started to glow.
"What are you doing to him…no, are you healing him?" I asked her.
I was too disoriented to think straight.
"What else do you think I am doing?"
She continued to look after Taeyang.
I turned my drowsy eyes to my own hands.
"What…happened?"
My hands had healed.
"You almost died. If it weren't for my partner, you would have. Hah!"
She turned around and put her hands on her waist.
"100 RP of pain? I've never seen a human try to commit such a foolish thing before. You are indeed stupid Ray Astraeus."
100 Rp…?
'Lianne, what happened when I was asleep?'
"She's not here."
I opened my eyes in shock.
"What? What do you mean?"
She can read my thoughts?
"Of Course I can read your thoughts."
She bobbed her head like a child.
"Stop insulting me, or I'll smack you." She showed me her fist.
"I..I am sorry."
"Hah! Maybe we should have just let you die."
I bowed my head.
"Thank you for saving me."
I felt nothing but gratitude.
"Please tell me who you are and what happened to me."
She smiled and said, "My name is Lily. I am not from this world."
"Not from this world?"
Was she like me?
"You can say that, but it's a bit different. My world lies in the rift dimension. It's called Arcana. You on the other hand, I have no idea where you came from."
Rift dimension? That…right, that is the place where I could go if I cleared the Third Trial.
"Yes, that is correct. Although you don't need to. Most Contenders go to the rift dimension to take a vacation. My partner has already cleared his Third Trial, so he went there and made a spirit contract with me."
"Your partner?" I wasn't sure who this person was.
She smiled again. "What? Pretending not to know him? Even after he helped you by warning you?"
"Help…?" I realized who her partner was. "The unknown caller!"
"Seems like you know it. You better be grateful."
Helped me…? By informing me at the last moment?
"You committed a heinous crime against his family so as punishment he did that. Even I got angry when I saw what you did."
She handed me a bowl of soup.
"Be grateful that he did not decide to kill you and actually helped you out. Because he very well could have."
I took the bowl. I had eaten nothing since morning.
My hunger pangs felt like a bubonic plague inside my own body.
I asked her, "What did I do wrong?"
I genuinely didn't know.
She clicked her tongue and shrugged her shoulders while shaking her head.
"You kissed Stacy."
Ah…
Except I didn't kiss her. SHE kissed me.
Lily handed me a spoon.
While I took it from her, my eyes wandered back to my own hands.
I looked at my body again.
"Did you heal me?"
"Yes I did. Although, it was my partner who took on your penalty debt."
"You…no, he can take my skill's penalty?"
She shaked her head again.
"I know you're a new contender since I have already seen all your memories after you woke up in this world, but you understand nothing, do you?"
She put her finger out and a yellow stream of light entered my head.
[Mental Sanity: 75]
"Your skills have been weirdly twisted into a web to work together. That Endurance skill of yours didn't let you die but in case it failed after your mind broke due to your excessive MS use, your unique skill would have forcefully revived you as a zombie."
She put down her finger and the words disappeared from my head.
"What did you do to have your brain function locked to that extent?"
"Brain function…locked?"
"Well mostly your memories since the rest of your soulframe is fried from what I've seen.
I have seen many frames in my life but yours is the worst. Destroyed like I've never seen before. I don't even how it's still functioning. "
"Fried? But…"
"But Lianne never told you, right?"
I gulped.
"Well I do not know much about her but from what I can see, she probably already knew about your condition."
What?
'Lianne. Lianne can you hear me?'
"I already told you she's not here."
"What? What has happened to her?" My voice grew desperate.
"Most likely, she tried to tweak your unique skill at the last moment as a last ditch effort in order to save you. But, it looks like your frame rejected her attempts and now this system you call Lianne has been pulled inside your limbo."
"What? Then?"
"There's nothing you can do for now." She raised her hand. "This wouldn't have happened if your mind didn't almost come close to breaking."
"My mind…break..."
"Aggressively killing people, breaking them into pieces, mindless self torture.
These are all signs of a lunatic."
She showed me two of her index fingers.
"As expected from someone with an MS value so low."
Her words hit my conscience.
"I…"
"You had no choice? If you tried anything else, the girl would have been in danger?"
She turned around and placed her hand on Taeyang again." Or this boy would have died? Is that what you want to say?"
I clenched my fist. I had nothing to say.
"You should have looked into the mirror."
She rubbed Taeyang's abdomen.
"Your whole body was burnt. You looked no different than a skeleton. This boy's condition is nothing compared to yours."
"I…"
"Autoheal can heal everything but only if you give it the time to heal."
She looked at my face.
"You acted too recklessly, Ray Astraeus."
I grinded my teeth.
"What else could I have done?"
She didn't reply to my question.
I waited but no answer came.
"Like I thought…I had no choice." I only heard fancy words from her, but no real solutions.
She sighed at my words.
"The amount of pain you tried to endure is enough to knock out a hundred grown men. And because of that, my partner had to come and save your life."
"I never asked him to!"
She was startled.
"Do you think I want this? To suffer like this?! Do you think it's my everyday routine? To keep fighting endlessly? Not getting a chance to eat, not a single chance to even breathe. Do you think I want to live like this?!"
Her expression softened after my outburst.
She came closer to me and patted my thigh.
"And here I thought you didn't have a real face under that mask of yours."
"..."
"You did good, Ray. You did good." She rubbed my eyes. Tears had come out without me realizing it.