…
Understanding what it meant to find her body here at the deepest part of the 'Underside,' Ran clenched her fist tight in rage.
"Those b*stard…" Ran gritted her teeth while struggling to contain her anger.
Gill looked down in sorrow.
He indeed hated people from the 'Upper side,' but an innocent child had nothing to do with the grudge that had been brewing for generations between the two sides.
And if he wasn't wrong, this area was under the jurisdiction of the other lord.
The cruel lord, from what he had heard, was someone vicious whose members mostly were criminals, with their income even coming from illegal businesses, like hired killers, child and slave trafficking, thievery, drugs, and selling illegal firearms and cursed charms.
On the other hand, El watched as the little girl drew closer. After looking at the pictures affectionately for a moment, she turned toward El.
Her lips trembled as she voiced out more of her wish.
"Please bring this to my mother. Please!!!"
Her gaze conflicted. Her mouth hung open, wanting to tell El more, but she didn't know what else to say.
She did not know the way to her home, nor where her parent currently was. All she had was a pleading—desperate gaze that she could offer to El, the stranger who somehow put an ease to her aching soul and soothed her with a warmth like her mother's embrace that she still remembered.
"I will. I will bring this to your home. To your mother," El straightened himself, stood in front of her soul with a tensed jaw, then put his clenched fist on his left chest.
"I promise you. I'll bring your memory to your mother. I'll bring her this so she knows how much you miss her. I promise you with my life, Jewel." El called out her name that was written, "My sweet little girl, Jewel," in one of the photos where the little girl and her supposed mom were smiling cheerily at the camera, with their cheeks pressed against each other.
"You can… rest now, Jewel," at the end of his words, El said it with a bright, sincere smile plastered on his face as he locked eyes with her.
Ran also looked up at her, then put her hand to her chest, followed closely by Gill, who did the same.
"We promise to tell her that you love her. We will find her, even if it means flipping the whole city. I'm sure she, all this time too, is waiting for you. Rest in peace now, Jewel," Ran's eyes were red, but she still managed to string her words out from her mouth, even when her throat felt tightened on the inside.
While El was the one who usually cried in such circumstances, he was currently smiling instead. El stood before the little girl, radiating a warm, positive energy. His presence was calming, filled with compassion and understanding, as he silently conveyed his wish for her to find peace. Though, deep inside, he was blazed, seething with fury.
'Let the living be the ones who bring the cold grip of the snowstorm to those who deserve it,' he thought to himself with resolution.
In stark contrast, Ran stood nearby, her aura plainly conveying dark and tumultuous emotions. Anger and pain radiated from her, a reflection of the unfortunate events that had befallen the little girl. Her expression was fierce, eyes blazing with a mix of sorrow and frustration as she grappled with the injustice of the girl's fate. Her stance suggested a struggle between wanting to protect the girl and the overwhelming grief that fueled her anger.
Gill, on the other hand, was consumed purely by sadness. He stood with his fists clenched against his chest, while his other hand covered his eyes, with a few silent tears slipping down between his fingers.
His body language spoke volumes; he mourned the loss of the girl and wished for her to find solace. "We, we promise you, little girl," Gill's lips trembled, only managing to utter those words.
Together, the three of them formed a poignant tableau: El's light, Ran's fury, and Gill's sorrow, all converging around the spirit of the little girl.
…
"Thank you…" her voice echoed inside the ears of El, Ran, and Gill. It was the voice of a sweet, bubbly little girl as they each expected how it sounded from her chubby cheeks, how cute she looked, or her various playful expressions in the photo, with her mother.
The little girl then smiled back sincerely at them.
Suddenly, from below her feet, a white transparent flame ignited, growing stronger by the second as it slowly enveloped her.
The little girl, with her ethereal form fading little by little from existence, subsequently closed her eyes and forced a translucent tear from her eyes. It traveled down her cheeks, fell from her chin, and hung in the air before moving in front of her.
Meanwhile, her spirit form vanished, engulfed whole by that colorless flame. In her place, a burning white, semitransparent orb appeared, which afterward slowly disintegrated, leaving many pieces of white glimmering light flickering in the dark for a moment.
Just after the final light of her soul dissipated from existence, the tear hanging in the air shone with an intense dark sky-blue glow. It quietly filled the whole space of the sewer, creating a blindness effect from how bright it was. The three of them were forced to shield their eyes with their arms.
And just three seconds later, the light vanished.
Looking up, the three of them found a tear-shaped crystal with the same blue color as before, just without the gleams.
El was the first to approach it.
But just as the crystal slowly fell, floating to his outstretched hand, shy of landing in his palm, abruptly, a translucent fish came out from El's forehead. Then, like a flash, it swiftly swam in the air and swallowed the crystal as fast as it came.
The three of them, who saw it, were too stupefied to even say anything. The air turned stagnant. They were stunned, frozen in place, as the trio watched the fish happily swimming in the air as if it were water.
"What the hell is that?" Gill says, flabbergasted, mouth hanging open.
…