Rade's Demon Elimination Service

Chapter 41: Wounds Turning to Scars

Rade immediately called forth her own holy weapon and Emma quickly answered its wielder's call, the marks on her skin was slowly disappreading as her holy weapon materialized on her hand.

The other holy weapon let out vines from its slender and thin body, reaching for Rade whose reflexes immediately deflected the vines sprouting from the Cuare holy weapon.

It was quite a sight to behold.

The Cuare, the disloyal holy weapon which has many names and many wielders, has let out a thick dark smoke which materialized as another round of vines trying to wrap themselves to Rade's body.

"Carys!" Rade screamed at him but he didn't even look up from where she was being dragged. "Carys—!" Rade's voice abruptly stopped and her eyes widened.

Her hand was reaching out to the other boy but it seemed like he has no interest on getting the bow out of the way so he could help Rade.

Rade was starting to panic, unsure whether Carys' life force was slowly being depleted because of his lack of answers to her but it was then that Rade realized something.

When Carys engaged Rade to this battle, London Aldeia has given the order to execute the heir of the Haeven who has broken quite a few rules inside the territory of the Aldeia clan and Rade was very unwilling to heed such ordered.

Now, she was being eaten alive by the holy weapon with Carys only watching her with dark cold eyes. He was so still that one could mistake the boy as a statue of an angel.

Right from the very start, Rade's main objective as to why she let Carys dragged her in this duel or battle was that she wanted to let him be angry at her. She never wanted to execute the only family from her childhood she has still got. Now that Carys was only an arm's length away from Rade's hands, would Carys not really be willingto give Rade another chance of recompense and forgiveness?

Would the animosity that Lauri's death caused be the reason why Carys was so willing to kill Rade? And would she not be able to even know about Carys' circumstances?

And that was what Rade realized as she fought against all of the vines like things from the bow that were made out of pure energy that was trying to grip her and drag her to the glowing Cuare holy weapon.

"I thought...!" Rade started to say but was abruptly cut off by the onslaught of the attacks to her by the persistant vines. They hugged her torso and sometimes Rade would have no choice but to cut herself just to defend and prevent herself from getting drag. For such thin objects, they were very sturdy. "I thought that we can still resolve this! I'm not... begging you to let me live but I want you to know that there are many things that I regretted! You, Lauri, being a subject of the Order of Prince and the Consortium Hall! All of it!"

Rade pursed her lips, her jaw was also tightening, wanting to break free from these but she knew that this could be what Carys actually wanted.

As Rade talked, she was deflecting the rounds upon rounds of the vines trying to take hold of her. She was starting to get frustrated as she cannot reach towards Carys who was still standing mere feets away from her. The holy weapon Cuare has suddenly morphed into a horrific looking little beast with a mouth on one end, the barrel of a gun at the other end, and most of its body was only just a clump of vines.

"I truly am sorry," Rade sobbed, looking at how Carys turned his back on her. "And I have no rights on asking you to let me live but this kind of pain... will it really free you to see me die here?"

She stood in the very middle of the courtyard; almost broken, very exhausted, and crying for the person she considered as her brother. The pain of calling forth the Emma was still lingering on her skin, making her sensitive and want to get some sleep. Rade was exhausted to the point that her moves were slowing down which she only let to happen so she would have more strength if this does not end any sooner.

"If this is what you really want, Carys," she said with full of determination, she fought off tears that were making her vision blur. "it's such a shame that it will all end here. Just right after we saw each other."

Her eyes found the person she was talking to and saw his cold countenance. It had been such a long time I have not even glimpse of that face, Rade thought while crying, it had been such a long time since she saw his face at all actually but that person standing in front of her, Rade does not know of him.

"I'm so tired, Rade," Carys said with a kind of sardonic smile and a very soft voice that it was almost inaudible. Fortunately for Rade, she has very keen ears and could hear Carys' familiar voice even with that kind of timbre. "And you just went here and let Geneva Aldeia open the Deep Manifestation Dimension. You ruined my plan and now I must answer to the consequences."

Rade could not understand what Carys was saying but there was one thing that imprinted on her heart and that was the tone in which Carys spoke; he sounded so desolate.

"I'm sorry I left you! I never would like to leave you if I wasn't forced to do so! It's been the decision that I regret the most, I never want to leave you alone! I want to stay beside you, then and even now!" Please, don't..." Rade sighed a deep breath, swallowing a sob coming right in. "Please... I also... want to live with you."

Rade clenched her teeth, her eyes were showing signs of exhaustion while her moves were slowing down little by little. In her sudden frustration, her moves became so fast that, in Carys' mortals eyes, she was just a blur in the eyes. A mere second later, all of the vines have been sliced off.

Rade did not sigh in relief though, she just continued to be alert with the cursed scimitar on her hand posed to kill. Her eyes were full of tears, stinging both from the tears that she refused to let go and the acid that was circulating her whole body due to being exposed from the Aíma.

The huge bow that was still glowing a bright purple light with Carys' own spiritual energy clattered on the ground, there was no indication that those vine-like parts of the bow will ever appear again but it did not reassure Rade after it gave her such a demanding fight.

"Why would you do this," Carys demanded but it was rhetorical question and he really does not want any answers from her. It was not even a question, Carys just wanted to tell that statement to Carys. "If..." Carys closed his eyes, there was a frustrated look on his face as he turned around and faced Rade who has finished fighting with the bow which was still glowing a faint violet shade. "If Lauri just didn't fight with the Shadow Fantasm, if you just saver her before she became a vessel of that monster, if none of those happened, will we really suffer like this, Rade? Can we really heal from this?" Carys asked while what once the vines trying to reach Rade of the holy weapon of Cuare had been reduced into smithereens on the ground but they both knew that a holy weapon with that kind of power would not be reduced into pieces that easily. Like a normal bow, the Cuare was now devoid of any spiritual energy as Carys have finally stopped from supplying it. "Can we really now, Rade, after only a year?"

Rade has always been powerful, the boy thought with wonderment, not feeling very worthy of even being called as a brother by this powerful person. Who was he, but a mere mortal boy who has also sinned and tainted his hands with blood?

Much like how Rade has her story in the past months that Lauri because the vessel of the Shadow Fantasm, Carys has also a history of his own that was not known to many people.

What was left of the vines of the Cuare, known far and wide by its brutality, has started to glow and its remaining particles floated around. It was almost like floating lights, they were beautiful except when Rade thought what she went through to that weapon.

"We can't."

Honesty could be glimpsed through those two words, there was no pretense with her tone.

There was no blood today that was spilled on her hands. She was breathing harshly and heavily, and when Rade looked at Carys, she finally gave him a smile.

"We can never move on," she continued and shook her head, "we cannot heal from something like this, Carys, and we can never hope to do that. There would be scars where Lauri left us and it won't fade away. The hollow that she left inside our lives would never be filled something else again. What we could hope for was that we can live the way she wanted us both to live."

Rade streched out her hand and Emma was reabsorbed back to her skin, tainting he skin with black markings. She gulped down any groan of pain that shook her whole body. It was painful, still even when she had been doing this for over half of her short life, and she wanted to cry because of it like most people would. When Rade was a child, she felt that she was never allowed to speak, never allowed to cry and sleep like any normal person be allowed to do.

The slightest of the noise she made was criticized over and caused her father to explode. The lashes she got from Emma, still named Aíma when it was on her father's hands, was still on her back.

All over her body that could be seen until now— even now.

Rade's body was a map of scars and lashes, of abuse and torture, and she was not even past her twentieth year.

But now, she thought she could cry— that she was allowed to. She could screamed when she wanted to. And she could even laugh. There was a reason for her laugh now. So Rade stood up from where she went down and took a deep breath through her mouth.

Her chest felt light and her footsteps also felt lighter that Rade thought if she run fast enough, her feet would take her away and that she would be floating up to the horizon where everyone would only see her silhouette. She looked back at Carys, who still standing in the middle of the courtyard. He was looking at sky instead of her, which what he had been doing earlier on.

"What else are you still doing over there?"

Rade thought she saw Carys shrugged his shoulders, but she couldn't be too sure since he shifted on his side.

"Then what are you thinking about?" Rade asked yet again.

"That you are right," he nonchalantly said, he was not looking at Rade and there was sadness on those eyes that were evading her. Rade realized that Carys spared her life, not that his spirital energy was already depleted, as Carys now bent down and ppicked up the bow which have stopped from glowing, looking so ordinary now. "It has been a year since Lauri died. An event like this we can never hope to move on from it." Carys positioned himself back on how he was lying on the ground, square on his back. "I am thinking that exactly."

Rade has a foreboding sense with Carys' words. It was as if he was saying his last good-bye to her.

"Won't you live with me?" Rade asked him, "I'm under the protection of the Aldeia clan. The Huntsman Order can do nothing to us here, come and live with me, Carys."

But living happily was not always so easily, they were both aware of that.

"I need to report back to the Aldeia and report that I was in for a punishment because of insubordination," Rade finally said, sighing when Carys failed to give an answer to her offer.

Carys nodded, his hands stilled and flinched slightlu was he was handling the Cuare bow.. Rade saw how this could really be the end of their familial bond and looked at him solemnly as Carys was still evading her gaze.

"Why would you do that?" Carys asked Rade. "The people in the hunters' society are all cruel, they have all abused you and used you. That even the Aldeia clan wouldn't do any fairer. They won't forgive you for letting me off the execution order they gave to you. They would not even forgive you for who you are and whose bloodline you were descended from."

"I'll take my chance," Rade responded to him with a slight smile on the corner of her lips.

"You can kill me now," Carys then offered to Rade. "Won't that be easier?"

"You can kill me but you're not doing it any longer." There was a sigh from both of them. "I'm a hunter, Carys, I have keen sense. Where will you go now?"

"I don't have anywhere to go, Rade."

"Of course, you have."

"I forgive you," Carys suddenly said throughh blurry eyes.

There was a stillness within Rade's body that preventing her from moving, only waiting for Carys' next words.

"But we can't be like before anymore, Rade."

"Then my apartment is still open for you."

Carys looked at Rade when she said that, her back was already turned in front of him because she started walking again, not minding if Carys was not following behind her.

He wanted to cry again but felt that he had cried too much for this day. His throat was even sore after a couple of times of screaming at Rade and maybe it would be alright now to rest for a while now but Carys knew that he has some responsibilities now that he must shoulder and to walk away from those said responsibilities would not be so easy now.

Rade, maybe it would be marvelous to be naive with you in the Aldeia's region for now, Carys thought while watching Rade walked away.

I thought this was the least I could do for you— to lead you to freedom and forgiveness, Carys thought while he smiled to himself feeling as though he had done enough so Rade would not resent herself any longer.

"The reason you are here," Carys whispered to himself, "I shall keep to myself who send you here."

To a world of freedom, Carys added but did not utter out loud.

Carys started walking in the opposite direction of Rade. He does not know it but the lightness that Rade felt earlier was similar to what what he was feeling now. Maybe there was still pain from parting ways but the fact that this whole situation did not escalated for the worst was enough foor them both.

There was a slight bounce on each of his footsteps, the stiffness of his back due to the repeated training as a hunter also went away from his nerves, and the constant frown on his face was replaced with serene and graceful glint.

I have fought desperately, Carys thought while he started to run. There was a determindation on his face as the distance between him and Rade— who was still his sister and friend— started to get wider.

The girl looked back to the other, there was the longing on her eyes yet it was more of an understanding that she can't possibly force everything to be normal yet again and to revert back to the way it was before.

The scars of their childhood were still there, evident on their skin and etched inside their mind, and the people that those scars were imprinted on were both changed and different yet there was nothing else they could do but to move forward, even when that might mean separately.

Meanwhile, Rade honestly did not know where to go after the fight. The Cuare holy weapon was still on Carys' hands but it seemed that he knew exactly how to control it so the initial fear of knowing that the Cuare was on his hands have waned. After persuading Carys to go with her, he declined and Rade was now facing insubordination. Even persuading Carys to work for the Aldeia clan, Rade was not able to do.

Rade was utterly spent, she just wanted to get home but there would only be an empty apartment that will welcomed her. She sighed nd rubbed her vibrating stomach.

Since investigating what happened to Carys, Rade has forgotten to take care of herself. She hasn't slept for over three days now, going back and forth from different regions and passing furtively over the Watchtowers so she would not be detected. She hasn't even eaten anything yet except for water and her head was dizzy.

And maybe it was because of her dizziness that she was suddenly imagining Lyu standing in front of the chapel, with a small car behind him. His ears perked up, his gaze found Rade and, with a smile, he quickly walked towards her.

"Are you okay?" Lyu asked Rade while holding her arm, concern was evident on his frowning face. "You looked pale, Rade. Where is Young Master Haeven?"

"He walked away," Rade answered, her head was lolling on the side, on Lyu's arm, before losing consciousness. Her eyes rolled back on their sockets and her whole body just shut down.

"Eh?" Lyu's eyes looked at Rade when he felt that there was a sudden weight on his right side where he linked his arm with the girl's. Rade has closed her eyes already and Lyu, who was physically weaker and smaller than Rade thus the reason why he couldn't actually lift Rade up, struggled to keep them both in an upright position. He encircled both of his arm around Rade, a panicked look on his beautiful peach blossom eyes. "Eh! Rade!" he suddenly shouted with difficulty, he tried to lift her using her armpits to no avail.

Rade's body flopped, vegetative and soundly sleeping.

"Whyyyyy, Rade, why," Lyu demanded quietly and cried with much amusement on the sleeping girl.

Lyu could not stomach to wake Rade up so he only pouted and let her be. While he looked at her closely, he realized that Rade was in an extremely bad state. Her face and her hair were both grimy that made Lyu's stomach churned and made him question himself whether how many times per week has Rade take a shower or bathe herself. Besides that, Rade's clothes were torn in different places.

Lyu winced, forcibly swallowing his complaints on Rade.

"You should take better care of yourself, Rade," Lyu told her, scolding her with a frown. "Look at what a mess you are right now but... you did a good job today, Rade."

Lyu's other hand gently patted the head of the girl but then Lyu's arm started cramping. Considering that he has a low a tolerance for pain, he was afraid that he would drop Rade on the ground. As Lyu desperately wanted to cry from desperation, someone has lifted Rade up on their arms. Lyu looked up to be greeted by his older sister who was directly looking at Rade now.

"Let me get her," Megumi told Lyu gently, her hands were already tranferring Rade from Lyu's embrace to her own. "You should get inside of the car"

"Will she be alright now?" Lyu asked with desolation. "She would be punished because of Young Master Haeven." Lyu's eyes were fixated on the sleeping form of Rade.

Megumi stayed quiet for a whil they were walking towards the car. Lyu was a very timid kind of person yet he was also very honest with how he was feeling so people won't misundertand him. Meeting someone Rade who was complicated and has an even more complicated history, Lyu was bound to be confused and feel emotions that were strange to him.

Earlier, on his arms, Rade does not looked fragile but instead was a little too big for him.

His face didn't even helped.

Lyu has always had a cherubic prettiness. His lashes were delicate, thin but extremely long that it almost touched his cheeks and his brows were lined high on his forehed, perfectly arched. His eyes held an innocence that mirrored his naivety.

Megumi's lips involuntarily pouted slightly while fixated on her own little brother.

Lyu's cheeks were like a pair of freshly made mochi.

He indeed looked like someone who would be blown away by the wind with only just a whisper with his slender arms and thin body yet Megumi could not help thinking that his baby brother has grown up.

So finally, Megumi chose to speak yet her words held no assurance of what would happen to Carysia Haeven and Rade in the future.

"She won't be alright so soon, dear Lyu. She lost everything that was important to her and not only that she was being blamed for it. Just because a wound has healed does not mean that it never happen, it will always remind you of what caused that scar so one can never pretend that no such event happened. The same could be said in Rade's situation. But are we not all here to try our best and mend the gaping holes in her heart? Not to replace those lost parts but to take up other parts of her bleeding heart."