Elise tried once again to call Ian's name in whisper. Usually whether she raised her voice to call him or muttered under her breaths, yet nothing was working. "What did you do to Ian?"

"That Demon? I kept him with some company," Barner responded to her when Elise had make a run through the forest. The man had run not too fast but not too slow either and she could feel that the dark sorcerer was enjoying the chase in his amusement. "The ghouls you see, they were hard to control but once I fed them with some souls they became my lapdogs, very smart and obedient. Much obedient than your mother for sure."

"My mother will never be obedient to someone like you, I know how you guessed my father was a Demon. You are not a simple dark sorcerer— you are a corrupted angel," Elise stated and she heard the loud laughter echoing along the gust of wind. She took a look behind, finding the man had gone and her steps stopped. 

Despite not being able to see Barner, Elise could somewhere feel it in her senses he was somewhere near her, and she realized that it must be her Demon's blood in her that made her senses sharper. Is it because she had became more aware of the bloodline in her body? Or was it because she finally pick a new pieces of her memory?

Barner's voice continued to echo, "So what? Well, you are a child of Demon who will soon be married to a Demon it's not strange that you knew about us."

Elise didn't let Barner played the game alone, she responded with another question, "What are you planning by trapping us here? What is the use of casting a magic. Is it to collect more souls and sacrifices?"

"What do you think you could do by knowing?" The man's laughter grew louder that it was hard to point out where he was due to the way his voice echoed to the entire forest. "You will die soon here along with your future groom who you will never be able to marry. No hard feeling, Elise, I don't have grudge against you and you might be similar to Adele that I begin to think if I should really kill you. But then, I have been given an instruction to do."

Elise narrowed her eyes with her chin lifted and her eyes looked at the dry branches of the tree that scrambles through the wind as if souls of the dead had possessed them, "Instruction?" She repeated the word in question, keeping her hand near her in case Barner came toward her which she knew he would come soon.

"An instruction from the highest dark sorcerer, I can't blame you for being curious when you are about to die. Consider this my farewell gift: There is one corrupted angel who had regained their angelic power, they posses wings, but not the angel's magic as he prefer to use dark magic as it was much powerful. How about you this? Instead of marrying that Demon you came with, why not marry me and I will guarantee your safety which your mother refused as she failed to see what was safer for her."

Elise felt shivers just by processing the words Barner said. After her mother, the man dared to approach her, it was clear how his moral was as ugly as his heart, "I refuse. I don't have any interest in a stalker man like you who peeped through other's window."

"You will regret your choice Elise. Haven't you heard from that noisy innkeeper about the missing caravan and have you seen the empty houses? No one was able to step away from this place with their soul in them," laughed the man who knew she was trapped like a mouse. The only reason why he didn't immediately kill Elise but toy with her was to enjoy seeing her groveling on her feet and beg for his forgiveness. To Barner, it was women's obedience and tears that he brings his blood boil with excitement. 

Elise's blue eyes moved when she caught from the corner of her eyes a fast shadow moving from one tree to another and her body flinched to another direction when she heard the same swishing sound. "Is that why you are very confident that no one would put an end to your evil deeds? Do you think you will get away from all of this?"

When Barner scoffed it caused Elise to feel as if the whole forest was scoffing altogether at her, "Why not? Are you still dreaming that Demon of yours will come for you like a Prince Charming? Sad news Elise, tch, tch, tch," the man clicked his tongue in a pity. "He has died. The ghouls have finally succeeded in killing him and currently he is eaten alive. I should praise him for staying alive despite a hundred ghouls coming on him all at the same time, even most Demon would be in bind and die if three ghouls came to them. Yet it took him a hundred. Still, not too impressive considering he had died now."

Elise clenched her hand, she glared at one side of the forest, "You are lying."

"Is he? Then call his name again, try it. 'Ian! Ian!'" Barner imitate her voice before laughing in a mock, happy that everyone is in a predicament now. "Why don't you ask yourself Elise. You are smart, I know you could tell the reason why he hadn't come for you despite you many times you have been yelling for his name. Isn't that also why you are here now, cornered?"

Barner who was hiding on the tree behind her back snickered, when looking at Elise's defenseless back. Using the silence, he slicked out to catch her neck. The moment he ran, Elise turned her face to his direction and she raised her hand, more specifically, Ian who had stood behind her appeared while bringing her hand to Barner's direction.

"Cornered? Who says she was cornered?" Ian grinned widely, his entire eyes had turned black, leaving only his pupils to stay red as blood. His lips curled deeper in satisfaction as he saw shocked and the smile on Barner's face dropped into a pure shock, just like how a dumb bird would look when they realize they had been trapped.

Elise turned her face sideways to see his face, her eyes widened when she spotted the splatters of black-colored blood all over his lower half of his face like paint and his entire clothes. "Ian," she whispered her name, gaining his attention. His eyes stayed demonic even without his horns.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, my dear Elise," Ian clutched tight to Barner's face which he pulled when the man was about to run away. While holding the man on the floor, Ian used his other hand which wasn't stained with blood to rub her cheek, "It terribly saddened me that I wasn't able to come during the first time you call my name. This noisy dark sorcerer keep me in a very well company that I make use of and after I have quickly settle the score, he put this damned barrier all over the places."

"Are you okay?" Elise looked at the amount of black blood and it was hard to discern whose blood it was when she had never seen him bleeding before.

"I lost not a part of my limbs and this is my enemies' blood, I am alright sweetheart," Ian said and she could feel his gentleness despite the amount of anger he had in his heart now. He shifted his eyes to Barner whose body was dragged on the floor, "Now. I have took care of your dogs, it's time to deal with the owner, right? You can choose, speak or torture? Just for your information I love torturing people, especially bad ones because bad ones often showed quite amount of retaliation, though at the end they quickly choke up words I want to hear. We will see how long you will last."

***

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