Intermission: A Grim Fate

"What…" Someone's voice was heard from a dark alley. It was a voice of a male that had been terrified of something.

He was both traumatized and terrified so badly to the degree that he couldn't speak a complete word as he was shocked of what he had witnessed.

"Bleeegh!" The man, who was struggling to walk across the dark alleys, suddenly puke as he recalls the scene earlier.

Indeed, he was terrified of what happened earlier.

Quickly, the man covers his mouth with his hands, blocking the incoming liquefied puke.

However, despite the fact that he have covered his now-filthy mouth, his black robe was stained with his puke earlier on.

He was crying as he recalls the terrible judgement that killed his friends.

"I… I saw…" The man, who was crying, mutters something down. He was unable to complete his words as the scene that killed his friends prevented him from talking.

In short, he was traumatized and thus, he could not talk about it freely.

"Arrrrrgh!" The man punches the wall while shouting. He was guilty about the loss of his now former friends.

"I couldn't protect them…." The man thought inside his mind. He was guilty of not being able to protect them.

After the initial punch of the man, the man once again punches the wall in regret.

"Fellow brother Yuwan?" Another voice resounded across the dark alley. It was a voice of a female.

"Who's there!" The man, who had heard the voice, shouted as he was paranoid of being killed.

"It's me, Kirem." The female voice replied with her tone being nervous and unease at the same time.

She was worried about the man Yuwan being paranoid.

"Kirem!" The man shouted. "Stay away from me!" He said, ordering Kirem to stay away from him.

"What do you mean?" Asked by Kirem, curiously.

Indeed. There's no such sane person that would tell someone to stay away from him or her.

Unless if that person is a mentally challenged one or an insane person.

"T-t-the…." Yuwan, who was trying to explain why he wants Kirem to stay away from him, said.

However, because of him traumatized, he could not explain the whole situation to Kirem.

"The?" Kirem asked. "What?" She asked again, seemingly curious about why did Yuwan suddenly stop his explanation.

There was no response from Yuwan. He was crying silently on the middle of the dark alley.

Kirem, who sees Yuwan kneeling on the floor, walks to get closer to Yuwan.

"Stay away!" Yuwan said before a repelling force suddenly appears before him, pushing anyone back to the entrance of the dark alley.

Kirem, who was pushed by Yuwan's repelling barrier, furrows her brows. She could not understand why Yuwan is acting strangely.

"Haha…" Yuwan laughs softly.

"Are you joking with me, brother Yuwan?" Kirem said to the laughing Yuwan. She had a hunch of Yuwan joking around with her.

"Ahahaha…." Yuwan's laugh becomes more louder.

Kirem, who have heard Yuwan's creepy voice, steps back as she was scared of Yuwan's laugh.

"There's nothing left." Yuwan suddenly mutters with his tone seemingly sad.

He was breaking down mentally.

However, Kirem did not know that Yuwan was breaking down apart. She was standing at the exit of the dark alley, waiting for Yuwan to calm down.

She was crept out by the weird Yuwan.

"Senior brother Yuwan, you should st—" Just as she was going to say something, she was interrupted by something.

"THERE'S NOTHING LEFT!" Yuwan shouted at the unease Kirem.

Startled, Kirem once again steps back from the dark alley. She was nervous at the Yuwan's shout.

"My friends…." Yuwan mutters while crying. However, despite that he was muttering, Kirem had heard Yuwan's mutter.

She was curious.

"My friends?" Kirem thought inside her head. She was curious why Yuwan would talk about his friends.

"Kirem." Yuwan calls out Kirem's name.

"Ye-yes?" Kirem, who was being crept out by Yuwan, responded.

"Do you know…" Yuwan said to Kirem. However, in the middle of his sentence, intense grief overcome his thoughts and once again, he ends up crying.

"Do you know what?" The seemingly innocent Kirem said to Yuwan, telling him to continue his words.

"I… I can't…" Yuwan said while crying. Indeed, he can't talk about it as intense emotion of guilt, sadness, regret, and grief takes over his brain and thoughts.

Kirem, who have heard Yuwan's response, nods in return and calmly wait for Yuwan to calm down.

Because of Yuwan's hints of talking about his friends and there's nothing left, she had a grasp of what happened earlier.

However, as such for the human hobbies, the lust and greed for knowledge made Kirem sought for more information.

With impulse, Kirem decided to ask Yuwan another question.

"There's nothing left and you friends? What do you mean by that?" She said, asking about the clues that Yuwan gave earlier.

"I…I…." Yuwan replied, unable to make a proper sentence.

"If you're not gonna talk about it to me, then I will have no choice but to report you at our faction master." Kirem said, threatening the broken Yuwan to their faction master.

In simple terms, she was blackmailing Yuwan for information that she wanted to hear about.

"NO!" Yuwan immediately replied, with his voice aggressive.

He knew that if he got reported to the faction master, he would be killed and buried under the deepest oceans, making anyone have a difficult time finding any trace of his dead body.

"Then tell me what happened." Kirem said, with her tone cold. She was directly blackmailing Yuwan.

"My…." Yuwan said, unable to complete basic words.

However, with his life being threatened, he swallowed his guilt and force himself to talk about what happened earlier.

"My friends…." Yuwan said, with this time his friends added. "Got…" He continued.

"Got what?" Kirem said without patience. She was indeed an impulsive woman, having no patience.

"Ki-ki…" Yuwan said, unable to continue further on.

"Arghhhhh!" Yuwan suddenly cried as he remembers what happened earlier. His guilt once again takes his thoughts and brain over.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kirem cursed Yuwan, finally revealing her true self.

On the outside, Kirem was like that of an innocent girl but in the inside…

It was a different story.

Of course, Yuwan knew Kirem's real self. He was one of the few that accidentally got a hold of Kirem's real thoughts.

"She won't spare me. She won't spare me. She won't spare me. She won't spare me . She won't spare me." Yuwan repeatedly thought inside his head. He was scared of Kirem.

As his fear of Kirem got higher and higher, the guilt that took over his thoughts get lower and lower until Yuwan finally manages to break his fear of talking about the things that he witnessed earlier.

However, that does not mean that his mental breakdown is cured. He was simply overstimulating himself by thinking about another threat instead of being guilty about something.

Either of that will cause his mental breakdown to rise up dramatically until he is overwhelmed by his emotions.

"My friends…" Yuwan swallows his saliva before continuing, "Got killed…" He said before gritting his teeth hard.

"Ha?" Kirem said, mockingly asking the now pathetic Yuwan.

She was thinking that Yuwan's friends were killed because they were so weak that she could handle them all by herself.

"Fucking retards. Can't even do fuck." She thought inside her head. She was mocking Yuwan and Yuwan's friends for being stupid enough.

Indeed. She was the one that assigned Yuwan and his friends for a mission— spy out Everheart.

Originally, the first head of the faction assigned her to spy out Everheart but since she only thought of Everheart to be weak, she instead order her underlings to take her place as a spy.

It was a success. They had recorded every move Everheart made, from walking around to roaming the southern lands.

However, it was the opposite today. All of them except Yuwan died. Their mission of spying was a complete failure.

Because of this, Kirem suddenly snaps her head out of anger.

She was unable to tell that their mission today was a complete failure at the first head— Arpen Grand.

Indeed. It was the name of the first head of their faction. Arpen, the genius of the Flared Lights faction.

He was the prime star and role model for all of fifth cultivators and below. He was the genius that invented bombs and most importantly— he was the one that made Kirem's heart throb.

"Tch, if only that shit fuck would stay out of the way." Kirem cursed under her breath. She was talking about Everheart, who had unknowingly struck the hearts of the other cultivators.

And also...

She was also the former friend of Arpen.

"Tell me what happened, fucking fuck." Kirem coldly said to the crying Yuwan.

"They…" Yuwan, who was crying, once again grit his teeth to force himself to talk, said....

"They got ripped off apart by a dark void, similar to a black hole." He said, forcefully biting off the guilt and sadness that he was currently fighting with.