Chapter XLV: Child

"Argh!"

When Lilibeth has a charge toward Zev, Khalid swiftly blocks it with his hands, but the impact causes him to lose his fingers from her sharpened spider palps.

"Lily, come to your senses!"

Khalid trembled as a warm fluid of his thick, crimson-blood-like jewel trickled on his hands and stomach, where the other palps of lily were pierced so deeply that it created a hole in his body.

It was just a matter of time before Lily came to her senses, seeing how he looked at him apathetically in her cold-sharpened eyes that were contorted with rage, baring her teeth in anger before she burst into tears.

"No! That's my brother, my brother!"

She whined as her palps that were pierced into Khalid's trembled.

'He wasn't Lily! We must kill him! '

Despite the tears spilling over and flowing down her face like a dam, her mind was also tangled.

Hearing the verendus voice that'd possessed her was trying to take her under control, manipulating her mind like a marionette that would slowly be dancing on her palm.

"You can't!"

Lily screamed before she distanced herself from Khalid, causing his blood to splatter all over.

'Tsk! Can't you see? ' 

The verendus sounded so dissatisfied.

'He was the reason you were suffering! '

She added as Lily wailed in pain when her head throbbed suddenly, it was so painful that it made her kneel on the ground, covering both of her ears, preventing herself from hearing all the vicious words of the verendus that were whispering in her mind.

"No! You're lying! LIAR!"

Just then, Lily's aura had darkened, covering her body entirely with black mist as she slowly transformed into a complete monster with the features of a spider.

'She acts the same as Dal...'

He frowned as he heard Lily's grinding sound of her cracking bones being stretched out of her body.

'He killed your parents! We must kill him! -

We must kill them all! -' 

"AHHH!! "

Lily screamed continuously, tilting and scratching her head so hard that it caused her to bleed.

"That's not true! Stop it! I don't want to hear it!"

"Brother would not do that! Brother will never kill!" 

She then gazes upon Khalid, who is silently looking at her with deadly dull eyes.

"You wouldn't do that, right, brother?"

She asks, but he does not answer, which makes Lily doubt it even more.

"My parents have turned into monsters too; have you also come to kill me?"

Her eyes widened when, in the blink of an eye, Akil, who'd earlier been lying on the ground unconscious, was now heading towards Lily with a flaring knife.

'I must protect Hyung! -

"Stay back!"

He commanded without listening to Khalid, who was left standing on his foot.

"No! It was not as you thought! -

Before he could barely finish his word, Khalid's eyes were clouded, and he also noticed that his thick, crimson blood was continuing to spill out from his severe-opened wounds.

As soon as Akil noticed it, he lost his cool and turned berserk. chasing over Lily without knowing that it was the kid they were after, along with thoughts that mess up his mind about the great possibility that Khalid would never wake up again if he ever loses all of his mana.

"Hyung! "

He called.

"You can't sleep! You're not supposed to!"

He fumed in anger, gripping the knife in his hands, while Khalid's body slowly turned into a candle, as if it were melting inside a furnace, making him more nauseous and drowsy.

"Funny…. Pftt!"

He chuckled.

'My hands are taking longer to heal.'

He blinks for a second.

"Am I going to die?... Am I finally dying?" 

He then looks at his bleeding hands, which are taking longer to heal.

"Dying... right now?"

All of a sudden, Khalid has to close his eyes while Akil had gone mad and transformed into a beast with the features of a phoenix, a fiery, terrifying creature that spread fire in the entire forest.

"You're not going to die! I would not let you!" 

He shouted back at Khalid, which made him leave a grin on his face.

"Ha, look at that kid saying whatever he wants."

With a fiery body of Akil and an aura that was more intimidating than death itself that covered almost the entire forest, the low-rank monster suffocated in death, and even though they tried to escape, they were all burned down and turned into a billow of ash that slowly floats into the air and enters Khalid's body.

"What are you doing?! "

Just then, the voice of the phoenix rings in his head, with a hint of madness in his tone of voice.

"You're putting yourself in danger! -

"Shout it!"

It made the phoenix startled to hear his voice covered in anger.

"Are you even listening to me?!"

He continued to burst out of the sizzling fire, ignoring the phoenix, while his eyes were locked up on Khalid, who was floating in mid-air as the fragments of the rattling monsters slowly fed on him.

"Akil!"

The phoenix called as he watched him vomit his blood. 

"Stop it or you'll die!"

"ARGH!! "

As the blazing fire grows rapidly, the thick red fluid has also continued to come out of both his nose and mouth, but he still dares to give off a galad smile while looking at Khalid, who's now standing with his own two feet, staring into a sight that's almost like hell.

"I told you, you're not going to die-Cough!"

He smiled.

"I'm just going to rest....just for a minute."

Before he passed out completely, Khalid had caught him and immediately distanced himself.

When Lily had cut off the string barrier, she created herself to protect herself from the fire.

"Do I have to end this with either one of us dying?"

He murmured to himself as he looked at the child he barely knew anymore.