Trust

Shin looked visibly terrified as he gazed at the serum bottle, his past traumas from the laboratory experiments haunting him.

"Hey, this serum is different from the previous ones."

"What do you mean?"

"This healing serum is from Sis Hana. Use one for yourself and one for Jasmine. I've already taken my share. When I attack Rocka, you treat Jasmine and prepare the gate for our return."

"Hey hey hey, you're not planning to face him alone, are you?"

"Just relax, I'll try to hold out until you finish preparing the gate. Until then, farewell."

"Hey, Snow! Wait..."

***

I sprinted towards Rocka, who had been dragged by my ice, and as I approached, I handed him a larger chunk of ice and slammed his body into the ground.

"Eat this! Rocka!"

The impact was strong, burying him in my ice. But...

"Get up, Rocka, I know you're still alive."

Slowly, my ice began to melt, and Rocka stood amidst the evaporating vapor.

"Yeah! Thanks for the ice, my body feels a bit cooler now."

"Hahaha... I had no intention of cooling you down."

"You're getting a bit better, kid. Did you manage to make a contract?"

"No, not yet. I'm just using his power, and my name isn't 'kid,' it's Snow."

"Hahaha! You're making my stomach hurt! Your name is still not worthy to be spoken by my great mouth, because you still can't bring me down."

Damn, he's so arrogant. Whatever he says, the most important thing now is to keep him occupied until Shin finishes with the gate.

"I'll make you say my name, just you wait!"

"Hahaha! Are you kidding?"

I used my Gen.X to dart towards him and started assaulting him, hitting him forward and darting forward myself, then hitting him backward, repeating it as many times as possible. But what infuriated me was that he had been laughing and taking my attacks this whole time. Is he too strong for this?

"Hahaha!"

"Damn! This is for the finale."

I moved beneath him and kicked him into the sky, sending him flying high.

"Oh? Impressive."

"Y-MIRai!"

Using my ice powers, I created a towering ice tower to catch up to him. Once at the same height, I slammed him down with my spear, then jammed him with a massive, sharp icicle.

"Perish!"

My ice quickly enveloped him and shattered the frozen magma ground, causing a lot of hot lava to erupt, but the lava solidified instantly upon touching my ice.

I descended to check if he was truly dead now, and upon arrival, I saw a lot of blood coating the ground around him. With that, it's over. I need to hurry and reach Shin now.

***

"Shin!"

"Snow, what about Ares?"

"Ares?"

"The guy you fought earlier."

"Oh, you mean Rocka, he's dead."

"What?! That's impossible."

"Why do you say that?"

"Ares... I mean Rocka wouldn't go down that easily; it takes Gen.X and a soul with equivalent power to kill him. Or perhaps... Snow! Tell me the name of your soul?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, its name is Y-Mir."

"Y-Mir? He's not a god, but how could..."

"I don't quite understand what you're saying. Oh, right! How is he doing?"

"I've given him your serum; he should wake up soon."

Thank goodness, hopefully, Jasmine will wake up soon.

"You watch over Jasmine; I'll prepare the return gate."

"Do you have enough energy? If not, rest first."

"No, this is enough for one trip. And we have to be quick; we don't know if he's really dead or just pretending."

Shin started to open the gate, and I took a moment to rest my legs. Honestly, my legs were hurting badly from attacking him earlier, but I pushed through because if I let my guard down even for a moment, I could die there.

"Snow?"

"Jasmine!"

She's awake! Thank goodness, she's okay.

"Thank goodness you're awake, Jasmine."

"The gate's ready! Let's go; we have to hurry!"

"Alright, Jasmine, we need to get out of here."

As I tried to help her up, she slapped my face, weakly but painfully.

"Jasmine?"

"Don't touch me!"

"Hey, you two! What's going on?!"

"Don't come any closer!"

Jasmine, for the first time, I saw her so angry, her gaze towards me as if she were seeing something repulsive. Why?

"You're cruel! You're so cruel, Snow!"

"Hey! Don't slow me and Snow down; we have to leave here quickly!"

Shin tried to pull her away, but I quickly stopped him.

"What's wrong with you, Snow?! If we delay, she could..."

"Ssh... leave this to me; you wait at the gate."

I signaled to him subtly that this was something I needed to handle alone.

"Fine, but don't take too long."

"Okay."

Shin walked away, and now I just needed to calm Jasmine down.

"Jasmine..."

She turned away, and every time I tried to reach out to her, she rejected me.

"Why?"

She cried, her messy hair probably hiding her eyes, but I could see tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Why did you deceive me?"

"I don't understand..."

"Don't play dumb! You just wanted to use me, right? You approached me! Made me your friend! All just to fulfill your job! And your job was to watch over me as a target from where you work, am I right?!"

She knew everything, damn! This must be Rocka's doing! For now, I just had to calm her down.

"Yes."

"You... you... you've hurt me deeply, I thought you were just an ordinary human, but you're not just an ordinary human, am I right?!"

Rocka had said a lot to her.

"Yes."

"So... you only wanted to befriend me out of necessity, and everything we've done so far is fake, am I right?!"

I slowly approached her, but she kept resisting, even throwing stones at my face.

"No! Don't come near me! Leave me! I'd rather die here!"

This time, I managed to hug her, but she struggled and screamed. She repeatedly hit and scratched my back, leaving wounds that bled.

"Why? Why? Why? I trusted you."

She was starting to run out of energy to fight.

"Jasmine, forgive me."

"Why?!"

She kept screaming and crying.

"Indeed, I deceived you, whether it was about who I am, what my real job is, my mission to watch over you, or even writing weekly reports with all the information I got from you. But do you know what? I wasn't lying about wanting to be your friend; at first, I did it out of necessity, but eventually, I didn't harbor any suspicion toward you, and at that moment, I truly wanted to be your friend."

She just cried without responding to my earlier words. Slowly but surely, she began to hug me.

"I may not be an ordinary human, but I still have human qualities. Moreover, I'm prepared to accept punishment for deceiving you, and I am your friend."

"Snow..."

Finally, she called my name.

"Haven't I promised that I will never leave you? And now, I'll prove it. I came to find you, I worried about you, and I want you to be safe. Isn't all that enough to prove that our friendship is real?"

Her embrace was tight now.

"From now on, I promise never to lie to you again. Will you forgive me?"

She just nodded slightly, thankfully.

"I was so scared when I arrived here; that man kept torturing me and saying all those things."

"So that's what made you like this?"

"Yes."

"I've sorted it out, and I promise to explain everything at home, so how about we go back now?"

"Yes."

***

The gate was ready, and Jasmine was calm again. Thank goodness, everything ended well.

"Are you both ready?"

"Yes."

"In that case, I'll open the gate now."

As he opened the gate, we were surprised because suddenly the gate shattered! What actually happened?

"Shin, what's going on here?"

As he turned his face, I saw his body pierced by a very sharp small stone.

"Shin!!!"

"Damn... I knew you wouldn't be easy to kill... Ares."

Shin fell, sprawled on the ground. At that moment, I saw Rocka; it was his doing! But how could he still be alive?!

"You bastard!"

He easily slammed my face down until the very hard ground broke.

"You foolish human, did you think such a small ice could kill me?"

"Damn!"

"I'll take this woman again."

"No!"

Rocka grabbed Jasmine's hair roughly and dragged her away. Jasmine screamed in pain.

"Let me go! No! Snow!"

"Damn!"

I tried to stand up, but as I did, Rocka struck again, his hand already piercing my stomach.

"Stay here and bleed out, I don't have much time to deal with you again. He'll be here soon."

Damn, I've lost a lot of energy. Even my mouth wouldn't stop bleeding; why am I so unlucky?

He pulled his hand back and stomped on my face.

"You still have it, right?"

"What... do you mean?"

"The healing serum."

He even knew what I was carrying; it was truly horrifying.

"Think about this, kid, will you use the last remaining serum for yourself, this pitiful being, or will you use it to heal your friend who can take you home? Come on, now choose, I'll wait."

He made me choose between myself or Shin, who could take Jasmine home.

"Isn't it obvious..."

I crawled towards Shin, pulling out the last serum.

"You idiot! Don't give that to me, your wounds are much worse!"

"Shut up, fool."

I punched his chest, but there was no strength behind it.

"I'll give it to you..."

"Are you stupid or what?! Snow!"

"Shut up, idiot! I'm conserving energy to survive."

"Why, Snow?"

"Because only you can take us home, and opening the return gate takes a lot of energy. If you open it while injured like this, you might die after opening it. I won't die... as much as possible... I'll hold back this bleeding, and when I... endure all this pain... defeat that bastard with full strength... then run."

"What about you?!"

"Are you stupid? I won't be left here... so just take me with you, trash friend..."

I injected the last serum into his body, and immediately my energy drained very quickly. Damn, I don't want to die here. At least I want to die in my birthplace with all my friends there, why am I so unlucky?

"I'm counting on you, partner."

Now my energy is completely gone.

***

"I leave everything to you, Shin."