We heard raucous laughter as we approached the shack. Two adults, one male, one female. They were drinking, and even from this distance, just hearing their voices told me they were utterly drunk. Humans and their pitifully low tolerance of alcohol. I shook my head in disgust.
"You are suggesting that I possess one of these filthy creatures, Teur Lorune? Really?" I winced at Ace.
He immediately bowed his petite feline head. "My apologies, m'lord. Neither of these wasted creatures are the human I have detected. The target human's life force is extremely weak and fluctuating irregularly. If my humble guess proves accurate, the wastrels are her parents and are trying to kill the target right now.
Shall we make haste, before the target's life force is completely depleted?"
I sighed and ran as fast as the old dog's legs could carry me, while Ace swiftly followed, leaping gracefully over the low walls and fences.
We reached the open window, from under which we could hear the wasted parents laughing.
"Manays -- Mayno -- MAYONNAISE -- Mays -- Mayaaans say it isss the end of the walla.... WOOOOOORLD!" The male could barely form his words. "It's a ho-ho-hocks -- hoax you.... you dumb ass useless fuck," the female slurred.
The male sniggered. "Who cares, who cares anymore? We don't -hic- don't need to be here any -- anymore! We can all DIE and live worry-free and hap-HAPPY in the lalalife!"
The female threw a bottle at the male; we heard the crash of glass breaking. "AFTERLIFE, DUMB FUCK," hollered the drunk female.
There was a sound like a gun's safety going off, and I heard the tiniest, weakest of coughs. "Now's your chance, master," Ace nodded.
Taking a deep breath so I would take in as little of the putrid human air as possible, I broke out of the dying dog's body. Going through the window, I realized there was another human in that room: a young girl, probably around thirteen years of age, hovering on the brink of death. I guessed she had been strangled; her neck bore telltale marks where fingers had so recently applied such force, and her face was almost comically blue. I shifted my vision and saw that the male was a few feet away, his hands shaking over a gun. He had probably been trying to murder her this whole time and only left to get that gun.
"Stupid bitch, you're the fucking dumb fuck, you don't call me a dumb fuck, you ain't calling no one a dumb fuck after I -hic- shoot your fucking mouth," the male was muttering to himself, but loudly enough for the drunk female collapsed by the girl's bed.
Someone....save me.....kill me..... please....
I heard a weak resonance. This was a kind of voice known to beings of the Higher Realm, a voice that humans acquired when they were about to die. In my time as a priestess, I had heard many resona, but those were usually from criminals, weak pathetic cries for leniency in their final judgments.
This resonance was different. It sounded so melancholy, so beautiful. It had a dreamlike, melodic quality to it, like something only someone with the purest of hearts could produce.
I looked at the dying girl, the only one here who could possibly have a resonance so innocent.
Tempus, expono.
Relief swept over me as the magia worked. A countdown appeared, hovering above her heart, and relief turned into urgency when I saw the timer reflect mere seconds.
I hurriedly whispered the incantations to break the soul barriers as I plunged into the girl's near-lifeless body.
Exscindo realitatem, transmineo tempus. Sanare corpus, benedicite mentis.
The girl's memories flashed before me.
A happy beginning, loved by both her parents. Went to school, loved by all her classmates. Then her maternal grandparents' funeral, killed in a horrific plane crash. Her mother sobbing uncontrollably. Her mother, going further into mental breakdown, drowning her sorrows in drugs and alcohol. Her father, in the sidelines, watching, helpless. Her father, sinking into the same bottomless pit of despair as his wife. The girl, picking what flowers are left from their unkempt garden, giving the miserable bouquet to her hopeless parents. Father, shoving her aside. Rejection, rejection, rejection.
Reparet in corpore potentia, et alligate spiritum meum.
The deeper I went, the faster her time remaining went up.
Girl, questioned by her teacher. Is everything okay at home? Yes, yes, it's perfect, yes, thank you for your concern. Smiling, so brightly. Brave girl.
Tribuo obvius, confringet cincinno.
The numbers on her timer are increasing so fast they are a blur. I'm almost there.
Her name is 小特 愛華里。Kodoku Akari. Special little love in flower. But written another way, it could also mean lighting up loneliness. Such sadness, even doomed into her name, but for her little ray of hope.
My soul wept for her.
Meus, et, tu. Iam, iam, iam, mundo anima.
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