Chapter 12

Resolution (2)

    The Diary extended its hands, its speech changing into an arrogant, haughty, and annoying tone, hardly different from him.

    "If this place isn't yours, make it yours. The only thing that can make you stand is yourself, no matter how much you rely on others. We, the keyholders, have enough power to do so. The world doesn't need to submit to us, but your existence will shake the world."

    "You will be hated, you will be hunted, you may not trust anyone but yourself. But trust me, do not despair in yourself, do not lose faith in this world."

    "If the world rejects you, change it."

    "Hey... wait a sec," Esther gawked. "What do you mean by that...?"

    "One more thing we'd like to say, although our master did not leave it as a command...Esther Devald," the human-like book smirked coldly. "Our master once possessed Tartarus...but you probably don't remember anything about the past because we erased her memories. What you should remember going forward is...do not undo Tartarus’ seal. We only warn that much."

    "What are you talking about...come back and clarify things,” Esther covered his face as a massive whirlwind lifted the debris into the sky, turning everything black. The other side just chuckled softly before dissipating into dust…leaving him to face what comes next alone.

    Thud...

    Wounds beside him that were healing tore open again, with blood gushing out. He lifted his hand, holding the wound, only to find it drenched in fresh, unstoppable red blood. Every part of his body began to disintegrate into pieces, leaving only his eyes to witness everything disappearing.

    Damn it...

    Esther Devald died.

    That was the last message in the book of Power and Sacrifice...before it vanished forever.

    "Headache, having a fever, don’t mean being dead."

    An elderly doctor in a gown squinted at the heart rate graph now at zero, accompanied by the prolonged beep indicating the patient had indeed passed on to the other side. Although revival was possible...since it was an institution always prepared for war, they hurried to correct the situation rather than just watch.

    No matter how many eras passed, electricity remained the most certain tool for stimulating the heart. A small defibrillator was fetched from beside the emergency bed, along with personnel bustling around, even students called in to collect data on analog revival methods. The nurses began to panic as such incidents were rare, and no matter how much rehearsal, moments of chaos could always cause alarm.

    "Come on, visiting students," the elderly doctor hosting the patient started by putting on rubber gloves, explaining as he prepared, "We'll use an electric stimulator to prompt the heart back to normal rhythm. We'll pause to observe the patient's vital graph fluctuations. The action must be as swift as possible before brain death occurs."

    "Um...what happens if the brain dies here?" asked one young man.

    "Reincarnated...because that's the easiest way in War," he adjusted his glasses before saying, "Three, two, one...clear!!"

    Boom!!

    The old doctor was flung from the bed to the wall, while the students scattered out of the ICU in a panic. They weren't afraid of ghosts, but there had been incidents of patient delirium before. The ICU's security system immediately locked Esther inside.

    The patient's feet slowly descended as his eyes opened. Esther chuckled dryly when he saw dozens of lasers from the nurses' guns pointed at him. He instantly understood that they could transform him from a normal human into a pile of flesh in just a few seconds.

    "The reflex, sir..."

    Nurses, huh...These were obviously grim reapers.

    Minutes passed, and the nurses gradually left one by one. Meanwhile, he was checked for eye movements and blood results to ensure nothing was lurking within him. A portable X-ray, resembling a tablet, was used for internal checks, with no one bothering to help up the doctor lying sprawled on the floor. After a while, he slowly stood up on his own, while Esther couldn't say anything because he didn't understand what had happened.

    "Kids these days are really impatient..." The host doctor slowly stood up, holding the back of his head.

    Despite the pain, the ICU doctor's face still bore a smile. Esther looked at the elderly man in a gown, with white hair all over, in confusion. From the outside, he seemed like a calm and composed old man, unbelievable that he'd be here. Of course, the electric shock when he woke up made Esther think poorly of the man at first, but it was replaced by a lack of resentment on the other's face who had been hit directly by his feet in the chest.

    "What happened to me, doctor?"

    "Your spirit was heavily impacted, almost detached from your body. There were wounds that appeared and healed on their own, without known causes. You're malnourished, exhausted, have slept too much... I don't know what you've been up to, but what happened isn't something ordinary people encounter often."

    The doctor knowing this means that he had experienced some kind of situation before...

    "Okay, doctor, just tell me how many days I've been unconscious."

    "You've been in a coma for three days since those girls dragged you in here," the doctor removed his rectangular glasses to clean them. "The little girl who dragged you here pointed a rapier word at my neck, emphatically warning that if anything happened to you, she planned to turn the hospital into a cemetery."

    'I'm lucky I didn't drag thousands more to their deaths.'

    "And the other one... the blonde lady?" The elderly doctor smirked. "When you had wounds appearing on your body, she pointed a gun at my head first. I felt something pointed at my neck too, thought it was a spirit but couldn't see it. Just knew that after that, security had to drag those people out, and some Fu-Shin students came to perform an exorcism."

    "If Eastern magic can exorcise Western ghosts, I'd say that's quite admirable..." Esther commented, his respect for the elderly man growing with every moment. Not many could face death yet speak so casually, even smiling when a gun was pointed at his head.

    "Oh, right... there was another person," the doctor raised an eyebrow before pulling out a white envelope from his pocket.

    It was an unadorned envelope but clearly addressed to him. Esther took it from the doctor's hand and casually placed it at the head of the bed. His brain started piecing things together based on the old man's words, leading Esther to ask one last thing.

    "Today's Friday, right?"

    "Yes...Friday morning, the day the war starts. I'd guess you're itching to join the fray down there. Better not, though."

    Esther looked dejectedly towards the door, frustrated. The host doctor said no more, choosing to leave the room, leaving the young man to brood alone. Even if he wanted to escape, the security system of the room was not conducive for an easy departure for Esther.

    "Tartarus...Victoria," Esther spoke as the door closed. "I know that exorcism ritual couldn't drive you away."

    The moment his words ended, Tartarus and Victoria appeared before him, one of them immediately rushing towards him. Esther's soul power was rapidly replenished without needing his command. It was one of the benefits of having both of them adapt to the situation better than he had anticipated, despite their outwardly questionable company.

    "So, what do we do now?" Victoria, in her faintly visible spirit form, touched her lips. "Looking at your condition, it seems you can't go out."

    "Like I care..." Esther sighed deeply before, "So, what's your decision, Victoria? Will you finally be mine? Since you're not going anywhere anyway."

    “...”

    Suddenly, the young man felt an immediate sense of foreboding the moment he finished speaking...he felt as if he had irrevocably stepped into a pitfall.

    Tartarus's face turned pale, with her grey eyes widening in shock from below. Her nails, emanating spiritual energy, dug into Esther's flesh, causing blood to trickle out, leaving the young man flabbergasted by his own thoughtless words. The awkwardly phrased statement from his confusion caused everyone in the room to feel awkward.

    Strangely, the spirit girl squirmed with embarrassment rather than staying calm as usual. Though her form wasn't clearly visible, Esther could tell that if he could see her true form, he would see a blushing young woman, not to mention her giddy floating.

    ‘Damn...my goddess.’

    "Hey...I meant, do you want to fully become a full-time spirit following me around? Being followed like this for days feels a bit unfamiliar. Normally, there should be some contract or something right?" Esther tried to amend his words as Tartarus's gaze grew increasingly terrifying by the second. After a moment, her gaze returned to normal, but what became peculiar was the knight spirit, who suddenly stopped squirming.

    "Did you see something in that book?” Victoria’s voice was as so cold that it felt scary. "Past?”

    "It's not about seeing anything related to you. I just thought we needed to sort things out to make explanations to others easier. Just say you're a spirit following me."

    "Really...?"

    "And why would I lie to you?"

    Despite her half-belief, she had nothing else to do, so the spirit girl sighed and let it be, with the opposing weapon still not trusting her. Although Tartarus was slightly displeased, she found no reason to interfere; otherwise, Esther might think she was jealous.

    "Okay then."

    "And how exactly do we do this contract...?"

    ...

    Silence fell again, with both women looking perplexed, even though one was invisible to him. It seemed like the spirit and the weapon beside him were exchanging looks as if trying to communicate something, but it was Tartarus who eventually spoke up.

    "Actually, it used to be quite complicated. For weapons or spirits, it involved digging up the other party's bones for the ceremony. But nowadays, you don't need to do that. Just touching the other person and speaking the vow is enough. It was always possible, but people in the past didn't know."

    "So, we don't have to kiss, right?" Esther asked directly, having read in books that contracts or oaths often involved kissing the other party.

    "Well...yes," Tartarus hesitated. "Most references in books about kissing because it's the fastest way to transfer one's power into another...Suppose if you hold hands, it might take hours. What are you doing there?"

    Even the spirit beside him was taken aback when the patient just dragged her over. If not for Tartarus's hint earlier, an unexpected event might have occurred. Although invisible, what astonished Esther the most was that regardless of whether Victoria disappeared, he could still grab her.

    "So you said it's the best method, right?" He spoke matter-of-factly. "What now, then?"

    "Are you a robot or what!? Can't you understand a woman's heart at all?" Tartarus blurted out, her face reddening. "Besides, I was here before her, wasn't I? How could you kiss her before me?"

    After a moment, she realized she had voiced all her thoughts out loud.

    Esther tilted his head and blinked at her, even though his weapon looked odd, it seemed he was about to see an unbelievable side of her. His gaze shifted between Victoria and Tartarus before he smirked, making both women shudder.

    "You...you wouldn't really do it, right?"

    "Isn't this what you wanted?" Esther yanked out the saline drip and dragged the heart monitor with him. If he suddenly disconnected it, the nurses would likely come running in again with guns aimed at him. "If you had said so from the start, we wouldn't have to overthink it."

    His black eyes locked onto her dim grey ones, his body moving closer until their breaths could merge into one. Tartarus, trying to push him away, found her hands, which were about to push him away, captured above her head, unable to resist him at all. A storm of thoughts whirled in her mind, leaving only the image of the man before her.

    No need to overthink...it's just a contract.

    Just a contract.

    Esther's warm breath hovered over her face as she slowly closed her eyes.

    ...

    Why don't you do it already!!

    Slap!!

    The sound of a forehead flick resonated in the ICU in response to her question. When the woman opened her eyes, she saw Esther standing at a distance, smirking. Even though the young man was in pain because Tartarus's skull was harder than a human's, he still held it in and laughed.

    "How could I kiss someone I've barely known for less than a month, you fool!!"