The Devil Chip activated:
"Now's the perfect time to kill him! Your rival is in his weakest emotional state!"
Meyer was breathing rapidly.
"No… I know him! Huyger!" He reached his trembling hand toward the hardened fur of Black Tiger.
Huyger was too busy crying. He kept muttering,
"My daughter… Grace… Whoever did this to you, I swear I'll find them!"
His words were broken and disjointed.
Meyer whispered hesitantly,
"Don't you hear me, Huyger? It's me… Steve Meyer."
Huyger's tears were melting the snow beneath them, drop by drop.
Meyer stared at the rope in his hand.
Devil Chip: Tie it around his neck and drag him breathless across the ice!
Meyer felt powerless.
The rope shook between his twitching fingers.
He clenched and unclenched his hands.
All I want is for Huyger to remember me.
For a moment, time twisted and folded.
Meyer grabbed Huyger's arm tightly.
"Remember me, Huyger! I'm Steve Meyer!"
But Huyger only kept weeping.
Devil Chip: Code 43 despises those who cry. Your job is to kill him!
Meyer struggled to process what he heard.
His blood was kicking in his veins.
The Devil Chip's voice sounded like it was forged in the pits of hell.
"I can't," he whispered, loosening his grip on Huyger's arm.
"He's my friend!"
Devil Chip: Code 43 is irritated. Kill him now!
Meyer looked at the rope again.
He was supposed to loop it around his neck.
But his fingers refused.
He hurled the rope to the left.
I made the Devil Chip angry... but so what.
He gently placed his hand on Huyger's shoulder.
Why are you crying like this, big man?
Huyger was shaking violently, soaked in sorrow.
A broken giant at his weakest.
"Grace is dead, Huyger! Do you hear me? She's dead!" Meyer screamed.
"She's dead! There's no way to bring her back!"
Huyger seemed to collect himself for a brief second.
His thick throat moved slowly as he swallowed.
He stared at his hands and shifted his weight on the ice.
With heavy, trembling steps, he stood up from the basalt.
He wanted to find the one who said those words.
His eyes couldn't really see.
Meyer clung to his legs.
"STOP! YOUR DAUGHTER IS DEAD!"
"No," Huyger roared. His voice cracked like thunder.
"She's not dead! My daughter can't die!"
"I saw her! Her body! I'll find who did it! We'll find them together, okay?"
"No," said Huyger, then bent down and began smashing the ice.
Ice bricks shattered across the ground.
Huyger had lost his mind.
He shoved off Meyer's hands from his legs.
Even though he couldn't see them, his rage could.
He threw punches into the air.
Missing them all, possibly due to the pain.
Meyer had no strength left to speak.
Devil Chip: You fool! Throwing the rope into the air? You want to die? Then go ahead and die!!!
Meyer saw Huyger's massive steps approaching.
He didn't want to do anything.
What I believe in is not what I see, but what I feel inside.
Huyger wouldn't hurt him.
Their bond would protect them.
Meyer didn't realize this was all a setup.
Not until Huyger grabbed his left leg tightly.
The basalt shook and crumbled.
The ice cracked again and the ground collapsed.
Snow poured into the void along with them.
AAAA!
Huyger's hand still clung to Meyer's leg.
Meyer was seconds away from having his bones crushed.
This isn't what I thought! He's trying to kill me!
Even while falling, Huyger kept screaming:
"Grace! I'll find your killer! You didn't die! You're not dead!"
Devil Chip:
That's not Huyger anymore, you fool! That's Black Tiger.
His mind belongs to the Spider's Devil Curse!
He holds the hilt of evil now! He's going to kill you, you wretched brat!
Meyer grabbed the fingers clinging to his leg and tried to pry them off.
The knuckles were fused to his skin. Red marks began to form.
The Devil Curse… did the same thing happen to him as it did to me?
He remembered Huyger's words beneath the apocalyptic sky:
"We serve Code 43!" Hadn't he said that?
So it was true.
Code 43 had cursed Huyger's mind as well.
Devil Chip:
"2048: Robbery at the Magma Reserve Office!"
"2047: The death of the Precious Minerals Union Executive spreads terror!"
Don't you remember these, Meyer?
As he fell through the ice, Meyer screamed under the weight in his skull!
That scream—something about it was powerful.
Huyger's hands recoiled from the sound wave.
"LET ME GO, HUYGER!"
Huyger flung backward and hit his head on a block of ice.
His giant body collapsed with a heavy thud.
Meyer's head was ringing.
Even freed from Huyger, the voice in his mind wouldn't stop.
Devil Chip:
Would you like to revisit the memory of the black horse at the zoo?
It would increase the Devil Curse!
The voice grinned inside his mind.
He felt like he saw a mouth full of teeth.
He remembered—you can't run from everything.
Why do I keep remembering these dates, these memories?
In his mind, the day they went to Bitloins zoo appeared.
It was a hot day. The zoo was nestled against volcanic slopes.
Animals from the magma depths were housed there like objects.
Meyer felt himself walking beside Huyger again.
They stood in front of a stall.
Inside was a black horse. Its eyes looked sorrowful. As if waiting for someone.
After studying the horse for a moment, Huyger had said:
"That's my daughter's horse. What is it doing here?"
Meyer stared in disbelief.
"This one?"
Huyger nodded quickly. Shocked.
"Yes. Does Grace know about this?"
He called to a staff member.
The man, adjusting his cap, responded:
"Yes, how can I help?"
"This horse belongs to Grace Huyger—my daughter!
She'd never give it up. She loves this horse!"
The man looked uneasy.
"We received it from someone else."
"Who?"
"I can't disclose that."
"Why?"
"That's procedure."
"Screw your procedure! Damn your rules! What does that mean?"
The man turned and walked away.
Huyger had a meltdown.
Meyer, face-down on the ice again, opened his eyes in confusion.
The skin below his left eye was wrinkled.
His eyes seemed to drink the cold.
What do those two news stories have to do with this?
Meyer would search for the answer to that cursed question… even if it killed him.
End of Chapter.