And so Arthur fired another barrage of enhanced bullets, moving his body with greater agility as he suddenly changed his angles, targeting the shadow's moving limbs instead of its elongated body. Thanks to this, one of the shots hit one of the arms of the terrifying, shadowy entity, which appeared as if it were woven from dark threads.
The impact was more like the tearing of fabric than inflicting a real wound or injury. Nevertheless, Arthur could hear terrifying screams of pain resembling the wail of the wind as the shadow retreated for a moment, as if the pain had frozen it in place, while small halos and glimmering particles of gray ethereal energy flickered around it.
And that moment was exactly what Arthur needed, a flash of confusion sufficient for him to get closer.
Therefore, with all his might, Arthur rushed toward the girl's position with quick and calculated steps, his heart beating violently inside his chest. But he quickly took a deep breath, trying to calm himself and his inner turmoil as much as possible, before snatching the girl from the iron grip of that terrifying, shadowy entity that was still moaning and wailing in pain.
At the same time, he gathered his inner strength to enhance his small body well beyond its limits, determined to retreat as far as possible at maximum speed.
Arthur succeeded in doing this, retreating while carrying the young girl awkwardly in his arms, running at speeds that far exceeded the normal human limits even for an ordinary adult. Not that this was of any real importance to Arthur at the moment, whose only priority now was to escape as quickly as possible from that terrifying, shadowy entity.
He could hear the sound of his heart beating violently in his chest, and the sound of his erratic breathing mingling with the rustling of leaves under his feet. Yet he still did not stop for even a moment to think about anything other than survival.
Fortunately, Arthur had succeeded in that... at least for the time being.
At present, Arthur had succeeded in creating a considerable distance between himself and the terrifying, shadowy entity. He could still hear its wails of pain echoing throughout the forest. Therefore, Arthur could now be seen resting inside the entrance of an empty cave, with no animals or any other traces of life in it, near a small pool of clear water.
He had gently leaned the girl's back against the stone wall of the cave, holding her wrist gently, despite knowing there was no point in doing so since he felt no pulse, not even a faint one.
This was what Arthur knew had been the case from the beginning, since the moment he first approached the girl's corpse; his spiritual sense had already confirmed to him that the girl was indeed dead. But nevertheless, he had still hoped that his spiritual sense was wrong or confused or something like that, perhaps because he was still a beginner on the path of ascension or something similar. But testing her pulse left no room for doubt, confirming what he had hoped would not be the case.
"Damn, why can't things go my way just for once?" Arthur let the girl's hand fall gently to her side and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to gather his scattered thoughts and calm his heartbeat, which was still beating violently in his chest.
The silence inside the cave was completely different from the forest's silence, a silence that carried a sense of safety, away from the terrifying wailing that still echoed in his ears.
"Why am I even risking my life for someone already dead in the first place?" Arthur thought as he looked at the girl's peaceful face. She looked as if she were sleeping, if not for the coldness radiating from her body and the pallor covering her white skin.
"Was that just stupidity on my part, or was there something else that drove me to do it?"
He didn't know the answer, but he knew one thing: he couldn't have left her there. Even if she was dead, even if everything he did was meaningless, he couldn't have left her there. Something inside him had refused to let her become merely prey for that terrifying, shadowy entity.
Arthur placed his hand on his forehead, trying to think clearly. "But now what? I can't stay here forever, and that thing might follow me. And even if it doesn't, staying here with... with a corpse won't solve anything."
It was really strange how seeing death up close had been much easier than he had originally expected. He had thought that this childish body, the body of the nine-year-old child he had returned to with his regression through time to the present, would make him more tender and sensitive.
He had known how the neurotransmitters in a child's brain differ from those of an adult, where serotonin and dopamine work in different ways, and the frontal cortex that controls emotions and logical thinking had not yet matured. Originally, he had expected to be overwhelmed by waves of primitive fear, for his small hands to tremble, and for his childish mind to scream with terror.
But the reality was completely different and mysteriously disturbing. He stood there, before the girl's corpse, feeling a cold calm flowing through his veins. Death had been like an old friend returning to meet him, without panic or any real emotion.
Perhaps because his memory from his previous life had imprinted its neural pathways on this small brain, making his emotional responses more like those of an experienced adult than an innocent child; or perhaps because the adrenaline and cortisol flowing from his fear of that terrifying shadowy entity had suppressed all other feelings in his nervous system, even the natural sadness he should have felt toward the death of such a young girl even if he had never known her before.
"But why do I feel as if I actually know her?"
This question had been troubling Arthur since the moment he had seen the girl. There was something familiar about her features, something that reminded him of a distant past he couldn't put his finger on.
Suddenly, Arthur heard a faint sound echoing from the depths of the cave. It wasn't the sound of that shadowy entity; it was something completely different, something... quieter. More sorrowful.
Arthur stood slowly, his hand moving automatically to his pistol. Was there something else here? Or was this just an echo of the wind?
But when he looked at the girl again, he noticed something that hadn't been there before. There was a faint glow, almost transparent, surrounding her body. A pale blue glow, like moonlight reflected on water.
"What in heaven's name is happening here?" Seeing this, his heart began beating violently again, but this time it wasn't just fear, but something else. Anticipation. As if he were about to discover something important, something that might change everything. At that moment, the girl opened her originally closed eyes. They were not ordinary eyes; they glowed with the same pale blue light that had been surrounding the rest of her body, looking at him with an empty gaze, as if they were looking through him rather than at him.
"You..." she said in a soft voice, like the whisper of wind between leaves. "You're the one who saved me."
Arthur couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. He knew that what was happening before him was impossible. He knew that the dead don't speak. But there she was, sitting before him, looking at him with glowing eyes, speaking in a voice that didn't belong to this world.
"Am I hallucinating now? Did that shadow hit me, and I didn't feel it? Or is this something completely different?"
His mind was trying to find a logical explanation, but his heart was telling him something different. It was telling him that this was real, however strange or impossible it might be. It was also telling him that his story with this girl, whoever she was, had just begun.
But suddenly, while Arthur was trying to wrap his head around the insane situation he found himself in, the entire cave where he was hiding shook to the sound of a terrifying wail that pierced the forest's tranquility. This wasn't the sound of pain he had heard before, but something else, something more savage and angry. The shadowy entity was screaming with all its might, and its screams were sending horrifying vibrations through the rocks and trees, until it seemed as if the entire forest was trembling with terror.
"Damn... it found me..." Arthur whispered as he felt his blood freeze in his veins. He could hear the sounds of massive trees breaking and falling as they collapsed, and rocks shattering throughout the forest. The terrifying, shadowy entity was in a state of extreme frenzy and was heading toward him with unwavering determination.
But the girl, with her glowing eyes, looked at him with frightening calm. "You disrupted the ritual," she said in a voice resembling a whisper. "The sacrifice ritual for the Edict of Death that had been binding my soul to that shadow."
"Edict of Death?" Arthur muttered in a daze as he tried to comprehend the girl's words, who had been dead just moments ago and now stood before him alive again. What was the connection between the Edict of Death, one of the six ethereal Edicts of destiny, to all this madness? Could the Edict of Death really be capable of bringing the dead back to life? Questions clashed in his mind while the terrifying sounds drew closer and closer, so he tightened his grip while staring at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I was bound to it," she answered as she tried to stand, but her body was still heavy and cold. "My soul didn't cross to the other side after my death at the hands of that shadow, but had become a prisoner inside my dead body, feeding its power and granting it the ability to exist and move in this layer of reality. But when you took me away from it, you broke the bond and destroyed the ritual. And now..." She paused for a moment, as if listening to something Arthur couldn't hear. "And now it's angry. Very, very angry."
Arthur felt terror creeping through his small body. "So I made things worse? Should I have left you there or what?"
The girl looked at him with something resembling gratitude in her glowing eyes. "No, you did the right thing; you freed me. But now we're in greater danger, as it doesn't just want to reclaim me, but also wants to punish you. However, there is still a chance for us; without this entity's connection to me, it won't be able to continue to exist in this world for long. All you need to do now is just buy time as much as possible until the moment when the shadow can no longer continue to remain in this world."
Suddenly, they heard the sound of heavy, rapid footsteps approaching the cave entrance. They weren't ordinary footsteps, but something dragging itself across the ground, leaving a trail of coldness and darkness behind it.
"It's here," the girl whispered, and her blue glow began to weaken. "But I can't stay much longer in this world without the power of my death Edict. So I won't be able to help you, little one, as my soul is still trying to cross to the other side. Therefore, everything depends on you now, little hero."
With that, Arthur realized he was trapped. Outside was a terrifying, shadowy entity, angry and more powerful than ever. Inside was the ghost of a dead girl trying to cling to this world for a few more minutes. He now had only a childish body and a small pistol, with barely any ammunition left, which might not even be enough this time to deal with that shadowy entity.
"So... either success or death this time," Arthur muttered with bitter sarcasm, but behind that tone, his heart was burning with a determination like he had never felt before, a determination to survive and escape from this situation. Despite realizing that his chances of survival were almost nonexistent, he didn't let fear control him.
There was a strange struggle within him between the desire to laugh at the absurdity of the situation and the burning feeling that surrender was not an option. After all, he had experienced death before, and here he was facing it again, but this time he wouldn't welcome it as an old friend; this time he would fight until his last breath, until the last spark of his strength, because failure now meant disappearing without a trace, as if his existence had never been.
The girl smiled a sad smile, then replied, "Yes, we fight or we die. But I'm still sorry, little one, that you had to go through such a terrifying experience because of me."
"Don't worry, you don't need to be sorry about such a thing," Arthur said calmly, with a small smile on his face that carried a hint of self-mockery. "Even if it hadn't been because of you, considering the type of person I am and the kind of luck that always follows me, I'm absolutely sure that I would have ended up in a confrontation like this one, one way or another. This is my fate anyway... to find myself in the heart of this madness even if it wasn't about saving you."