Rain poured hard.
On the path leading into the forbidden forest behind the Luc family graveyard, every step Linh Nguyet took seemed drowned in an invisible voice, whispering from beneath the soil.
She gripped Luc Trac's hand tightly.
The thin red string that bound their wrists was still intact — but it trembled with tension, like it was ready to snap.
"We're close," Luc Trac said, eyes fixed on the blood-red trees ahead.
"This… is where you first died."
The hill had no official name.
Locals called it Blood Hill, because the soil was permanently stained deep crimson — as though soaked in lifeblood for centuries. No grass grew. No birds flew overhead. Not a single sound of life.
Only cold — seeping from below.
They reached the center.
There stood a black stone monolith, nearly two meters tall, carved with ancient glyphs. Across its surface was a name, but most of it had been violently scratched out — leaving only two letters:
"…Nguyet."
Linh Nguyet touched the frozen stone.
Instantly — her body was sucked into a vortex of memories.
Her first life.
She saw herself… not as a human.
But as a guardian spirit — born from the ancient blood tree rooted deep within the hill, charged with guarding the boundary between the living and the dead.
And Luc Trac — in that life, a mortal man who stumbled onto the forbidden hill, bleeding and barely alive.
She had saved him.
Healed him.
Loved him.
But love between a spirit and a living man was forbidden.
Other guardians had warned her:
"If you love, you lose immortality.
And he… will bring your ruin."
But still, she chose him.
The day Luc Trac left, she tore a piece of her soul-root from her own heart, hiding it within him — so that even if he reincarnated, he would remember her.
But he forgot.
In the next life, when they met again — he had no memory of the Blood Hill, the promise, or the spirit who had once saved him.
And her heart shattered.
The final memory was of her burning herself alive on the hill, her blood seeping into the earth. And with it, she cast a curse:
"If we meet again and you forget…
…my soul will split in two.
One part to love. One part to hate — forever."
Linh Nguyet awoke, tears streaming down her cheeks. She grabbed Luc Trac's hand.
"You promised… you'd never forget."
He froze, then whispered:
"I… truly didn't remember.
Not until you opened the Gate of Blood.
After that, the memories came flooding back."
The black monolith behind them began to shake. The ground cracked beneath their feet. A pale white hand burst from the earth, grabbing Linh Nguyet's ankle.
A whisper echoed from below:
"A piece of your soul… still hasn't forgiven.
It waits to be reborn —
to reclaim a love left behind."
Luc Trac raised his hand — blood talismans burst into flames, forcing the entity back.
He swept Linh Nguyet into his arms and drew a Soul-Carved Blade from within his chest — the only weapon capable of cutting a soul's lingering half.
"If you want to be whole," he said, "I have to do this."
She nodded, tears in her eyes:
"Cut it.
I don't want to love you with half a heart."
He drove the blade into the soil.
A scream tore through the night — raw, furious, and full of longing — as part of her was ripped free, then scattered into dust.
At that moment — the red string between them lit up, no longer a thread, but a fused soul, glowing as one.
Linh Nguyet collapsed into his chest, smiling weakly:
"Now I only have one soul left.
And all of it… belongs to you."