The sky was bleeding its heart out now, thunders cracking and shattering through the space. The wind raged across the Forest, whipping dust and leaves against everything tangible. The air was heavy with the smell of wet moss and decay, the thick canopy screeching in the pouring rain.

  "Where are we?" Asked one of the two outer disciples who were brought along with them - Master Thane, Master Zachar, Ellissae, Villaira, Rylan and Suben. "I do not know!" The other screeched, trembling and huffing all the way along. They were brought along to hold wooden torches- the torches being lit by Master Thane's White Flame so it stays alive even in the raging thunderstorm.

  Even though The Fiery Lotus Institution never differentiated between students, accepted everyone wholeheartedly, and taught everyone without being biased, the Institution still had a rule when it came for the segregation in students based on their excellence. The average students were classified as the Outer Disciples whereas the most excellent ones were upgraded to Inner Disciples. Every year, among the Inner Disciples, was conducted the yearly Swordmanship Contest to choose the best out of the bests. The winner was honoured with the title of 'The Elder' followed by the second rankholder being upgraded to 'The Senior.' There was another criteria. If any of the Masters took a student to his liking, and if the student accepted it too, they would form a Blood Bond and the Master would take that student as his Direct Disciple - the said Disciple being the direct representation and the mirror-reflection of her/his Master's teachings, dignity, pride and honour. Arvi, Ellissae, Villaira, Suben and Rylan were all the excellent Inner Disciples with Arvi being the Direct Disciple of Master Thane.

  "I do not understand why we need to retrieve the bitch's dead body." He continued. "Isn't it better to let the despicable wretch rot where she is?" The other opened his mouth to add in some more insults, 'humourous' he thought as it was, but then froze.

  "I will cut off your throats!" Rylan hissed, his fist crashing against the chins of the two disciples one after the another. They fell back like wooden puppets. "Fucking bastards." He shrieked once more, his eyes moulding into two perfect orbs of disgust and fuming rage. Sheer light pierced through the black night as two Fire Sabres materialised in Rylan's hands. "H-help!!" The two disciples cried as the lethal weapons pierced through their skin.

  "Rylan."

  A strong force held back his weapon from piercing further and Rylan didn't need to look up to know Master Thane had stopped him from killing the two pigs right at the spot. The two disciples clutched their throats, blood oozing out of the cut.

  "You wouldn't die." Villaira spat the words with annoyance and walked past their hunched figures on the ground.

  In all of these commotion, Ellissae was eerily quiet, Suben noticed. His first instinct was to say something comforting. But what exactly could have he said? The ruin was etched across Ellissae's face, and even in the heavy rain, Suben felt like he could see her tears being washed down by the pouring rain.

  "Back off." Suben snapped out of the trail of his thoughts just in time to notice Master Zachar slashing his whip through a thick black foamy structure. Atleast eight Ghouls scattered to the ground, screeching and moaning, their dusty structures writhing in pain from where they have been twisted. Master Thane caught the collars and flung the two crouched disciples on their feet. "Pick up the lights." He barked, and the two good-for-nothing nuisances quickly followed the order. Were they stupid and cowards? Yes. But were they so stupid so as not to follow their Master's order? Definitely not.

  Now that the lights were held up, everyone could see the thick cloud of Ghouls closing onto them like a blinding blanket.

  "Why are so many of them gathered?" Suben asked, his spear materialising within his palm.

  "Stronger the Cultivator, higher the amount of Ghouls to eat her corpse." Master Thane answered, his Fire Sword slashing through another group of screeching Spirits.

  This was enough to answer Suben's question. The Spirits and Ghouls were gathered here to feast upon Arvi's dead body. They were only halfway through the Forest to reach the core - the core of the Glass Lake Forest was not any land or vegetation but rather a clear-watered lake, the Glass Lake.

  "Careful." Villaira pulled back Ellissae before twisting her whip and ripping off two heads from the lurking creatures, the heads and bodies all wailing like chained animals. "Call your dagger." Villaira urged Ellissae, slashing and twisting her whip around another pair of heads that hissed at her in harmony. But Ellissae stood there, like a broken doll, the blue of her eyes dulling like how black clouds devour the silver moonlight.

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  Suben pierced his spear through the Spirits that were reaching for Villaira's back, and she turned around just in time to catch his eyes. A silent conversation was exchanged between them, telling Villaira to not force Ellissae for anything. Villaira never understood how she could always tell what Suben wanted to say just by looking at his eyes, but everytime that it happened, it had happened accurate and true.

  "There goes the last shit." Rylan hissed, thrashing a ghoul into pulp on the muddy ground of the Forest.

  Half an hour later or so, they had arrived at the Glass Lake, the waterbody being rimmed with starving Spirits.

  "Oh Gods! S-save us!" The two Outer Disciples cried out in unison, their eyes fixed on the mounds of Ghouls staring back at them with hunger.

  This was the moment of a fierce fight- everyone knew that. The two nuisances were casted upon with a fire shield whereas everyone else was ready to chop off heads or just... literally anything. Master Zachar and Villaira's whips sizzled, Suben and Rylan stood in formation with their combined attacks of Sabres and Spear. Master Thane blew up fire like an erupting volcano.

  And amongst everyone else, the weight of loneliness broke upon Ellissae's head like chains of mountains. Spirits shrieked, thunders cracked, clouds rumbled and Ghouls fell upon the ground like fallen leaves. The wind howled, the Forest bellowed, weapons clanked and flashed like sliver lines of the crackling thunders above, storm and scream mixed into a bloody nightmare.

  And through the thick fog of black and death, Ellissae saw her - a frail body submerged in the water of the Glass Lake.

  By the time they arrived there, the creatures had already begun their feast upon her body. But now that she had finally seen her, she couldn't wait another moment longer.

  Time seemed to move in slow motion, as if caught up in a trance. Leaves rustled, Ellissae moved. Blades and Spear were all around her as she walked through the screeching Spirits. She heard a voice behind herself calling her name, maybe Villaira, maybe Suben - she didn't bother to notice. And then she felt it - the cold water around her body.

  She has stepped inside the Glass Lake.

  How could she feel cold? Ellissae never felt cold- she was the embodiment of the Frost herself. But right now? Maybe it was Death. Or maybe it was the realisation of Death, but she was cold.

  She began to swim until she reached her- and her heart shattered into million snowflakes.

  There, before her eyes, was the corpse of Arvi. She lay in the water, her eye-less sockets filled with wriggling worms, one ear eaten and the another half decayed. Her lips agape, jaws dislocated. Rib bones broken and protruding out of her chest. She still had the robes on from three months ago- tattered and decayed like a rug covering a beggar's dirty body. Her body gave off a stench that made Ellissae's guts twist into knots, but she couldn't flinch- couldn't move even an inch- her eyes were fixed on the hundreds of wounds if not thousands, that covered Arvi's frail body, her flesh rotting away from place to place, her bones exposed to reveal how shattered and fragmented they were.

  "Arvi. My sweet Arvi." Ellissae felt her soul calling, but no voice escaped her throat. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream, wanted to believe she was having just another nightmare like how she had been haunted every night for the past three months. But her tears seemed to have evaporated. Or perhaps she was scared to cry. Because if she had cried, she would have to accept that Arvi is dead. But she could not accept that. She wanted to call out her name, but she was scared. What if there was no one to answer back her call?

  She extended her hand, thin fingers reaching out for Arvi's decaying, half-eaten and half-rotten face. She was still there, wasn't she? Ellissae could still touch her, couldn't she?

  And then she felt a tightness around herself.

  Water splashed everywhere when the whip beat against it. Water splashed everywhere when Master Zachar pulled Ellissae out of the Glass Lake. Launched mid-air, Ellissae's eyes widened, her hand still stretched out, still trying to reach out for Arvi. She was hungry, thirsty for just one more touch, for just one more hug, for just one more moment of contact even if it meant goodbye forever.

  But fate flipped the dice for cruelty.

  Right before her eyes, the thunder cracked. And dancing, it came straight into the heart of the Glass Lake, upon Arvi.

  Ellissae lost her breath.

  Flames scattered, birds screeched, water splashed and Arvi was on fire.

  Pyre.

  Wounded. Dead. Decayed and decomposed. Eaten by worms and Ghouls inside out. And then, even the Heavens didn't spare her and struck her with the thunder as punishment, setting her ablaze.

  Somewhere in her blurring vision Ellissae saw Rylan's knees meeting the ground. And her eyes memorised that fire, the flames dancing in her pupils, mocking her for what she had lost. Even in the pouring rain, her fingers felt dry, starved for touching Arvi for just one more time.

  Something clicked behind the back of her head, as if she just now watched her soul being ripped out of her body alive and chained to the Abyss of Death.

  She felt the world move around her, and her feet felt light until everything before her vision went dark.

  "Arvi..." She remembered, her feet staggering, her mind caught in the maze of replaying the fire that burnt Arvi over and over again.

  "The Dead." Ellissae whispered before falling onto the ground unconscious.

  "Arvi is dead."