Chương 67: ELLIE AND CHOSA

Ellie was caught in the alleys of the city, her pursuer hot on her trail. She was rendered absolutely helpless. All she could do was run and prevent her injuries from becoming fatal. They were racking up. The cuts from the blade, bruises from the falls, and head-piercing traumas. She could only limp away in silence, cutting corners and hoping that Chosa couldn't see her. She hid behind an alley dumpster, trying to hide the glowing in her hand's healing.

She had a heavy gash in her shoulder, and she was desperate to staunch the bleeding. But she had limited time. She could hear the woman's footsteps closing in behind her and the knocking of steel on wet concrete. She tried to listen, activating her hypersensitivity just long enough to sense where she was. Then she was deafened by the sound of the scythe dragging and sparking on the hard ground. Screeching. Clawing. A bloody knife on a chalkboard. Ellie scrambled to cover her ears as Chosa taunted her.

"Run away, little bird. I hope your sensitive little ears are okay…" She took off away from her, lighting Chosa's ears. Suddenly, a gust of focused air pushed Ellie through the alley, tumbling her into the open street. They were near the heart of the city. That meant streets congested with empty cars, murky moonlight sneaking under underpasses and skyscrapers, and the demons. The monsters were haunting the grounds, ready to pounce on any flesh and blood they sensed.

She suddenly found herself being bombarded by a pack of wild bug demons. She shot at them with her holy bow, landing three shots just enough to protect herself. Chosa got distracted by a few of them as well, but as expected, her scythe could tear through them like butter. Ellie used the distraction to run further and hide again until she could think of a way to save herself from this madwoman. But the scythe caught her, clipping her leg and tearing into the fleshy calf muscle.

She screamed and tumbled to the ground. She immediately tried to heal as Chosa stalked behind her.

"You're pretty useless without your hypersensitivity, just like Sam said you'd be. I guess the smart guys have their uses." On survival instinct, Ellie loosed holy arrows, but her ears were still suffering, making her far less accurate than usual. The arrows flew past Chosa's head. She didn't even have to move to know she was safe. But it was all Ellie could do, her only form of attack. She was a healer, not meant for an encounter like this.

She fired more arrows, fleeing from Chosa and the slow-moving demons on the streets. Chosa effortlessly dodged the attacks, sprinting forward and then up in the air, carried by strong wind. Ellie loosed again, still running away. Chosa hooked onto the overpass, swinging herself above and around it, landing to cut off Ellie's path away. Ellie stopped, realizing she wasn't going to be able to run in open streets. She had no movement loot. She loosed two more arrows.

This time, Chosa simply cut them down by swinging her scythe at the weaponized light. She stared Ellie down, slowly pacing forward.

"You know, there was something special I was saving just for T'balt. But I think I'll try it out on you first." Ellie centered herself, watching Chosa very closely, realizing she had only revealed two of her loot stack. She tried to prepare for anything, letting her natural healing restore her wounds. As long as she could heal, she just had to avoid a fatal blow or being knocked unconscious. Then she could always recover. Chosa started to swing her chained scythe around in a clockwise circle in front of her.

Ellie took a few steps back as Chosa took a few steps forward. And then the tip of the scythe buried into the street, and Ellie was just looking at Chosa's open palm. She held it stiff and, with her other hand, pointed to its center. Ellie found herself staring deeply into it and then at something completely different. The colors were bright, almost blinding. Her body was… clean. No injuries. No pain. She could hear the playful cries of children on a playground nearby.

Pleasant sounds that she hadn't heard in what felt like a lifetime. The playground was all too familiar. It was hers. At least the one in her community when she was a child. With auburn-colored hair and big eyes colored by the blue sky. She could see herself playing on the monkey bars with the others.

"What is this?" She looked around for Chosa, but she was all alone, in some strange white space. She could hear and see the playground, but she wasn't a part of it. No one could hear her. Like she was a ghost in her own memories. She saw herself as a child running to her parents, both lovingly hugging her and running to see what she had made in the dirt. It was a drawing of a house with 3 people in it. A man, a woman, and a girl. She didn't forget the dog.

"Mama. Mama. Look at what I did."

"Isn't that pretty? Is that our house?"

"Yeah." But then the image of her parents began to fade away, like they never had faces. From the whiteness, something tore through her arm, splashing her blood on the bleak, empty ground. It was a splash of red on an otherwise blank canvas. When she tried to heal, nothing emerged from her hands. When she reached to the back of her neck, she couldn't feel the contours of the healing loot. But she could feel the burning in her arm.

"What's happening? Where is this?" The scene of the playground changed, and her vision blurred. Then suddenly, she was in front of her parents' house, the door being slammed in her face. She was barely an adult, angry, full of undue rage and childish emotion, declaring that she would never return. The scene blurred again, and another cut came. This time, it was to her leg, sending her to her knees. The pain was a shock, but she still couldn't see what had caused it. Was she dreaming?

The pain felt so real, and so did the emotions of the memories she was being forced to see. She had left her parents for some boy she claimed they never understood. She let some silly political ideology tear her from her family. She wanted to be her own woman, far away from them. So she decided to travel across the country with someone she hardly knew. And she remembered discovering that he had cheated on her. The incident was blurry, but the cops were called, and she had bruises on her cheek.

Another cut came to her body, this time to her back, sending her tumbling over. But she didn't want to look away. She had to see everything. Her pain. Her disgust with herself. She was homeless and family-less, her pride too thick to reconvene with her parents. She was her own woman after all. She could make it. Even if she was stuck out in a homeless shelter. Even when that homeless shelter was burned down by some affluent passersby. Another cut.

"Why not become an EMT?" a stranger in the hospital said as she recovered from her burns.

"You're too pretty to be homeless. But I hear you can take some classes and do some good in the world." Another cut. She looked at the broken children. The destroyed homes. The people getting away with literal murder. It made her angry, depressed, anxious. It destroyed her very way of life. Her way of thought. She couldn't do anything. She was so helpless that she thought she desperately needed to help someone purely for the sake of helping them. And yet at every turn was a wall she could not get through.

Eventually, they all closed in on her, leaving her in a wonderless pit, reaching out for help that she knew wouldn't come. Her arms, her body. They were covered in blood and gashes. But she felt numb to them. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"What's the point? There's nowhere left to go… Just give up, Ellie. The world has no place for you."

"Miss, may I ask what you're doing here? I don't suppose I need to tell you what's wrong with breaking into a church." I… I'm sorry. I just… felt like I needed some answers." Arthur sat next to her.

"Oftentimes, I feel the same. I rarely find them here. Sometimes, though, I find it's easier deciding which questions actually need answering." The cut slowly started to cut over the skin of her neck, inching slowly to the apple of her throat. But then it stopped.

"You're someone special to me."

"You hardly know me. I'm nothing special to anyone."

"Neither am I. But I think you're the only one who sees that."

"No," Ellie said.

"I don't want to be alone." She cried towards the disembodied voice, unable to understand why they weren't here with her. Then a child appeared before her.

"It's okay to die. That's why you came to the church, right… If Arthur hadn't found you. You wouldn't be here anymore anyway. You weren't strong enough… so you played an act. Making people think you were happy. But it's okay. It's over now." The girl's face was something she didn't recognize, covered in red, oily disdain. She held a knife in her hand, and then she smiled and shot straight for Ellie's throat. The face then morphed into Chosa's vile scythe. And then Ellie wondered what it would really be like to die.

She wondered if she ever believed what she learned in church. What did it ever mean to her? Was it real or just a stalling tactic?

"I think you have me mistaken. I haven't saved anyone."

"You saved me. I know you don't understand it now. But I know you. I need you on my team because I know no matter how much I get sucked in. How much I have to change myself. You'll be there to bring me back down." T'balt smiled. And Ellie's eyes glowed red. She caught the scythe between her fingers, healing the wound almost as soon as it formed. Though she couldn't see. She couldn't hear. She was still in the dreamscape, but she knew it was only a waking dream.

Her real body was still out there fighting, and as long as she could help it, she wasn't going to die. Not if he was still out there.

"The world doesn't get to dictate who I am anymore." In her head, she was being charged by multiple Chosa's on all sides. She closed her eyes, drawing the holy light within her body. Multiple holy bows appeared on all sides of her. Each one loosed and disintegrated her attackers, who turned to black shadow. With her hypersensitivity, she could feel the outside world. Like an extension of herself while she was caught in this hypnosis.

She could feel the wind on her skin, the ground beneath her feet, the vibrations of the scythe's approach, and her body moved on its own. She'd been fighting to get to him all this time. Ever since he arrived on the church's doorstep with the boy that she had failed to save. He was fighting to save them all. He was the only one to show her how special she was, gifting her with the power to change lives. Making her feel chosen by a divine force. But the more she thought, the more she knew she was chosen by him.

He who was just as lonely as she. He who had asked her to save him from his nightmares. He who had given her purpose. And every day she would try to break through that iron shell cast around him, only for the shell to grow and get further away. She ran in space, hoping she could only touch him. She could reach for him, stretch her arms until they were long enough to reach the moon, and grab his hand as they reached for the stars.

And if she needed, she would carry him back down to earth with the warmth of her hands. She was broken out of the dream. Her eyes were closed, and Chosa had been shot with a holy bow from the sky. It no longer had to be held in her hand. That was the limitation she put on herself. Limitations she was done with. The world didn't make sense, but the world didn't matter anymore. It was she who had to make of the world what she wanted of it.

It was up to her to make the rules, and she knew that she was going to survive.

"How are you still moving?" Chosa held the burning wound in the right side of her chest. And Ellie opened her eyes, bleeding, red, and glowing. Chosa pulled the scythe, scraping the ground with that high-pitched screaming. This time, Ellie would let her ears bleed. And three holy bows appeared to launch a volley of arrows in Chosa's direction. Chosa leaped to the skies to dodge, inadvertently making the scythe scrape more. She formed the hand sign again. The sign for her hypnosis loot.

Ellie closed her eyes not to be put in that state again. Using her senses to find her in the air and loose. But Chosa managed to dodge this time, specifically forcing the scythe into another metal surface. The pain and disorientation were still unbearable. But she knew she wasn't winning this fight without her hypersensitivity. If she opened her eyes, she was at the mercy of another hypnosis, and if she couldn't see, she couldn't fight without the hypersensitivity.

She tried to fight through the noise, eyes still closed. Then the blade pierced her stomach, launching clean through the other side. She screamed, letting the pain make her eyes rain. But that was fine. Pain was just a piece of it. She needed it. Chosa tried to pull the chain back, but Ellie latched onto it. She pulled it towards her and backed into the closest surface she could, which she remembered was the side of a metal trolley car.

"What is she…" Chosa couldn't overpower her grip, but she was too far away for Ellie to do anything with the chain. Then she heard the loudest screech of metal on metal, coupled with an invigorated scream. The noise even made her ears buckle as she covered them. Ellie had dragged the end of the scythe, the end that was currently coming out of her back, and made the most deafening noise possible. The noise made her feel like her head was exploding, but she kept her loot activated throughout it all.

Until the entire world went silent. All that was left was a faint ringing in her head. None of the white noise. None of the distractions. She could only listen to her thoughts and her breathing. She yanked the scythe out of herself, working quickly to heal the wound. She could see Chosa's mouth moving from atop the cars in front of her, but she couldn't hear a thing. She was completely deaf.

"This world isn't over." She summoned more holy bows. Five this time. The arrows launched. One where Chosa was, another where Chosa was jumping, and three where she would land. She was caught by one in the leg while flying through the air. She swung her scythe, and Ellie, with eyes closed, was able to duck it completely, feeling the vibration of it cutting through the air. The wind altered its course, making it reverse. This time, she leaped over it.

Chosa landed in her space and grabbed the scythe like a sickle, trying to claw it at her. She was still far quicker than Ellie. Every two swings or so, she would catch an arm or nick her face. But with the right amount of focus, any wound was a non-issue, healed in less than a few seconds. Chosa was now the one on the back foot. A bow appeared behind her, stabbing her in the back.

"What the hell… You bitch." But of course, Ellie didn't hear. Chosa came at her again, but she summoned a larger bow, grabbing it like a staff. She blocked Chosa's many attacks, healing the ones she couldn't. Ellie parried, knocking Chosa to the ground. Though the woman's wind caught her off guard. It launched her into the air, significantly limiting her senses with the quick motion. Instead of using the scythe, Chosa created a wind stream that flung Ellie straight back to the ground.

She felt the ground hit the back of her lungs, but she was back on her feet in an instant. Chosa was on her, attacking with wild fury, using her body to tackle Ellie to the ground. Once on top of her, she drove the scythe straight into her hand. Ellie ignored the pain, and the holy bow appeared behind Chosa, shooting her twice in the back. Ellie ripped the blade from her hand and then flipped the script, mounting on top of her. Chosa fought back. She slipped her arm away to throw the blade of her weapon.

Ellie commanded the holy bows to loose on her, but the scythe flung around, and before she could react, Chosa had grabbed her by the arms. The scythe pierced straight through her. Right next to her spine and out of Ellie's chest. She was too shocked to even cough up the blood circulating in her lungs. The red that came through her chest splattered onto Chosa's cheeks. Ellie keeled over on top of her, letting her forehead smack on the concrete. Chosa flashed a bloody grin, realizing her sudden victory.

But when she tried to move the body off the top of her, it didn't budge. Instead, she saw Ellie healing the wound even as the scythe was still inside her, closing it around the sharp, ghostly blade. Then she reared back up as ten golden arrows barraged them both in rapid succession. Both of their yells could be heard for a mile. But in the end, it was Ellie who was still conscious. Though barely, for her body had a resistance to holy light. A product of being in possession of some of herself.

That's why Monan couldn't kill her. She struggled to breathe, feeling the scythe disappear from her body. It was the only thing holding her lungs closed. She fell over. Her chest rose and fell, and her eyes turned blue again. She put a hand over her chest, trying to calm her breathing and close her wound as well as she could. The adrenaline was worn, and her focus was waning. But she just had to survive. A little longer. All she needed was a little longer. Just to see him again.

She lay for a while, letting the natural healing do its work, and slowly her breathing returned to normal. She hobbled to her feet. She had to make it back to Acelin and Cannon. They would need her by now. But her sense of direction was limited. She had to activate her senses. When she did, she noticed she wasn't the only one moving. Chosa was still supine, body stuck stone by lack of function, but her lips were stirring. They were saying things that Ellie couldn't hear.

She struggled to read the lips as she wasn't trained to do so. But she could see the girl was crying. Though they were enemies, there was a strong part of Ellie that didn't want to let anyone die if she could help it. So she knelt down next to the dying woman, letting her healing glow overtake her hands. As Chosa's wounds began to close, she moved her hand to her neck, and the murmuring in her lips solidified into something more readable.

Ellie squinted closer, desperate to interpret what were perhaps the woman's final words.

"I'm… not… a… prop." And then the air around them for 100 yards began to burn, and what was left of their senses turned to fire.