Wicked Reincarnation

Chapter 167: Attack 8

"Lia?" a word as heavy as a mountain on fragile ice, as delicate as snowflakes carried by the wind, as stinging as tides parting the land.

Her name rolling off his tongue as impactful as stars falling off the sky under the bellowing night. As-

"Lia, it's you right?" an expression confused, gentle and on the verge of breaking down. This wasn't what Lia expected.

Each step Leo trembled to take towards her was met with vigilance, each step he yearned to be closer to her, was averted, the ground pulled off his feet, his head spun upon the realisation.

Why? Why? The tears Leo held back rolled down when he finally accepted that Lia was backing away from him who wished to see if she was real, "Why? Are you avoiding me?"

Two simple questions yet they burned like acid amidst the pool of poison. Everything about Leo, the way he looked at her, his hurt expression, the pain and sadness in his voice, the way he hesitatingly yet determined walked towards her, the way she knew he wanted to touch her, all of it, all of it, ran like a torrent through her skin, vividly etching it underneath her flesh until she couldn't take it.

She also wanted to know. Why? Why? Why was Leo in so much pain? In tears seeing her? Why did it seem like he didn't want to hurt her but instead wanted to hold her in his arms and protect her.

Why? Leo was an enemy. Leo was working with Min. Leo should know what Min did to her and her family. There was no way he was clueless. No way. It was all an act to fool her.

Don't you dare...! Don't you dare!

Anger flared up in Lia's eyes and deviated all of Leo as he saw her hatred towards him.

Don't you dare pretend to be innocent!

Leo was only playing with her. Only fooling her.

"Lia, are you really alive?"

So why did each word he spoke cut down a piece of the dam she formed around her tears? It was absolutely impossible for Leo to be innocent.

But all that Leo wanted was to make sure this wasn't an illusion, that it wasn't a beautiful dream he kept having every night. Seeing Lia, his childhood friend, his first and only love, in flesh and blood before hiim. He couldn't stand it if this was yet another illusion. Tears clouded his vision as he realised Lia wouldn't let him close to her.

He fell to his knees and pleadings flew out of his mouth like a blazing spark striking his own body to keep him sane.

"Please don't leave me, please don't go, please stay with me, Lia."

It was at this moment, Lia could clearly see all the emotions tearing him down, all the anguish in his eyes and she knew-

"Please tell me the truth, why are you still-"

-that indeed Leo didn't know. That indeed he was innocent. That he had nothing to do with hers or her family's death.

Leo. Leo, her first friend, her childhood friend, all of these years, all of these times. If time could be reverted, the first thing Lia would've done was to find him.

Lia stopped in her tracks. She was happy to see that Leo was there for her all along.

When Leo saw that Lia approached him, his eyes lit up and gave him briefly the bright and carefree spirit he once exuded, only for it to be extinguished within seconds as behind him a wave of new soldiers came. They came closer and closer but Leo could only kneel in front of Lia before saying, "Leave!"

Yet behind Lia, another mob came charging at her. Wild panic was mirrored on Leo's face but Lia could only gently smile seeing that he cared for her and never changed.

"Leo," Lia wanted to tell him to meet up and have him help her but another voice interrupted, "Lia! Jump!" in an instant Lia turned around to see Nana flying in the sky, holding her arms out.

"Go," Leo pressured her when Nana flew in a low arc and Lia jumped up and was swept away by Nana out of Leo's sight.

Lia looked behind to see his last silhouette.

"Where are the others?"

"We've all gathered!" Nana flew between the buildings keeping her course low to avoid soldiers seeing them.

"We've all managed to get out," Nana explained as she headed towards a building and they entered through the window. It was a two-store building and one of those that resembled an ancient temple.

"Guys?" Nana's voice faded in the darkness, "I've brought Lia."

Slowly, almost creepily emerging out of the back of the room, three figures came. Susa fell into Lia's arms and muffled out, "You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine."

"If you weren't then-" Mika started off but then stopped, "Doesn't matter," he sat on the ground, "What's our next plan?"

"What about your men? And Xavi's?" Some of them should be still alive, Lia hoped.

"There are on the first floor resting."

"I healed them so they're fine."

Lia remembered her wounds and touched her ear but it already grew back.

"It's simple," Noel spoke up, "We attack while Lia slips into the palace, nothing's gonna change. Bad luck that one of the captains found us be we managed to escape."

"So we just charge? The few of us, into hundreds of soldiers?" Mika raised his eyebrows.

"We only need Lia to get inside, then we can-"

"She'll be obliterated before she even sets foot into the plaza!"

All of a sudden, Noel and Mika started to bicker. They kept their voices down but it was somehow funny to see that in such a tense situation, they were able to spare time to get into an argument.

While they glared and mimicked each other's voice, Lia thought Mika was right. Even Lia thought it was too reckless to just charge into an army of soldiers.

"Let's take over the headquarters."

"What?" all eyes turned to Susa, questioning if she was sane.

"At the moment, if my assumption is right, all the soldiers are outside and none are inside the headquarter. They won't assume we'll be going to the palace from the headquarter and there should be an easy way to traverse between these two. Maria has mentioned it," Susa laid out the possibilities that came to her mind.

"Wow, you're like Xavi 2.0," for some reason Nana's eyes sparkled at Susa's deductions while Susa glanced at Lia for praise. At least she hoped she could help this way.

Although Susa had a vision, the headquarter had nothing to do with it. This was her way of making up or avoiding the future she saw but however, one thing was certain. That was that Lia would succeed.

"However, to get to the headquarters, we have to go via the second layer, after all, headquarter's in the second layer," Lia brought up an issue. Actually, the headquarter was on the border between the first and second layer, right behind the palace.

There are two possibilities, what Susa said was right and there were indeed no soldiers or Susa was mistaken and something worse waited for them there.

"The second layer's just down the street, we're gonna go back and use it to go to the headquarter. The private army thinks we in the first but we uno reverse them," Noel was also proud of his deductions.

"Big brain huh," was the only thing Mika added before everyone agreed. Right now they were at a huge disadvantage. They barely had a plan and just spontaneously went with the flow.

If it weren't for the fact that Lia went to the Mortal World, then this battle wouldn't have broken out. Everything was a mess right now. From the beginning to the end.

When Lia came back here, it was still day but now night was creeping upon them. They decided to rest here for a bit, it had been an exhausting day.

After they talked about the plan, no one said anything anymore. They were too tired. They indulged in silence and watched the moon coming out through the window.

Dust danced in the moonshine and Lia laid against the wall, away for the others. Susa and Nana nestled against Lia, while Mika and Noel sat opposite to them. At this moment, everything felt peaceful. As if nothing has happened and as if they were solely enjoying an adventure at night.

But of course, things wouldn't go smoothly.

Burning flames and crashing sounds shook the building. In an instant, everyone ran towards the windows. The sight outside froze their minds.

"They gotta have someone who can track us with their ability," Noel whispered before pulling away from the windows. It wasn't only soldiers but all the other captains assembled here, walking up and down the street.

Their plan to head to the headquarters now has been destroyed. They had to fight here. There was no way around it.

"This is also good," Mika rubbed his temples, "If they all have come to us, Lia only needs to deal with the soldiers and easily get into the palace."

"I'm not leaving you alone!" Lia was against the idea. What also worried her was that Leo was one of the captains. Was he here to help her or has he really fooled her?

"Nana, take Lia out of here," Susa made a decision without consulting Lia.

"We'll be fine," reassuring Lia, they all gave her a hug. But Lia failed to see the tears in their eyes. Nana took Lia and flew out of the window.

For a while, maybe longer or even forever, Lia watched their figures fade as Nana flew with Lia away, under them the many enemies who took notice of them.

Maybe this was also fate. Another gut-wrenching goodbye.