I Only Want To Kill-Chapter 152: John the Soldier

"So... What’s with the outfit?" Lucia says.

She and Blaze are walking in the woods, under the gentle death sunlight of the clouded sun. They’re heading toward John, the man who has the key to the Undercity.

"Argh! My clothes burnt off when I got here. This is the only thing that I had."

"So you’re naked under there?"

"...Yes."

"Wow! Wizards really are freaky."

Blaze stretches his eyebrows under the mask. This attitude is so familiar to him. He was very annoyed at Alyson in the beginning of their relationship also. She was very talkative, exactly like this.

"Are you sure you’re not my friend? You talk exactly like her?"

"Now. Don’t use this trick again, alright? I am not easily fooled by your manipulation."

"It’s not manipulation. It’s the truth. Her name is Alyson Aldrin. She is a very close friend of mine."

"Close friend, huh? How close?"

"Well. I don’t know that yet. She likes me. But I am in debt to her too. I intend to answer her feelings as well."

"So you don’t like her?"

"I like her. She was a good friend. She believed in me when no one else did. And I saved her too. Out of the mouth of bad people."

"It sounds to me you have already repaid your debt."

"It’s not that simple. She really likes me. Even when I was a nobody, she already liked me. She was always there. I... I can’t just deny her love."

"I don’t know about you. But if the one I love only stays with me because of responsibility, I won’t feel happy. You must have that love as well. Or else it’s just fake."

"Why does a commander like you know so much about love?"

"I like someone, too, wizard. But we can’t be together. He has his responsibility, and I have mine. It is my dream that we can share our lives together. But it is not meant to be."

"Why? If you like him, you should be with him."

"I can’t. He is the greatest enemy of our Holy Church."

"..."

The conversation stays silent from then on. Blaze doesn’t understand it, but he feels kind of jealous in his heart. It is clear that Lucia is not Alyson, but they are exactly the same. And when she says she loves someone else, Blaze feels like he wants to find that guy and kill him off.

He feels a compulsive obsession that he doesn’t even understand yet.

The topic is also very sensitive, so Blaze does not dare to intrude further. He must remember that the woman here isn’t Alyson. It is Lucia De la Croix, a commander of a battalion.

They reach the location after a few hours. The day here does not change, and it stays exactly the same, but Blaze can estimate it must have reached the afternoon already. Night should come very soon.

The location that Cavanaugh gave him is a campsite. There are many tents lying around with a big campfire in the middle. Sitting close to the campfire is a soldier in a green uniform. He wears the hardened, smooth helmet of a soldier and holds a rifle in his arms.

Blaze and Lucia share a look, and they approach the man carefully.

John raises his rifle and aims at them.

"Stop right there! State your business!"

"We come in peace! Cavanaugh told us to get here to get the key to the Undercity!"

"Cavanaugh? Do you have any proof?"

"Is this map sufficient?"

Blaze takes out a map from under his shadowy cloak. The new map that the Trader gave him this morning.

"Throw it over here!" 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Blaze follows his request and throws the map. The wind blows it to the opposite direction, but then John flicks his finger. The map freezes in midair with a green glow around it. Then it flies toward him.

"Hmm. This is a map of the Trader. It seems like you have met him before."

John finally lowers his rifle and sits down at the campfire again.

"Come! Sit with me!"

Blaze and Lucia relax. They sit down beside John, each on one side of him.

John pulls out a pack of cigarettes and takes one out.

"Any of you smoke?"

Blaze and Lucia shake their heads.

"Pity." John pulls out a box of matchsticks. Blaze recognizes the box immediately, the same one with a grave image on its surface. John opens the box to see nothing is left inside. "Argh! I’m running out again. It just isn’t the same without the fire from the Underworld."

"I think I can help you with that."

Blaze pulls out the same matchstick box and throws it over for John to catch it. He is visibly surprised.

"Where did you find this? I haven’t been able to find any more around. Whoo! It even has more than twenty matchsticks. This is a catch."

"If you like it, you can keep it."

"I’m not accepting anything for free. I have some supplies in the back. Check if you want to take anything."

"We’ll check it later."

John lights up the cigarette and takes a huge puff. The cigarette has a blood-red fire, very different from the usual yellow fire.

John has a very old face. He is at least in his fifties based on his wrinkles. But with one puff, his face turns younger, now looking like a young man in his twenties.

"That’s a good one. This matchstick is so new! It must have been taken from the Underworld in less than a month. How did you get it?"

"Ah... I have my sources."

"Here. For your trouble as well. This does not count toward our trade later. Consider it a gift from me." John gives Blaze a fresh pack of cigarettes that hasn’t even been opened yet.

"I don’t smoke..."

"Neither do I, ha ha! It’s a special kind of item. Its smoke can restore your soul. It works best with Underworld matchsticks."

"Oh? Then it would be too arrogant for me to refuse. Thanks."

"No problem. So... You’re here for the key. Do you guys know what will be waiting for you in the Undercity?"

Blaze and Lucia shake their heads.

"You know time works differently here, right?"

"To an extent, yeah. I have heard about people trapped in the Dream Layers for years, but in the real world it was only a few days."

"Real world? Pfftt! This world is as real as any world. The only difference is it is a soul land."

"Here?" Lucia jerks back, visibly surprised. "This place is a soul land?"

"What is a soul land? You know about it?" Blaze says.

"Soul Land is a realm that only souls can enter and only souls can leave. It has a natural protective barrier that prevents any physical travel." Lucia says. "Does this mean that I am in my spectral form right now? No wonder I feel so much weaker."

Lucia looks at her hand, examining it closely.

"That’s right. But not for this guy." John points at Blaze. "He’s a Daywalker. He comes here with his body. I can sense it."

"You aren’t just an ordinary wizard, are you? Only gods and demigods can bend the rules of the realms." Lucia says.

Blaze rolls his eyes, having no intention of answering. Technically, he is a god. But he has no powers of a god at all, only Awakened power.

"Holy Alexander... You are a god..." Lucia covers her mouth.

"I’m not. I just have a very specific ritual that can also bend the rules of the realms. A ritual with heavy consequences."

"Ahh. I see." Lucia nods, seemingly accepting his answer.

John, on the other hand, squints his eyes lightly. He knows Blaze is lying, but he has no intention of exposing it.

"Cavanaugh must have told you that you need to complete one of my tasks to get the key, yeah? I need you to kill something. There is a very powerful Wretched south of here. It is a wolf-like Wretched with very powerful abilities. It is not a Calamity yet but a very high-ranked Crisis.

It has expanded its territory a lot lately. If it reaches my camp, I have to move away. But I don’t want to. So kill it for me."

John takes out a necklace from inside his shirt, on it is a rusty old key.

"Once you kill it, I’ll know. Then I will give you this key."

On the key, a number is carved on it. ’1008’.

"What is the meaning of that number?" Blaze points at it and says.

"Very simple. This is the 1008th key. I gave away 1007 keys before."

"More than a thousand keys? How long have you been here?" Lucia blurts out.

"More than a thousand years... Around that time." John plainly states an unimaginable fact.

"You don’t die?" Blaze asks a stupid question.

"I’m a soul. How can I die? I can only die if my soul deteriorates."

John then taps on the pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket. "But these things help to keep my soul intact. That’s why I survived for so long."

And then. Blaze suddenly realizes something detrimental.