Absolute Soul
88. Guilt

Salvia who witnessed the action of Haikal defeated the three opponents suddenly broke out in cold sweat and gulped with fear of Haikal. He reflexively hugged his own body.

"That's... Haikal?" Salvia asked herself feeling so astonished to see Haikal unhesitatingly slashing his opponent's limbs. It is not to kill but this is a little scary and disgusting for Salvia who has just seen this kind of thing firsthand.

As Salvia felt nauseous seeing so much blood and the arms of Blackout members separated from her body, Haikal glanced at the girl for a moment. He could see and understand Salvia's reaction.

Haikal then turned his gaze to Heru who was then answered with a slow nod.

Seeing Heru's response, Haikal then called out to Salvia with a forced smile, "Salvia, I'll go first to settle some possible opponents."

"Eh? Wait a minute, Hai—" Not yet had Salvia finished her words, Haikal had already moved out of place and ran a little forward ahead of Salvia, making the girl instantly limp and fall to her knees on the floor.

Salvia was wide-eyed and realized that her legs were drooping weakly as if all her strength had disappeared. He wanted to force his feet to stand up but couldn't, "Why? What's wrong with my leg?"

He tried to stand up as he could, but no matter how hard he tried Salvia always sat back down. Salvia then looked towards the direction Haikal was running to catch up with, but Haikal had already disappeared from his sight.

Salvia then unconsciously shed tears looking at the direction Haikal left, she realized her tears after a few seconds later. Salvia wiped her tears despite not understanding why she was crying.

At that very moment Heru stepped closer and patted her on the shoulder making Salvia a little surprised, "There is no need to cry so, Salvia. Haikal didn't mean anything bad."

Salvia wanted to say something to Heru, but no words in her mind came out, "I know.... Haikal did that to protect me, too."

"But what I did instead of thanking her was that I was afraid of her" said Salvia, sobbing after she calmed down. He could clearly see the sadness behind Haikal's smile and expression before leaving. It made him feel guilty.

Heru nodded slowly to understand Salvia's feelings a little. It was true that this was the first time Heru had seen Haikal swinging a sword without hesitation at cutting down a human, although not to the point of killing, but he himself already knew the reason behind Haikal's sadistic attitude.

"Salvia, maybe you don't know yet, but Haikal has his own reasons why he doesn't hesitate to act that way." Heru patted Salvia on the back while looking at Haikal's direction away, making Salvia curious.

Heru took a deep breath then looked at Salvia, then raised his voice once more, "Haikal has actually long since cast his doubt."

Salvia was wide open for a moment to hear Heru's words but still did not understand where the direction of the conversation was. Heru himself could see the look of astonishment on Salvia's face, he smiled faintly in response.

"Well, the point is if it was for the sake of his loved ones, Haikal would not hesitate to dirty his own hands," Heru said as he helped Salvia up, "He already did not want to lose his precious person again out of doubt."

Heru smiled as widely as possible so that Salvia did not have to worry, but in fact Salvia could see the smile was just a fake smile. He could feel the sadness behind Heru's smile.

Salvia lowered her head staring at the floor recalling her memories with Haikal. He remembered Haikal was a warm figure who easily smiled, much different from the figure of Haikal the last he saw.

Highlights Haikal's eyes and voice sounded so cold when faced with the three Blackout members some time ago. This Haikal figure is far from the Haikal that has been known to Salvia.

"Heru, can you tell me about Haikal's past?" Salvia asked without lifting her face, making Heru's forehead slightly furrowed.

Heru's unanswered silence made Salvia look up at the young man with teary eyes, "I want to know Haikal more, understand Haikal's feelings more, and so on."

Hearing that Heru was struck by worry. He wants to obey Salvia's request as one of the people who are valuable to his friend, but on the other hand Heru feels he has no right to tell the past Haikal.

In the end Heru let out a long sigh before raising his voice, "I can't tell you the whole thing, if you mean it then you can ask Haikal himself after this battle."

"Salvia, as the Blazer candidate of the high-ranking Blazer family you must have known about three years ago, the incident of a group of children playing out a wall, right?" Heru shrank his voice until it could only be heard by Salvia.

"A group of kids playing out the wall?" Salvia tried to recall the incident that Heru mentioned for a while before her eyes widened when she remembered it, "Don't...."

Heru nodded softly confirming Salvia's guess, "Right, that group of children was me, Haikal, Verna, and another."

Heru then recounted the incident two years ago to Salvia. He did not explain much, Heru just said that Haikal's attitude looks cold and heartless just now had something to do with the incident.

It is true that Salvia is very dissatisfied with the story of Heru which is not very clear, but he could guess what happened seeing Heru's face that looked pale and resisted the nausea and Haikal's attitude that felt so cold before.

Seeing Heru's pale face, Salvia immediately told her to rest on top of her Snow Cloud. Currently Heru's condition could be said to be lacking blood due to fighting against several Blackout members at once, so Salvia was worried that Heru's condition was worsening due to forcing herself to tell stories.

"I'm sorry to ask you to tell me when your condition is quite severe" Salvia said, apologizing for feeling guilty.

"Ah, I'm like this because given the incident, not too limp lack of blood," Heru replied not wanting to make Salvia worry more than this.

Heru's words in fact not too effective to calm Salvia, the girl actually felt bad to know the past Haikal and Heru completely different from her shadow.

Heru could see Salvia's reaction and instantly felt better then smiled slightly as he muttered inwardly, "It seems that you will have quite a troublesome responsibility, Haikal."

After feeling better, Salvia and Heru walked quickly down the hallway following Haikal. Not to forget during the trip Salvia wrapped Heru's body with snow reduces bleeding and bruises suffered by Heru.

As far as they went down the aisle neither of them met the enemy once, neither Verg nor Blazer Blackout, instead they found some lifeless Verg bodies and some humans lying on the floor without awareness.

"Haikal did all this?" Salvia raised her eyebrows seeing all of it was unable to believe that Haikal defeated them in such a short period of time. Different from before, this time none of the Blackout Blazers had lost any limbs.

Perhaps because of knowing Salvia's disturbed reaction to the limbs not being in the right place, Haikal defeated them all with a mere blow.

Heru also wanted to comment but held back as his current condition did not allow him to speak any further. The look on his face was so pale now thanks to the loss of a lot of blood.

Luckily it did not take long for them to see the door of the first-class building that they were aiming for. Both Salvia and Heru found some official Blazers guarding the door.

The two Blazers soon came to Salvia and Heru soon learned of their second coming, "Miss Salvia, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but Heru needs medical attention as soon as possible," said Salvia handed Heru to one of them who then his request was immediately obeyed.

One of the official Blazers then questioned Salvia's state in detail as if he did not want the silver-haired girl to be injured in a single scratch, making Salvia smile wryly. He could guess this Blazer was asked by Veindal to ensure Salvia's safety.

"By the way, where's Haikal? He should have gotten there earlier than us." Salvia turned to and fro examining the figure of Haikal but did not find the whereabouts of the young man.

The blazer said that Haikal was resting inside the building and asked that Salvia also come in, "Please let the lady rest inside. This place let us take care of."

"Well, if so." Salvia did not reject Blazer's offer and stepped inside the building, but as soon as she opened the door her eyes widened to see a sight she did not expect.