BLOODY LOVE'S
Episode 236's

Jose actually wants to have a one-on-one talk with his remaining workers, especially with Gerald looking still shaken, but there's no time. He could not even bear to ask them to wait in the South with Rolan because he did not want to offend them. He himself also needs a lot of help.

He and Clearwater await Marsh's arrival across the bridge, next to the high walls of the tax office. Rolan watched them from the south of the bridge while the bodyguards were in front, standing guard.

"You didn't say goodbye to Garnet?" clearwater whispers.

Jose shakes. If you look at Mary's face, her entire self-defense will be broken and everyone will see how she feels, seeing the despair she hides. He understands now why his uncle desperately maintains stability in Bjork, insisting on making the public still do not know what really happened. He is also doing it now, pretending that everything is fine in order to keep things under control, so that everyone can survive.

Clearwater watched him with a probing gaze from earlier. "You okay, Jose?"

No, I'm not good. Jose looked straight ahead, towards the darkness of the city that was pressing on him even more. Uncle Marco is no longer there to help and I must remain calm so that others do not despair. We lost a lot of people. If I do something, I die and someone else might as well stay dead. If I shut up, everyone will die.

Something dark and cold raged within his chest, gnawing at him mercilessly as if he wanted to finish him to insignificant little pieces. It took me a long time to realize that it was fear. Fear overcame him, making him want to turn around and take refuge behind the bridge.

But that's impossible, Jose realized. It is taboo for an Argent to escape a challenge. Even though he was not an Argent, Jose knew he would not be able to escape. Prohibited conscience.

I have no regrets, Renata's voice suddenly flashed in his mind, the voice when they were chatting in the guest room after Jose released Xavier. That memory made Jose aware of his shoulder. Whatever happens, he still has to make decisions that will not be regretted later on.

He turned his head, putting on a faint smile as he nodded. "Of course, Luke. I'm doing fine. There's a sound of steps, maybe it's Adie."

"Adie's not walking." Clearwater frowned, flicking a finger as a sign for his guards to prepare.

They were all terrified, Jose thought so looking at the legs and shoulders in front of him trembling. The sound of that step getting louder and louder, faster, faster. Then followed the sound of hunting breath.

"Calm down" Jose said quickly as he realized who the voices belonged to. "That's Hans!"

As he said, Hans did appear. The man was with two other people: Dave and Xavier Hastings. Following their arrival, Adrian Marsh also came with fifteen of his own.

As soon as he saw Jose, Marsh immediately ran in his arms and clapped his back. "I'm so sorry" he said in a wet voice.

Jose nodded. He patted Marsh on the shoulder and took off the hug. "We have plenty of time to grieve after this. After this. Not now."

"Suffering for whom?" Dave approached them in surprise. "Who's dead? By the way, I've made it as you asked, Jose. We met with Hastings on the way and he wanted to help."

Jose turned to Xavier who looked back at him fixedly. The man raised both hands in surrender. "No game, Argent. I really want to help. Even if Leah and I can get out of here, I'll still be haunted by you."

"I won't haunt you" Jose said with a frown. He continued with a smile. "Because we're gonna survive. We have to survive. Everyone, approaching!"

They all gathered in a circle with Jose in the middle. "For the uninitiated, Marquis Argent is dead." He nodded at Hans who glared in shock. "So does half our strength and our army. But," he said a little hard to overcome the paralysis that everyone experienced, "but the struggle is not finished. And we still have help from Lord Greyland. He'll be here any minute."

Nothing looks excited. No one seems sure. Only his friends and workers stared in confidence. It's not a good thing. What will make an army fall is not the number but their moral spirit.

"You must have a plan, don't you, Jose?" ask for a voice. Jose turned around in shock to hear it. That's uncle. Rolans.

"Uncle? I thought Uncle was supposed to be on the other side?"

"I won't prevent anything you do" Rolan promised. He stood beside Clearwater, staring with full determination. "But I want to hear your plan. I have to hear it."

Jose was silent for a moment. There was no time to weigh or argue, so he nodded in agreement. "The plan remains the same: we will force him to come here and drown him in the river. He's looking for Maria, so he might come here. Even so we can't be too sure. He could've pulled Maria, lured her in some way. Though we'd better drown him before the solar eclipse tomorrow. What time is it, Luke? "

Jose nodded. "The sooner he gets here the better. I'll lure him. Your task is only one: attack him while he is near the river."

"He brought the devil, Jose ..." Rolan knew it was not good to refute Jose in front of everyone. Other than being disrespectful, it would hurt Jose's self-esteem. But he had to make his nephew know all the dangers that were coming.

Jose was not bothered by his uncle's objections. He nodded steadily. "I know," he said. "Xavier told me about a good sigil that would help us. And I asked Dave and Hans to make it."

"Sigil?" Rolan turned to Xavier. "You know what about sigil?"

"Know more than you, Doctor," said Xavier. He told Jose what he knew before leaving the Argent manor. It was an eye sign from her, a parting gift. But in the middle of the road he thought again many times and finally decided to help the young man. For the last time, he wanted his life to be useful to someone, he wanted Leah to remember him as someone who fought instead of a man who escaped from war. He no longer wanted to be someone who was just passing by.

"The devil will be my business." Jose closed his eyes and took a deep breath to concentrate, leaving his entire soul in a floating state, trying to reach the trance phase in order to align the frequency of his consciousness with Bjork's. The buzz in his head slowly turned static. Before the sound again moved irregularly, Jose turned towards the river and extended a hand there. Rolan and Clearwater pulled over, giving him the flexibility of gazing into the river of separation. "Domine, adiuva me," whispered Jose quietly.

For a moment. Just for an instant the entire tributary from upstream to downstream glittered in purplish white like a mute lightning. Night turns to day for a second. Then everything turned dark.

"You heard what I did with the living corpses, right?" ask without looking anywhere. His heart beat rhythmically. He heard voices, felt the gazes of many people. Bjork. Their eyes were watching him, hoping for him. He also heard footsteps on the grass. The ones in the caravan were now all out to see what happened. Jose ignored everything and continued, "That's what I'm going to do to the demons there, too. Without his demons, Sir William is just an ordinary man!" He looked around, saw faces of astonishment and amazement, and was horrified. The expression mixed into one, glowing with hope. Demonstration succeeded.

Rolan looked at Jose suspiciously, watching his nephew's condition intently.

"What are we doing now?" The first Marsh broke the silence while his two friends and others were still dumbfounded. His hoarse and feisty voice increasingly put fire on those who heard. "I believe your plan will work, Jose! If not, we'll die trying, not hiding!"

Everyone nodded steadily.

Jose can't say how grateful he is to have a friend like them. "spread. Find out where Sir William is. Tell me exactly where he is and where he's headed. Don't do anything, just tell me where he is. I'll lure him here."

"You heard that, right?" Marsh asked loudly. "Distract the way!"

The bodyguards left Jose, Clearwater, Marsh, Rolan, Dave, and Xavier Hastings waiting on the vacant lot beside the tax office. The sound of the river filling the night.

"You look too calm" Xavier commented short. "Something certain you know?"

I'm not 'calm' . I'm scared too. Jose grabbed his coat and stared around, at the faces so clearly hoping for him. Hope is as heavy as a curse. Jose crossed his arms around his chest to warm himself up.

"The law of exchange is equal" he said calmly. "I'm holding on to that. He's been in Argent's house at least twice. The first one when he came up with his physical body, then ruffled Uncle Marco's study room to look for a necklace. And the second time was Uncle Rolan at Higgins' cottage." He turned his head, looking at the nodding Rolan while shuddering. "But strangely, he doesn't try anymore. He asked Xavier to take the necklace from me." Now he turned to look at Xavier who was tilting his head in wonder.

"Then?" reply Xavier. "What does that mean?"

"I mean, he's limited to doing things. Just like me, doing everything obviously has its price. Maybe the price to pay is his life, maybe his energy. What is clear is that he is the same as us— cannot do something without paying the right reward. In accordance with the first Law of Conservation of Energy, he could only change something from something else that had already existed. Well," Jose took a slow breath. "The "sigil we failed to find was to open the portal of hell. He could make a human into ashes in one look, it was because he borrowed his demonic power. He didn't do that before. He can't. To be able to do so, he must have given a fair reward. That means, the stronger Sir William seems, the weaker he is. We can destroy it."

Rolan nodded in understanding. "But he will recover" he said. "If the reward he gives is his energy, not his life, the energy will recover over time."

"We have to lure him in as soon as possible" Jose said. It will be a match, he thought, whether I was the one who was destroyed first when he provoked him, or he who perished.

He pulled out a pocket watch. It's ten thirty in the night.

***

- Domine, adiuva me: Lord help me. In Latin, God: Deus, but Jose deliberately used Domine: Sir, the same diction that women use in Matthew 15:25.