BLOODY LOVE'S
Episode 246's

The fear gripped Jose when he realized that his body was not floating. Even though he swam and swam, the surface of the water felt even farther and he drowned deeper.

My name is Jose, he thought strongly while gripping his talisman firmly. The pressure of the water urged him, making his chest hurt so that his lungs forced him to catch his breath. Air bubbles came out of his mouth and nose, replaced by piercing cold water.

My name is Jose Argent. I came to make an offer. Don't forget that, Jose. Don't forget your own name!

The next moment opened his eyes, Jose found him in an all-white room. Everything was so white that he did not know whether he was floating or on land. This was a place he knew, a place he had been to before. The border between the living and the dead.

Jose knew he was almost dead. There is a reason why the Bjork River is sacred. It used to be that the gray bodies were carried out to sea through the Bjork River. The path just now is indeed a river crossing the afterlife as in legend. Not just Bjork. Even the Greeks and Japanese also have a mythology about the river crossing, although the shape is different from the one he has been through. All of those stories are true, Jose thought. His whole body was still trembling. Or is it adapted to the dead?

Whatever it was, there was one that Jose knew clearly: had he not immediately remembered his name and purpose of crossing over, he would have been completely dead by now.

Jose rubbed his face with both hands, trying to organize his thoughts. The room was so quiet that she could hear every breath of hers clearly, hear the flow of her blood, hear the deterioration of the cloth she was wearing. Her clothes were dry, and so was her skin and hair. There was no sign of him ever drowning. But the talisman necklace he had previously held had disappeared. He's been looking in the pockets of coats, suits, and pants. The necklace disappeared.

"You managed to cross again" said a voice.

Jose turned around quickly, buying in shock when he saw Rolan. The man looked rowdy and the last time he saw him. "Uncle?" whispered slowly.

"You shouldn't have crossed over here, Jose," Rolan said curtly as he stepped closer. "Me and Marco have even made an agreement that we will prevent you if you try to heal our wounds! Your gift is a double-edged sword! You know the law of exchange, right?!"

Jose turned his head in alarm. "You .. Is it Uncle?"

"Who else?" Rolan yelling. His voice echoed in the distance, making the man shudder in horror.

"Why is Uncle here?"

"Where do I know? As soon as I opened my eyes I was here. I was circling but everything was the same, then I met with ..." Rolan stopped, looking troubled. Both of his hands moved around hugging themselves, rubbing their arms as if they were cold.

"Other Uncle's self?" guess Jose, recalling his own experience.

His uncle snapped a finger and nodded. "Listen, I know where we are. I know what's going on." Both of his hands were stretched out. "I know a lot of things. You want to know what else I know?"

"What?" jose asked, got carried away.

Rolan's brown eyes flashed with rage. His fingers pointed forward. "You want to take me and the others back! No way, Jose. We've crossed over! We are not in the world anymore! You can't just go in and out of the world of the dead!"

Jose shook his head, brushed off his uncle's index finger. "I can't, '" he said. "I didn't sacrifice anything to cross. Sir William's Solomon's necklace that costs."

Rolan laughing. "Where's the necklace?"

"There's nothing on me, so the payment should have been accepted" said Jose coldly. He circled his gaze around, wondering for himself if they would meet the others here, on the border between the dead and the living. "At first, it wasn't all our fault. We're all—even Sir William, just a victim. The system's intervention is done by the devil using humans, but the power that interfered with Bjork is definitely not the power of Sir William. That's Shakran's power!"

"Shakran?"

Jose nodded. "Guru's name. Shakran means deceiver in Hebrew. The multi-headed demon said that he was another form of Shakran. When I cast out Shakran, all the demons of hell were wiped out." His eyes stared into the distance. "Sir William is gone too."

Rolan took a deep breath. "But you know that in this world all things are bound to the rules of the existing system. Man cannot come back from death. Who do you want to bring back? Marco?"

"Everything, Uncle." There was no doubt in Jose's tone of voice. "Everything. I want Krips, Higgins, Jack, Gladys, all of you, as well as people who die dry or are made into golems or undead. Anyway all those devil victims from the beginning!"

"If Marco was pride, you must be greedy" lapsed Rolan. The man looked pessimistic. "We both know how the law of equal exchange is. You only have one life to trade."

"I won't trade with my life" Jose replied calmly. "And there is another thing equal to so many human lives."

"What?"

"It." Jose pointed at his chest with a thumb.

"What's? Your coat? It cost at least ten pieces of silver!"

Jose rolled his eyes. "My country. I will restore all the divine knowledge bestowed upon me by the Powerful One. I want to trade it for everyone's life according to their initial life line."

Both of them were silent for a moment. There was only the sound of their breathing within that vast white room. Both Rolan and Jose are just tiny black spots in the middle of the white universe.

"That's crazy" his uncle commented flatly.

Jose smiled confidently. "It can definitely be done. That's worth. After all, this gift is a very big thing. Time is not more precious than the lives of a few human beings? It's impossible."

"You're trying to cheat God." Rolan frowned his nose, his eyes staring around with concern as if afraid of anyone hearing their conversation. "That's not polite."

"I'm not cheating. It's still on the path of equal exchange."

"Although successful, it means that you will not be able to heal others anymore, Jose," Rolan whispered. "If your loved ones get hurt, you can't heal them."

"I'll keep them from getting hurt then."

"You can't purify a dead creature or work a miracle. The mysteries of heaven will be forgotten by you. You're just gonna be a human being."

"I was just a human being" Jose said. "And I don't mind being ordinary anymore. All problems will be dealt with as I should. God will not turn away from His suffering servant, I am sure of that."

Rolan smiled faintly at Jose's conviction. He sighed. "It just can't be everything, Argent."

Jose widened both his eyes. That was not his uncle's voice. He took a step back as soon as he realized that what he had been talking to since then was not Rolan.

Around him suddenly appeared many fibers of yarn and also giant chains whose eyes were broken. The chain spies slowly recovered in the rattling and rustling sounds of metal.

Rolan had already vanished into white spots in the air.

"Can't be all."

***

The night turned into morning. Maria dreams of being in a masquerade party, a festive and strange party. But no one asked her to dance, it irritated her a little. Maria pressed her back against the wall, staring at all the dancing mates cheerfully in the dance area. A while later everyone stopped dancing and immediately disbanded, returning home laughing and joking. Mary looked at the people in wonder. "The party's over?" said wonder.

A fiancee? Maria turned her head, shrieking slightly as the ornamental masked girl suddenly hugged her tightly. "Goodbye, Maria."

He wakes up and finds everything looking blurry. Someone screeched and pulled his hand, squeezing it gently. Maria looked over, her eyes slowly returning to focus. That's his mother, Winona Garnet.

"You're making us anxious!" exclaimed the woman with a mixed tone of relief.

Maria frowned, slowly waking up leaning on her elbow. His left chest is still painful. He was in the caravan, sleeping covered in a thick wool blanket on one of the folding beds attached to the wall. Beside him were Winona, Renata, Susan, and Albert Garnet.

"We thought you were really hurt" Renata said slowly.

"Sorry," muttered Maria automatically, still confused. He rubbed his neck restlessly. Everything felt blurred in his head. He felt free. He felt relieved, as if there was a bond being broken from his body. Arabella is gone. That realization came along with memories of what had just happened and what Renata had just said. He looked at the people in the caravan with guilt. "The bullet that Uncle Marco used has been modified," he explained rather faltered. "The bullet won't even be able to kill children. Just in case, I've been wearing a corset with metal planting." His hand touched the red stain on his chest. "This blood is artificial blood. Susan put pigeon blood in a skin bag and I put it on my chest for a dramatic effect. It was just to distract Sir William."

"We know that!" furious Albert. "Susan said it. But you never told us that you would do such a dangerous thing! You didn't tell your parents anything!"

Maria apologized again. "What's going on outside?" whispered worried. "Did the plan work? Where's Jose? Uncle Marco?"

No one answered. Now the bowed Renata trembled. Mary turned to Susan, looking at her lady with an imploring look. "Everything's okay, right, Sue? Please?"

Before Susan could open her mouth, the caravan door slammed open. Edgar slid in and approached Renata, grabbing the woman's hand. "Follow me now!" shouts rush.

Renata got up quickly. Face's tense. "What's? What's up?"

"They found something!" Edgar announced with a wide smile and a blushing happy face. "Greyland's mouth is asking us to the river! Now that many people are gathered there, I myself have not seen because I want to pick you up first. Come on!"

"Jose?" Renata nodded happily. He swung his hand at everyone in the caravan. "Let's come!"

Mary wastes no time. He immediately stood up and ran after the Argent couple who had run first to the grass field.

***

The first thing Greyland did was to have his men pull Tin Lizzie from the river. Then his army was scattered to find out if Jose drifted away. The people around her helped her too. They all made torches, took lanterns, carried ropes and threw themselves into the river in search of Jose.

Lady Chantall sat hugging her knees by the river, looking at all of it with her body covered in a big thick towel. Beside him, Nolan also sat cross-legged on the ground.

"I saw my father earlier" whispered the girl. His voice is a bit hoarse. "I mean spirit. He's helping Jose."

"I'm so sorry" replied Lady Chantall sincerely.

"Don't. I'm not grieving" Nolan said calmly. "I'm glad I finally got to see Papa. Even if it's just a ghost."

Tears rolled down from Lady Chantall's eyelids. "I also want to meet someone" he said, tightening his arms around his legs. "Even if it's just a ghost, it doesn't matter."

As soon as the last sentence slid from his lips, air bubbles broke on the surface of the river in front of them, splashing water everywhere. Nolan screeched in shock, but Lady Chantall fell silent. His eyes widened. Her lips passed every little thing.

"Greyland!" it was loud, calling. He stood up and waved. The towel on his shoulder fell to the ground.

Greyland immediately ran over to his partner. "What sound was that?" the tanyanya so up.

"I see a human! I mean, there's a human at the bottom there, still alive!" Lady Chantall said as she pointed at the river in a somewhat panic. "That must be Jose!"

Greyland had already told his men to dive in this area earlier, no one had found anything there other than mud and water plants. But he never doubted his partner. Some people immediately he told to jump once again to find.

No one disputes. No one protested. No one refused on the grounds that they had already conducted a search there. The Greylanders were trained to do what their master commanded with absolute obedience. His army chief chooses people. In a moment, ten men had already undressed to plunge into the cold Bjork River. The rope is prepared to hold no one carried by the current.

Now at three in the morning, the moon is getting smaller, but the lighting is quite clear because many torches and lanterns are carried by the crowd who want to see what the findings are. Greyland has sent someone to call Edgar.

The dive team was ready to plunge when again air bubbles emerged from the bottom of the river and broke when it reached the surface. Now the bubble is not just one but many, small and large, as if the ground is scattered on the riverbed and the earth's vents are open.

"Retreat! Back off!" greyland exclaimed in alarm, worried that the bubble was a bad sign of another attack.

Lady Chantall will not back down. He came closer, looking at the river with curious eyes. His heart is beating fast. He hopes Jose is safe. That was all he expected. At least he wanted to fulfill Marco's last request to work with the young man.

"Milady, back!" Greyland approached the woman and pulled her arm when she saw the bubbles growing more and more and expanding into many places. Everything broke once it reached the surface. "Please! This can be dangerous! There might be an explosion!"

Along with the completion of Greyland's sentence, something popped up onto the surface of the river in a loud splashing sound. Something a lot.

There were dozens, dozens, Greyland gawked as he saw more and more heads emerging from the surface of the river. All human heads are alive. They all coughed, dabbling noisily as they swam across the river.

"Gerald!" he was shocked when he saw one of the familiar faces. He reached out to help the man rise to the surface of the dry land. "What are you doing there?"

"May .. mai lod ..." Gerald gasped, coughed, spewing out the river water. Water dripped from all over his body like wet laundry. The man seemed confused as he tried to speak. "Inif dhi manna ...? Thuan Hose?"

Greyland frowned not understanding. He has not yet given an explanation. Gerald. A doctor was called to check on her. One by one people emerged from the river and were raised up, all in the same condition as Gerald: confused and speechless, most thinking that they were still in the war last night.

Following Gerald and the Argent workers, another bubble appears and Clearwater and Marsh's men sparkle from the river. Their two masters: Lucas Clearwater and Adrian Marsh, also Rolan, were found drifting some distance from the bridge. All three were unconscious, water in, but were still breathing and could be saved.

"It's really crazy!" greyland exclaimed, watching over his soldiers who were cooperating with the residents to lure dozens of people who kept popping up from the river like salmon. "It doesn't make any sense at all! They emerged from the river! From where? There was nothing there!"

"We face demons and the undead" Lady Chantall recalled. "You're still bothered by something that doesn't make sense?"

"Well ..unlike you guys, I've been facing real people since yesterday."

Lady Chantall laughed weakly. He gripped Greyland's arm tightly. Her green eyes are wet. "I can hope, Jon?" whispered, a little sobbing. "Say I can hope ..."

Jonathan Greyland nodded understandingly. The back of the woman's hand. "I'm expecting the same thing with you, Chantall."

When another bubble burst on the surface of the river and they both saw who had appeared while coughing, Lady Chantall did not wait long. He immediately ran into the river without a second thought.

***