(Jane"s PoV)"Are you okay?" Siji"s voice had me cracked open my eyes. He was the one that cus.h.i.+oning my fall. He must have solidified his body in purpose to save me.
"I"m good." I inhaled sharply as the pain from before stung my body.
Putting my body on the floor, Siji stood up and blocked me from the man"s view. Without seeing it, I knew that his expression hardened as his body went full alert.
"You again." He hissed.
I propped myself up to see the man was smirking with eyes full of madness.
"Siji, Siji, Siji. We meet again." His grinned turned even wider and creepier. His handsome face contorted into madness.
"Get lost!" Siji barked loudly. As he said so, the men from the army appeared and filled my house, ready to attack.
"You know I"ll come back." The man said while licking his lips. His tongue looked inhuman. In that particular moment, I felt like I saw a... devil.
"Your current Master is so weak. I"ll play with her to her death. Hahahahaha..." The way he laughed was like a maniac, it sent s.h.i.+vers down my spine. And I could hear the seriousness in his voice, that he would play with me until I died.
A powerful figure like him said that he wanted to kill me... tell me, how should I react?
My mind was screaming at me, that there was no way I could protect myself if he wanted me to die. My whole body trembled slightly as fear consumed me.
What should I do? Why did this maniac want to kill me?
"Scram!" Siji shouted as his fingers let out blue fire which was being shot towards the man. At the same time, the men rushed to attack him in all directions.
Technically, there was no way he could dodge. Even shadows couldn"t escape from this full siege mode. But, he was gone.
The men scrambled to check on every corners of the house, to find him. Meanwhile, I was stunned in place, my eyes was blankly staring at empty s.p.a.ce.
"Milady, are you okay?" Siji"s voice pulled me back to my senses as my eyes met his worried gaze.
"I think I am." I answered softly.
Siji tugged me slightly towards the chair and let me sit down. He was still in his solid form, and thinking about it now, I am amazed with how much power he has inside to be able to maintain his solid form for a long time.
He could even maintain it for a week, if he wanted it. Of course, later I found out why.
"Drink first." Out of nowhere he put a gla.s.s of water in front of me.
I inhaled softly and reached out to the gla.s.s. I noticed my hands were still trembling, but after gulping down the water, I could feel my nerves relaxed and the trembling lessened.
"I"m sorry, I should have known he would come and find you." Siji started.
I put the gla.s.s down on the table and looked at him. He had returned to his soul form and he had a guilty expression in his face.
"Who is he?" I still had not had the answer, d.a.m.n that man! "Is he a soul?"
Siji shooked his head. "He is not a soul. He was not originally a human. We don"t know his name. He has no name. Don"t be tricked by his appearance, he can change his appearance to anything, anyone, any age. He is what we call... the devil; the negative being that has been living in this Earth far before the humans. We can"t kill him. We can only lock him up for a while. It"s useless to lock him up, anyway, since his kind is more than us. But, this one is particularly interested in White Army. It has been bothering us ever since the First Master was alive. But, there were times he didn"t appear at all. Up until now, we still don"t know his motive."
I frowned. "Did he kill the previous masters? The ones that he chose to play with, until their deaths, as he said to me."
Siji"s frown got even deeper. I noticed he clenched his fist hard. It must have been true, right?
"Did anyone ever escape from him?" I gritted my teeth.
"Only the First Master. Actually, he was no match for the First Master. They fought a lot, but First Master would always win. But later on, every time the Master of White Army that he disturbed pa.s.sed away, we would always see him in the location, standing with his back towards us. Before we could react, he would disappear. Even though the cause of their deaths were not related to him directly, as such he didn"t kill them directly, we were sure that he was somehow involved in it. Not to mention, every time the master died, none of us in the army noticed it. Not until we felt the presence of our master had gone. And, trust me, we all feel it." Siji looked at me in the eyes, seriously.
So, he was the First Master"s enemy? Was he taking his revenge upon us? But, why didn"t he appear in front of all the Masters? Why was it only some of us? I smelled something suspicious about this man... devil, whatever. I had a feeling that there was something this man was hiding from us.
"I had tried to contact you the moment he appeared, actually. But, I didn"t know why I couldn"t reach you at all. I bet it must be because he had blocked the link between me and you. He has that power, which is why you were always one step behind before the demise of the previous masters. But, then you appeared. How?"
"It makes sense. We really have no idea all this time, because the previous master never told us about this blocking thing, honestly. Now that you mention it, I think it does make sense. I personally came because I felt strange you hadn"t called me upon arriving at your home. I thought you must have many questions regarding Sanjaya and the recruitment, but you had not called me. That"s why I took the initiative to come and find out what you"re doing. The moment I appeared, however, I saw him throwing you around like a rug sack."
I winched as he reminded me of that. My back was tingling with pain again, there must be some bruises there.
"You were so bad-a.s.ses when dealing with shadows, but you became a weak chicken in front of him. This is why you should start learning self-defense." Siji shook his head. He intentionally put his helpless expression to mock me, I knew it.
But he was right. I needed to take some self-defense lesson.
Taking self-defense lesson was not my priority since I thought I only dealt with shadows and ghosts. Therefore, when Siji suggested it to me, I always rejected his idea.
Now, I finally realized the importance of learning it.
"Then, should I learn karate? taekwondo?" I asked.
Hearing what I say, a victorious grin appeared on Siji"s face. But, he shook his head again. "For someone who dealt with shadows and ghosts like you, ordinary martial arts are not sufficient in enhancing your combat power. You need to learn the special martial arts, designed especially by the First Master and our experts, to use both of your physical and spiritual power to defend and attack. If you"re able to master it, I believe when the devil comes and picks a fight with you, you won"t be thrown aside like what he did today."
"Special martial arts?" I looked at him in suspicion.
"Or, do you want to back out now? Well, as you have said before, the devil has the ability to block your connection with us. When the time comes that he attacks you, I won"t be sure that you can escape it like today." Siji"s expression hardened again.
I could feel his emotion, though. As much as he despised himself for threatening me with what had happened, he was the least person, or soul, that would want to see me die in the hands of the devil.
How many masters had died during his service as their adviser? I could feel the agony he felt whenever he failed to protect the fragile life of human being he called as his master.
"When will we start?" I asked, and a smile bloomed from his face again.
"As soon as the bruises on your back heal enough." Siji said.
Ah, right. My bruises. After dismissing the army who came back with nothing, I went to my bedroom. This time, Siji himself put an enchantment in my room. He said it was not enough to block that dark creature, but it was enough to alert him so that he could return to my side fast enough.
That night, despite the pain in my back, I could sleep well. The fear was forgotten as soon as I felt the devil had some ulterior motive towards me. As I forced myself to stop thinking to much, I finally fell in the deep slumber.
But, I had a strange dream. In that dream, I met with some people...