Chapter 33: Yuuri's POV

"How could she just vanish like that, right under our noses!?" I ask Murata who seems to be pondering about the same thing. This castle is supposed to be protected by the blood covenant right? hence the name... Either she's just really powerful, even more than us, or something is very, very wrong.

It seems only five minutes ago we were standing dumbfounded on my room but half an hour has already passed and we, no... I have only half the time to decide now. It took this long for us all to regather ourselves and move to the conference room. For a split second Murata tried to convince me to see a healer, but I believe it's pretty obvious we don't have time for that right now.

Apparently everyone else in the castle has been ordered by Murata to stay the hell away from us, and thank god for that, I don't think I could handle much more than what's already on my plate.

"I'm not really sure about the specifics Shibuya, and I don't think we can afford to take the time to figure it out" He's right about that, although once this is over I have a lot to ask, to both of them.

"Fine, I agree. But I need you two to tell me what you know, I don't need the details, but at least I need to know what we're up against" I say and take a few calming breaths, trying to remind myself not to get pist because of the obvious amount of information they have been keeping from me

"For several reasons which are too long to explain now, Wolfram is the perfect target for Mirage's wrath. That woman wants my decedent dead and is clear now that she has no restraint. To put her own son's life at stake..." Shinou trails off and looks at Murata who's lost in thought.

"How is that even possible?" If I'm getting this right, the person who has been beside me all this time wasn't Wolf at all, but wouldn't we have noticed it? I specially...

"It's a curse" Murata answer me and pauses for a moment, probably trying to put the words in order in his head. "The Mirage tribe possessed a power much different from ours, similar to witches on Earth. The thing with this kind of magic is that it always comes with a price, the higher the price, the more powerful the curse." he looks down and I can't see his expression anymore.

"So she sacrificed her son's life" Shinou continues "in order to be able to replace Wolfram's soul with his"

Replace? Time goes by and I feel as though I understand less and less. All I want to know is...

"Don't worry, Wolfram is not dead" Murata says like reading my mind. "Not yet, at least. You see Shibuya, every curse has a condition, some sort of emergency clause to break it, if necessary. In this case the responsibility falls on you. If you chose to kill Mirage's son's soul, Wolfram will come back to normal, and if you chose to save him, Wolfram will die"

My heart stops... is this really the only way? The person I knew this past few months... he is not a bad person, he doesn't deserve to die and I... for him... I'm not even sure anymore. All I know is that Wolfram's life is the most important thing in the world to me.

Only ten minutes until the time's out.

"Is there no other way?" I ask , already knowing the answer by looking at Murata's expression.

"Maybe, but we don't have enough time to figure it out. Lord von Bielefeld's soul is running out of time Shibuya, that must be the reason Mirage showed up. If his soul dies before you choose, both of them will die along with the body they have as vessel"

"So this is all my fault. For not noticing before?" How could I not notice that he wasn't the person I love.

"Deep down you knew Shibuya, you just didn't wanted to believe it, right?" Murata puts his hand on my shoulder, he's not trying to scold me, for some reason he looks like he pities me for having to make this choice. I still feel like shit though. Is there no way of recovering Wolf without having to kill anyone... Wolf told me to save this other person right? Does he rather die then?

Suddenly we feel that presence again, getting closer and closer. Time's up.

The same slim figure from before starts to materialise in front of us, also blocking the way to the door. I have to hold myself back not to jump and punch her in the face. The simple reaction of my body going forwards hurts. I'm not really sure how badly injured I am right now, but adrenaline is taking charge of keeping me on my feet for now.

"Greetings Heika, I assume you had enough time to ponder over your options. Have you decided?" Her tone is exasperating. She's wasting no time, uh?. Well, neither am I, not anymore.

Shinou, Murata and I stand at the same time. Slowly, solemnly, not showing the true desperation we must all be feeling, I doubt it's just me.

I've decided... I'll save Wolfram...

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Ok, so this is how far I've gotten in writing but on my very long absence I finally figured out how I'm gonna end this story. Just a couple of chapters left and we'll see this story to its end.

Again, I am aware of how short this chapters are, it's only because I need to change POVs too often for the whole thing to make sense and I don't want to put more than one POV per chapter.