"Arrghh fuck" Michael growled, slowly opening his eyes. He had completely lost of time. Everything around him was dark. He instinctively turned his head to see if Gaya was lying beside him as usual. Except, when he turned aside, a parchment rolled out from his chest.
"Gaya" he called out for her looking around the room. He received no response. At first, he thought she went outside. However, he felt a strange void in his heart. He picked up the parchment,
"Azazel" before opening the parchment, he called out for his butler.
In a few mere moments, the demon butler appeared before Michael.
"Turn the lights on"
With a wave of his hand, the demon butler lit the room.
Michael opened the parchment to read. Azazel noticed Michael creasing his brows. A hint of shock and sadness emerged in his eyes.
Dear Human,
It's funny that after everything we went through, I never knew your real name. I think even if I know your name, I might continue to call you human because you were the first person who actually helped when I needed help the most. I can still remember the day I met you vividly. This past year is the happiest time of my life. If I were to die today, I'd happily greet death as the happiest girl in this world. You are the best thing that happened to me
When you were bleeding on the bed, I couldn't do anything. That feeling was worse than death. If I was only faster, stronger, I could have helped you. These words kept repeating in my mind. I don't think I can ever go through something like that again. I'd rather die than hurt you but I must do this for both our sakes. I hope you understand how difficult it is for me to make this decision to leave your side. I'm going somewhere that I should have gone a long time ago human. I will come back to you stronger or dead, either way, I will come back to you. Please don't come searching for me unless you want me dead. I didn't have the courage to say this to your eyes. That's why I'm leaving you with this letter. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. Look after Nightmare and Vedora for me.
I love you and I will love you till the end of time.
Gaya Ashton ( I hope the gods bless me to change Ashton to your name human)
Michael felt a lump in his throat after reading the letter. When he finished reading the last word, a drop of tears rolled out of his eyes without his control.
"My lord" Azazel called out as he had no idea what's on the letter or what made Michael act this way. Her words hurt him more than the arrows did.
"System"
[The system's level is too low to track her location without the earpiece host. Besides, there are some places in this world that trying to track her down would backfire and kill her]
His heartbeat slowly raised to the point the veins in his eyes popped, making his eyes redder and redder. It became extremely hard to control his anger towards the guardians. If it wasn't for them, she wouldn't have left him. At this moment, he felt weak and helpless. He couldn't even imagine losing her, especially when he was planning to propose to her.
He slowly walked towards the monitoring mirrors on the wall. One of the mirrors had no footage as it reflected Michael's body.
Boom!
Michael punched the mirror as it exploded into thousands of tiny pieces. His punch formed a fist-shaped hole in the wall. He did not use any spell or skill, just punched the wall with pure anger. blood trickled out of the cuts and scratches on his fist.
"My lord" Azazel immediately waved his hand as a healing potion flew from the worktable to heal his wound.
"What's that sound?" Nightmare flew into the room to see Michael standing in front of a broken mirror. He noticed the bloodied parchment in Ghost's hand.
"Ghosty you're awake, what happened?"
Michael threw the parchment to Nightmare as he caught it with his hands in the mid-air. Nightmare opened the parchment that had dots of Michael's blood-soaked in to read while hovering in the air.
"What the hell? Sigh" Nightmare sighed. He noticed something was wrong after Gaya finished taking out the broken arrow pieces. She was awfully silent after Michael had been healed. Nightmare never thought she would actually decide to leave them.
"Ghosty" Nightmare threw the parchment on the bed before flying to Michael's side. He put his hand on Michael's shoulder to console him.
"Why did she leave?" Michael turned his gaze to look at Nightmare.
"She had to Ghosty" Nightmare's answer surprised Michael.
"She was powerless to do anything when you were in trouble, she was powerless to save you when you were bleeding on the bed, moments away from dying. Just imagine yourself in her shoes, imagine what she went through. Wouldn't you go searching for something that will make you stronger so you won't feel powerless? I'm not saying leaving us was the right choice, I'm saying I don't blame her. And you shouldn't do"
Michael clenched his fist again,
"I don't blame anyone but the Guardians" as he said, he walked towards the workbench. He clenched the table tightly,
"Until now, I just wanted the Guardians out of my way. Moving forward, I'll destroy everything Andreas built, piece by piece. When I'm done with the Guardians, they won't be anything left"
[New Goal added!]
The moment he took a resolution to destroy the guild once and for all, he heard a system notification in his mind.
"Where has she gone?" His anger towards guardians quickly faded away when his eyes landed on the room's corner where his robes were hanging on the wall.
His black robes brought back a sweet memory from a few days ago in front of his eyes.
*************************************
(few days ago)
"Morning" Michael slowly opened his eyes. He held the bed sheets tightly as he curled under the thick quilt. When his sleepy vision cleared, he saw Gaya sitting beside him.
Instead of greeting him with some snarky comments, she was fully focused on the task at hand. She wasn't even blinking as her tongue stuck out above her cherry upper lip, almost brushing the tip of her nose.
The moment he saw what's in her hand, his sleepiness instantly disappeared.
"Hey what the hell are you doing to my clothes?" He threw the quilt aside to stand up.
"What does it look like?" she said without taking her eyes from Michael's long black trench coat.
"Im putting on embroidery. It's gonna look so cool when I'm done" Michael craned his neck to see his trench coat. There was an unknown shape that looked like a baby of a circle and a square.
"What is that? A kidney or something? Wait that looks like a circle with a stick in it"
Only then she took her gaze away from his trench coat. She turned her murderous gaze at him,
"It's a 'G' you blind asshole"
"Hahahaha, G? Who taught you embodiment?" Michael burst into laughter, making her madder and madder. She would look extremely cute when she's mad. He couldn't help pinching her soft cheeks while wrapping her with his arms. There was the hug of gentle arms that still gives the space to breathe; then there was the hug of strong arms that tells everything, your body, brain, and soul that they are with you. She loved both, the duvets and the human shields, each had their time. The way he hugged her at the moment was a hybrid of both hugs. His embrace was strong yet gentle, filled with love and care. She was unable to stay mad at him under his passionate hug.
"G for Ghost or Gaya?"
"Just like in our cards, G for Ghost for others but it really stands for Gaya. This way" she lifted his trench coat to show him her rather unique looking 'G'
"I'll always be closer to your heart"
"I prefer the real thing" his hug tightened as he smooched her cheek before landing a soft kiss on her soft, rosy cheek.
"Did you put this embroidery on your clothes?" she bit her tongue, slowly wiggling herself out of his embrace.
She went to the edge of the bed. He saw a foxy smile emerge on her face,
"I didn't want to spoil my clothes. '' She quickly started to run after saying these words.
"I knew it, stop!"
Their laughter reverberated the walls of the Abyssal. Their happiness lit up this dark place.
*******************************************
Michael put on his clothes to leave Abyssal. This place never felt like home without Gaya around. He gently tapped the embodiment on his chest, reminiscing the moments with her in his mind.
"In the letter, she said take care of me and Vedroa but I saw Vedora with her when she was flying away," Nightmare said,
"You saw her leave?" Michael frowned,
"Yeah, I thought she's going to the sect"
"At Least someone's with her" Michael sighed in relax,
"I trust her, she will come back to me" Finally Nightmare saw his usual smile appear on his face. Nightmare was really afraid of Michael going on a rampage or going into a self-destruct mood. But after seeing his smile, he felt like an immense amount of pressure was being lifted off of his shoulder.
"Come on, we have a tournament to win"