Chapter 67: Escape (IV)

"A few days ago, a man found me and gave me these..." Dila leaned against the wall, panting heavily, and slowly sat down.

The high-speed battle at full effort had left him, already weak, nearly at the end of his rope.

"Sandevistan and... these pills?"

"CPH4..." Dila spoke word by word, his expression weak yet solemn, as if invoking the terrible true name of a deep abyss demon.

"How could you possibly have this kind of pill?"

Beros crouched on the ground, his tightly gripped revolver trembling slightly, pressed hard against the man's chin.

His eyes were sharp as two blades, seeming to hold raging fury, as if to nail Dila to the wall.

"As I thought, my guess was right... did they issue this drug to you, calling it a 'medical benefit'?"

Dila spoke very slowly; the sound of life gradually draining away lingered in his ears, clear and audible.

But those slow sentences were like poisoned steel needles, insidiously aiming to pierce Beros's heart.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did he rather die than give up the fight?"

"The answer should be told by you, Xida. I still know too little about humans."

Yahweh gazed at the screen slowly dimming, stroking the girl's silver hair, whispering softly in her ear.

"..." Xida made no sound, only turning her head, grabbing Yahweh's collar, and gently wiping away falling tears.

"I don't know... anyway, I'm afraid of death, and I'm getting more and more afraid of it." The girl lay in his arms, continuing to speak in a muffled voice.

"Ha..." In the darkness after the movie ended, Yahweh chuckled softly, resting his chin on her forehead, rubbing back and forth a few times, both enjoying the sweet tenderness of the moment.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here." He whispered softly, holding Xida, curled into a ball, tightly.

"We need to make another promise, building on the previous one."

"Why?" Yahweh followed her lead, asking in a low voice.

"Before we were strangers; now we are not."

"What promise?"

Yahweh threw away the trash, took Xida's warm hand, and walked slowly with the sparse crowd, leaving the screening room after the show.

Leaving the cinema, the cold wind hitting their faces made Xida shiver involuntarily, and she quickly hid in Yahweh's arms.

"I haven't thought of it yet." She stood on tiptoe, mischievously sucking hard on the man's neck, leaving a deep crimson mark.

"Why kiss here?" Yahweh was a bit strange; he felt no pain at all, just a little itch.

"Getting more and more human..." Xida smiled, answering something other than the question, turned her head, pulled him, and walked toward home.

"I don't like promises. I don't like promises themselves, nor do I like making promises to people." The rain pattered steadily against his gradually cold body; blood flowed until it dried, leaving a stain on the ground that was hard to remove.

Beros gently smoothed the eyes of Dila, which could no longer close, speaking softly, as if afraid of accidentally waking the man who had already fallen asleep.

"Thank you for your final gift." This man, as sturdy as an iron tower, slowly lowered his proud head; a foreign fire ignited in his cold, steel-cast heart.

The old firewood burned out, but a new fire was passed on.

"He's dead?"

At some unknown time, Rottweiler had silently come to Beros's side.

"He's dead." The man was silent for a few seconds before speaking as if confirming it.

"I have no doubt about the result, just curious about the process." Rottweiler chuckled lightly, watching Beros silently bend down and use fire to ignite the man's completely frozen remains.

"What is there to be curious about? Is Bit okay?" Beros waited quietly until Dila's body was swallowed by the scorching fire snakes before slowly answering Rottweiler's question.

"He won't die... I'm actually quite worried about you, boss."

"Where did it start?" he asked softly, his words indistinct, yet both present knew exactly what he meant.

"The promise... perhaps a bit earlier than that."

"..." Beros fell silent once more, a silence far longer than all the previous times combined.

He hesitated whether to drag his teammates into that bottomless vortex as well.

The man who had pulled him into the abyss now had only warm embers left of his corpse.

"I can't tell you, Rottweiler; not because I don't want to, but because I can't."

"Why?" Rottweiler raised his eyebrows in surprise, opened his mouth, hesitated for a few seconds, and still couldn't help but ask.

"You still have hope while you live, Rottweiler; you have Bit, and you have Melissa... only a madman who truly has nothing left is qualified to know all the secrets of tonight."

"You..." Rottweiler bit his back teeth hard, his full fury seeming ready to burst through the raging storm.

"Rest assured, I won't do anything foolish." Beros spoke solemnly, making the second promise of the night.

"Do as you please!" Rottweiler glared fiercely at Beros, threw the emergency medicine he had been carrying in his pocket onto the man's face, turned around, and left without looking back.

Beros stood still, silently gazing at the red-haired woman's receding figure, letting the frantic rain erode him from head to toe.

After a while, he finally sighed.

He carefully gathered the remaining embers of Dila into a bag, placed them gently into the pocket near his chest, and walked with heavy steps out of this curved, narrow alley.

Walking to the street, looking out, in the night sky, the brilliant neon lights were dotted by the grand rain and mist into clusters of hallucinogenic flowers.

Only then did he realize he had returned from hell to the human world.

His heart, which had been hanging, slowly settled; Beros took a deep breath, greedily devouring the air of the human world.

It was already late at night.

In this noisy night where the rain roared, there were still scattered pedestrians on the street, coming and going.

There were Company employees walking briskly, and addicts with light, unsteady steps, swaying back and forth.

There were slow-moving elderly people, and children following their parents, hopping along.

Single people hurried with their heads down, while couples walked leisurely side by side.

One umbrella after another concealed their expressions; only the sound of someone's joyful laughter could be heard, along with others emitting long, low sighs.

Beros did not like Night City; he hated this man-eating city from the bottom of his heart.

Too many people, whether innocent or guilty, had drowned here, sinking into the bottomless abyss.

Yet at this moment, even he could not help but sincerely remark that this demon possessed an indescribable beauty.

Like a poisonous flower, blooming with deadly splendor.

"The movie is over; what shall we eat later?"

Beros walked slowly along the rain-soaked street, trying to imitate a normal person by taking off his trench coat and draping it over his head to conceal his body.

Faintly, he heard the soft whispers of a couple.

"I'll do whatever you say." The blue-eyed man chuckled softly, sharing an umbrella with the silver-haired girl as they gradually moved out of the gaze he sought to explore.

Beros shook his head and laughed, feeling only that he was being overly sensitive and overthinking things, then turned and walked in the opposite direction.