"Drip, drip..."
The living hand lay on the ground, its nerves twitching. Blood dripped from the Stage Sword onto the dark-red tiles and vanished without a trace.
The cool evening breeze brushed across Ji Li's pale face, lifting a long strand of hair like a warm hand gently caressing his cheek.
"Does it hurt?"
Haruyama Mirai suddenly appeared beside Ji Li, tears welling in her eyes as she carefully wiped the blood from his face.
Her gaze was filled with regret and heartache. Her fingertips trembled slightly when they touched the drops of blood as she choked out:
"Give up. I'll stay with you, until after death..."
Ji Li turned back and gazed at Haruyama Mirai. Their long hair was tossed by the chaotic wind, briefly intertwining before swiftly separating.
Two trails of bloody tears ran from the corners of his eyes. He slowly yet resolutely shook his head.
A crow overhead let out a shrill, miserable cry that tore through the night sky.
A great number of crow feathers drifted down like snowflakes, yet before they could reach the ground, they instantly ignited and turned into specks of ash.
The crow seemed to have suffered an unimaginable backlash. The Sin Object power attached to its feathers fell into terrifying chaos and actually dissolved on its own.
In the blink of an eye, its gorgeous feathered garment burned away entirely under Ji Li's gaze, revealing its flesh-colored bird body as its skin began to rot and peel away.
The nail embedded in its right wing flashed with an eerie gleam beneath the moonlight.
Amid unbearable agony and the tolling bell of death, the red glow in the crow's eyes grew thinner and thinner. It struggled to raise its head, watching Li Yi, who had lost an arm, fall through the