She regretted that she didn't kill the servant the minute she had no use for him anymore.
The door closed behind her and with the last light from outside, she felt her body falling into the room. As her face was about to hit the hard floor, she concentrated all of her strength to balance her feet on the ground to spin around.
With the memory of where the servant was standing, she blindly grabbed him and slashed the knife across his throat. Wetness sprayed on her face as the servant fell to the ground before her and a large blood puddle formed around him.
It dyed Lia's robe red. Her feet moved forwards but hit the dead servant. Trying to get used to the darkness, she looked around. Fourth was here, yet just as how she couldn't see him, he couldn't see her either.
Her intuition was right, to activate the illusion she needed to be somewhere Fourth could see her. In this darkness, even though he knew she was here, his eyes weren't able to make out her figure. Her presence alone wasn't enough for him to use his ability.
"You came," his soft voice echoed in the room and as it entered her ears, she quickly ripped a piece of her clothes off and lunged forward.
Fourth has long anticipated she would find him and the moment she stepped into the room, he made preparations in case she was going to attack him. This was precisely why he stood next to the light switch, the second she got close to him, he would turn on the lights and once his eyes fell on her, he could cast his illusion.
Yet he didn't know that Lia already figured out his plan. So, when the light turned on, he was one step too late to react. Instead, Lia calculated his intentions and moved close enough to him, based on his voice, to slap the piece of clothes against his eyes.
Then she used the momentum to swing behind him and pull his arms behind his back before she smashed his head on the ground.
There was a fatal mistake in Fourth's plan. He blinked, if he didn't blink the moment the light went on, he could've taken the opportunity to seal Lia in the illusion, however, he misread her and also assumed she would blink.
The switch from dark to bright would naturally cause people to shield their eyes and blink, yet he never thought she wouldn't even be fazed by the change.
Warm blood trickled from his forehead down his face. Lia commanded the corpses to come to her. The door was kicked open and her corpses held Fourth down without letting him look at her. His head was glued to the ground and he wasn't allowed to raise it.
Lia stood in front of him and watched for a second before she sneered, "Seems like our positions have turned."
"Seems like it," even in this situation Fourth didn't show any fear and continued to smile.
The best option right now was to kill him to avoid another mistake and the possibility for failure. But she also wanted answers.
The loud screams and chaos outside now rung in their heads, disturbing the tense silence between them.
"Is this payback?" Fourth lightly hummed.
"What do you think?" she put her hand on his head, "you guess."
The smile on Fourth's face froze. He liked messing with others but if they did the same to him, it wasn't funny anymore. However, Fourth was confident in his ability, especially using his smooth mouth.
But when he was about to say something, Lia tied a piece of clothes around his eyes and pulled his head up. Then he felt a metallic taste in his mouth.
"If you dare to say any more nonsense then I'll cut out your tongue."
Fourth hummed again and just smiled. Lia felt that something wasn't right. Fourth was too optimistic in this situation.
Lia watched him and then realised, "Are you waiting for your father? Do you think I won't kill you before then?"
The smile on Fourth's face briefly froze but he continued to softly say, "You won't kill me this easily."
"Why not? What makes you think so?" it was impossible to see what emotion Fourth's eyes mirrored, "You don't have much to do with my family's murder, so I won't give you a hard time."
Fourth remained quiet but his smile showed he was confident enough to believe she wouldn't kill him.
There must be something else that Fourth was hiding. Something that he knew and could exchange as information. Lia was trying to figure out what she should do with him.
The tension around them grew. Yet Fourth didn't seem fazed by it. He quietly accepted being captured and denied to use his power.
Suddenly, there was a loud commotion outside and Lia's heart leapt. Faint screams and hauls different from the previous one pulled Lia's attention away from Fourth.
She weighed her chances to leave Fourth here alone with her corpses and figure out this unsettling feeling that grew. Fourth sat there as if he didn't hear the change that was going on outside.
Lia couldn't suppress her worry and quickly told the corpses to watch over Fourth to not let him escape.
She rushed down the hallway and used her soul to find out the location of the three dead brothers. She had a bad premonition. There was unease and she couldn't figure out what it was.
The mansion was large and complicated, it took a lot of ordeals to manage her way through it. Apart from the pungent smell of blood, there was another. It smelled like gas and rotten eggs.
Lia instantly stopped. There was only one place that came into her mind.
The kitchen. She needed to head to the kitchen.
"Show me the kitchen," she grabbed a random corpse of a servant as she rushed down the hallway. The corpse matched her speed and since it was a servant, it knew where the kitchen was and led Lia to it.
When they arrived, Lia stopped in her tracks and held her nose with her sleeve, "You crazy woman."
In the midst of the kitchen cut off from the door by flames, Madam Z gave Lia a wry smile.
"Aren't I beautiful? The flames highlight my fair face, don't you think so too, daughter of the K family?"
Lia balled her fist. Madam Z was trying to light a fire but Lia didn't know why Madam Z would do that. To escape?
"What do you think about my beautiful hairpin? The moment I saw it on your mother's corpse, I was mesmerised. It's a wonderful trophy for that stinky, old woman."
Madam Z mocked Lia yet her big, pure eyes made her look like a white lotus. Even though Madam Z's had a deranged expression, there was no fault to find in her appearance.
However, the words she spoke, shook Lia and she tried to remain calm. She narrowed her eyes on the golden hairpin stuck in Madam Z's hair.
Did it really belong to her mother? Did this shameless woman really took it from the corpse of her mother?
Yet Lia didn't want to fall into Madam Z's trap.
Slowly, her lips curled up. If Madam Z wanted to play then she ought to have at least 10 steps planned out, "Don't you care about your son who's trapped in here?"
"Fourth?" Madam Z made a sad face, unfortunately, Lia had no time to appreciate her acting, "in order to save the family, one has to sacrifice themself. It'd be a sin if I weren't here anymore. How can the world survive without my beauty?"
Madam Z walked towards the gas bottle and put her hand on the handle.
The faint gas leak, swirling around the kitchen, was the cause of the fire. If Madam Z completely let the gas leak out, then the mansion would explode and no one would be able to survive.
Madam Z thought that she could easily leap out of the window behind her to escape. So, it was the best way for her to deal with the insane situation her mansion experienced.
Lia cursed again. She had to give more detailed orders to her undead. They weren't bright enough, so she had to do all the thinking.
If they were more thorough, then the kitchen which also counted as an escape route would've corpses stationed here and Madam Z would be denied the opportunity to come up with this insane idea to cause this fire.
But because Lia was still too weak and couldn't fully use her powers, another blunder happened. She still stood at the entrance of the kitchen and watched Madam Z laughing as her hands were about to twist the cap open.
Lia sighed. There was only one way to deal with Madam Z. Without arousing suspicion from Madam Z, Lia slowly moved her hands along the fabric of her dress, making sure the dagger that hidden inside her robe was still there.
"Then turn on the gas."
Madam Z's hands were already twisting the cap open when Lia's voice stopped her. She glanced at Lia hesitatingly. It wasn't clear what went through Madam Z's head right now. Likewise, Madam Z couldn't read what prompted Lia to say those words.
Madam Z wasn't particularly clever or cunning, all she cared about was her appearance. That she was able to come up with a plan to set the whole mansion on fire was already a huge step for her and showed what absurdity her mind consisted of.
"What? Aren't you turning it on? Didn't you want to?" Lia's words caused Madam Z to tense up and her gaze flickered across the kitchen.
"Let's die together," Lia smiled as she approached Madam Z. It took another absurd mind to counter an absurd mind.
Madam Z saw that Lia was not fazed by her decision and even spurred her on. She thought Lia turned crazy not caring about her own life.
Madam Z hesitated but in the end, there was nothing for her to worry about, after all, she could escape from the window while Lia would be stuck here with the explosion.
The hand Madam Z retracted, found her way to the cap of the large gas bottle again, but the second Madam Z twisted only a millimetre, even amongst the loud fire, she could hear a swoosh sound which caused her to look up.
The knife that flew to her, looked like it parted the wind before it was stuck in her forehead. The familiar green light emitted and Madam Z hated it for the first time. Her eyes barely found Lia smiling at her.
Madam Z wasn't instantly dead, her body tried to heal itself but because of the Ghost King's power, her life force was slowly but surely drained. She felt how Lia grabbed her by the hair and pulled her through the fire.
An intense burn and hot sensation overcame her body and she wanted to scream but nothing came out of her mouth. It was unbearable, it was even worse than ripping part of her nail.
Once outside the kitchen, Lia patted the fire on their clothes out and crouched down to Madam Z whose eyes followed every movement of Lia.
"How sad you're not instantly dead but it's also very great, don't you think so coquettish trash of the Z family?"
Lia pulled the knife out of Madam Z's forehead and dragged her to another room, where she found what she was looking for. She took a mirror and held it in front of Madam Z's face, then she removed the golden hairpin.
"Look how ugly you are. It's such a disgrace. Aren't you a disgrace?"
Madam Z looked in horror at her own face. A small gaping hole disgraced her forehead. Her once beautiful and youthful face was ruined by this tear.
Madam Z was angry and glared at Lia, but she had no strength to refute as Lia forced her to look at herself in the mirror.
Then Lia lightly trailed the sharp side of the hairpin across Madam Z's face.
"Such a shame, if I just press it a bit more on your skin," Lia applied force on the hairpin and painted red lines over Madam Z's face,
"this beautiful red covers your ugly and disgusting mask. Aren't you a bit too old to behave like a maiden? An old hag will stay an old hag."
As those words made Madam Z despair, Lia continued to draw red lines before she quickly stood up and yanked Madam Z by the hair down the hallways.
The fire has spread now to an extent that would soon swallow the mansion.
Lia hauled Madam Z to the room Fourth was in and then threw the dead corpse in front of him.
"Can you guess? Sadly, she's already dead now."
Lia wanted an answer from Fourth but at the same time, she also wanted to torture him for forcing her over and over again to be stuck in those painful illusions.
"My mother?"
"Yes," Lia patted Fourth on his head, when she was captured by him he also used excessive intimate actions. She didn't understand why he did that but now that she was in this position, she appreciated the liberating feeling of control it gave her.
"I don't particularly care."
"I know," Lia put the golden hairpin in her hair and then gripped Fourth by the chin, "Tell me why do you have the power? Did Min give it to you?"
Fourth remained quiet.
"You know what Immortals fear the most? Or what any person fears the most? It's not death but pain," Lia took out the knife and gently pressed it against Fourth's neck.
Fourth still didn't say anything.
"How do you know I was still alive?"
The knife dug into the sides of Fourth's neck and perfectly cut off a layer of his skin. Fourth gasped and held back the scream that was stuck in his throat.
"You're really-"
"Answer," another layer of skin was peeled off and thrown to the ground next to Fourth.
He winced.
"Oh, I'm sorry did you want to touch it? Indeed, it's a part of you, it shouldn't be thrown too far from you," Lia stabbed the piece of skin with the knife and then put it on Fourth's face.
The disgusting feeling made him want to vomit. He could feel the slimy, bloody piece of skin ever so slightly sliding down his cheeks.
"Oh, or did you want me to put it in your mouth? Are you hungry or curious to know how you taste like?"
She pried open his mouth and-
"Stop! I'll tell you!"
"Good," Lia stabbed another piece of skin and put it on the other side of his face, "then talk."
"A few days ago, a man came here, he said he worked for my two elder brother's company. He was suspicious of my brothers' sudden disappearance, so he did some investigations and found out my eldest brother also disappeared. He then figured it might have something to do with you.
When he told me about the description of the woman last seen with my brothers, I couldn't think of anyone but you. Even if it's an absurd thought, there was still the possibility."
"I see, I know your sentiment. I believe the mortals call it murphy's law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Even if the possibility is small, if that possibility exists, it will inevitably happen," Lia realised she hasn't been thorough enough.
That prim and proper man that worked for Second and Third, and Noel's casual remark that a man has been watching her house, all of this already gave her the signs that she should've considered these possibilities and ruled out any chance for failure.
Yet she didn't.
"Then how did you get the power?"
Fourth once again didn't say anything.
"Do I need to peel you completely? Are you similar to an orange?"
"The Ghost King," at the mention of Min, Lia tightened up, "he wanted me to join his private army."
Lia has heard of the private army. When she came back, talks about the academy and Min's own army of exorcists made their rounds. She found it strange but didn't question it.
"Why?"
"He has a vision. A vision that we all agree on. A vision that will change this boring world into a new one."
"What vision? Who?" Lia gripped the knife harder. What was Min about to do?
"You guess," Fourth smiled. He used her sentence back at her.
She dug the knife into his skin again.
"It's useless and you're impatient. Soon, you'll find out. Soon, everyone will. You can kill me but it's useless because the Ghost King will always find stronger people than me."
At the end of his words, Fourth started to laugh. It was a menacing, arrogant and yet desperate laugh.
Lia cursed. Min, that hateful Min, just what was he planning to do?