…
Breaker was talking to someone on his cellphone as he was being chauffeured around in the back of a luxurious car. He soon removed the phone from his ear as set it down to his side.
"Business call?" A man sitting across from Breaker asked.
"It appears those two were able to accomplish the task without trouble." Breaker responded.
"Oh? I have to say, I'm surprised you managed to find information so fast again. Well, I suppose that's why you're in your current position. Wanna tell me how you do it?" The man said with a smug grin on his face.
"It's no big secret. If you know the right people and how to delegate properly, anything becomes possible. However, it's all about having friends in places you cannot imagine. Eventually, if you know the right people, you become the right person." Breaker said as he gazed outside of his car window. It was impossible to tell what was going through his mind at that moment.
…
Sniff… Sniff…
"Hm…? What's this smell…?" Reilei thought to herself as her eyes slowly opened. She was still in a sleepy dazed-like state and her vision was still a bit blurry from having just woken up.
"Did I leave the lights on?" That was the first thought that crossed Reilei's mind when she saw an orangish-red hue of light creep in from beneath her door.
Reilei suddenly began to cough uncontrollably and that was she snapped out of her sleepy dazed-like state and sat up in her bed.
"Smoke?" Reilei said as she noticed a steady stream of black smoke coming from the other side of her door. As realization began to sink in and she was now fully aware of her surroundings, Reilei could that her body was drenched in sweat. Also, the entire house felt as if someone left the heater on in the middle of summer.
When she heard a light crackling sound coming from the other side of her door, she felt her heart drop.
"Fire.. Jin!" Reilei immediately sprung up from her bed and rushed towards her room door as her coughing became increasingly violent. The last time she checked, Izroth was still lying in his bed playing that video game. If that were the case, then he was in danger!
Reilei grabbed her door handle but immediately regretted her decision as she felt an intense pain shoot up her entire body.
"Ah!" Reilei instantly removed her hand from the doorknob as it shook constantly from the pain. One could see that the skin on the palm of her hands had been burnt from the heat build up on the doorknob.
However, Reilei bit her lip and grabbed onto the doorknob again, but this time she did not let go and opened the door through the pain. She wanted to cry, but when she thought about Jin being in danger, everything else was tossed to the back of her mind as she fought through it.
When the door opened, an intense wave of heat rushed towards Reilei as she moved her arm up instinctively to protect herself and pulled away slightly. The fire managed to singe some hair off her eyebrows and lightly burned the arm she used to protect herself with, however, it did not cause any serious damage.
As Reilei entered into the hallway, she could barely see in front of her with all of the smoke and the flames spread out everywhere. Her mind raced as she locked her sights onto Izroth's room door that was located at the other end of the hallway.
Reilei felt as if her lungs were about to collapse as it was becoming extremely difficult for her to breathe. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand as she carefully made her way down the hallway. She soon came before a wall of flame that there was no way around. The only way for her to get to the other side was to go straight through it.
"Jin…" Reilei had never been so frightened and scared in her life. Her body felt weakened and her brain was telling her to run away and just give up. But, there was one thing that made her press forward without any hesitation or regret.
How could she ever continue to live in a world without her son, Jin?
Reilei jumped through the wall of fire and as she did, she let out a loud scream. As her body passed through the wall of fire, Reilei's once perfect fair skin had burns marks all over it. Some of them were shallow, however, there were a few places that would definitely leave scars.
The lower parts of her hair had also been burnt off, but to her, it was all worth it. Due to the mixture between the intense level of pain and breathing in the smoke from the fire, Reilei felt her consciousness slowly slipping away.
"I… Can't… Not yet…" Reilei sluggishly made her way to Jin's door as she was overcome by a violent fit of coughs. Her beautiful face was now covered with soot from the fire as she fell to her knees and collapsed to the floor a bit before Izroth's room door. She reached towards the doorknob that led into Jin's room, but her body was going against her at every turn.
"Move…! Please, I beg you move!" Reilei thought to herself as tears began to pour down her face. She felt as if her heart was going to shatter into countless little pieces. She felt her heart rate speeding up and the world around her went quiet.
All she could hear now was the sound of her own rapidly beating heart. Reilei could feel her chest tightening as her fingers grazed against the doorknob that led into Jin's room before she lost all the strength in her body and her arm fell down.
"Jin, I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… Sorry…" Reilei could only keep muttering the word sorry as she felt something in her mind snap. She slowly started to drift out of consciousness as stayed motionless on the floor. Her thoughts slowly became meshed up together as she completely lost consciousness.
The flames in the apartment continued to burn and devour everything within its sights.
…
'My body is filled with some impurities. There's an abundance of smoke within this room.'
Jin had just been forcibly logged out of RML when he noticed that some impurities had found their way into his body. However, it was nothing to be troubled since his Heavenly Golden Body physique was more than capable of expelling any impurity build ups.
'Fire?'
Jin immediately recognized the source of the smoke was from a fire burning just outside his room door.
Thump!
He suddenly heard the sound of something dropping onto the floor. It sounded like someone had fallen down without control. If it was someone falling down, then there was only one possible person it could be.
Jin swiftly jumped out of his bed and rushed towards the door. When he opened it, he was welcomed by an intense wave of heat. However, he remained unaffected by it as he witnessed the entire apartment being engulfed by flames.
When he looked down he noticed the injured Reilei collapsed on the floor with burn marks all over her body. The palm of her once delicate hands was now red with some of the flesh peeled off due to the fire.
From her current appearance, Jin could tell that she must have rushed over towards his room without thinking about her own safety.
Without thinking twice, he picked up Reilei and quickly moved towards the front door. He did not bother opening the door as he lifted his foot up and crashed it into the door sending it flying off its hinges. As he did so and passed through the door all in one breath, he noticed a small piece of metal float by his field of vision.
Judging from the trajectory it traveled, as well as, the way he kicked the door down, that metal piece should have come from the top corner area of the door. However, such a piece had never been placed there before according to his memory.
Also from its shape alone, its purpose was quite clear. It was an object meant to jam the door and prevent those who wanted to get out from escaping.
There was a scary glint that flashed across Jin's eyes as he successfully left the apartment building.
From the streets, one could see the cloud of black smoke and the light from the fire. In the distance, the sound of sirens could be heard as firetrucks and police cars were approaching the residence. There were people outside on the streets taking pictures with their phones and talking to one another.
The residents located in the other apartments had already evacuated. There should not have been anyone left inside and if there was, they should not have been able to escape from that intense blaze from down below.
"Why didn't the fire alarms or sprinkler systems go off?!" One of the tenants was complaining to the manager. One could tell that he was furious.
"We just did a fire drill test last week. Everything should have been working just fine!" The building manager tried to explain, however, he truly had no idea what could have gone wrong.
When they saw that someone had actually come out of the burning building they were in shock. However, before they could, even more, over to help, the young man who was carrying a woman was already at a safe distance.
Fast! They had never seen anyone move so fast in their life from one point to another.
When Jin reached a safe distance from the apartment building, he lowered his ear to Reilei's mouth and then to her chest area. A few seconds later, a darkened expression appeared on his face. Not only was Reilei not breathing, but her heart had come to a complete stop!
Jin quickly moved his finger and pressed down on a few acupuncture points. Not too long after he did, a steady stream of black smoke could be seen leaving Reilei's body through the pores on her skin.
However, although Izroth managed to fix one problem, another one still existed. Reilei had suffered some severe burns and her the state of her mind was not in good condition. Also, even though he had cleared the black smoke out of her body, her heartbeat remained unchanged.
'I will not allow you to die.'
Jin closed his eyes to concentrate as a small pure white orb the size of a marble formed at his fingertip. However, those around him were incapable of seeing that orb due to what it was, a soul! To be more precise, it was a piece of his very own soul.
After the orb appeared at his fingertip, a small stream of blood could be seen falling from the side of Izroth's mouth. Although he made it look simple, breaking off a piece of one's own soul was like tearing off your very own limb, except it was thousands of times more painful.
However, he made an important promise that he did not plan on breaking, no matter the price he had to pay for it.
'Removing a piece of my own soul was more taxing at my current level of strength than I thought it would be. I have to act fast.'
The crowd gathered around Jin and Reilei but kept their distance. Many of them shook their head and let out a sigh. They felt pity for the young man and the woman, but there was nothing they could do.
"Help is on its way young man. Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine." One of the people in the crowd said trying to give some hope to Jin.
Jin lightly pressed his fingertip against Reilei's forehead. The orb at his fingertip sunk into Reilei's head as a powerful surge of energy coursed throughout her entire body. He then pressed down on a few more acupuncture points and controlled the flow of energy within Reilei's body. If he was not careful, the sudden rush of energy from his soul could tear her body apart.
Reilei remained motionless as help arrived on the scene at last. When one of the firefighters saw the crowd and noticed that there were a young man and a woman who appeared to be injured by the fire, he approached them.
When the firefighter saw the woman, he already knew that it was too late for her. But, it was still his job to make sure that no stone was left unturned.
"Young man, let me have a look at-" The firefighter was about to touch Jin's shoulder, however, he felt an overwhelming pressure weigh down on him.
"Do not interfere." Jin said in a cold voice as the firefighter stumbled backward. It was not that Jin had anything against him, but he could not afford to have someone interfere at such a delicate stage in the process.
Jin furrowed his brows as the energy continued to course through Reilei's body, however, there was still no response and her pulse continued flatlining.
Finally, all of the energy within Reilei's body slowly faded away.
