219 The Foggy Dream

Without wasting time, he got out of the downpour and walked back into the blood-stained hotel lobby. Drops of water came down from the jacket and pants that he was wearing, quickly seeping into the carpet on the floor. Valentine made his way back to his room.

He got undressed as soon as he entered his room and hung all his wet clothes on the radiator, to help them dry faster.

"G, if by tomorrow these aren't dry yet, please use your Order to dry them," he requested.

Valentine then got dressed lightly enough, but enough in case he needed to wake up and go out suddenly. After making sure that the door was locked, he lied down on the bed and closed his eyes.

The downpour and thunder outside sounded strangely calming, and the blanket of total darkness was somewhat soothing. Valentine drifted off into the unconscious shortly after, still covered in the layers of Concealment.

...

"Val, wake up..."

A voice that he was all too familiar with came to wake him up. The voice sounded calm while it hid the vast curiosity of the person speaking.

Valentine opened his eyes slowly and was greeted by Graham's smug face. His other half appeared to be very proud for some reason. Probably because he was awake first.

"We're here again?" Valentine asked and got up.

It was indeed the place that had always had them taken to whenever they powered up lately. Valentine had been sitting on the grass, leaning on the giant ashen tree with numerous branches. Around him was a thick fog that obstructed vision.

"Yes, but it's expected, isn't it, Val? Let's now see what's new about this place. Anyway, have you noticed that the tree behind you is not as pale as it was before?" he pointed at the giant tree.

Now that Graham had mentioned it, the tree was indeed not as pale as before. It was still ashen grey in color, but there definitely was a very slight difference in color-- it was somewhat more vivid.

"You're probably right,"

He then looked back at his other half and noticed that the man was wearing the same thing as the last time they were in that world: a plain white shirt, a pair of cotton pants, and brown leather shoes, while he himself was wearing the exact same thing except for a pair of denim pants instead of cotton.

"In which direction should we go today, Val?" asked Graham, looking around.

"Let's try this way," he said. Although their voices were identical, Valentine was speaking in a lower tone normally.

Valentine was pointing in the direction opposite to where he was facing when he woke up. Graham nodded and then the two men started walking there, swiping away the curtains of fog as they went. The wet grass beneath them made a soft crunch the moment their shoes stepped on them, while the fog itself gave off no sensation whatsoever.

"Anyway, what was the monster you were fighting earlier?" asked Graham curiously.

With a shrug, Valentine replied, "No idea. Reveal didn't work on it. It might not be strong, since, with a whack from our cane, its bones got broken, but I might be wrong,"

Graham rubbed his chin.

"Yes. We haven't seen that thing's full power. But you felt the dangerous aura coming from it, didn't you?"

Valentine nodded and replied, "It did feel dangerous. Doesn't that mean that guy's red mixture is extremely potent, then?"

His other half nodded.

"That must be the case."

The two of them kept on walking blindly in a straight line with Valentine at the front. Around them, the fog seemed to have got thicker and the grass wetter.

"Anyway, I think after we return to Sloten, we should focus on finding materials for your ritual first, Val. They sound easier to get than mine. If we're lucky, we might even be able to get some at the black market."

"True enough. Although we have no idea what creatures Gorgons and Bydukks are, they definitely don't sound as dangerous as a Devourer of Inferno. But maybe don't judge the creature by its name, G."

"You're right, but the other reason why we go with yours first is that we already know where to find Leyaks. That's basically one material off the list. Besides, other than the heart of a Devourer of Inferno, my ritual also requires the essence of an Efreet and the liver of a Mistress of Excruciation. That one doesn't sound easy to deal with either," Graham said regretfully.

"That's true," his other half replied shortly.

The fog around them was getting even thicker, making it difficult for Valentine to navigate. Graham couldn't do anything to help since his divination wasn't available. In this world, they both were just normal humans and Valentine's navigational skills were much better than his.

"We're still going in a straight line, aren't we, Val?"

"We should be..." replied Valentine rather hesitantly.

Crunch...

The sounds of the leaves being crushed were the only noise in that still, silent world. The fog seemed to be hiding everything else from them, and them from everything else. However, they could only keep on pressing forward.

After walking for several more meters, at last, the fog thinned, revealing a shadow of a large building in front of them. The closer they approached, the clearer the building became until they could finally see the real thing.

It was a large, grey building with three floors that was built in a U shape. The wall was stained with dirt and what looked to be blood while the windows were all barricaded. There were numerous bullet holes on the outside wall and several parts of the wall had been chipped. The building was definitely not located in a conflict-free zone, judging from its condition.

The two identical men were looking at each other with a complicated expression on their faces.

"Do you... remember this place, Val?" asked Graham. His tone was heavy.

Valentine nodded slowly.

"...of course. Now that I'm looking at it, all the memories are coming back. How did I never think about this place, not even for a second despite what has happened here..."

Graham was looking at his other half with a concerned look. He then turned his attention to the building again. Valentine was right. Now that he was looking at the building, the events that had transpired there started coming back to him. However, he had never paid any attention to that part of his memory all this time as if it didn't exist in the first place.

After standing in front of the building silently for several minutes, Valentine finally looked at Graham and nodded.

"*Deep breath* Let's go in,"

The two men walked into the building through the main doors that had been busted open before. A thick smell of blood and gunpowder penetrated their noses the moment they took a step inside. The fog surrounding them also disappeared, as if they had just entered a different world.

"Help us! Help!" came a distressed cry from the upper floor with a heavy accent.

Valentine and Graham already knew what was happening and calmly made their way upstairs. The cry for help should be coming from one of the rooms on the second floor, and someone that they already knew very well should be coming to the person's aid.

"It's exactly like that time..." mumbled Valentine. His cold gaze was looking ahead, seemingly able to pierce the walls.

The two of them left no sound of footsteps in that building, and the only sound of footsteps was coming from the other person, who was rushing very quickly towards the same room that they were going. The other person should be coming from another direction, so the two identical detectives wouldn't encounter the person on their way.

"It's this room, isn't it?"

Graham was standing in front of a room that had the sign above the door saying 'Class 2C'. Valentine nodded.

The room that seemed to be a classroom had all of its windows barricaded as well, much like all the other windows inside the building. The door, however, had been kicked open, and inside, there was an injured woman protecting three young children from an armed man.

Valentine and Graham felt the urge to take action, but they knew that they couldn't interact with that world, so they only stood there and watched.

The five people there had a dark skin tone that made it look like they were from a country with a lot of suns all year round. The armed man, who was pointing his gun at the injured woman, looked very angry.

Bang!

Suddenly, came another man that directly shot the angry man in the head without hesitation. The man was tall and his light blue eyes cast a cold gaze upon the dead person. It was the young Valentine Hymes!

"Hwaaa!!"

Hearing the gunshot and seeing the stranger, the children started crying. The injured woman knew that they had been saved and tried to calm down the children, comforting them with her voice.

"You should hide here for now. Here's some bandage and medicine," the young Valentine crouched down and handed her a small satchel with medical supplies inside.

The woman's eyes were brimming with gratitude, but it seemed that besides help, the woman, who was obviously a foreigner, didn't know how to say anything else in the young man's language.

After giving her the satchel, the young Valentine quickly left the room and disappeared from the two identical men's sight. The current Valentine clenched his fist while Graham was looking at him with concern.

"How could I be so stupid back then... If I had stayed a little longer..." his tone was full of regret, as if he was actually in the moment.

Graham tapped the man's shoulder and spoke gently, "We were still very young and inexperienced, Val. Don't be too hard on yourself,"

Valentine looked at his other half and nodded very slowly.

What they had been fearing finally happened. After the young Valentine left, three men came from another direction, and, hearing the whimpering of the woman who was bandaging her wound, they entered the classroom.

"Alguien está aquí!"

One of the men shouted once they spotted the woman and the children. They then continued speaking in a foreign language that Valentine and Graham didn't understand. Their expressions were twisted in anger.

The woman's heart was then filled with terror while the children were crying loudly, which enraged the men even more. She was speaking in a foreign language that seemed to be begging for mercy, but the men weren't listening. They pointed their guns at the helpless woman.

Valentine and Graham couldn't just stand and watch. They tried to attack the men, but their bodies just went through the assailants like they were ghosts.

Bang! Bang!

Two bullets pierced through the air and drilled into the woman's forehead, killing her instantly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

More bullets were fired, killing the scared and helpless children. After that, the man just left the room and disappeared from sight, leaving Valentine and Graham in anger at their own inability to do anything.

"Let's go, Val... There is nothing else we can do here..." said Graham. His tone was even heavier than before.

Valentine didn't say anything and just left the classroom. He then remembered back then how the young him returned to the classroom much later to find that the people he had tried to save had been killed brutally. He remembered the pain, anger, and hatred that he had felt back then; how his stupidity had led them to their death, how his powerlessness had caused people's lives to be taken away. What he was feeling right now was probably not much different than back then.

"We can't save everybody, Val," reminded Graham.

They were now heading towards another end of the building, where the young Valentine had headed. The young him should be engaged in combat with another group of assailants currently with his own squad.

"If we hadn't left the woman quickly, more lives might have been lost at that time. Although it still didn't justify our stupidity..."

The two of them finally arrived at the big hall on the second floor where two groups of people were firing at each other. One group, which included the young Valentine, was wearing green and black camouflage uniforms with the logo of the Republic on the right shoulder. The other group was wearing civilian outfits, but they were heavily armed.

The young Valentine was fighting the rebellion group that had taken over the school and killing off anyone who didn't support their view. It was a memory that Valentine and Graham would never forget, and even though it had been buried deep inside their brain somehow, everything had resurfaced now, along with the pain and sorrow that they had felt back then.