CH 65.2

He strangled her until her consciousness faded away.

Isabella closed her eyes while thinking about her death.

At that moment, Descartes jerked her neck with trembling hands.

“Well, this is more interesting. You’re more stubborn than I thought.”

Isabella’s rough gasps made his smile even more twisted.

Descartes was insane.

Isabella pursed her lips while his fingers caressed her sore neck.

It was a relief that her throat was still intact.

“Anyway, I don’t feel the need to escape from this world now that you’re here with me. But know that you can’t get out of this room until you change your mind.”

Descartes rose from the bed and approached a human-sized sculpture lying in the middle of the room.

The large sculpture was shaped like a cage covered in black cloth.

“You will be lonely by yourself, so I’ll give you a special companion to talk to. Just see what happens if you go against my will. I’ll turn you into this  if the rebellion drags on.”

When Descartes pulled the black cloth to the side, Isabella saw someone imprisoned in what seemed to be a cage made of solid ice.

It was a red-haired woman, and she appeared worse than what Isabella had imagined.

Black shackles had tied her hands and feet.

Her torn, ragged clothes barely covered the cruel wounds on her skin.

She looked like she could barely move as if she had been whipped multiple times.

Isabella’s eyes trembled in shock when she saw the woman on the floor.

She must have been Ifrit, the red-haired woman she saw in her dream.

“I’m willing to spare her life if you change your mind about me. Think about it, Isabella.” He told her before disappearing from the room in an instant.

After climbing out of bed, Isabella staggered toward Ifrit and gripped the bars of the ice cage in an attempt to break it.

Even the ice cage’s door was closed so tight that no matter how hard she tried opening it, it just wouldn’t budge.

“Ifrit! You’re Ifrit, right?”

Isabella called Ifrit’s attention urgently while she lay on the floor.

Ifrit’s condition was more devastating in reality compared to her dream.

She was shocked to find the Queen of the Fire Spirits trapped in this ice cage.

It wasn’t that she was missing all this time.

Queen Ifrit just couldn’t escape from here.

Whether or not Ifrit’s power had weakened or that madman’s magic was beyond imagination, Isabella had no idea.

“Ifrit! Wake up! I’m Isabella.”

“Isabella,” Ifrit murmured slowly, straightening her back from the fetal position.

Her dim red eyes were in a daze as Isabella stared at her.

“You’re not Isabella.”

Like Ignis, Ifrit immediately recognized that she wasn’t Isabella.

Still, she was glad that Ifrit still had the spirit to tell her.

“That’s right, Ifrit. I suddenly possessed Isabella’s body about three years ago.”

“Three years ago? Wow. It was the day when the boundary between these worlds began acting up. I was dragged in here afterward. So it wasn’t me that this madman wanted!  It was you. Perhaps, Descartes had made a mistake because you and I seemed to have similar energy.”

Had Ifrit been dragged into this particular world instead of her due to a mistake?

Then, should she have possessed this novel setting instead of the previous one entitled “Ice Flower”?

Isabella’s heart aches for some reason.

“I can’t show any of my strength here. But….”

Ifrit crawled slowly toward her and desperately reached out to Isabella between the gaps in the ice cage.

Isabella hurriedly stretched her arms so that she could grab Ifrit’s paling hand.

How long were they holding hands?

Suddenly, warmth had brought a healthy natural color to Ifrit’s pale cheeks, and every wound carved on her skin healed little by little.

Isabella’s eyes widened in surprise at the quick change in the Fire Spirit’s body.

“I had guessed right,” Ifrit muttered to herself as she examined her healing wounds.

“I have assumed that I could use my strength again if I met you. I was able to use my strength again after I inflicted that scar on your shoulder.”

Ifrit touched the flame-shaped wound on Isabella’s shoulder.

“I have felt tremendous pain from this wound sometimes.”

“I’m sorry. I must have used too much of your energy through this wound. I  tried to store anything I could gather from you so that I could call you.”

“You were the one who called me here?”

“Yes. If the madman didn’t disturb me, we might have returned to our original world safely by now.”

Then, was the meeting she had with Ifrit and the devil in her dream not an illusion…. but a reality?

If Ifrit took her power back, can she return Isabella to Duke Kyar’s world?

Isabella looked at Ifrit with anticipation.

She seemed rejuvenated after she shared energy with her.