Chapter 194 193. Throbbing Heart.

"Max!!" Seo Hana roared and rushed into the burning building while extinguishing the fire to make way for herself.

She felt her nostrils and lungs burning at the insane amount of heat the skyscraper's insides were producing, even though she herself was covered in flames. The fire she was extinguishing was far more fierce. They were strong enough to hurt someone who is called 'The Ruler of the Flames.'

THROB

"Max!" She continued to yell his name as she rushed to the only floor where she could feel a single presence.

"Hahaha..." A hysteric, ominous, muffled laughter reached her ears, which sent shivers down her spine.

"Max!" She called out one last time and rushed to the floor, where she felt his presence; his laughter got louder and louder as she got closer.

"Ha, hahahaha, haha, ha." His ominously sorrowful laughter resounded throughout the entire floor.

Seo Hana peered in the direction where the laughter was coming from. She squinted her eyes and noticed a silhouette sitting in the middle of the fiercely burning fire. There was a ton of debris at the entrance of what was supposed to be a room, despite the fact that she had noticed debris all the way over to this place, she was still trying to figure out what had happened.

WHOOOMMMM

The fire was burning more fiercely in the room Max was in. Hana braced herself and walked towards him. She noticed a body lying in front of Max, who was kneeling down with his back facing Seo Hana. She then noticed that Max's fire, which was devouring the entire skyscraper, was just the fire's way of letting out the extremely stressful amount of emotion he was trying to hold in, and he was not exactly in control over his magic power, which was exploding out of him.

"Ha, haha." Max was letting out dry laughs. Seo Hana noticed a bit of resentment in them, but not as much as the sadness it carried; she suddenly remembered how much Max's love she had felt back at the gate; his love for Faye was literally oozing out of his body without being able to be contained within; and...

Now, he was in front of the dead body of the very woman he had loved so deeply.

THROB

'Max....' She wanted to call him out, but she couldn't; she felt a strange lump stuck in her throat, which was forcing her to shut up.

She then noticed that the closer she got to Max, the less the fire burned; there was a huge circle of fire around Max that wasn't getting close to him as if the fire feared him. Even though that was the case, she noticed many holes burned in the clothes he was wearing, where only the collar of his shirt remained intact, and his lean, chiselled body carried many burn marks; this man....he was trying to protect Faye even though he himself was burning.

She got close to him and noticed that there were no signs of the undead, which meant he had killed it; a sigh of relief escaped her mouth at that realization. She was so relieved by the fact that he was still alive that she didn't even question how a hero who was supposedly ranked AA defeated an undead, which would give even a team of rank-S heroes a headache.

THROB

"....Max." Seo Hana called out with a pitiful look on her face; she wouldn't even dare imagine how he must be feeling right now, but she definitely knew how it felt to lose a loved one, because in a world like this, a 'hero' should be born with an unbelievable amount of luck to not have lost a loved one even once.

He had stopped laughing loudly like a madman, but she could still hear a subtle voice that would crack out a laugh every now and then.

"... M-Max." Seo Hana called out again and placed her hand on his shoulder. She flinched when she felt his body so hot that it seemed like he was being cooked alive, but she still placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to at least ease the amount of emotional pain he was feeling.

"!" She flinched again when Max raised his head and looked at her with his hollow, crying eyes; they seemed so lifeless that she would find it strange to learn that he had already died.

Tears were streaming out continuously, leaving red marks on his cheeks, showing how hot his tears were, to not even evaporate in such a hot room. His teary eyes were so hollow that not even his pupils were visible in his black eyes.

In front of him was the body of Faye Clayton, whose head was detached; he had placed her head back where it was supposed to be and had poured a ton of thick, green liquid, which Hana recognised as a high-grade healing potion.

"H-Hana?" Max called out with melancholic voice with a dead look on his face.

THROB

"....Y-yes." She replied with her hand placed on her mouth as tears streamed down her cheek when she noticed that he had tried to heal her after not being able to accept the truth about Faye Clayton's death. He was in such a pitiful state that she couldn't even find any other words other than 'pitiful' to describe it. She felt her heart clench so strongly that she couldn't breathe properly; her phoenix trait enhanced the emotions she was feeling, which included the emotions the fire surrounding them excluded.

"L-look, F-F-Faye i-isn't m-moving?" Max pointed at Faye's lifeless body in front of him.

THROB

"....." Seo Hana's brows trembled at his words, which seemingly denied reality.

"I, I, I al-already la-la-laughed, haa... at h-her j-j-joke." Max said with a forced smile on his face which made him all the more pitiful.

THROB

".....Uhu." A cough escaped Hana's mouth as she tried to hold back from crying out loud in front of him as she realised why he was laughing like a madman.

"No, no, no, d-don't cr-cry. Wh-what if F-Faye f-feels bad a-a-and d-doesn't wa-wake up?" Max shook his head repeatedly and showed Hana a forced smile again while crying, as if he wanted her to copy him.

THROB

"...M-Max!" Hana yelled, unable to bear seeing him in that state any longer; even though she had witnessed such deaths many times before, this time she was feeling especially sad, and all the tears she had held back at those deaths began to force her to weep together with Max.

"Hm?" Max titled his head with a puzzled look on his face, which had many red marks on it. She then noticed that his skin was being slightly peeled off by his own tears; she abruptly knelt in front of him and gently wiped off his tears so that he wouldn't be in any more pain than he was already in. Her flames had healing properties, so she even used them on him to heal him; though slightly, it was enough if she could even lessen a bit of his pain.

BUMP

She cupped his face and bumped her forehead with his; she then closed her eyes, since she didn't dare look into his eyes and say the words she was about to say.

THROB

"F-Faye is already....dead."