Married To The Mad Vampire Lord
Chapter 178: The River Of Soul

Chapter 178: The River Of Soul

Belle dug the plant to the root and stopped short, her eyes widening in surprised wonder at what she saw.

Right under the plant roots was an oval-shaped thing that she recognized as a heart, and even if she hadn’t, the beating was enough to let her know what it was. It was beating steadily in a rhythm that was fascinating, the tiny vein-like roots of the plant wrapped around it as if to protect the heart and keep it safe.

Belle could not believe she was watching Rohan’s beating heart, and for a moment, she forgot she was in a dangerous place where the cry was getting closer and the wind was picking up even more. She felt it raise her hair.

She snapped back to her senses and quickly, but gently reached her hands into the hole she had dug and cupped the beating heart in her palms with the roots that were protecting it.

It was so warm, and the warmth was so familiar she fought the urge to bring it close to her own heart and hug it. The temperature was so similar to Rohan’s she found herself tearing up again. She missed him so much, but it wasn’t the right time to get emotional and lost in the moment, even though her heart longed for him.

As the wind got stronger and the cry louder to the point she wanted to cover her ears, Belle knew she was in for a run from creatures she couldn’t even see, but she could feel the strong, sinister presence all around her.

Nonetheless, her only worry was how to protect the heart of her husband. She bent down, lifted the hem of her nightdress, and carefully placed the heart onto the fabric. Then, without a second thought for her modesty, she gathered the folds of the dress around it and cradled the bundle in her arms, holding it close to her as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

She began to run through the wind that had stirred up dust and sand, and the moment she entered the center of the rising wind, voices began to flow into her ears from the unseen dark spirits.

"Fresh body, fresh soul! We will take you and have a form!" came the eerie shrieks of voices, doubled and loud.

Belle kept running without stopping or getting trapped by the voices, knowing even if the spirits did not get to her, the reapers had probably heard the stirring of commotion and would be on their way by now. She had to wake up as the heart was already in her possession.

While still running and clutching the dress hem where the heart was inside the fabric with one hand, she brought her other hand to her mouth and bit hard on her skin until she broke her own skin. But no matter the pain and blood she drew from her own hand, she did not wake up like the last time she had injured herself.

"Stop running, soul!" came the voices of the unseen spirits that seemed to be right on her heels.

Whimpering in dread and panic as she couldn’t wake up, Belle kept running while calling for Kuhn, who had disappeared without telling her where he was going. She needed to leave this place right now.

Belle ran with all her might, but to her absolute misfortune, a creeper that ran down between two graves in the cemetery caught her feet and she lost her balance and fell forward. But right as she saw herself falling, the first thing Belle did was protect the heart. She twisted around and fell on her back instead, in the process hitting the back of her head against a tombstone, causing her to moan in great pain.

But the shocking thing was that even that pain was not enough to wake her up nor knock her unconscious. She pushed herself off the ground, and the next thing she did, despite the pain and the spirit coming from the distance with the wind she had escaped from, was to look down at the heart inside her dress.

Seeing how it was still beating steadily with the leaves at the top, she sighed in great relief and then looked up at the wind that was closing in on her.

However, just as she thought the wind would cover her whole and give the spirits the chance to attach themselves to her body, the wind came to a sudden stop, and just like that, it disappeared, and everything went back to the stillness she knew about this other land.

Belle’s brows knitted in confusion as she wondered why everything had suddenly gone silent and why the spirits had stopped chasing her. She managed to push herself up to her feet, but the moment she stood upright, she froze. Even before she turned around to see it, she felt a heavy presence settle behind her.

Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach at the realization that the spirits had stopped chasing because they saw something behind her. Slowly, she turned around, and as she did, she instinctively took a step back from the Grim Reaper who stood ten feet away, unmoving and watching her.

"I finally found you again, human," came the raspy, thick voice of the Watcher who had been assigned the mission to bring in this same living human who had come into this land without dying.

"C-can you let me go this time around?" she asked, backing away from him while frantically trying to think of a way out of this.

Had Belle had the ability to read a reaper’s expression or even see its eyes, she would have seen the shock in the Watcher’s gaze at the fact that she could understand the language of the reapers, the language of the dead.

"You are not dead. How can you speak our language?" he asked, raising his scythe towards her.

Belle stepped back. Kuhn had explained to her that if a reaper’s scythe were to touch a human, their soul would naturally get harvested and become one of those who belonged here forever. Her eyes moved to the scythe in the reaper’s hand as he advanced on her.

"You can come with me and make it less punishment," Watcher Selric said with a tone that sounded pleased. He was indeed pleased that the human could not escape from him again, and he would take her to the Elder and elevate his position in the land of the dead, because once they had her, that traitor’s whereabouts would no longer be a secret. Kuhn would be found... and so would Astral.

Seeing how the reaper was walking up to her, Belle turned on her heels and began to run towards the river she had come from. Running was not the solution, but she could not afford to stand and get caught. She did not want to stop existing, not when she had sworn to save someone, not when she had a life she wanted to live till the end.

Belle ran until she reached the River of Soul where she had tied the boat, only now the boat was no longer there anymore. It was gone.

She swirled around when she heard the movement of the reaper following her in a slow pace that came from the confidence that she had nowhere to run.

She began to back away from him until her feet touched the water.

"You have nowhere to go, human. If you fall into the River of Soul while still alive, you will stop existing in the land of the living and the land of the dead, you will perish completely without a body. You will become a formless spirit. You can walk to my mighty self and let me take you to my Supreme Elder."

Belle scoffed. "What’s the difference? I’ll still be punished and wiped off," she said.

However, she stopped backing up as she feared falling into the river. Apart from the fact that she would die if she fell into it, she could not imagine being inside that dark water.

As the Watcher advanced on her and she saw his scythe, Belle found herself backing up again subconsciously.

Go into the water, a voice whispered in her subconscious, but Belle tried to shake it off as it wasn’t ideal to go into a river that could also wipe her existence.

Go in, the voice repeated firmly.

The Watcher raised his hand and a bound-like rope appeared in it, and then without warning, he swung it in Belle’s direction to catch her. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as she watched the dark rope swing toward her.

Jump! urged the voice—and without even thinking about what she was doing, she swirled around and tossed herself into the River of Souls. The moment she fell into it, the binding rope the reaper swung at her hit the water surface without getting to her.

Watcher Selric stood frozen for a moment, not able to believe that the human had just killed herself and wiped off her own soul and body.

"This stupid thing has made me lose the opportunity to rise to another position," grumbled the reaper. "I have to find Kuhn without it. Damnation."