Imaez and Lloyd began running for their lives.
"Go!!! Keep running!!" Lloyd screaming running out of the basement.
"Hahhh.." Imaez panted while running. "I can't.. run… anymore.. I'm so exhausted." He put his hands on his knees.
*Damn it.. and I can't electrify anymore.. Only choice is to create a plan without Soul Pact usage..* Lloyd thought.
"He's actually kind of far back.. if we can get a move on, we could out run him Imaez.."
The door of the basement burst open.
Blood dripped onto the wooden floors of the upstairs as Julius slowly walked out.
"SHIT!" Imaez screamed bolting out the house.
*We're definitely going to die…* Imaez thought to himself.
The two Deathslingers made it onto the streets.
"Okay.. maybe-" Lloyd was cut off by Julius standing in front of him and Imaez.
Lloyd's leg was ready to turn around and sprint but he couldn't move.
"Running is futile." Julius said terrifyingly. "Trying to escape will only put you in a deeper hole than what you are currently in."
Julius stuck his hands out.
"Rupture." He tapped Imaez and Lloyd's chests.
"If you can survive this.. you'll truly be an adversary for me, Imaez Austeci." Julius said with a chuckle.
"Sun is setting.. that's our cue." Julius jumped off.
Lloyd's eyes went white. His body was limp.
He was sent into a world beyond the physical realm.
*What's this…?*
All he could observe was white.
*Is this really it? It's so bright.. for what?*
Lloyd had closed his eyes.
*Maybe I won't see white..*
*No..*
A darkness filled his mind. Memories.
Memories he stored deep inside of his soul.
*What is this…?*
The face of a woman had appeared in front of him.
*Mom?*
The face had quickly molten and turned into a skeleton.
Lloyd stuck his hands in front of his eyes.
"No…"
"Get away." "Go away." Lloyd bargained with his soul.
*There's no point…*
*I can't confront the past.*
*Not after I couldn't protect… my own mother.*
Lloyd remembered a short vivid memory.
His mother, on the floor, as a man barged in— with a knife in his hand.
He watched from the staircase as his legs shook.
*I didn't want to kill. I didn't want to see her die. I didn't want to destroy a life. Yet, I watched my own mother perish.*
He remembered a sound. The rattle of metal.
*The knife dropped.*
Lloyd was in a realm of his soul— tortured by his past.
In reality—
Marie and Naomi had searched for the pressures of Imaez and Lloyd.
"The hell are these idiots doing..?" Naomi muttered.
*Lloyd..!!* Marie recognized his faint pressure.
Marie had bolted to Lloyd's location— quickly searching for human life.
"Shit! Where is he..?!" She searched her eyes until she had seen him and another lying on the street.
"Imaez..? Lloyd..?" Marie's eye were wide.
She had touched their pulses— both still alive.
"Hhaaah." She sighed of relief. "So… they're probably out cold."
She looked at Lloyd and Imaez— "They're bloody?"
Naomi had rushed over still carrying Falcon—
"What's wrong?!- Oh." "Seems like they're out cold."
"No.. that's not it. Their soul pressure is fluctuating.. it's not stable!" Marie was frustrated— she couldn't figure it out.
"Let me take a crack at this, it's gonna be alright calm down.." Naomi knelt down to Imaez's chest.
Marie had paced around in a circle— *Are they going to die..? Lloyd is all I have. Imaez is like an older brother to me…*
Naomi turned alert—
"That's unusual.. that shouldn't make sense." She turned to Marie.
"They've been sent into a Soul State."