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Elisa stopped after a few steps as a disturbing thought emerged in her mind. Rahul, who stood a few feet ahead of her, stopped and turned, his senses alerting him that Elisa was not following anymore.
“Is there anything wrong?” he asked, looking at her with narrowed eyes.
Elisa kept staring at the woman who remained in the corner, unmoving, as she had been for at least an hour or so. She was alive but looked no more than a dead body: chained, weak, with a skeleton-type physique with no muscles left from a lack of nutrition. There was barely a trace that she had ever existed without pain. Not to mention having been raped thousands of times by rakshasas and pishachas.
“How is she still alive after going through all this?”
“Let’s free her and find out.”
Elisa approached the woman.
“M-Move,” she said. “Free me.”
Rahul and Elisa’s smiles widened.
When they reached the woman, Elisa noticed she had a severed finger. Seeing the woman’s condition, Elisa couldn’t control her feelings, and she sobbed aloud. “How could a lady go through these tribulations that no one has and perhaps never will? Why did God let it happen to her?”
“Everything’ll be all right,” said Rahul. “We are here to help her.”
All the while, Dali kept watching.
And now, she was happy. This was the perfect moment to ambush them and end this chapter with their deaths and the woman’s. She would kill her first so Rahul and Elisa could see their coming fate.
Elisa turned around and looked down, still sobbing, having lost the courage to look at the woman. Rahul halted only a few steps away from Sekiada’s wife. He needed to allow some space between them for the sword to swing down and cut the chain. It would take several attempts, he guessed, possibly more, but with Dansh and Sekiada gone, they had some time.
When Rahul raised his sword, the woman barely looked at him, and he swung it down toward the chain.
But the sword did not make impact.
He found himself rising in the air and he dropped the weapon in shock.
“Elisa!” he shouted. “What’s going on?”
Elisa wiped away the tears with her palm and turned around. When she looked to see where he was, only the woman was visible.
“Elisa!” shouted Rahul once more.
Following his voice, she looked up and saw Rahul hanging in midair. Shocked, she stepped forward and tried to speak, but her brain couldn’t generate anything.
Rahul was pulled through the air, and then he was dragged. He was dropped to the ground, and Elisa could now see that someone was standing right next to him.
As her eyes shifted from Rahul to the reversed feet, she had no doubt about who it was. When her eyes reached Dali’s face, she saw she was grinning. Elisa remained standing; her eyes now wide open in distress.
In the corner, through her blurry vision, the woman also let her gaze stop on Dali, who had entered the chamber and levitated Rahul.
She edged back in horror. After twenty-five years, someone was finally here to free her, but now Dali was about to kill her saviors. She would keep suffering here forever. Her face dropped as if she was about to cry, but no tears came out of her eyes; she had not felt real tears in over a decade.
Rahul struggled to stand up, looking at the chained lady. There were wounds on his knees, and blood was slowly streaming out.
Elisa glanced at the sword at her feet. Dali followed her line of sight. She halted. They locked eyes with each other, Dali still wearing a grin, confident about her powers, and Elisa now exhibiting a wealth of rage.
Elisa abruptly picked up the sword and sprinted toward Dali. Rahul could only watch. He saw Elisa sprinting toward him—well, toward Dali, who was standing only feet away—and, on his palms and feet, he quickly staggered to the side to let her pass.
When Elisa was nearly at Dali, she leaped high in the air and soared toward her with the sword ready in her hand. But Dali raised her hand and pushed her away in the air. Elisa tried to jump down, but she was stuck in midair in the same ready-to-attack position she had been in when Dali had disabled her.
Rahul gazed at her, and anger overwhelmed his brain. He conquered his pain as the fury took complete control over his mind, and he stood up.
Elisa was unable to move her legs and hands, but she realized that she could loosen the grip on the sword, and she succeeded, letting it fall to the ground beside Rahul, halting him in his place. He picked it up, staring at Dali, and then prepared to end the final chapter of her life.
Yet, before he could reach her, Dali turned to him and levitated him once more, fixing him beside Elisa. He let the sword slip from his hand.
* * *
Aarav and Arjun approached the cave, believing Rahul and Elisa may be there to find a way of killing the immortals. They had terminated all seven pishachas, and now they could see no other evil in the vicinity.
But now, they both wondered what they were seeing as their eyes landed on a line of humans standing at the cave’s entrance.
“Are they guarding the cave?” asked Aarav, astonished.
Arjun looked at Aarav, also amazed, and then followed his stare. “They do look like humans, but I wonder why they would stand like this here in the open desert where any evils could spot them. Perhaps they are statues, or—”
“Statues!?” said Aarav in bewilderment, interrupting Arjun. “How could statues appear here? Who will have set them here and why?”
“Our answers await us there at the cave, for sure,” said Arjun, pointing. “Perhaps this is the cave where those two youngsters dealt with the wicked, and they may be here to find an answer. And perhaps for that reason, these people are guarding the cave.”
Aarav was buzzing in excitement and said, “let’s find out what’s been cooking.”
As they approached, the figures became clear to them, and it was confirmed that they were indeed humans. They increased their pace, desperately wanting to find the truth.
