The air was cool. Shoe's eyes struggled to make out shapes in the darkness, but movement kept catching her gaze. How far away was Life now?
She sniffed. The scent felt far. Life had been running at a full sprint, so that made sense. Still, if Shoe and Ludovica didn't run too, they'd probably lose her.
Howling, Shoe began to jog, hoping Ludovica would get the message that she wanted to go faster.
"Sh*t. That's true."
The last thing Malin wanted was to put humanity in danger. Sure there weren't many people there, but there were enough. If they stayed in the forest, the anger would increase; his stupid mom would have access to all the wild animals her blackened heart desired.
Malin would figure something out. He was an entity with full range of his powers, after all. And now that he'd found Life, he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
"I'll take care of that," Malin promised. "Shoe can track you by the scent of your soul, so all we need is to find a soul whose scent overpowers yours. I wonder if rolling in mud covers the scent of a soul. Crap, this is so stupid. Forget it, I'll protect you somehow. I'm an entity too. I can do something."
He stood, brushing the dirt off of his robe. Life probably had a decent amount of energy by now (and Malin himself was getting rather tired), but he still wanted to carry her, for some stupid reason. He crouched again, glancing at Life.
Bennie laughed, holding back a hand for Kayin. "Relax, kiddo. Everything's fine. Alfie was with Shoe and Ludo, and they're all after Life. But I can't let them find her. I have to find her first so I can protect her from those stupid maniacs. You'll probably just slow me down, so you can head home if you want."
Finding Life again was the priority. It mattered not what was going on with Kayin, or with anyone else. What mattered was finding Life and making sure no one ever hurt her again.
Of course none of them cared. Alfonso sighed. Surely Maria would want to know about Life being found. And if he happened to run into Cherry Blossom, it was likely she would want to know her father was back too. But to this group, his discovery meant nothing.
"Never mind. I'll tell Death. She'll be proud of my discovery." Why did everyone treat Alfonso like a weakling? Here he was making the find of the century and no one even cared. Not even his son or his father.
"Stop moping, seriously," Ingris muttered."Just go find Death and tell someone who cares."
Right. Death. He had to find Death.
"It was lovely to check in," Alfonso said, mostly sarcastic. He began to head through the realm, ignoring the sounds of Xenos's cackling laughter behind him.
And people thought he was messed up.