Elements: The Ancient Tomb

Chapter 24: "Land of gods"- Part 12: "Confession"

Then Yelena replied with uneasiness and anxiety:

'No… I am thinking that after this, I will surrender myself to the police. I started to regret what I did to Linh. Linh doesn't deserve that even though she's done bad things. That's all.'

'What the hell are you thinking?'

'I'm going to die anyway, as you know. Therefore I will do what a citizen should do after sinning to atone for the mistake I made with Linh before his death. She shouldn't have deserved it, just because in that moment of mind being manipulated by that powerful force, I...'

'No, I think she deserves it. You couldn't blame that power for what you did. Actually, from the bottom of your heart, you were very angry at Linh's actions, that power only magnified your negative emotion. About the feeling of indignation at the loss of a loved one, I completely understand. I just don't know how hurt and angry you were because of thinking I died after that car explosion... But I'm still alive, right? So don't feel sorry for me.'

'Please, the fact that you are still alive makes me very happy and relieved, but this one is another problem. I'm going to turn myself the police, take this EC, and get out of here. I don't want you to get involved in the trouble I caused. You can visit me in prison any time you want.'

The part when Yelena turned her back and walked out, pulling her phone from her pocket to call the police to arrest her. But she realized that her phone couldn't get a signal in a place that was thousands of miles away from the city center.

'You should've known this was completely useless, there's no signal for you to call here, stop thinking about surrendering to the police now.'- 'Toan' said in a serious tone- ' Calm down and listen to me. Ignore her, Yelena. Don't do such stupid things. Consider it the price that Linh has to pay for touching your self-esteem and betraying your trust. Don't even think about surrendering now if you want to get what you want. Try thinking about that. Think about what you will achieve with that power,'

'Why would you think like what Linh was? What made you change like that? As if you were someone else. Listen, I cannot abandon Linh and use this power for my gain. That's against my conscience, you know. If I do that, I'll be a person like Linh...'- Yelena answered firmly.

'OK, you just pretend I haven't said that. More importantly, did you leave any of your personal belongings at the scene?'

'I do not remember. At that time, my mind was confused. I just thought of coming to you right away with the switch and the Elemental Card as soon as you called me.'

'You were worried about me, weren't you?'

'That's right.'

'I feel very grateful for that. Thank you for doing that. Answer me, you did that because Linh planted a bomb in my car, right?'

'Right. It was she who did it... T lost control after hearing that and... You know that.'- Yelena said worriedly.

'So she was the one who blew up the bomb...'

'No, it's me. She pretended to trust me and held out the fake switch. I really didn't know that Linh had prepared a fake switch to trick me into killing him with that number of bombs, so I didn't hesitate to press the button... It was all arranged by Linh. She knew about how we met and talked to each other in coffee because she had someone wiretapped me before we met. You also know who the person who hooked up the wiretap is.'

'I know… Her purpose is to make you forced to use the power of that Elemental Card. She always wanted to see it with her own eyes, and finally, she was satisfied before her dying moment. I didn't expect you to have the courage to make a pact with the first owner of the god who holds the power that belongs to a god who represents one of four natural elements, Yelena. You're brilliant...'

'How do you know that? I mean about that god and my meeting with him."

'That is not important. Now can you show me the power you got from him? I'm quite curious about that."

"I can't. After what happened to Linh, I began to fear this power. Maybe I'd lose control of it if I did it.'

'Take it as a request from me, or as your way of atoning for the mistake you made me.'

'I'm sorry for indirectly pushing you to your death. I know I need to do something to atone for my mistake, except this. Thedus warned me about the consequences of it, and I thought carefully about it all the way here. I decide to bear this pain and obsession alone until I go to the grave...'

'So you won't do as I say, right? The burden and the loss from receiving that power, you will bear alone for the rest of your life, that's what you mean, right?'

'Yeah. I don't want to hurt anyone else. I've been thinking very carefully. Even though I have a future ahead of me, I also need to think about the future of humanity... Sometimes we need to sacrifice something we love for something more important. I can only settle down somewhere and wait to die. My time is running out, as Thedus said. I will quit my job and run away to a secret place that nobody knows until death for humanity, the same way you did for Linh. I have no regrets anymore, it's all for humanity.'- Yelena laughed as if she felt somewhat relieved.

'You think everyone will think: 'Oh, her ideal of sacrificing for humanity is so noble. I and all of humanity are grateful for that', right? But you know what? No one would think like that. I thought you were the person who had a spirit of steel that was not afraid of anything, ready to use that power for your benefit, but I was mistaken after hearing those words from you, I was a bit disappointed. You and Linh are completely different...'

Yelena could have been sure he wasn't Toan. She asked:

'You're not Toan. After all, who are you?'

'You will know soon enough. To be honest, I wonder if you wanted to free your mind from the fear of a terrifying prospect to humanity as that power manipulates both your body and mind... Could you answer me?'

'Answer me first.'- Yelena said while starting to push all the energy from the inside of her body into the palm of her left hand, but trying not to let him know...

She intended to suppress the man who was standing there. pretending to be Toan by force and then forcing him to confess. She thought during the power-charged process:

'As expected, he didn't want to let the police know about it, otherwise, he'd be in danger and this Elemental Card wouldn't be safe. I need to do something...'

'I guess I don't need to know the answer from you anymore. I will still do my mission whether you answer or not...'- 'Toan' telling Yelena interrupted her train of thought.

The part when 'Toan' suddenly kept silent for a while, putting his left hand behind his back as if he was about to pull something out. Yelena felt unsettled by his attitude, speeding up the power-charged process with the intention of shooting energy from her hand at him once to reveal his true identity. A few seconds later, without saying a word, 'Toan' suddenly raised the gun in his right hand and shot Yelena..."

...Yelena was hit in the abdomen by a bullet without reacting. She rolled back with a muffled scream. Her eyes were now red, showing both pain and surprise. She realized that she was right: the person standing in front of her was not Toan, but someone with an evil mind impersonating Toan, when she looked at him, she saw the silhouette of Linh she met at the Institute. He looked at her with hateful eyes, slowly approaching where she lay.

'Oh, it's not the right place to shoot, I think. Well, has my aiming level gone down?'- He spoke himself.

He said then covered his face with his right hand with a smile. Yelena is currently in a lot of pain, but still tries to ask:

'You… who are you?'

'You're curious too, aren't you? Okay, I'll tell you the truth.'

'Toan' took off the human skin mask that concealed his true identity. It was Hieu-Linh's powerful henchman with a bloody face.

'Oh Jesus, is that you? You're the one who followed me at the coffee shop...'

'We meet again. The feeling of familiarity is like meeting for the first time. I would like to introduce myself as Hieu - who works for Linh as a bodyguard. Sorry to let you see my hideous face.'

Seeing the mask covered in blood on her hand, Yelena was shocked and said:

Maybe... after the call between me and Toan, you were at the scene of the explosion and killed him... then put on a prepared mask and drove here to find me...'

'You were 99% correct. To lure you in, I prepared everything, including the kind of car Toan drives, and the outfit he likes wearing,... so that it resembles Toan's style the most, it costs me quite a bit of money. There's only one thing I don't need to buy myself, and that's this mask.'

When looking at the mask, Yelena had a bad premonition, she realized something familiar from it, asking:

'What? Wait a second. Is that a human skin mask?'

'That's right. It's made of Toan's own facial skin.'

'Aaaaa....!'- Yelena yelled pitifully- 'Fuck you. You are not human, you are a monster. How can you do this inhumane act? It was Linh who sent you to do that with Toan, right?'

'No, I arranged it myself. To put it bluntly, everything happened in two days, from the cooperation between me and Linh, between her and Toan, the conflict between her and Linh in her Institute, and our reunion, it was all arranged by my hand. Linh is just a pawn in my hands to carry out my plan.'

'Impossible... I...'

'You still don't believe it, do you?

'What is your purpose in taking advantage of all of us?'

'Simply. Bring you here with the EC. Over!'

'Why me?'

'Toan is a coward, you know, he would never dare make a deal with the first owner of this EC and take his power. He knew about a death that would happen to him if he did. He took advantage of you, put you in danger, and forced you to make a contract with Thedus on his behalf. And trust me, when you run out of usefulness, he will get rid of you, too.'

'You're lying, Toan isn't kind of a jerk. It was I who requested this EC.'

'Actually, before he died by my gun, he made the last thought that he would not forgive me for causing him, you conflict Linh. He admitted that he wanted you to use it too and believed that you would take my life with the power he inherited from EC. Isn't that an indirect confession to that?'

Yelena was extremely indignant, tried to get up to look at Hieu, and said in a weak voice:

'Don't think I'll believe it. It's not like Toan lied to me. You killed Toan, and doing this to me, do you think you can live in peace? You will pay for everything you did, I swear.'

'I don't think that's going to happen...'

'Why… why do you think that?'

He suddenly stopped laughing, turned to look at Yelena, pointed at his face with his hand, and replied:

'My scarred face is a testament to the times of running away and being arrested and tortured by the police for petty crimes: robbery, assault,... Even though I went through many times of physical abuse inside, I somehow managed to survive. But the aftermath of the abuse completely changed my mind. I began to see killing as a hobby. So far, I have never received any retribution for what I have done after going out of jail. Maybe no god would dare touch someone like me... I'm still waiting for someone to stop me. But before that, I already have what I need and will continue to carry out my mission. I will never forget the time we had together Yelena.'

'Please, turn yourself in before it's too late, Hieu.'

'Unfortunately, I can't shoot myself in the foot. I don't dare to go back to that hell on earth like you. Yelena, I'm sorry to tell you the sad news: the date of your living has come to an end. Go to Heaven with Toan, both of you are good people.'

Yelena's wound was bleeding more and more. She tried to reach for the Elemental Card not far from her which she had dropped on the ground when she was shot. Seeing this, Hieu stepped on her hand and picked it up, ignoring her yell of helplessness and pain. Hieu smirked:

'Wow, are you going to use it to take me down as you did to Linh? Don't try to do that again. I won't let you do this again.'

The part when Yelena's eyes dimmed while trying to raise her head to look at Hieu who was delighted and then fainted from exhaustion and lost a lot of blood. At this time, Hieu showed quite an interest and pride in himself when he got the yellow Elemental Card picked up from Yelena. He pulled out a plastic glass case, which he held in his hand, and bounced it around a few times.

Hieu used his feet to gently push Yelena aside, humming the song 'Truth and Lie' by ADC - a famous American pop band:

'…We know the truth.

You asked what it costs.

I just tell you that's your life.

He is a good guy because he never lies.

He thinks it's so tiring when trying to lie.

We know the truth.

We know the truth.

We knew the truth...'

Then he pointed his gun at Yelena, saying:

'This is the end. Hope we can be friends in the next life. See you in the afterlife after I die.'

As he was about to pull the trigger, he saw something glowing behind him, as if he turned around and saw Thedus emerge from Yelena's body in spirit form. He yelled in surprise, he was so scared that he fell backward and dropped the gun in his hand. Thedus now introduced himself:

'You mortal, don't act so panicked. Be calm. I would like to introduce myself, I am Thedus - the first owner of this Elemental Card, the god who gave it to Yelena - the second owner of it. I won't harm you...'

Hieu regained his composure, smiled like a chatter, slowly stood up, wiped the dirt on his pants with his hand, and said:

'I'm not afraid of you. I even want to meet you.'

'Oh, what a surprise. I feel honored when hearing that.'- Thedus said.

'From what I've seen, this Elemental Card has an extremely powerful power. If these things exist in this world, then I wouldn't be surprised if entities like you - the guardian gods of EC - also exist and are present in this place.'

'Fair enough. You took me by surprise about your smart, you mortal. What's your name?'

'Please introduce myself, my name is Hieu. I have studied and observed the holder of your EC for a long time.'

'So you're the one who's been watching us wherever Toan goes. From what I've just heard from you, that's you, not Linh, who is pulling the strings to get the EC from Yelena.'

Hieu respectfully bowed before Thedus with respect, then raised his head and said:

'I am honored to have met one of the most powerful Elemental Gods, too. You don't look like what my great-grandfather described, do you? I've heard legends about you guys. My ancestor must be proud of me because I'm the first member of my family who saw two elemental gods.'

'Including Helius, you mean?!'

'Goddamn right, Thedus.'

'Who is your great-grandfather?! Why would you guys know me?'

'I'll talk about him later. Apologies for the rudeness, the abruptness just now.'

Seeing Hieu's face, Thedus, instead of asking further questions, approached and stared at him and said:

'Hieu, I am quite impressed with your plan to take over the Elemental Card, though how complicated it is. Did you use Helius's Elemental Card to manipulate that girl's mind to carry out your plan?'

'As expected, thanks to the mind link between you and the other Elements, you were able to sense the energy emanating from the Elemental Cards of the other Elemental Gods, thereby knowing everything that happened to them.'

'You know a lot about Elemental Cards, don't you?'

'I've been researching EC for a long time. I stayed up many nights researching and discovered some interesting things beyond science about it and painstakingly devised a plan to collect them safely. This EC is the booty I got, our meeting is another well-deserved result after all the hard work I've put in for so long.'

'Are you the one who has been following Toan before? Then why don't you use the power of the Elemental Card you are keeping to kill him and steal his Elemental Card? So isn't it easier and simpler than your plan?

'You think I'm easily blinded by power? I already know the secret of the price of exchanging power with one of the Elemental Gods through Helius. He said: 'A person can't use the power of an Elemental Card if he doesn't make a power exchange with the Elemental god who was the first owner of it. Besides, a person who borrows the power from any elemental god will have his life shortened and can die at any time because their body can't withstand that power for too long even if only receiving 1/10 of the power from that elemental god.' I have not made a contract with Helius so there is no exchange. I'm not stupid to test it myself, instead, I used Linh to make Yelena make an EC-property contract with him, from which part of his power will automatically be transferred to Yelena for her to have. I can't get out of this predicament, and I know what happens after that.'

'Using her as a white-footed mouse to test elemental power I gave her, you're inhuman...'

'Absolutely right. Because I thought it was the only way to get Yelena to portray her power so I could see it with my own eyes.'

'You need Yelena instead of Toan because you know he won't use the Elemental Card, right? But you can meet and talk directly to Yelena after she's got the elemental card from Toan and make up some fake story to seduce her without killing Toan and disguising yourself as him, right?'

'Too dangerous it is. Because she already knows my face, if I carelessly reveal my face, she will immediately guess that I killed Toan and use the power given to her by you to kill me without hesitation, which means I will share the same fate with Linh, to admire sm but to trade it with death. You think I'm willing to use my life as the price to pay for it?'

'I don't think it would be possible for someone like you to do that.'

'Yes, because that price is too high. That's why I need to do it so that I don't have to worry about getting killed and easily coax her to show off her power without harming me. But what I didn't expect was that her fear ruined it all. Anyway, that's not a problem for me now, because I can see how she shows her power to Linh through the video extracted from the camera installed at the Archaeological Institute later. Someone like her who doesn't have the strong will to control it is of no use to me, so I decided to get rid of her before she became a danger.'

Thedus realized the guy who was standing in front of him was not human, but a monster.