Chapter 147: Mortal World 13

The cemetery was quite big and was surrounded by a fence. At night the entrance was prohibited yet Lia jumped over the fence with ease.

The graves were all lined up and sectioned into different areas. A fresh scent lingered in the air as grass and trees filled the whole place.

Lia ventured a bit before settling in front of a row of graves. Her hand hovered over the earth and her white lifeforce flowed out of her ring.

It seeped into the graves and entered the corpses that were still intact.

"Come out," Lia said but nothing happened.

She tried again, exuding more of her lifeforce. Only for the end result to be the same. The corpses didn't move nor heed her command. Frustrated, Lia gave up and moved to the other corpses. Yet no matter how she tried, it wasn't working.

After many failed attempts Lia headed back to the base and sunk into her bed. It was a depressing discovery. If she still couldn't use her lifeforce then what use did this ring have?

Time flew and three days passed. Whenever Lia ran into Yano she instantly turned on her heels ignoring him while at night she tried out all the cemeteries, even opting for fresh corpses that just died but her power was lost. It was one dead end after another one.

"Hey, hey," Holn excitingly waved in front of Lia as she absent-mindedly stared at the table sitting in the cafeteria.

Holn set his food next to Lia, "You really not going to train with Yano?"

"No," Lia said it so decisively that Holn was taken aback.

"Seriously? A shame, Yano's pretty good as a teacher, yknow? You're letting go of a superb chance!"

Lia wanted to say that she couldn't care less but at this point, it was a lie. She desperately needed her power back. It has almost been two weeks since she's been here.

"He can't help me," Lia went with this excuse.

"Ehh~ I see. By the way, what you doing at night?" Holn's cheeks were stuffed with food, carefree throwing this question out that made Lia freeze, "What do you mean?"

"C'mon, you really thought you could fool us? At night, you're sneakily sneaking around all the time!"

Lia didn't think she was actually found out this easily. Was this the true power of skilled and trained exorcists?

"What are you guys talking about?" Yano joined, finally being able to see Lia properly again yet Lia stood up and without even batting her eye she left.

Yano sighed while Holn was tremendously amused, "Love life's not going well, huh? The cold shoulder, typical… what did you do?"

Almost confused Yano thought how to answer but then opted for, "You're the one to talk with your zero experience."

"Touché," Hold up his fork, "But you are also a zero hahaha!"

Meanwhile, Lia went back to her room eagerly looking through the internet. She wasn't hoping to find any answers but at least something she could draw inspiration from. There were several lores and myths about powers, especially about necromancy but then again there was no explanation on how to receive and train those powers.

After all, these were all just fantasy in the mortals' eyes. Lia spent a few hours researching before she headed out for another cemetery.

This one was the furthest away from the base and by far the largest one she has been too. It was located under a hill and spanned over the whole grassland. Some of the graves were higher than the others, some were plain and some had tons of flowers decorating the graves.

After death how many people would still remember them? Lia realised that she had never visited her parents' graves but their corpses were long gone and there was no place for Lia to set up a burial for them.

Absent-mindedly, Lia walked through the rows of graves, looking for the ones that have just been buried recently. The dim shine of the moonlight and the faint wind collided with each other to create a sombre night.

The grass beneath Lia's shoes left trails behind as the dirty earth came to surface. Finding what she's been searching for, Lia crouched and put her hand onto the pile of earth and poured her lifeforce into.

"Come out" she ordered.

Lia closed her eyes and focused all of her senses on the area beneath her palm. Soft, dry and a little bit cold.

Her mind drifted off and felt like it followed her lifeforce to surround and enter the corpse. Slowly, steadily and relentlessly yet nothing happened.

Lia increased the amount of lifeforce and her eyebrows furrowed. The swoosh of her lifeforce moving occupied her ears until another sound mixed in.

The breaking of a branch. Lia instantly opened her eyes and shot up. In this dark cemetery, Lia was all alone. No one was there. Did she mishear things?

Lia crouched down again but a moment later she put her hand on the grave, spun around and kicked the person behind her off-balance.

To stabilize themselves the person grabbed Lia by the waist and pulled themselves closer. Only then did Lia smell the familiar delightful flower scent paired with a clean one and heard the familiar infuriating light tone, "Careful there."

Lia's hands quickly moved to push Yano away but he stopped her and pulled her even closer to him. Her head laid on his chest and she could hear the sound of a wild heart beating.

Was it hers or his?

"Don't touch me."

"Don't be mad," Yano coaxed and stroked her head.

"Did you even hear what I've said?" it made Lia angry how Yano had no problems being intimate or close to her. Just what did he want?

"Don't be mad," Yano coaxed again and Lia gave up. She let him do what he wanted. And it was also quite comfortable. For a while, nothing but their heartbeats intertwined interrupted the silent night.

It almost felt magical until Lia realised, "Did you see?" with an abrupt movement she freed herself and with her eyes narrowed she stared at him.

A one metre distance was between them and it felt like nothing could step in between. Lia was too defensive and Yano didn't dare to cross the line again.

"No," Yano shook his head.

"Really?" Lia was now squinting her eyes at him.

"I mean you didn't do anything apart from caressing that pile of dirt there. Ah, how nice it can experience it," Yano really gave an envious stare at the grave.

"Referring to yourself as a pile of dirt? How befitting," Lia mocked but turned serious, "How long have you been here?"

Yano wanted to sulk and said, "Since the beginning. Don't be angry, please," it seemed like he was afraid he would agitate her and put on a sad puppy expression.

However, Lia had no time to admire his defiance, right now she was incredibly furious. He's been following her since she left the base. He really had the audacity. The brazen audacity but-

What pushed her more over the edge was the fact that she didn't even notice it. Was it his power?

"Never, ever, do it again," each word was spoken with such intensity, Yano instantly regretted it.

"I'm sorry, I promise, I won't," he wanted to approach and take her hand to make his interest clear but if he did that, he was afraid Lia would completely explode.

He wanted her to like him and not hate him even more. He messed up, he had to admit.

"I shouldn't have done that, I know my mistake," Yano dropped his head slightly, "You've been disappearing every night, so I've been worried about what you've been up to. You aren't familiar with the mortal world completely yet, so-"

"Stop making excuses," Lia's icy voice cut him off.

"Yes, " Yano immediately complied.

For another minute, a tense atmosphere vibrated in the silence. Yano wanted to make it good again but didn't know how. Coaxing would only make things worse.

Suddenly, a silver lining appeared, "What's your power?"

"My power?" Yano's puppy ears raised again, was this the opportunity to redeem himself?