Dara and the two men stared at the direction to where Cloud's arrow-shaped body was pointing at. They saw no soldiers or any movement. The City of the Dead remained silent. All of them turned their eyes back to the black cloud hovering above their heads. Cloud's body had gone back to its ordinary cloud shape. Cloud's body was slightly shaking, and Dara had no idea why. If Cloud was a person, she might suspect Cloud was afraid. Although despite being a cloud, Dara had seen the small black cloud behaved like a person and exhibit all kinds of emotion.

"How could you know that they are coming this way?" challenged Dara. She felt irritated. If she still had her power of foresight, she would have seen the soldiers and Donghae coming.

"I separated a small piece from my body and ordered it to wander around and return to me if it noticed anything. It had returned and reported that in a few hours, the soldiers and Donghae will be here. We need to leave now. They are too many for us to fight, and the only one capable of fighting them right now is Han."

"How many are they?" Han inquired.

"Twenty. Plus Donghae."

"I can fight them." Han gave a proud assurance.

Twenty against one? In spite of Han’s bravado, Dara knew he could never defeat all twenty opponents. These opponents were skilled and trained in combat. They were not like the mindless undead that could be easily destroyed. And if Dara's hunch was correct, some of these soldiers could even belong to the most elite of warriors all over Haldor, the Solaris Knights.

She turned to Jaejoong who looked like he was in deep thought.

"We should leave now, Jaejoong!"

His dark eyes studied her.

"This is your chance to escape, Dara. These soldiers will bring you back to the temple."

 "Go back to the temple as a swordswoman?" she snapped. "If I can get back my own power if you die, I would kill you myself! But there’s a big possibility that if you die, my power would disappear with you. I will only go back to the temple if I have my own power back!"

"So, you will fight the soldiers?" he asked.

"I will not fight for you, Jaejoong! I fought this morning because I wanted to live, not because I wanted to protect you!" she insisted.

"Jaejoong, Dara is in no condition to fight," interrupted Han. His voice sounded worried. "Her unused muscles are starting to ache. She cannot use a sword because her hands are covered by painful blisters. She got those blisters because she kept fighting the undead even after her hand had begun to bleed this morning. She could barely hold anything in her hands right now even after I have bandaged them." He paused. "You know very well that even well-trained soldiers given too much training end up with a lot of pain in their body and wouldn't be fit enough to fight again the next day."

Dara was surprised and felt uneasy from Han’s words full of concern. She was unsure whether to thank him or to admonish him for making her look so weak in front of Jaejoong. But when Han's eyes met hers, she found herself unable to meet his gaze. She had to look away. She glanced at her bandaged hands. They would bleed again if she started fighting using the Sword of Truth. Her shoulders were so sore, pain exploded whenever she tried to raise an arm. She was just too proud to complain because she didn't want to be taunted by Jaejoong. Most of all, she didn't want to appear weak. But she wasn't prepared to receive concern from someone like Han.