'I... Can't... Br...Breathe...!!'
No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't inhale any of the air.
It was dark, so the water was cold and it was hard to see.
Her heart pounded from fear and worry for the both herself and the others.
With a desperate look on her face, Ria turns her head left and right scanning her surroundings in search of something which could help her.
She currently floated on top of the cold water, surrounded by countless naval fleets and broken wooden planks laid around along with the remains of the fleet which she had been in.
It had been completely destroyed.
The others could be seen floating on top of parts of the boats, unconscious as they laid around. The only one awake was Ruby who had a serious look on her face as she stared towards something.
In the direction she was staring, Ria could see strange large pillar.
It reached almost three meters high and pointed to the sky and had peculiar runic patterns embedded in them.
But that wasn't what she was looking at, she was looking at something ahead of it.
Ria raised her hand from the water, grasping her throat as she stretched it out to her.
[Spatial Manipulation: Harmless Distortion.]
The air ahead of her Ria sudden became distorted. As if there were a vacuum there, the surrounding air and water began getting dragged inside of the distortion.
Ria's vision grew blurrier and blurrier, she felt light headed. Her hair swayed towards the distortion, seemingly going through it without any harm.
With her face just ahead of it, pulling at her with a strong force... She opened her mouth.
In that instant, the air which had been stuck in her throat was dragged right out of it, allowing her to properly exhale.
*Cough* *Cough*
Ria coughed out loudly before the distortion faded.
She breathed in and out slowly to catch her breath before sighing in relief.
"That was close..." She muttered.
After Ria got her energy back, she joined Ruby who began pulling them one by one onto shore.
Ruby was surprised that Ria had woken up so soon, she explained that not being able to breathe was a common occurrence for anyone after travelling through the portals for the first time.
Whilst they were asleep, they could breathe but after wakinup it would usually react in that way. The more you travelled through portals the less frequent it would become.
Whilst Ria waited for everyone to wake up, some of Ria's subordinates went over to talk to her to give a report on the situation of the other ships.
It turned out Ruby's ship was the only one which had broken down.
After confirming everyone was okay, charlotte excused herself and went onto handle and check on the other fleets while handling any other matters.
She specifically told, Ruby to wait with Ria.
It was only after everything that Ria stopped to question.
"Wait... Ruby? Where's Gray sleeping at?" Ria asked
She hadn't thought about it previously because she had assumed that he had either woken up before all of them, still asleep or already carried over to the shore by Ruby.
But contrary to her expectations she hadn't seen his figure not even once.
A troubled look appeared on Ruby's face as she turned to Ria.
She wasn't sure how to break the news to her.
"Charlotte... Told me not to tell you whilst she went out to search for him... But... I'm sorry we still haven't found him."
"What...?" Ria asked
"Gray...!"
"Gray!!!"
The sound of girls calling out Gray's name resounded in the night, but it was to no avail as there was no reply.
"Gray-"
Aurora and Ria who were swimming in the water were suddenly stopped and pulled back into the land by a mysterious force.
[Telekenesis.]
The one who had brought them back up was Violet.
"Violet! Let go of us!! We need to look for my brother!!" Cried out Ria, as she struggled to break free of Violet's Grasp.
"You've been in the water for 30 minutes!! It's freezing you'll get sick! We've searched this entire area, Gray isn't here!"
"What if he drowned!? We were all unconscious when we woke up!!"
"You know your brother Ria! Calm down first and think about it, this is Gray we're talking about, do you really think he'd die before any of us?!" Violet asked.
[Spatial Manipulation...]
The air around Ria began to distort itself as her tears continued to flow down.
"Aurora, why aren't you saying anything?! Tell her we need to search for him!"
With a cold look in her eyes, Aurora turned to Ria before forcing a smile.
"Let's calm down first... Violet has a point... If we survived then it's almost guaranteed that he did too..." Said Violet.
Although her words said such a thing, her actions were completely different.
The temperature around had completely dropped as she struggled to remain calm.
Violet was the only one of them who was actually keeping it cool.
Ria hung her head and stopped struggling.
"You wouldn't understand... Gray doesn't mean anything to you, after all."
Violet's ears twitched as she heard that.
Ria and Aurora's figure suddenly dropped to the ground before Violet approached them.
"Doesn't mean anything to me...? What do you know about what Gray means to me?! You haven't seen him for what? Ten years and you think you know everything now!?" Violet retorted.
"Then if he means something to you, why do you look so calm!? Even when he wasn't waking up before, just like Lara you two were the only ones who managed to keep calm... If he really means something to you, how can you always act this way!?"
Tears began to drip down onto the ground,
"Don't tell me to calm down... He's my only remaining family...! How can you expect me to keep cal-"
Ria was interrupted by Violet.
"Gray means something special to me too! Not just you, and Aurora... He's also important to me! I'm trying to stay calm and keep you guys the same way so we have a better chance at actually finding him!!!" Violet yelled, her eyes watery as she did so.
Ria didn't say anything, instead she took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out.
"You're right... Losing my cool will only make things worst..." With her figure trembling from the cold and water, she shut her eyes before muttering. "I've never been able to do this properly before... But..."
[Spatial Manipulation...]
The water behind Ria rippled deeply as she turned.
The air surrounding her began to distort as she walked towards the ocean.
Aurora, Violet, Lara, Lita, Kylo and Ruby all watched in silence as she crouched down just on the edge of the shore.
[Spatial Awareness.]
Ria's eyes twitched, and within a blink, a silent wave burst out towards the surroundings.
Her brows drew closer in a frown and her hair swayed back.
"What's she doing...?" Aurora asked as she rubed her eyes.
"She's doing the same thing I tried... Only better..." Violet muttered.
She could feel it, she was using her spatial manipulation ability to try and find Gray's location.
"How long will it-"
"Done." Said Ria as she suddenly stood up.
"Eh? That's it?" Kylo asked, joining on the conversation.
Ria turned to them and nodded slightly before muttering. "I've found him." She said.
"Yeah, he is alive and heading right towards here." Said Lita.
Her eyes were shut, her voice had changed once again. This side of her was really starting to worry Lara as it would just pop up out of nowhere.
"So you knew he was alive this whole time?" Ria asked. "Why not tell us sooner...?" She added with a nervous smile.
The air around them had gotten a bit cold.
"For you to awaken that ability. It will prove useful in the future." Lita replied.
"Does anyone else notice this child's manner of talking changed? Why are we all taking this so lightly?" Ruby asked
"It's normal, it's her ability in a way." Kylo replied.
"Oh... I've never heard of an ability that could do this. Interesting..." Muttered Ruby
Ruby pointed north west at whatever was on the other side of the walls before saying. "He's in that direction. He's heading here as we speak... We were worried for nothing..."
Knowing that Gray was safe, after the group had calmed down, they waited for Ruby and Charlotte to handle their matters.
During the time the girls exchanged few words with one another. Even with Lara trying to lighten up the mood, it was too stiff.
That was until, they finally reached it.
Ruby's kingdom. The Kingdom of Khouria.
The others in the group walked around with widened eyes.
Ahead of the docks which they stood at was a beautiful dimly lit city surrounded by great walls.
The walls were all around them, coming to a complete stop only at the end of the shore leading the ocean.
Inside of the walls, there were poles with lamps lit up by glowing stones leading down towards the city, such was the path they had taken.
The city itself felt completely magical.
With traditional eastern style houses stacked one beside the other resembling something you'd see in Japan during the Edo period.
Horned ones wearing all types of clothes and certain other species which resembled things you'd only see in a fairy tail, could be seen walking around.
They had arrived, in the kingdom of Khouria.
On their heads were prosthetic horns which hid the fact that they were humans.
"So cool...!" Lita muttered with sparkling eyes as she looked around.
Many food stalls rested out on the road with the horned ones cooking them in spectacular and luxurious ways which attracted the eye using their abilities.
There were people performing magical dances and tricks using their abilities, even though it was night out.
It was truly a sight to behold.
As the group watched this spectacular sight, Ria approached Violet.
"Violet... I'm... Sorry..."
Ria who wasn't sure how to break it out to her and had failed during the last attempts finally got it out.
She had a saddened look on her face and avoided looking Violet in the eyes from the shame.
"I said some hurtful things to you and-"
Ria was interrupted by Violet who suddenly patted her in the head.
"What? Are you still worried about that? You don't have to apologise, Gray's your only brother so it's only natural for you to lose your cool...
And you had a point, I need to get better at expressing myself." Said Violet with a bright smile.
"V-Violet.."
Rias swollen eyes grew watery once as she smiled back.
*Atchoo*
She sneezed.
"Let's go get you all some new clothes.." Said Ruby with a smile.
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