"RUN!!!" Aileen shouted.
Eilish and the others snapped out of their daze. Their bodies were trembling and sweat was forming all over their bodies. It was their first time experiencing something like this.
The unknown being in front of them was beyond their imagination.
Swoosh!!
The humanoid darkness moved once again. Its body flashed ahead and it escaped their heightened perception.
It was too fast.
Aileen reacted based on her instinct. She just moved her body and drew a white line in front of her using her energy.
Bang!!
The white line flashed with an arrow of light but it was shattered immediately. The darkness advanced swiftly without obstruction. Aileen jumped away as a pillar of light burst from her previous position.
Boom!!
But the darkness managed to avoid the attack, it lunged forward flinging her several meters away.
At the same time, Greesa and Jaebi pounced on the enemy. They moved at extreme speed but the darkness was faster than them. In just a second, they were blown away just like Aileen.
"We can't escape from this monster..." Friess said as she stood up and glared at their enemy. Although the darkness didn't have any face, she could feel that this unknown being was laughing at them.
"Cough!"
Aileen stood up and wiped the blood on the corner of her mouth. She could feel that a few of her ribs were broken in that attack.
"Someone needed to hold this monster or else all of us will die here."
Aileen said as she glanced at everyone.
"Yeah, this monster is far above our level. We stood no chance if we were going to fight." Jaebi said.
Greesa nodded at their words.
Aileen turned her head and looked at Eilish, "We've met a disaster the moment we arrive here. I think it's better for you to escape and save your brother."
"N-No..." Eilish trembled when she heard her friend's words. She tightly grabbed Eilan who was on her back. Eilan had already fainted because of the burst of mana and the pressure from the unknown being.
"Aileen is right. If you don't escape your brother will die. Do you want your brother to die? Isn't your goal to cure him?" Friess said.
"N-No, I can't do that..." Eilish felt her eyes getting wet.
"RUN AWAY!! EILISH!!! DO YOU WANT YOUR BROTHER TO DIE?!!! EVEN IF YOU WANT TO STAY HERE THEN DO YOU THINK YOUR BROTHER COULD ESCAPE WITH HIS CONDITION?!" Aileen shouted.
"Go away!! Eilish!! You have to save your brother no matter what!!" Greesa and Jaebi said at the same time.
"I... I..." Tears fell down from Eilish's eyes as she watched her friends.
"Are you done?" The humanoid darkness suddenly asked.
It moved forward with extreme speed but Jaebi and Greesa launched themselves ahead to intercept the enemy.
Boom!!
"GOOOO!!!!" Friess shouted once again.
Eilish wiped the tears on her eyes before she turned around and ran with all of her might. She ran as fast as she could while tightly gripping her brother.
Aileen glanced at Eilish's back and smiled, "This is the best way. We can't let her die with her brother."
Friess also smiled, "I hope that she would achieve her dream."
The humanoid darkness dashed forward with a dark curtain in its hands. The faint sound of laughter echoed in the area as the battle started. It was clearly playing with them.
Bang! Bang!
The sounds of battles echoed as shockwaves swept out.
But then...
Something strange happened.
Huh?
Eilish widened her eyes. She realized that she was in the middle of nowhere. Everything around her was pure darkness and the sounds of battle had disappeared.
Where am I?
She turned around and found that Eilan was gone.
No... This can't be...!!
EILANNN!!!
She shouted but no voice escaped out of her mouth.
...
Souta listened to Eilish's story without interrupting her. He was also observing her expression from the start until the end.
Eilish turned silent as she started to tremble. Remembering those scenes felt like a nightmare for her.
It took a few minutes before she calmed down. But her body was still shaking. It was a traumatic experience for her.
"After that... I heard a voice..."
Eilish said in a low voice but Souta could clearly hear it.
...
"Someone with this body shouldn't stay here and rot..."
A voice sounded.
Eilish wanted to say something but nothing came out of her mouth. It was as if sound couldn't travel in this dark space. Even if she poured her mana into her voice, it was blocked by an unknown force.
"I will take you with me. You will become one of ours."
She turned around to find where the voice was coming from but she found nothing.
No... This shouldn't be happening...
Friess and the rest sacrificed their lives so that Eilish could save her brother yet something like this happened.
Her brother disappeared...
Ugh!
Eilish grabbed her neck as she was having trouble breathing. The whole world feels like it was going to crumble as she fell down on her knees.
No!! This can't be...!!
The darkness slowly disappeared as thousands of tiny needles assaulted her.
Argh!!
It was a horrible experience for her and she felt like she was going to die at any moment.
The first thing that she heard when the darkness disappeared was the voices of her friends.
"E-Eilish...?"
Eilish widened her eyes as she turned her head. She saw Friess, Greesa, Jaebi, and Aileen laying in the pool of blood. They were barely moving and their bodies were disfigured to the point that she almost didn't recognize them.
"Friess... Greesa... Jaebi... Aileen..."
Eilish muttered as tears fell from her eyes. She ignored the needles that pierced her body as she crawled toward her friends.
"W-Why... are you... here?" Friess asked as blood came out of her mouth.
Cough! Cough!
Eilish coughed a mouthful of blood as she forced her body to move. Her vision was getting blurry and she couldn't even feel the pain around her body.
Boom!!
An earthquake occurred and cracks quickly spread on the ground. A huge wave of energy soared through the sky.
The ground continued to shake and Eilish couldn't do anything except watch her friend fall into the cracks.
"No!!"
Eilish shouted as she stretched out her hand trying to grab her friends. Unfortunately, there was nothing that she could do in this situation.
The whole land collapsed in just a few seconds.
Ohm!!
The aura was so powerful that everything seemed insignificant in front of it.
In the next second, darkness spread out as a powerful energy erupted like a volcano. The strings of darkness soared to the sky as if it was intending to slay the being that just arrived, the one that shook the whole land.
"Who are you?!!! How dare you enter my territory!!"
The darkness roared in anger.
The energy it was emitting was beyond Eilish's comprehension. She couldn't believe that there was an existence that possessed this much power in this world.
"Is this the end...?"
Eilish muttered as she glanced at the darkness encroaching on the sky. Her body slid through the ground and fell through the huge cracks.
"An elemental being in the sub-world...? Then, I will capture you. You will be a great addition to the group. I will first fix your mind. It seems that something is affecting your mind. You're just like a golem right now, acting on what has been implanted into your mind."
Those were the last words that Eilish heard before she fainted.
She was supposed to die at that moment but she miraculously survived. She didn't know why but the dark needles that pierced her body had disappeared along with her wounds.
"An elemental being..."
Souta didn't expect that Eilish would meet one of the rarest creatures in this world.
Elemental beings were considered extinct but actually, a few of them still live and were hiding in the shadows.
The clash between the elemental being and the unknown person wrecked the whole land and Eilish mysteriously survived the calamity.
"After that, I can't use my power for a long time..." Eilish said. "That's not the end... Since I can't use my energy and I'm in an unknown world, the things that happened to me are too much. My mind was exhausted to the point that I wanted to die."
Also, she wasn't a melee-type fighter so her physical body was slightly weaker than someone on the same level that trained their body to the limit.
"I can't believe that I will find my brother. He really survives but I don't know what happened to him since he couldn't remember me." Eilish said.
Souta patted her head and said, "It's fine. The most important thing is that you've found that your brother is still alive. You've confirmed it and he is in this world so you would definitely meet him again in the future."
He hugged her and added, "I will lend you my hand. I will surely help you find your brother no matter what it takes."
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