Rain turned back sharply to Sean while fighting the urge to scream into his ears for even offering such an ability up as help. Thankfully the boy stopped him before he could.
“No, it’s not what you think,” Sean said with haste. “It’s only for that moment while you’re connected. As soon as the ability stops, my eyesight will be restored. Just think of it as me lending you my eyes.”
Rain was not having it, but there was no time for dilly-dallying. He would have to trust that Sean was really not putting himself at risk just so as to be of help. Children could be quite irrational sometimes.
“J, take Sean and hide behind one of the trees,” Rain ordered as he took off the bag Alice had given him and tightened his grips on his knives.
“Why?” Sean queried. “I just told you, I want to help.”
“You will. Behind a tree,” Rain told the boy. “Once you get there, activate your ability and you can share the visuals with me. This will keep you away from the heat of battle and being targeted in the vulnerable state you’ll be in.”
Sean seemed to understand where he was coming from after his elaboration, so the boy did not refute.
The boy nodded, and after a soft purr from J to Rain as her head was caressed, they both bolted into the surrounding greenery, taking cover.
Once he’d confirmed that Sean and J were well hidden beyond eyesight, Rain pursed his lips and took in deep breaths, trying to calm his raging heart.
The children were all ridden with cuts, even Mei Mei wasn’t spared, regardless, they had done quite well. Nun Cathleen was visibly seething now; somehow Mei Mei could figure out her position even while she was invisible, and that was quite an incredible feat.
Then it came. A burning sensation smeared his eyes, causing him to groan in pain as the veins in his neck bulged. It was almost like they were being gouged out by a hand coated with fire. He did well to hold back the screams trying to fight their way out of his esophagus, and a few seconds later he was rewarded. The pain died down in a split second, but the abrupt change of the composition of his visuals caused him to stumble a few steps backward.
He was not particularly new to having his eyesight tampered with, which was why it only took a moment for him to regain his composure. Although, his current state was a lot different to his experience in his Shadow of Asklepios form. Then, the world was the same, only doused in a shade of blood red. But now, aside from its color being a golden fiery one, every single thing before his view had doubled, each moving independently of the other.
It was disorienting.
And then there was his own double, moving in ways and taking actions he had never once thought of.
The ‘sequence’... Rain blinked once.
All of a sudden, the view of the doubles before him changed, causing the edges of his head to be struck by a brief but intense pain. He knew at once, the ten seconds Sean had told him about had elapsed.
There’s no time to take all these in, Rain turned the points of his knife towards the direction where the children were engaged with Nun Cathleen, it’s not even my abilty to begin with…
The sequence showed him a surefire way to victory, so as long as he danced to its tune perfectly, he would be fine.
Rain was about to take the first step in that regard when he suddenly froze. His gaze shifted from the movement of hisself entranced in the sequence towards the children.
Mei Mei fell to the ground, panting, while tightly holding her chest. At long last, she’d run out of stamina. Klein immediately rushed to her side, using the rapier he had conjured to lightly deflect Nun Cathleen’s blade from stabbing into the girl’s back.
The nun jumped away and quickly vanished.
“Behind me!” Ella screamed at the top of her lungs in that instant, rushing to Klein and Mei Mei and using her shadow to create a ball of energy to protect herself and the rest of the kids from whatever Nun Cathleen was planning.
The sequence had only shown Rain how he had won his victory, so the children hiding behind the ball of energy weren’t present in the view. The weird thing about it was that he and Nun Cathleen weren’t still the only beings present.
“Ray, what are you doing?!” Ella voiced with a tone full of worry, and she was not the only one. “Hurry back here, now!”
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“We’re going to die at this rate,” Ray said as he wrapped his neck with layers upon layers of thick shadows, his eyes cautiously scanning his surroundings while he seemingly prepped the multitude of hands growing out of the shadows surrounding him to hold down Nun Cathleen once she attacked. “You guys will know what to do soon enough.” He looked towards the ball of energy with a smile. “Don’t delay.”
“Cocky, boy.” Nun Cathleen manifested discreetly behind him and, without wasting a single moment, lunged the sword of shadow in her hand towards him.
Despite his intentions and visions of grandeur, Ray was too slow to react now that he was all alone and without Mei Mei’s directions. He had underestimated Nun Cathleen, and that was why all he could do was grit his teeth as he watched the crackling sword of shadow she held draw closer to his heart.
At that moment, Rain suddenly blurred into view on one knee within the wiggling shadow hands hemming in around him as though they were a circle of trees surrounding a clearing. He took hold of Ray’s shoulders, causing the boy’s vacant eyes to sparkle in utter obliviousness as he shifted him to his left.
A searing pain shot into the muscles of his right shoulder, as if a molten iron had been poured into them, its heat radiating outward in a sharp and relenting manner that rendered his right hand useless.
Rain smiled at Ray despite the pain and nodded.
The boy snapped himself back from his bewilderment, and as a scream splintered by agony and betrayal clawed its way out of his throat, tears rolling down his dust-smudged cheeks, he quickly sent his squirming shadow hands towards Nun Cathleen before her composure was fully restored at the unexpected development.
She shifted back, dancing away from the hands that sought her embrace in a swift and elegant manner
Rain peeked over his shoulder, watching the exchange. The speed of Ray’s Skill was reliant on his personal Speed, and so it did not turn out as he’d thought.
The sides of his head were hurting even more than before, and Sean’s Skill had been forcefully deactivated. He’d already arrived at a conclusion on why.
This proceeding of his had not been what the sequence had presented to him. In the original, Ray had died, and because of that he had been able to plunge his knives into Nun Cathleen’s neck as the boy managed to hold her with his shadows in his final moments.
Rain had no idea if the healing powers of his Mark could resuscitate a person so close to death, and as such did not want to risk it; in that regard, he put himself in harm’s way instead, taking the blow on Ray’s behalf.
It was wishful thinking of him to think he could go against what the sequence presented to him and still come out on top, though.
His mind shifted to Sean, hoping that nothing had happened to him due to his actions. But before he could even settle on those thoughts, the air suddenly warped. The trees shook violently, and a warm breeze that had showed no signs of existing a second ago blew on everyone present.
Nun Cathleen got distracted at the weird occurrence, a frightened and confused look on her face. Maybe she’d thought it was wise to turn her attention away for a brief second because Ray had exhausted his stamina and was now spewing out saliva in between coughs, but that was a mistake.
Klein flew out from the ball of energy Ella had shielded him and the others within, taking advantage of everyone else’s daze to sneak upon Nun Cathleen where she had spaced out.
Regardless, she still noticed him.
With a clenched chin, she swiped an arc of shadow flames over where Klein was standing behind her. The boy quickly ducked down and pressed his hands firmly on her shadow, surprisingly holding it back from cloaking her and turning her invisible.
Rain could see why the boy was the children’s leader.
Nun Cathleen growled at the turn of events, and most of all, the child who had sparked it.
It seemed like she couldn’t move.
“You little shit! I saved you from that fire, took you in, fed you, trained you, and this how you fucking repay me?!” She was seething so much compared to before that Rain almost felt like she would unleash some kind of power that she had yet to use. “I’ll kill you! I’ll rip out your eyes, your gullet, your stomach, I’ll rip out everything from your body I saved from burning to ashes in that fire.” She turned to the rest of the children who were approaching. “All of you fucking rats too. I’ll make sure to show you hell.” Then she lastly turned to Rain, and her hatred for him was so much that she couldn’t even say anything.
Despite her threats, Klein gave her no reply, his lucid azure eyes only stared at her as if filled with remorse. Then her shadows swirled chaotically and countless hands sprung out from it, grabbed her by her shoulders, forcing her to her knees, and wrapped around her until only her head could be seen. Finally, her mouth was sealed shut.
“Hey, Ray. Are you alright?!” Mei Mei rushed to her friend’s side, who was seated on the ground with his eyes widened while panting. His silence was the most normal response for anyone in his situation. He had almost died.
“Why would you do that?” Ella queried, her lips tightening. “Why would you?” Ray still gave no reply. She squatted and hugged him as tears rolled down her face. “I don’t want to lose another friend. I don’t want to.”
Rain sighed, gripping his right shoulder with a frown plastered on his face.
He was on the verge of rising to his feet when he recalled the presence of the warm air which everyone else seemed to have forgotten due to the tension of the situation.
His gaze moved around the scenery for a while, and then he got his answer to the origin of the weird air, his chest contracting in response.
A few steps close to where Sean and J had taken as their shelter was a swirling cascade of blue energy, rippling like an ethereal waterfall. He did not need any further descriptions to know what it was.
A Glade…