Book 3. Chapter 19
‘In Enemy Territory.’ Part 2
“Persephone?” Kalysto lost all color in her face as she heard a voice she soon recognized.
Her heart hammered violently against her chest as her stomach shrunk. A strange mixture of anxiety and fear of the unknown enveloped her as she clenched her fists tightly, trying to give herself some courage as her palms began to sweat.
Without being aware of what she was doing, her footsteps moved away from the cell where her target was, completely forgetting about the queen’s mission. Instead, he headed for the penultimate cell that was diagonally across from the one she had just exited. Moving as if she were a sailor lost at sea, mesmerized by the seductive song of a siren.
The masculine voice was the same as the one that lived in her memories. Making her breathing accelerate.
And when she finally reached her destination, her eyes easily found the trembling, excessively thin figure in the middle of the dirty cell, dressed in tattered rags. A green gaze mirrored hers.
It was the same shade of green she saw every day in the mirror.
“Dad?” sobbed the saintess, her eyes suddenly filling with tears as she hurried to press the bars, using all her strength to push the cold metal sideways and make a hole big enough for her to enter. “Dad? How come you’re here?” She questioned in disbelief, kneeling in front of her father’s weakened figure and noting the multiple wounds on his body.
If the queen’s daughter was in bad shape, her father was much, much worse.
His dirty cheeks were sunken with hunger. Half of one arm was half bandaged while the other was missing. His ragged clothes and bandages were filthy, with dried bloodstains everywhere.
“Ezhil Purification! Jhil Ezhil! Regeneration! Regeneration! Ezhil Purification! Jhil Ezhil!” she conjured again and again without pause as she searched him, her eyes darting from one point to another from his brown hair to the dirty tips of his feet whose toenails had been pulled out. Kalysto dared not touch him for fear of hurting him as they both looked at each other, their eyes misty with tears as she finished regrowing half of the limb he had lost. “Dad?...what happened to you?” The saintess’s hands trembled as she finally dared to touch her father’s chest, feeling his heartbeat as tears of joy ran freely down her cheeks. “I thought you had abandoned me... I even thought you were dead, and that’s why you never came back to rescue me from that hell,” she whispered.
“...” Confusion shone in the tired green eyes of the man who barely looked a couple of years older than she remembered. “Kalysto?... Is that you? Is that really you?” he questioned, confused by everything that was going on. But as he was about to touch his daughter’s face with his trembling hands, he pulled them away. “...Are you real?...Or another game of Mhiralla’s to torture me?” Gathering some courage, the man reached out again. His skeletal fingers stroked Kalysto’s warm cheek, deflecting one of her tears.
“It’s me, Dad,” she sobbed as she hugged him, only to pull him away the next second. “Inventory!” She immediately pulled out a bottle of holy water at the sight of his parched, chapped lips. “Here, drink this! It’ll help!” Then she took out a thel and a warm loaf of bread, the last of what Alynn had baked for her before she disappeared one day, assuring her that she had to leave to visit some relatives a week ago. Kalysto knew it was a lie, but she said nothing to the poor fairy who looked so guilty at being forced to lie to her.
“What have you given me? Have you poisoned me?” the older man suddenly shouted, spitting out the water that had been in his mouth. Kalysto stopped him just in time to prevent him from spitting the rest of the water inside the bottle onto the ground.
“It’s holy water!” she assured him, trying to calm him down. “Your body is in bad shape and dehydrated, so I thought it would be a good idea to kill two birds with one stone.”
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“How can you heal? How can you be here? You were at home! In the town! And now you’re here looking older!” He questioned suspiciously, then approached her and grabbed her by the shoulders, filled with anxiety. “Did Mhiralla force you? That damned bitch? She promised me she wouldn’t hurt you if I gave myself up!”
“I came to Elinor a little over seven months ago. I made a contract with the queen the day an interdimensional portal opened in Yerast Park. I have never been in contact with Mhiralla,’ she assured him.
“Queen? What queen? What are you talking about?” He fretted as he took another long drink of holy water and devoured his bread as if he hadn’t eaten in years.
“Calm down! I still have some food to share, so don’t worry!”
“Champion, I need your services here! Now!” Hanna insisted. But Kalysto wasn’t about to walk away from her father, not when the man wasn’t even able to stand on his own and his legs shook more than a newborn fawn when she tried to lift him. So she quickly gave up her attempt and let him finish his meal quietly.
“Jhil Ezhil! Ezhil Purification!” she conjured several times before reopening her inventory. “Telekinesis!” she added, sending a piece of bread and a bottle of holy water towards Hanna. “As soon as she’s done eating, put her in your inventory. I’m sure the queen won’t be upset about it.”
“Queen? What queen?” her father intervened, anguish flooding into his voice.
“I don’t think the queen would like me doing such a thing!” Hanna’s voice sounded terrified at the crazy idea.
“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry! Just make sure you open your inventory and ask out loud for the other person’s consent so we don’t have any problems later!” she assured her, not wanting to waste any more time with the mission. “Dad, I need to get you out of here! I need your permission to put you in my inventory!”
“Are you out of your mind?” her father scolded her. “No God would allow anyone to do such a thing! And how come you have an inventory?”
“Dad, we don’t have time for this! Absorb!” she muttered as she pulled out a mana stone. “I need your verbal consent! Now!”
[Congratulations! The user has acquired 9,000 MP!]
But as soon as she pulled the second mana stone from her inventory, her father stopped her. And to Kalysto’s complete surprise, it was he who absorbed it right in front of her eyes.
“... How is that possible? .... Since when did you...?” Kalysto could not believe what she was seeing, yet her father’s pallid complexion improved slightly as the mana stone turned to dust in her father’s skeletal right hand.
“We have much to talk about,” the man whispered, placing his hand over his daughter’s heart. A wave of mana penetrated her, echoing with the seal that contained Persephone. “It’s true! You really are Kalysto! My little girl!” He said. Tears ran down his cheeks after he checked, making Kalysto feel increasingly confused by the unexpected move.
“... It was you who put that seal inside me?” She reproached him, feeling betrayed and taking a step back, needing to put some distance between them while she assimilated this news.
“You don’t understand; it was the only way to save you!” he insisted.
“Save me from what?” she shouted. But Kalysto didn’t have time to get an answer.
Suddenly, his father’s face lost all color and the stone wall behind him disappeared with a single blow to be devoured by a mighty vortex. Dragging the weak man along with the stone walls, ceiling, and floor inside.
“Nooo!” shouted Kalysto as the strong wind swept her hair from side to side as she struggled to reach her father before he was sucked in, but all her efforts were in vain.
The powerful pressure began to drag her too, and she had to use Telekinesis to keep her body glued to what was left of the ground. Then, Kalysto threw herself backward, holding on tightly to the bars of the cell opposite her father’s cell.
“Telekinesis!” she conjured again, trying to draw her father’s body to her, but an invisible force opposed her. And what was at first the center of the vortex quickly became the palm of a gigantic hand.
The top of the castle completely disintegrated, fading into ashes in a gentle breeze.
“Hanna, get her out of here! Now!” Kalysto commanded, but as the dust dissipated, the gigantic, imposing figure of a beautiful blonde woman appeared. Her skin was so pale it almost blended in with the white glow that surrounded her slender body. The cold blue eyes, the same shade of blue as the other system, stared at her before scanning the rest of the cells as the magical pressure of her divine power manifested, forcing all the mortals present to fall to their knees.
Even the monsters stopped fighting.
Their bodies were completely glued to the ground, as well as those of the fairies, as they all struggled to breathe. Only their groans full of despair could be heard all over the place.
“Well, well, well. But look who we have here,” exclaimed Mhiralla with a sinister smile on her face.