Evan opened his eyes to find no difference in what he could see. The world was just as dark as it was behind his eyelids. Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he tried to assess his situation. Allowing his hearing to gradually sharpen, he heard the soft breathing of another person a few steps away from him. As he recalled the situation before he was knocked out, he came to the conclusion that he and Elara must've been confined in a dark space of some kind, but he was unwilling to recklessly call out to the source of the breathing until he could be sure it was her.

Slowly rising to his feet, his clothing rustled, which seemed to wake up the other person, who appeared to not have been in a deep sleep.

Now that the other person was awake, he didn't see the point in concealing his voice anymore, and he hesitantly and warily released a question.

"E-Elara…?"

"Evan? Where are we?"

Evan's shoulders, which he hadn't even realised had been tense, loosened at the sound of her voice.

'Yes, if she's here, everything will be fine.'

"I'm not sure. I myself just woke up. It looks like we've been tossed into a cave, and it doesn't seem to be fairly large since my voice isn't reverberating much. My spirit still seems to be exhausted, but we should be able to leave after it recovers by just jumping out."

At Evan's words, Elara placed her hand on her chin and cast her gaze down in thought.

"I see. This must've been the work of whoever that woman was, I suppose. I do wonder how she appeared and knocked us both out without us being able to offer any resistance at all. Now that I think about it, it was really strange how we had taken so much damage from just being tossed around a bedroom. At the very least, for someone with a Lord-ranked body, your body must have been permanently modified by mana enough to withstand even a full mansion being thrown at it. So how did she do that? No, in the first place, we should have noticed her presence when she stood in plain sight at the door."

Evan then added to her thoughts that she voiced out.

"She mentioned a 'pathetic king begging her' to do this. Considering that she dealt with us so easily, she must've been one of the new heroes, who are supposed to be wielders of power entire orders of magnitude above those of the past. By 'pathetic king', I'm guessing she was referring to King Thorian, left desperate to deal with us after other Eldorian forces couldn't, either because they couldn't leave Eldoria or because we escaped their pursuit. And the begging would've been since the heroes don't just belong to Eldoria now and instead are of six nations, so he can't just force them to do his dirty work, I guess."

Evan's conclusions left the both of them in thought for a few moments, though they snapped their heads upwards after a few moments, in surprise.

'Clap. Clap. Clap.'

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In the situation the two were in, rather than fear, wary anger was Evan's first response, at the clapping that was not accompanied by a body or face.

'So she was here all along.'

"What do you want?"

"How rude. I just wanted to compliment your astute deductions. It's worthy of my praise. This fascinating sight is only slightly soured by the relationship the two of you have."

"What are you talking about?"

Elara asked, seeking further elaboration on the woman's last sentence.

"Hmm. Well, we haven't met yet, so we can do introductions first. I already know the two of you from the occasional rumor here or there, so I'll just introduce myself, Kuepit. Also, I feel like I should let you know that no time has passed on Earth since you've left, considering that I've seen a circle of bright light that surrounded the four of you as you were summoned. Also, the same light showed up on me and the three with me when we were summoned as well, just in case you were curious."

"I wasn't. Keep talking."

"I would refrain from being demanding if I were in your position. Well, whatever. Hmm, I suppose I should explain what I meant about your relationship and what I meant when I used the word, 'revolting', if you want me to talk more."

As the dots began to connect in the couple's heads, their brows furrowed, but they let her speak without interruption.

"To summarize, I think human relationships, the concept of it, the practice of it, is the peak of degeneracy. And what stands out at the peak of human relationships is love. Romantic love sickens me most of all."

As she spoke, her voice slowly turned into one of utter disgust and madness, as if she were speaking about a captor who had subjected her to horrific torment. Her mind was apparently long gone.

"The sight of people trusting, intertwining and, and—entrusting, themselves to another—how disgusting! Revolting! Absolutely, abominable! They cannot be forgiv—!. Apologies."

Her voice of pure, unhinged lunacy suddenly froze before it abruptly returned to its previous cadence and tone.

'How uncanny. Is she really a human? I almost don't feel like seeing her actual face or body. I feel like being a disembodied voice in the darkness would suit someone like her better.'

"Alright. I don't feel like continuing this conversation. Typical of lovers to spoil the good vibe we had going."

If the lights were on, one would see an extremely confused expression on the faces of the two, who were thinking the same thing.

'Ruined the vibe? We didn't even say anything!'

"I'll get to the point now. See, I was meant to eliminate you, Evan, and drag you back, Elara. However, I've decided to have some fun."

The next moment, the two of them felt a hand grab the collar of the clothes they were wearing and forcefully accelerate them upwards, then horizontally in a direction they couldn't quite discern in the darkness. What they did know was that they were traveling at extremely high speeds in just a blink of an eye and that their limbs felt like paper. Oddly, Evan felt that the acceleration wasn't the only reason he felt so weak right now, but his disoriented senses slowed him from exploring that train of thought.

In a few seconds, though it felt like hours to them, they burst out into a bright clearing, where they were thrown onto the ground and rapidly decelerated by gravel, sliding almost 50 meters and coming to a stop at the border of a forest. Evan got away with light scratches thanks to his Lord Ranked body, but Elara, with just her Apprentice Ranked body, had half the skin on her face and arms scraped off, which he could only clearly see despite the sudden increase in brightness due to his proximity of being just centimetres away from her.

Evan was not given time to even think of worrying about Elara. While his eyes were still adjusting to the light, he squinted at Kuepit, who looked down at them. The facial features he could vaguely see were immeasurably beautiful, even comparable to those of Elara, the literal princess.

"I'll make this simple. Escape from me, and you live. Or, one of you can kill the other, and I'll let you go. If you kill yourself; I kill the other. Go. Run."