I watched as the ice dragoness streaked across space hurling toward me with unimaginable speed. Her face was a blend of shock and disbelief. For a second, I found myself flabbergasted and nearly didn't react in time.
Thankfully, I shook my head and teleported right next to her, then teleported us both back to my original position.
Lost's eyes widened as she glanced around, attempting to discern her surroundings. When her gaze met mine, I offered her a small nod, which appeared to significantly calm her. However, her eyes widened once more as she turned to search for Ynos.
My attention swiftly returned to my foolish little brother. He remained a short distance from the Void, gradually succumbing to its pull. His wings flapped frantically as he attempted to halt his involuntary movement.
'Let him stay a little longer, that should teach him not to do anything stupid,' I did plan to save him as well, of course, but he still needed to learn his lesson.
And so, I gathered my cosmic mana, ready to act at a moment's notice when suddenly something strange happened.
'What the—'
It was only for a few seconds, but I felt his mana surge, and the pull intensified almost tenfold, just as I was about to jump, the pull seemed to release its hold on him and Ynos momentarily stopped.
The whiplash of emotions that I felt watching all of that unfold, made me hesitate to act, once more. It wasn't only until Lost nudged my side that I realized Ynos was getting dragged again. It was slow this time, but it was there, and he didn't seem to have any tricks to stop it.
That's when I jumped. With Lost at my side, I teleported us straight toward Ynos. Once we emerged by his side, I was expecting to see him in distress, the same way the others were… I was wrong.
The muscle brain had a savage grin on his face that seemed to be saying, 'Did you see that?!'
Fighting back the urge to sigh, I instantly teleported us back to the safety of the planet. Once we reappeared on the mountain, it was as if a switch had flipped and Ynos suddenly started to laugh.
"Hahaha, did you see that?!"
"This idiot," I mumbled before using my tail to smack his head hard.
Though I thought it was hard, it merely caused him to lower his head and look at me with a puzzled expression.
"What was that for?"
"Ahh," the sigh that I had been holding back escaped my mouth as I shook my head.
"What did you do?" I asked as the others flocked around us. Even Lost seemed to be in a much better state than I would have assumed.
"What did I do?" He asked, puzzled.
"Yes, the pull suddenly increased, and just when I was about to drag you back, it momentarily stopped. What was that?" I asked once again.
"The pull… stopped?" Sidus mumbled by my side.
"Yes."
Essie seemed a lot better than when I left her and Breta was calmly waiting for him to explain. Immy looked at Lost, then me before her eyes finally settled on Ynos.
Faced with everyone's gazes, Ynos awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
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"I didn't do much really, I just… fought back?" He said.
"Fought back?" Breta asked with a frown, "We all fought back, but that didn't do much."
Ynos went silent for a few seconds, it looked like he was trying to find the right words before he spoke, which was rare.
"I— I didn't mean, physically fight back, I meant with mana," he said.
Breta frowned and I turned to look at Sidus and Immy who both shrugged. Little Essie appeared to be in deep thought as she heard what he said.
"With mana…" Lost mumbled by his side.
"Yes, the pull, or whatever you want to call it… It doesn't feel like it drags us. It drags the mana," He said trying to explain.
My eyes widened in understanding. We already established that the reason me, Sidus, and Immy weren't pulled was because of our elements. Then it made sense that the Void pulled at the mana itself, not just us.
"So, you mean to tell me, you fought for control over your mana against the Void, and you momentarily succeeded?" Immy asked slowly.
Ynos's grin was almost infectious as he nodded, "I guess I did!"
'What a monster,' I inwardly muttered. None of them are normal, I always knew that.
"The entire time it was dragging me, the mana inside my soul space was in chaos," Ynos said. He paused for a few seconds, trying to recall the feeling before he continued, "It's hard to notice right away, the feeling of being dragged through your soul space is… it's bad."
"Wait, that doesn't make much sense. I don't have a soul space," Breta jumped in and spoke with a frown.
Ynos shrugged before answering, "I don't know, I'm only sharing what happened to me."
"What do you think?" Sidus approached me and asked.
I looked over at Ynos who was now excitedly explaining the feeling of fighting against the void to Essie, Lost, and Breta before I replied, "It makes sense, I suppose. What is confusing is why our elements aren't affected."
"I wonder what's out there, in the Void I mean," Immy suddenly said.
"Best not entertain that idea. Remember, no one ever got back."
"Yes, but they were all influenced by the pull, we are not," she explained.
"Too risky," I shook my head.
"There's no need to drag anyone with you if you have a death wish," Sidus coldly harrumphed.
Immy rolled her eyes, "You can just admit that you are afraid,"
"Afraid? Me? Heh," Sidus scoffed.
"Alright, alright, knock it off you two."
"I want to go again!" Ynos's sudden voice caused me to raise my brows and ask, "Go again, as in?"
"I want to go against the Void!"
"Yeah, absolutely not," I replied.
"Huh? But why?" he asked.
"It's too risky you muscle brain. We don't know what's out there, or worse, who is out there."
"But—"
"No buts, we will leave for Aynezh. The Void isn't going anywhere."
Ynos looked like he wanted to argue some more, but eventually stopped himself from doing so. Lost who was by his side placed a comforting claw on his back.