“How is she?” Kamys’ worried voice resounded from the distance.
In response, Boe quietly took Brienne’s hand and tried to feel her pulse. As soon as he touched the gentle hand of the young maiden, Boe’s face immediately turned grim. Even though Brienne was still alive, her lifeforce was almost extinguished. Boe quickly reached into his magic ring with his mind and took out a few high level potions that he got from Alfred. He chose all potions that was supposed to be used externally and applied them onto Brienne’s badly injured body. And then, without slightest hesitation, he gently opened Brienne’s soft lips and poured all the remaining potions into her mouth one by one. After he finished the treatment, Boe took out a big blanket out of his ring and carefully covered Brienne with it. Only after he finished everything he could do to help Brienne, did Boe turn his head toward Kamys and said, “Her wounds are serious, but given enough time, she should be fine.” Boe had finally exhaled softly as he stood up. His gaze quickly inspected his surroundings before it stopped on the little girl’s body. Boe unceremoniously examined the child they just saved by paying such a high price. After a few seconds, Boe’s eyes slightly narrowed, but he didn’t say anything as a usual cold and indifferent demeanor returned to his face.
“Dale’s injuries are serious too. He didn’t suffer as much as Brienne did, but he needs some time to rest as well.” Kamys slowly walked up to Boe with a strange look on his face. By Kamys’ ashen face and unsteady steps, Boe could tell that, even though Kamys was in a rather good state, he was still far from being in condition to fight any more enemies.
“No need to worry about me. Give me a good meal, a few hours of sleep and I’ll be better than ever, you fucking white knight.” Dale’s cold voice was filled with venomous hatred toward Kamys right now. He was evidently extremely angered by Kamys’ illogical actions that got him such serious wounds. Dale slowly stood up and started walking toward Boe and Kamys. No matter how hard Dale tried to hide it, Boe could see that he was in an awful condition. Obviously pale face and shaky footsteps were enough to see that Dale couldn’t fight even against an ordinary human right now. And just as he walked over to Kamys’ side, Dale suddenly coughed out yet another mouthful of blood and his body fell onto the ground.
Seeing Dale falling down, Kamys hastily reacted and caught the former right before the latter hit the ground.
Seeing Dale and Kamys right now, Boe came to conclusion that his departure from the fight against the big lizard left a huge burden on his companions’ shoulders. And by the looks of things, Boe was now the only one who could fight if any enemies would show up.
“Brother Boe?” Kamys called out. He had just laid Dale onto the ground next to Brienne and was now standing next to Boe.
“We need to leave this place right now. The commotion we created will definitely attract another monsters and possibly something even scarier than them.” Boe coldly glanced at the child as he said these words. “Will you be able to carry one of them and run?”
“Of course. I will carry Dale and you take Brienne,” Kamys answered at once and then he slightly hesitated before asking, “Did you just make a breakthrough in a middle of the fight?” After Kamys saw the strange outburst of baleful power from Boe earlier, he suspected that Boe had already became a rank 3 wizard, so he couldn’t restrain himself from asking the question.
“I didn’t,” Boe coldly answered.
“Oh, ok.” Seeing Boe’s aggressive reaction, Kamys decided not to ask any further questions. Everyone had some secrets hidden deep inside and Kamys guessed that what happened before was one of Boe’s such secrets.
At the same moment, Boe was tightly clenching his fists as he thought back to what just happened. “Let me help you, kid.” These were the last words Boe heard before his mind went blank for, what seemed to him, a moment. After his consciousness came back to him, Boe realized that he was already next to Brienne and the last lizard was lying dead far off in the distance. He gave in to his emotions yet again and Mastema didn’t miss the chance to take over his body. Boe didn’t know how would it impact him in the future, but he was sure that every time he let Mastema influence him even a little bit, something deep inside of him was getting stronger. And this time, Boe had actually let Mastema control his body. Just a mere second of weakness from Boe was enough for Mastema to strengthen his own soul. Boe now felt that something that was hidden deep within him became a lot more real and threatening. After a few moments, Boe’s hands slowly relaxed as he decided that he won’t ever let emotions control him anymore. And on this exact thought, Boe’s gaze focused on the ashen-faced maiden lying before him. A complicated expression hung on Boe’s face before he shook his head and turned toward Kamys. “Let’s move out.”
“Alright,” Kamys promptly answered. He then slowly took Dale onto his shoulders as if he was carrying a bag of potatoes. Kamys glanced toward the girl and said, “Follow us-”
“Kamys, she isn’t going with us. We already helped her enough by saving her from the lizard.” Boe’s cold voice interrupted Kamys’ speech.
“Wh-what? Why? We can't just leave her here. Let's at least escort her to the nearest human village.” Shocked expression was all over Kamys’ face when he heard Boe’s words.
“Two our companions are seriously injured and you are in an awful shape yourself, we have no time to wander around this world.” Boe’s line of thoughts was clear and logical.
“Then let's take her with us!” Kamys didn’t want to give in even though he understood Boe’s reasoning.
After a brief silence, Boe glanced toward the child and silently answered to Kamys, “We can’t trust her just because she looks innocent. Look at this damned world. How on earth do you think she survived up to this moment?”
“Boe, you can't be serious...”
"Kamys, be reasonable. We won’t make it out alive with another weight on our shoulders." Boe tried to persuade Kamys in the same whispering manner.
Kamys clenched his hands into fists and remained silent for a few seconds before he said, “I will escort her myself then.”
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“And I will have to carry both Dale and Brienne myself and protect them too?” Boe’s voice started rising as coldness in his eyes intensified.
“Boe, I can't-”
“KAMYS!”
“WHAT? We spent so much strength and all nearly perished to save her just to leave her to die here now?!” Two young men was standing against each other in a middle of deserted lands of an unknown world as their eyes were brimming with fury.
In response, Boe didn’t continue yelling at Kamys, but silently shook his head and lifted Brienne onto his left shoulder. Then, Boe walked over to Kamys and with a gesture of his right hand indicated to the latter to pass Dale onto the former’s right shoulder.
Seeing Boe’s reaction, Kamys’ entire body shivered and a lump formed in his throat. He knew that both Dale and Brienne were heavily wounded because of his decision to save the girl. As he thought about all of it, Kamys slowly unclenched his hands and guilt washed all over his mind. He knew that saving the girl was the right thing to do, but he couldn’t neglect his companions as well. So he came up with the only choice that would satisfy his companions and help the girl out at the same time. Kamys put Dale down onto the ground, walked up to the child and touched the ring on his finger as a small crimson token appeared in his hands.
As Boe saw Kamys’ putting Dale down, he laid Brienne onto the ground as well. A strange glint flashed past Boe’s eyes as his hands moved in a rather peculiar manner.
“Little girl, i’m really sorry, but we can’t take you with us. Here is a protective treasure; although it isn’t very powerful, hopefully it will be enough to ensure your safety on your trip to your village.” Kamys gently smiled as he looked over the child. The girl before him was incredibly thin and seemed to be so weak that even wind would be able to blow her away. “I think that you will need this far more than me.” Kamys kindly laughed as he took out a deliciously smelling chunk of chicken out of nowhere. After the chicken, Kamys took out a few more meals as he looked at the girl in front of him with a genuine worry on his face. “Here, take it.” Kamys passed the food onto the girl, but before he could make a contact with child’s hand, he suddenly felt a horrifyingly cold aura burst out behind him. Kamys didn’t even have time to react to Boe’s sudden actions as he saw a thin silver dagger in girl’s hands moving toward him.
*SLASH*
Already prepared, Boe activated newly created move of his battle technique and dashed through the air toward Kamys. But just an instant before Boe's kick reached the girl, the cold steel pierced through Kamys' flesh and the time seemed to freeze.
“Strike one. The child of light failed the test of reason.” To Boe’s surprise, the already familiar voice suddenly resounded from above. And after the voice faded, the mysteriously frozen time has finally resumed.
*BOOM*
Boe’s right leg landed right where the girl was standing as crazy undulations of battle aura spread out from the point of contact. A deafening explosion rang out and even Kamys was thrown a few meters away from his previous location. But even though the power of Boe’s attack was immense, he didn’t hit anything besides the ground with it. After realizing this, Boe’s face became grim as he finally understood that the child they saved was far from being a weakling. He immediately moved to stand right next to Kamys, Brienne and Dale to protect them.
When Kamys saw all of it playing out, his severely wounded body trembled and he suddenly vomited blood onto the ground. In the next instant, Kamys lost consciousness.
Boe’s gaze was focused on the girl’s body as he tried to understand what was standing in front of him. And just as he thought of asking something, girl’s eyes moved and concentrated on him. Boe felt like his entire being and all his secrets were transparent in front of the mysterious child; his whole body was immediately drenched in cold sweat and his head started hurting as if he was cruelly tormented.
After a few moments of such a miserable state, Boe could finally feel refreshing wave of relaxation wash all over his body. But before Boe could say anything, the girl’s body suddenly vanished into thin air and all the questions he had remained unanswered. When he saw the girl disappear, Boe didn’t ponder on the matter anymore as he quickly ran toward Kamys to check the latter’s condition. But just as he reached Kamys’ body, he felt the ground beneath him shake.
*CRACK*
All of a sudden, a huge crack appeared across the sky and with every moment it grew larger, slitting the heavenly expanse apart like a glass. The entire world began crumbling and with a rampant rumble, countless fissures enveloped these wretched lands. Boe stood beside his fainted friends and gazed closely at the shattering skies. Just a moment later, a glassy piece tore off the sky and provoke the chain reaction as the skies fractured into pieces.
Once the shards detached from the skies, they became translucent as if all the hues were washed away. Boe watched at a breath-taking scenery as the myriad of glassy shards were slowly raining down onto the ground. In those specular shards, he could see the images of his friends and this decaying world, creating an impression like infinite number of worlds were unfolding before Boe's eyes and shattering to the oblivion. Suddenly, Boe felt strange pressure enveloping his body and his vision became blurry as he started passing out. The last thing he saw before the darkness devoured his sight was a small shard falling in front of him. And in this shard, he saw familiar face of the monster he saw on the painting in the stone room. The abomination’s cold remorseless eyes were staring right back at Boe. A strange thought flashed across his mind, but in the next moment Boe’s eyes finally closed and the next time he opened them, he realized that he was no longer in the world of monsters.
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Boe was now standing in a middle of the stone room. The room looked almost identical to the previous one, except for the fact that a few shelfs with houseplants on them appeared and the painting of the monster mysteriously vanished from the wall. And just like Boe expected, he saw a new huge painting on the wall in front of him.
The new painting depicted the same area in a middle of nothingness. All the stars and other cosmic objects were still rotating around the mountain. But this time, the mountain shrinked even more than before and to Boe’s surprise, countless flickering lights appeared on top of the lonely mountain. Boe felt a desire to sit himself onto the armchair and dive into the painting arouse inside of him, but he quickly suppressed it as he needed to check the state of his friends before doing anything else.
Boe hastily took out a few potions out of his ring and fed them to Kamys. Ashen faced, Kamys was holding onto his stab wound and his hands were noticeably trembling. After he swallowed Boe’s potions, some color came back to Kamys’ face, but he was still extremely weak and blood was slowly flowing out of his wound.
“The girl… She pierced through my high grade protective treasure so easily… And even my magic ring was lost… How pathetic am I?” Kamys’ grieving voice sounded hoarse and weak.
Boe didn’t even know how to respond to Kamys’ words. He wanted to reprimand Kamys but had no desire to beat the already lying friend, so he just silently listened to Kamys’ next words as he took out another potion that was meant to be used externally.
“Brother Boe, let me do it myself. You should just go and help those two out.” Kamys smiled as he took the potion out of Boe’s hands, but Boe saw melancholy filling Kamys’ eyes.
After a brief moment of thoughts, Boe silently nodded, stood up and started walking toward Brienne. While Kamys was applying medicine on his wound, Boe’s face slightly twitched as he thought to himself, ‘We look at the same world, but I guess we see entirely different pictures before us.’