“W-What!?”

It was a horrible sight. It was bleeding.

Then, the creature’s tentacles captured Mat while he remained dazed.

“Ack!”

He dropped the sling.

“Hero!” shouted Roundy and TRX.

The tentacles were squeezing him tightly.

“Aaaagh!”

TRX wanted to intervene upon seeing this scene, but the creature said, “Don’t interfere. If you do, you’ll ruin everything.”

“Agh!”

Mat continued to groan in pain.

I need to grab it…

He thought as he looked over at the sling, which was lying about ten meters away.

Then, he decided to spin it with his PSI Creations. He launched a green PSI whip to reach it, but…

“Ack! Aghhh!”

The tentacles tightened their grip. Some of his ribs cracked. But despite this, he managed to grab the sling, spun it, and aimed at the crystal, but something strange happened.

“Huh?” TRX said.

He had noticed something.

When Mathias grabbed the sling, the tip of the whip transformed into a hand. Not a hand created by PSI Creations. It was a “real” hand, so to speak. It wasn’t green nor transparent. It was clearly visible and golden in color. It looked as if he was wearing a clawed glove or something.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Groaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

The creature screamed again, and part of its face shattered.

Mat, still trapped by the tentacles and unaware of the “hand,” launched another attack with the sling. The creature let out a horrific scream and began to disintegrate, disappearing.

Then, a bright light flooded the area, blinding the three present.

When the light faded, Mat’s wounds were healed. His clothes were also repaired. Mat found himself alongside TRX and Roundy.

“Huh? Wow,” Mat said.

“W-What happened?” Roundy asked, confused.

“The fight is over…” TRX said.

“…I see.”

Then, the humanoid figure reappeared in front of the group.

“So… was that it?” Mathias asked.

“Yes, that was it,” the figure replied.

“But… it was so fast, seriously…”

It was painful, but… it felt too easy as well… Mat thought.

“And that was enough!” exclaimed the divine creature with a human-like appearance. This surprised everyone. “Seriously, just look at the artifact; it has regained its power… Now every… shot you make at someone will… weaken them…”

She seemed to be in pain.

“H-hey, are you okay?” TRX asked.

“Of course I am! It’s just that… it’s just that… ah…” the creature said. “Well. It hurts… a lot… but it doesn’t matter.”

“I-I see…” Mat said.

“Wait, did it hurt her?”

“Then, Messiah, it’s time for you to leave,” she said. “This place will close permanently. Also, for the next temple to open, you’ll have to wait until December 24.”

Messiah… Mat thought, confused.

A giant stone door appeared out of nowhere. It was open.

“Alright,” Mat said. “Goodbye, then.”

He said, smiling.

“Yes, see you,” TRX replied.

“Thank you for everything,” Roundy said, shyly.

The humanoid creature said nothing, just smiled and waved them off. The group proceeded to pass through the door.

Meanwhile, Aelin and Samantha were sitting on a blanket spread on the ground. They were eating. It seemed to be one in the afternoon the next day. Thanks to the Infini-bag, they had managed to gather camping supplies there, waiting for Mat, Roundy, and TRX to return.

The wait was over.

“Ah! Mat!”

Samantha exclaimed happily upon seeing Mat, Roundy, and TRX come through the door. Aelin also rejoiced at his arrival and quickly ran to hug him.

“Ah, Sam!” Mat said, hugging her back. “Er… Hello, everyone!”

“Mat, you… took a long time,” Samantha said.

“Really?” he replied. At that moment, he started to feel something strange.

“Yes, almost a day. We camped here,” she explained. Aelin, Blocky, and Pointy nodded.

“Oh, wow…”

“For us, it was only a couple of hours,” TRX said. “Time flowed differently in there.”

“I see. So… I assume you got the orb, that’s why you’re here,” Samantha said. “And… this… what about the orb?”

“Here it is,” Mat said, smiling.

“Oh…” the others said upon seeing the orb.

Then, Aelin tugged on Sam’s clothes.

“Huh? Do you want to touch it?”

She nodded.

“Well,” Mat replied. “Could you hand it to her for a moment?”

“Huh? But…”

“It’s not going to break,” Pointy said. “So it’s no problem.”

“Okay.” He handed the orb to Aelin. Blocky came closer to see it as well.

“So… what was it like in there?” Samantha asked now.

She seemed quite curious about it.

“Well, it was pretty impressive, to be honest. We were…”

“Mat… Uh…” Samantha interrupted.

“?”

“Your nose is bleeding…”

“Oh… but… agh…”

“Mat!”

“Hero!”

Mat collapsed to the floor. His nose was bleeding, and blood was coming from his mouth as well. Some of his veins had burst. There was a faint sound, like a small explosion within him.

“Agh…”

At that moment, Aelin, still scared, realized something and pointed to the southwest. Everyone turned to look that way.

In the distance stood the silhouette of a girl.

“Ha! I found you,” she said to herself.

image [https://i.imgur.com/zv4myDt.png]

She was pointing in Mat's direction.