24 Manifestation

A few minutes after Savyrran left Ovandarrak and the children.

Once Savyrran left, Ovandarrak asked the children to follow him. They just kept on running though the long narrow hallways. Ovandarrak wondered exactly how large this place was since they had not even come across any exit doors yet. After what seemed like an eternity of running, they finally came into a large empty hall like a ball room. At least, it fit the description of some novels he had read. However, unlike in the books, this place was empty. There was no kind of decoration, no furniture, nothing. Just a vast empty space with endless rows of large glass windows everywhere. It was rather fortunate that there was light in the room, else, it would have been impossible to see anything.

The largest door Ovandarrak had ever seen in his life was at the farthest end of the room. Through the glass windows, Ovandarrak could see the thick cover of darkness. Even if they succeeded in escaping from this building, they still had no idea where they were.

"What are we going to do now?" Markka asked. They had stopped running for a while now and the boy they were looking up to was standing still just looking around him. Markka knew Ovandarrak well enough to know that he was thinking. But she was too terrified about everything to be patient.

Ovandarrak was thinking that even if the door was unlocked, it would still be impossible to open it given how small they were and how high the door was. But he did not say that out loud. Still, he believed they might have a chance to escape through the windows, for they were positioned low enough for their reach. "We will try to open one of the windows. We could escape through that."

"But what about the door?" Markka asked.

"Can you open the door?"

Markka thought for a while then shook her head in the negative. That door was even taller than her uncle. How was she supposed to open it?

They had barely overcome one obstacle when another pranced towards them slowly with glowing yellow eyes. The children did not notice until they heard the low menacing growl from behind. They screamed in terror as they ran from the giant beast approaching them. They all huddled behind Ovandarrak like his back was some kind of magical shield that could protect them from the gigantic red cat. Ovandarrak instinctively held on to Jari's hand; the latter was completely in a state of shock and could not even make a sound.

Deep within his bones, Ovandarrak could feel his body trembling with fright. If this beast was here, did that mean something had happened to his sister? The fear of the beast was overtaken by the fear of Savyrran's death. But that was impossible. Savyrran was supposed to have killed it. What if… What if… No, he refused to believe that. Savyrran was not dead. How could she be dead?

Manamo roared fiercely while looking down on the trembling puny children. At first, it had expected the children to fight back like the previous one had done. However, none of them dared to move an inch. It was like they were rooted to the spot and had lost the use of their legs. The blood flame tiger began to slowly encircle them, intimidating the children with its large yellow eyes.

At this point, Ovandarrak suddenly realized the naivety of his thinking. At first, he had thought that just because he did not like trouble did not mean that there would be no trouble. He should not have neglected his physical training simply because he did not like fighting. Even if he was not as strong as Savyrran, he could still have protected the children for a while. But now, here he was feeling useless. Where they about to die now? He was not ready to die. He was only five years old and he would like to be a soul recovery doctor in the future.

Ovandarrak felt something hot flowing down his cheeks. It took him a moment to realize that he was crying. Why was he feeling so helpless now? Wasn't everyone looking up to him? But what could he do? He was a child, and he was weak. There was nothing he could do but think, and right now his brain was shutting down from fear.

"Where is my sister?" His voice was shaky but loud enough to echo in the wide empty room. Savyrran had gone off to fight this beast in order to protect them, yet the beast was here and Savyrran was nowhere to be found. What exactly had to happened to her?

The blood flame tiger only growled, clearly having no understanding of the gibberish the child was spewing. It was only a primordial common class soul armos, which meant that it had a very low level of intelligence. The only thing it could possibly understand was its master since they were bound by their soul. And right now, it needed to get the children back to its master as instructed.

Manamo nudged its massive head at the children forcing them to keep moving back. It bared its long fangs at the children effectively crushing any form of resistance they might try to put up.

From the way the beast was behaving, Ovandarrak had a feeling that it was not trying to harm them. Was it possible that this beast was working with that man? A beast-type soul armos perhaps? He was not sure. But if that were the case, then did that not mean that it intended to take them back to that man? What did that man want from them? If he had ordered the beast not to harm them, then perhaps, there was a chance that Savyrran was still alive. This small piece of hope, no matter how unlikely, was enough to steady Ovandarrak's rapidly beating heart.

Ovandarrak looked back longingly at the windows as the beast forced them back down the hallway. His mind raced with a million thoughts. But this time, it settled on the worst idea he had ever had in his life. He knew it was a terrible idea, but he was willing to risk it. He halted in his tracks and then turned to face the beast. The tears had dried from his face, and the steel gaze he often harboured in his eyes were back. He vowed within himself that if they were able get out of here by some miracle, he was going to take his physical training as seriously as he did with his mental training. He could not always rely on his sister's strength to get him out of problems. Sometimes, he had to face his own problems by himself.

The blood flame tiger roared loudly in Ovandarrak's face when the child stopped moving. Suddenly Ovandarrak started running away from the children toward one of the windows at the farthest corner of the room. Seeing that a child was escaping, Manamo began to chase after him. The other children were left confused about how everything and all they did was watch the unusual spectacle of a giant beast chasing after a little child.

Ovandarrak's light body made it easier for him to run as fast as he could. But the beast's long legs gave it the advantage of speed. But Ovandarrak's aim was not to outrun the beast, for he knew that that would be impossible in the long run. All he was aiming for was the large glass window close to the door, and he had expected the beast to follow him. As he got closer to the window, he saw from his peripheral vision that the beast just about a hair's breath away from him. The blood flame tiger kept running at full speed towards Ovandarrak who was by now leaning against the tall window.

The blood flame tiger struggled to stop as it neared the window, however, its momentum was at full force. Ovandarrak, seeing that the giant cat was almost about to crash into him, swiftly swerved out of the way, causing the beast to violently crash into the window, immediately breaking it into pieces.

From the ground where he was crouching, a small smile reached Ovandarrak's eyes when he saw that his plan was working. With the window opened now, the others could escape if he distracted the beast long enough.

Once Manamo removed it's large body from the shards of glass, it roared furiously. Ovandarrak scrambled to his feet when he saw the blood flame tiger rushing towards him again. Ovandarrak's face darkened in confusion as to why the beast looked like it wanted to kill him. Wasn't it only interested in taking them back unharmed?

"Everyone, run to the broken window. Get out, now." Ovandarrak screamed to his little companions who were watching with horror. Once he shouted the instruction, the children were jolted back to their senses.

It seemed Ovandarrak was serving as their decoy while they ran away. "Hurry up now." Ovandarrak shouted, looking in their direction.

Manamo jumped high over Ovandarrak and then appeared right in front of him. The force with which the blood flame tiger jumped to the ground was so strong that the ground shook causing Ovandarrak to fall back down. As he looked into the yellow eyes of the beast, Ovandarrak could feel himself shaking. Had he miscalculated that the beast would not harm them? He probably had. The giant cat raised its strong paws and then sent it flying towards the child.

Its master had ordered not to kill them. It won't kill them. But it needed to teach them a lesson of fear. But what Manamo did not understand was that its smallest strength could kill the children. Raising its large red paw, it rained it down to pummel the child on the ground. But then suddenly, a flood of deep green light burst from child with an explosive sound. The green light forcefully pushed the enormous beast across the other end of the room thereby crashing into the thick wall.

The children, who were by then getting ready to escape through the broken window, paused upon hearing the loud explosive noise. They looked in Ovandarrak's direction only to see the little boy surrounding by endless streaks of green light, and the pupils of his eyes were as green as a rain forest.

Markka's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Green essence? Was this green essence, or were her eyes playing tricks on her. She had never seen green essence. No one had it in their town. But with the bright green lights hovering around Ovandarrak and his green eyes, this was clearly green essence.

Soon, Manamo recovered from his fall, and without another thought, charged towards Ovandarrak again.

Ovandarrak could feel himself being flooded by incredible strength. It pulsated through his veins and almost threatened to break his muscles apart. Was this the reason why training was necessary once a person manifested? Even with his mental training, he could feel the toll from his new found power to be too strong for him. Seeing that the beast was charging towards him again, Ovandarrak sped away from his position at incredible speed. Even Markka who was closely watching everything did not see where he had disappeared to.

"Looking for me?" Ovandarrak shouted from behind the blood flame tiger.

The blood flame tiger roared at how this insignificant little thing was playing tricks on it. But just before it could do anything else, the soul armos began to dissolve into tiny yellow specks until the massive cat was no more.

Ovandarrak's face warped in confusion. What had just happened? Where did the beast go? But he did not do anything to the beast. It was like the soul armos had been suddenly summoned by its master.

Once Ovandarrak realised that the beast was truly gone, and that they were safer, the green essence surrounding him dissolved back into his soul, and his knees went weak. He had not expected his essence to manifest so suddenly, but once it did, he could barely hold it all in. It was threatening to break apart his mind and body, but the presence of the crazy beast had deterred him from keeping back his essence. But now that the beast was no more here, he could go back to his original self.

Ovandarrak fell weakly to the ground, unable to move.

"Ovan." Markka rushed towards her friend and the other children followed suit. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Ovandarrak's body had stiffened and he could not even move a finger. Only his eyes could move.

Suddenly, the huge door to the room flung open and in walked a group of people wearing green and gold uniforms. Leading this group of people was a tall middle-aged man with long white hair. He was in a loose white robe.

At first, the children's fears heightened again at the thought of a new enemy. But once they saw the uniforms of the Soul Guardian Force and the familiar face of their principal, they felt a heavy weight lift off them, and all the tears left within them began to escape. They were saved. Finally, they were really about to go home. Master Bufan was here.

Markka remembered that Savyrran was still inside, and since Ovandarrak could not speak, she told Master Bufan about everything that had happened.

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