Chapter 91 - A little affected

[Elijah Knight POV]

"I'll see you at Xyrus Academy, okay?" that's what I said to Luz, Arthur and Tessia when we were still in the Helstea mansion.

It was around 11 am, and I had taken a carriage to the commercial area of ​​Xyrus. Why was I there? I was worried about everyone who had been injured that day, but seeing the state those three arrived home in, it was clear that I would expect less of that for the others.

The sight of an extremely injured and weakened Lance being tended to in that mansion... was horrifying for my sanity. I still can't believe I managed to stay calm even with that whole situation... No... it wasn't just me...

Everyone there was incredibly worried about her, but decided to try to calm down and change the subject several times so that it never left them extremely shaken. But I have to agree, the news that the airhead Art managed to propose to someone, was what took my mind off most of those problems. It was good to know that they could be happy, leaning on each other, even in dark moments like the one they went through.

An extremely skilled and powerful tough-headed protector, and an extremely emotional girl who causes trouble but is always there to keep him sane... What a perfect duo...

It got me thinking about my relationship with Emily. We're not all that loving towards each other, in fact I feel it's better that way. Imagining her being extremely loving and kind is completely out of character, at least I can feel that she really loves my company and if she could, she would leave me glued to her every moment that we are alone in the laboratory.

"If the walls could talk… we would have destroyed every wall in that place…" I said quietly to myself, a soft blush on my cheeks.

Yep, Emily was another reason I'd gone to the commercial area instead of going directly to Xyrus Academy. I wanted to buy her something, and I didn't want to buy it at the Downtown Academy... any student can go there any time they want, when they have no classes, of course. I wanted something very special. So, at this very moment, I was walking down a street that was mostly filled with clothing and jewelry stores.

I was very lucky by the way we did experiments in the laboratory. There was a day when we were testing thermal clothing with the use of fire and water mana crystals, and because I was responsible for the fabric itself, I had written down the clothing sizes for her on a piece of paper. It would be very embarrassing to buy her an outfit and it ends up being too big or too small.

Seeing some of the nearby stores, I entered a jewelry store first. It was very well decorated and seemed to have very expensive items, the value of the items was more in their aesthetic form than in their usefulness, after all, it was a common jewelry store, not one that sells items with magical properties. I approached one of the employees who worked there, since the place was without customers at the moment.

"Good morning... I'm looking for some rings to buy, a silver one being more specific." I adjusted my glasses, while the woman just looked at me confused.

"Oh... Kid, did you say you want some rings? Well... I don't think you can buy what you want here." She said in a "nice" way, clearly not thinking I had a lot of money, as I was wearing a simple T-shirt, while from the waist down it was just my disciplinary committee uniform.

Yeah... only the shirt has the Xyrus Academy logo, so pants and boots from that uniform could pass for ordinary, plain clothes, if not for the tough fabric.

"I think you're judging a book by its cover too much, miss... I can buy things here." I took a bag of silver and gold coins from my dimensional ring.

After that, she took me more seriously and I was able to buy what I wanted for Emily, not only that, but strangely, in most stores people were reacting the same way, so I had to do the same technique every time. It was just annoying, this had never happened before... but it must have been because most of the time I went to buy something alone, it was at adventurers' stores or with Uncles Vincent and Reynolds with me, so... maybe it was because of that ?

Anyway, I walked out of a clothing store while putting another bag inside my dimensional ring, I'm not stupid to carry everything in my hand, so I had bought a pretty big dimensional ring at the beginning of the year. I could see a chunk of Xyrus Academy's tallest building from afar, so I thought to myself, it would be nice to go for a walk. Therefore, I decided to make my way there on foot, without using spells, as it was unnecessary.

Or so I thought...

I noticed something strange during my walk, there were around 3 people who seemed to be following me, every corner I passed, they also went. I tried not to think too much, until a boy who looked a little older than me, ended up bumping into me.

"Hey, look where you're going, dirty blood." He looked really pissed off, but then I noticed something even weirder.

"Dirty blood?" I spoke, too confused, until I felt a strong blow on the back of my neck, making me fall.

I managed to remain a little conscious, but when I had my eyes open, I noticed those 3 who were following me, the noble who bumped into me, and one more person, possibly the one who hit me from behind. They were taking me to an alley, and when the noble noticed that I had woken up for good, he hit me hard in the stomach and pushed me, making me fall to the ground.

"It's disgusting to see a half-breed like you... how the fuck do you stand to be alive?" Before I could get up or concentrate to do some defensive spell, the person who had hit me in the back of the head ended up kicking me hard in the ribs.

"Haha! He really is a fucking weakling, isn't he?" One of the three who were following me started laughing. "Really... What a waste of existence... I don't understand how The grand director accepts useless people like these."

Wait... Director? These freaks study at Xyrus Academy?! If that's the case, they know very well who I am, and yet they attack me as if they were...

They are clearly part of the human supremacist group. They don't care who you are, whether you're elf, dwarf, hybrid, or just a sympathetic human, they'll want to attack you...

"I didn't think people like you could come to me…" I said quietly as I stood up, leaning against the alley wall.

"HA! He has the nerve to say that in this state?! Let's finish him off!" The one who looked the richest said, while the other four took out swords and daggers. Unlike the other times, with that group incapacitating people, they seemed to want to kill me for real... maybe because I'm from the disciplinary committee?

"Cynthia didn't pick the best ones for nothing…" I said casually as I placed my hands on the wall behind me.

"Is that so? Then show me this, you dirty-blooded tramp!" The biggest one exclaimed as he swung his sword towards me.

With a silent spell, I used the wall as a means of connecting to the ground, and suddenly a stone pillar appeared in front of him, his hand being wrapped in the rock, becoming trapped. They all glared at me and seemed to shout spells to augment their weapons. While I just took a deep breath, making a piece of the ground float to my hands and turn into stone gauntlets.

"Fire/Water Slash!"

They all launched an attack at me as the big guy tried to wriggle free from where I'd pinned him. I took a leap creating another stone pillar underneath me, thus dodging the attacks. I ended up landing behind one of the guys who used Water Slash, punching him in the ribs with my gauntlet.

"ARGH!!! SON OF A BITCH!" He exclaimed loud and clear, as he gave a sudden sword swing, hitting my shirt a little bit, but not my body itself.

With a strong step on the ground, the ground rose to their legs, trying to arrest them, unfortunately, only 2 of the 4 that were there, managed to escape by jumping, while the one I had trapped by the wrist, managed to break the stone pillar and face me again. I started to feel a bad feeling creeping up my spine when I noticed that their clothes were shining from the inside.

"I didn't think we'd use that against a weakling, but it seems like you only know how to dodge..." The little noble bitch between them spoke, smiling eerily as he raised his hand.

It seems that he could do spells without using enchantments, because a thick pillar of water appeared from the ground and seemed to hold me, leaving me off the ground, thus not being able to even move me out of it. Being inside that pillar, I was forced to focus more on the oxygen in my lungs than the whole situation. This made me not see one of them attacking me with the sword.

The cut wasn't that deep, but it was starting to become something for me to be worry about. I tried not to scream, so as not to waste oxygen for nothing, while they were being crows, using their long swords to hit my body trapped in that structure full of water. But it wasn't just that, I couldn't see well, with the water becoming too thick to see through, but I could feel them causing more cuts and punctures in my body.

I was losing my consciousness, and I closed my eyes. But when I opened it, I found myself lying on the floor, my body still quite wet, and parts of my clothes torn and bloodstained. I was confused... so they were still only attacking to debilitate and not kill? Did they want to "scare" me to never get in their way again?

These questions were resolved when I sat down and realized something that made me sick. Those 5 people who were attacking me, they all looked extremely injured and lifeless, one of them was even cut in half horizontally. Who could have done that? I mean, I'm not going to complain, the person just saved my life... But to have killed like that?

It took a while for me to get up and approach the bodies, looking closer, I could see what looked like very thin blades of metal, but they didn't look like blades of a sword or anything like that, they were simply thin, long and thin pieces of metal with slightly curved edges. It was like they were created from an attack, and not part of an item.

A thought soon came to my mind when I watched that, it was like a flashback. The image of that guy being attacked by a large metallic projectile, slicing him to pieces, but why was I having these visions...?

No... don't tell me I did this to them...

I can't quite remember having done that, but the feeling that it was me, didn't get out of my head. So, I walked out of that alley and started walking towards the Xyrus Academy again, I was closer to that place than the Helstea mansion, and I felt that calling a carriage in the state I'm at the moment, would be a bad thing. However, something I didn't expect happened.

As I noticed that the sky was already dark, I ended up seeing someone approaching me. It wasn't just one person, it was two. Their silhouettes were familiar to me, until they got closer and I noticed their features.

"Luz...? Director Goodsky?" I spoke on pure impulse and soon managed to confirm, it was really them.

Goodsky watched me intently, a little scared by my injuries, while Luz just walked towards the alley, it was as if he knew what had happened. But knowing him, or he really knew, or something drew his attention to that place.

"Elijah, are you alright?... We didn't know we'd find you here until we were close enough to identify your mana signature." Goodsky spoke, still checking my body for any serious injuries.

"I'm fine... I guess... but why did you come here, I couldn't get the disciplinary committee's communicator to let you all know I was in danger." I tried to expose my doubts.

Luz soon came back from inside that alley, seeming to put something in a small transparent bag and then put it inside his dimensional ring. "It's just that we identified a high degree of Decay mana art around here... We thought we were being attacked by Vritras right away." Cynthia's expression was one of shock as she stared at Luz and me repeatedly, but my friend just raised one of his hands, as if asking our wise old mage not to worry about something.

"He... he's more or less one of ours, Cynthia. Relax." He spoke in a low voice, making only her and me hear him.

"Is this serious?... I'm amazed by how many of them end up getting into the academy." She looked annoyed and disappointed.

"Well. As I said... he's more or less like that. I found out some time ago that his memories were sealed away." I finally managed to understand what he was talking about, but then, another doubt arose in my mind.

"Wait, what do you mean 'one of ours'?"

"People from the other continent who are not currently working with them." his answer made me give a slight sigh of relief. I though for a second he was talking about reincarnation, not about the other contine-

Wait a minute, does that mean Goodsky is from there too?! T-This is absurd!

They watched my face and then chuckled. "If we're going to go into more detail, we'd better do it in my office... Let's get you to Xyrus Academy and treat those injuries."

I just nodded and they both held it in my hands. The two seemed to activate the same spell, causing the three of us to float and speed towards our destination. But during our trip there, we ended up noticing a noise and shine coming from Luz's dagger. Something was up.

"Shit.. Cynthia, take care of him. I'll go ahead..." Luz said letting go of my hand and falling towards the ground, but when their feet touched the street below us, his body filled with lightning and he was advancing much faster than when he was with us.

These crazy rebels attacked me when I was alone... are they also attacking the others? Is this something organized and not random?! Hopefully I'll be of some use when we get there... I guess...

———————————————

[Feyrith Ivsaar POV]

"Let's say that... we will have a new prince in Dicathen.~"

I... no... we all froze as we listened to what Luz had said at that moment. My great rivals, Arthur and Luz Leywin, were both dating the only two princesses on the continent, that was something everyone in our group knew...but this?! Arthur getting married at that age was something I could never imagine, given his personality and the way human culture works, but not only that... He was going to marry the princess of my kingdom!

Before I thought that me being an absolutely stupendous noble in the arts of water magic, and him being a quadra elemental commoner with great achievements, putted us on equal footing as far as our friendly rivalry is concerned. But making him the future king of Elenoir. It made him on a higher level than me!

Yes! I should use this as motivation to achieve my goals! To reach him now, I have to be as great as he is! That's right! Maybe asking for help in training with Kathyln, Lilia or Luz could be the best idea out there. Or maybe when I finish my studies, I could try to have the responsibility of the Ivsaar house for myself, that way I would be more than just the eldest son! Or become a royal guard? A royal guard with training and knowledge provided by Dicathen's best academy... Yes, that's a great plan.

Gradually I got out of my thoughts about that and I could see the reaction of others. Dora, Theo and Claire had a bizarrely surprised face, Kathyln had an expression impossible for me to decipher, and Curtis gave a sly smile as always.

"Ohoho! So Arthur will be part of the royalty too? I could already see him along with me and maybe Kathyln as Dicathen's councilmen, but now, this imagination of mine has become much more solid!" Curtis was saying, holding up one of his fisted hands.

Everyone chuckled weakly at what our dear human prince was saying. Soon, it was Theodore's turn to ask a question. "But when did he have time to propose?"

"From what I understand, my empty-headed brother was going to make the proposal in the middle of Vanesy's school trip, but with what happened and all... it was at dawn today." Luz replied, taking one last bite of the treats he had brought.

With a few more small conversations, much more social, Luz waved us over, saying he had to go to Cynthia, to give some kind of report. When we asked him what it was about, he just said it had to do with the mutated monsters Curtis and Claire talked about this morning. So I felt it was just something to add to the safety and restraint of school trips like this one.

Claire caught our attention, as she put some paperwork on the table, with Luz no longer here. "Well, let's do our routine around the academy. I want Feyrith and Theodore together in the northwest sector. Me and Kathyln will stay in the central sector. Curtis and Doradrae, you will stay in the southeast sector. Is there a problem?"

We all agreed to the arrangement and exited our main room, with a few drinks inside my dimensional ring, in case Theodore or I got thirsty during our patrol. It was quite efficient this method, and since we weren't having classes and things like that, we could all do rounds together. For situations with few people available, Claire always divided the patrol areas into three throughout Xyrus Academy.

It didn't take long for us to reach the most northwest area of ​​the academy and begin our rounds. In ordinary moments, we were always side by side, but sometimes each one stayed a few meters away, to make sure that one of the DCs didn't miss something.

"So, anything to do this week?" I asked Theo just to have something to talk about.

"Other than the interviews we'll have to do for the self-defense club and the journalism club? I don't have anything that different to do... what about you, Feyrith?" He kept adjusting his own gloves.

"People from the garden club kept calling me for a few conversations. I'm thinking of accepting their invitation." I took out my wand, which was hidden in the top of my right boot, and twirled it a little between my fingers.

"I can understand, but if you go there, remember to be very careful."

"Yeah, I know those little shits are really annoying... speaking of them... there haven't been many attacks lately, right?"

"Yes…I don't know if we should be thankful for that or not." He kept laughing a little.

"Both.. both is better."

We were on our round routine for almost 2 hours. There were times when one of us entered the buildings where we were assigned to stay, while the other stayed outside, we always chose who was doing what at that moment from rock, paper or scissors. It sounds silly, but it's perfect for as much randomness as possible so no enemies are aware of more formal information, or at least that's what Luz and Claire suggested some months ago.

I took a small bottle of hot coffee out of my dimensional ring and tossed it to Theodore, while I took out another one for myself to drink. Even though it didn't snow so much due to the height Xyrus City is at, the weather was still pretty cold this winter. So at least we were warming our throats with coffee. Still, I felt a chill running through my entire body...

Am I getting paranoid?

Suddenly, my answers came out with a loud booming noise, and along with that, the gem in my dagger started flashing between pink and blue. It wasn't just Claire, but Kathyln was also calling us! Theodore started running towards the central area of ​​Xyrus Academy and I followed him, activating a spell to create a layer of water below me. This layer made me slide across the lawn much faster than I would normally.

We heard battle noises getting louder the closer we got to the Hall of Trinity. That was a large corridor that connected several of the classrooms, half of which was exposed to the open air, with copies of famous paintings or items from the three kingdoms. It was the representation of the union of Dicathen...

It was very obvious that at some point, an attack would take place there, but I didn't believe they would actually have that much courage!

"Wind Rapier Torrent!" I heard Claire's voice shouting a spell, as I also heard Kathyln casting another in unison. "Ice Jaw!"

I held tight to my wand, due to my spell from before, I ended up arriving first than Theodore, and that way I could see the situation that my friends were in. They seemed to be fighting 4 people with cloaks covering most of their bodies, they all appeared to be Conjurers as they were using magic staffs and wands. I decided to make a surprise attack as I got closer to the battle, with my wand pointed forward, I screamed.

"Water Serpent!"

Thus, my signature spell was activated, with a beam of water appearing in front of my wand, that small amount was sucking the moisture from the air around it as it went towards the enemies, getting bigger and bigger, until it gained the shape of a a big snake. My summon ended up slipping between Kathyln and Claire, attacking one of the spellcasters closest to them.

My water serpent ended up opening its jaw and swallowing the enemy entirely, being enveloped in super dense water that was suffocating it, but before killing it, the serpent released it and advanced against another of the three remaining enemies. That scene let the two know of my arrival, while Theodore ran directly, the same path that my water serpent took, towards another mage that was not my target.

"Fire Blast!!"

That mage exclaimed a spell, with his wand pointed at Theodore, he released a kind of fireball, which exploded halfway through. It looked like it was a spell to weaken or ward off targets, but Theodore was the biggest of our group, being the toughest, both in appearance and physical. He was still running towards the enemy, as if that attack had done nothing, and soon he put his right forearm back, preparing to throw a punch.

"Earth Punch!" He augmented his arm with earth mana, and the enemy responded by creating a kind of fire wall in front of him, but that enemy didn't expect our great colleague to have an ace up his sleeve.

"Gravity Gauntlet!" With that spell, all the fire that was being used by that conjurer, was sucked into Theodore's right hand, without stopping the punching movement that had started before.

In theory, he was able to augment his whole hand not only with earth, but also with fire mana. In this way he caught the enemy's chin, throwing him backwards at great speed, making him hit the back of the head on the outer wall of the Hall of Trinity, and apparently fainting him.

I observed my surroundings again, seeing Kathyln helping my Water Serpent, both were trying to attack a water conjurer, who kept using defensive bubble spells, while a strange light was emitted from under his cloak. Claire seemed to be holding her own against the last of the remaining enemies, defending with her rapier while casting spells, using her rapier to channel. I was still impressed by the way she managed to cast spells even though she was an augmenter.

I decided to help my captain, approaching with my wand towards the enemy, who appeared to be an Earth Conjurer, I released another spell.

"Water Force!"

I had learned that spell during Arthur's PMM classes, a jet of water was released and landed on the ground the enemy was standing on, it didn't seem like a big deal, until the real spell happened. Tentacles of water emerged from that puddle, which ended up holding the enemy's legs, so Claire could get closer without problems.

But something strange happened...

That strange light appeared under the mantle of that earth conjurer, and suddenly, a barrier of fire appeared around him, evaporating my spell insta. Was he an elemental duo? Or was this some bizarre effect of those weird tattoos they have on their backs?

I still remember seeing that these things made the user go crazy with excess mana, but was something like that possible?

"Argh!" Claire was forced to move away, I wasn't that close to that spherical shield, but the heat it gave off was too intense, even the grass below it seemed to burn.

"Die now, dirty blood!" That mage was screaming at me, advancing towards my body, he seemed to want to attack me with that shield of his.

I tried to move away, but I felt my legs being held by a kind of earth claw that emerged from the ground. So I activated a water protection spell, but the water evaporated instantly. I closed my eyes expecting the worst, until suddenly I felt someone pushing me back.

When I opened my eyes, Doradrae was pulling me away, while Curtis was attacking the enemy with a double-edged spear, its blades made completely of fire mana. That was good, because that force field around the enemy seemed to increase the power of my friend's attacks. Claire soon joined him, with both of them using their blades engulfed in fire.

"Is everything okay, Fey?" Dora asked, as we stood a little further away, I could see the bigger picture.

In addition to the struggle Curtis and Claire were having, Kathyln seemed to be starting to have some issues. My summon seemed to be resisting and helping the princess in the defense, while she froze the water serpent's attacks, which hit that other mage for good. That is until we see him do the same thing as the previous one.

The lights under his clothes became more intense and he raised a hand, releasing his wand. From his hand, a kind of floating arm of concentrated wind mana emerged, which firmly grabbed my water serpent by the head and crushed it with those huge hands. Seeing this, I raised my wand once more.

"Water Serpent! Water Serpent!" I cast my spell twice more, creating more of those summons to aid Kathyln.

A voice soon drew my attention away. "Guys! Looks like more are showing up! Get ready!!" It was Theodore, and as I took in our surroundings, my gaze was filled with shock.

There were 5 more mages surrounding the area we were all in. They all still had cloaks covering their faces, but strangely the light from their backs was more vivid, as if the backs of their uniforms were open just to expose those bizarre tattoos. I began to hyperventilate at the sight of the situation as I scrambled to my feet. Doradrae stomped the floor, kicking up rocks and dirt around her, and soon they formed boots and gauntlets for her as they stuck to her arms and legs. Theodore was running towards us, and if it wasn't for the grass around us flattening out of nowhere, I would never have known he had activated a gravity spell of protection.

They soon started to smile strangely at us, two of them raised both hands, creating magic circles and throwing fireballs and iceballs. Another two started to run, while seeming to create swords of pure mana in both of their hands. And the last of them remained still, seeming to be casting silent spells with only his mouth moving.

"We have to finish that one first!" Dora said as she started to run towards the only one who didn't look like was attacking us directly.

The gravitational field that Theo created seemed to drop the fireballs and iceballs directly to the ground when they got too close to us. I could see the other two who were coming towards us, completely ignoring Doradrae as they hurled their swords at me and Theo, so I knew something was wrong.

Even so, I raised my wand, creating a protection of water around us, which, together with Theo's spell, created a dome of concentrated water, where the blades of the swords were stuck, not crossing completely. Theo pulled out one of those swords that were stuck in the dome's confines and hurled it at the enemy mages, but in doing so, the sword simply disappeared before reaching them, making them laugh even more as they tried to cut our protection by creating several swords like that.

Ahead, I could see Doradrae still running against the enemy that had stopped, she concentrated an earth stomp, making a kind of controlled earthquake in the direction of the enemy, who impressively jumped high, while waving his hands fluidly, but he soon shouted a spell that left me confused.

"Metal Claws!"

Without even knowing what that spell was, I screamed at Dora, on pure instinct. "GET OUT OF THERE!" and I hated that my instincts were correct.

Even before Dora turned her head towards me to question why I said that, a set of large metal blades appeared on the floor, where that enemy mage was originally. They were all angled in a way that ended up hitting my dwarf colleague. And what came next had me petrified. The way those blades suddenly attacked her, caused her head to be separated from her body, but that became more obvious, when the blades disappeared, and her body fell, with her head rolling a little in front of her.

My mind was trying to process what was going on, I couldn't hear anything, just muffled screams from my friends, while my body started acting on pure instinct. I ran out of the dome, dodging the attackers by tripping one of them, and then yelled a spell with all the rage from my lungs. Even without my wand, that at least worked.

"HYDRONIC BOOM!" With my hand touching the back of one of the enemy augmenters, that spell made an incredible and thick jet of super dense water cross his body, making a literal hole of 10 centimeters in radius.

I soon was hit with a punch by the other augmenter who was next to the water/gravity dome. Making me fall to the ground, with blurred vision, my hearing seemed to recover little by little, as I heard the one who punched me, scream. "YOU FUCKING DICATHEN! DIE!!! DIRTY BLOOD!!"

I soon felt a tremendous pain hitting my leg, I didn't need to turn my face to know that the insane supremacist had stuck one of his many swords in my thigh, and I was already waiting for another to be stuck in my chest or head, but suddenly, when I turned my head and looked him in the eyes, I saw a kind of lightning hitting him in the face, making him fall dead. Looking around, I saw a flash of several lightnings hit the two mages who were shooting fireballs and iceballs earlier. The being stopped in front of them, and so I could identify who it was.

Without saying a word, our savior created two swords and at the same moment, decapitated them, watching the fallen body of Doradrae, he seemed to take her head and walk close to the body, while a strong light appeared there, I didn't know what was happening because of the angle I was at. But I could hear that conjurer who killed Dora, he was screaming in despair.

"Retreat, now!! The traitor is here!! We must flee!!"

'Traitor...? What the fuck did he mean by that?...' My mind was getting tired with these thoughts, I continued to struggle to stay awake, but soon Theodore helped me to stand and was holding me.

Seeing better, I noticed that the other mages started to run away from Kathyln, Claire and Curtis, going closer to the one who had called them, before they tried to run away, two of them set fire in Luz's whole body, who didn't seem that affected.

"Fucking traitor! Die already!!!" One of them screamed while increasing the amount of flames, which seemed to consume parts of his clothes, revealing something that left me wide-eyed, even though I was mentally and physically exhausted.

On his back... there were also... the tattoos... the same tattoos that this shitty supremacist group members have on their backs...

Luz... what the fuck is this?... are you with them?....

My desperate questions were answered when suddenly another source of fire appeared, this time, Luz was the one who cast the spell.

Shouting something I couldn't identify, certain parts of the tattoos on his back glowed, and a pillar of fire appeared consuming the enemies, who were screaming insanely, until they seemed to fall to the ground, cremated. My eyes couldn't take it anymore and they closed.

—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—

My eyes fluttered open and I gave a panicky jump the first second my body seemed to snap back to consciousness. I seemed to be inside my bedroom, I was panting a lot as I sat on the edge of the bed. "What a shitty nightmare..." That's what I said to myself, but when I tried to get out of bed for real, I felt a sharp pain.

Looking closely, I pulled up my pants, revealing a huge amount of bandages on my right leg. Beside my bed there seemed to be a kind of cane, which I used to keep myself standing. I started hyperventilating more with that situation I found myself in.

"That...wasn't a nightmare?!" I ended up talking out loud to myself as I tried to go to my bedroom door. But it soon opened, revealing a shirtless Curtis with a burn mark on his left shoulder.

He stared at me for a while, in complete silence, until he approached me and help me out of the room. "Don't get up so badly... Feyrith..." His voice sounded very tired.

"Wh-What's going on?" I asked, but he didn't answer me, he just took me to our main room.

There I saw Claire sitting in a chair, next to Cynthia Goodsky, both seemed to be talking in a focused way, to the point of not even noticing that Curtis was putting me in a chair at that same table. Elijah was there too, he was lying on the sofa we have in this room, looking tired, with a bandage on his head and Grawder lying on the floor next to him. Theodore was standing with his back against the wall near the exit, and he was talking to... Doradrae?!?

"E-eh!?!" I rubbed my eyes and looked back in that direction, Curtis saw me doing this and just sighed, handing me a mug of black coffee.

"The situation was ugly... lucky we didn't have any losses... right?..." he told me, sitting down next to me.

"B-But Dora... s-she was..."

"Decapitated?" I turned to the person who completed my sentence, it was Luz. He was walking out of the kitchen, with Kathyln following.

I stared at him deeply as he approached the table and left a tray of cookies for us. He soon patted my shoulder as he simply spoke. "Fun fact... when you are decapitated, your body and severed head remain 'alive' for 5 minutes at the most... until someone glues them back together..." My eyes were wide and he chuckled lightly. "What?... I've lost both my arms countless times, and they're still very well glued to my body.... oh... and how's the leg?"

"Sharp pain... but well... I guess...." I said trying to gather words in my mind to know what else to ask, but he soon put his head on top of my head, ruffling my hair.

"I'll answer your questions… as many as I can, of course… but don't worry so much… I'm on your side." was what he said before heading over to the Director and Claire.

Than, a little detail got my attention... were his eyes yellow?