Fated V

The pitch-black tentacles seemed like nothing but the darkest night. However, they were adorned with countless little dots of light, shimmering like stars in the sky.

The cracks in the sky continued to grow, allowing an ever-increasing number of dark tentacles to emerge and seep through.

As Ervian watched, he grew increasingly uneasy, realizing that this was something he had no control over.

Ervian focused his Vis on his hands and started channeling it towards the tentacles. With each force blast, he managed to push back the tentacles, but they kept coming relentlessly. Ervian knew he had to come up with a different strategy, as this was not sustainable.

'This is not good!'

Ervian soared higher. He realized the gravity of the situation. There were newly emerged abyssal tentacles that were reaching up from the depths of the endless sea, threatening to envelop the large water sphere completely.

Ervian knew he needed a more decisive action. With a surge of determination, he channeled his Vis into a concentrated beam of energy and aimed it directly at the engulfed water sphere.

The beam engulfed many of the tentacles, and then with a command gesture of his hand, all the affected tentacles were forcibly pulled away from the water sphere.

Ervian's frustration grew as the horde of tentacles seemed to be too much for him to handle. He continued to blast them, cut them, and control them under telekinesis, but they kept coming back and increasing in number no matter what he did.

The sky and sea were now filled with the writhing mass of dark tentacles, and Ervian could feel their cold, unfeeling presence pressing in on him from all sides.

Out of desperation, Ervian suddenly noticed silvery blazes of light burning out from the cracks in the sky and at the bottom of the endless sea below.

The blazes were spreading quickly, and with them came a surge of pure energy that destroyed the abyssal tentacles.

Ervian felt a sense of relief as the blazes continued to spread, seemingly purifying everything in their path.

He couldn't help but wonder what was causing this sudden burst of energy, but for the moment, he was grateful for it.

A muffled sound that Ervian had previously ignored suddenly became clearer and clearer.

"E...vy! Ervy!! ERVIAN!!!"

Ervian's consciousness was suddenly pulled back to his physical body as Adelle kept shaking his shoulders.

He found himself surrounded by darkness. But as he felt the tree behind his back and felt the dirt in his grasp, he realized that he had returned to reality.

"Ervian?" Adelle let out a deep sigh of relief as Ervian finally stirred, indicating that he had come out of his meditative state.

"A-Adelle? W-what? What happened?" As he took a deep breath, Ervian tried to calm himself down and regain control of his thoughts.

The memory of the dark tentacles attacking him in his Vis realm was still vivid in his mind, and he couldn't shake off the feeling of helplessness he had experienced.

"What do you mean 'what'? It was you that something happened to! There were strange, dark auras emanating from your body while you were resting. They felt so malicious, and I had been trying to wake you up for a while."

'Malicious dark aura ... so it even seeped through my physical body. That silvery blaze in my Vis realm, it must be her Ordo Vis. Oh wait! My Sensus is back!'

As the blue strings extended, it allowed him to see Adelle, who was standing right in front of him, with a worried expression on her face.

"Thank you, Adelle. If it weren't for your Ordo, I might not know what could happen to me."

"N-no problem. But how do you know that I used my Ordo?"

Ervian stretched his body after taking a few steps ahead. He told her what had happened inside his Vis realm.

"That's terrifying. I'm glad you're okay now."

"Hn." Ervian nodded slowly, taking a deep breath and savoring the refreshing air of the forest around him, helping him to sooth his worries.

'I never expected to be dependent on her Ordo this fast. Sure, I had in mind about taking her on this journey by considering her Ordo. But yeah, this was too quick.'

After a brief moment to think, Ervian finally decided to shed some light about his condition to her.

"So, Adelle. Have you ever seen a Necrolyte before?" he asked without turning his head.

Adelle shifted his position to get more comfortable while keeping his attention on Ervian. "I haven't. But I knew about them from books. They are the only monsters that were capable of bringing the dead back to life, right? I remember Gramps wanted to talk about it, but we had already fled."

Ervian had a pause, perplexed, as if she had no weight at all talking about life and death.

"So, aren't you afraid of me?"

She grinned. "Why would I? I'd say something more like 'enjoyed' you. Blatantly say, I almost had no care about the inside, so long as the outside looks 'good' enough, hehe." Her grin grew bigger.

Ervian sighed, rubbing his temple. "How could you jok—nevermind. Seems like i was wrong to even ask your view and perspective."

"Hey, at least the view shouldn't matter much as long as she was able to alleviate some of the burden, right?" Adelle said, with her hands on her waist and facing Ervian with a smug smile.

He turned his head toward her and had his mouth gaping open. Never thought she would steadily corner him with guilt after the undisputable deed.

"Fine. I admit that you are not that burdensome."

'Wow, I was thinking he would be apologizing. But, well, I'll let that pass since he had admitted that.'

"Not even a sorry, heh? You were nicer when we first met."

He sighed shortly. "Enough. Back to the topic. A Necrolyte weakness is the Vis of purity, Ordo. But it took ranks of six leveled magus just to weaken it—H-hey! What was that face for?!"

Adelle burst into laughter. "I'm sorry. I can't help it. Could you loosen up a little? You just went through something terrible and now we're talking about these things so seriously."