Finding Anna

Nash stared at the palace before him with a nervous look, not knowing what he should do.

Though, after pondering for several minutes in deep silence, he glanced at Erys and asked, "Can you see if she is in there or not?"

Even though he felt his body carving to know what mystery resided inside that palace except for that creature that Erys talked about a few moments ago, Nash was no fool to enter a territory where not even Erys felt safe.

Thus why he asked Erys to see if Anna was inside the palace or not, as he could avoid risking his life for no special reason.

After hearing his question, Erys closed her eyes before suddenly her body began to emit an extraordinary but invisible power that enveloped the entire palace akin to a blanket.

And it wasn't long before she opened her eyes and sighed, seemingly filled with relief.

"Luckily, she is not in there. That place is only filled with creatures and nothing else."

Nash seemed to be at ease when he heard Erys, but soon his complexion turned troubled once again.

'Then where could have she gone to?'

After a while, Nash decided to leave the underground palace and search for Anna elsewhere.

However, not even before he could have left the cave where they entered, one of his Sky Beast Souls stood in one place, his hand holding a little girl's hand firmly, but not too powerfully.

"Good job!" Nash felt joy the moment he saw that Anna was finally found and she was safe, thus he quickly kneeled before her and asked, "How are you feeling? Any injuries?"

"Un! He saved me from a few ugly dogs, so I am okay!" grinned the little girl happily, and quickly went to clinch onto the Soul's leg akin to a little panda to a bamboo tree.

'Ugly dogs? Does she mean those creatures that appeared the first time?' Nash pondered and decided to ask, "Those ugly dogs... Where did you see them?"

"I don't know, but it wasn't far away from the ship."

'Not far away? That should be impossible. I searched the whole proximity and found no creatures in a twenty miles radius, so how come she was attacked by one? This is weird...'

Nash pondered in silence for several minutes before deciding to put the matter aside and turned to look at Anna with a calm smile.

"Before we go back to the spaceship, can you tell me how did you get outside?"

"Un! When we first departed the ship mom and I decided to play hide and seek. I told her I will hide on the ship, but in truth, I chose to hide outside so it would be more fun!"

"However..." and as he reached this point, Anna turned angry and continued, "That black sun appeared out of nowhere and everything went dark! It ruined our fun!"

"And why didn't you go back to the spaceship? You know your mother was worried about you, right?" Nash asked.

Anna, however, just smiled with embarrassment and rubbed her nose.

"Hehe, I forgot the way back to the ship. But because my mom always told me I should remain on the spot where I got lost, I decided not to wander around and hide until someone came to find me!"

She then continued this time with a little bit of fear in her eyes, "Then those ugly dogs appeared and almost found me. But luckily for him, I was saved, so thank you, mister!"

Once again, Anna hugged the Soul's leg tightly and merrily, making the Soul glance down at her with an expressionless face.

Nash and Erys seeing Anna's behavior looked surprised and confused, thinking that she was a little bit strange. If it would have been any other kid, then they were pretty sure they would have gotten scared from those creatures, yet she acted as though nothing happened at all. This stunned both of them deeply.

Sometime later, Nash smiled once again before rubbing Anna's head gently and saying, "You are quite the brave one, you know that, right?

"Hehe."

After that, Nash ordered the rest of his Souls back and brought Anna back to the spaceship, where her mother broke into tears the moment she finally got back her daughter, who she believed to be dead.

"Thank you... thank you very much! I can't express just how grateful am I for bringing my daughter back!" the mother told Nash among tearful eyes, her arms tightly hugging Anna as though she feared she will disappear again if she lets her go.

Nash just smiled seeing this and turned to look at Revio, who looked somewhat disappointed that he was still alive.

"You. Didn't you tell me this planet was a desolate one? How come we have found an underground palace, which was filled with terrific creatures?"

Nash used his power to control Revio, giving him no chance at all to tell him any lies.

"Underground palace? I truly didn't know anything like that was existing on this planet, I swear!" Revio turned pale when he saw Nash's ice-cold gaze, feeling as though he was watched by not a young boy but the grim reaper himself, and his life was ready to be taken away at any given moment!

Nash decided to glare at Revio for a little bit longer, but alas, as he knew Revio had no chance at all to lie to him, he sighed helplessly and waved his hand.

"Whatever. But once this black sun vanishes, you will come with me to that place. Maybe you will recognize it and know a few things about it."

After saying that, Nash turned to look at Uncle Ben and asked, "Can you please call everyone here? I have a few important matters to announce."

Uncle Ben nodded and went to get everyone.

After a few minutes, when everyone was gathered Nash nodded and spoke in a calm and clear voice.

"From this moment on, none of you are allowed to leave this ship until I say so."

He then proceeded to say how the creatures appeared like ghosts for some unexplainable reasons, and until he does not find a solution for this problem, no one is permitted to leave the ship no matter what.

He also told them how he found a mysterious palace below the surface, which was filled with powerful creatures, one even being on the Warmaster Rank, thus telling them an even greater reason why they should remain on the ship.

"As things are like this, a little bit more complicated than we first believed it to be, I hope you can understand why I decided to like this."

And to no one's surprise, everyone agreed with Nash, some even starting to look at him with greater respect than before!