Black cloud

When the elevator doors opened, Nathan was confronted by two other cleaning staff carrying a cart with various toiletries.

Nathan stepped out of the elevator and gave them room to pass.

The two men got into the elevator and Nathan went to his room. Halfway there, he suddenly stopped and turned his head back to look at the elevator.

'Isn't that weird?' Nathan asked, having a slight feeling.

'What?' Amelia answered him with a question.

Nathan put a hand to his face and began to think.

'Hadn't we seen the cleaning staff on the first floor?'

Amelia was silent for a couple of seconds not knowing what to say.

'No idea... I don't know how that works'

Nathan sighed as he remembered that he was asking something to the person that knew the least about in this world.

At that very moment, Nathan felt a slight fluctuation of essence inside the elevator that had gone up to the fifth floor.

A couple of seconds later, a large explosion shook the place.

'Shit!'

Nathan didn't hesitate and pulled the cello off his back before hurriedly opening the case.

Inside, a beautiful cello gleamed glisteningly. Nathan pulled it out and lifted it into the air before smashing it on the floor.

The cello was completely destroyed on the first impact and Nathan quickly pulled his katana out of the remains of the instrument.

Unsheathing his katana, Nathan filled it with essence and nimbly cut through the metal elevator doors, which broke like butter, and then jumped inside.

The elevator was still on the fifth floor, so Nathan only saw the outside floor of the elevator above him, but he quickly leaned on a ledge and charging an attack, jumped upwards.

With another couple of swift slashes, the elevator floor opened, and Nathan entered the elevator.

Feeling several essence pressures nearby, Nathan didn't think twice and leaned against the wall of the elevator and propelled himself to where he felt the essence pressures.

The hallway on the fifth floor was much more luxurious than the other floors, plus there were only two rooms on the entire floor.

Nathan cursed when he saw that part of the corridor was probably destroyed by the explosion, so he increased the flow of essence in his legs and ran as fast as possible.

Once he reached the room with the destroyed door, he met several people.

The two male cleaning staff were now armed with knives, and one was holding a mysterious black orb.

"What is someone doing here?!" one of the men shouted.

The other grimaced in annoyance and shouted as he ran towards Nathan.

"Never mind, just make it quick!"

"Fine!" replied the other man.

As the man approached him with his knife held high, Nathan looked at the young white-haired woman lying by the window with a worried expression on her face.

'What is she doing here?'

Nathan remembered the Enarys he had seen on the second floor, so he couldn't understand how the young woman was here.

'A double? Are they twins?'

Without time to think, Nathan deflected the man's attack and kicked him in the torso sending him flying into a nearby wall.

Focusing on Enarys again, Nathan frowned as he saw the other man throw the black orb at her.

Enarys made her essence flow to dodge the black orb, but the orb seemed to sense her essence flow and changed course, sticking to her stomach.

Nathan frowned, but at the same moment the man ran to Enarys and pushed her out of the window.

As Enarys was pushed out of the window, her eyes met Nathan's, and just as before, time seemed to slow down.

Nathan knew that Enarys had essence, so he could not understand why she had not dodged the man or defended herself. It was then that he realized that the essence he had felt coming from her body he could no longer feel it.

Watching her fly out the window, Nathan focused on the orb attached to his stomach, then time returned to normal, and he heard her scream.

"Help!"

At that moment Nathan didn't realize how, but he was already running towards the window.

'What are you doing?!' Amelia screamed inside his head as she saw him running towards the window ignoring the man next to her.

'If she dies I'm screwed!'

Somehow Nathan realized that the strange black orb had prevented Enarys from using any more essence, so she wasn't able to react to the man's movements let alone defend herself.

And now she was falling from a fifth floor with the body of a normal person.

Nathan not only did not know if Enarys could survive such a fall, but he also had a bad feeling about the black orb.

In less than a second, Nathan jumped out of the room through the window and caught Enarys' outstretched arm.

Without thinking he pulled the young woman to his body and hugged her before raising his katana and thrusting it into the wall of the hotel just as he had done before in the castle with the great sword.

This time the fall was much smaller, but there was no calamity for him to cushion it. Besides, now he had to protect someone.

Nathan went down almost three stories before he pulled the sword out of the wall, then as he was about to fall to the ground he pushed himself off the wall and jumped, breaking his fall slightly, rolling several meters with Enarys in his arms until he came to a stop.

Once they were still, Nathan broke away from her and Enarys looked up at him gratefully with a frightened expression on her face.

"Th-thank you for sav-"

"Shut up for a moment"

Nathan fell to Enarys and put his hand on the black orb still attached to her stomach and tried to force it off her, but no matter how hard he pulled it, it wouldn't separate from her.

Nathan realized that the orb was a relic, which was full of essence, so much so that he did not understand how it was still intact. It was then that he felt that all the essence stored inside the orb began to fluctuate.

The relic was unable to hold all the essence inside for much longer, then Nathan blanched as he realized what was going on.

'It's a damn bomb!'

Pulling with all his strength on the orb trying to separate it from Enarys' body, Nathan was unable to succeed.

'Shit!'

The orb began to crack, and Nathan paled even more.

With no other choice, Nathan instead of trying to separate the orb from Enarys' body, he handed him some essence.

Incredibly, the orb separated completely from Enarys, then without thinking twice, Nathan filled his right arm to the maximum with essence to the point where he felt his muscles were about to tear and threw the orb into the sky.

Pulling back, Nathan embraced Enarys and threw himself to the ground, covering her with his body. Seconds later, everything went completely silent and then.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A huge explosion echoed throughout the northern part of the city, creating a large black cloud of essence that covered the sun, causing the sky to cloud over in an instant.

Nathan felt the impact of the shockwave on his back and grunted slightly in pain.

All the windows of all the buildings for kilometers around exploded, shattering, and causing a collective panic.

Slowly, Nathan looked up and stared at the black cloud in the sky.

'Holy... fuck'