The Lady Of The Lake Pt. II

"Nova!" Asher dropped Yenn and jumped into the water. But nothing was there, it was just a two meters deep stream with a bare bottom.

After a thorough search of looking for any holes or secret entrances, Asher jumped out of the water. "Yenn, can you find her?"

Yenn's eyes were already closed as she focused her energy into a skill. "I can sense her. She's fine." Yenn let out a breath of relief. "But... I can't tell where she is."

"How's that even possible? She's underground, right?"

"It's a lot more complicated than that. Hold on." Yenn started running back in the direction of the lake, where they had come from, with Asher following behind her.

Touching the surface of the water with her hand, a relieved smile came to her face.

"Good news?" Asher asked.

"Yeah. She's calm, so that should mean she's alright down there."

Asher sighed too. "Then I'm going in—"

"That won't work." A voice sounded from behind them. However, Asher and Yenn weren't surprised by it, because they already knew she was creeping behind them.

A pink haired woman walked up to the lake, and stood beside them.

"Hm?" Yenn turned to look at the woman. "A shawty?" Her eyes glimmered. "Ashie look, It's a shawty." She laughed as she patted the short woman's head.

The veins in her head bulged with annoyance, as the new woman hit Yenn's hand away. "Get off me!"

"But you look so cute? Like a doll. Ashie, isn't she cute?" Yenn continued to laugh as she tried to pet the woman.

"Wow! This brat can play through any situation." The Old Man was amused.

"Tch." The pink haired girl let out an annoyed sound. "I am 'Ancy Harmione' of the elite white ranks..." She somehow slipped from Yenn's grasp, moving away and pointed her right hand at the purple haired woman.

"...And you will respect me—" Her eyes opened in shock as Yenn suddenly appeared in front of her with her own fingers intertwined with Yenn's. But the most surprising thing was that, Ancy's powers didn't seem to be having any effect on Yenn. Her hands just glowed light pink without doing anything else special.

'Even at this distance?' A drop of cold sweat slid down her face.

"A big shot huh? Look Ashie, it seems I caught a pretty fish by the river." Yenn looked back at Asher with a playful smile. However, Asher's indifferent look put her off balance.

'It seems I've taken things too far.' She sighed. Even though she had assured him that Nova was fine, he was still worried and definitely wasn't in the mood for jokes.

Ancy looked over Yenn's shoulder, at the man behind her. Her blue eyes shone with a pink glimmer. 'I can barely see his aura. If that's so, then I can use him!'

Although there was a chance that she was wrong, she couldn't leave this lake now, after what she had just seen. 'The hand that pulled that girl... It had Buster's Amber Phoenix bracelet around it. There must be something wrong.'

Again, she somehow escaped from Yenn's grasp and appeared before Asher with one of her legs held up in front of him. It was like she was threatening to bring her leg down on his shoulder should he try to do something funny.

However, that wasn't the reason her leg was frozen in the air. 'How...?'

Asher's dark eyes stared down into hers, summoning even more sweat down her head. Ancy wasn't standing like that to threaten Asher, but because she had missed her kick.

Asher had slipped backwards so fluently, it was like she just put her leg up.

She went for a hammer kick anyway, and sliced her leg down, however, Asher moved slightly to the side, and kicked the tip of her other foot on the sandy ground backwards. With this abrupt shift of her center of balance, the force of her hammer kick only made both her legs fly back.

And like that, she ended up with Asher holding one of her legs, carrying her upsidedown above the lake.

Asher had completely seen through every move she had made. She was a little faster than he was, even with his stats being almost double of a normal level 69, but Asher was able to move and dodge her even before she had launched her attack, and at the moment when she was unable to stop her hit attempt. And by kicking the tip of her slipper with enough strength on a floor with low friction, he was able to turn her in a defenseless, upsidedown position.

From their short lengthed fight, it would be impossible to convince people that the pink haired woman, Ancy was the stronger one. She was, but Asher had more battle smarts and technique than she ever would in a decade from now.

"Don't worry, I have a policy for women. If I want to attack you, I'll kill you fast enough for you not to feel any pain. So your only option is either to shake out whatever you know about this place or... have a speedy death." And from the look in Asher's creepy eyes, Ancy couldn't bring herself to believe he was bluffing.

"Hmffhh." She suddenly let out a sniffle as tears started to well up in her eyes. Soon, she started to bawl her eyes out. "Ahhhh. I don't want to die! What did I do?! Please, please stop.!" She kept shaking with tears instead.

"My boy's such a heartbreaker. Making a girl you just met feel this way... I couldn't be proud." The Old Man sniffed too.

Yenn stared at Asher with a smile twitching with nervousness as Asher started to dip the girls head into the lake, making it bubble as she cried. After dipping her into the water and taking it out a couple of times, with the girl still crying like a baby, Asher pulled her leg higher and looked down on her face.

"Huh, I actually thought you were just pretending." Asher said with a little surprise. He thought the girl was only crying this way to make him pity her, that was why he kept dipping her head into the water, but it seems she was actually sobbing for real.

Ancy sometimes liked to act tough to repel those who wanted to make fun of her height, however, she was really just a soft scaredy-cat who hated being hurt and feared death to death.

"Am I that frightening? I'm not scary, am I Yenn?" Asher looked at the purple haired woman. Yenn just shook her head with her hands held up as she let out a wary laugh. 'More than you know.'

However, Asher took her sign as a 'no', so he nodded to himself confidently.

As he looked at the woman hanging off one of his hand, with his weird black eyes, her crying suddenly increased.

Asher carried her to a nearby tree and sat her down. "Okay, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean what I said, I'm just a bit tense you know? That girl is my little sister, and I'm worried about her." He rubbed her wet hair with a black handkerchief as he apologized.

The girl seemed to stop crying after hearing his explanation. She cleaned her eyes and asked, "She's your sister?"

"Isn't that what I just said?" Asher tilted his head as if asking her why she was asking something stupid.

"Okay then. I'll tell you how to get in." Ancy stood up and walked on the lake. She didn't tread far as she squatted and placed her hands on the water.

"There are only two ways to get into the underwater city. One, is to let the lake allow you in, and the second is to get pulled in by someone already in it. If we opted for the first option, it might take a while, so I'll pull you in instead."

The water beneath her feet started to spin and soon turned into a vortex. She signalled for Asher and Yenn to come over, so Yenn let Asher carry her as they flew over to the spinning vortex.

"Did you have to do that?" Yenn chuckled as she noticed a thin line of thread connecting from Asher's wrist to Ancy's. And from the lustre and aura she could sense around the thread, she figured it wasn't there just because.

"Yes." Asher answered straightforwardly. "For all we know, she might just be trying to run away."

Ancy noticed the thread around the wrist too, however, she didn't complain and soon started to sink slowly into the vortex. Yenn jumped out of Asher's arms into the spinning hole, successfully moving through it, Asher followed along.

But just as his feet moved too close to the water, it suddenly glowed ominously and exploded.

"!!!" Asher jumped back in time and floated high over the lake. "What the—"

The water soon calmed down, revealing an ordinary surface.

"Dang it!" Asher looked at his wrist and only saw Half of the thread connecting him to Ancy, so he shot towards the water.

#I wouldn't do that if I were you.#

A feminine voice echoed out of the lake as it suddenly started glowing in an aquamarine colour

Before he hit the surface, Asher stopped and moved back a little. That voice didn't sound like Yenn's, nor Ancy's, but what's more, didn't even sound human.

And how did Asher know? Truth was, he wasn't sure. But the voice coming out of the lake made his heart shake and tremble so much, it couldn't possibly be human.

#What do you think you want to do in my sanctuary, you disgusting creature?#

Asher's heart shook with each word he heard coming from the lake. He didn't know what the feeling that struck him was. His hands were shaking, sweat was dripping down his face, and more embarrassing... he wanted to run away.

"Wha..." He stammered as he stared at his hands. "...What is this?" Asher doesn't remember this feeling, but it felt familiar somehow.

#Ha.# The voice in the lake mocked. #Look how scared you are, little demon. Now hightail you filthy cat, hightail and run.#

Asher's eyes shone with a glint of understanding. Scared... Scared... The feeling he was getting... He was scared?!

Asher's face contoured into a beastly look as his eyes burned full crimson.

"SCARED!??" He roared, putting the surface of the lake for as far as he could see, in turmoil. "WHO'S SCARED, YOU SPIT POOL?!" A massive wave of red murderous aura burst out of his body, the intensity even setting his own clothes on red fire and making his collar length black hair bleach in the colour of blood and then rise to the sky.

"LET ME THROUGH, AND WE MIGHT GO OUR SEPARATE WAYS AFTER, BUT RESIST, THEN I SWEAR ON MY LIFE THAT I WILL FIND YOU AND RIP EVERYTHING I CAN OF YOUR PUTRID BLOOD AND SOUL!"

#You? Tsk, you're a few centuries too young# The lake replied, unfazed

"THEN BURN TO ASHES" Asher might not have passed out like he normally would when he let out this much of his killing aura, however, from just one glance at the crazy look in his eyes, one could tell that he was definitely not in his right mind.

His fangs poked even longer, just like his red fingernails. And without a second thought, he shot straight down at the water.

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A large crimson dome created from Asher's impact with the water, rose to the sky, visible from even the farthest parts of the city.

For the people of Coity, what was happening now would mark the third apocalyptic event they had suffered in just one week.

How unfortunate.