Elisa

Sho woke up, stretching as he sat up. He opened his eyes to see.. nothing. He tried a variety of tactics, touching his eyelids to make sure they were working, blinking rapidly, and even pushing inwards on his eyes. It was all to provoke some sort of response but there was none. Sho was blind.

The realization didn't spark much reaction with him. The ability he'd used earlier was incredibly complex and it must've overwhelmed him. He tried not to think about this blindness being permanent. Besides his eyes, he felt perfectly fine. He got up, feeling around his surroundings. He constructed a mental picture of where he was. It was a small room made of dirt and wood. He'd found the door but it had been locked. He was unable to even punch through it.

So he sat, looking back on his memories. Wasn't this the second time he was doing this? This was the second time he was trapped in a room of darkness from which he could not escape. There was a distinct smell of something. He couldn't tell exactly what but it was some sort of roasted meat.

Looking back even further into his memories, he could see fractured events. He remembered fighting beasts, gathering supplies, and visiting places, but there was definitely something missing. To be specific, there was someone missing.

He'd been wracking his brain for a minute or two trying to figure out who, when he heard the door open.

"You're finally awake", he heard a girl's soft voice say. He turned towards the sound of the voice, reflexively.

"You were fast asleep in the outer rings of the forest. You didn't seem to have any major injuries on you." She continued.

An awkward silence lingered among the two until they heard a little noise, not dissimilar to a fart.

Though Sho couldn't see it, a small smile appeared on the girl's face. "I did just bring some food. I'll take that as a sign that you want some?"

Sho shrugged to which the girl snorted. "You look like you need it, anyways." She, then, began pulling things out of her bag, not that Sho could see.

After a minute of the girl getting things ready, Sho spoke up. "You said you found me unconscious. Was there anything around me?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, there was a bag filled with some rocks. I brought those back just in case you needed them."

"You also said outer ring? Where exactly is that?"

"Well, there's the center, where we are. Then, an inner ring. Then, an outer ring. Your sect or whatever cleared all the dangers near their side of the outer ring. But everywhere else, you'd probably lose your life."

Sho was a bit surprised at that. He'd underestimated how large this forest was. Or maybe he'd overestimated how powerful his sect was. Well either way, the fact this girl could take him all the way to the center, a place he'd never even heard of, was pretty troubling.

"Ok, done! Here you are. I put the food on the table in front of you. It's just some chicken and various nuts. Some vegetables on the side. It's all clean, just in case you're worried."

Sho hesitated a bit at that but began eating. He couldn't really afford to be picky about his food.

It didn't necessarily taste bad so he kept eating.

The girl began hurling questions at him. "You never told me your name. Also how'd you find yourself knocked out in a forest? What are the rocks for?"

"Sho. I fought a chaos beast and overexerted myself. They were for a sect mission but I bet they're useless at this point."

"You fought a chaos beast?! By yourself or with help?"

"By myself."

"That's insane. How powerful does your Path have to be for you to take a chaos beast down, while being blind?"

"Ah, no. The blindness also came from my overexertion."

"Oh, why didn't you tell me that before? I can help with that."

Sho suddenly felt as if an invisible hand was holding and rubbing his eyes. It wasn't painful but rather a bit soothing and cooling.

He opened his eyes. He'd kept them closed before since there was no point to opening his eyes if he couldn't see. Now, he could see though. In front of him was a table and on the other side of the table, was the girl.

She had short pink hair with dark purplish eyes. Her eyes were a bit almond shaped while her pupils appeared somewhat dilated despite the fact that the room was lit fairly well. She had a small cutesy nose and a full lower lip. She was a bit shorter than Sho but her body was well developed. She wore a simple shirt and pants.

A small smile graced her lips as she looked at Sho. "Hello, my name is Elisa."

Sho nodded and went back to eating his food. Elisa simply watched him.

Once he was done, he asked the main question on his mind. "Why'd you take me here?"

"Because you were unconscious in the middle of a forest."

"So you weren't afraid I was mutated or that I would attack you?"

Elisa snorted at that. "Maybe if it was a couple years ago, I would've been worried you were mutated. By now, my luck would be pretty bad to have to stumble on a mutation. Also I thought I could've beaten you regardless of if you were mutated or not."

Sho ruminated on that. Why had they been so eager to kill him, if mutations were rare at this point? As soon as he'd had the thought, though, he answered it. He'd been running around like a maniac.

"Oh yeah, what Path do you have to beat a chaos beast? Your physical body isn't anywhere near durable enough, your soul is powerful but you haven't refined it enough, so you must have used your Path. And I've never heard of a Path that could knock someone out for over an entire day." Elisa asked.

"An entire day?" Sho repeated.

"Yeah, I thought you were dead, to be honest."

Sho quickly recovered from the revelation that he'd been asleep for over a day. "I don't know what Path I have."

Elisa squinted, a bit suspicious. "Did you just awaken it or something? I hope you know that I can't really learn anything about how your Path really works just from hearing the name."

Sho shook his head. "I only awakened it recently. I don't know what it is."

Elisa stared at him inquisitively for a couple of seconds before shrugging.

"What are you doing here by yourself?" Sho asked.

Another smile showed on Elisa's face. "Waiting for someone."

This time, it was Sho's turn to stare at her a bit inquisitively but he couldn't really be bothered to care.

Finishing his meal, he got up.

Elisa frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Back to my sect", Sho said, matter-of-factly.

"You're in the central region. You'll die if you just walk out of here. Wait a little bit. I'll take you."

Elisa put her shoes on before grabbing a hatchet. Sho grabbed his bag, which he noticed was a little lighter than before. He'd probably dropped some when he fought the chaos beast. The two walked out of the room, up a tunnel, and into the forest.

—

—

—

This was the second time in his life Juge was feeling such pressure. The first time was a decade ago, when the second wave of Bedlam was just kicking off. The fear he felt was enough to push him into his sneaky way of life.

Still, this pressure was possibly even more. Walking behind him were Inner Elder Bachi and Core Elder Lahon. He had no idea why a core elder would be interested in this situation. However, the pressure coming off him was enough to shut Juge up.

When they got to the cave, Lahon squinted. There was indeed a chaos beast here at some point. He could sense remnants of its energy and there were signs of its destruction everywhere.

Still, he turned to Juge. "This chaos beast, what color was it?"

"Red."

"How large?"

"About my size."

Lahon nodded. It matched up with what he could sense. Color did play a part in how powerful chaos beasts were with darker colors being more powerful.

Looking through the forest, he saw more energy remnants and signs of fighting.

Suddenly, he noticed something. Zipping over to it, he ignored the other two's shocked expressions, as a smile appeared on his face. He had held somewhat of a somber expression on his face the entire time so such a bright expression was surprising. Looking back at Juge, he essentially teleported over to him. Even Bachi couldn't sense him.

"What's your name, again?"

Juge was surprised at the sudden question. However, he obliged.

"Juge, sir."

"Is that your full name?"

Juge hesitated to which Lahon frowned. With the additional pressure on him, Juge answered again.

"Juge Eisneun."

"Outer Disciple Juge Eisneun, I have reason to believe you killed a fellow sect disciple. This issue will be sorted out back at the sect. At this time, though, you will have to be quiet and follow me.