Darkness

"Hopefully Elias will be able to make some use of these elemental stones," mumbled Ella as she waved her hand and caused the over one thousand tiny elemental stones to suddenly fly into a small bag.

A moment later, Ella then turned her attention back onto the mages that had ambushed her, or rather, what was left of them.

Ella did not go to see the remains of the mages killed by the Dark Arrow, but rather, turned her attention to the two mages that had been killed by the Dark Bolts.

The first thing Ella did was approach the dead body of the first mage and touch it to make sure that he was truly dead.

As one might expect, the heard of the first mage did not beat any longer, as it no longer existed after having been pierced by multiple bolts.

But even so, Ella spent around five seconds making sure that the mage was truly dead, and that he did not pull some weird trick to try to save his life.

After that, Ella then turned her attention to the mage leading the group, which had also been killed by Dark Bolts.

"None of these guys are alive," mumbled Ella as a faint smile appeared on her face.

Even though this mage had not been hit with truly powerful attacks, all of his internal organs, including his heart, were pretty much shattered.

A moment later, Ella rose from the ground and no longer groped the dead body, rather, she was preparing to walk away from the scene.

But just as Ella was about to run into the distance, she suddenly froze for a brief moment, as her aura then changed to an extremely frightening one.

The moment Ella did this, the body of Alexander, the mage she had just checked and made sure was dead, slightly twitched, causing Ella to faintly smile.

Only a fraction of a moment later, before Alexander, who had seemingly risen from the dead, could do anything, Ella suddenly appeared in front of him and gripped him by the throat.

A moment later, Alexander's struggling body was suddenly ripped into two, as Ella let his torso fall to the ground whilst holding his head.

Under the terrified eyes of the helpless Alexander, whose head was still conscious after being separated from his body, Ella suddenly dropped him to the ground before letting out a kick towards him.

The moment Ella's foot touched Alexander's head, the latter immediately popped like a balloon, sending spurts of blood in every single direction.

Thankfully though, Ella was prepared, as a barrier appeared, which protected her from the blood and allowed her to walk away splattered by the blood.

"As expected of cowards, each one is sneakier than the other," mumbled Ella as she approached the other mage who still had a whole body and kicked his head as well.

Now, without dealing with the messy aftermath of her actions, Ella finally left the scene.

...

Later that day, inside a small house,

The moment Ella walked into the small house, Elias, who was sitting cross-legged, refining mana, suddenly opened his eyes, as a happy look appeared on his face.

Without any hesitation, Elias abandoned refining mana and got up from the ground before sprinting towards his older sister, who had just returned.

As she stared at the scene before her, old memories couldn't help but pour into Ella's mind, as she remembered the period of time before that had happened.

Even though Ella had managed to recreate the old house, which had been burned to the ground by the bandits on that night, she knew that this was still just a pale imitation of what was, and no matter what she did, she could not go back in time.

Although she had not only killed the bandits that had destroyed her family back then, but only made them feel the deepest pain imaginable, this did nothing to help Ella, and did not bring back her parents.

As she thought about this, Ella suddenly stretched out her hand and caught Elias by the face.

"Go back and continue refining mana," said Ella as she suddenly threw Elias back where he was just sitting.

Even though he had already become used to the transformation that his previously gentle sister had gone through, Elias still felt a little bit weird as he watched her hold him with such a cold look on her face.

Although deep in his heart, Elias knew that this was just his sister showing her love for him differently, he couldn't help but feel as though this was not right.

He couldn't help but feel that he had lost the sister that he knew back then, and the person in front of him was someone new.

...

As she stared in the mirror, and gazed at her pale face, Ella couldn't help but stretch her hand and touch her own cheek.

Ever since Ella had begun refining Mana, a transformation had taken place in her.

Her face, which was full of life, had turned pale, whilst her hair, which was already black before, became pitch black, looking like an endless void which would devour everything around it.

At first, Ella desired to have her old appearance back, but after some time, she slowly got used to how she looked at the moment.

A moment later, a pitch black hand suddenly appeared behind Ella, which then began helping her straighten out her hair, which had become slightly messy throughout the day.

As the hand worked it's magic, Ella let out a sigh, as she relaxed and finally let the tension that was crowding her body out.

Even though Ella was not paying attention, nor was she controlling this hand, the hand still continued working on her hair.

This hand was not any sort of spell, nor was it any sort of being, which Ella had managed to control, rather, it was simply darkness itself, which desired to help it's chosen one any time it could.