Siblings, Part 1

As he stared at the forest in front of him, which continued to grasp at his mind, attracting him to enter it, Ben couldn't help but grit his teeth, as his eyes became slightly bloodshot.

A few moments after that, Ben finally defeated that ever so tempting desire and sat down on a nearby rock for a few moments.

After that, Ben then began quickly running away, seemingly aware of what sort of fate would await him if he entered the forest.

Although the desire for revenge burned brightly within Ben's mind, reminding him of what happened on that day so many years ago, Ben still had some sense.

Finally, a few minutes after Ben had left this farce, its final participant finally arrived at the scene.

...

Looking at the small clearing in front of her, a faint smile appeared on Kiara's face.

"Impressive, you were actually able to ignore my bait..." mumbled Kiara as she walked up to a boulder visible near the middle of the clearing.

After placing her face near the boulder, Kiara then began quickly smelling the scent emanating from it, before quickly beginning to lick it with an excited look on her face.

In fact, at the moment, Kiara seemed far too excited, causing the look on her face to appear faintly creepy.

After licking the boulder for around a minute, Kiara seemed to have finally had enough, causing her to raise her head and stare into the distance with a smile on her face.

"I've got you..."

....

Extremely quickly, Ben ran in the opposite direction of the forest, but even so, this did not cause him to feel any sort of relief, in fact, the foreboding feeling that he was feeling before slowly but surely began increasing.

With every single step Ben took, memories of his father and mother flashed through his mind, making him grind his teeth in anger.

With every single step Ben took, memories of his sister, of how pure and good-natured she was back, then went through his mind, making him feel a deep pain in his heart.

And finally, with every single step, Ben couldn't help but feel as if someone was speaking to his very soul, telling him to turn back and to face his sister.

Whether this was Ben hallucinating, or something else entirely, Ben himself did not know at the moment.

Although these things did not make Ben turn back, as time passed, his speed couldn't help but faintly slow down.

Bit by bit, Ben speed slowed down, as a foreign entity seemingly took control of his body, and in the end, Ben finally stood still, waiting for the person chasing him.

Thankfully, though, Ben did not have to wait for long, as only two minutes after Ben stopped moving, someone finally arrived behind him.

The moment that 'thing' arrived, Ben suddenly regained control of his body, allowing him to take action.

In an instant, five Dark Bolts suddenly appeared around Ben before flying towards his sister at speeds beyond the speed of sound, not allowing that 'thing' to say anything.

...

The moment Kiara saw her brother in the distance, her pupils suddenly dilated, causing all reason to suddenly disappear from her eyes.

From seemingly nowhere, a burst of strength suddenly emerged from the depths of Kiara's body, causing her to suddenly speed up several times.

A moment after that, Kiara's body suddenly bent at completely unnatural angles, allowing five different Dark Bolts to fly past her.

Even so, thanks to the fact that Kiara dodged at the very last moment, the one of the Dark Bolts still hit her Dark Barrier a bit, causing her to lose a bit of mana.

Of course, Kiara did not pay any attention to this, as she continued speeding towards her brother at an utterly insane speed.

Unaware of the person currently watching their little battle with a smile on her face, Kiara suddenly attacked, causing three Dark Bolts to suddenly appear in front of her, just a few meters away from Ben.

Unable to match the seed of his sister, Ben was completely helpless as the Three Dark Bolts suddenly landed onto his barrier, making him send more mana into it.

But at the same time, two different Dark Bolts suddenly attacked Kiara's barrier before she could react.

Although the very short distance between the two of them meant that Kiara was able to easily attack Ben, this also meant that the opposite was also true.

Furthermore, thanks to the fact that Ben had more time to adjust himself to the environment, his Dark Bolts were more powerful than Kiara's, if just by a tiny bit.

Thanks to this advantage, even though both of them had landed three attacks onto each other, Ben help a bit of an advantage.

A moment later though, this advantage was then broken, as several more Dark Bolts landed onto Ben's barrier, whilst Kiara herself managed to dodge the Ben's Dark Bolts, which had returned.

Seemingly feeling his death approaching, Ben suddenly regained his senses and began trying to retreat.

At first, Ben was faintly successful in escaping Kiara, who was not in a right state of mind, but sadly, although both of them were unaware of this fact, neither of them were the ones who would decide who won this battle.

As such, just as Ben was about to escape, he suddenly froze for just a brief moment, around one tenth of a second.

But even though this was an extremely short amount of time, it was more than enough for Kiara, who suddenly appeared behind him and smashed his weakened Dark Barrier apart using two more Dark Bolts.

A moment later, Ben lost consciousness.

...

As she looked at Kiara, who was carrying her unconscious brother in her arms, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice.

Beatrice could not allow Ben to defeat Kiara in this battle, as Kiara's defeat, and subsequent capture of Ben would prove extremely useful in speeding up their ripening.

A few moments later, two wings suddenly emerged from the back of the invisible Beatrice, allowing her to suddenly rise to the sky a moment later.