[Lost Souls]

KENNETH

"Kenny. I have some bad news for you."

My heart crumbled as I heard the words that France said. Because my home was somewhat a little further inside Phase 4, we had to take extra measures to arrive quickly. For that reason, I sent France and John ahead to my house. 

As for me, I took an extra minute to raise several walls behind to keep enemies from entering Phase 4. This was a double-edged sword as we will have a much more difficult time escaping if we got ambushed by a horde or a powerful enemy.

"Why? What happened?"

'Is my family dead?"

I prepared myself for the worst. I could live by myself. I was a loner. But that didn't mean I didn't treasure my family. A child should explore the world but should never forget his origin. 

"The house was empty. There was no sign of any intrusion or damage."

'What?'

I was both happy and scared. Happy that I didn't have to witness the corpse of my own family, but scared because I do not know their whereabouts. I wondered where could they have gone amidst all this chaos?

"We tried to search the surrounding houses, but even those were empty. it's like everyone in the neighbourhood suddenly disappeared."

John followed up. If my estimate is right, there should be at least a hundred or so people living here on Phase 4. There is no way that all of those people could evacuate somewhere without being noticed by any monster.

'Where did they go?'

I expanded my mana to try to search for any mana signature nearby, but there was nothing, not even mana from monsters. It was very odd because outside of Phase 4 was crawling with tens of monsters, but weirdly, this place is completely vacant?

"What should we do? Should we expand our search somewhere else?"

Phase 4 district has many 'hidden' paths that lead to several other towns. However, those paths are either too dark or have many plants on it. That's why it would be very hard to traverse those in numbers.

"No, let's head back."

'Continuing the search without Kevin and Charls will be too dangerous. We have nobody capable of any lethal attack. if a monster like yesterday suddenly appeared...'

"Let's return to the academy first to notify Ramielle, then let's head to Phase 1 shortly."

"Alright."

As we walk back, my mind was still trying to figure out where did all the people go? However, it didn't take long before the answer was revealed to us.

*Crack*

A loud breaking sound was heard all over us. It's similar to the sound of ice slowly breaking, but it wasn't ice.

It was the air...

'No, it's the space?'

*Fush*

"Aaahhh!"

A massive vortex was suddenly created that sucked the nearby air. The pulling force was so strong that I had to raise an Earthen wall just to stop us from getting pulled inside. 

*Crack*

'Wha-'

"AAAHHH!"

Unfortunately, even the wall was unable to stand the absurd pulling force of the vortex. So, France, John and I were pulled in. But before we got completely sucked inside the vortex, I managed to throw something outside.

'I hope they see that'.

After that, the vortex stopped, and the cracked space closed.

-

SAMANTA

"So? How are you planning to heal him?"

I asked, while watching intently. Healing Prince will not be as simple as what I did to heal Angel. In Angel's case, her own power was already healing her. I just used my own mana to speed up the rate of recovery.

Prince was currently laid out on a mattress beside his sister. Both of them were currently unconscious, but the latter's condition is much better.

"Just watch, will you?"

He first used a clean cloth to wipe the excess blood on Prince's ragged body. Then he cleaned the wounds using an antiseptic medicine that the academy had stored. After those he patched up the wounds using cotton and medical tape.

"What now?"

"I told you to be patient, didn't I? Where's the orb? I need it."

'The orb? Why would he need that?'

I didn't believe that the orb has any healing property, but I complied nonetheless. It's times like this that he doesn't do anything useless. I gave him the orb, and he placed it on Angel's left hand.

"What do you plan to do with that?"

"I need it to boost Angel's healing powers. If she was awake, then I would not need, but since she is unconscious, her healing prowess is not as strong."

Then, he held Prince's hand with his left hand and Angel's right hand with his right. He sat on a lotus position with his eyes closed.

'I guess he needs this much focus?'

Slowly, his mana rose. He seems to be somewhat trying to gather the surrounding mana to his body. Amidst that, he mumbled something. It was very quiet, but since my hearing is heightened by mana; I was able to hear it.

("Angel, I'll have to borrow your powers for a bit.")

Suddenly, his body was covered with a green-ish layer of mana. The mana was so pure that it even managed to visualize itself. This green mana is the trademark of Angel's power.

The power of healing.

'This man he has the power of healing as well?'

I was confused. If he has the ability of healing, why didn't he use it before? But, it occured to me that that wasn't the case. 

'No. He's using Angel's healing power to heal Prince. He's acting as a conductor for the healing magic to reach Prince. But how? How did he manage to do that?'

The more I watch him, the more I realize just how crazy this man is. Gathering mana from the atmosphere is difficult, but not impossible. It's like pulling a very object towards yourself. However, forcefully gathering someone else's mana is simply impossible.

Slowly, the shallow wounds on Prince's body began closing one by one. After that, even the deeper ones began to heal. I marveled at just how amazing the ability of healing really is.

When all the wounds on Prince's body were healed, Ray let go of Angel's hand, and the green mana vanished. He took the orb and stood up before wiping his forehead off sweat.

"Phew... I didn't think it would work. Lucky."

"You... just how did you do that?"

"Hehe, are you curious?"

'This guy...'

When he saw that I wasn't playing around, he quickly answered.

"I borrowed her powers."

"Borrow? how?"

"Well, explaining it is difficult. To simply put, I asked her soul."

"Soul?"

"Not really her soul, but I used her intense emotion to forcefully release her mana."

"Intense emotion?"

"Yeah, she must have really wanted to help his brother before she passed out."

"I don't really understand. So, you used Angel's own power that she released?"

"Pretty much."

"How?"

"I also don't know how. Man, I'm hungry. I want to eat first."

After healing Prince, Ray quickly avoided my questions and disappeared. In the end, I was left standing there, dumbfounded about what I just heard.

'That bastard... Just how many tricks can he do?'

I swear, I'll figure you out.

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