26. Astral Howser

After seeing that all the monsters that wanted to eat Rossie were dead, Rei could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Although he had to use his wings inside the village and let some other villagers see him with 4 wings on his back, he did it so that he could get to the location pointed out by Ana about Rossie's last known location faster.

But after seeing Rossie's condition, covered in wounds, he truly had no regrets at all for doing it.

Now Rei could see the look in Rossie's eyes, as if she had lost all hope and could only surrender to her fate.

But when Rossie saw Rei coming to help her, her gaze turned hopeful and slightly surprised, especially after seeing Rei's wings.

"Rei?"

Rei, hearing Rossie call him in a tone he had never heard from her before, felt something pierce his heart.

He then approached Rossie and tried to check her wounds.

"I'm here, Rossie, you'll be fine now," Rei tried to comfort Rossie.

Rossie, seeing Rei who had saved her, immediately started crying.

"Huaaaaa Rei.... I thought I wouldn't be able to see you again.... and Tweyen, we had just made up but I almost died huaaaaa...."

Rei then knelt in front of her and examined Rossie's body closer.

Rossie's body was covered with scratches, bites, and wounds that seems like something had stab her probably monster claw, and her knees also seemed injured, probably from the fall earlier.

Seeing this, Rei wondered how Rossie was still conscious and not passed out from blood loss.

If only Rei could use his Lucifer's power, maybe he could easily heal these wounds.

But for some reason, the power of Lucillus always prevented Rei from using the power of Lucifer.

"Rossie!" Suddenly, they both heard Tweyen running towards them.

After Tweyen arrived, she immediately checked Rossie's wounds and felt very worried.

"Rossie.... your wounds.... we have to go back to the village quickly to treat these injuries," Tweyen cried when she saw how severe Rossie's wounds were.

Rossie, seeing her childhood friend worried about her, finally smiled softly, "hehe... Tweyen, I actually wanted to punish you really hard for leaving the village without telling me until you cry.... but I didn't expect you to cry because of this...."

"Stupid, you can punish me later, for now, don't talk and let us take you back to the village," Tweyen said, then looked towards Rei.

"Rei, with your wings, you can quickly return to the village, right? Please carry Rossie and go back to the village!"

Hearing that, Rei immediately nodded and wanted to try to lift Rossie, who was lying on the ground.

"Rei...Tweyen.... I'm starting to lose consciousness.... if you can't help me.... I just want.... to say.... I always consider.... both of you my best friends...."

Rossie seemed to struggling to finish her words, and after she finished, she immediately lost consciousness.

"Rossie!!!" Rei and Tweyen shouted towards her, but Rossie could no longer hear them.

"Rei, hurry back to the village!" Tweyen started to panic and shouted towards Rei.

But Rei knew he wouldn't make it in time even if he used his wings to fly back to the village.

He could hear Rossie's heartbeat weakening every second.

If Rossie were still awake, maybe they would have had time, but Rossie was currently unconscious, so her body was weakening.

The only way to help Rossie was to use the power of Lucifer.

Rei focused again on the white energy inside his body, like earlier in the afternoon when he was near the river.

He easily could sense the white energy being surrounded by his black energy.

Rei immediately tried to draw out the white energy, but as usual, his black energy began to surround the white energy, preventing it from filling Rei's body.

But Rei continued to force it with all his might until the white energy trembled several times.

"Come on!!!" Rei muttered, feeling a battle was happening inside his body.

"Rei? What's happening to you?" Tweyen was confused to see Rei suddenly closing his eyes.

And then Tweyen could see two of Rei's four wings suddenly starting to flicker and change color.

They changed from black to white and back to black continuously.

After a while, Rei opened his eyes, wearing a face that looked like he was struggling, then he started to moving his hand towards Rossie.

Rei's wings were still flickering, but this time they stayed in white color longer before changing to black.

Rei touched Rossie's wounded body and immediately transferred energy from Lucifer to Rossie while holding back the Lucillus energy trying to come out as well.

Rossie's body began to glow as Rei did this, and little by little, the wounds on her body started to heal.

"Rossie!" Tweyen, who saw all of this, was truly amazed by what Rei was doing.

But before Rei could heal all the wounds on Rossie's body, suddenly he felt something strange.

Quickly, he released his hand from Rossie's body and immediately moved away from Rossie and Tweyen.

"Rei??" Tweyen who saw him wanted to ask why Rei suddenly jumped like that.

But suddenly she could see purple electricity starting to appear all over Rei's body.

The electricity continued to appear and keep increasing, then Rei's wings began to flicker faster and faster.

*BOOOOMMMMM* until finally an explosion occurred from Rei's body.

Rei's body couldn't withstand the constant energy changes happening inside him, causing him to lose control of his energy and eventually explode.

Rei was thrown from where he stood and destroyed many trees around him.

"Rei!" Tweyen panicked as she saw Rei explode and get thrown away.

But as she was about to chase after him, suddenly she heard Rei's voice shouting,

"I'm fine Tweyen, my body can regenerate so you don't need to worry. What's important is how is Rossie, are all her wounds healed?"

Tweyen, upon hearing this, turned towards Rossie and saw that her severe wounds had disappeared, except for the scratch marks and the wound on her knee.

"The severe wounds have disappeared Rei! But I can still see some minor wounds on her body..." Tweyen informed Rei of what she had see from rossie body.

"In that case, take Rossie back to the village, Tweyen. I will follow you after my wounds are healed!"

"What!? I won't leave you here alone, Rei!" Tweyen immediately rejected Rei's suggestion without hesitation.

"The issue with Rossie is more important Tweyen! I may have successfully healed the severe wounds on her body, but she has lost a lot of blood. You must quickly return to the village to save her!"

Hearing this made Tweyen even more confused about what to do.

When Rei who didn't hear Tweyen's voice at all, he knew that Tweyen had no intention of leaving him.

"Tweyen! please go quickly. I have said that once my wounds are healed, I will catch up with you. Besides, I can fly and easily catch up with you later."

Upon hearing this, Tweyen bit her lower lip and finally decided to listen to Rei.

"Alright! But if I get to the village and you haven't caught up with me, I will come back here immediately!" Tweyen shouted towards Rei.

Then Tweyen picked up the unconscious Rossie and ran quickly towards the village.

"I hope you'll be okay, Rei," Tweyen whispered as she looked back at Rei direction while running.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

While Tweyen was running quickly towards the village, Rei was lying on the ground, looking at the starry sky.

His body was seriously injured from the earlier explosion, he also didn't expect that forcing himself to use Lucifer's energy would result in this.

But at least he had managed to help Rossie and heal the severe wounds on her body.

Rei's body was currently regenerating his wounds, and it wouldn't be long before he could move again.

At the moment, his body was extremely weak so he could only lay there, waiting for his regeneration to be completed.

But before his regeneration was complete, Rei suddenly heard something running towards him.

Hearing that, Rei then focused to listen more clearly and he could hear more than one thing running towards him.

He immediately concluded that the monsters probably heard the explosion from the previous Paradise Lost and the explosion when he was thrown away.

Because it was impossible for it to be hunters approaching him as they were too fast, Tweyen had just recently left and it was unlikely that she had already notified the location.

Rei immediately tried to get up, but his body kept trembling every time he applied pressure, making it difficult for him to stand.

After several attempts, he finally gave up and chose to call his sword.

"Sword of Renunciation."

A red light began to appear above Rei and after the light disappeared, two red swords could be seen floating above him.

The running sound Rei had heard earlier grew louder, and soon Rei could see monsters running towards him.

"Iblis."

The two red swords that were floating then merged into one, making the sword longer.

After that, the merged sword began to rotate very fast.

Rei then commanded his sword to attack the monsters approaching him.

The spinning sword immediately moved towards the monsters, cutting through anything in its path - from large trees, thick rocks, to many monsters.

Rei hoped that this would allow him to hold off the horde of monsters until his wounds healed and he could move again.

Meanwhile, Tweyen had already arrived at the village and handed Rossie over to them to be taken to the medical area.

She began to want to return to Rei, but before she could do that, someone stopped her.

"Tweyen, wait a moment!" Hearing that, Tweyen turned towards the voice and saw that it was the captain of the hunters.

"Captain? What is it? I need to go back to Rei, he is injured right now."

The captain seemed hesitant to tell Tweyen what he wanted to say, but after a moment, he sighed.

"Tweyen, when Rei wanted to chase after Rossie, he suddenly sprouted four black wings from his back. Do you know anything about that?"

Upon hearing the captain's words, Tweyen was shocked, and the captain saw her expression and immediately concluded that Tweyen knew about it.

"So, you do know about it? I do not know what kind of creature Rei is and why he suddenly appeared here... but after all this is over, I want to talk to him if he doesn't mind."

Upon hearing this, Tweyen looked at him suspiciously. "Are you now afraid of Rei? And now you want to drive him away because you are afraid of Rei? Even though he's been here for a week?"

Upon hearing this, the captain shook his head. "No, no, Tweyen, don't misunderstand. We don't care what kind of creature Rei is, but I just need to talk to him after all this is over."

"And seeing Rei's behavior during his stay here, we know he is not an bad person, so you don't need to worry about that."

Hearing this made Tweyen feel relieved because at least Rei was still accepted in the village even though they knew about his wings.

"Alright, I will inform Rei about that. For now, I need to go back to him." Tweyen then turned around and started running towards the village gate.

But when she arrived at the village gate, she could see many trees felled in Rei's direction.

Because their village was located in a highland area, Tweyen could see the surroundings more easily.

Seeing something strange, Tweyen immediately focused her eyes towards Rei direction, and easily she could see many monsters near him.

She could also see something spinning rapidly as if protecting Rei, and without hesitation, she drew her bow.

She aimed her arrow at the monsters and took a deep breath, focusing her aura into her arrow.

Soon, the arrow was enveloped in a white aura.

"Astral Howser."

Tweyen released her arrow, and it flew really fast towards Rei, but suddenly many more arrows appeared around Tweyen.

These arrows emerged from the white aura emanating from her bow, and the multitude of arrows began to follow the arrow shot by Tweyen.