While Afeus was trying to wake up the unconscious young man, back in Reschbeauch the kingdom was readying its soldiers for war. After the death of the Warrior King Willmont and seeing that the princes were also dead, Ashley supported Iselv to take the throne. Upon gaining the throne the first thing Iselv did was to inform the citizens of the demons that had infiltrated the neighboring kingdoms. He then organized the army and had form defensive walls near the borders. He also pulled back the citizens that live near the borders and sent them closer to the capital.
It was during this time that the Serbek Kingdom declared an all-out war against the Reschbeauch Kingdom. During one of the skirmishes against the enemy forces. When the Serbek Kingdom looked like it would be able to get deeper into Reschbeauch"s territory due to one powerful unknown individual, four equally powerful maidens pushed back the advancing forces.
The powerful fighter on the Serbek Kingdom"s side that was suspected to be a demon was forced to retreat due to these maidens. The maidens didn"t stop in pus.h.i.+ng the enemy back as they demanded the Serbek Kingdom to return Ren to them.
Of course, the people of the Serbek Kingdom had no idea who the maidens were talking about. Even the demons that control the kingdom from the shadows, didn"t know what had happened to Ren.
...
After a major victory against the Serbek Kingdom, Lara didn"t want to retreat and instead wanted to advance forward into the capital of the Serbek Kingdom. Silika who was surprised by how powerful the demon they faced was made her a bit more cautious. She was afraid that there might be more of them hiding in the Serbek Kingdom.
Now if she were at her full power those little demons would"ve been no different than tiny ants. But with her current limitations just facing one was hard enough. Also since she was so far away from Ren and had no contact with him for such a long time her mana supply was draining faster than she expected.
So Silika tried to stop Lara from heading into enemy territory which of course resulted in a fight.
"Let me pa.s.s," Lara spoke with a low tone that made her look a bit more intimidating. Silika wasn"t bothered by it one bit, on the other hand, Hilda and Ashley were looking worried. When Ren disappeared the two of them were a bit worried about the state of things but with Silika"s guidance, they were able to pull through. Even Lara, who listened to no one but Ren was actually doing what Silika said. So they didn"t expect Lara to suddenly become so aggressive.
"I can"t let you pa.s.s. I understand how you feel but going there right now is pretty much suicide." Silika stood before Lara getting ready for the other party to be physical. For some reason, Lara"s stoic face that had only changed from time to time cracked. She showed a face that could scare most anyone.
"YoU unDerStand wHat I feEl?!" Lara"s bloodl.u.s.t rose as she clenched her fist. Being apart from Ren and not knowing where he was or if he"s alright or not has made her feel things that she didn"t think was possible for her.
Ren was her emotional support after what happened during there childhoods and the secret they shared. After that event in the past, Ren practically became a G.o.d to her. Ren was her everything.
"ThE onLy oNe wHo UNderStands me Is REN! HoW Can soMeonE Like yOu UnderStand me?! ThE oNly reAson I eVen ToLErate YoU B*tChes is bEcAuse of REN! If It wEre Up tO me I wOuld"Ve kiLLed aLL of You, tHe mOment You sTucK to REN! So DOn"T tell me You unDersTand hOw I feEL! cAusE If You diD UnderStaNd me, tHen You wOulDn"t Be bloCking Me! YoU WouLd Be JoiNing Me!"
Ashely and Hilda were truly surprised to hear Lara talk like that and with that kind of tone. On the other hand, they weren"t really that surprised to hear Lara say that she wanted to kill them since she never tried to mask that from the beginning.
"Oh, little girl you have no idea. Not only do I understand you, but I"ve also been in the same situation once upon a time. Let me guess, Ren saved you from something in the past that only you and he knows of. He then promised you something that made you look forward to seeing the next day. You then tricked yourself into thinking that if you close off all of your emotions and only allow Ren in there and some others you deem worthy, it will make you seem stronger than before. Now that he has disappeared and Valdel your other friend has left you alone to do his own thing, you feel anxious. You feel scared and since you"ve closed off your emotions and tricked yourself which made you unable to express said emotions the anxiety just piled up. Now your emotions are out in the open and you"re feeling even more horrified, am I right?"
The bloodl.u.s.t Lara was emitting faded as she looked at Silika while gritting her teeth in frustration.
"... So what now? Are you telling me that you three are alright with Ren missing..."
"I"ve known Ren for only a year and I know that he"s not someone that would just disappear and die in some hole somewhere. He might be out there right now having fun battling somebody." Hilda chimed in the conversation, which prompted Ashley to do the same thing.
"Yeah that"s right, among the four of us I knew him less and I too think that he must be doing something he considers fun. Also didn"t your friend Valdel say something before he left to speak with the other temples. Didn"t he say that Ren was someone that did whatever he wanted any given time no matter the circ.u.mstances without caring for anyone else"s feelings? Isn"t that the reason he left the two of you to deal with whatever problems you guys from Carto Village had."
Hearing everyone"s thoughts about the situation, Lara remembered the last time she was with Ren. At that time he knocked out her and Valdel and headed to Serbek to enact vengeance. It was impossible that Ren would fail, so he must"ve accomplished his mission and was doing something else entirely at this time.
"Don"t worry too much about that guy. I know for a fact, that no matter the situation he can pull through anything." Silika spoke with a confident smile on her face.
...
While the four maidens were having their conversation, in Zouver city the capital of the Serbek Kingdom, Afeus had barely pa.s.sed his cla.s.s with the materials he gathered in the Kerrolan forest. But that didn"t bother him as much as before since he was now focused on a new project. He was still trying to figure out a way to wake up the unconscious young man. He had tried many things that could have killed any other person, but it wasn"t even enough to put a scratch on the young man"s body. His clothes, on the other hand, have been changed dozens of times now.
Even though he had failed, Afeus was still excited to learn that the young man"s body was indeed more durable than others. But no matter how mysterious Afeus now knew after checking with a specialist that the young man was human. As a pure human being, the young man"s body wasn"t supposed to be able to endure the punishment it was given. It was then Afeus took a more in-depth look at the young man"s body. So after borrowing some measuring equipment from a senile professor, Afeus learned that the young man"s mana supply was an incredible amount. Not only that the young man was also able to circulate his mana while unconscious. This just made Afeus even more curious about the young man"s ident.i.ty. Also, above that, he was excited to test the limits of the human body even if covered by such a dense amount of mana.