"Your sister just told us not to go into the forest." Eve says while looking at Nala. "People have been hearing roars coming from there."
Nala smiles grow
"That's exactly why we're going." She says while looking at the three. "We're going to hunt that beast!"
Adam, Eve, and Seleph stare at her with dumbfounded expressions
"I'm out of here." Adam says as he turns around
But he suddenly stops and violently turns around towards the forest
"Adam?" Seleph says while looking at him
The two girls also stare at him, confused
"Did you hear that?" Adam asks while staring forward
"Hear what?" Nala asks
Adam suddenly runs into the forest. The three others, confused by what just happened, decide to follow him. Adam suddenly stops and starts to look around in panic. Suddenly, countless animals come running out of the bushes nearby. While Eve and Seleph looked at the animals with interest and fascination, Adam saw something else. An important detail that the other kids failed to notice. They were running away. The animals were running away from something, and Adam could see it from their expressions as they passed by him. Expressions that he had seen countless times, 6 months ago, during the Blood Moon Incident. An expression full of fear
"We need to go." Adam slowly says while backing away from the bushes in front of him
"What!? What's happening, Adam!?" Eve asks while shaking nervously
The bushes that had stopped moving when the animals came out started to move again. This time, however, they're moving faster and faster. Wilder and wilder. Whatever was running through the bushes was much faster, bigger, and more dangerous than any animal in the forest. More importantly, it was closing in at an incredible speed. Adam turns around and yells at the other
"RUN!!!"
The kids immediately start to run away without looking back. They could tell from the ruckus behind them that whatever was behind them, deeper into the forest, was chasing them
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE!?" Seleph yells
"THIS IS WHY WE SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE!!!" Eve yells in anger
"FOCUS ON RUNNING!!!" Adam yells
The beast chasing after the kids suddenly roars. A roar that a beast is incapable of making. One that no animal known to man would be able to do. A chilling and blood-curdling roar, one which was familiar to three of them. So familiar that it froze them in fear. Froze Adam, Seleph, and Eve. Back in Lana's house, the three who were sitting down suddenly jumped up when they heard the roar
"This can't be coming from an animal." Kenzo seriously says
They immediately rush outside, and flame-like auras surround their feet when they see that the kids are gone. Gold arcane energy surrounds Elaine's feet, green for Lana, and Kenzo's was blue. The tree starts running unimaginably fast and enters the forest. Back with the kids, Nala, who kept running, stops when she notices that the three others stopped dead in their tracks. When she turns around, she sees the expression of fear on their faces. A fear that planted itself within them, the day they lost everything
"FUUUCCKK!!!" Adam yells in anger while punching his legs
Within Adam, another emotion was planted that day, and today it was growing stronger than ever, an emotion called anger. In a matter of seconds, that anger kept growing to the point where it started to overpower both the fear and trauma that existed within him
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOOOOOOVVVEEE!!!!" Adam yells as he continuously punches his legs in anger
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING!!! WE NEED TO RUN AWAY!!!" Nala yells in fear when she sees the shadow closing in on the kids. "WE NEED TO GO, NOW!!!"
A red liquid ray pierces through Adam's right shoulder, injuring him and leaving a hole in the process
"GAAAAAHH!!" Adam yells in pain while grabbing his right shoulder
Seleph and Eve look at Adam, yelling in pain with faces distorted by fear. From the bushes, something leaps out and throws itself at Adam. Thankfully, the injury that Adam sustained allowed him to snap out and move. Just in time to dodge the thing that threw itself at him by rolling to the side. He gets up, and when he sees just what the thing was after him, his face distorts in anger
"I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!!!" Adam yells in anger while looking at the Blood Fiend that landed where he was
In Adam's mind, a clear image forms. An image that's been haunting his nights ever since the Blood Moon Incident. The orphanage in ruin, the dead bodies of his family members, and Mother Lyvie's last moments. Her last words
"This... this thing is...!" Eve starts while shaking in fear
Adam leaps towards the Blood Fiend as an odd phenomenon starts to happen to his body
"What's happening to me? I FEEL FULL OF POWER!" He thought as he approached the Blood Fiend. At the same time, his body started to emit a black flame-like aura resembling the one Elaine and the two others were using. "I don't know what's happening to me, but right now.... I FEEL INVINCIBLE! IN THIS STATE I CAN KILL THAT FUCKER!"
A smile forms on Adam's face, however, that smile was so terrifying that it sent shivers down the spines of the three others. As for Kenzo and the others, who were now a few meters away from the kids, they suddenly started to accelerate
"ISN'T THIS?" Kenzo says surprised
Elaine nods
"Arcane energy." She says, confused. "But from who?"
The Blood Fiend goes flying and crashes into a tree after Adam punches it
"Arcane energy?" Nala says while looking at Adam chilling black arcane energy. "How is he using arcane energy?"
"That's arcane energy?" Eve asks while looking at Adam
Nala nods
"That's right." Nal says seriously. "It's a different color than mine or my sister's, but I am 100% sure. That is arcane energy."
With that same terrifying smile, Adam charges forward. However, before he manages to reach it, the Blood Fiend lets out a deafening screech that damages Adam's eardrums to the point that blood bursts out of them. It takes advantage of that effect to leap at Adam and bite his shoulder. The same shoulder that it injured a little earlier. Adam yells in pain from the Blood Fiend constantly biting and gnawing at Adam's shoulder. At the same time, Elaine and the others finally arrive
"GET OFF OF HIM!!!" She yells as a golden flame appears in her hand and turns into a sword
"STOP ELAINE!" Kenzo yells. "YOU'RE GOING TO HIT ADAM TOO!!!"
She stops dead in her tracks and stares at the Blood Fiend with anger. As for Adam, he clenches his fist in anger and pain and slams it on the ground, releasing a powerful wave of black arcane energy that blasts the Blood Fiend away
"ARCANE ENERGY!?" Elaine thought while resisting the blast of wind formed by the arcane energy released by Adam. "How is that possible? I thought Adam was isolated and abandoned because he didn't have any arcane energy. More importantly, black arcane energy!? WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE!?"
"ELAINE!" Kenzo yells. "NOW!!!"
Elaine leaps and slashes the Blood Fiend in two, which makes it explode. As the remains of the Blood Fiend evaporate, the three adults rush to the kid's side
"ADAM, ARE YOU OK!?" Elaine yells when she gets next to him
He was on the ground, severely injured in the right shoulder. He winced and grimaced in pain. Kenzo puts his hand on Eve and Seleph's shoulder
"Are you two, ok?" Kenzo asks with worry
The two look behind Kenzo, in other words, at Adam. His state was severe; his face had gone pale due to the amount of blood he had lost to the Blood Fiend. Furthermore, his body was convulsing for some unknown reason
"WE NEED TO HURRY BACK!!!" Elaine yells in panic
Kenzo rushes to Adam's side and looks at his condition. Alongside the previously mentioned symptoms, Adam was experiencing something else. Something that made the veins on his arm turn back, the same color as his arcane energy
"This is bad." Kenzo says nervously. "We need to hurry back to the base."
"No." Elaine says while looking at the black veins on Adam's arm. "We need to go to my family's house."
Kenzo looks at Elaine with worry
"Elaine.... are you sure about that?" He asks with hesitation and panic
Suddenly, Adam's wounded shoulder starts to emit smoke. Surprised by that phenomenon, the others tried to grasp what exactly was happening to Adam's body. Their eyes widen in surprise and shock when they see Adam's wounded shoulder healing by itself at an abnormal speed. Arch humans can heal faster than humans, but this was much faster than that
"What is happening here?" Lana says as she looks at Adam's flesh, bones, and skin regrow before her very eyes. "He... shouldn't heal that fast...right?"
Kenzo looks at the other kids
"The arcane energy we felt a little earlier, it was Adam's...right?" Kenzo asks
The three young children nod
"Arcane energy at the age of nine, along with an incredible healing speed.... what's happening here?"
It only took a few more seconds for Adam's wound to completely heal up. His face, which was getting paler and paler due to the amount of blood he lost, had returned to its original color, however, Adam's black vein remained
"He's not out of trouble yet." Elaine says while picking up Adam. "We need to go now."
Kenzo picks him up and puts him on his back. Elaine and he started running towards the Scalae while the other kids stayed with Lana
"His condition is worsening." Elaine says as she looks at the black vein growing on his arm
It took them a few more minutes to reach the Scalae and jump onto the platform. Elaine grabs Adam's arm
"Don't even think about it." Kenzo says seriously. "If arcane energy of the wrong color is sent into the body during Vacuus, it'll be deadly. If his veins turned black during Vacuus, that means that his arcane energy is also black. Your gold arcane energy and my blue arcane energy would kill him."
"I know... I KNOW BUT!" Elaine yells in panic
"I understand." Kenzo thought in silence. "To cure Vacuus, one needs to absorb a significant amount of arcane energy of the same color within the five minutes that follow the first symptoms, but... black arcane energy user... There are none."
He tightens his clenched fists in anger at his powerlessness
"There's nothing we can do." Kenzo says with a frustrated expression. "Nothing."
The rising platform suddenly stops on the third floor and slides open. In front of the trio stood numerous knights of the White Lion Order. None of them took a step forward, which meant that they didn't need to use the Scala but wanted to stop the ones using it. However, when the Scalae is used, it leaves a record within the system of the used access card, and the White Lion Order has access to those records. That meant that they knew that Elaine and Kenzo were the ones currently using the Scalae, yet they stopped it regardless
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?" Elaine yells in anger
"I would like to ask you the same thing, Elaine." The voice of a man behind the numerous knights says
The knight group separates into two and forms straight lines, one in front of the other, opening a path to the man who just spoke. A man wearing the same knight uniform as the other knights, however, he had a cape attached to it as well as shoulder pads on it. On the back of the white coat was a roaring white lion. The clothes looked even better on him since he was standing at 6'2. His sharp features, alongside his blond hair, his blue eyes, and his well-taken care of skin and appearance,e made it clear to anyone that he was of noble status
"The White Lion Order 2nd Legates." Kenzo says with a worried expression
"What are the two knights whom I assigned to the second floor doing here?" The man asks as he looks at Adam. "I've heard the rumor that you two adopted children from the first floor, but to think that it was true... What are you thinking, Elaine?"
"There was an attack on the second floor." Elaine says seriously while looking at the blond-haired man
The knights who stood to the sides, shocked by that announcement, started to whisper among themselves while the man simply frowned. He walks into the Scalae because a civilian passerby had started to stop and observe what was happening, and the door closed itself behind him
"Report." The man says seriously
"We received reports from a Knight of our Order concerning roars near her house located in the outskirts of a small village." Elaine starts to report. "After investigation, we discovered that the roars came from a small forest located a few meters behind her house."
"After continuing our investigation within the forest, we ran into a Blood Fiend." Kenzo continues as Elaine checks on Adam's condition. "Luckily, Elaine was able to exterminate it swiftly without any collateral damage."
The man starts thinking
"I'll send a squad down to investigate the scene, then I'm going to need you two to report this to the Commander." He says while looking at Adam, at his arms
The door opens itself, and he walks out of the Scalae
"You have a day to take care of this." He says while the door closes behind him
As he walked away with the knights following him, a smile forms on his face
"So, you did leave something behind after all, Lucidien." He says while walking away with a smile