Burning Soul

“What happened? How did you…” Theo asked to which everyone looked at him worriedly. ‘What could possibly get an ace hurt?'

…

Catherine stepped forward and cast an instant heal spell, but to her surprise, it didn’t work.

“That’s weird!” She exclaimed as the heal spell was supposed to have worked on injuries, no matter how grave.

“You cursed or what? She asked him to which he spoke, “Well, let me first explain..”

Before he could finish Theo replied in a highly worried tone, “Why did you go on your own? I don’t want to lose anyone.” A tear made its way out from his eyes.

“I can’t feel the pain. Help me take my cloth off.” He replied with a tired expression.

“I’m badly hurt! I’m hurt!” He was causing a bit of a commotion.

“Hold on!” Nuae replied as he helped him take his clothes off. As he took off his shirt, everyone’s expression changed. He was still murmuring with his eyes closed, “Really?” Nuae spoke to which he opened his eyes slowly, only to find out that he had not received any injuries.

“Wait! I am not hurt! Oh god damn, it was someone else’s.” He replied with a relieved tone that irritated everyone.

“Oh, You know, I stabbed a guy with a stone. Do you know how hard it is? And that also in just one kick.” His babbling irritated Theo a lot

“What’s the point?” To his question he replied,

“The point is, there is no point on a stone. It’s all around.” He was awfully proud of that.

Now even Naomi couldn’t hold in her anger as right now, no one was in the mood of sarcasm. Just as he was about to get a punch by Nuae, who was standing next to him, Vivian opened her eyes and said, “What would you take to shut that mouth of yours.” As she spoke everyone felt relieved.

She was still lying down as she had exhausted all her Mana Essence, but the one who was most relieved was the same person who was holding her head in his lap, Theo.

As she woke and spoke, he hugged her and began crying, “You… You woke up! I was worried, what would I have done if something would have happened to you?”

Looking at this, everyone felt a sense of ease. Surely, Vivian was caught off guard and was steaming red, his sudden words took her at a very weak time making her feel dizzy.

“Umm-Hmm, so that is what love is huh….” Just as Aeneas was about to finish his sentence, a lightning bolt hit him hard knocking him out, “Idiot! Read the mood!” Cate was standing with Sylph on her shoulder cheering her.

“Yay!” He replied with a very low tone as he was still suffering through the strike of the lightning.

…

Once everyone settled, they started moving towards the dungeon again. After all that they went through, they had to move quickly so as to get to the dungeon, where they could worry about going further. Staying in some forest, through the night, without any plan, was suicidal.

As they began their journey, Aeneas told them that he was soaking in blood as he and Nuae were cleaning off any potential threat, on the roads further. Nuae had returned earlier as he thought they had cleared all the way through, but Aeneas had caught on some more enemies and slain all while he was at it. That explained the blood on him.

…

After walking for an hour, they reached the mouth of the dungeon. From what they could see, it wasn’t small by any means. It was at the base of a giant mountain and was well hidden by many tall trees nearby, though sun rays were able to get to the surface somehow.

By the looks, it looked very beautiful, yet they could feel an ominous aura, even at the entrance. It was a sign that this place had its hands soaked in a lot of blood. They decided to not stay there but move into the second level of the dungeon.

From what Nuae could remember, he knew there was a safe place on the 2nd level of the dungeon. If they could make it to that level in time, they’d not even face many enemies.

They entered the dungeon; everyone was at guard as no one knew from where the enemy would attack. As this dungeon was linked to the lower place, The Underground, it meant that the creatures from this plane were most probably inhabiting this place. Creatures like low-level monsters, like goblins, dark spiders, some even more fierce like minotaur or golem.

This time, lucky for them, they had a lot of manpower on their side. With the help of everyone, Theo and his party were able to push through the first floor or level as we know, without any problem.

Everyone had their Mana Essence recovered somewhat and even Vivian was able to now move around a bit, but on everyone’s request, she was not taking part in hunting any monsters. It took them a whole day to get to the safe place, though they had been in the dungeon for like two hours, all other time that they spent was due to the Warlock incident.

Their first day was quite eventful, they took out a lot of dark elves, Theo got his first kill, they cleared two floors of the dungeon. Now was the time to rest, after all, they had been traveling and fighting all day long.

“I still don’t get it, you heard a voice, like some person’s voice! In the middle of the fight! And only you? Why couldn’t we hear it? And you are no wizard or magic caster! How did you pull that off? A freaking Reaper you summoned!” Catherine’s questions seemed never-ending.

Hearing this others started looking at him with a question1ed look. “I just told you what happened! I don’t know anything else, Cate. Besides, I thought it was you or Naomi the whole time.” Hearing this even Vivian joined in the conversation.

…

Everyone was at ease somehow.

Watching them talk and laugh, Nuae asked Aeneas, “You know something about him, right?”

“I knew his old man, the one we met in the dungeon. Compared to him, he’s weak, slow, and too naïve.” Aeneas replied casually while enjoying his berries as Sylph sat on his shoulders and stole a few of his berries while she was at it.

“NO! Not that. I mean his strength. Do you know something about him, why was he able to use blood magic? Isn’t that something only descendants of Archdemons could do? I heard such magic was lost along with Archdemons in that war.” Nuae was quite intrigued by the fact.

“Argh, let it be, Archdemon, human, who cares what magic he used? What matters is, what did it cost?”

Saying so they both went silent until Aeneas noticed Sylph stealthily stealing his berries. “Oye you little punk, you ain’t going anywhere! How dare you steal from oh great me?”

To that he received another bolt of thunder. “Pipe down! We are talking here, and we can’t hear a thing if you make any commotion like that.”

Catherine and Vivian were standing right in front of him as he was lying on the ground.

“I wonder why you can’t put such a show in fighting with enemies….” He tried to speak but was cut off by another bolt.

As this commotion was going on, a shadow sneaked into the safe spot on the second floor. She looked at them and had a hint of a smile on her face. ‘They’ve grown up a lot’ she spoke to herself.

…

After they went to sleep, she hid well nearby while keeping an eye on them.

She was also tired as she had been fighting off a lot of monsters in the night-time to keep them safe. ‘It’s not the monsters I’m concerned about now, It’s the monster of a man that entered earlier I’m afraid of’ she said so, while aiding to a scar that she received as she fought with him earlier today.

It was clear that she was on the losing end and thus had received such a bloody scar.

‘Who would have thought we’d see another Ace in such a place! Things are getting tough Serena’ Eleanor thought to herself while holding onto a pendant she wore.