Her mind blanked out for a few seconds. But she could tell with her six senses that this was of immediate danger, this dungeon. Even when she did take on two outer world missions, this didn't have the same presence as those. There were almost no beast, one boss level enemy, and one absolute being.
"The energy inside is surpressing that of any ordinary." After a short while, she finally spoke. "We could leave it of course, but it is also working on sucking out energy from any surrounding things, let alone foliage." A heavy wind blew around as the grass around the area turned brown and crumbled under dense, unseen pressure. The radius of its energy consumption was rapidly increasing and it was certain that it needed immediate attention.
"The last time something like this happened, was in another world. This usually states that this would be the destruction of the world. However, why is it rapidly increasing and appeared within only two weeks from when the library incident took place?" Lewis spoke while glancing at the barrier the same way she was, and asked questions that were also stuck in her mind.
"What is the matter?" Henry shouted from inside the carriage while holding the door open with one hand. "We are getting late! You don't want to miss the first day of school Aefia! There are many things that I want to show you!" A subtle and obvious frustration could be heard from the kid's voice. Turning around, she flashed a smile.
"I too wanted to see all those amazing things that you had told me about. But this thing over here, its a problem that might injure many people at once. I will be late to school like you said, but I won't miss it until the end of the day. I will head over if I can finish this soon. What about that?" She asked while glancing at the person who was in charge of the carriage.
The man in the tailcoat nodded, despite not knowing what would happen next. He could also notice his health depleting silently, and a sense of wanting to vomit appeared at his gut. She changed the direction of her eyes towards her brother standing beside with eyes widened at the barrier. "I think you should accompany Henry. If anything happens to him midway, I believe you can prevent it."
"No wait, George must have sensed this too. At the way this dungeon is behaving like a parasite, he will notice the abnormalities and head straight over if nothing." He sternly replied. "Also, if you can tell this yourself, two people would be necessary to take on this battle."
"And what if there is already one person actively fighting inside there?" Her expressionless face locked at the barrier. "You know that if George comes here, that would be equivalent to two people. He would be here in any minute if you told the truth, so there is still room for you to take Henry to school and guard him there. The least you can do in that dungeon is not fight, and still get fatally injured. I, on the other hand, have been to this sort of dimensions before." Her steps lifted towards the barrier. "I have gotten some experience dealing with major bosses, it should be enough for me only to participate for now."
"I won't allow that. It's highly dangerous to try and stop this with your magic energy being placed to a small maximum where you already have an active feeder out of it." He tried to stop her movement by using his own skills, but while holding out his own hands, he realized nothing happened and his nose bled instead. Questioned, his eyes stared at her while she handed a handkerchief from her coat's pocket.
"This is also why you will need to step out. Just imagine how deadly it is now for Henry if he stayed here for any longer. Unlike you, I am still standing and nothing has reacted up about me." She held out her hand both sides as the surrounding debris picked up from the ground and floated towards nowhere. Her front hair swept with the air, showing a clear view of the determination in her eyes, with a deep maroon hue around the iris.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she snapped her finger and he was immediately transported inside the carriage. From the windows, he looked at her with a concerned face. Now that her hair was removed, her smile didn't seem evilish, and as if reassuring while she waved her hand at both of them. The ropes were pulled and the wheels ran along.
"What is she doing? Will she be alright?" Henry asked with almost no knowledge about what is happening. Not knowing how to reply to this, he covered his eyes with the back of his hand while leaning backwards and against the carriage seat. "For now. No one knows what's going to happen beyond the barrier which is draining the health of almost everyone around it. She is strangely a very ambitious and determined person, and no one will be able to stop her from entering unless she wants to."
"But if it's a dangerous thing, won't she get hurt? You are hurt by not even entering, she didn't even enter yet! What if she doesn't come back and is stuck there?" The concern radiating on the kid's face grew as droplets of tears slid down his eyes. Lewis removed his hand from his eyes. "She is stronger than most people, she will eventually survive. She is also smarter than most her age, there is no way she will be stuck there. At the end, if you round up the probability, death is nearly a value equal to zero."
"She will return eventually. Has there ever been a time where you found her weak mentally or physically?" Recalling the day she had fallen unconscious, he added in deep hesitation. "That day when she came back injured, you weren't there to witness it, but she had come back absolutely covered in blood and still bleeding, yet there was strength for her to stay stood and suffer another confrontation that almost killed her."
"Then..." The child crawled in front of his brother. "Who tried to kill her? Is that the person whom she is after by entering the barrier?" Despite the trembling carriage, he still managed to stay at his feet and with a serious expression.
Lewis quivered at his place, if he said he was the one who had confronted her, their brotherly bond might break. He rummaged through his mind trying to find an answer suitable. Why did she have to leave me with all those worrisome things to deal with? There was definitely a way or two for her to go into the dungeon without our existence. But would that have been possible? She caught sight of it at the most random moment.
A slight moment later, he recalled about the hooded man. Come to think of it, he was said to be voluntarily wanting to kill her, so is that similar to confrontation? His eyes picked up to scan the kid's face. "What are you thinking? She must have had an enemy she is after inside it." The facial expression was serious, but still upset. Why would he cry over someone who randomly became our sister, who also stepped into the dungeon with full knowledge of her death?
"Yes, the person is inside there." He breathed out while saying, as the kid sat back at the space of the seat beside his schoolbag. As an elder brother, he wanted to ask that question still stuck in his mind to the kid, but before long, they spilt out without force. "Why are you so worried over someone you barely know?"
As if the question was completely unwanted, he clenched his fist and shut his eyes with instant regret of saying it. The reply that came following that left a deep silence between the both of them. "Weren't you concerned about her too? And to think you both have almost the same mentality." The child's eyes stayed focused, like just five seconds ago, he wasn't crying about the same fact. "Honestly, I start to feel lonely after she is gone."
Lewis silently listened. "She is good at faking and acting, but she also uses the same skill to make someone's day better. Her mind looks to be filled with many distorted memories which recalling makes it a difficult task, so she probably chose to forget them. If you notice, she holds her head around the same time she falls silent and asked specific questions. I can relate to that. Our father's death still traumatizes me, and maybe something about her life does to herself too." The child continued speaking effortlessly.
"I somehow feel invisible around the palace and as if everyone sees me for my position in a royal family. The only thing that catches your attentions are my mistakes and my misbehaving. They don't care if I seem to care about what they think about me, because they think I am still a kid and learning. But they didn't learn that even a kid can sometimes feel alone and out of the crowd. I would try to fit in with the rest of you, the only reply I would get in return is I am busy.
"You don't care about my insecurities, but somehow even a stranger I met just one day, understands that. Maids and servants, they are not allowed to speak or hang out with me, because they are not my position. Alongside that, how many times have any one of you paid attention to what I did?" The child fell silent as he looked down at his shoes and the floor of the carriage.
"The reason I really appreciate getting a sister in the first place, she doesn't complain while listening to my opinion. There is no hesitation or what-so-ever from her when I ask if I could stay with her and watch her work, even when she is tired or busy doing her own chores. I am still a kid, I need to be around humans, and that is the only human I know until now who seems to care about my existence. Although I don't speak with her, the presence alone make me feel armoured.
"Why is it so that I managed to live with no regrets around her, but around anyone else seems to overwhelm me with the feeling of staying out of their sight?" The question hung in the air while he lifted his gaze at his own biological brother, who stared with shocked eyes.
A few more words left the child's mouth, "she once told me a lie that parents punish their children to teach them manners, although it was proved the opposite when mom acted towards you differently, didn't she? I could see the regret on her face after telling that lie, but I don't see anything like that when you guys lie to me."
"That's because she is talented at lying about her life, enough to now be able to tell what is not meant to be said." Lewis spoke while retracting his gaze from Henry. "There is a way for her to hide her life every now and then, because she doesn't want to recall it. But I can't do the same because we both lost someone important and protective from our lives in front of our eyes."
"But how are you sure she didn't suffer the same?" Henry spoke with his face now more vibrant then before. "If you know and can clearly tell her life that she is hiding, how do you know she didn't learn the protectiveness from someone else?" The small bow tie around his neck, spread its ribbon to synchronize with the movements of the carriage.
That could be something, but not proven.
Lewis thought while realizing this was the first proper sibling-like conversation between the both of them from the time their father had passed away. While getting down from the carriage, he threw open the door and landed Henry on his feet. "You will have to walk to your class alone for today." He spoke while holding out the school bag in front of him.
The kid's face held a question mark on it as he stood still at his place. Noticing this, he added a few more words. "I am going to check in on our sister. That's why. Don't you want her back alive? So you can show her around the school next time?" A smile popped onto both of their faces as he walked over to his group of friends. Turning around, and sending off the man in the carriage, his feet set to the direction of the barrier they had found along the way.
The situation must have worsened there by now, but there is no turning back now that I have made a promise to Henry. Silence crept in and he took off.
***
Upon seeing the carriage disappearing into the morning fog, her eyes immediately shadowed as her fingers wrapped on themselves to wipe a droplet of blood falling from her nose. With her mouth, she called out Puppet, and instructed it with a single command. "Monitor my surroundings, I am going in." A red small wolf popped up with tiny screens in front of its face.
Her hands were placed on the translucent barrier, the magic energy was being transported to the otherside. The more that moved to the world behind, those energy would be useful when using her skills. It was a simple task that could benefit in everyway, and as soon as her magic energy reached to the last pint, she pushed her hand further into the glass-like portal as an alert flashed in front of her.
[Urgent Alert! The entrance to the unknown worldly dungeon has opened. Please use your magic wisely upon entering.
Danger level: 9]
Nine was almost the end of the scale that said near-death. I have faced death and came back. This shouldn't be a problem unless something unusual happens. She flashed a grin, one that would never rise again as soon as she would leave the dungeon.
Slowly, her steps got deeper into the dungeon and she found herself inside a cave feeled with millions of glowing crystals. The presence around this place was extremely overwhelming and her airways felt as if being squeezed by intense pressure. Nearby, the absorbed energies had turned into miniature beasts with the same crystal-like appearance as the cave.
Well then, let's start the catastrophe. She mumbled to herself while locking eyes with the beast in front.