The first thing Eliot noticed was that this floor was empty, reserved for the group before them, though there were still more floors beyond this one. Perhaps no one wanted to stay here.
"Where's Lungris?" The blonde man in front, who had deep emerald eyes, asked.
Jenica smiled and replied calmly, "He's on the lower floor, don't worry, he will be here before you know it," she said in her characteristic energetic manner, tightening her hold on Eliot's arm through their hooked elbows.
"Really? Lungris left you alone... with... him?" he asked with a frown.
As though on cue, the other young man, with hazel-brown hair and a mix of blue and green eyes, joined in. "That doesn't sound like Lungris at all. He wouldn't leave you alone even if it would kill him, much less in the company of some... commoner," the condescending tone was unmistakable, but Eliot didn't flinch in the slightest. It was as though the young man's words didn't reach him.
"Hey, stop Finn, you don't even know who he is," Jenica defended with an annoyed tone.
"Who is he?" This time it was a girl who spoke—a young girl with short blonde hair and auburn eyes, wearing a cold look. "Why won't he show his face? There's no reason to be hiding such a thing in a gathering of nobles," she added.
Jenica gave a strained smile in response. "He's a distant friend... Melissa. As for not showing his face, I think it's a matter of choice," she replied.
Melissa scoffed. "You can just say he's insecure about his looks, you know... just how ugly do you have to be to hide your face?" she said, staring directly at Eliot.
For the first time in the conversation, Eliot reacted. A simple glare in Melissa's direction made her grin, feeling she had struck a chord.
And maybe she had.
All through the moment he met the group and through the conversation, Eliot had let his mind ponder on other things—like what he was going to do in the Mystic World the moment it opened, and how he was going to survive in there—leaving the social burden solely to Jenica. She brought him into this mess; she had the responsibility of fixing it.
However, those words about his looks—looks he had cherished since the moment he woke up in this world, the only thing that ever made him feel special whenever he looked at his damned mirror—triggered a response deep within his emotionless state, reminding him he had lost that to his slave, Annabella.
"Perhaps, but you're not better looking yourself," he suddenly spoke.
At those words, Melissa's expression went through four stages of transformation:
First was a confused look, followed by a frown which further intensified that look of confusion.
Next was the clenched teeth with the tightening of her face, showcasing the slow but steady progression to anger.
And finally, the ugly, enraged expression of pure fury.
"Pfft," Jenica barely held it in. BARELY.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" the other young girl behind the group didn't even bother. "I'm sorry... I just... can't, hahaha," she laughed on with hands on her abdomen.
This pushed Melissa even further beyond the edge. Suddenly, a huge sword appeared in her grasp, trembling from the overwhelming influx of mana she supplied it. "How dare you?!" she seethed.
"Calm down, Melissa, he didn't mean it. Just let it go," Jenica pleaded, but Melissa was in no mood to listen.
"The mere fact that this commoner has the gall to insult me is unforgivable!" she said, pointing the huge sword at Eliot.
The young man didn't flinch in the slightest. "I meant it," he instead said.
This time, three young men frowned. Melissa's face turned bright red in barely contained rage.
"You ugly bitch," Eliot said without a hint of recognition toward the literal agent of death staring right at him.
"GAH!" She had HAD it with this commoner and was not going to let this go until his head was in her grasp. With a lunge, she shot forward so fast that in the next instant, she was standing right in front of Eliot. "I WILL TEAR YOU APART!" she promised a world of pain.
Eliot simply stomped his foot on the ground, a mere inch from where he stood, and a spear of condensed fire—so compressed and blazing it was blue—shot out, probably aimed to impale her very own self on it. She saw this but had moved too fast to dodge, running headfirst into the spear.
But at the last second, John, a young man with gray hair and blue eyes, the one who, like the blue-haired girl behind, hadn't spoken from the start, saved her. "I got you," he muttered, shooting out a blade of ice at close range towards Eliot's face, which suddenly froze right before him, hovering inches away from his mask.
"Let me make this clear," Eliot suddenly said, and the spike of ice shot back with a sonic boom to stab her right in the abdomen, sending her tumbling back in agony. "You do not scare me in the slightest. If you attack me, I will return the favor in double folds," Eliot said, pulling his arm free from the shocked Jenica.
Jenica couldn't believe her eyes. The Eliot she saw downstairs wasn't this strong... how the hell did he get this way in that space of time?!
This was a question even Eliot wanted an answer to. From the moment his emotions went bland, he began to feel a considerable amount of power within his control, but that was nothing compared to the moment when the emotion—anger—surfaced.
[Wrath: 15% [Caution: Within the state of void ambience, a single emotion taking precedence could cause user to lose control. Endeavor to control emotion before it controls you.]]
[POWER LEVEL ON THE RISE: 2%]
[User's body cannot withstand strain, reverse mana flow before it damages the user's body.]
"Who do you think you are?!" The blonde man raged, and instantly a spear wrapped in warping flames appeared in his grasp, just as a long sword appeared in Finn's.
"...Me? Someone you wouldn't want to mess with," he said. The next moment, a sword manifested from Anna's ring, which he held firmly.
"You commoner bastard, fine, we'll make an example of you," Finn said.
But just before things could get bloody, "STOP! ALL OF YOU!" Jenica stood between Eliot and the group. "Let's not fight just before the Mystic World appears. Stepping into that world with anything less than 100% is a suicide mission."
"Step aside, Jenica, the imbecile hurt Melissa!"
"Please, we can resolve this amicably. We don't need to get physical."
"STEP. ASIDE," the blonde man said.
Jenica closed her eyes, sighed, and then her expression turned cold, a sword manifesting in her grasp. "I don't want to have to do this, but I will if I have to. I will strike down the first person to make a move." Suddenly, the air began to get thicker.
'GRAVITY,' Eliot noted, his mind running a million countermeasures just in case.
"Jenica, you don't want to make us your enemy. Step aside now or I will forget the history we share," the gray-haired young man, John, said, a curved sword within his grasp trembling from overwhelming mana.
"I need you all in your best condition for the Mystic World. I cannot allow a conflict before that," she said, her voice cold and clinical.
"Do you even care about your friend who was just injured?" Finn asked with squinted eyes.
"Of course I do, and THAT can be fixed now if you all would just be reasonable," she said.
Without speaking, Eliot just turned and walked out, not bothering to give them a glance.
"HEY!" Jenica yelled, but he didn't stop, headed for the upper floor instead.
[User in critical condition, reverse mana flow.]
'I have to get out of here,' He decided to escape while he was still able to move before his body completely broke down and rendered him vulnerable.
[Wrath: 8% [Caution: Within the state of void ambience, a single emotion taking precedence could cause user to lose control. Endeavor to control emotion before it controls you.]]
'I went too far with it...' he thought, realizing how precarious the situation was. Fighting with that group would have spelled disaster for him, as there was no telling how much strain his body could bear before it totally broke down. If that happened, he was dead... there was no two ways about it.
"I SAID STOP!"
He felt danger, and the next instant...