A crescent moon hung in the sky.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
Perhaps it was the chilling air, or perhaps she simply couldn’t sleep, but Leya, who had been lying quietly on the ground, suddenly began to cough.
An impenetrable gloom enveloped her vision.
“Is it night?”
Having made this assessment, Leya attempted to stir, yet the moment she tried to exert any force, a sharp, tingling numbness, like electric currents, surged through her entire body.
After a moment’s thought, Leya understood. This profound weakness was undoubtedly a lingering aftereffect from her previous transformation into Jeanne.
With a sigh of resignation, Leya could do nothing but accept it.
“Hey, System, this… this counts as my victory, right?”
Lying languidly on the charred earth, Leya raised a hand to shield her forehead.
Her eyes narrowed, gazing either at her slender, elegant fingers, slightly smudged with black, or through the gaps between them, at the star-dusted sky above.
“No injuries…”
“So, you were truly worried about this?”
Leya offered a faint smile, an ambiguous gesture that might have been silent assent or merely a lazy refusal to answer.
“If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t have done such a thing in the first place, do you understand? A spell activated by sacrificing your own life force is utterly foolish…”
“No, no, no, it wasn’t a spell. It was a Noble Phantasm, merely the crystallization of my inner landscape made manifest. It’s different from magic, you see.”
Not wishing to be admonished by the System for this, Leya reiterated her explanation.
However, the System had already indicated it would no longer entertain her excuses.
“Hmm? Speaking of which, System, what’s this bag of yellow spheres…?”
Tilting her head slightly, Leya spotted the peculiar object.
Realizing she couldn’t simply lie there indefinitely, Leya endured the throbbing aches throughout her body.
She struggled to her feet, a challenging feat indeed.
After painstakingly removing the twigs and decaying leaves from her long silver hair, she still looked utterly disheveled, a far cry from her usual elegant demeanor.
Yet, for the moment, this untidy state would have to suffice.
She then approached the bag of yellow pills, bending to pick it up.
As she furrowed her brow, about to inquire further, the System finally spoke.
“Healing Pills of the Wind of Death…”
Its tone was chillingly cold, a level of ‘strictness’ Leya had never heard from the System before.
She couldn’t fathom why this particular item elicited such a reaction.
“Is that so? The Wind of Death… Come to think of it, I believe I was indeed infected by it… Ugh…”
The black aura…
Leya focused her gaze, astonished to discover that the black aura on her right arm had… vanished!
“Naturally. A mere trace of death aura, and such a flawed, defective product at that, could never truly affect a host possessing a divine body like yours.”
“The previous symptoms were merely your body’s adaptation period during your first experience. Should it happen again, you, the host, would be able to completely disregard such a thing.”
“However… despite what I just said, the truth of the matter is that you, the host, while in your Jeanne form, sacrificed your life force to purge all adverse conditions from your body.”
“Oh—it seems I was quite astute then, hahaha…”
“…………”
Yet, it seemed someone had entirely forgotten to inquire about the origin of these pills.
****
“Well, then… it’s really dark here, isn’t it? Uh, no… this is beyond just dark, I can’t see anything at all, seriously!—”
One could easily imagine that a forest far from the city, especially at night when moonlight was scarce, would be an absolute hell for all creatures active during the day.
The old saying, ‘unable to see one’s own hand before one’s face,’ aptly described the situation.
The forest previously incinerated by Jeanne had been somewhat better; at least it was open, allowing the faint moonlight to illuminate surroundings, however dimly.
Now, however, having ventured deep into the jungle’s interior, the towering trees blocked virtually all of the moon’s light.
“Ah… it’s so cold… and I’m so hungry…”
Hugging her arms tightly around her shoulders, and shivering intermittently, Leya felt this was undoubtedly the most miserable night of her life.
[Rustle—]
!
“Wh-what was that sound?”
She couldn’t make anything out; no, it was more accurate to say she couldn’t see anything at all!
Her vision encompassed nothing but an oppressive, absolute darkness!
“Hey… System, tell me… do ghosts exist in this world?”
“…………”
“Ah… don’t just stay silent! Can’t you tell your master is in an extremely perilous situation right now?!”
Left with no choice, coerced by Leya’s forceful interrogation, the System reluctantly responded with a listless tone.
“Whether malevolent spirits exist here is hard to say. However, for a deity to be afraid of ghosts and monsters is quite unheard of.”
“Wh—”
‘What! You’re saying I’m afraid of ghosts?! Come on, I’m just making a reasonable deduction based on the current circumstances, okay? It has nothing to do with being scared, honestly!’
Though she longed to retort, just as Leya opened her mouth to utter the first word, the mysterious sound she had heard earlier reappeared.
[Rustle—]
And this time… it sounded even closer to Leya’s current position!
“Tsk… I don’t care anymore. Ghosts or monsters, come at me, all of you! System, transform!—”
“…………”
Receiving no immediate response, Leya felt a surge of bewilderment, wondering if the System hadn’t heard her.
She shouted again: “Use the transformation card, hurry! No matter who it is, they’ll be stronger than I am now, anyway!”
“Very well… As you wish…”
After a flash of light…
****
[Rustle—]
Six figures darted through the jungle at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.
“Xia Er, stop… stop. We c-can’t go any further…”
One of the figures abruptly slowed their aerial descent, landing upon a massive tree with a robust trunk.
A distinct tremor, born of extreme exhaustion, was discernible in their voice.
At these words, the other five also came to a halt.
After a quick exchange of glances, they turned back and gathered beside the speaker.
The five were clad in peculiar attire: uniform blue-green bodysuits, all possessing eerie green eyes and short golden hair.
Of course, what stood out even more prominently were their uniformly long, pointed ears.
A moment later, an elf youth stepped forward. His face was resolute, his eyes seeming to hold the entire cosmos within their depths, possessing an unfathomable profundity.
“Au Fu, it seems you’re exhausted. I told you before, your physique is the weakest among us. I warned you not to participate in this mission, yet you…”
The elf youth, named Au Fu, struggled to defend himself.
Regrettably, his forehead, already slick with sweat, and his uncontrollably trembling legs betrayed his every word.
Despite this… he still yearned to speak, to say…
“Xia Er, ahead… if we go any further, we’ll reach human territory…”
His words were cut short.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light erupted from the forest directly ahead, less than a few hundred meters away!
Its intensity was strikingly conspicuous in the otherwise pitch-black forest.
Naturally, the six elves in the squad were no exception to its blinding spectacle.
“Whatever it is, we’ll discuss it later. Follow me now; we need to investigate the situation there!”
He truly lived up to his reputation as the leader of this elf squad.
Xia Er acted decisively, charging forward instantly, the moment he caught sight of the light.
So then… what truth awaited him within that enigmatic light?