Standing a couple feet away from Emily and the rest, Jay's lifeless eyes had stared at them, twitching and standing as if he was a zombie. Ben, after readying his bow, released its string, quickly launching the glowing arrow at Jay's head. He quickly ducked, dodging the arrow and curling his fingers like claws as he darted at them. Emily quickly held up her weapon, bocking Jay's attempt to claw at her.
As Jay continued clasping onto her weapon, Emily smirked, saying, "Heh, 'bout time I've had somethin' interestin' happen."
Still behind Emily, Narumi jolted and moved back after his corrupted body glared directly at her. As Emily continued holding Jay back, Ben ran out from behind her, once again readying his bow and releasing another arrow at him. Letting go of Emily's weapon and springing back, Jay dodged the second arrow.
Having started charging at Jay, Emily began readying her warhammer, shouting, "Let's see how much you can entertain me, Jay!"
Also coming towards her, Jay dodged her hammer, continuing to sprint past her as he fixed his eyes on Narumi.
"Huh…?" Emily said, quickly turning around in surprise.
"W-Why's he coming after me…?" Narumi said as anxiety quickly ran down her face.
Before he was able to catch up to her, however, a rock wall had instantly erected from the ground. Emily, having sent out her hand, had summoned a yellow magic circle which had created the stone wall. Reacting quickly, Jay jumped up, grabbing onto the top of the wall as he began to climb over it. Before he could finish climbing, however, Emily, coming up from behind him, hurled her hammer into Jay, launching him through the shattered stone structure as he flew over Narumi.
"Hey, who said you could ignore me?" Said Emily, looking rather annoyed.
***
Hearing all of the ruckus going on in the main hall, Arin, struggling to sleep, started grunting irritably. Increasingly getting more annoyed as time went on, he eventually snapped.
"Hey!!! Who's the dumbass making all that noise! I'm trying to sleep, damnit!" He shouted as he sat up with his eyes squinted.
***
As Jay had laid on the floor with no signs of getting back up, Ben readied his bow, creating another glowing arrow which materialized from a small vortex.
"Perfect." He whispered, then releasing his arrow.
Right before it could pierce Jay, however, his body instantly released an electric shockwave, quickly dispersing the arrow. Then, he quickly got up, once again heading for Narumi. Just barely noticing Emily's hammer which headed for his side, Jay blocked it with his arm, however the impact pushed him far back. Walking up to him, with Narumi far behind her, Emily began erecting another wall behind her as she spoke, which completely sectioned off the room.
"Whatever you're trying to do, don't think you're gettin' past me this time." Said Emily, stopping as she readied her hammer.
Pulling the string of his bow, Ben created another elemental arrow, which, this time, glowed much brighter.
"I'll make sure not to miss this one." He said confidently.
Abruptly, Arin entered the scene, sending out his frustration through his vocal cords.
"Hey, what do you guys think you're doing…? Don't you realize what freakin' time it is? People are tryna sleep here!" Said Arin with an irritated look on his face. After rubbing his eyes and squinting in their direction, Arin started picking up what was going on.
"Emily... you're fighting the new people already…? I thought you were all getting along… Anyways, at least take it outside!
...Also, what's Jay doing?" He said, pointing at him.
Both almost having forgotten about the situation, Ben averted his attention to Jay, and Emily, in surprise, quickly turned around to face him. They were both shocked to see that he had been squeezing through a crevice in the stone structure at the edge of the room.
"Crap…!" Emily said.
But by the time anyone could make a move, Jay had already slipped past the walls. In a bit of a panic, Emily blew open the stone structure with her hammer, passing through the opening as she began chasing after him, who had then been going after Narumi. Suddenly, Emily tripped, clumsily falling on her face.
Sighing, Narumi whispered to herself, "I don't like to hurt anyone…
But if I have to get you to stop this,
Then I'll have to."
Reluctantly, she raised one of her hands, summoning a dark blue magic circle. Jay had just almost caught up to her, but before the situation could get worse, his eyes began to close as he began to slow down and stumble, eventually falling unconscious in Narumi's arms, who she had extended out to catch him. Looking behind him, she noticed one of Ben's arrows rooted into his back as it began to disintegrate.
"Sheesh." Said Emily, dusting herself off. "That floor tastes awful."
"Will he be okay?" Said Narumi, looking a bit concerned.
Walking up to her, Ben replied, "My arrows are made for only purging malevolence, he should be fine. Hopefully whatever was taking control of his body doesn't appear again."
"So, got any idea why malevolence took 'em over?" Emily asked as she approached the group.
"Malevolence is a result of negative emotions. As to what kind of negative emotions he was thinking, I have no idea." Ben said. "However, he lost consciousness as soon as Narumi came in."
"Yea… he was also targetin' her for some reason…" Emily added on.
"It most likely has something to do with you then, Narumi." Ben said.
"Narumi, I think Jay's got a crush on ya." Emily said, smirking.
"Or he really hates her…" Said Ben.
"How…? But we've never met…"
"Then maybe he mistook ya for someone else." Said Emily, shrugging.
***
In Jay's head, he had experienced something quite close to a recollection. However, what he visualized was a blurry, almost unrecognizable collection of memories. Although he could barely figure out what they were, he for sure knew that these were lost memories of his lifetime. He had also discovered a particular girl in each of them. She had the same features as the hallucinations he had gone through.
"So this is the cause of all of those hallucinations…" Jay thought.
"My mind has been trying to help me remember someone,
But I just can't figure out who exactly it is..."
Soon after, the memories had faded away into darkness, and suddenly, Jay had gotten the feeling of having woken up in the arms of the girl.
***
"Well, now that that's over…" Emily said as she yawned and stretched, walking away. "Oh, you can go back to sleep now, Arin.
"...Right." Arin replied.
"W-what about the mess we just made?" Asked Ben, looking worried after examining the state of the room.
"Ehh, we can do that tomorrow morning." Said Emily with a lack of regard. Ben had let out a deep sigh after her statement. Afterwards, he turned his attention to Narumi, who was still holding Jay.
"I'm really sorry you had to go through that…" Ben said, laughing nervously as he laid his hand on the back of his neck.
"It's fine, you shouldn't be worrying about me right now." Narumi said, feeling troubled as she held Jay.
Looking back at Ben, she asked, "Are you sure he'll be okay?"
"Well, he's experienced this before, so I'm sure he'll be fine." Right after having spoken, Ben noticed Narumi struggling to carry Jay somewhere.
"Uhh, I'll carry him." He said, taking over.
After watching him also struggle, Narumi sighed, then momentarily assisting Ben.
"Let me at least help."
"...Sure." Ben replied, grunting as he continued to pull Jay.
"So, where are we taking him?" Narumi asked.
"I believe there's a free room for him."
***
On the same night, a discussion had taken place between two individuals. Deep inside the cloudy surface of Residuum's core, there lay an inhabited island surrounded by the waters.
"Good to see you, Nefas." Said the mysterious voice of an unknown man.
"Where are the others?" Said Nefas as he walked into the building.
"Busy fulfilling tasks, as per usual. Speaking of, how has yours gone?"
"My expectations were exceeded. I was lucky enough to encounter and destroy two angels at once."
"Interesting. What about the harvesting?"
"I managed to gather a couple."
"How are your subordinate humans fairing?"
"I lost one. However, the more productive two are still alive. I sent them to the region of Belenus to extract malevolence."
***
"Hey, wanna do something interesting?" Said the familiar voice of a male.
"No. Our mission is to gather malevolence." Said the voice of a female with equal familiarity.
"Yea, it involves that! Trust me, it'll be a high yield. We won't fail this time."
"What is it..."
"Just do what I say for now." The man said, smirking in wicked excitement.
***
"Phew, there we go." Said Ben as Narumi helped place him on his bed. "Thank you for helping me, actually." He added.
"No problem."
"...Actually, I should be thanking you!" Narumi said, smiling in satisfaction.
"Wait, what?" Ben said in surprise.
"Yeah, if it wasn't for you, he probably would've been hurt..."
"But thankfully, your arrows can't hurt anyone."
"Jeez, I've never been praised this much before." Ben said, before Narumi giggled after his statement.
After hearing sudden movement and groans from Jay, both Ben and Narumi quickly turned to looked at him in surprise.
"...Narumi." Jay said with his eyes half opened, slowly falling back asleep right after.
Feeling even more surprised, Narumi said, "What...? How do you know my name...?"
"It's not a mistake then. Somehow, you two surely must've met." Said Ben.