Despite their best efforts, the wanderers had no luck. They couldn't find any way across the scaling ravine.
They tried to trek across the mountain but were blocked by what looked to be poisonous flowers through the streams, but it all led back toward the ravine.
With no choice, Asahi and Aletha were forced to follow their tracks back to where they came from.
Aletha complained shortly after, her face practically drenched in sweat.
"There's no way to cross it!"
Struck with this discovery, Asahi scratched his head, and analyzed his surroundings. From the corner of his eye onward, he saw a scaling mountain, lush grass fields, and marshes dispersed across nearly every corner of his surroundings. Even with that, all of the view was plastered in a beautiful hue of light green, brighter than the foliage in Pladtioa. It genuinely felt to Asahi as if he had step foot into a different world.
Though immersed, Asahi shook his head and reminded himself with a faint whisper.
"No, stop staring." He mumbled. "Stay focused."
Minutes after, as his boots crossed a line of glittering blue flowers, Aletha grew bored at staring at the surroundings. She knew that if she were to ever wander away from her brother again, who knew what could happen. Not only that, but Aletha was clueless about Telos' merge. Although she had embraced her surroundings, Aletha grew bored at staring at the wildlife wandering around and decided to ask Asahi. But before she had uttered something from her lips,, she noticed something different flaring in Asahi's eyes. It wasn't a look she could recollect seeing for a while now. Puzzled eyes. Unsure eyes, as if all his plans had been erased.
"So, now what?"
Asahi sighed deeply. After the events that had transpired when it came to the tornado, followed by the encounter and merge with Telos, Asahi was absolutely clueless on what to do next. And in correspondence to this, he replied with his cold voice.
"I'm not sure." He said as he stared blankly at the horizon. "But if I were to guess, maybe we should find the others."
A warm gust of wind followed the end of his response. Hearing the words "others" triggered a brief, blurry flash back of the tornado in Aletha's mind. The moment was so... incoherent, a mess of pure chaos, that all she could recollect was frightened voices and... wind.
Suddenly, as if it were some sort of stroke, Aletha collapsed on her knees without warning. Asahi's eyes widened at the act, noticing her body tremble in rapid motions. Quickly, he hurriedly scrambled to her, bent over, and asked...
"Huh?" He said, his eyes trembling in panic. "Are you okay?"
No words could really show Asahi the pain she felt. Her lips were sealed shut in pain, her eyes watered, and warmth filled her body. All that she could express in that moment was that...
"It hurts."
Asahi tried his best to find out what happened, but he couldn't find anything wrong. Instead of panicking, he reacted with a calm manner by sitting close to her, waiting for the pain to cease.
"Ahh..." She groaned.
But even so, Aletha... despite the pain she felt, tried to keep a grin on her face as she felt a sharp sensation sting inside her body. The feeling itself didn't match to the agony of a sharp needle piercing through skin, but the feeling of splinters growing from the inside out. A green luminance started to leak out of her skin, oozing out like slime. But before it even emerged, suddenly, the pain, along with the strange occurrence, ceased.
Silence followed afterward, keeping the peace of their surroundings still
Thinking Aletha was still in pain, Asahi leaned over to her and asked her with a genuinely worried face.
"Do you need... help?" He said, keeping his breath steady. "We can stop all of this and try to find someone to heal you, if you need to."
As a beautiful crimson bird flew over their heads, Aletha lifted herself back up, sighed, and replied as she brushed off a few dirt particles off her shoulders.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said with an recovering voice. "I just felt something weird in me, that's all."
After hearing that, Asahi sighed in relief, and backed away from her onto a twig, lowering his shoulders. To him, he misunderstood Aletha's pain as some sort of flinch, a natural reaction in her body. But in reality, it was something far more mysterious.
In regards to that, seeing Aletha lift her arms and yawn, he anchored his glare at her with a sneer and crossed his arms, mumbling.
"Don't you ever act like that again." He said with an admitting frown. "You had me worried."
But like the many times before, Aletha treated the strange occurrence like it was some sort of natural phenomenon and replied to Asahi with an passive shrug.
"Ha, it's nothing." She said with a prideful grin. "Just some sort of twitch, that's all."
As a silence erupted between them, Aletha redirected her attention of the discussion to something else, remembering what Asahi told her before.
"Say, didn't you say you have Telos' soul inside your body? Why not speak to him while we are waiting?"
"...Waiting for what?" Asahi asked as he looked around.
She shrugged her shoulders and lifted her chin to the clouds.
"I don't know... I guess for some stranger to appear and help us. I'm sure someone's around here somewhere."
Asahi rolled back with a nod and keeled over to the ground, pulling out a brown book and pen, resting his back against the soft frolicking bristles of the grass. While Aletha knelt over and slumped onto the ground, staring at the sky, Asahi pressed his pen against the book and wrote.
[From what I can gather, it appears this nation is more extensive than I initially thought. There is so much out there. We got swept into a tornado, and not only that... There were so many different people in the ceremony. I honestly wonder where all of them went. I hope they didn't die.]
* * * * * * *
"Hey!" A voice sounded out from a distance.
Not even ten minutes after, a person emerged from the wild. The Wanderers would never have thought to encounter a being so quickly, considering just how quiet and wild this terrain was. Even Telos was flabbergasted.
(That soon?) Telos muttered with a low-sounding sigh.
Asahi shook his head.
"Quiet Telos."
(Well… I was looking forward to guiding you, but if that person there could help you… then I have no business to speak of.)
As the voice continued to echo in his head, Asahi shrugged his shoulders and dropped his notebook onto the ground. He slowly turned to the source of the approaching footsteps and saw the figure in the distance gradually clearing up. With the sun shining bright, its rays revealed a girl with long light-brown colored hair wearing stockings and a half skirt sprinting down the hills.
"Huh?" He mumbled with a raised eyebrow. As he slowly approached the girl, Asahi responded to what he presumed was the voice that called to him earlier with a welcoming tone.
"Yeah? Who are you?!"
Suddenly, Asahi noticed the girl freeze still in her tracks. From afar, he caught the girl gasp in shock, before standing still once again. Asahi scratched his head at the reaction and decided it was best to approach her. But before he did, he notified Aletha.
As the girl watch the white-haired boy slowly approach her from the bottom of the hill, she quickly mumbled at a realization.
(Oh my goodness, they CAN speak my language!)
Then, with excitement bursting down her heart, she raced down the last couple steps before jumping over and introducing herself.
"I'm Chloe!" She greeted both the wanderers with a smile." I heard you two were looking for help. And look at me, I was looking for help too! But... as you can see, I don't speak their language. Do you know where everyone is?!"
"No..." Aletha replied, her eyes squinted. "That's why we are wandering here." The way Aletha had replied to Chloe seemed so... suspicious. As if she immediately had a disliking to her.
Although Asahi appreciated the welcoming approach of Chloe, his face grew pale, his leg stiffened, and his body paralyzed as he noticed a menacing figure lurk behind her back. Just before Chloe and Aletha noticed, Asahi pierced his fingers through the luminance on his hips, and unsheathed a glittering dark blade from it, forcing it upward and shouting.
"Behind you!"
Slowly turning backward, her brown eyes shrunk with fear, stumbling backward as she heard the sound of a shock followed by a tumble sound in the corner of her ear. With a strong stomp, Chloe jumped up and screamed.
"AH!"
Despite Aletha being suspicious about the stranger, she was seen unsheathing her blade as well before being hastily propelled away by a shockwave. As she flew and fell down to the bottom of the hill, Asahi's throat tightened in shock.
"Wait a minute..." He said, hearing Chloe's screams above him. "I'm..."
With his feet rooted on the ground, he reeled back in sudden realization, noticing that he was too far away to interfere.
"Huh?" Asahi mumbled as he lowered his blade. "How did I get here?"
Ignoring the realization, in an instant, a four-legged creature made of steel, gears, nails, and unknown mechanisms launched toward Chloe's back, knocking her down the hill.
Aletha quickly caught guard of the scream and raced to the girl, screaming confusedly as the creature rolled down the mountain.
"What happened?! Who are you?!"
Without reaction, the metallic creature opened its sharp jaw and sprang at Aletha, fighting the sword quickly pointed at it.
She hastily kicked and vaulted backward, scurrying away from it, screaming.
"HELP!"
Asahi gritted his teeth and clenched his blade, trailing after the creature and making rapid strikes at the four-legged mechanism.
Its body was made of black steel, its eyes were a bright white, and the wires were made of cyan and magenta. Each leg scraped off from Asahi's hilt on his blade before finally launching itself into the air and wrapping its tail around Chloe.
Aletha's eyes widened.
"What is that?!"
Asahi darted to the monster, jumping in the air and yelling.
"I don't know! Just HELP me out, will you?!"
Aletha nodded and took flight at the creature, both the siblings clenching their blades while trying to dodge the swift strikes it had unleashed with its tail.
But as they continued to jump and avoid, they felt their bodies ache, their arms worsen, and their stamina depleted quickly. The mechanism screeched as it scraped its nails on the dirt.
"SCREE!"
Taking advantage of this, the metallic creature grew five more legs and crawled toward them like a spider, screeching and injuring the wanderers.
Swiftly, Telos' voice shouted at Asahi.
(TURN ON YOUR TENTH EYE!)
Just before the creature could grapple Asahi, he forced his eyelids shut and pried them back open, revealing the interface of the "Tenth Eye" in his vision.
A stream of colors bounced back, showing a green health circle relatively low, followed by a red bar flickering on and off.
(Your stamina is low. Stop fighting and run!)
Asahi, overwhelmed by this, accidentally caught himself on a group of vines, feeling his body fall backward toward the opening ravine below.
His heart leaped to his throat, feeling the coldness of the gorge below him touch his back.
"Help!"
The monster's steel legs loomed to Asahi, extending its enticing jaw and forming a blinding white luminance in-between its sharp teeth. Its gears twirled and chucked a sparkling shine, and its tail flew over and hauled against the grass. Footsteps sounded behind,
"Don't worry, I GOT YOU!"
Asahi's hands slipped off the fragile edge, feeling his weight pressure down quickly through the strands of vines dangling in-between the gaping ravine. Falling several meters, the daylight grew distant from him.
His feet pierced through the exceeding depths, weight pushing down on his as his vision darkened gradually. Aletha's scream sounded out with a loud volume.
"ASAHI!"
Aletha clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, swinging at the creature rapidly, with each spark following the pace of her heart.
"I'll KILL YOU!"
Asahi helplessly reached his hands upwards, thinking it was the end. Telos himself couldn't believe it, shouting.
(What are you doing!?)
But just as the specks of rays vanished, a tight grip wrapped around his wrists.
(CLING)
Suddenly, several ropes hastily flew down, grappling Asahi's legs and arms, aggressively enfolding him all over, stopping his fall. Asahi caught his breath and felt himself ascend several meters upwards, away from the dark ravine.
"W...What?!"
(SNAP)
The cords snapped, thinning and stressing together; Asahi's weight pressured and slowly went back down, but suddenly more ropes flew downward at an unimaginable speed, wrapping and holding Asahi in place.
A young-sounding voice hollered out from above.
"D...Don't worry... I got you! DON'T MOVE!"
Asahi shouted, sweating nervously, thinking that he was about to die.
"O-Okay!"
Quickly, the ropes hurled Asahi several meters upward like tossing a ball, propelling him back to the surface, away from the ravine, and flying in the air.
"YES, got him!"
His eyes darted down and saw a boy wearing a heavy turquoise coat, a bowtie, and long vintage-colored hair, unleashing a swarm of ropes magically from his hand, all stopping and cushioning Asahi's fall.
Aletha's leg forced and shoved itself through the creature, but her arm was caught by its legs. Cuts covered all over the skin, releasing an intrusive pain straight at the bottom. She gritted her teeth and screamed.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
She couldn't move, her body paralyzed from the several legs placed on the creature.
"Please... I can't..."
The creature recklessly pried its steel jaw, sparked a white luminance inside its mouth, and shrouded Aletha's face in a gradually increasing burning white glow. She squeezed her eyes shut, breathing heavily and feeling her life essence empty from her. Her arms lowered down.
"I...can't move..."
Asahi's eyes flared in rage, sprinting straight after his sister but getting caught by the ropes wrapped around him. He reached his arm to her and yelled while the mysterious boy and Chloe cowered behind.
"Aletha!"
(Ting)
Luminescent green lines glowed inside her skin, surging from her feet, arms, legs, and head. Aletha's eyes sparked a green luminance, wincing with a solid wooden surface formed and shielding her body.
The mechanism growled in irritation and forced his jaw further, attempting to radiate the lethal light and slaughter Aletha.
But as the creature struggled--
"Stop playing around with them!" A barrage of crimson lasers unleashed and pierced through it, exploding and shredding the metal skin of the creature's body.
Instantly, everyone darted their eyes to an approaching girl, who cartwheeled her way to the creature and snapped her fingers, giggling while unleashing lasers out of her hands.
"HAHAHA! Take that, sucker! Oh yeah... and THAT too!"
The creature closed its jaw and moved its chin, forcing its tail and charging straight at the girl. But quickly, the girl clutched the creature's sharp tail and swung it like a lasso, tossing it several meters into the air, kicking and dancing.
"This is FUN!"
While Chloe and the boy were confused about the mint-haired girl's actions, Asahi darted to his injured sister and asked, watching the wooden armor dissipate off her body.
"Are you okay, sis? What happened?"
Aletha's eyelids parted, and her arms lifted, revealing a different color on her pupils.
"Eh?"
Instead of Aletha's iris being a dark gray, it was chipped in an emerald color, matching the hues of the grass. She quickly hopped over and exclaimed at Asahi with a sparkle shimmering in her vibrant eyes.
"I have NO idea! But, whatever I did... It made me feel one-thousand times better than before!"
"What...? How does that even work--
"ALRIGHT!"
After being physically harmed and broken just a second ago, a sudden burst of copious amounts of joy, exhilaration, and energy exploded in Aletha, forcing her to leap several kilometers off the ground like a kangaroo on steroids.
Asahi saw her floating in the sky, smiling and screaming like a drunk child.
"WEEEE!"
The mysterious boy wearing a green coat and the energetic mint-haired girl tilted to the blue sky and noticed a white-haired girl plummeting down into the creature.
"What the..."
The mint-haired girl snapped her fingers and made an infectious smile of pride.
"OH YEAH! Now she's gettin' it!"
Asahi sneered at the mint-haired girl and questioned while Aletha rapidly struck the beast with powerful green explosions.
"What is she doing? Why is she like that? Who are you?!"
She smiled and threw back her head, laughing like a chihuahua as her red skirt and white scarf flew with the whimsical winds.
"HA HA HA! She's just having fun! I think we have met before. Aren't you that boring guy I've seen back in that snoozy, smelly room?"
Asahi's face flushed crimson in embarrassment.
"B-Boring?" He said, shaking the thought away. "Hold on, you're that girl we encountered before, aren't you? Pridia, correct?"
Her pink eyes widened; she slapped her thighs, pushed her red skirt into the air, and snapped her fingers while winking at Asahi.
"BINGO! Yes, that's me!" She said as her glare traveled over to the energetic white-haired girl. Her eyes widened in shock, seeing the radiant bristles fluctuate under the passing sun. With an enthusiastic tone, Pridia leaned over to Asahi and questioned. "Ooo, Is that your sister, too? My, she's pretty… Look at her and that bright smile on her face! She's having the time of her life!"
Abruptly, Pridia removed her scarf, grasped Asahi's legs, and lobbed his entire body toward the creature, his eyes, including Chloe's and the boy's, widening in absolute shock.
"AHHH!"
Pridia slapped her thighs and teared up, unleashing her chaotic red lasers toward the monster. Aletha blasted up into the air and couldn't help but chuckle, feeling invincible from her blinding joy.
"WOO, HOO!"
Aletha and Pridia teased the living crap of the beast by twirling, cartwheeling, and screaming like lunatics. The white-haired girl teased while squeezing her nose and mocking the poor robotic creature, jumping up and down like a buffoon.
"Aww, are you going to cry like a baby? Wah!"
Its wires were strangled and torn apart, gears fallen over on the ground, with sparks of electricity shrouding all over its disjointed metal jaw. As Pridia and Ecstasy-Consumed Aletha taunted the creature, Asahi's body unexpectedly plummeted onto it, crushing it into a flat rectangle.
Pridia tripped over a twig, fell onto the ground, and burst out in laughter, wheezing and laughing like a monkey. She stared at the destroyed mechanism and expressed with a loud tone.
"Hmm, that chocolate cake is dull. Here… let me see if I can… SPICE it up for ya."
Pridia pulled a seasoning straight from her back and dappled the glittering spices onto the quivering mechanical beast, smirking.
"Mmm…"
She licked her lips and smiled, grabbing a fork and giggling while Chloe, Asahi, and The Rope Boy stared at her with a confused expression.
"This will be one fine treat for me!"
Asahi's face fumed in anger, just a centimeter away from bursting out in frustration. The very act of eating a cake in the midst of this situation was so out-of-place and zany for him, that he couldn't really find a proper reaction to this occasion. And so, without any thought behind it, Asahi shouted at Pridia.
"That robot is not a snack! "
She was absolutely aware of what was happening. But despite that, Pridia ignored it, bit her bottom lip and grinned menacingly.
"I know it's not…" The careless girl replied, grinning radiantly. "But you know who is snack?"
Her eyebrows raised suddenly as she noticed Asahi's fist tightening in trembling motions.
With an ignorant laugh, her hair swung upward as she tossed the silver fork into the air, landing straight on her back.
"Me!" She said as she delivered a striking squat.
Being confident of her own gesture, Pridia giggled, and tossed the fork onto the ground, comparing herself to them.
"HA HA! Don't be such a whiner! People should know now that I will always find a way to tease in moments such as these. Sigh, Anyways..." As she cast her gaze at the chaos that transpired before them, Pridia snapped her fingers and sighed, mumbling with a considerable drop on her voice.
"I guess if you are all let down, we can just get this over with. The robots are annoying as they are. However..." She hollered as she snapped her fingers. "I will do it under one condition."
After the robot delivered one last, dying scream, Asahi looked down and mumbled.
"What?"
"Stop being boring." Pridia replied, still holding Asahi by the wrist while staring at the meadows below. "You appearance alone is very unique and interesting, so its strange the least to see you act this way." As she guided Asahi up the hill, displaying the vast panorama of green to him, Pridia leaned over to his ear and whispered.
"See, here in Linuxinia, you can let your guard down and relax. You don't have to stress on anything. You can just be yourself and do whatever makes you happy."
Her face was completely filled with delight at what she did. Her expression didn't falter even as Chloe and the rest stood there, staring back at her, confused.
She turned her head, grinning.
"You know, if you all traveled the other nations, you would agree with me. This nation is by far the most enjoyable place you can come across!"
After another silence boomed in, Pridia shrugged her shoulders, dropped the cake, and sprinted away from the group toward a pond, happily smiling as she did.
"Well, I'll be taking my leave now." She hollered to them as her long mint-colored hair fluctuated with the warm wind. "If you need me, just know I'll be there."
Asahi had no words to describe the amount of confusion he had bore during that moment. It was as if a mess of things rushed in at him at once.
His energy leaked dry. Asahi felt he couldn't move another centimeter without collapsing onto the ground. He sighed and laid down, hearing Telos' voice speak in Asahi's mind.
(Although you have never asked, I feel you need to know this. Your sister experienced the manipulative powers of Ecstasy and The Sealed Beatific. For some reason, it found its way inside her and had noticeably amplified from some sort of outside figure.)
Asahi slowly peered at Pridia, mumbling quietly to Telos while she introduced herself to the green coat boy and Chloe.
"So, you say my sister never chose to absorb that energy? It wasn't her fault? I know I have seen Aletha jumpy before, but what she did right now was on a different level."
Telos' voice replied while Asahi saw Pridia playing rock-paper-scissors with Chloe.
"That's the Sealed Beatific's power. Manipulative energy could consume minds and shroud them in intense feelings of ecstasy. Some have rumored that Combat Magic in Linuxinia is based on how happy you are. Even powerless people can use magic if they are happy enough…."
Asahi reeled back in surprise.
"Interesting, so that means, even though I'm powerless… if I'm happy enough, would I share the same power as my sister?"
Chloe walked to Asahi and glanced at him, staring at the S tattoo flashing on and off his front. She analyzed him while her chains jingled.
"He looks so different compared to the people I saw."
Telos' voice continued as Asahi noticed Chloe standing in the background.
"Yes, but your happiness must be genuine for you to manifest its incredible power. It may take time before you can gain the ability to wield The Sealed Beatific. It's not an easy task. And judging by how your mind works, it would be a daunting effort for you to do so."
Asahi sighed and scratched his head, watching Chloe approach him.
"Y… Yeah, ever since the day of the calamity, I could never truly feel happy. If only…"
Chloe kneeled down and bent over, asking in her native language.
"Hey? Are you the guy that answered me before?"
Asahi nodded.
"Yes, I am. Who are you again? Didn't you say you were lost or something?"
Chloe's face blushed.
"Y… Yeah. Um, do you know where we are now?"
Asahi half-shrugged.
"Nope, I'm just as clueless as you are."
Chloe beamed with excitement.
"OH! So, did you get summoned into this world like me? I have noticed that you speak my language fluently. So…"
A quiet wind blew across the patch of turquoise flowers in front of them. Asahi turned to his attire and scratched his head, expressing confusion and surprise.
"No… not at all." Asahi scratched his head, mumbling while the excited look on Chloe's face faded. "I don't recall being summoned here…."
Chloe's bright mocha eyes peered upward, staring at his eyes.
"So, did you just forget?"
Asahi raised a brow.
"No. I was never summoned here. But I was born here. Anyways, where did you come from? I have never known people could get summoned into my world."
Chloe fiddled with her grey skirt, took a deep breath, and replied with an anxious tone.
"I come from... Earth."
"Earth?"
"Yes. Um... it's a world where humans rule, well... after these creatures called Dinosouars roamed around. I don't know what they're doing now. There are cities, communities, planes, cars, televisions, and cellphones everywhere."
Asahi leaned over to Chloe, showing genuine interest in her.
Despite meeting her just now, he discussed with her as if they were friends. The very idea of someone being summoned into a world fascinated him.
"...cell... phones? That's a strange name. Perhaps, that's some sort of cell and photon mixture with it? Is it some sort of place?"
Chloe's face turned pink, giggling and shaking her head.
"Ha ha! No, not at all! How can I explain this to you...?" She twiddled her thumbs, thinking of the tool.
"Um, it's some tool that can... erm..."
As Chloe was thinking about a way to describe this strange alien device called a "Cellphone" to Asahi, she gave up and said a different thing instead.
"U...Uh... never mind that." She scratched her head.
"I ran down to you because I wanted to talk to someone like you for a long time. Ever since I was summoned into this world, I have had difficulty socializing with others because I never knew their language."
Asahi fell silent.
"I couldn't ask for help, I couldn't trade with anyone, I couldn't make alliances. I was practically all alone for a couple of years. Not to mention, I was stuck wearing these clothes as well. Sigh, role-playing. Why did I wear that before? Stupid stupid me..."
. . .
"A-Anyways, now that I have finally found someone I can communicate with, can I ask you something?"
Asahi leaned over, seeing Aletha, the roped boy, and Pridia walking over to him. He replied swiftly.
"What?"
Chloe bent her head to the grass.
"Can you... be my teacher? I want to learn this world's language so I can finally communicate with people and do stuff like you and all other people in this world do."
Telos's voice sounded in Asahi's mind.
(It's all up to you, Asahi. Every single person in this world has their own story to tell. If it makes you any happier, I will be willing to assist you with your teaching.)
Asahi bounced up.
"Really?"
(Absolutely. Even if it doesn't include anything with my goal, I will be delighted to assist you. As long as it helps you become a better person in the long run.)
Asahi grinned and nodded his head. Even though he had never asked to be a teacher, changing someone's life could be the very thing that could make him happy.
"Okay."
Chloe turned over.
"Huh?"
"I'll do it. I agree to become your teacher."
* * * * * * *
But as silent flowed with the tame winds of the present, something arose in Telos.
(*gasp* It... it can't be...)
Asahi mumbled.
"What?"
(I feel a presence lurking in here. An aura that I'm very familiar with. It can't be... is that... Asahi, look over to the forest for a moment.)
He agreed and turned to the forest, seeing what looked like a woman with long dark hair, wearing a dark robe, gray eyes, and chains decorating all around. Though her appearance was difficult to see for Asahi, Telos knew precisely who she was.
(Morwenna. My beloved wife, I found you...)
But just as Asahi could catch another glimpse at the woman, she sprinted back into the forest and dropped an earing on the ground. Telos gasped in shock.
(NO! Asahi, grab your sister and chase that dark-haired woman now! You don't UNDERSTAND how long and far I have gone searching for her. SHE is my goal!)
"Okay."
As the group was discussing, Asahi hurriedly pulled Aletha and yelled.
"Sis, follow me!"
"But, why?! I was in the middle of talking--
"Just... listen to me. It's important!"
Racing up the hill, passing through the forest, Asahi forgot to ask if Pridia and the others would come with him. However...
"Hey, where are you going?!"
The three were already following him.