As he looked at the tiny village in front of him, which seemed to have been shrouded in darkness, Ben, who was running back to his secret base, couldn't help but stop in his tracks.
The more Ben stared at the village in front of him, the more anger kept accumulating within him, causing him to begin shaking.
But even so, Ben resisted the desire he felt at the moment, the desire to go straight to Kiara's location and put an end to what she had become.
A few moments later, after calming himself down and returning to his normal self, Ben began walking towards a cliff next to the village, from which Ben could see a dark aura emanating.
...
Looking at the two twisted corpses in front of him, which looked no older than five years old, Ben couldn't help but clench his teeth once again, as he then instantly appeared next to them.
This allowed Ben to take a much better look at the corpses, and notice something else about them, which made him even more angry.
'Ben, if you are reading this, come back home, sister misses you very much'
As he looked at the text, that was etched into the flesh and bone of the two children, who clearly didn't have a very peaceful death, Ben became silent.
Ben could clearly see it, Kiara had clearly vented all of her desires and frustrations onto them, and destroyed both their minds and bodies in the process.
At this moment, Ben even felt somewhat tempted to go back home, just so Kiara would stop this rampage of hers.
Of course, Ben soon destroyed these thoughts of his, as he knew very well that something like this wouldn't stop just because Kiara got her hands back on Ben once again.
No, to stop this, Ben had to kill his sister and free her from the cursed life she was living at the moment, having been twisted by some evil being.
By now, after all these years of being hunted down, Ben had grown extremely proficient at digging graves, as such, in just under ten minutes, Ben buried the two siblings on this cliff.
Although Ben knew that the parents of these children most likely wanted to see their children, or at least what had remained of them, Ben didn't feel strong enough to show these parents what had become of their precious children.
As such, Ben made sure that these graves wouldn't be easily discovered before leaving this area and going back onto his journey.
...
Even though seeing what had happened to those children made Ben angry, as he stared at the door to the house in front of him, Ben felt a sort of dread emerging from within him, one that he had not felt for a long time.
But even so, after staring at the door for around five minutes, Ben finally gathered enough strength to enter the house, causing him to be greeted by a silent scene, causing confusion to appear on his face.
As he stared at the three corpses that were hanging from the ceiling with thick ropes tied around their necks, Ben felt as though something was wrong.
After a few moments, though, Ben took his eyes away from the corpses and took in a deep breath, no longer able to stare straight at the corpses of his former comrades.
But even right now, as he dared not look at the corpses, thoughts swirled within Ben's mind.
'Why was Kiara so merciful to them?' thought Ben with an extremely confused look on his face.
Ben had already somewhat prepared himself from the inevitable when he had felt his sister coming to this city, but contrary to his expectations, Kiara had been quite merciful to his comrades this time.
As he remembered the fate of his former comrades before even these, as well as what happened to them, Ben couldn't help but once again feel a chill in his heart, even though Ben had seen that scene in his mind for several years, he could never get used to it.
'It's already been ten years, I need to become a High Ranking Mage Apprentice as soon as possible,' thought Ben with a look of determination in his eyes.
...
As she looked at Kiara, who was currently controlling two dark bolts to move around the room, Beatrice couldn't help but faintly smile.
"Very good Kiara, it seems as though your skills didn't degrade while you were searching for your brother," said Beatrice as she took a sip of tea, which had been just brought to her by a couple of ants.
Hearing this, a happy look instantly appeared on Kiara's face, which she promptly destroyed as she turned her attention back onto the task at hand.
A moment later, a third dark bolt slowly began forming above Kiara, as the latter had to slit her attention in three different places.
Because of this, it took around three seconds for the third dark bolt to form, causing Beatrice to faintly smile.
'She's just about to become a High Ranking Mage Apprentice, as expected, the increase of elemental energy in the air really helps mage apprentices,' thought Beatrice as she looked at Kiara, who was moving around the room controlling three dark bolts.
Originally, Beatrice had estimated that it would take Kiara around twelve to thirteen years to become a High Ranking mage apprentice on this island, which lacked much elemental energy.
But surprisingly, around five years ago, the quantity of elemental energy in the air began slowly growing, making Beatrice feel extremely shocked.
Even though this growth was extremely slow, over five years, the amount of elemental energy in the air grew by around thirty percent.
Sadly though, by then Beatrice had long since returned to being an Official Mage, and could not take full advantage of this fact.
"You can stop, come to me," said Beatrice as she waved her hand, causing the three dark bolts to suddenly freeze in the air.