Ruun took the girl's hand, and Kora still held on to Ruun's.
The girl pulled, feeling the strange excess of weight, and after a few seconds of struggle, she managed to get what she wanted.
But her eyes went wide in shock, as she saw the young-looking man, accompanied by a girl who wasn't supposed to be there.
However, there was no time to be wasted, as Ruun looked up and understood why she had gotten him out of the Abyss.
"So, after one thousand years, this is the world you left for me...?"
Ruun looked bored, but his eyes shone with a never-ending torrent of anger.
The house the girl lived in was being attacked by a white dragon, ready to breathe its blue fire over the roofless home.
"Fucking puny creatures…"
With a wave of his hand, Ruun managed to block the whole dragon's fiery breath, and it created a gust of wind so strong that the dragon even stumbled backwards.
The beast looked at the newly arrived meal, appearing baffled, and let out a deafening roar that shattered all the windows in the neighborhood. Ruun sighed.
"Kora, would you kindly?"
Kora, who didn't stand as tall as Ruun, looked right at the dragon's eyes, determination flowing through her like fire, and she closed her eyes.
The dragon opened its gigantic maw, and was ready to reach its teeth towards her. But in the last second, the dragon stopped completely, as if it had been frozen.
"Burst."
Kora's voice echoed through the house, as everything went deadly silent.
There was a loud 'plop' after she said that word, and right after, the dragon roared painfully, falling to the street's stones.
"Good girl." Ruun patted her head. "Your mana control is improving by the day. It didn't even seem like you were holding the dragon's heart in your hands, I'm proud of you."
"Thank you, master!" Kora blushed, but her red skin didn't show.
"Now, let's get out of here. There's a castle I need to visit." Ruun started walking, and Kora followed him.
"Hey, WAIT!" The girl, who had brought them back, had her cheeks red, and she fulminated them with a glare. "What do you think you're doing?!"
Ruun stopped, turning his head just enough to look at her.
He measured her from head to toe, raising a brow towards her attitude.
"A thousand years, and everyone forgets how to fear me? Seriously?"
Ruun turned around again, and walking slowly towards the young girl, he reached to his right hand, taking off one of the three rings he wore in that hand.
"I don't kill younglings, but it doesn't give you the right to push your luck."
When he was done taking the ring off of his finger, the girl immediately fell to her knees, coughing.
She was suddenly taken by an unexplainable dizziness that made the world swirl around her.
And the next second, she was throwing up everything she had eaten earlier.
Ruun put his ring on again, and with a gentle touch to the girl's chin, he made her look up, towards him.
"Now, will you behave, or do I have to take off another ring?"
The girl noticed immediately what that ring was, and slightly shook her head.
"No... Sir."
"That's better." Ruun looked at the girl and thought for a second. "Why did you want us to stay?"
She slowly got up, dusted her pants, and with her eyes glued to the ground, spoke.
"Legend told... That you would save us, if the spell could be finished, and you could be brought back from the Abyss…"
Ruun was back for not even five minutes, and he was already as bored as to miss the beasts of the Abyss.
"And...?"
"…"
"If you don't talk, I'll turn my back and go do what I was intending to do ever since I was thrown down there."
"MY OMMA!"
When Ruun looked at the girl's face, pulling her chin gently so he could see her, she was crying.
"Theresa?" Ruun raised his brow again. "She's still alive...?"
"She died... When I reached out my hand to grab yours... I heard her scream, and she was tossed away by the dragon. Omma ran out of mana, so she couldn't cast a shield on herself."
Kora was behind Ruun, looking at them with a hand on her chin.
"She died while protecting you, so you could finish the spell and bring me back..."
"Yeah…"
Ruun scratched his beardless chin, looked at the ruined street, and spoke, with his brow twitching upwards.
"I'm more curious about how the hell she managed to live for more than a thousand years than I'm moved by knowing that she died saving you, to get me out of there."
But before the girl started throwing a tantrum, Ruun spoke again.
"Kora."
"Master?"
"Come here for a second."
She approached, and Ruun touched her forehead with his index finger.
Kora saw, in her mind, images of the mage, Theresa, and understood what she had to do.
"Yes, master!" And she sprinted towards the street.
"I'll get her back, kid."
For a moment, the girl felt something completely different from the threatening indifference that Ruun carried in his voice.
But that only lasted for a moment, as Kora came back, carrying a corpse that could only belong to the girl's omma, Theresa.
She laid the body on the ground, and Ruun thanked her.
He turned around and looked at the body.
She was old, that was for sure.
"One thousand years don't do well on you, girl..." Ruun bit the tip of his thumb, and let out a single drop of blood, letting it fall over Theresa's body.
Instantly, a magic circle appeared underneath Theresa's corpse.
And the next second, not only were her wounds being fully healed, but her body rejuvenated, going back to how it looked one thousand years ago.
Theresa's daughter jumped towards her, looking at her chest going up and down, her smooth and steady breathing showing that Theresa was alive again.
She opened her eyes and focused her view.
"Am I... Dead? Fjara?" She looked at her daughter.
"OMMA!" She hugged Theresa as if the world would end right away.
"What took you so long...?"
Theresa looked up at the owner of that so familiar voice. And when she met the gaze of those clear-purple eyes, there was nothing but ice-cold, silent, and composed rage.