After separating from Reine, Arisa and I was supposed to take a natural stroll over at a certain edge of the continent because it was her designated patrol area. She said it is usually safe in that location and nothing much happens, so we only need to take a peaceful stroll around the area to fulfill her quota. At least, that's how it was supposed to be…
Crash*
As a small building crashes down to the ground some distance in front of me. I picked up what I needed, turned around, and ran as fast as I could.
As adrenaline pumped through my veins and tension-filled my body and mind, I was still somehow keeping it together, acting composed despite my instincts screaming danger.
"Over here! Quick!"
A voice reached out to me from a distance. As I glanced in the direction of the voice, I saw Arisa wearing a certain type of uniform along with two other people wearing helmets and some sort of gear, standing in front of the collapsed and damaged buildings in the area.
As I ran in their direction as if my life depended on it, all of them tensed up as if they saw something behind me that signaled them to prepare.
Suddenly, some sort of magic circle formed in front of me placed on top of a canon-like weapon carried by one of the uniformed men.
"Keep running straight! And don't look back!" Arisa shouted.
Bang*
As my ears slightly rang for a short moment due to the sound of the shot from the cannon-like weapon, I heard a deep and vicious roar of some sort of creature I was unfamiliar with behind me.
Hearing the unidentified roar made my insides shiver, feeling a huge sense of pressure from an unknown danger just behind me. I ran faster.
As my head slightly tilted in curiosity and fear, Arisa shouted at me once again.
"I SAID DON'T LOOK! JUST RUN!"
I stiffened my neck and just focused on getting to them while running for my life as they let out multiple shots above me, targeting whatever it was behind me.
After a certain amount of shots, I heard a weakened version of the roar behind me as I hear the sounds of something huge crashing on the ground, similar to the sound of a collapsing building.
The tension I felt eased up by a bit as I saw the people in uniform in front of me look relieved after I heard the crashing sound behind me.
As I got closer, I could see everyone looking around the area cautiously while Arisa stared at me with a scowl.
"What the hell were you doing!?" she said, sounding obviously mad, "didn't I tell you to stay put! Did you know how horribly worried I was when I found out you disappeared? Reine could kill me if anything happened to you while in MY care!"
"S… sorry, A lot happened and… there's a reason for this, though I don't know if you'll accept it," I sincerely apologized, knowing I had my reason.
Still looking pissed, she let out a sigh, "ugh… explain to me while we make our way back, these military team would be our escorts,"
"I see…" I nodded as I looked at the military men, looking very professional and reliable along with their uniform, gear, and weapons.
"Also, just so you really know what situation you were in, I'd like you to take a good look at what was behind you,"
Even though I prepared myself, my knees felt weak and shivers went up all over my spine the moment I had a good look at the creature that was behind me.
The creature was massive, about half a size of a regular two-story house, and had lumpy fat flesh all over its purple-skinned body. It had three eyes that seemed to have been shot by the military men and a massive single horn on top of its head.
Suddenly, Arisa hit me in the shoulder.
"Ow!"
"That thing… any regular person that has no proper experience, resistance, or power to deal with it, would have meant certain death the moment they had eye contact with it,"
"huh…? Why is that?" I asked, feeling completely disturbed.
"You felt it, didn't you? Even when you look at its corpse, you get stunned with fear not just because of its looks but with the magic embedded within this creature,"
I felt slightly confused, "can regular people break out from it though?"
"as I said, any eye contact with regular people with no prior experience, power, or resistance, is certain death without intervention, that's because they aren't just stunned for a moment but until this creature kills them,"
"But I…"
"Hm?"
"Never mind, it's nothing," to avoid making things more complicated, I decided to shut my mouth for the time being.
Arisa looked at the soldier beside us as he signaled it was clear.
"Looks like we need to get going now," Arisa said, "come on, you better have a good explanation for worrying me like that,"
I nodded, "Yeah…"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flashback*
To fill the quota of her patrol for the day, Arisa took me to a faraway place over to the edge of the continent, free of charge thanks to Reine's credit card which she left with us. She said it was for professional purposes so we should feel free to use her money for teleportation back to back.
As we arrived on the edge of the continent and took a stroll in a certain town, I gazed upon the massive wall which could be seen even from very far away. The houses in the area were all average sized from two to three-story houses, and there were no tall buildings or skyscrapers to compare the wall with, but I could still say it was so huge for it to be visible despite it being possibly miles away.
"What a huge wall…" I mumbled, accidentally letting my thoughts out.
"I'm guessing you didn't have this large wall overseas?" Arisa replied.
"Ah… yeah,"
As much as I want to ask about the wall, I couldn't because it might seem suspicious. Having that kind of wall would mean it was obvious for people to see and quite possibly common knowledge for this whole country or continent… I can't risk it until I made things clear with Reine.
Later on, as we walk further toward the wall, the earpiece Arisa was wearing, similar to a wireless earphone, let out a faint sound, sounding like a faint alarm. I didn't notice it but it seems she just wore that when we got here.
"Sorry Riyoko, wait a sec," Arisa said, tapping her earpiece twice.
Her expression suddenly became very serious and tensed as she continued to listen silently for about a minute. After listening she then approached me.
"Riyoko, I need you to stay here for a moment, ok?"
"huh?" I asked in concern due to the mood she was emitting.
"This regular patrol suddenly became quite dangerous and this is something very unexpected, for now just stay here ok? It's safe here and once I got the full grasp of the situation I promise I'll come back as fast as I could,"
I couldn't really understand the situation so I just nodded and agreed.
"Good, I'll try to be quick so please be patient, it's for your own safety. There's a small park just on that corner, sit on a bench somewhere and I'll meet you there, "
Later.
I waited for around thirty minutes and planned to wait no matter how long. However, after a while I saw a child, running in my direction looking messy and tired.
"A… person…" The child said with a weak voice then fell to the ground.
Flop*
I quickly stood up and ran toward the child, "are you ok?"
The child stood up on her own just before I was about to reach out my hand to help.
"I… I'm fine… thank you, but please help!" she said with her head down, sounding as if he was desperate.
"Help? Did you get lost? Want me to find your mom?" I asked as I kneeled in front of her.
"Mom is dead…"
My eyes shrunk in shock and I was stunned.
"Mom is dead… she's long gone. But she left me with a very important item, and I can't lose it no matter what!" The kid raised her head, crying.
I couldn't say it could be called crying, because despite the tears continuously flowing out of her eyes, she had a very determined expression, a familiar expression of someone who can't help but cry but have a strong will toward their goal.
"I… I see," I felt a bit confused but for some reason, I couldn't help but hear her out, "how could I help?"
The child nodded, "over there, a little further from here… closer to the wall, monsters have grown closer and I was forced to leave the area as fast as I could when the alarm sounded…"
"Huh? monsters?" I thought.
"I know it might be dangerous… but mister!"
Suddenly, the child's eyes grew bright blue, like a bright moon's reflection on the deep ocean on a dark night.
"I have great mystic eyes so I can tell! The situation might be dangerous, but YOU mister… I know you can handle it! So please help me!" she begged with glowing and determined eyes.
"Huh…?"