Alvan had decided to save the little girl who was a few distances behind them. He waved his hand towards the barrier enclosing the shadow undead. An opening was made that could only allow one person to pass through.
"Emelda, I need to handle something now. I will leave you to tie up these ones. They will be leaving my barrier one at a time."
"Kael!" Alvan called out to the guard, who was still busy with his frantic sword swinging. Alvan knew him very well at the academy.
"Yes!"
"I see you are wearing a blindfold. Can I borrow your mask?"
"Sure... How can you tell that I'm blindfolded?"
"Not important now. I will tell you later." Alvan replied before he collected Kael's mask.
Even though it was called a mask, it looked more like a helmet. However, the eyeslit of the mask was made of thick glass, similar to the lens of his telescope. Then, Alvan moved towards Emelda, who had already subdued one of the shadow undead with her vines. He placed the mask on her face.
"You can now perform your job more effectively. Nothing will happen as long as you are wearing this mask." He said before dashing off to where he could still hear the little girl's cry.
However, when he got closer to the area where he saw the girl crying through the telescope. His ear wasn't picking up any sobbing sounds anymore, only a certain shriek.
He peered through his telescope now, and what he saw bewildered him. The girl's mother had already transformed into a shadow undead. So fast?
However, the sight that terrified him the most was when he saw the mother touch her daughter in the form of a shadow undead. The little girl became infested with the shadow plague simply by making physical contact with a shadow undead - her mother.
'Was this why Mom pushed me away and placed me on a barrier so that if she eventually turned, I wouldn't be infested? And she also took her own life, just so she could stop her body from turning.'
Thinking about her mother at this moment and witnessing how another mother had infested her daughter. He was stuck in that spot, unable to move or take his eyes off the telescope. A teardrop escaped from his eyes at that moment.
However, the sound of whispers behind him pulled him out of his reverie. Frustrated, he sent a wind gust at the shadow minions hovering behind him. But it was all a vain effort, the whispers continued.
Ignoring the shadow minion entirely, he approached the mother and daughter duo who were infested and created another barrier around them. This was done to prevent them from wildly running off and infesting other people in Etheloria.
Alvan then scurried back to where Emelda and Kael were. Getting there, he saw that Emelda had already finished tying up the shadow undead. However, Kael slowly bent over to touch one of them with his blindfold pulled up.
Alvan's instinct nudged him, and a surge of adrenaline coursed through his veins. He shouted, "DON'T TOUCH!"
It was not just a devastating scream; a gust of wind also knocked away Kael's hand as he reached out to touch the shadow undead.
"The turned people can infest others through physical contact!" Kael sprang to his feet upon hearing this and quickly moved away from the tied-up shadow undead.
"How did you know that?"
"I went off after hearing a girl's cry behind us. When I arrived there, I saw a mother touching her daughter and infesting her... You asked how I saw that you were blindfolded, right? Well, it was because of this," he replied, pointing at the telescope still held to his right eye, while his left eye remained shut.
"Thanks!" Kael said with gratitude.
"I have enclosed those two in a barrier. It seems that the mother, who was an Aetherian, couldn't summon her ethereal energy. So it is a good thing... I wanted us to bring along these tied-up ones, but now we can't take them with us. I will still cage them in the barrier. We can return later with the High Priest to check on them and the other villagers who have turned." Alvan explained.
Kael had put on his blindfold. Emelda was still wearing the mask. Alvan, on the other hand, continued to peer through the telescope with his right eye. While the shadow minions hovering around were whispering in anguish, the tied-down shadow undead were all shrieking, sniveling, and wriggling on the ground.
"Then we should go after the evacuation group ahead and see if they need our help dealing with some villagers who have been infested or turned," Emelda suggested.
They ran off in the direction of the Templar Academy.
While on their way, Alvan remembered his mother once again and the bracelet she had given him. He became even more curious about the bracelet as he kept his eyes fixed on it while running with the other two. He couldn't help but wonder how the heck the bracelet, an artifact, could tell him about his father and himself.
His memory took him back to when he was still a child. Then, he always remembered asking his mother about his father because other kids in the academy would mock him for not having one. But she would always tell him that his father would be back soon to take care of him.
He once believed it, but as the years went by without any trace of his father. Her mother later told him that his father had died in a tragedy the day after he was born.
Alvan could still feel his mother's bitterness when she told him about his father. But she refused to tell him more about his father, saying that she would only reveal everything when he is of a certain age. Even when he turned 18, the age of transitioning to adulthood in Etheloria, his mother still didn't tell him about his father.
So, how could she die without telling him about his father and only leaving him a bracelet to reveal everything? Who wouldn't find it hard to believe?
His mind also drifted to when he was mocked by other kids during the awakening ceremony. During this ceremony, Aetherian kids were separated from their peers and sent to the academy to train their talents. He failed to harness ethereal energy on that day, but after a certain incident at home, he unexpectedly discovered his ability to use magic.
His mother brought him to the academy, claiming that her son was an Aetherian. However, they were both mocked because he failed to harness the ethereal energy from the crystal orb bestowed upon him on the day of awakening. Still, even after meeting the High Priest, his mother managed to get him admitted, possibly due to his exceptional senses.
Since then, he couldn't willingly use his magical abilities unless they chose to call him. Then, he became the only Ethelorian admitted into the Templar Academy without being an Aetherian. He also became the most hardworking student at that time, in order to compensate for his inability to harness ethereal energy. He could only remember three people who believed in him: his mother, Emelda, and the High Priest.
Therefore, Alvan couldn't help but wonder whether the bracelet would truly reveal his problem to him. Could he really one day wield ethereal energy or cosmic energy at his will?
Alvan was lost in his thoughts, unaware of when the three of them caught up with the evacuation group. Emelda, after calling to him countless times, taps his shoulder, pulling him out of his trance. "We have arrived. What are you thinking? You have always been cheerful. Don't tell me that you will change just because of this shadow plague?" Emelda whispered to him. However, Alvan forced a smile on his face but didn't reply to her question.
The sight before them was terrifying. Almost one-third of the villagers had been infested, and some had already turned. But, that wasn't the surprising thing here...
—— — ——
In another area, precisely on the island where Elara had created a barrier using her ethereal core and the blood from her heart. An elderly man, holding a staff, stood and gazed directly at the looming shroud of darkness in the distance.
He could see it because of the translucent barrier Elara had created. The shroud of darkness had left the horizon, and he could see it slowly approaching Etheloria.
However, unlike the others, the High Priest didn't seem to be avoiding the shadow minions hovering around him. It seemed like they couldn't infest him. He shook his head three times as he watched the calamity approaching them.
"Why is this shadow plague back? I thought he was captured by the celestial beings twenty-six years ago. Does it mean he is back and has continued his experiment?" He muttered, his gaze still fixated on the barrier this time.
"It's a pity. Alvan lost both of his parents to the jaws of the shadow plague. I feel sorry for him... Elara, we will always remember you and your husband in our historical tales if we manage to survive this calamity this time."
After saying these words, he raised his staff, which glowed crimson, and directed it away from the barrier. A warping occurred in the air where his staff was pointing and as if a wide, circular rift had opened up, two individuals walked out of the spatial rift. The spatial rift was a portal!
These two individuals were identical, both having brown-tanned skin, light blue hair, and cerulean irises. Only one of them was a man, while the other was a woman, and a radiant golden aura appeared to be emanating from their bodies. Their cerulean eyes seemed to gleam with an unusual intensity as they locked their gaze on the High Priest who had summoned them.
"The time has come for the Twin Guardians of Etheloria to save our land."