I think I managed to sleep, which is strange since Fenrir never stops, I'm in something slightly comfortable and cozy. I don't want to wake up from this dream, I prefer to stay here.
Nevertheless, I've already rested, so my mind forces me to wake up, as soon as I open my eyes I start looking around, what I see is...
"The sky..." I see a starry sky, while my surroundings is a forest. A vision I had already forgotten.
"I see you've woken up, Ayla, I'm glad you're doing better," I hear a beautiful and gentle voice, it brings me a strange nostalgia, as if it were someone very important to me.
"...Uriel..." I speak in a low and monotonous tone, what I see in front of me is a handsome young man, he has black hair, with a white streak on the right side, his eyes are a clear blue/cyan like crystal-clear waters while his skin is pale.
He's wearing a white outfit that seems to be some kind of uniform with a flower insignia on his right arm. Next to him is a large golden sword with white that seems to have purple runes engraved on its blade.
Although seeing him fills me with happiness, this happiness soon dies.
'It must be just another illusion...yes, I'm just delirious again...when I wake up I'll still be in that crystal cave having children for Fenrir.'
I remain lying on what appears to be a cape, my eyes show no signs of life, I just don't want to wake up yet.
"I'm sorry..." I hear Uriel apologize, this slightly catches my attention, so I raise my head to look at him.
"If I had been faster, you wouldn't have had to go through something so terrible," He kneels and lowers his head.
"Sorry I could only save you now," His tone is sad, and there's a slight spark of pain in his gaze.
I sit up with lazy movements and look at him, trying to understand this situation, it doesn't seem like a dream or my illusion, it's very different from the delusions I've had.
"T-This...is real...a-am I free?..." I say in a low and painful voice.
"Yes, Ayla, you're no longer in that castle...unfortunately, I took too long to get you out of there, but you're free now," He says with a gentle smile to comfort me.
I look at my hands, I see tears dripping on them, my tears won't stop falling, I still can't believe I'm finally free, that inescapable and endless hell...is it really over?
"I-I...I'm free...for real..." I can't believe it, it seems so unreal, as if it's a cruel joke, as if at any moment everything will fall into a spiral of lies.
"T-This...is real, I'm finally free..." it just seems absurd that I'm no longer in that hell, my mind already sees that hell as my common environment.
"Buaaaaa! Buaaaaa! Waaah! Buááá!" I cry loudly, tears I could never cry in that dangerous castle. The feeling of finally not being in that place hits me full force.
Although I feel disgust and repugnance for my body that is so contaminated, the feeling of being free is better than my disgust for myself, that hell I so desperately wanted to escape is over, all thanks to Uriel.
All my pain and despair are converted into tears, Uriel moves and comes over to me, giving me a hug. The human warmth, the first hug I receive that doesn't come from a being that only wants to harm me is comforting.
I can't stop crying, they are tears of both pain and joy at finally having escaped. I hug Uriel as I continue to cry, we remain embraced for minutes while I don't stop crying, after about 30 minutes the tears subside, but I continue embraced in him.
My fear that all this is also false prevents me from letting go of him, as if by moving away from him everything would crumble and I would return to that place. Throughout the time we remained embraced, Uriel comforted me, speaking gentle words to calm me down while caressing my head.
After a while I finally manage to compose myself a little and stop crying, Uriel's shirt is now stained with tears.
"Ayla, I'm sorry to bother you but we have to go, this location is not entirely safe," He says as he waits for me to get out of his arms.
"..." I release him with extreme reluctance, I don't want to move away from the one who saved me from darkness and despair.
"Get on, we have to go quickly," He says as he crouches down for me to get on his back, I do so and hug his neck with my arms, while hugging his waist with my legs, clinging to him like a koala clings to a tree.
He stands up and starts running quickly after picking up a large backpack that I hadn't seen.
He carries the backpack in his hands and carries me on his back, this way he can go faster I think...
"W-Will I not be caught again?...p-please tell me they won't find me..." The 7 are very powerful, so I'm filled with fear of them finding me.
"Don't worry, Ayla, even though they may be strong, I've found a way to prevent them from finding us."
"N-No, y-you don't understand...t-they are very strong" Uriel doesn't know how truly strong they are, now my happiness at finally escaping is slowly turning into fear.
'I-If they catch me, what will they do to me?...I don't want to go back, I don't want to, I don't want to' now that I've escaped, I don't want to imagine the atrocities they will do to me if I'm caught again.
"You're right, I don't know how strong they are...but I know a weakness of theirs to prevent them from finding us, that's how I was able to invade the castle and take you from there without them noticing."
'T-Those monsters have weaknesses?'
"Don't worry, Ayla, they won't find us as long as we have these medallions," He says as he shows a medallion on his neck that is hidden inside his clothes, he also shows that I have one of these medallions.
Although we are running very fast, he is careful not to hurt me, even as he explains and moves, he still tries to be gentle with me, this warms my heart.
"W-What do these medallions do?" I don't know what this item is.
"They completely cancel out the magic of whoever uses them."
'Isn't that bad?...It can't be...' soon a thought hits me, but I decide to listen to him speak to see if what I think will be confirmed.
"The demon lords have a colossal amount of magic, but that has made them dependent on it, at the moment we both have no magic, which means we are undetectable, because magic of search, or any type of magic that reveals location requires the target to have magic, everything in the world has magic even a simple stone...so now that we have no magic, we can't be detected." Now that we don't have magic, we can escape, I can't believe I never thought of that before. If they depend so much on magic, they'll have a hard time finding something without it.
"B-But doesn't that make us weaker?" I ask him.
"...Well...yes, we're completely without magic...but don't worry, I'm still quite strong, and I have the [Blade of Infinity]."
'I see...they can't find me...' I'm happy to know that they will never find me as long as I have this medallion.
"AETHERIS" I remember the most important thing, Aetheris is still in the castle, so I pull Uriel to stop him.
"PLEASE SAVE AETHERIS, WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM BEHIND" I yell at Uriel desperately, I can't leave Aetheris in that place.
"Calm down, Ayla, if you're talking about the dragon, I got him," He says as he stops and opens the backpack, showing Aetheris, as soon as Aetheris sees me, he jumps out of the backpack into my face, I get off Uriel and hug Aetheris.
"When I was looking for you before using the medallion, I felt two magic waves coming from you, first I went to a room but all that was there was this dragon, but he has his own magic, so I thought he was a familiar...I also put the medallion on him...but now the medallions are depleted, so don't take them off or lose them."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, for saving me and Aetheris," I say to Uriel with a voice full of gratitude.
Uriel responds with a smile, I still feel bad about what happened to me, but knowing that I no longer have to go through those bad things makes me so happy, I think this is how a slave feels when they obtain freedom.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't remove the... collar," Uriel says as he looks at my neck, I had become so accustomed to the cat tail and ears that I had forgotten I had them.
"To remove the collar, we'll need magic...but we have no way to use magic because of the medallions, and the effects of items still work even if we don't have magic...though they can't detect the collar, the effect of it still exists."
"I don't care, having this collar is nothing compared to being finally free...thank you so much Uriel, you don't know how happy I am that you came to save me," I say to him with one of the few genuine smiles I've ever given in this world.
"We are still in demonic territory, and it will take some time to get out, so we have to be careful, your dress is one of the many I kept in the inventory, so you don't have to worry about clothes and supplies since I have everything..."
"Unfortunately, housing will be a bit difficult, I'm sure the demon lords will be furious and go out searching for you, so staying in a city will be difficult, we'll have to hide you well, and without magic that's become harder."
"I-I will do whatever you decide to do, we just need to reach human cities is..." When I was talking, he interrupts me.
"I'm sorry...a human city is also dangerous..." What he says confuses me.
"Ayla...I may have become a criminal in the eyes of the kingdom...and hypothetically speaking, I may be being hunted..." What he says shocks me, the HERO is being hunted? He has become a criminal?
"I... went against the orders of the church, I tried to find out what it's hiding, I've always thought the religion was strange, we have blind faith in Goddess Aurora, but the public hardly knows anything about her."
"Plus, the royal family and the church have always treated you strangely, even though you were blessed by Aurora, you didn't get the proper value, so I tried to investigate, and the church didn't like what I found..."
'He investigated the church...for me' I feel strange to hear that he became a criminal for me, in a way it makes me happy to have someone willing to go so far for someone like me.
"What I discovered about the church was..."