Laying on the cold hard ice were Alexia, Emelia, Aslan, and Harry. Small bits of water magic were enveloping everyone from Emelia's shaky hands.
She kept on asking if it was working, but could not hear any responses or her own voice for that matter. The only thing she felt were the vibrations from the lightning strikes and fire balls that were being thrown in the distance. Eventually everything came to a stop, and the minds of the four shaking victims ceased. Soft mumbles began to come back which meant the healing magic of Emelia was working.
Meanwhile, Novius had sped over to Elijah to stop him from attacking.
Everything was already dead.
"ELIJAH! ELIJAH! STOP!!"
Screams were bouncing off of Elijah as he kept on moving his hands, and exhausting his mana to a point where a pain in his chest began to erupt. Elijah had severely sliced the arm of his friend who was only trying to help him, and was immediately pulled back into reality. Frozen in mid air, he slumped to the ground in tears. He had quickly processed what had just happened, and all he wanted to do was sleep. His body was fighting for its life, and his mind was flying though his past playing back memories of his death.
"W-what is happening to me??" Elijah stared at the palms of his hand as his knife fell to the floor. His breathing became shallow to the point nose-breathing was not an option. His entire body began to softly shake, but slowly came back as many minutes passed by. Black blood was covering almost every part of his body, as well as dripping from his face.
"Are you done?" Novius did not like what happened, and acted as much since he had no idea what Elijah was going through.
"Yea. I'm done…" Elijah fell onto his back and clutched his chest after the pain set in.
Theon quickly added to the conversation after Novius' WORD words. "Novius, I don't think you should talk to him like that. He ran out of mana, but was going on a frenzy not just because he couldn't control himself."
"His mind is messed up…" Raylen said while walking closer to Elijah and wiping blood off his hands.
Novius was confused and asked what they meant.
"Have you never heard of this before? It is not called anything specific, and also rarely seen. But there are people who have been killed due to them not being able to control themselves. This only happens because of a traumatic experience one must have had that mixes with the power of magic. Something that changed them…" Theon explained.
Elijah had been listening to the dulled voices talk above his limp body. Mental illness is exactly what it sounds like. I don't think I am the way I am because of that beast raid on the wall, but because of my reincarnation. It feels like I have moved backwards in my life to the years full of despair and nothing to strive for. Constantly sitting down, playing video games, smoking, choking the chicken, and chasing absolutely nothing but different methods of escape. The mind I had then, a weak one, is what I have now. Is it because I am ten years old?
Or because I have psyched myself into thinking everything here is normal without ever taking time to process what has actually happened…
Emelia walked over to the group standing over Elijah, and she quickly washed him in water magic that removed the blood stains from his clothes. The strained muscles and bones in his body quickly recovered, and the next thing he felt was Alexia's hand caressing his face.
"Are you okay Elijah?"
Coughs were heard, then a response. "I don't think so, but we must continue moving forward after we recover." Once again, Elijah had completely put his emotions to the side without relishing and understanding them. However, this was the only path forward. He had to survive this mission if nothing else.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Aslan had a worried look on his face.
"Why not." Elijah slowly turned his head and stared at the man holding him back.
"If those gorgons are extremely fast and strong, we stand no chance in our state. If we were to fill our cores with mana, it would take over half an hour, and to be honest with everyone here. I truly want to return after what just happened. I need to get stronger."
Elijah decided to agree after both Novius and Alexia voiced their thoughts. "Okay. Let's go." A translucent and pearlescent portal opened up below the hand that held his knife. Casually, he took out four, one liter bottles of water for everyone to sip.
Questions about his power were asked, and he calmly responded how it is his second affinity, space. Of course more questions were asked, but were stopped with a single sentence. "Please don't tell anyone, I want to keep this a secret from as many people as possible."
Everyone seemed to notice Elijah's sudden change in speech from a quiet and seemingly angry person, to a careful and calm person. No more questions were asked, and the group slowly started to make their way back to safety.
In truth, the party of eight could lie and say they finished the mission since there was no way to prove them wrong. The only problem would be when the scouts report to the hunter guild that a mission to this specific cave system is needed a lot quicker than usual. Suspicions will rise, and likely would have the completed mission revoked as a ten year old junior knight aiming for the top at any cost.
Conversations were heard from Alexia, Emelia, Harry, and Aslan. However, none of the four who were able to stand up said one word. The journey back was slow, and Elijah could swear that he had been hearing something behind him that was not his party. There was not much he wanted to do besides return, so he decided to keep on moving forward.
Everyone's hearing was slightly muffled even with the healing magic of Emelia.
"Guys. I think something is following us." Harry said as he stopped and conjured a small metal shield around his forearm.
"I'm not hearing or seeing anything Harry, but just to be safe, I will start walking backwards." Aslan knew they should not dismiss any idea of danger, even when they knew it was almost impossible.
Aslan's eyes squinted when he saw something very dark and weird looking shoot across the cavern from left to right. "What the…"
"Do you see something Aslan?" Novius asked as he turned around, but very quickly saw the same thing Aslan saw. "There is something following us, but I don't know why it's not attacking."
Elijah stopped his steps. "Everyone, please continue moving forward. If it's another quagmire, I'll take care of it…"
"What if it's not a quagmire?" Alexia asked a question that was in everyone's mind.
"Then we will run as fast as possible over these rocks while defending ourselves. The only other possibility is the gorgon." Elijah responded.
Elijah was now walking forwards at the back of the group while keeping an eye on the beast behind them. There it is! What looked like a four-legged monkey with limbs bigger than their torso and head was jumping from side to side into cover behind different rock formations. The wind parting ways made small sounds that Elijah was able to pick up on. "We need to run. It is a gorgon!"
There was almost zero information given about these creatures besides the fact that they were extremely fast, and had sharp claws. The question Elijah had running through his mind was how he should kill this beast if it decided to attack.