❝DÉVOUEMENT❞ ; twst.

✦ chapter one hundred forty seven.



ೃ༄ "my sister will die if she stays in that state for too long...!"
✧──────✧

while malleus and f/n had thought they successfully sent silver, sebek, yuu, and grim back to their dream world, the four found themselves back in briar valley — or the land of briar — a few centuries back. 

sebek rose up from the grass as he held his head, feeling dizzy as he looked around the area, "... huh...? where are we...?"

yuu groaned to himself as he sat up, noticing the dark area and the trees all around them, "deep in the forest...?" grim was beside him as he groaned as well, "ffgnaaaa~ did we manage to escape those gooey creatures?" 

silver nodded and looked around as he helped yuu and grim up, "seems like it, but i don't know whose dream we're in yet..." 

meanwhile, sebek looked like he was about to cry as he wailed, "i... i just disobeyed the young master and young mistress!!! i have done something so unbelievably rude!!!" silver sighed as he spoke, "cry all you want later, we have to figure out where we are first..."

silver took a few steps forward as he looked around, taking in the surroundings of the beautiful forest, "this scenery, the smell of the breeze... i think i know where we are."

before he could say anything else, however, silver noticed that they were about to get attacked, making him shield the rest as he warned them, "take cover!!!"

grim and sebek's eyes widened as they ducked and dodged the sniping attack as silver looked around right after, "an ambush?! where is it coming from?"

suddenly, a bunch of soldiers in masks showed up before them, screeching, growling, and snarling as the four of them backed away a bit. "w-who are these guys?!" exclaimed sebek as he backed away from them.

one of them grabbed grim as he started shrieking, "eek—?! they're wringing me like a towel?!"

the soldiers continued to screech as sebek raised a brow in confusion before talking back, "...'men of steel'...? we're not!" grim looked at sebek in a panic as he spoke, "you can understand them, sebek?!"

the third soldier screeched back in reply as sebek spoke, "it's not a lie! we're students...!" before sebek could complete his sentence, another screech was heard nearby followed by a cloud of bats flying before them, making the other four gasp in surprise. the soldiers stood properly upon seeing the bats, now being attentive as it made yuu raise a brow in confusion.

a deep voice was then heard, "what is all this noise about?" one of the soldiers then replied back, but all the others could hear were screeches. the unknown man then sighed as he spoke, "hmph... you fools, look at the energy around them. they have been blessed by our people, they are not the enemy."

"blessed...? who are you...?" mumbled silver as he eyed the masked man with a deep voice. he did not respond to silver's inquiry but spoke, "however, they still raise suspicion." suddenly, the masked man took his weapon out and swung it around for a moment.

"a magical lithic...?!" exclaimed sebek as he and the rest had their eyes wide open in shock. 

"shut up, humans. don't talk too much."

before them stood a man around 158 centimetres tall wearing a mask and a hood, but his long dark hair with red streaks are still seen for the four. he had his arms crossed as the red glow in the eye holes of the mask looked back at them, sending shivers down their spines.

however, silver gasped as he noticed the little white bird flying around him for a few seconds, indicating that they are in the dream of this masked man.