Noah looked at Jasper in surprise, not understanding what he was talking about. They were waiting for Mufag's parents to wake up to ask more questions, but suddenly Jasper had asked that question. Noah was not feeling anything, but before answering, Noah looked at the other Blessed and saw that everyone had strange expressions on their faces, just like Jasper.
"Yes, it hurts a lot," Marcel said as he put his hand on his heart.
As soon as Marcel said that, the other Blessed nodded in agreement, also placing their hands on their hearts, as if they were trying to understand something.
Noah looked at them confused. Fortunately, no one noticed Noah's confusion, because they were focused on their own pain and didn't bother to pay attention to others.
"It feels like... it's getting hard to breathe... My heart is beating very hard," Jasper said in a serious and concerned tone.
The rest of the Blessed agreed with that, and a possibility came to Noah's mind. The reason why he didn't forget Mufag when the portal appeared, and the reason he wasn't affected by illusions was the system. This time as well he was also suspecting that the system was responsible for this, responsible for his not feeling this strange chest pain.
"Wait a second," Noah said quickly before bursting into flames.
*Bamf*
The Blessed Ones were confused by Noah's sudden teleportation, but they didn't think anything bad of it; they just ignored it and paid attention to their own pain again.
Noah, on the other hand, had spent a lot of energy on this teleportation, since it had been the longest distance teleport he had ever made.
When he appeared again, he was beside the portal. Watching carefully, Noah noticed that the portal that was once solid as obsidian, was now becoming unstable. The purple plasma that leaked through the portal was becoming less dense, as if the portal would disappear at any moment.
Seeing this, it was obvious to Noah what was happening; it was clear that the portal disappearing was the cause of the Blessed Ones feeling that strange chest pain.
Without thinking twice, Noah teleported back to where the group was next to Mufag, even though he spent at least half of his total energy going back and forth to the portal, now leaving only half the energy left.
"Quick, go back to the portal; it is disappearing! This is probably the cause of you feeling this pain!" Noah said urgently to the group, and understanding, without thinking twice, the Blessed Ones ran through the cars to cross the portal before he disappeared. They didn't know what would happen if the portal disappeared, but everyone had a feeling, almost like an instinct that if the portal really did disappear, they would not survive.
Noah knew that the system was helping him stay in that place, but he didn't have time to have any deeper thoughts.
The only thing he could think of was doing something with Mufag so they could meet in the future. It would never be useless to be friends with a nobleman of a kingdom, still more a kingdom apparently as famous and renowned as the dwarven kingdom. But he didn't know what to do; he had no idea what he could do until he finally thought about the new skill he received and still hadn't had a chance to use yet.
"Mufag, I'm going to have to go," Noah said in a serious tone.
"Really? Please... no, I need help! What if some monsters come back to try to attack me and my family?" Mufag asked, his eyes turning red, almost crying.
"Calm down. I had an idea of something that can help out with that..." Noah said in a mysterious tone while Mufag saw some hope.
---
"Damn! Where's Noah?!" Jasper was getting irritated by the pain he was feeling, as well as being worried about his friend who hadn't shown up until now.
They had started running to the portal but so far no one had crossed it. Despite the strong pain they were feeling, no one wanted to leave Noah behind, they knew that Noah had contributed most to the Fortress. Even if they had had a Blessed from the peak of Rank D, that Blessed One could hardly be as useful as Noah had been in this Fortress.
Leaving behind the person who had fought so hard for their survival, this companion who risked his life so many times for the good of the group, so useful that he did not let anyone die, just thinking about it already made them feel angry with themselves. So even with the strong pain plaguing the chest of each one, they still resisted and did not cross the portal, waiting to the last breath for Noah to appear.
Fortunately for the group, a familiar explosion of flames appeared in front of them. From within the explosion came Noah with an extremely exhausted expression, which they thought was because of the pain he was feeling from not having crossed the portal yet.
Jasper quickly supported Noah on the shoulder so that he would not fall to the ground due to fatigue and helped his friend with difficulty through the portal.
---
On the other side of the portal, the group was greeted by several government agents surrounding the area with weapons aimed at them.
When the captain saw that those who came out of the portal were human, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and scream. "THEY ARE HUMANS! LOWER YOUR WEAPONS!"
Hearing the captain's command, the Blessed Ones who were still crossing the portal were a little scared, since they did not expect that when they left the portal, instead of being received with smiles and praise, in fact they would be received by armed and ready soldiers, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.
Noah looked at it and felt that the situation was getting more problematic than he imagined.
'Damn... I hope the story I made up will be convincing,' Noah sighed mentally.
-----