~Mingzhe Dei: Open Square~
"Ah~? Who might you be?" Asked the queer youth.
"......." Lea continued to stare at him, while pushing Bright further back.
Looking at Lea's protective actions, the queer youth widened his wicked grin. "Khu.. Ha~ How lovely." Is all he said before releasing 4 daggers and sending them to nobody knows.
When the daggers vanished, Lea had a very bad foreboding, and just as she thought, the daggers reappeared behind Bright. There was no time to evade them, so before she knew it Bright was already slumped on the ground. He was bleeding profusely like there was only a few seconds left.
She felt fear for Bright, and she felt nervous about herself. Anxiousness suddenly engulfed her whole being.
She had always thought she didn't want anything else in life, but suddenly she was sent to a world she never knew before. A world that seemed unbelievable going by her previous world's logic. Her classmates believed about this world as an otome game, but a game cannot possibly be this cruel.
If they were never meant to be in this world, why were they even transported. She knew they did not die because she was conscious all that time when they were submerged underwater. It couldn't have been possible, she thought, and with that, she started doubting. A doubt about this world and the four of them being a part of it.
The changes within her, the bottomless power she possessed and a force pulling this world into her life. She knew life was harsh since she was 9. She had taken care not to ever get close to anyone. She was so sure she was fine. Her gaze then looked towards Bright's dying form.
Biting her lips, her ruby eyes glistened with threatening tears. The queer youth observed her and the changes on her expression. He was curious of the girl in front of him who bravely tried to defend someone. She also seemed to appear out of nowhere before, making him on guard and curious as to how strong she really was. He was excited at the notion of finally meeting someone who could be much stronger than he was!
"Is this all you have~?" He asked when silence came.
"...." Lea turned around, ignoring the queer youth and leaning to inspect Bright's condition. "You are worse than what your face is showing, Bright..."
Bright attempted to answer back with a joke, and in an attempt to do so, he had coughed blood. His blue eyes widened. ".....Y-you kn-ow.. Th-is ss quite excit---- hmmmph" A hand suddenly covered his opened mouth.
"No more. Just shut it as I try to lessen your pain." Lea simply said and started focusing her essences to go full blast into Bright. She had known that she could possibly not run out of essences no matter how much she used them for, but she had been too careful before. Now, she'll find out if she really did not have a limit.
The queer youth, however, did not intend to simply watch as Lea tried saving her companion. As he raised his hand to summon another dagger, he noticed there were some gruesome hands clutching on his shoulders, arms, legs and torso. His eyes grew wide in surprise. The longer the dark entities latched on him, the more he felt terribly anxious.
"I'll have you remain where you are..." Said Raize as he was coming closer to Lea's side. Behind him was Ulla, tears on her beautiful face.
"How terrible of you!" Exclaimed Ulla in between her repressed sobs.
Raising a brow to the new people, the queer youth looked even more amused. "As they say, the more the better..." As he said this, his magenta eyes seemed to glow brighter.
In a split second, [Nightmare Prison] encased the four of them. "Have you noticed? The effects of my [Nightmare Prison], I mean." He said, his face plastered with a smile so devilish and handsome.
Raize growled in realization. "Its absorbing our very own essences....!"
Ulla involuntary escaped a gasped. She was feeling even more terrible now, as well as the gnawing feeling of devastation due to her uselessness.
A painful silence took over.
"Hmm... Your essence really does make me feel so good~"
"You feeling alright?" Lea asked, her expression softer. It seemed the effect of [Nightmare Prison] was not very effective on her afterall.
"You tell me!" Bright said with his beaming face.
With his response, Lea unconsciously broke into a relieved smile. "You really make people worry about you...." She said quietly.
Noticing their progress, Raize simply said, "Celebrate later. What shall we do with that guy? I'm useless right now. I can't use my illusions with a limited supply of essence."
"If you don't mind, I'll have you guys fight. I can provide you three with essences in return." Suggested Lea, moving to the others' back, farthest away from the queer youth.
"What? Why would you do that?!" Ulla asked, her voice came out a little louder.
Raize turned to gaze at Lea. He seemed to have a thought of what she was planning, but for others' sake, he bothered to ask. "Another testing?"
Lea cracked a small smile at Raize. "Remind me not to get close to you if I want to keep a secret."
He chuckled at her response. At the same time, Ulla felt relieved that the reason was that they weren't going to lose after all. But simply because Lea was confident they would win that she would use the situation as a testing ground to another of her curious experiments. "Alright. I understand. Bright, stand up already!"
"Geez. And here I thought you were looking so passionately with me earlier." Bright said with a playful wink. Although his wounds weren't completely healed due to the pain residue, he could start working his body again. "Anytime."
"Fire it away, Lea." And as Raize said so, Lea closed her eyes to feel every essences in her surroundings. She could see plenty of them as always, like they never really get used but rather only going through. Her essences never seemed to be within her at times, but when she summoned anything at all with her mind, it was doable.
With that thought, she felt she was starting to understand more what essences really were. She would have to do more experiments to prove her understanding to be true, however.
And thus, with her thoughts, she channeled tube-like links that connects each of her companions to her. Burst of essences surging through the tubes made their way to the appropriate end-connectors. As this occurred, the three of them thought of boundless possibilities that wouldn't normally be possible.
"This is what you would call queer." Bright offhandedly said. "I never knew myself to be brilliant."
"Oh? I'm amazed you even know how to properly evaluate yourself." Said Raize with his deadpan expression.
Bright simply groaned at Raize's sarcastic remark. Without the other two's notice, Ulla was already using up thousands of essences to summon monstrous plants out from the ground. With intricate control, she weaved series of silent commands to the thorny vines with mouths at their ends. A flower could be seen spraying gas in one corner.
The sight was unbelievable that everyone but the people on the podium were struck silent.
Noticing the plants, Bright rolled his eyes, and muttered, "...Girls..."
"Guys, remember, we cannot kill him." Raize reminded. He decided to simply summon walls of gruesome bruised dead bodies.
"I know!!" Ulla replied, seemingly angry for not being allowed to bring upon death to someone so cruel.
"I'll test out something too..." Just when Bright said this, he moved for a punching stance. "I'll break this prison!!" With a full force, a loud sound was produced. But the [Nightmare Prison] remained indented. "Wuuut?!"
"Good try. At least we know he's the only one who can remove this from us." Said Raize.
Despite Ulla's attacks of having plants bite, lick paralyzing fluids and other physical attacks, the queer youth remained energetic as he deflected surge of attacks, each and every time.
"How is this even possible...?" Ulla muttered under her breath.
"Tsk. Any more ideas, Lea?" Raize called, and as he did, Lea simply smiled and replied, "Get ready. I'll pull out the essences forcefully being absorbed by you guys through the tubes."
When Lea said so, Ulla's constant fuel to the vicious plants stopped abruptly. "....Okay." She said reluctantly.
Noticing her tone of voice, Lea gave a wry smile. "You'll get your chance soon. Just wait."
"You keep telling me that. Hmph!" She said with a snort.
"Sorry." Is all Lea said before closing her eyes in concentration once again. Every time she closed her eyes, she could feel and see the flow of essences. She could see how much essences the queer youth have been absorbing and using for his attacks.
She had wondered about the reason of being able to see and feel the essences unless there was another usage for it. And so she was planning to test that new theory out.
Treating essences as an extension of her mind, she hungrily absorbed every essences in her surroundings. With her fast absorption, the essences within Raize, Bright and Ulla were instantly dragged out.
"Urrg... I feel tired and in pain all of the sudden." Bright said softly.
"I hope this would actually work." Added Raize. He glanced at the boy who volunteered and was relieved to see that he was gone.
"I don't know what she is doing, but she sure think up of strange stuffs."
"You are right, Ulla. I wonder if there's an intricate connection between Lea and this world, considering how well-adept she is with essences." Raize said, while studying Ulla's reaction. "Any clues?"
"W-Why are you even asking me that...?"
"Well, I don't know." He said simply with a shrugged.
With that, Ulla was left confused. In her mind, she was wondering what Raize could be meaning to tell her.
"You know, I've been thinking this for a while now. Like, don't you think Lea's gone soft on us?" Bright said all of the sudden, looking dubious.
With a brow raised, Raize stared at Bright, "Why would you say that?"
"Oh. I guess you guys didn't really noticed, but Lea never smiled. Ever. Nobody has even ever made her reply more than three lines unless she was required to by our school."
"You've really been looking at her huh. I wouldn't know, and I wouldn't have known the difference. I've tried avoiding YOU and HER most of the time before after all." Ulla said honestly.
"WHAT? Why would you? I feel heartbroken! '^' " Bright said dramatically.
Raize simply rolled his eyes. "You guys are awfully relaxed even in our current predicament huh."
Bright and Ulla perked up. "Ah... Ha ha... Sorry." Ulla shyly muttered.
"It's fine."
Silence took over their surroundings. The queer youth had been feeling rather drained since the plants were drawn back, and he was confused as to what was causing it. He observed the foursome within his [Nightmare Prison] who were looking rather casual. He was feeling even more confused.
Then he noticed the unusual girl once again, with her eyes closed deep in concentration. He automatically guessed the cause was her. Summoning his daggers, he had planned sending them to stab the girl at her back. However, his summoned daggers appeared unstable. There was not enough of essences available to perform his usual tricks.
With gritted teeth, he released the [Nightmare Prison]. However, it was already too late for him to gather anymore essences. At a faster rate he had ever felt, his stored essences were being pulled almost all at once. Until there was nothing left in his deep well.
And with that, Lea finally opened her eyes with a smile on her rosy lips.
"We won." Is all she said.
"That's cheating." Retorted the queer youth.
"Don't care. You lose."
"Ghgnnn. No I have not!!" As he shouted such a response, he dashed towards Lea, ready for a brawl. Another surprise was in store for him.
"Sore loser." Lea said with her cold tone that could freeze a child from their cries. Then she also charged at the queer youth, leaving her bewildered companions behind her.
With a well-timed jump, Lea performed her registered side kick to the queer youth's head. Unable to guard against Lea's unpredictable jump, the queer youth simply took the full brute of Lea's natural kick power.
A concussion was to be expected.
"With that, my win." Lea announced quietly only for the queer youth to hear, but of course he was already unconscious at that point.
"You know, that scene once again reminded me of the first time I saw Lea fighting thugs...." Bright said with his mouth agape.
"Oh?" Raize uttered amused.
"Holy..." Ulla bemused.
"Yea. It was the most fascinating fight I have ever seen. Better than action movies."
"Action movies... I miss them!" Said Ulla with a pout.
Lea turned around to her companions and started walking towards them calmly and naturally. "What are we gonna do now?"
"Ah, right. We could start running away by now..." Raize suggested.
"Agreed." Replied Lea quietly and dashed ahead before others could react.
"What?! What about him?!!" Ulla exclaimed, pointing at the unconscious queer youth.
"You can give him a few kicks if you want. You've wanted to do so, right?" Lea suggested with an amused smile playing on her lips without halting herself from running.
"Oh right. Let me in with you Ulla. Let's go. Hurry before he wakes up!" Bright said while tugging Ulla by her wrist.
"F-f-fine, so let go!" Caught off guard, Ulla was taken aback. Once she recovered, she ran behind Bright.
"You hit first." And as Bright said so, Ulla backed up a few paces then gave a dash only to jump at the last minute and dropping herself on top of the queer youth's unsuspecting stomach. A loud involuntary groan was heard, but he remained unconscious on the ground.
Watching this, Bright smiled wickedly and landed a heavy punch on both the queer youth's eyes. "By tomorrow, he'll be a wicked panda. Pfft!"
"Ha hahaha!!" Ulla burst out laughing.
"Let's go." With that, the pair ran away as fast as they could, away from the dangerous but currently unconscious crazy youth.
Lea and Raize were already far away, heading north out of the capital Mingzhe Dei. "I suspect we're going for the next capital now?"
"We got no choice." Lea replied to Raize's expectant gaze.
"Thought so." He said before revealing an amused smile. "Hey. I heard something interesting earlier. Were you really a thug?"
Lea turned to look at Raize only to meet his glittering black eyes. "I didn't join a group." All she said, but she could hear Raize chuckle behind her.
"So you were that strong you didn't even have to join anyone's group."
Lea remained silent.
"I guess that's a yes. Hahaha..." He said amused. "I'll remember to rely on you when it comes to battles from now on. Not like I haven't."
Lea still did not say anything, but a moment later, she simply said without looking back, "If I am around, of course."
"Hm Hm." Nodded Raize. "Mind calling your guardian soon? I get tired too fast physically..."
Realizing that fact suddenly, Lea turned to look at a heavy sweating Raize. "You really are queer yourself..." She said with her eyes narrowed.
"I'll take that as a compliment." He said as they both stopped for Lea to summon Hamsphant, and a few seconds later the mighty wings of Hamsphant were beating in the air. "That thing is really useful."
"Hamsphant is not a thing." Lea said simply as she welcomed Hamsphant with a hug and arms ready to ruffle its fur.
Raize shrugged. "I understand."
Behind them, Bright could be seen waving his hand while dragging Ulla who appeared sweaty and slobby. Her face desperate for a shower.