CHAPTER 404: YES, IT PROBABLY IS

"What should I do with them? Maybe just kill them?" asked Esma, turning to Irene.

Irene, Yulaya, Hazel, Ren, and Rachel stood nearby, watching the two representatives of the Awakened Association who were beaten unconscious.

Esma didn’t show any mercy, and if Irene hadn’t intervened in time, she wouldn’t even have thought about letting them go.

"No, don’t kill them. We’ll need them," Irene said, and the others agreed with her decision.

"But you do realize that they came back here to kill you all, right?"

"Yes, I know that," Irene replied. "These outsiders already know everything about us, and we know almost nothing about them."

"So, you want to get the information you need out of them?" muttered Esma, nodding her head.

"Yes, that’s our plan," Irene confirmed.

She turned and looked at the hill where the battle was taking place, and they could still hear the echoes of that battle.

"Since these two are here, then that Guardian of Light is probably there too, — Irene suggested.

"Yes, it probably is," Esma agreed with her guess, also looking at the hill.

Now that a second Diamond-ranked creature had apparently joined the battle, Esma began to worry about Arabel and Idan.

"Even in my current state, I can’t say for sure that I can defeat two Diamond-ranked creatures. And even my confidence in my own strength is based more on knowledge than on my current rank," Esma said, reinforcing Irene’s already worried heart.

"Then why are you here instead of helping them?" Irene had just witnessed Esma’s strength and was confident that if she joined her younger brother and sister-in-law, they would have a better chance of winning.

"I can’t, — Esma shook her head. "Little sister asked me to protect you."

"But even so, I’m safe now, and they need help," Irene objected.

"It’s not that I don’t want to, but that I’m just fulfilling my younger sister’s request," Esma insisted. "Besides, thanks to the contract, little sister has a way to summon me to her side."

"And since she hasn’t summoned me back yet, it means she doesn’t need me yet. If that’s the case, then I will protect you," Esma concluded.

"Um..."

Rachel, the leader of the Titan Guild, one of the first awakened, as well as Irene and the others present, attracted attention. All this time, she and the others stood and silently listened to the conversation between Irene and Esma, without interfering. But as soon as they were done, Rachel decided to ask a question she had recently had.

"Tell me, Irene, who is she?"

Irene looked at Esma and then turned to the others. Yulaya and Hazel already knew who Esma was, but Ren and Rachel were still in the dark. Irene had not wanted to reveal Esma’s identity before, but after what she had demonstrated in front of so many awakened people, it would be foolish to deny everything. Moreover, these two were not just anyone, but her close acquaintances.

"Esma is a resident of Junonia, whom my younger brother and Arslan’s older sister took with them when they returned from there," Irene confessed, greatly surprising Ren and Rachel.

Ren and Rachel stared at Esma in amazement. It wasn’t that Esma was an outsider that struck them, they had already realized this by watching her incredible abilities. They were shocked to learn that she was from Junonia.

"How is this possible?" — Rachel asked, without taking her eyes off Esma.

"I’m sorry, but I can’t say anything without my younger sister’s permission," Esma replied, gently deflecting the question.

Irene, like Esma, was not eager to share the details.

"Did you know about this?" the only guy in their group, Ren, finally spoke up, addressing Hazel and Yulaya.

"Yes, but we only found out about it today on the way here," Yulaya replied to Ren’s question.

"Okay, okay, let’s discuss this later," Hazel chimed in, and then continued:

"Aren’t you worried that Irene’s younger brother and Arslan’s older sister are currently fighting against two Diamond-ranked beings?"

Hazel’s question brought them back to the biggest mystery of all. Everyone immediately turned and looked at the hill where the battle was taking place.

"It’s true! Don’t your younger brother and Arslan’s older sister have just a Golden rank, just like us?" Rachel asked, turning to Irene. "Or, unlike us, do they have a completely different rank?"

"How can they resist Diamond—ranked beings?" Yulaya added her question.

Everyone fell silent. No one said a word.

Esma, who had a lot of answers on her mind, decided to keep quiet this time. She had already said a lot of unnecessary things in a short time, and she didn’t want to make the situation worse. At least until her younger sister is around to tell her what to say and what not to say.

"Screeeee!" A Phoenix’s shrill cry suddenly rang out, attracting everyone’s attention. Esma and the others saw a large black bird appear over the hill.

"What is it?" Hazel exclaimed.

But no one answered her, and everyone was silent, not taking their eyes off the top of the hill. A bright figure appeared there, and then the sky was filled with many bright dots that rained down on the ground. A black bird joined this rain, unleashing its attack.

While everyone was engrossed in the battle at the top of the hill, instead of leaving quickly, a black barrier appeared that covered the hill and everything around it, including Esma and the others.

Everyone except Esma, being System Hosts, immediately received notifications from their Systems.

[Host, the rules of this world have been rewritten. The space was sealed, and all teleportation-related abilities were banned.]

Following the barrier, a strange wave of energy swept over everyone.

A sharp headache and a sharp pain all over his body, like an electric shock, caused all the awakened to fall to their knees.

Even Esma was affected by the strange energy, though not as much as the others.

She quickly came to her senses and immediately noticed that her bond with her younger sister, which she had only recently restored, had been disrupted. She couldn’t contact her or even find out about her condition, which caused her fear.

All the awakened ones, without exception, were in a state of shock. They suddenly lost contact with their systems.

"No way!" — Irene exclaimed, realizing what that meant. Before she could do anything, Esma used her Soul Force to grab her.

"Stop, Irene!" she said. "You can’t change anything."

"But..." Irene wanted to protest, but when she met Esma’s gaze, she fell silent.

Then the earth shook twice, and two clouds of dust rose in the distance. Neither the huge bird nor the bright figure could be seen anymore.

Esma sighed.

"Everyone, get ready for anything!" she said, and at that moment, when she was about to rush to the top of the hill, a strange anomaly caught her attention.

"What the..." Esma began to look around, trying to figure out what was bothering her so much.

Suddenly, she noticed how the temperature on her left began to rise rapidly, while on her right it was rapidly falling.

And then Esma saw how all the vegetation on her left was withering and burning, and on her right it was covered with ice. At the same time, the sky above the right side begins to darken and plunge into darkness, while on the left, on the contrary, dawn is breaking.

"This... this... can’t be..." Esma was shocked by what she witnessed. She was ready to swear that she had never in her life thought that she would witness such an event, and not in her own world, but in a completely different one.