CHAPTER 83: COMPANIONS

The guttural and harrowing voice of Malamare fell on the island like a blade.

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and turned towards the star beast who had called to his children... to them.

The defenders dropped their weapons, healers stopped their treatments, wounded forced themselves to move, and the unawakeneds stopped their tears as they moved towards their parent... their father. Only a single thought stayed in their mind.

’Fa..t.her’

The sound repeated itself again and again, making sure to tell its children to come fast, to come home.

Neo walked through the crowd of now hexed islanders. He had a dark expression as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

He pushed a nearby island and stared at him as the islander stood back and continued moving towards the southern end.

"What’s going on?" Neo muttered in a grave tone.

Hanna, who was healing an injured islander, suddenly stopped as her bracelet started to glow white.

’A mind attack?’

Hanna’s expression turned dark when she saw the bracelet glowing. The bracelet was given to her by Anna, who had asked Damien to find an artefact which could strengthen Hanna’s mind barrier, which was very weak because of the trauma she had faced right after her awakening.

The injured islander suddenly began to move; its eyes had lost their sheen, suggesting the state the islander was in.

"S-stop moving," Hanna said with a slightly confused look.

The injured islander didn’t listen and began to crawl his way out.

Hanna had a perplexed look on her face, seeing that.

Hanna walked out of the tent and stood speechless as she saw all of the islanders making their way towards the southern end.

"... What?"

Anna jumped off the boulder as she made her way towards the settlement.

"Neo and Hanna should be fine from the mind hex, Neo because of his unusually strong mind barrier and Hanna because of the artefact I gave her..." She mumbled as she tried to read the golden threads, but the result was the same.

Anna heaved a sigh and looked at her clothing, which was covered in dark green blood of the merkins she had slaughtered.

"Should I stop the islanders from reaching the southern end?" She contemplated, knowing that no one, including Michael, could kill a Pseudo adept-ranked star beast.

She could try to delay the star beast from harvesting the souls, but the real issue was that the star beast would attack her the moment she was found out.

"I should meet Hanna and Neo first..."

Anna quickened her steps.

Neo stood at the end of the settlement, looking at the islanders walking to their deaths.

"There you are." A voice called out to him.

Neo turned towards the voice and replied in a low voice.

"Hanna..."

Hanna stepped forward and stood beside him as she questioned.

"So... what should we do?"

Her eyes glowed bright green as she began healing him.

"I suppose we should wait for Miss Anieal," Neo answered, his eyes still on the moving islanders.

"They are very coordinated for someone under a hex, don’t you think?" Hanna questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"It doesn’t want them to trample each other to death," Neo answered.

"Neo, Hanna," A reassured voice called out to them.

Neo and Hanna turned around to look at Anna.

"Ann- w-what?!" Hanna was about to greet her, but stopped after seeing her covered in dark green blood.

"Hmm?" Anna tilted her head in confusion.

Neo looked at Anna with a frown as he questioned.

"What did you do, Miss Anieal?"

Anna frowned at his question and asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"What’s wrong?"

"You are covered in blood," Hanna said worriedly.

"And?" Anna simply shrugged at her worries. Why should she care about a little blood when she jumped on top of a gloomjelly? They should stop being dramatic.

Hanna looked at her with a lost look as she mumbled while nodding.

"Of course... It ain’t that big of a deal... just some blood."

She walked beside Anna and began healing her.

"What do you think we should do, Miss Anieal?" Neo questioned as he shifted his gaze at the islanders.

Anna also looked at them with an expressionless face as she spoke.

"Hanna can try delaying them from reaching the southern shore using her veins... and we should find Sir Michael."

Neo and Hanna nodded at her.

’I hope you aren’t dead already...’

Michael lay on the rocky ground as he clutched his head, trying to fight the voice calling to him.

The trio was far from the origin of the voice; thus, their mental barrier was enough to keep them from falling into the hex. Michael, on the other hand, was flying right in front of the malamare.

He gritted his teeth and scraped the ground as he tried to make the voice leave his head.

A few steps away from him, Anzu lay covered in wounds, blue blood flowing out of them.

His breathing was shallow, but his eyes were still sharp; the master of the sky may have been defeated by that hateful squid, but he was going to let that wretch know its place.

He let out a loud shriek, which cleared Michael’s head.

Michael breathed heavily as his vision cleared.

"Huff... Huff... Anzu..." Michael called out to his friend as tears fell down his face.

Anzu looked at Michael with soft eyes... like he was telling him that everything would be fine.

But, Michael knew that Anzu was wounded too deeply... he had to be. After all, he had thrown himself at the malamare to save Michael from falling into its hex.

Michael dragged himself towards Anzu as he mumbled.

"I-It will be fine, Anzu... we will survive..."

He tried to reassure him, but deep down, both of them knew that it was nigh impossible.

Both companions stared at each other, tears welled up in their eyes as they reminisced about the days they had spent together.

"Grr..."

—

Artefacts refer to runic devices of the past era which can no longer be created.

Runic devices are the ones of the present.