Northern was incredibly pissed at himself.
To think that he was slightly, just slightly, beginning to think otherwise of Raven.
But now he felt like it was just her manipulative ways of making him relaxed.
A tense silence hung in between the two of them for a moment.
They were still in the dry wood, standing opposite each other, Northern glaring and Raven smiling coldly.
“Cut to the chase, will you?”
Raven lingered for a few moments before she started:
“Ellis Ruthsworn has a wonderful ability. I kept him out of all parties because of it. That guy is a gem that will be a crucial part of the army of the end.”
Northern’s grimace only turned darker with every word that came out of her mouth.
He tilted his head a little bit, “What? Army of the End, what the hell is that?”
Raven looked up and smiled, “It’s the Army I am creating, the one that will fight the rest of the rift, fight Sloria, and return Stelia to its former glory.”
Northern’s face grew pale with irritation.
‘It’s all these nonsense hero crap again!’
Only that now, she seemed twisted. ƒrēewebnovel.com
Raven suddenly clenched her neck, coughing and leaning on her knees. She coughed painfully a couple more times, such that Northern became a little bit worried.
Then with a hoarse voice, she said hurriedly,
“Terence, I think I am under attack.”
Northern also heard it clearly.
He looked at Terence, who stood shocked, her eyes widened.
She looked up and narrowed her eyes, then looked at Northern, then said with a trembling voice,
“Mr. Northern, this is bad… this is really, really bad.”
‘Eh? Do these guys think I’m a kindergartner? She’s going to trick me all over again?!’
Raven stood upright and steadily breathed, then she looked seriously at Northern.
As Northern stared back, he could now notice a deep and eerie emptiness in her crimson eyes.
Before, her eyes were cold but full of purpose and confidence.
Now, they were almost looking lifeless.
As much as he didn’t want to admit it, his instincts told him…
The delusional hero was currently under a mind attack.
‘But what sort of crazy mind attack is this? What purpose did it serve to achieve?’
If there’s anything he knows and is sure of, it’s that everything Raven had spat was incredibly true.
And indeed she was driving to a point.
Raven smiled and continued like a robot.
“With Ellis’ ability to see the ranks of monsters, we will most likely have an easier battle. We will have enough insight to plan and prepare fully for the battle. Yes, that was why I kept Ellis from the eyes of anyone and didn’t tell him, even after discovering what his abilities were.”
She lingered, then looked at Northern fiercely, her eyes were becoming dangerous but that smile still stayed plastered to her face.
“But you, there’s something special about you… if you are able to use Ellis’ ability… after only meeting Ellis. You also spoke of Ellis being a true gem in the meeting…”
Raven suddenly frowned and grabbed her own neck, clenching it tightly.
Her palms began to emit white light, one that burned viciously into her neck, causing vapor to seep out.
Terence, seeing Raven’s desperate attempt to burn her own throat, suddenly dashed forward and grabbed Raven’s hand. She tried to pull it away, but the hand didn’t budge a bit.
She strained and struggled with it, but nothing was happening, except the rising pitch of her strained groaning and the hissing sound of light burning Raven’s skin and slowly searing further.
“A little help here! Would you like this crazy girl to burn her own throat!!”
She shouted back at Northern.
Northern stood dazed for a moment.
‘Amazing! Damn, she’s amazing!’
He could relate to how mind attacks work because he had been a victim of one himself, although he didn’t know Koll’s danger level, but he was sure it wasn’t Apex.
He was very sure.
So Koll’s mind attack on him was probably inferior to this one. It took time to happen, and he slowly sank into it without realizing.
But this one seemed to have kicked in immediately when Raven started looking up into the trees.
Which meant she was totally weak against mind attacks, unlike him, who now had a resistance to it, not just his gloves because they weren’t even on at this moment.
However, what amazed Northern was the way Raven was able to jolt herself to reality to make them both know that she was under a mind attack, Terence in particular.
And now, her body was completely moving on its own, frighteningly resolved to burn her throat if it meant she stopped talking.
She was a crazy being! Very crazy!
‘But I can’t let her burn her throat, I, after all, have to hear all of that to the very end!’
Those were probably her secrets, something she didn’t tell anyone, and something that had a lot of things to do with Northern.
That would most likely mean that the mind attack forced one to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets in relation to a person?
Northern was not sure.
But regardless, he had to help.
He shot forward in a flash and stopped abruptly in front of Raven, exhibiting her perfect and envious control of halting that made even Raven’s eyes widen for a bit.
“Leave her!”
He shouted immediately, and Terence responded, jumping away as quick as she could.
Then Northern powerfully clenched his fist and exhaled steamy breath from his mouth.
Tssss…
“This is for tricking me.”
He launched a blow directly into her belly, causing her to fold like a piece of paper, cough out spit, and instinctively remove her hand to hold her pained stomach as she flew away.
But Raven quickly converted the whole momentum to roll in the air and land on her feet, staggering back a little and falling to one knee.
She clenched her teeth.
No doubt about it, that punch hurt.
A part of her lips curled up, then she hurriedly stood up.
Northern readied himself for another punch as she did.
However, instead of running towards him, Raven turned around and threw her head over her shoulder.
“I’ll be leaving first.”
Then she dashed away, disappearing into the invisible embrace of the wind.
Northern was struck dumbfounded.
“Eh?”
Terence smiled awkwardly.
“Ah ah, looks like she ran away… but that means your punch actually managed to knock her back to her senses! Yay!!”