Kyran opened his eyes and tilted his head above. He already felt the girl woke up even before he did. Seeing how still she was, Kyran guessed she might be listening for any movements around her.
‘Did she think I’ll leave before she wake?’ He wondered.
He could not blame her, though. After what her uncle had done, he understood her worries.
Kyran did not dwell on it and just said, “We’ll leave in five minutes. I’ll put out the fire.”
He stood up and went over to the fire that had gotten small due to the reduced wood. After examining the woods, Kyran determined that he had rested at least three hours.
“Okay,” the girl replied with a short nod.
The two of them tidied up and left without much suspense.
Kyran planned to warp them out of the Valley of Morte once they reached the cave’s entrance. He did not want to waste any more time in the valley by walking.
Although warping at the mutated Basilisk’s cave was risky at this hour because it might have returned to its cave by now, Kyran was not planning on fighting it head-on. After he warped there, he could warp out immediately.
He just hoped they would not appear right after the Basilisk entered the cave. That would be a pain.
However, when he thought about the mutated Basilisk being full, maybe it would ignore them.
From what Kyran knew of a regular Basilisk’s eating habits, it would take up to a week before it could fully digest its food and would stay in its cave until it was ready to hunt again. However, that might not be the case with the mutated one. If it was, he was very unfortunate to have met it during its hunting day.
When they were halfway near the cave’s entrance, the girl who had been holding on to Kyran’s coat suddenly stopped.
‘Hm?’ He stopped as well after feeling the girl tugging on his coat.
He turned and saw her crunched brows.
“There are so many lights ahead,’ she said, looking a little frightened.
‘Lights?’ Kyran frowned.
He had some speculations that this girl might be blind but could see something different ever since she saw the array. But these exceeded his expectation.
What did she mean about ‘lights’?
Kyran did not question her at once, and instead, he activated the Regis Body Tempering Technique and looked ahead.
He did not see any ‘lights’, but he did sense quite a number of forest beasts gathered at the cave’s entrance.
‘This…’ Kyran was surprised.
He did not expect the girl behind her to have such potent ‘seeing’ ability. She did not even need to use any technique to enhance her ability and yet could already see something far ahead.
This discovery made him remember how she entered the pool of water earlier without hesitation.
Could it be she did not see any danger; thus, she did not ask for his help?
But what about him? Why did she not react when he appeared before her?
Kyran remembered that the first time she reacted as if seeing something was when he summoned a defensive array. Then he recalled how she mentioned seeing ‘lights.’
Before Kyran could come up with a conclusion, the girl tugged on his coat once again.
“T-The lights are m-moving,” she said. Her voice had started to stutter, showing her apprehension.
After hearing her words, Kyran strained his ears. Using the Regis Body Tempering Technique would enhance his eyesight to a degree where he could see at a distance and see a person’s death aura. But he could not see through things. So, instead, he opted to use his ears to hear for movements.
Just as the girl had said, there were movements and soft hiss up ahead.
Kyran could not help but smile. He thought he could not use the girl but to think she had such a potent ability. If he properly trained her, she might become a good asset. As for her disability, her ability could easily compensate for it.
“T-Those lights… they d-don’t sound nice,” the girl stuttered behind him again.
Without looking at her, Kyran reached for her hand in his.
The girl stiffened at first when his hand took hers, but his warmth somehow assured her and immediately, she calmed down.
“Don’t mind those. I have a way to go around them.”
“Have a way-?”
Before she could finish what she was saying, Kyran gently pulled her close to him as purple rings appeared beneath his feet.
He was confident that once he neared the cave, those mutated forest beasts would sense his coming and leave to avoid him, but he did not want this girl to witness this. He did not want others to know that beasts deliberately avoided him.
The girl tensed when the man suddenly held her. It was also the first time she had been this close to him. The closeness gave her an idea of his built.
Before she could fully grasp all this information, however, she felt herself falling.
She gasped in fright, and without thinking much about it, she tightly wrapped her arms around the man’s waist.
Then she felt as if her insides churned as if she was thrown upside down. This feeling was followed by a nauseating feeling she had never experienced before.
At the location where Kyran created the Cloaking Array, a purple disc appeared in midair, and both Kyran and the girl descended from within.
The girl immediately fell on her knees and almost vomited the food she ate. At the same time, Kyran looked at her in amusement.
The girl’s reaction was similar to Byron’s, and it made him wonder if warping really was such a bad experience.
“Are you okay-.”
Kyran did not finish his sentence because he felt a sudden danger behind him.
At the same time, the girl jolted and shouted, “Watch out!”
Even without the girl’s warning, Kyran had already moved. He immediately activated five layers of Void Scales around them.
At the same time…
HISS!
The mutated Basilisk, who at that moment had just entered the cave, hissed, its golden eyes flashed, and a shockwave spread and hit Kyran and the girl.
The mutated Basilisk’s attack immediately shattered the first two layers of the Void Scales.
‘Damn it. This timing seriously!’ Kyran cursed and turned around to face the mutated Basilisk.
As soon as he turned, the mutated Basilisk already swept its long, scaled tail towards Kyran and the girl.
There was a sizzling sound when the Basilisk’s tail collided with the Void Scales. However, the Basilisk only hissed and forced the two of them flying.
Kyran gritted his teeth and grabbed the girl protecting her before they slammed on the cave’s wall.
HISS!
The mutated Basilisk hissed angrily at Kyran and pounced as soon as they hit the ground, not giving them time to recover.
Kyran’s eyes turned reddish-purple. While his right arms still protectively holding the girl in his arms, he used his other arm and reached out toward the incoming Basilisk’s opened mouth.
Purple rings appeared on his palm and formed into a disc with a twenty-inch diameter. Its depth immediately stretched forward, aiming at the Basilisk’s opened mouth.
Kyran had a choice to use a shield and deflect the Basilisk, but he knew that it would only attack again, so instead, he chose to attack.
However, a dark green ball slowly formed inside the mutated Basilisk’s mouth and shot out to intercept Kyran’s attack.
‘What in the-!’ Kyran’s eyes widened as he saw his attack start to melt from the mutated Basilis’s attack.
It was the first time he saw his pure magic melting as if it was made of a solid material.
Because of his shock, Kyran’s reaction lagged for a second, and the mutated Basilisk’s attack overpowered his.
Kyran lifted his other hand and was about to summon his magic again when suddenly, the girl who had been silent lifted her head and turned.
She looked at the mutated Basilisk and a sound so soft and mellow yet clear and loud escaped her lips.
The mutated Basilisk’s eyes glazed over, and its attack weakened.
Kyran was stunned for a second as he stared at the girl in front of him. His eyes reflected an emotion of shock and amazement.
HISS!
Kyran did not even have the time to fully digest what had happened when he heard another hiss coming from inside the cave.
He immediately turned his attention to his left and saw another mutated Basilisk slithered out.
‘Two!’
It was then that Kyran realized how naive he had been. Why did he think there was only one mutated Basilisk?
Kyran’s eyes widened as this mutated Basilisk’s golden eyes flashed.
Time seemed to have stopped.
Kyran’s brain had gone to overdrive as different scenarios, and possible strategies flashed through his mind.
Then he suddenly moved and shifted into a kneeling position. His outstretched right arm moved toward the incoming Basilisk while his reddish-purple eyes glowed, turning into a deeper shade of purple.
Two huge fissures appeared in front of the first mutated Basilisk and the second, respectively. An invisible force attracted the two mutate Basilisks toward the fissure.
Previously, when Kyran used the fissure, it passively awaited to absorb an attack. This time, it actively drew the two mutated Basilisk closer and sucked them in.
HISS!
The first mutated Basilisk broke free from its stunned state and immediately struggled to slither away from the fissure’s suction. The second mutated Basilisk did the same.
However, the force of the suction grew fierce as the two mutated Basilisk slowly entered the two huge fissures.
Kyran’s eyes glowed fiercer to the point where blood streamed down. He gritted his teeth and endured the pain that came with the two mutated Basislisks suction. Veins appeared on his arms and temples. The skin on his arms and legs tore open as blood seeped out.
The girl who had stayed quiet after ‘looking’ at the first Basilisk looked at her surroundings in fright. She saw multiple colored lights mingling around her fiercely, and she heard a mournful cry from two of the larger lights.
These two lights were slowly being ‘eaten’ by a huge purple light, and the girl closed her eyes and covered her ears, trying to block out the devastating scene and noise around her.
“Guh.”
Kyran coughed out a mouthful of blood as he felt something inside him crack as he struggled to maintain the fissures.
Hearing the man’s pain, the girl lowered her hand and opened her eyes. She turned behind her and saw a vast expanse of nothingness before her.
Within this nothingness, she saw five orbs. Four of these orbs surrounded a bigger orb which was currently being glowing intensely. Inside the orb, four distinct colors, purple, green, silver and gold, mingled with the purple one dominating the other two while the silver supported the purple one.
A faint green and gold color started to form inside one of the clear orbs.
“Guh!”
The man coughed once again, and the girl felt his pain.
Her eyes shone as she reached out in front of her, and she opened her lips.
Kyran, who had been gritting his teeth and enduring the pain as the two mutated Basilisk slowly entered the fissures, suddenly felt the girl touch his face.
A clear melancholic sound escaped her lips, and Kyran felt his whole body tremble.
He stared at the girl’s glowing white eyes as she sang. Her voice which was not loud sounded ethereal and echoed throughout the cave.