Chapter 148
In the end, after some thinking, she decided not to worry him. She was not sure whether that thing was real or just a fragment of her imagination experienced while being pulled out of a mystical environment.
Perhaps her mind deluded itself into imagining that thing and relating it to the force pulling her will out of Oliver’s espera.
But she seriously doubted that. She had experienced that energy so closely it could not be fake or imaginary. The memory of its malevolent presence lingered, too vivid to dismiss.
She had felt her espera being devoured raw easily. The strong sense of corruption and disgust, that primal ominousness, was too horrific to be imagination.
She had seen demons before when her clan’s exorcists would hunt or sometimes seal them and bring them back to study.
They reeked of dread and danger, but even compared to that, that black energy was terribly malevolent and unsettling; it gave off a feeling of death.
It was a darkness that seemed to swallow light itself, far more menacing than any demon.
She wondered what could be darker than a literal demon… and that too inside him, a human being.
She thought about what to do. Should she consult her mother?
Her mother had a friend who was a highly skilled exorcist, just like her, someone with a light element. She was far more knowledgeable about such matters than Evelyn was.
She should consult her mother and ask for advice. Perhaps they could tell the difference, whether it was her imagination or real.
If Oliver was really unaware of such a thing inside his body, this was a serious issue. He might be in danger.
That energy, no, that thing, could very well be a threat to his life.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a sense of urgency gripped her heart as she realized the potential danger Oliver was in. Her resolve hardened, knowing she had to act quickly and decisively.
She had to prevent that scenario from ever arising. Despite being friends for only a few months, they had developed a strong bond. Their shared experiences had forged a connection she couldn’t ignore.
They were her very first friends; she could not let such an impending danger loom over him and threaten his life in the future.
She had made up her mind to consult about it later or find a clue regarding that.
“Oliver, I know this may sound stupid or even weird… but please listen. Right now, I cannot tell you about this; I have to be sure about it myself first. But…” she paused before continuing, “…if you ever feel something odd happening within you, something dark or ominous, I want you to contact me first no matter what.”
Her eyes bore into his, filled with earnestness and worry.
She spoke in a deadly serious tone, her voice did not carry even the slightest sense of childishness that should have been there.
‘…Ah, it’s the classic protagonist dialogue. Not sure about it but still willing to put everything into helping their friends. Cannot tell the victim about it, cannot discuss the future, cannot warn the victim. Just trust the protagonist.’
Oliver’s lips curled up slightly; he found it amusing and quite interesting that Evelyn was willing to help him with a problem that did not even exist.
He admired her determination, even if it was based on a misunderstanding.
Yet he had no intention of stopping her from doing this. By the time she even got a clue about it, he would have already made sufficient preparations.
“Now that it’s over, how about we come up with a suitable attack for our elements together?”
“Haah… you are right, let’s not divert from the main topic of this whole thing.” She sighed deeply, her shoulders relaxing as she let go of the intense emotions from earlier.
Evelyn could not help but sigh; the past few moments had been quite intense for her, and her mind felt exhausted.
“Hmm… I have some ideas about possible combinations. You can listen to them and decide if we should go with them or make up something new,” he suggested, to which she nodded her head.
His eyes lit up with excitement as he began to explain his thoughts.
Anyways, she was too tired to think much; it was better to let him decide, and she would see if they could be implemented by her or not.
Oliver had no intention of winning the challenge set by Sigfor; he was just going with the flow.
If he and Evelyn happened to win, then it would be unintentional on his part.
The main thing to be learned from all this was team coordination and synergy improvement, after all.
And for him, he had successfully managed to bond with Evelyn as well, which had been his main goal since the start.
As for the elemental combinations, it was not too hard.
He, someone with modern knowledge about light and water properties, along with the creativity from various fantasy books he used to read, could easily come up with a few combinations and techniques of his own.
What was light basically?
‘Theoretically speaking, light is essentially composed of discrete packets of energy called photons,’ he pondered.
His mind raced through various possibilities, each more exciting than the last.
‘And photons have energy, and therefore, light also has energy. Since light consists of not one but many photons, light beams could be said to be filled with energy.’
‘Water also has a lot of energy in various forms too. Kinetic, potential… and so on.’
‘It’s not an imagination to create something destructive if they combine their elements together.’
People of this world often associated the water element with defense and rarely with offense.
So was the case with the light element in the initial stages.
It was just that the element is so rare and important to humanity that people revere it.
But if utilized properly, even the water element could unleash a destructive force, in the initial stages at that.
“How about this…”
He looked at her and narrated the idea he had on his mind. Evelyn’s eyes narrowed the more she heard about the idea.
Her expression shifted from curiosity to excitement as she grasped the potential of his plan.
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“Hmm…”
The next day, Sigfor was once again observing the children carefully. However, he noticed that the white-haired kid and the golden-haired girl were no longer practicing with talismans anymore.
‘Have they finally achieved synergy?’ he wondered.
He leaned forward slightly, his interest piqued.
If that was the case, then he had to say that he was quite impressed by their talents and coordination skills.
Water and light were two very sensitive elements, not to mention the light element was inherently dominant over other elements due to its nature as a hybrid element.
Maintaining or forming a balance with two such sensitive elements was incomparably hard for someone their age.
He was not expecting them to achieve it so fast and quickly.
They had immense talent. To achieve such a feat at this age was too impressive. He had seen countless individuals, and among them, hardly a few could have done this at such a young age.
He looked around; they were not the first ones to achieve synergy among themselves.
His gaze turned towards another table where Amber and Alphonso were engrossed in a sheet of paper, both scribbling down something.
She had ultimately forced Alphonso to follow her advice and give him hints. Of course, he had tried to stubbornly refuse, but she was so frustrated that she directly yelled all the hints and methods out in his ears.
Her voice had echoed in the room, leaving Alphonso stunned and speechless.
He could only look at her dumbfounded with disbelief at how crudely she had told him about it.
He was so shocked that he was not able to utter a single word at that time.
But somehow they had managed to sort it out with each other later and had been working on a possible combination since then, planning extensively.
“Elder Sigfor…”
A voice called out to him. He looked at the source of the voice, and it was the young girl called Evelyn.
Behind her was Oliver, who had a poker face while looking at him.
His expression was unreadable, but his eyes gleamed with anticipation.
“What is it?”
“Well, the thing is… we wanted to practice our element combination and if we do that here…” she turned around and looked at others, busy with concentration.
Her voice trailed off, concern for her fellow mates in case they created another massive explosion affecting their concentration.
“Hmm? You already thought of something?” he asked in a surprised tone. It had not even been a day since she and Oliver managed to achieve synergy with their espera.
And they had already managed to think of a possible combination?
He was quite amused and interested.
He wondered what he should say.