After Ember wore her clothes, the same design as Fang’s, we followed Fatima down one of the rocky tunnels leading out of the waterfalls area.
I was a few steps behind her while Fang was clinging to my right arm, acting protectively. Ember was following behind absentmindedly. She hadn’t spoken yet even after waking up despite countless attempts.
“Ember was it? Right now, she’s in a blurry state of mind. Imagine it like she’s thinking she’s inside a dream. Although I twisted her fate and erased the dangers, it would still take her a while to fully regain her bearings.”
Fatima explained Ember’s current situation to us. Since time is the only thing we need for her to heal, we decided to just wait for her recovery.
“Where are we going?”
After following her through the convoluted paths of the cave for a few hours, I couldn’t help but ask.
“Where? Somewhere wide, I guess?”
Fatima answered half-assedly. She probably felt my piercing gaze on her back so she further added.
“It’s not like I made names for each location here. All I can say is that we are heading to the largest and sturdiest open space in this underground area.”
“What for? I thought we would work together to kill the Void Beast?”
I asked in confusion.
“Yeah, but do you think you can even help with your current standards of strength?”
When Fatima waved her hand, numerous blades of ice appeared out of thin air and targeted each of us. She just displayed that she could simply end us in an instant. If she needed support against the Void Beast, then it should be even much stronger than her. We probably used a lifetime’s worth of luck to survive its chase.
“Okay, we got it. Please put these away.”
Ember was still absentmindedly following along, but Fang returned to growling in anger against Fatima. I petted her fluffy purplish-black head to soothe her a bit. Her perky ears bent down like a dog enjoying a nice pat.
When her vigilance finally fell to normal levels, I let go of her head. Although I could hear her sad groan, I steeled my head and kept my sight forward.
“… You guys are pretty close with each other it seems… How envious…”
Fatima muttered with a sad tone. Rather than envy though, I felt that her emotion was more of yearning than envy. After realizing that, a question appeared in my head.
“You had hundreds of tamed beasts, where are they now?”
Fatima kept walking ahead, silent for a while. After she let out a long sigh, she began her story.
It all started when the Void Beast appeared.
The Void Beast was so powerful that in just a short while, a few islands were erased from the map completely.
The God tamers back then joined hands and fought fiercely, only to find that they couldn’t even deal any damage to the beast.
“Then, we realized that only Void element can cause permanent damage to it.”
However, most of the Void elements were of support abilities, they knew not a skill that was offensive in nature. A few of the God tamers who had Void element monsters in their employ tried to devise a skill to destroy the Void Beast. However, they all failed.
“First of all, the Void Element isn’t compatible with attacking. No matter how we tried, we can’t load an attack with Void element.”
In the end, they combined Space and Void elements and sealed the Void Beast in the gaps of space. However, no matter how powerful the God Tamers were, the Void Beast was stronger than them. Given enough time, it should be able to crack the seal open and wreak havoc once more.
“To prevent that, I volunteered to be sealed inside together with it, stopping it from approaching the core of the seal. All my tamed beasts and monsters were left behind, helping to manage the seal from the outside.”
Hearing that, it finally dawned upon me. Since her tamed beasts and monsters were needed to manage the seal, then they should be no more…
“No, that’s not accurate.”
However, it seems that I was mistaken about one thing.
“All of them are still alive. Though they are all inside a similar space to here, a sealed space where time doesn’t exist. For safety, they scattered to 13 sealed spaces equally.”
In a place where time doesn’t exist, they would be able to stay in their current state for as long as they want.
“Then, if you manage to kill the Void Beast, you can still have a reunion with your tamed monsters?”
To my question, Fatima only smiled and didn’t answer.
“We’re here.”
She suddenly announced as we approach a bright area.
The space was large. It was wide enough to fit a whole city with space to spare. The ceiling was arched like a dome, reaching about a hundred meters at the highest point.
However, the terrain wasn’t as smooth as I hoped. Large protrusions here and there, random puddles, random holes, even pointed crystal structures. If we were to run around the place, we’ll be full of holes in no time.
“Now, what we’re going to do is training. I’ll train the three of you as much as possible. For Ember, I’m teaching you how to use your space and void energies. Fang, I’ll teach you a skill from your ancient ancestors. And for you, Will, I would teach you my fighting techniques!”
As soon as she finished speaking, her body suddenly blurred. An instant later, three Fatima were standing in front of us. ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
“You know [Shadow Clone] right, Fang? If you master it, then your tamer can use it like this too.”
Just like that, each of us went with one Fatima to a place far from the others. The Fatima leading me stopped when we reached a wide lake-like construct.
“We’ll train you here. As I said, you’ll be training to be able to use my techniques. What do you think my battle style is?”
Fatima placed one hand on her hips as she waited for my answer. I thought for a moment before blurting “Sniper” which seemed obvious.
“Close, but no. I use Gun Arts!”
Fatima drew her sniper rifle and as soon as she held it in her hands, with a flash of light and a few arcs of electricity, it split into two SMGs one on each hand. The scene left me with my mouth open wide.