After a few seconds of standing, the vague figure finally took a step forward. Strangely, Emrys found himself holding a katana which he couldn't remember holding prior to sighting the vague figure.
The katana felt tied to his grip, he couldn't let go of it if he wanted to.
After taking a few steps, the large vague figure disappeared and instantaneously appeared before him, swinging the rod-like weapon directly at his face, following a sudden blackout and a long painful, strenuous feeling in his throat.
The dark mysterious world, the katana in his hold, and the large vague figure had left his senses. The only thing he felt was the subtle pain in his throat and his heavy breath.
'Who am I?'. This question flashed before Emrys' mind as he found the answer in a split second, 'I'm Emrys Arlorias and this is my body.' He reaffirmed his consciousness.
'Where am I?'. Information was like drops of water.
'Dionysus' Hall, we need to... Wait, why were we leaving the hall again?'. There was a sudden spike in information followed by a downfall.
'Where am I? Why is it so dark? I can't even see any hint of light. A dark room? Am I in a room? Where are the others? Aeron, Hector, Corsair... Luna. The other girls and the youngsters, where are they?! Have they all gone?
'A door, a door must be nearby. I need to catch up with them. Why would they leave me alone?!' The pain in his throat intensified as he thought to himself.
'Why can't I move fast and why do I feel weak? This feeling, I'm on the floor. I can't even move my limbs. Damn it!'
After a few minutes of struggle, Emrys managed to move his arms. Since he couldn't use his legs yet, he used his arms to push himself on the floor and so he started crawling.
For direction, he relied solely on his instincts.
Slowly but progressively, with fingers gripping the ground with every push, Emrys kept crawling in the darkness longer than he could calculate.
The blue hue from the morning ambience shone on Luna's eyelids, waking her up. She and the rest slept in the barn in Gaia's Hall with their thick clothing to combat the cold.
Sitting up, she rubbed her sleepy eyes and glanced through her environment. Aeron, Hector, and Corsair were still asleep on the cozy hay.
She let out a loud gasp when she saw that Emrys was no longer where he was supposed to be. An unpleasant feeling struck her guts. Adrenaline rushing through her veins, she quickly got up and ran outside the barn.
Her eyes followed the hay trail on the grassy land right before her as she covered her mouth in despair and shone her eyes on seeing the source.
"Emrys!" She ran at her highest speed, letting out frost breath with every step.
For roughly 4 hours, Emrys had crawled past the tree they roasted meat under and was so close to Gaia's gate.
While getting close to him, Luna saw that he was still crawling at snail's speed.
On reaching him, she slid in front of him and immediately put his head on her lap. Her breath, fast and heavy with her mouth opened for better breathing.
"It's Luna, don't worry, I'm here, we're all here." Her voice carried a shaky tone and her eyes became watery.
"Luna... thank goodness." Emrys spoke weakly and slowly through the bandages covering his mouth.
He spoke! Goosebumps spread across her skin as tears filled her eyes.
"Luna, Everywhere's... dark... Please... turn on... the lights." Emrys struggled with his frail voice and low tone.
On hearing this, Luna lifted up the bandage covering his eyes to check if his eyes had regenerated but sadly not.
"Luna... the lights... I can't see..." After saying this, he fell asleep. Luna knew this because she felt the sudden ease of his muscles.
"Don't tell me... You crawled all through the night?" She traced the hay trails with her white watery eyes from where they were to the barn.
Realizing how straining it could have been in addition to his health, Luna slowly looked at Emrys. She held him tightly to her chest and started sobbing loudly with tears running down her eyes vigorously.
The sounds of Luna's sobbing inevitably woke the others up. Aeron, Hector, and Corsair got up with impulse and ran outside towards where Luna was.
"What happened?" Aeron asked, exhaling frost while slowing down. Luna couldn't respond, she was overwhelmed with emotions.
After a few petting and cushioning, they were finally able to stop Luna's sobbing, who eventually fell asleep. They stayed under the tree near their dorm.
"It appears his brain has fully healed." Aeron said as he put a pillow under Luna's head.
"Despite his condition, he still crawled that far." Hector said as his furrowed brows trembled.
'He had little to no information on reality. That feeling, just by imagining it is…" Aeron soliloquized, looking down.
"So what happens now?" Corsair asked in a genuinely curious way.
"It seems we'd be spending one more day here. Luna is in no condition to embark on a long journey and Emrys' healing appears faster than expected. Let's wait to see if he'll wake up again before tomorrow." Aeron said while looking at the morning sun hanging in the distance.
"Sounds rational, but what if this hall gets raided tonight? Not that I'm praying for that to happen, but a consideration." Corsair added, looking at Aeron.
"That's… true." His brows raised in realization. "With that, I suggest we leave this night by 10 on the dot. Are we all… good with this?" Aeron asked.
Since there was no response, everyone was on the same page.
Ten seconds after the brief silence, Melanie approached them while panting heavily.
She stopped and rested on her knees to get a hold of her breath. "I found a wooden carriage in the barn," she said.
On hearing this, the three guys got up and ran to the barn immediately to check it out.
Their eyes lit up in relief as they saw the wooden carriage. It had a wide space with protected edges which rested on two large wheels. It also had two long handles for pulling or pushing. It was covered by hay and so they didn't notice it earlier.
"With this, we could move Emrys faster and easier." Corsair said.
After bringing it out and inspecting it, ensuring it was safe for the supposed use, they washed it and left it outside in the open to dry.
Time ticked off and the sun began to set along with the appearance of the cold and dense air. Evening had arrived and it was time for them to leave Gaia's Hall.
The girls got the youngsters ready while the guys put their belongings along with the bag of the swords and Emrys in the wooden carriage.
With all preparations complete, they commenced their journey. After exiting Gaia's gate, they went round it to the other side to head North.
The guys who were behind, took turns pulling the wooden carriage every 5 minutes. The girls who were in front with Luna as the head, ensured that none of the kids went astray.
After a mile of a long cold journey in the night through the partially sandy plain, they got to the boarding school's library. To the North of Gaia's Hall was the boarding school's private library. The library was a medium-sized building that had a curved top and round body with no sharp edges.
The body of the building was mostly tinted glass. It had the school's logo at the top of the building close to the roof.
On getting there, they stopped just beside it to rest for 30 minutes.
"Let's continue." With Aeron's call, they continued on their long cold journey to Athena's Hall. The blue hue of the early morning was already becoming visible.
While they were moving, the guys and the girls conversed with each other, deepening their bonds.
Meanwhile back at Poseidon's Hall, in a partially destroyed dorm, Zhong Biān and the male student who would later be known as Rattle were eating to their fill.
"I'm yet to know your name, my friend." Zhong Biān rushed the rice in his small cup with chopsticks.
"Vyriss Talon is my name." Rattle gulped down the rice while placing the entire cup in his mouth.
"Nice name." Zhong put more rice from the pot into his cup.
"Nice name? What if I had a not-so-good name? What would you say?" Vyriss glared at Zhong with his sharp amber eyes while saying this.
"W-What?!" Zhong blinked multiple times.
"Nevermind, just teasing you. By the way, this meal is not bad, I could eat this all day." Vyriss added, his stomach almost perfectly round.
"You flatter me, my friend. This is a meal common in my hometown in the east. At a young age, I'd watch my mum prepare it for guests and in time, I inculcated her techniques." Zhong said, looking at the rice in his cup, his voice and expression were soberer than they were before.
"Oh? Someone misses his family." Vyriss replied, rushing the rice in his bowl.
"At first I didn't, I was even eager to leave home. But with the things that have happened so far, I'm beginning to miss them. That sister of mine better not be stressing mom and dad." Zhong said, with a playfully vexed tone.
Vyriss made a disgusting face, "Ew, hearing you say that makes me want to throw up."
"Shut up!" Zhong laughed, "What about you?"
Without answering immediately, Vyriss looked down, "I have an older brother and sister in College and my parents reside in Ophidion in the North-West. They're at the back of my mind right now. It's hard for me to think about them while dealing with the present. There's just too much going on right now to think about stuff like that." Vyriss said as he continued rushing the rice.
"I understand you. So what's your plan going forward?" Zhong asked with genuine curiosity.
"The war in this boarding world has piqued my interest and Klause and I are bound to cross paths again. I can see myself facing him under the full moon." After saying this, Vyriss laughed menacingly as he held the chain he was tied with up, showing Zhong.
He looked at Zhong with his glowing amber eyes and menacing smile.
"It'd be exhilarating."