A week later.
Seo Hana, who had disappeared abruptly, reappeared in front of them—Katline, Grace, Neal, Reynolds, Hannah, Louie, Core, Arngrim, and a few more familiar figures that Hana hadn't expected to gaze at, at least not yet.
These figures were none other than Frostine, Amanda, Gerry, Greg, Simon, Ash, Clifford, Dominic, and Belinda, who had gotten acquainted with each other before they parted.
And before their bewilderment, together hers own, subsided, Hana felt a strange feeling, a certain familiarity with Frostine, who seemed to have already figured out why, as her curious gaze flitted all over Hana, who felt as if she had been stripped naked under Frostine's gaze.
"You..... You become a divine beast." Frostine muttered under her breath with a curious smile, of course, her words were mere mumbles that only Hana was able to hear, due to her newly assimilated powers.
A subtle shudder swept through her body, but she didn't show it on her face or her actions, but merely gazed at Frostine intently.
"Listen!" Abruptly, a roar sounded right next to her, startling her back to reality. Only then did Hana began to gaze at her surroundings, which felt like some sort an underground, evil organisation's hideout, where most heinous and atrocious plans were being made.
Which wasn't that far off from the truth.
The one who had just yelled was none other than Arngrim, who had a frustrated expression marring his face.
"We...." Abruptly halting his words, he glared at Hana, who was still gazing at the tattered and unclean state her friends were in. The gentle aura that surrounded them had turned fierce, as there mere gaze felt like daggers.
If one word could describe them, then it would be; survivors.
War survivors to be precise.
'What happened in a matter of minutes....' As soon as that thought swept past her consciousness, as if reading her mind,
"It has been a week since you disappeared." Louie said.
"!!!!" Hana's eyes widened in shock, but they paid no heed to it, as their focus wad soon dragged by Arngrim, who gave a stern gaze.
STAB-!
SHIIICK-!
Drawing a rough circle on the stone table with mana imbedded finger, Arngrim poked a dot in the middle.
"We are here...." Arngrim said, pointing at the dot.
"And are currently surrounded by the Prototypes...." He continued, pointing at the rough circle.
POKE-!
He poked a few more dots ,which seemed random, in the circle.
"These are the bases of the other survivors.... according to our findings from a day before." Arngrim muttered.
'The situation is more dire then what one could expect....' Seo Hana thought, she could tell that much even though she had "intruded" "their" base.
"Except for these, we know nothing. They clearly aren't killing the survivors indifferently, meaning they want us to submit to them, which we do not want to, after surviving for so long." Arngrim mumbled, with uncertainty oozing out of his spitefully spat words, as he glared at Katline, Grace, Neal, Reynolds, and Hannah, who seemed clearly dissatisfied with receiving such a gaze, which left Hana baffled not really understanding what was going on.
"What?!" Neal asked, roaring spitefully.
"Nothing, you guys are just soooo~ used to living under somebody, that I just can't being myself to trust you guys after hearing your "suggestion" from "that day," phhh....." As Arngrim continued to belittle them, Louie, who still had a warm aura surrounding him, covered Arngrim's mouth.
"Hahaha, don't take it to heart, it has been too long since he has been outside to actually socialize with people, and upon witnessing "those" scenes, his mind seemed to have twisted strangely...." Louie made up a plausible excuse in an instant.
"!!!, I dissect living people you son of a @?#?#?!!!!" Arngrim began to spew profanities, but Louie came to the rescue, as he covered his mouth, forcibly.
[The Freaks suggested a surrender a few days ago when the prototypes put up an unimaginable pressure upon us, the survivors.] Just as Hana's bewilderment grew larger, Frostine's telepathic voice sounded in her mind, clearing the subtle cloud of their current situation, which strongly leaned towards a split up.
After nodding thankfully at Frostine, Seo Hana focused on the plight that she was forced into, while keeping in the absurd information she found out to herself.
'He's trying to kill us, while here, they are at each other's throat.... Looking at things, it won't be long before they killed each other...." She thought and at that thought, as if on a cue her phoenix trait made her shiver at an ominous conclusion that formed in her mind.
"He did it...." Hana muttered.
Eshwar was manipulating them, in every direction, in a way that they wouldn't even know they died because of him!
"What!?" Arngrim snarled at her.
"He is manipulating you guys....." Hana muttered with a horrified look on her face.
"Who?" Core asked, while Louie covered Arngrim's mouth.
"Eshwar...." Hana muttered, and at those words a strange deafening silence descended upon them, as their strange gazes stared daggers into her.
Their eyes were full of doubts, contempt, and dangerous glimmer of rage in them made her feel suffocated for a split second, as the mask named "Seo Hana" soon seemed to slip off of her face, which turned emotionless in an instant.
She, who had always felt her emotions stronger than others, had gotten nauseous of emotions themselves, soon after her realisation, she had began to cut off as many emotions as possible, yet it was impossible, because no matter what, she would feel her emotions at least 10 times stronger than normal.
The emotions she thought to have cut off felt 20 times more stronger, because her consciousness had assumed that she hadn't ever felt that emotion before, such was the reason, she put up a mask of "Seo Hana" that was "normal" enough to allow her to interfere and live in the world with humans.
Her emotionless face twisted menacingly as her gaping expression turned stronger,. Her subtly opened mouth, eyes, and raised brows enlarged, with her mouth turning into a large, lip corners tearing "O," eyelids widening as if her eyes would pop out, and her forehead churning due to her stretched brows.
The astonishment visible on her face seemed so exaggerated that it made those around her extremely uncomfortable, forcing them to throw different kinds of disgusted expressions at her, which, of course, hurt her.
It was slightly cute at the first few seconds, turned disgusting by the next few, and turned horrifying the longer her face displayed the same emotion.
They shuddered in disgust, but before somebody spoke her out of it, Frostine moved faster, as she appeared above the table, crouched, and before a second even passed,
SLAP-!!!
A loud slap rang, snapping Hana out of it, this was what would happen if her mask shattered, her cute face turned horrifying, enough make one traumatized for life.
Yet,
'These emotions were that HE wanted to see, if I wanted him with me forever....' Hana thought, and as soon as she realised what she had just thought, her face turned bitter.
"You were asking for the impossible, Eshwar....." She muttered out loud, involuntarily.
"What are you talking about?" Frostine asked.
"Eshwar wants everybody dead...." Hana muttered in whisper, which only Frostine, who was still crouching on the table, could hear.
[Is that so?] Frostine's telepathic voice sounded in her mind.
"....?" Seo Hana, who was startled by the calmness in Frostine's tone, looked up, only to find a smile itched on her face.
"As expected, well, that's Eshwar, alright....." Frostine muttered, as her smile turned bitter as she glanced back at her friends, who had been with her for the past 2 decades.
"Huuuu....." Frostine exhaled sharply and she gritted her teeth, which made cracking sounds.
"F**k...." Frostine cursed under her breath, loud enough for everybody to hear.
"What's going....no, just get out." Arngrim muttered, as he pointed at a separate room.
"Explain the situation to her while you are at it." He muttered, without lowering his pointing finger or hand.
"..... I'll be back, shortly."
*
In the room, that was silenced by Frostine's magic, she and Hana, stood face to face leaning against the walls on the opposite sides.
"He wants us dead? Why?" Frostine was the first to break the silence.
She....
She bit her lip as many thoughts flashed in mind.
She had been with him for a decade, round figured or in approximation, but many lives of she took Eshwar's words into account. Hence, she didn't need to be told separately that even she was involved in the "us" she just spoke off.
A persistently bulldozing young man she met two lives ago had grown so much that he didn't even hesitate to want to kill her. She had thought of many happy memories they could create now that they reunited, she was just waiting for these things to end, but she never thought she would ever hear the fact that he, the one whom she helped to grew up, was ready to slit her throat.
'.... Master would stop him if she knew....' Frostine thought, which was a fact, but the plight laid in how she would convey this message to HER.
Then, Seo Hana muttered as she was pondering.
".....bored."
"Huh?"
"He said he was bored looking at us, and also said that, as an author, it was his duty to put his characters through tough, life-threatening situations....."
"..."
"..."
"..... Haha, hahaha, huhhahuhaha...."
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om