One week later...
Emily saw Sol being seriously hit. She tried to rush toward him, but just then Nicholas appeared before him and struck her. Emily saw the surroundings sweeping forward fast, and then her backside hit the ground hard.
Pain exploded inside her. Emily gritted her teeth to suppress it. But the pain wouldn’t subside. Enduring the pain, Emily tried to lift her body, but Nicholas had already arrived.
She saw his leg rising up and then...
Bam!
It slamd into her stomach with brute force. She felt a tallic taste in her mouth. Emily tried to hold it, but blood still gushed out.
She tried to fight, tried to get up and stop the chaos. ’No. It can’t end like this. I need to save Sol. Save others who chose not to betray morality.’ She thought that and pushed herself, but under Nicholas’s pressure, her body wouldn’t even budge.
Nicholas raised his hand, ready to deliver the final blow. Emily saw him say sothing, his lips moving. But she couldn’t hear anything, her mind buzzing. Her vision beca blurry. Despair started to nestle in her chest.
She saw Nicholas’s fist closing in.
But just when she was about to close her eyes and accept her fate, a brilliant light tore through the sky and descended on earth. Her eyes instinctively turned toward it.
And then... She saw it.
Leon! He was standing, being bathed by the blinding light. She didn’t know what was happening, but her heart started to pound, her subconscious mind still clinging to hope.
After so ti, the light vanished. Leon opened his eyes. Emily saw sothing had changed in Leon, but she couldn’t quite na it.
And then the sword ca, its white surface reflecting the light.
The next mont, Leon vanished from his position. He looked like a streak of holy light, purging everything that was vile and corrupted.
Her heart started to pound even faster. But this ti, it wasn’t fear. It was sothing else entirely. Sothing she had never felt before.
Suddenly...
"Miss Emily!"
"Miss Emily!"
"Miss Emily!"
A woman in a maid’s dress gently nudged Emily’s shoulder.
She slowly opened her eyes. ’That was a dream?’ For a mont, she simply stared at the ceiling. Then she turned and looked at the maid beside her.
"Thank you for waking , Martha. Do you need sothing?" She asked in a gentle voice.
"Young master Sol asked to inform you that the boy resting in our guest room has woken up."
Emily sprang into a sitting position instantly. "When?"
The maid flinched, clearly startled by her sudden reaction.
"J-just an hour ago."
"Okay. You may leave. I will be there soon." She quickly got up and went to the washroom.
The maid bowed and left, but not before stealing one more glance at Emily’s retreating back. ’Strange. Young miss is always so calm and composed. What happened today?’
Emily turned on the shower, warm water falling on her body. But her mind was sowhere else entirely.
A mory. A voice.
’Shit! What kind of ss did I look like to her? Wait! Why am I even bothered with what she thought of ?’ A male voice echoed in her mind.
She couldn’t stop a wide smile spreading across her face.
anwhile, in the sa villa in a different room...
"Big bro, you finally woke up."
Leon looked at the person who just spoke. "It’s you. Sol Fleming." Leon whispered in confusion and looked around.
A wide, spacious room. The wall paint was elegant. High-quality carpets covered the entire floor. A colorful strear hung from the ceiling.
He was lying in a bed that was big enough for more than two people. Beside him, Sol was sitting in a chair.
Other than the bed and the chair, there was a small round table with two chairs at one corner, and a bookshelf beside the window.
Different art pieces hung on the wall.
Leon scanned through the whole room. "Where is this place? Weren’t we in that hidden realm? How did we end up here?"
"We escaped from that hidden realm. You passed out after that Harold guy hit you."
"And then he let us leave?" Leon’s eyes narrowed.
"Him? Not even in his dreams. It was that friend of yours who handled everything."
"My friend?" Leon looked even more confused.
"Yeap. That gorgeous lady with white hair and green eyes. You don’t rember?"
A face flashed in Leon’s mind imdiately, his face turning pale.
"That woman in a white dress?" He asked carefully.
"Yeah. That’s the one."
"Who said she is my friend? She is a huge, dangerous serpent. A primal. I don’t even know her."
"You don’t? But the way she ca for our help and fed you those weird crystals from the monster bodies, how can she not be your friend? She was even calling you her master."
"She fed what?" Leon’s face twitched.
Sol grinned sheepishly. "You didn’t make a girlfriend in the hidden realm, did you?" He leaned closer and asked in a hushed voice. "But now you are just nervous because she turned out to be a primal, right?"
Leon ignored that completely. "Can you please tell everything that happened after I lost consciousness?"
"Tch." Sol clicked his tongue. "You dodged my question on purpose. I know it."
"Sol."
"Fine. Fine." Sol then elaborated on everything. He even added so dramatic flair to the story, as if he had personally witnessed the birth of a legend, explaining how that person arrived at the right mont, dealt with all the monsters with ease, and defeated Harold as if he were nothing.
By the end, Leon looked visibly baffled. ’She fed monster cores?’
He whispered. "System."
The unchecked notifications started to pop up. And his eyes fixated on the last one.
[You have reached the 8th stage of the martial apprentice realm.]
’She! She really helped ?’
Sol waved his hand in the air before Leon.
"Hello. Sol to Leon. Are you still there, man?"
Leon snapped from his daze. "Sorry, I was thinking."
"It’s okay. Oh, by the way. She left this for you." Sol brought out the crystal the Mysterio lady had given to Emily and pushed it toward Leon.
"She asked us to inform you that when you awaken your soul domain, you can go back to that hidden realm with this to find her."
Leon took it and stared at it.
Sol kept talking nonstop. "If you don’t mind, can you explain what Soul domain is?"
At the word ’soul domain’, Leon’s eyes beca distant again.
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