"Lukas. Calm down… He deserved it. Hahahaha! Calm down… Nothing can be reversed. Calm down…"
The crazed and bipolar tones of Elijah were settled with the mystery that plagued his mind. 'Who is "The Eternal Contractee"? Is the King "The Eternal Contractee"? Why do I have to die? There is nothing wrong with me… I am just as normal as anyone else… Just as weak as anyone else… I can manipulate two elements, which is not a first in the kingdom by any means… What is the meaning of this?
Elijah was only able to connect the similarities of Cora, and now… this incident. 'They were both put up to this, but by who? Cora was a nobody, a girl from a family of miners. No one would pay special attention to her. Damir and Cael were people that seemed like normal nobles, and Trey, was someone he had hoped to become friends with. Both Damir and Cael may have had personal motives, but not to kill me. Trey and Fredric seemed like they were forced beyond their will.'
The only thing that makes sense if something unnatural happened. Backtracking, Elijah realized he never saw the ethereal purple energy before. Elijah began thinking… It never left Cora when she died, but left Damir. Maybe it was transferred from Cora to Trey?
'Could that be part of the "controlling" happening within the kingdom?'
Something unbeknownst to Elijah was controlling the minds of these poor children, and dooming them for despair. It was plainly obvious!
Elijah struggled to stand up. He slowly paced in circles while avoiding eye contact with the disaster he created — limping from the pain of a spike still sitting inside his shoulder. His entire right arm was throbbing, and with every movement, a small cracking noise was created. The mana in Elijah's body was no more after that last spell, and with not a single sound in the cavern, he slowly turned his back to his possible death.
The waterfall chasm.
It felt sour to not complete a mission again. It seemed fate was against him, or at least something was against him.
A few minutes were spent to recuperate his thoughts and as much mana as possible.
When reaching the top of the chasm and in view of the small opening overtop of a lightly flowing river, he noticed a couple pairs of eyes staring at him from around the corner. Tears of pain began dripping down his eyes once he realized he had forgotten about his friends, and suddenly remembered the ashed and rotten stench when flying up the chasm.
The emotions welling up inside him felt dull, and fake. Quickly, he stopped his crying, and crouched through the entrance with soft words leaving his mouth. "Everyone is dead."
Emelia, Aslan, and Harry, did not deserve any of this. The thoughts of their future together as strong hunters had been in Elijah's mind many times.
Still, Elijah trudged on with Alexia holding the spike tightly into his back.
The moist footsteps were the only noise besides the shallow breaths of the brave adventurers who had just barely escaped death. The saint, who bore the title of savior, also bore the weight of his actions and empty emotions.
"Creveron, five!" Theon was the one to exclaim his desire for safety once they reached Nova40. However, his voice was not loud enough, and shortly followed up with an angered shout. "CREVERON, FIVE!"
Five metal wires with bright red handle attachments streaked to the floor. With everyone strapped in, the tug of each of the ropes shot them to the sky. The wood gate slid underneath their small frames, and quickly, four out of the five children fell to the floor with exhaustion.
Elijah began walking forward, and up the wooden steps within the dimly lit arched pathway. People were passing by his side, and a shout was heard from behind by the two men who sent the ropes down to the ground.
"Where is the rest of your party?!"
"Shit! You need a healer!"
Once the corner had been turned, and Elijah saw the coast was clear, his figure vanished from the line of sight where the two strong men thought he would be, and rose to the ceiling. Only darkness blanketed the ceiling, which made it a perfect spot for Elijah to escape untimely questions.
Using his space magic, a small divot in the ceiling was carved out into a curving shape that mimicked the moon. A cradle to hold a fearsome, yet troubled youth. This cradle was exactly where Elijah engulfed his entire chest in lukewarm water. The intense amounts of desire flooded the water with every amount of mana he could muster, bringing together every nerve, vein, ligament, tendon, and torn piece of fascia that held everything together. His body sat incredibly still with the fear of any slight movement causing the strings of his life to be cut.
Elijah spent the next couple of hours contemplating his life. Date bars fulfilled his hunger, while was desperately desired. Only when he felt himself again, did he find a healer to finish what he started. Every step he took caused a pain to radiate through the left side of his chest, insinuating that he did nothing more than by himself.
"Quick! Set him on the bed!" Yelled Yela at the guard who had remembered Elijah's injury.
"No! I think he tried to heal his body himself. There was an earthen spike sticking out of his back earlier!"
"Dammit! Why do you have to act strong! You are just a kid…" Yela supported Elijah's body with the hunter's help, and watched as Elijah's eyes gently closed.
"Thank you." Elijah softly voiced with gratitude.
…
After waking up, Elijah noticed all the pain was gone, and quickly got out of the thin bed.
While passing by the familiar large wooden door to Aslan's uncle, the door was quickly opened as a man signaled to come inside. Elijah was trapped with no way out, and decided to agree to his request while appearing the way a child would appear when they survived an atrocity as such.
"If you are wondering, the rest of your party has already left as you had gone missing per my captains. At least you had the sense to ask for heals… I have already let my anger out on many poor beasts, so don't worry I won't hurt you." Andal was thoroughly scratching his spiky gray hair as he sat down on his cushioned, old wooden chair.
"Why would you want to talk to me if you know the whole story?"
"According to Novius, three people in your party betrayed you all. What do you think the reason was for their betrayal?" The head of Andal tilted forward, and rested on his chin.
To Elijah, it seemed he already knew the answer most likely from personal experience. So Elijah told the truth, but not all of the truth. "They were told to kill us. But I have no idea why. We are all simple, just trying to prove our worth and contribute to the kingdom."
"So it seems! This is not the first time something like this has happened. I know a few people who have survived these ordeals, and the one thing they all have in common is that it has happened more than once. I believe these betrayals are not random by any means, but are targeted to specific people. There are probably a numerous number of similar cases we have never heard of simply due to there being no survivors."
"That doesn't make sense. There has to be cases of this happening only one time!" Elijah was baffled by this theory, but wanted more information and put up a curious and angry act.
"I said cases of known betrayal, where the survivors had said openly that they had been betrayed. This is no such thing as crime in the kingdom. While fraud does exist with people eyeing to never work a day in their life, everyone draws the line at physical harm."
Even though Elijah had noticed the fact that no one talked about "staying safe" within the streets of the inner city, this still came to a surprise. What would have to happen for evil to not exist, for physical crime to not exist.
Back on earth, during the peak of human advancement and peace, there were still shootings, civil wars, and internal conflicts on small and large scales.
This was why Elijah had also wanted to feel "true peace". It seemed this kingdom was the closest he had ever got, but now something else clouded his judgement on this matter.
It didn't feel natural…