"Haah... haah..." Lumi sat down on the ground, feeling completely tired from gathering meat to fill up Rynan's food supply again. Her back dropped until she was lying flat on the ground, breathing hard from all the work.
"It's exhausting..." she said weakly, her voice showing how worn out she felt. Her arms and legs felt heavy like rocks, and she didn't want to move anymore.
"Hah! Now you know how hard it is to gather food!" Rynan teased her, also sitting down as he put his hands on his hips with a big grin. His voice was playful, but he was also tired from helping her collect everything they needed.
"You meanie..." Lumi said with a pout, but there was no real anger in her voice. She was too tired to be mad, and deep down she knew he was just being friendly.
"Anyways, it's time for us to eat!" Rynan said happily, getting excited about finally having a good meal. His stomach was growling loudly, reminding him how hungry he was after all that work.
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Both of them sat down near the burning campfire, eating their freshly-cooked venison with big bites. The fire crackled softly, making warm light dance across their faces as they enjoyed their meal. The meat smelled amazing and tasted even better after all their hard work.
"Eating after working sure is the best..." Lumi said out loud, sharing her thoughts without thinking. Rynan looked at her with a confused face, tilting his head because he wasn't sure what she meant.
"O-okay..?" Rynan replied, not knowing what to say back to her strange comment. He took another bite of the meat they had cooked together, still trying to understand her logic.
There was a quiet moment when both were completely focused on their food, eating meat that was big enough to feed them for days. The only sounds were the fire crackling and them chewing, both too hungry to talk anymore.
"Ahhh... I'm full!" Lumi said happily, looking up at the sky while sitting on the soft grass. Her belly was round and full, and she felt satisfied for the first time in a long while.
"Me too," Rynan agreed, closing his eyes and lying down on the green grass next to her. But even though his body felt good, his mind was still full of worry about his family that would never go away, and the Alcran God who could attack at any time.
"I-I don't deserve to be this happy..." Lumi said quietly, her voice getting sad all of a sudden. The smile on her face disappeared as dark thoughts filled her head.
"What do you mean..?" Rynan asked, turning to look at her with a confused face. He didn't understand why she would say something like that when they were having such a nice time.
"Not when my Mom, Jin, and the others have been captured!" Her happy expression changed to a worried and scared one, like a dark cloud covering the sun. She made tight fists with her hands, feeling angry at how weak she was and how she couldn't do anything to save them.
"I could help you," Rynan said simply, his voice calm and sure. When he said those words, Lumi couldn't believe what she was hearing because the slave traders were so strong and dangerous.
She stared at Rynan, only to see how serious his face was, making it clear that he wasn't joking at all. His eyes were steady and determined, showing her that he really meant what he said.
"B-but h-how..?" she asked, her voice shaking with hope and fear at the same time. She wanted to believe him, but she was scared to get her hopes up too high.
"It may not seem like it, but I'm actually very powerful myself," Rynan said calmly, like he was talking about the weather. His voice was confident but not bragging, just telling her the truth about who he really was.
After a few seconds of silence, Lumi suddenly jumped on Rynan, hugging him tight as tears started flowing down her face. She rubbed her face on his chest, wiping her tears off on his shirt as all her emotions came flooding out.
"Ay, don't cry, you've been like this since yesterday, trust me, they'll be saved," Rynan said gently, patting her head like a big brother. His voice was warm and comforting, trying to make her feel better about everything.
"I-I'm sorry for being so weak..." Lumi said through her tears, feeling bad about herself. Her voice was muffled against his chest, but he could still hear how sad she was.
"Hey. You aren't weak. It's amazing enough that you were able to survive this long," Rynan told her seriously, his voice full of respect for what she had been through. He meant every word he said, knowing how hard it must have been for her to make it this far alone.
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Omniscient sight, one out of 506 special techniques of Rynan.
This power let him see things from far away, watching everything that happened like he was right there. His eyes could look across great distances and see through walls, making him able to help people even when he wasn't close to them.
"P-PLEASE S-SPARE ME! I-I'LL DO ANYTHING JUST DO—" Before the black-haired girl with scared eyes could say anything else, her head was cut clean off her body. Blood splashed everywhere as her body fell to the ground with a heavy thud, and her head rolled away from the cage.
"See this Luminas? THIS WILL HAPPEN IF YOU STAY AS DUMB AS A FUCKING ROCK AND DON'T OBEY ME!" the large man yelled at the top of his lungs, making his voice echo through the whole area. Everyone in the big cage cried out from the scary power of his voice, and some of them even fell down because they were so afraid.
"It's okay Jin..! I'm sure someone will save us and get us out of here... I'm sure we'll live," a beautiful young mother with dark-pink hair said to her son, trying to make him feel better. She was wearing nice clothes like a rich person, and her face was calm and gentle, just like her soft voice. Even though she was scared inside, she tried to be strong for her child.
"Mom... I don't want you to die..!" the little boy named Jin said, his voice shaking with fear. His small hands grabbed onto his mother's clothes, not wanting to let her go.
"D-don't worry Jin..." the mother's voice started to break as tears ran down her face, but she still had a tiny bit of hope in her heart. She wiped her tears with her left hand and patted her son's head with a gentle smile, trying to hide how scared she really was.
"W-will Lumi be okay... mom?" Jin asked, thinking about his sister who wasn't with them. His voice was small and worried, like he was afraid to hear the answer.
"She's okay, I know it. She's a strong girl, she wouldn't die so easily. So, we also have to survive for her too, we'll get out of here," the mother said with as much strength as she could find. Her words were meant to give hope to both of them, even though she wasn't sure if they were true.
The large man stared at the captured Luminas with his arms crossed, looking very annoyed and angry. He was disgusted by what he saw, and his eyebrows were pushed together in a mean frown. His whole face showed how much he hated the people in the cage.
The man pointed at Lumi's mother, the one with pink hair who was holding her son Jin close to her. The man had a evil smile on his face, and it was clear what bad things he was planning to do. His eyes were dark and scary, making everyone afraid of what would happen next.
"YOU THERE. COME," he said in a loud, commanding voice that made everyone shake with fear. His finger pointed straight at the mother, and his smile got even more scary.
"M-mom! Don't go! Please don't!" Jin cried out, grabbing onto his mother's arm as tight as he could. His voice was full of panic, and tears started flowing down his small face.
"Jin. You have to survive. I'll be okay, I promise!" the mother said, trying to sound brave even though her heart was beating fast with fear. She gently pulled away from her son's grip and walked toward the cage's gate, her face worried but trying to be fearless.
She stayed quiet in front of the big man, trying to hide her fear from him and not looking at him directly in the eyes. Her whole body was shaking, but she tried to stand up straight and be strong. She was ready to die if it meant keeping her children safe.
He pulled her chin up using his right finger, trying to get a closer look at her face with his dirty hands. She turned her gaze to the right, not wanting to look at him, and her face was full of disgust. The smell of his breath made her feel sick, but she tried not to show it.
"Oh? Seems that we've got a beautifully feisty one here!" the man said with a laugh that sounded mean and scary. His voice was rough and made everyone feel afraid of what he would do next.
The man pushed Katherine into the ground hard, making her head hit the concrete floor with a sickening, dull thud. Blood started to come from where her head hit, and she groaned in pain as she tried to get back up.
"MOM!!!" Jin yelled as loud as he could, reaching his arms through the bars to try to help his mother. His small hands grabbed at the air, trying to reach her even though she was too far away.
But the man didn't want that—he wanted a show that would make him laugh, so he grabbed Jin's arm and crushed it with his strong hands. The bone broke with a wet, disgusting crunch that made everyone in the cage feel sick. Jin's arm bent in a way that arms shouldn't bend, and the pain was so bad he couldn't think straight.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Jin screamed, rolling on the ground back and forth as he held his broken right arm. He bit his teeth together from the pain and anger, knowing that all he could do was watch his mother get hurt and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
"JIN! PLEASE! DON'T DO ANYTHING TO HIM!" the mother cried out, her voice breaking as she saw her son in so much pain. She tried to get up from the ground to help him, but the man pushed her back down.
"Just shut up!" the man said, laughing as he held his chest and tried to control his mean laughter. His face was full of joy from seeing them suffer, which made him look like a monster.
"Now, spread like a good girl—" he started to say something even worse, but before he could do anything more terrible, something stopped him. His words were cut off as something invisible hit him in the chest.
"G-GAHH!" he said, taking a step back as he held his chest tight, trying hard to breathe normally. His chest went up and down fast like he had been running, and he looked confused and scared. He moved left and right like a drunk person as everyone watched him, and he looked around trying to figure out what was happening to him.
"D-DID YOU DO TH—" he started to ask, but before he could finish his question, the pain got much worse. His eyes went wide with fear as something invisible attacked him again.
"AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!" he screamed in pain, hitting his big chest over and over again, trying to make the pain go away. His face was full of fear and hurt, and sweat started pouring down his face as he panicked.
―S-SHIT! T-THE EONS IN THE AIR—IT'S TOO MUCH! the man thought in his head, feeling scared and desperate as the pain got worse. There was nothing he could do to stop whatever was attacking him, and he didn't understand what was happening.
But for some reason, he felt like something—no, someone was watching him from far away, and that person could see him clearly and every single thing he was doing. The feeling made his skin crawl with fear, like invisible eyes were staring right through him.
"Don't you dare do anything to her," a voice said, giving the man a clear warning. The voice sounded calm but very dangerous, like it belonged to someone who could kill him easily if he wanted to.
"W-WHO ARE YOU!? S-STOP!" the man yelled, hitting the air around him to try to kill whoever was attacking him. But to everyone else watching, he just looked like a crazy person fighting with nothing, which made him look stupid and weak.
"M-Mom!" Jin said with surprise, "M-my arm! It's been healed!" His broken arm was now completely fine, with no pain or bent bones, like nothing bad had ever happened to it.
"H-how!?" the mother yelled, not believing what she was seeing and feeling very confused. But she pushed those feelings away and just felt happy and relieved that her son was okay, without a single scratch on his small, fragile body.
"Bow your head. You are in the presence of a God," the voice said with power that made the air feel heavy. The words were spoken calmly, but they carried so much strength that everyone could feel how important they were.
"AGH!" the man suddenly felt his knees get weak, making him fall down into a kneeling position against his will. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to realize that he couldn't move his body at all, like invisible chains were holding him down.
"You are only a toy in this life of mine," the voice said, making it clear that the man was nothing compared to whoever was speaking. As the voice's presence faded away, the man could move again, and without waiting, he quickly sent the mother back to the cage, turned around, and walked away as fast as he could.
―W-WHAT THE FUCK WAS... THAT..? the man thought to himself, his whole body shaking with fear as he tried to understand what had just happened to him. He had never felt so powerless and scared in his entire life, and he knew he never wanted to feel that way again.