A burnt forest lay across the edge of two worlds, at a glance one could tell it was a majestic forest when it was alive, each of its trees was longer than a hundred meter dwarfing most of earth's trees, but now one couldn't feel any of that majesty, only a sad and eerie vibe came from its charcoal filled sight

As if the forest wasn't uninviting enough one could also feel the shaking of many rampaging steps from afar resulting in a lot of trees falling down before the cause of the shaking even arrived

One person didn't seem to be afraid of this scene though as he jumped from one high branch to the other, he was so high above the ground that he would've been called a daredevil back on earth for pulling such stunts

"Master...Can we slow down"

Ellis commented while holding onto him tightly, shed awoken from her fear-induced state quickly enough but the headache still raged in her head, coupled with the dread just now she wasn't feeling too well

"We won't be stopping until we're out of the Gardelos territory, also, do not talk from here onward unless I allow you to, they are very sensitive to sound and motion"

YuJu replied with a low tone, he was evidently being very cautious around whatever beast that occupied this place

Since he was so serious about it she could only keep quiet and endure the tortures headache, still, she couldn't help but hand it to him when it came to stability for she hadn't felt a single rocking sensation even though they were jumping at high speed, his smooth control was really mesmerising

Their silent hopping continued on for around two minutes during which Anput stopped kicking off her legs and returned to being quite, a blessing since the footsteps became very clear, soon they would meet the being that roamed this land, the one that he was so cautious about

Thinking that it was time to hide he jumped into one of the broken trees, it had it's upper half-burnt down creating a long hollow entrance from above to its midsection, that where he stayed put and held his breath, looking through the broken body of the tree toward the beasts

Heavy thuds resounded across the otherwise silent forest, those thuds were rushed but the being who made them sounded too heavy to sprint at the speed its strength would allow, this made the steps sound like that of a giant

Soon the appearance of this beast came into view, unsurprisingly it was a giant standing at forty meters tall, its head looked to be that of a reptile, it had no arms to speak of but two huge legs that supported its red-scaled body that was swaying around like a snake contrary to its sluggish appearance

One of the more noticeable traits about it was the dark purple fumes that surrounded its body, they covered it a spiral motion while moving slowly to its whip-ish tail, sinking back into itself from there

A sudden hit breath covered YuJu's neck while he looked at the beast causing the beast's black pupils to flicker toward his location

'Crap'

He couldn't afford a battle now but he also couldn't cover Ellis's mouth or order her to stop moving for the beast would instantly discover them if he made any movement

'No choice'

He didn't want to affect her growth, especially when she was in this critical moment of getting past her intelligence threshold, but it was better than ending up dead

Focusing on their connection he put pressure into it causing her ragged breathing to still while her entire body ceased all movement, with her already weak mind it wasn't too hard for him to take hold of her bodies control

Things weren't over though as he turned to look at the beast only to spot a tail coming toward them in high speed

Bam! "Krrkha"

The beast growled and turned to run after dealing with the pesky bugs that somehow survived

'Close one'

He thought while stabilising his body against the burnt bark, the beast had whipped their tree but didn't account much for the exact attack location, once it saw that there was no more sound it went away not knowing it missed them by a large margin sending the part where they were at dozens of meters away but didn't do them any harm

He didn't relax though nor let go of his control of Ellis, instead, he waited as more and more figures of beasts passed by them, all of which were the same species as the one who just whipped them

Only when all the beasts passed by did he let Ellis control her body again

"Haaa! Haah haah"

She started panting as oxygen had been cut from her though she could actually hold it for much longer time

"Didn't I say not to make any noise"

He reprimanded sternly in a hushed tone

"Sorry Master, I couldn't help but take a look out of curiosity at the beast, when I did I...I felt the need to fight this beast to the death, That if I didn't all I had been working for would be ruined, I almost couldn't control myself to jump out there and fight"

She explained, this made him furrow his eyebrows in confusion

"What did you feel?"

"I felt challenged I guess"

His knit brows tightened further, not in more confusion but because he realized why she was suddenly needing to fight

'Gardelos, creatures of mass destruction, they are born to raise the world into nothing, their only purpose is to destroy whatever is around them and they will continue to seek out life for that purpose until the day they perish as well'

Recalling the information about the being they'd just witness he couldn't help but feel sour

'And Ellis's aura is currently centred on the mansion'

It made sense, her aura was currently wrapped around the idea of the mansion and here comes a being filled with destruction that was heading toward that very mansion, if her aura didn't act up he would have been rather surprised

'I should have thought this through when it happened, how could I miss such an important detail'

His eyes looked toward the distance where dark purple fumes seemed to be covering the forest

'This is going to be a tough trail'

He couldn't switch up his plans now and he also couldn't take any risks, he wasn't at the level where he could fight these beasts yet, not even if he went all out, especially that leader of their

"We will push through, close your eyes and try to shut your senses down, it's hard but if you focus on that you might be able to restrain yourself from acting out, you mustn't think about them"

He ordered before jumping out the tree and starting his jumping spree again to cover some distance before the next group came

Once another wave of beasts came close he hid in a tree, this time its trunk, while they passed by

He was ready to take control of Ellis if anything went wrong but thanks to her hard will no sound or movement were caused by her, allowing them to have a safe passage

He jumped out once again and repeated this process a few times, each time she felt more and more pain as she fought both the headache and the desire to attack, by the near end of this torture beads of sweat were rolling down her creased forehead, her eyes closed shut in an effort to avoid any provocation

'Good, one last wave'

Just as he did before he found a hollowed tree and hopped in, this time though he lay Anput next to his feet while taking Ellis off his back, seating her in front of him he cupped her face which made her open his eyes to meet hers

"You're going to want to fight, your going to want to defend what is your, the right you have, but remember, there is no dignity in a useless struggle of death, only in a valiant battle, or death worth cause would you earn your dignity"

He spoke word by word very clearly, it was important she understood this so that she is prepared

Once he was done he let go of her face and stood over her, looking keenly at her body to spot any attempt at moving

Ellis couldn't understand what her master was trying to do, she had done her best up to this point and while it was hard she hadn't made a squeak, why would he talk to her like hed giving up hope that she would endure the urge to figh-

That's as far as her thoughts made it as she sensed a terrifying aura approach, one that wreaked of death and destruction, the mere feeling it gave almost made her puke, but she wasn't afraid, no she was way beyond fear, she wanted to fight! Challange this beast that sought her home's destruction

The second the destructive aura was in range he noticed her muscles tensed as they readied themselves to get to work, that would never happen though as she instantly took control over her body

She wanted to resist his control this time but her weakened mind couldn't really put up much of a resistance, allowing him to smoothly stop a disaster

'I had hoped she would endure, I guess it's-'

His thoughts came to a halt this time instead as he witnessed a purple aura extend out of her body to counter the incoming threat

'What are you doing!!!'

He wanted to scream but couldn't make a peep, he could only watch as her aura covered her body fully, ripping the dress he'd hand-picked and rendered her bare again, that was his least concern though as the next second the full aura of the beast outside hit her's

It was like a chariot running over a mantis, the difference was too huge for there to be any comparison, it basically crushed her aura back into her body like stuffing a toy

Unwilling to back down even though she most certainly couldn't withstand a single strike from the beast she started to forcefully push her aura outward only to be crushed again the next second

'Their aura's are clashing'

When two aura's sought harm of each other's concepts they would clash together, it was a fight that started before the aura holder's even started exchanging blows

'It's not even worthy of being called a clash, that beast didn't even sense her and she is being crushed by his passive aura'

The monstrous entity outside couldn't be bothered with ants such as them when a pie was in front of it, for it to slow down its advance just to crush two ants who it didn't even notice would be questionable

Perhaps knowing that her struggle was disregarded she put even more power into her aura, this time barely allowing it to stay outside while flickering madly

'Don't!'

He knew that while that beast was strong it's aura didn't come from a class thus Ellis had a chance at slightly fighting back when it wants focusing on her, what made him afraid was the fact that this might cause it to notice them

The more she was feeling crushed the more she fought back, she pushed her limits further and further until her aura fully covered her body

Suddenly the shaking outside stopped for a millisecond, with it stopped YuJu's heartbeat as he induced his body to coma, using the connection he had with Ellis and Anput he forced the bodies to shut down as well, the only thing remaining was Ellis's aura

This was out of his hand though, the aura was hidden within one's soul unlike the body which was connected to it in a shallow manner

Everything depended on whether Ellis would stop her suicidal acts or not

Perhaps feeling his distress she split her focus to making sense of what was happening only to find out she couldn't at all open her eyes, in fact, she couldn't even feel her body, as if she died

'Am I dead?'

'No, but your about to be'

A voice echoed in her mind

'Master?'

She looked around in the darkness but saw nothing

'Where are we?'

She asked confused

'We are still in the forest, we didn't move, I'm merely sending my thoughts to you via the connection we have'

'I had no idea you could do that'

'I can't, not yet at least, it's only because we are "dead" that the connection became clearer'

'We aren't truly dead than are we? I can still feel that monster's aura crushing mine'

'Indeed, and he will personally crush us physically if you don't stop fighting back and alerting him of our location'

It was only now that Ellis realized the consequences of her actions, she had been too focused on keeping her dignity that she didn't know she almost got them killed

'...But if I let him go-'

'Let him go?'

He interrupted sarcastically

'You think you're holding him? Or maybe you think that fighting him now and dying will result in giving you a worthy death? No, no one will escape, and you dying wouldn't even be known much less recalled'

'....'

She remained silent, her decision wavering

Even though his body was shut down and he couldn't feel anything himself he could still feel what was happening outside through Ellis's aura, half a second perhaps had passed outside, but that much time was almost enough for the beast to locate them, if this took any longer then he would trace her aura in the chaos it caused with its own and crush them in less than the time it took to locate them

Just as he was about to pull out his final persuasion card and tell her that the mansion was going to be okay he felt everything turn blank

'He killed us?'

He thought, he really made a stupid bet when he chose to shut down everyone's system and try to convince her rather than using his maximum stealth skills and escaping, he was eighty percent sure he could escape destruction if he did that, with a few deadly wounds of course

'So much for reaching the top....'

Honestly, he was more shocked than he was disappointed, for the journey to end just as it began, was something he never really imagined, it was so ridiculed that he barely could process it

Lost in regret he was awoken rudely by a light flashing in front of him

Various thoughts came to mind, the light that guided one after death, reincarnation, among many others, but once he noticed what it is he was shocked to see it was the notification from the system

'?'