"Aaahhhhh!!!"

Lisa screamed in agony and Max saw her being entirely consumed by the darkness. She seemed to have totally lost control of herself and dragged into the pitch black abyss. The darkness formed a large cocoon like structure which continued to expand bit by bit consuming everything in its path.

Max felt a bit guilty. Even though he didn't do that intentionally, the fact couldn't be ruled out that it was his actions which seemed to have led to this situation.

But Max in all honesty, didn't know what to do. He could definitely crush her with so much spirit energy at his call. But it was evident that she would be squashed to death.

'I should have taken the softer approach….' Max knew it was too late to regret but still he couldn't help but have the thought.

But, it isn't easy to change your feelings towards someone. Max didn't like her and that was a fact.

Max knew that behaving the way he did wasn't a good idea, but he had thought of bringing Lisa under his control first before trying to improve the situation. He planned to take his time and evaluate her before telling her everything. After all, he didn't trust her enough to lay down every inch of truth in front of her.

But his plan had totally ended up in chaos….

Max could feel the spirit world becoming unstable. The darkness was consuming it. If Max didn't act quick, it might be too late.

Max sighed as he raised his head. There was no choice. A chill flashed past his eyes and he took a step forward steeling his resolve. He tightened his grip on the dagger and swung it.

The spirit energy in the surrounding hummed and followed Max's call. This was the first time Max had felt the immense power. He really had no idea how strong he would be if he could actually bring all this energy out of the spirit world.

As the spirit energy was about to collide with darkness, Max slightly moved his hands towards the left and his attack missed the mass of darkness by a hair's breadth.

He had intentionally missed it.

Max slowly turned his head toward Sera in the distance standing with everyone else. Just like Sera, Max could feel her emotions too.

Sera had a troubled look on her face and her eyes were watering. Max could feel that she was holding herself back.

Max could sense that she liked Lisa for some reason and hence wasn't willing to see her die. But on the other hand, Max was always her priority. She didn't want anything to happen to Max. That was the reason she was quietly standing there.

"Do you really like her that much?" Max suddenly asked with a questioning look.

Sera nodded as tears slid out of her eyes.

"I guess there is no other choice then, let's make sure no one feels horrible today…." Max spoke as he took a step forward and walked towards the giant cocoon.

As he moved, the spirit energy followed behind oppressing the cocoon which was expanding. Even though it couldn't entirely stop it, it still managed to slow it down. After all, Max was afraid of pushing it back and crushing Lisa inside.

"No!"

Sera screamed with tears streaming out of her eyes and Max stopped right in front of the cocoon.

He turned his head and looked towards Sera, "Don't worry, I will be back soon…"

Max spoke with a smile as he activated the Ancient Manual at its full pace. The next instant, Fire, water, earth and wind, the four main elements conjured in front of Max.

The process would have instantly drained Max in the real world. But in the spirit world with this much amount of spirit energy, he wouldn't be feeling tired anytime soon.

Max knew that the four major elements were the source of all other elements. If he had any chance to negate the darkness, his only way to do it would be to comprehend it.

Max raised both of his hands and touched the cocoon. It was unlike what he had expected. He had thought of pain or coldness but this was emptiness. Right he couldn't feel anything.

Max took a deep breath and slowly pushed himself inside the cocoon.

The next thing that Max knew was emptiness. He couldn't feel anything, not even his own body. The one thing which Max believed to be his strongest, his senses, were completely shut.

The only things which made him feel himself was his thought, his consciousness.

Max slowly concentrated, he knew that he had activated his circulation technique. He needed to take control of it. The first step was to recover his own body only then could he look for somebody else.

…

On the other side, Aria sat on the couch with worry over her face. She didn't know what to do? She knew what Max was afraid of and she couldn't blame him for it. But she couldn't just leave Lisa like that.

"What's wrong?" Elly suddenly asked, observing Aria's expression.

"N-Nothing…. It's just I am feeling really tired." Aria replied with a tired face.

"You can go and take a rest then. Don't push yourself." Janet replied.

"Ok, then I will be going. You two can sleep here. Call me if you need anything." Aria said as she got up.

"Why here? Aren't there two rooms?" Elly suddenly asked.

"Um… I still haven't cleaned that room because I am not using it." Aria replied with a forced smile before hurrying upstairs.

"Weird..." Elly mumbled with squinted eyes as she looked at Aria leaving.

"What's weird?" Janet asked in curiosity.

"Well, I went into the room. It looked pretty clean, not to mention that she even had a calendar with the page turned to today's date." Elly replied.

"Well, that's quite the work for a room which isn't being put to use. Something seems fishy…" Janet replied with a smile.

…

Max had lost track of time. He didn't know how long it had been. Sometimes he felt like hours had passed while sometimes he felt like it had only been a second.

Slowly, Max started to feel it. He could feel the Flow energy. It wasn't only the one he was revolving but it seemed that he was absorbing from the surroundings as well and it was at a rapid rate.

Being in such an intense environment wasn't something any less than walking towards death. It was obvious that Max could feel the Flow energy pouring into him.

Max clearly remembered the 5th Layer of the Ancient Manual.

«Creations»

Creation begins with nothingness.

There was nothing except that. There wasn't even any message from the First Human God. Max could somehow understand why it was so, somewhere or the other, he felt that this was an important stage. Things would definitely change once he achieved it.

Max still felt his understanding lacking but one word seemed to have struck him hard.

'Nothingness'

Wasn't the current situation something similar here.

Max suddenly felt a lot of things going through his head. He felt that word in the 5th layer had different meanings.

It could mean darkness, if we talk about light.

It could mean companionship if we talk about loneliness.

The meanings were never-ending. It was only how one wanted to perceive it

"Whoosh!"

The next instant, Max felt his body, the emptiness began to fade. He hadn't broken through but he could feel himself a step closer.

Max slowly opened his eyes and what entered his eyes was darkness. It felt like someone had switched off the lights.

'I am still not there yet…' Max clenched his fist.

He then started at darkness and raised his hand, the sensation was much clearer than before. He could feel it. There was a feeling in this emptiness this time.

Max was familiar with it, this darkness was a pure form of emotion. Loneliness, hatred, anger, sadness….. Something which Max was familiar with.

"Move!"

Max commanded as the Ancient Manual revolved and to one's surprise a darkness began to leak out of Max's body as well. But it wasn't the one like in the surrounding. The darkness here was much purer. It was something formed from Max overcoming his ordeals and not being chained by them.

He was indeed sad, felt lonely and was angry at times as well. But he had accepted it all unlike Lisa who seemed to treat every unknown person with that kind of rude attitude, it was a clear difference between them.

Max could now feel that whatever it was that had happened with Lisa, had somewhere left a mark in her heart and had caused her to be the current person she was.

Max raised his hand and the darkness surged out of his body. It moved and collided with the surrounding.

"Shatter!"

The next thing Max knew was standing in a large hall.