Chapter 25

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In the darkness of the night, a group of people went out from the village as they travelled further away from the village.

They travelled through fields, as they followed a trail towards their location.

When Adrian complained of being exhausted, their guide, Zendra decided to rest for a while, as Drone proceeded to set up a camp.

Adrian had learnt his lesson from the last time, as he had bought 3 pairs of XL size tents. He didn't want any hard stuff touching his back again.

Zendra took 1 tent for herself, while Drone & Ella took another.

When Zendra tried to take Rose with her for sleeping, Rose refused adamantly & began to cry loudly.

She only calmed down when Adrian agreed to sleep together with her.

(...she is only a child... there would be no problems, right?...)

Thinking as such, Adrian ate some fruits dressed with spices for dinner & decided to go for sleep.

As soon as he lay down, Rose quickly occupied the space next to Adrian & hugged his chest.

She looked at Adrian with a face full of smiles as she asked,

[Umm, Big Brother, tell me a story!]

Adrian wondered why she wanted to hear a story here out in he woods.

(...oh, maybe Leaf did the same with her every night...)

As soon as he remembered Leaf, guilt started to drown his conscience & he relented to the little girl's demands.

[Alright. Ahh... once upon a time, a frog lived in a swamp. He thought that he was very handsome & often bragged about it to others. One day, he came across a swan. He became jealous of it's beauty & dressed up like it to become more handsome...]

As Adrian continued his story, he found out that little Rose had already fallen asleep.

He looked at her small figure holding his clothes as she slept peacefully.

Adrian smiled & hugged Rose back. He reaffirmed his decision as he fell asleep beside her.

(...You will never be alone...)

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Little Rose was dreaming of being pampered by her Big Brother Adrian and elder Brother Leaf, as they contested over who was the better brother.

Rose laughed to herself as they continued to quarrel.

(...I love both of you, Big Brother & elder Brother.. hahahaha...)

Suddenly, her dream was interrupted by a bright light.

Something floated in her vision.

Rose became confused.

(...I was having a so much fun! Why did this stupid thing came over instead! Give me back my brothers!!...)

The interface continued to stay, until Rose chose the first in frustration.

Rose then realized that she had appeared in a jungle. She was wearing her new dress that Big Brother Adrian gave her, while a belt was hanging on her waist.

Three weird balls were stuck to the belt as well.

Rose picked out a ball and looked at it confusedly.

(...What is this? Can I eat it?...)

(...Wait! Why am I here?! Who brought me to this place?!...)

She turned her head in anger as she tried to find the culprit responsible for taking her brothers away.

She found someone quietly sitting some distance away.

She marched to him in anger as she held the ball in her hands. Her figure looked threating as she asked,

[Did you bring me here?! Send me back! Quickly!]

The figure stayed unmoved, as if ignoring all that she said.

Looking at his behavior, Rose's temper flared. She picked up the ball & threw it at that figure forcefully.

[You monster! Bring back my Brothers!!]

Suddenly, the figure disappeared as the ball was left there alone as it quivered for a while.

Then, it calmed down and fell silent.

Moments later she heard a sound,

Rose stood still for a while, after which she tried to find where that monster went away.

Later, another sound was heard,

Rose's vision turned white as she started to feel sleepy again.

She became glad as she could meet her brothers again.

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When Adrian returned to the session menu that night, he quickly started it & tried to summon his Pokemon.

[Clefairy, come out!]

Adrian became surprised, before he remembered,

(...Ah right. Clefairy can't be summoned for a while. It was badly hurt after all...)

He had planned to train Clefairy today, but it seemed it would not be possible in the near future.

Disregarding the timer, Adrian tried to discover a new area this time.

He realized that he had appeared back at the location of logging out the previous time & hence grew confident that soon he would be able to discover new Pokemon.

Adrian soon came to a clearing, which turned out to be a lake.

He became excited as he scooped up some water & tried drinking it.

[Hmm, it tastes so good! I wonder what kind of Pokemon reside here..]

Unfortunately, the timer was up soon.

His vision turned bright as sleep soon overwhelmed him.

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The night in the woods were very cold & the bonfire lighted by the group kept some monsters away.

Leaf sat by the bonfire, staring in the direction of Adrian's tent.

He had realized by now, that he no longer belonged to the realm of the living.

Leaf saw how his sister cried so hard on his death.

He saw how heartbroken she was.

Leaf had tried to embrace her, to let her know that he was still there, but it was all futile.

His sister couldn't see him anymore.

Looking at his sister drowning in the pits of suffering, Leaf couldn't take it anymore.

He decided to move on, as lingering around seemed to fulfill no purpose.

At that moment, something came to his vision.

A tail was swirling beside his sister's tent.

Leaf became terrified that some monster had decided to attack them & quickly ran towards it as he shouted,

The tail stood up abruptly and quickly disappeared from his vision.

Leaf glanced inside the tent, only to find his sister sleeping silently besides Adrian.

He turned around, when he came face to face with a woman.

She had golden ears atop her head along with a golden tail, which kept shaking left and right.

Her hair color was golden as well, just like her eye color.

She smiled at him with narrowed eyes while her fangs were visible from her smile.

Looking at these features, he knew what was in front of him.

Her tail stopped shaking and her smile vanished, as she started to look at him like she was looking at her prey.

The violet aura surrounding the girl intensified. Leaf had a feeling that something very terrible was about to happen.

Leaf's spirit trembled in fear as he backed away.

The dangerous aura surrounding Mariana stopped as she looked towards the little girl sleeping beside Adrian.

She pondered on something for a while, before her tail shook in anticipation.

Before doing anything, Mariana turned towards Leaf and asked,

Leaf became unsure of why she asked this, but he fearfully spoke the truth,

Mariana then smiled mischievously as she spoke,

Soon, Mariana disappeared from Leaf's vision, which comforted him.

He looked towards Adrian & wondered why such a dangerous spirit was haunting him.

He stepped towards his sister & tried to caress her face while he spoke,

Looking at how his hands couldn't touch Rose, he withdrew from the tent and stood guard near the tent opening.

Leaf made a resolution in his heart & abandoned his plans for passing on.

He, however, didn't know that night what Mariana was about to do...

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Chapter 25 End