Chapter 285 - I Am Praying.

[ Just don't go to that place. I'll explain everything to you. ]

'Okay.'

After talking to Isadora, Noah stopped walking and then Lari stopped as well.

Emma and Lucio also stopped next and looked back.

"What happened? Did you see anything?" Her father asked curiously. As he heard everything that had happened from Isadora, Noah remained silent and without any expression on his face.

"Hey, Noah?"

Concerned, his mother approached and looked at his face.

Noah's face was pale, he was not blinking or moving.

"Is he having a bad time? We need to lay him down!" Worried, Emma held Noah's arm and had prepared to lay him down on the floor. Lari worriedly held Noah's other arm to help him.

Noah was "far" from his consciousness after hearing all that from Isadora.

His throat was dry and his breathing was irregular.

[ But you need to calm down, okay? Don't despair, your family is worried. ]

And after Isadora's warning, the light finally reached Noah's eyes, causing him to wake up.

Feeling his body breaking into a cold sweat, he took a deep breath.

"I'm fine, don't worry." He said with a shaky voice.

"No, you are not fine. You are pale and you are sweating non-stop. What are you feeling?"

"It's nothing, I'm fine. I just thought about some unnecessary things and got a little nervous." Noah's voice was still shaky. 

He was trying to stabilize himself emotionally, but it was getting harder and harder.

Noah bit his lips and felt his fingertips tingle.

At the same time tears welled up in his eyes.

His mother, father, and Lari began to worry even more. Because of this Noah took his arm, wiped his tears, and then smiled, trying to stand firm. But his trembling hands gave away his real feelings.

"Damn." Saying that Noah turned away from everyone and started walking toward the mountain again.

"Hey, Noah? What happened? You know something we don't know, right?" Emma ran after him and grabbed his shoulder.

"I don't know anything, okay? Let's just go somewhere else."

"What? Don't you want to move on?"

"The goddess contacted me again, she said we can't go there. There seems to be some kind of dragon there that is very dangerous." Slowly Noah managed to stabilize himself emotionally even though he was feeling bad.

"I see. Did you ask her about the villagers?" Lucio and Lari also started to follow Noah.

"She told me that they are on another continent at the moment and that she will do everything to bring them back. She is working on it." Noah smiled trying to disguise his lie.

But of course, his mother was well used to his ways, so she soon realized that he was lying.

She decided not to confront him there, but she would certainly do that later.

At the same time, she also began to prepare herself for what she was about to hear. 

'Something happened to all of them, I'm sure of it.' She was doing everything she could to keep calm.

####

After they walked for a few more yards, Noah turned and looked at his mother, father, and Lari.

He had calmed down a little more, so he wasn't shaking or sweating. The only thing he felt at the moment was a huge imaginary pain in his chest showing that the deaths of the villagers had affected him greatly.

His mother after noticing the look on Noah's face, soon opened her mouth to confront him.

"Something happened to everyone, didn't it? You can tell us about it." She say as her two hands trembled. She approached Noah quickly.

Without understanding, Lucio placed himself between the two.

"What is it? What's gotten into you?" He put his hands on Emma's shoulder and pulled her away.

"Noah is lying, he's hiding something from us. I know very well when he is lying. The goddess didn't talk about a dragon, she talked about the villagers, didn't she?"

'Isadora, what do I do?'

[ Tell her exactly what happened. Be prepared, because she was mentally unstable and may have a breakdown. But she will recover. But it would be different if I hadn't warned. ]

'What do you mean "different"?'

[ If your mother had found the bodies, the shock alone would have caused her to go into an irreversible state of shock. ]

'I see, I'm glad you warned me.'

[ Yes. Now I must leave. I'll be back in two days, okay? If everything goes well, maybe I'll call you even sooner. ]

'Okay, thanks.'

"Noah? Hey, Noah!"

"Hm?"

"Don't ignore me and your mother. Is it true what she said? Are you lying?"

"It was partially a lie. It is not a lie that she is arranging a way to get us home. But I lied about the dangerous dragon we might meet..." Noah smiled bitterly.

Hearing that, his father began to think about the situation a little better, and then his eyes widened.

"Don't tell me..." Saying that he started to run.

"Hey, Lucio!" Worried, Emma tried to stop him, but Noah held her hand.

"Let go of me, I need to go after him!"

"You better stay here, okay?" Noah took his mother's head and put it on his shoulder. Then he hugged her tightly.

After receiving Noah's embrace, Emma felt a sense of sadness and anguish turn inside her heart.

"You already know what happened, don't you? Don't go running off like him, stay here with me. I'm not feeling very well either, and being away from you two wouldn't do me any good." Noah was sincere with his feelings.

Because of this, his mother hugged him too, and soon after began to cry silently.

She wasn't crying scandalously like Lari when Noah ended up getting hurt, she was just crying silently over Noah's shoulder.

A person who suffers in silence is always the person who is suffering the most.

At least that's what Noah had heard since he was little.

####

Lucio ran as fast as he could as he refused to believe that all this was happening.

"It can't be, can it?" He sped up his steps, even more, causing his shoe to come off his foot after a stumble. But he didn't care, he kept running towards the red biome.

Lucio got there in a few minutes.

When he arrived, he found nothing, so he sighed in relief.

"Just as I imagined..." He took a few more steps forward and climbed a small "hill" made of dirt and covered by the red grass.

Perhaps it was the worst decision of his life.

When he reached the top of the dirt hill, the first things he could see in the distance were bodies and more bodies being eaten by wild wolves.

Small children's bodies, bodies with long hair, and also men's bodies that were almost completely eaten.

Even the bones had been partially taken away.

"What the fuck is this?" As he looked at all those bodies strewn across the reddish grass, Lucio felt a part of his soul leave his body.

He felt a discomfiting rage welling up in his body next, causing him to lose his patience and let out a scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" 

After shouting as loud as he could, Lucio began to cry and then advanced towards the wolves that were eating the remains of the villagers.

With his sword in hand, he killed all the wolves. 

After that, his legs gave out and he fell to the ground while continuing to cry.

"Why? Why did this have to happen to us?"

####

Noah was still hugging his mother, and Lari beside the two of them was crying.

It wasn't like the day Noah came close to death, she was crying low without making a fuss.

"How are you feeling?" Noah ran his hand over Emma's head.

"I'm feeling better, but I still can't accept all this."

"I feel the same way... But don't worry, I'm going to kill whoever did all this, I promise you that."

"..."

"As soon as I find the person who did this, they will be killed, I'm sure of it." 

"I'm sure of it..." Emma smiled and then turned away from Noah.

"Now I need to calm down, I can't dwell on that right now, we are in danger if we stay here any longer."

"You're right. I'll go after my dad, I'll bring him back, okay?"

"Okay. I'll stay here together with Lari."

Noah ran to where his father was.

As soon as he reached there, Noah's stomach began to twist. 

Ignoring all the bodies around him, Noah approached his father.

He was still kneeling on the ground. He wasn't crying like before, he was just silent.

"Dad, we need to go back. My mom is worried about you."

"Leave me here just a little longer."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm praying."

"I see. May I join you?"

"Of course."