Chapter 74: A long-lost girl

Silence ensued around the dining table as Lily and Number 3 kept staring at each other. Number 3 was waiting for Lily to collect her thoughts and calm down a bit before she would force her to recount her experiences.

Several minutes passed in silence until Number 3 finally spoke up.

"Lily, if you feel you have calmed down enough, start by telling what happened after you got out of your illusion. From our end, everything seemed fine at that point. Make sure you don't miss even the smallest detail."

Clenching her hands into fists, Lily nodded. Wiping away the tears that started gathering in her eyes, she looked at her with a determined gaze.

"Not much happened until Aiden arrived if I'm being honest." She started. "After I bled out from my wounds, I suddenly felt that something pulled me and in the next moment I was drifting in the black swirling tunnel only to fall down to the red dirt just in front of the Old Hermit."

Lily looked at Number 3 who was focusing on her every word, and after a short pause, she continued.

"When he saw me appearing, he looked at me briefly before he closed his eyes again, and with his weirdly slow and staggered and monotone speech he told me that I completed the first part of the trial and I have to wait until brother also leaves."

Number 3 creased her eyebrows upon hearing this. 

"Did he say the word brother?"

Lily shook her head. 

"No, uhm…" she looked above as she thought back, after a while, she snapped her fingers and looked at Number 3. "I remember now! He used the phrase 'other applicant'. Is this important?"

Number 3 smiled and nodded.

"Yes. It means that everything was fine at this point. You see, the being that was inside the Guardian was called "The Nightmare". They are a spectral race, not directly from our world. It's not easy to describe what they actually are, but let's say that they feed on your… hmmm…" Number 3 clearly had a hard time describing how these beings worked. For several seconds she kept mumbling inaudibly before she looked at Lily and continued. 

"...they feed on something that is hard for us to understand. They feed on their hosts negative... emotions, so to speak. Like Anger, Sadness, Despair… feelings like that. They feed on these and convert it to their own energy, but we should not get into this for now as it would take too long to explain in a way you would understand. Can you follow me until this point Lily?"

Lily silently nodded her head in response, and Number 3 seeing that continued.

"They invade others and influence their emotions. As the host grows more and more unbalanced, the more power they can siphon out of them, growing stronger in the process, until they take away enough to leave behind only an empty husk. The Old Man was housing such a being, a relatively high level one at that. We thought we had control over it but in the end… in turns out we were so wrong."

At this point, Number 3 looked at the ceiling and sighed audibly as if the exhale all the pain her arrogance had caused. Reeling it was a fruitless effort, she looked at Lily with pain still lingering in her gaze."

"Anyways… Lily if you could, please continue."

Seeing her pained state, Lily didn't know how to react. A few seconds of silence ensued once again, as Lily kept looking at Number 3 with a troubled expression.

"Lily, please… continue. For Aiden's sake." Number 3 broke the silence once again.

Somewhat flustered, Lily jumped on her seat, then hung her head apologetically. Though snapped from her reverie, it was clear she still had something on her mind. For now, however, she pushed that thought back and continued to recount her tale.

"Not much happened after that until Aiden also left his illusion. I rested mostly on the ground, while the Old Man just stood still like a statue. It was creepy, he was so good at it, it was kind of unnatural…" Lily thought back. 

"I see. So, everything was in order until that point. Good. Please continue." Number 3 said.

"Yes… After a short while, Aiden also arrived. I'm not sure what happened to him in his illusion, but he arrived similarly to me: appearing out of nowhere and plopping on the ground."

"Okay, so far so good. Continue" Number 3 ordered.

Lily nodded and continued recounting the story from her point of view.

---

Meanwhile, as those two were talking, Granny was sitting at the foot of Aiden's bed with her golden glowing eyes. Pulling back his red ragged clothes from her right hand, she placed it on Aiden's chest. She could feel his steady breathing, which just raised even more questions. Is he conscious or not? At least, his life was not in danger, he looked as if he was in a peaceful sleep.

She focused on her hand, whispering a single word that while it would have sounded gibberish to most, they would have still felt the tremendous amount of power that single phrase carried.

*THUM*

As the chant left her mouth, a powerful force gushed from her hand and hit Aiden's chest, crashing into him with a loud sound. 

"What? How?" Granny was astonished upon seeing this reaction. "This is impossible! What is happening? Why can't I scan his vitals, what is this force that can repel even me? Is this him?" she muttered in disbelief. 

"Let's try again…" she muttered and once again, sent the same force, trying to invade Aiden's body. However, the same situation played out, an invisible boundary repelled her attempt reflecting the attack back to her, throwing her hand up in the air.

"This is incredible…" she mumbled as she pulled her hands back. Whatever was happening, it was clear that Aiden was still alive, just in some sort of deep sleep. At the same time, some incredibly dense energy surrounded him, protecting him, shielding him from all kinds of harm.

Thinking about all of this, Granny sighed, as she gently patted Aiden's chest. 

"Even if I can't check what happened to you, I'm glad that you seem to be fine, Aiden. Once you wake up, I hope we can sit down and talk. If what I think is true, then you are her son… If it's true…" she turned her head, facing the window. Silently, as tears started to flow down on her wrinkled face, she wept, mourning someone she thought she lost forever.

But now, for the first time in forever, a small light flickered in the dark, giving rise to new hope. While she was afraid to decisively grab onto it, fearing it's just an illusion, she still wished from the depth of her heart that it was true. That her dear daughter is somewhere out there...

---

Inside Aiden's Soul Space, the visage of a curvaceous mature woman was looking in front of her. She didn't have a body in a regular sense, it was more of a visage, an apparition formed from the surrounding energies. She was currently reading information from a screen that was floating in front of her. 

If Aiden could see it, he would recognize that this was his system, only that this was a section that was currently not available to him. It was similar to the status screen, but instead of showing numerical values, it showed various signals and strange symbols.

The woman sighed after a while, and waved with her hand, removing the screen. Taking a step forward, a chair made of the strange white energy formed behind her, as she sat down. 

[Aiden, Aiden… why can't you listen to me… Once again, you used too much of your energy and overtaxed yourself. Also, using the new half-completed evolution of yours, the damage to your soul is substantial and will require time to heal. *Sigh* You can only blame yourself for this…]

She looked up, and while the Soul Space was a sort of separate, boundless dimension, she looked as if she could see through it.

[However, while you recuperate, the others are clueless about what's happening, and we can't inform them… There is an option, but that would require me to once again, do something that will cost you.]

Raising her right hand, she looked at it as a ball of white energy formed in it. Grabbing it, she squeezed it a few times, as she sighed once again.

[Still… You would agree with going through with it, right?]

A caring, gentle smile crept up on her face, as she squeezed the ball of energy once again. Then, as she came to a decision, she threw the ball. After flying a few meters in the air, the ball exploded, transforming into a white gate, similar to the black one Aiden and Lily used in the Pocket World.

Smiling one last time, the figure stood up and vanished as she stepped into the swirling mass of white energy.