Chapter 214 - Fear Of The Unknown

"Over here!" Gem said when she noticed Lei's presence following her on the rooftop.

"Is that all?" Lei asked with panting breath.

"I'm not sure. Maybe you should go around and check if there's more that Venedette and Von had probably missed while I move these things inside Solitude."

"You could do that?" 

"I guess so, that's the only choice we've got since none of us left here could fly and we can't bring these downstairs to move them even further away."

"Okay then, I'll let you know when I find more," Lei said and hurried away while Gem started with her task of bringing all these sacks of Foeruses inside Solitude.

"Can I just order you to transport these stuff in Solitude Mr. Gemini? Or do I have to carry them myself as I move to Solitude?"

[You can bring anything inside Solitude as long as you have contact with it, Master,] Mr.. Gemini responded with his husky old man's voice.

"Okay." Gem nodded and placed her hand on top of one of the sacks of Foeruses which she was careful not to touch because of its fire element when in contact. 

"Bring me to Solitude, Mr. Gemini," Gem said and closed her eyes.

[Roger that, Master.]

And as soon as Gem felt the chilling atmosphere she was used to dealing with inside Solitude, she quickly opened her eyes, expecting all the sacks of Foeruses to be with her inside of it.

But there was none.

"Why didn't it work?" Gem complained and even checked her surroundings to see if she just missed seeing four sacks of Feoruses under her hand.

But there was really none.

"Okay, bring me back to the real world then, Mr. Gemini."

[Roger that,]

"We really need to hurry so Fily could already blow those stuff away from the castle," Gem muttered to herself after taking a deep breath in before closing her eyes for the travel.

"What happened?" Lei greeted her with a bunch of Foeruses wrapped around his sticky rope which he was putting inside the other empty sack beside Gem.

"I think I need to carry them with me," Gem said while pointing at the melting sacks of Foeruses restlessly.

"Okay then… How about this?" Lei said and gave Gem his sticky rope full of Foeruses.

"Is there a limit of how many things you can bring inside Solitude?" he added while making sure the Foeruses were wrapped nicely around his rope.

"No… I don't know, Mr. Gemini said I need to be in contact with the items to bring them inside," Gem said while watching Lei wrap more Feoruses around his rope.

"Wait! How about we wrap this rope around the whole sack!?" Gem said while patting Lei's shoulders in front of her.

"Okay?" Lei said and quickly circled around the first sack of Foeruses where he was getting the initial Foeruses he wrapped around his rope earlier.

"Do it quick before the Foeruses melts!" Lei said and signaled for Gem to go.

"Alright!" Gem said and quickly ordered Mr. Gemini to bring her in while she was holding the sticky rope full of Foeruses and wrapped around one sack by the end.

"Ahh! Did it work?!" Gem asked herself frustratedly before opening her eyes slowly.

"The sticky rope, yes, and…" Gem muttered to herself after seeing the sticky rope still on her hands and tracing it down to the sack of Foerus not far from her.

"Yes! It worked!" Gem shouted and jumped before shaking her head and reminding herself to focus on her task before celebrating.

"Okay, let's do this again," Gem said and wished to be brought back to the real world again after dismantling the sack of Foeruses away from the Sticky rope and holding it tightly by her chest.

"It worked?" Lei greeted her to which she immediately responded with an enthusiastic nod.

"Okay, let's keep on doing that," Lei said and quickly put his words to work by wrapping two more sacks of Foeruses on his sticky rope which Gem was holding tightly.

"Are you not getting hurt by the Foeruses' fire?" Gem asked with concern after noticing him not using anything such as a glove to protect his skin from the boiling temperature of the Foerus rocks.

"No, I'm used to it. Now quickly, go," Lei said which prompted Gem to order Mr. Gemini to send her to Solitude again even though she could clearly see that Lei was lying based on his hands getting full of burns and scars.

"Okay, last one," Gem said and took a deep breath before exiting Solitude again, furthermore reminding herself to help cure Lei's hands after all of this, to which she could not help but do first before going back to Solitude when Lei already told her to go.

"Wait, your hands," Gem said and threw a ball of healing slime to Lei which he flawlessly caught with his instincts and immediately cured his hands.

And without even having the chance to say his thanks, Gem already left for Solitude without a word, and Lei, being the serious workaholic person that he was, just shrugged it off and opened his Stat-hut to tell Fily and the others about their mission success.

"She'll be back anyway," Lei muttered to himself and sat down on the roof while watching Fily blow off those almost invisible black lily powder that made the air up there dimmer and the air much less refreshing to breathe into.

***

"Okay, bring me back to the real world now, Mr. Gemini," Gem said and closed her eyes, ready to go back to the real world and just lay on her bed for the rest of the day.

But instead of Mr. Gemini's usual response, Gem was met with silence that was not usually the case when she went inside Solitude repeatedly.

"Mr. Gemini? What happened? Why aren't you answering?" Gem asked.

But still, there was no response from either Mr. Gemini or Lady, making Gem's heart beat faster and nervous for not knowing what's wrong.

"Okay? Are you playing with me, Mr. Gemini? Lady?" Gem asked while looking around cautiously.

"Stop it now… I'm really getting scared," Gem added before trying to raise her Stat-hut from the ground, but still, there was no response.

It was as if she had broken the place Solitude by using it repeatedly in just under an hour.

"Oh no… What have I done?" Gem said and fell down on her knees, feeling rather cold and lonely inside the same place which she thought she had gotten used to already.

After a long minute of overthinking about what happened, Gem finally stood up and inspected the four sacks of Foeruses which should have disappeared every time she would leave Solitude just like the pen and paper that she had accidentally left in here a month ago.

"I wonder what happened? Why is this still here? Did I break Solitude?" Gem said and touched the blazing rock.

"Ouch!" she said and noticed the blue liquid crawling through her skin to patch up the area where she got her hand hurt.

"But the healing slimes are still working though…" Gem pondered even more while watching the healing slime complete its work.

And it was not long after that, Gem ducked and felt an ominous presence with her inside Solitude, something that attempted to punch her head from the back which immediately made Gem's heart racing from the fear of the unknown.

"Who's there!?" Gem demanded even though she could not see anyone else besides her.

"It definitely felt like someone was trying to reach my head…" Gem thought while holding her necklace dearly.

"Mr. Gemini? Lady? Can you hear me? Why aren't you talking? What happened?" Gem tried communicating with her systems again but still, there was no answer. 

"Arggh, this is so frustrating… how can I go back to the real world now??" Gem said while kicking the empty space in front of her just to express her frustration.

But upon doing so, Gem felt something solid in front of her and even heard a little "ow" from the invisible thing that she just hit which made her jerk away and stand in an offensive position as she heightened her senses to locate that invisible thing or person that she just hit with her feet earlier.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Gem said and noticed her Salamandite glowing immensely as if it was following the loud beating of her heart.

"She's doing it!" the same little voice said and ran away from her, based on the little footsteps she was hearing with her super senses.

But instead of one, Gem suddenly felt like there was more of the little invisible guy around her, also running away from her as her Salamandite's blue light became much more visible and bright across the almost empty white space of the Solitude.

"What's happening here?" Gem said with a dry throat as the fear of the unknown kept creeping inside her soul.