230 Goodbye (2)
Blake patted Amy’s back and called out softly to her. “Amy.”
Amy had stopped sobbing loudly, but she still kept her eyes pressed onto Blake’s chest, not wanting him to see her red eyes that were filled with tears. But when he called out to him, Amy looked up nonetheless.
With their eyes staring at each other, Blake finally began to speak, “Amy, please listen closely, I have something important to tell you.”
Blake then really slowly put her feet down while keeping his grip on her body, making sure she didn’t tremble and fall. Although Amy yielded and let go of her grip on Blake’s chest, she didn’t want to let go of Blake completely and kept her hands on Blake’s.
Blake let it happen and continued speaking. “Amy, you probably have a lot of questions you want to ask me, but you can keep them until the next time we meet. I have a little time left before I go back, and I need to tell you some things first.”
“You will come visit me again, brother?”
“Of course, I promise you that.”
“Thank you.” Amy smiled, a smile that represented all her earlier burdens and worried thoughts fading away. She did have a lot of questions, mostly about what had happened to him that made him look like the exact textbook description of a demon, but she kept it to herself as Blake had told her to do.
“Amy, in short, I now live in the demon realm. It’s so far away from here.”
.....
“And although the demons were almost exactly like the books said, they’re violent and killed others to get stronger, I found myself at home there. Despite all the killings and enemies everywhere, I met a few people that were so close to me, like my best friend Robus.” Blake pointed at one of the branches on the trees, the small Robus looking over the two of them as he watched silently.
“Amy, please understand that I really want to take you there with me, but you wouldn’t be able to survive over there. And I wouldn’t be able to protect you yet with the strength I currently have.”
“But do remember that I’ve promised you to come back here. And I will find a way for you to leave this world and not be involved in the war with the demons on the other side of the gate.”
“And yes, Amy, not all demons were connected with each other. They all just do their own thing. If you could come with me, we don’t have to involve ourselves in wars with humans or anything like that. Later, when I learned how, we could even find a safe place for you to live in another human world.”
“But it all will happen later, I still can’t do any of that, right now…”
“So Amy, please, I wish you will get yourselves as strong as possible, but don’t stand out too much, and please do your best to not get involved in the war.”
“Although the playing field seemed even right now, the demons were only biding their time. The moment the world on the other side was filled with enough nether, then the real powerhouses will descend to the world and there wouldn’t be any more war, there would only be slaughter.”
“As you can see earlier, even without casting a single spell, I, who had only been a demon for more than a month, was stronger than Jake who had been training with mana ever since he could walk.”
“So please, Amy, be strong, avoid the war with demons, and please, wait for me. I will try my hardest to go back here and pick you up as soon as I find a way to do it.”
'
Although he made sure that he said all the words clearly and slowly so that Amy would understand him, Blake had said so much that it took Amy a couple of seconds to process all that. She understood what he meant, but she got questions about several things that really mattered to her.
“Brother, when exactly will you go back…?”
“I don’t know yet. It might take me a few months, a year, or even maybe a decade. But I will try my hardest. I would never slack off a single day to find a way to come meet you again and bring you with me.”
“But 10 years is a very long time brother… Can I just come with you, right now…?”
[00:00:27]
Thinking about how she cried her heart out after just about a month of him disappearing, the thoughts of wanting to just grab Amy right here and right now and bring her to the portal to the demon realm rose to the top of his mind. He really wanted to do that as he also didn’t know how long he would be gone.
But Blake also didn’t want to risk something dangerous happening to her over there. He didn’t even know whether she could breathe the air of the demon realm, how could he let him live there?
Between the thoughts of letting her cry and possibly resenting him with the thought of indirectly killing her, of course, Blake chose the former.
“I’m really sorry Amy, I can’t really bring you there right now. I did not know what would happen to you, you could die the first second you step foot there with the amount of nether there.”
[00:00:10]
“But brother… How could I survive here 10 years alone without you…” Amy held Blake’s hands tighter than ever, seemingly not wanting him even to take a single step away from her.
“No… I couldn’t do it…”
[00:00:05]
Blake gritted his teeth as he couldn’t come up with any solutions.
He knew he was being cruel to the girl who probably had waited for his return every day for more than a month, only for him to return for a few hours and then disappear right in front of her again, telling her to wait for 10 more years, which was more than enough time for her to grow into an adult and had her own life to take care of.
Truthfully, Blake even thought about whether she would still remember him and cared for him if he was really gone for ten whole years without seeing her at all.
But before he could think of anything, a cold mechanical voice resounded in his mind.
[00:00:00]
[Good job in surviving in the poor nether environment! System will open the portal back to the demon realm as soon as possible!]
“No, no, wait!”
Blake tried to tell the system to give him a couple more minutes, but it didn’t seem to have understood his circumstances.
Instead of gathering the nether in the surroundings like what happened in the demon realm, Blake felt an abundant amount of nether come from within himself. It was different from the usual nether tank that he used for his spells as it felt like it came from another place, unknown to him.
The nether then began gathering at one spot, right behind Blake as a swirl of the dark portal began to take shape, and the pulling force began to take effect on Blake’s body.
“Wait! I am not done talking yet!”
Once again, his plea fell on deaf ears.
The light swirl of the dark portal continued growing bigger and bigger as it was now big enough for Blake’s whole body to go through it, which means the pulling force was now exponentially stronger than before.
And even with his enhanced physique, Blake was barely able to keep himself standing in place. And it would only be a matter of time before his feet were rooted from the ground, making any of Blake’s effort to stay firm on the ground useless.
“Amy!” Blake half-screamed as he kept his body away from the portal as strongly as he could.
“3 years!”
“Just wait for three years! I will find you again in three years!” Blake said as the strength in his body finally lost to the pulling force of the portal.
“Robus! Let’s go!”
“Brother!!!” Amy said as she tried to follow Blake inside the portal. She didn’t feel any of the pulling force that Blake said, just like how the bracelet that he threw didn’t get sucked into the portal with him back then.
“Robus, please…” Blake last said before he let his body completely go into the portal.
Understanding what his best friend meant, Robus who was ready to leap into the portal, leaped to the ground in front of Amy instead.
“What are you doi-”
Amy’s words were cut off as Robus jumped a little and nudged Amy’s stomach.
It might be a little nudge for Robus, but for Amy, she felt as if her whole body was rammed by a bull, her body which only had a small degree of mana training couldn’t do anything as it was thrown 5 meters away with a single nudge of Robus’ hands.
“Sor..ry” Robus said to the girl before he also disappeared into the dark portal that would take him back to his home.