Chapter 114 Value Of Friendship

It felt as if he was pulled out of the darkness when both Mathias and Bella grasped his arms, shaking him lightly.

During the last few hours, Nial had been unmoving, while the dark energy currents had enveloped him tightly.

Massive surges of energy had entered his body, but they had been sure that nothing serious was going to happen to Nial.

Both of them could sense that he was gaining from what was happening, even though they had no idea what exactly he was doing.

However, it was only a few minutes before they finally reached Nial that something fundamental was changing around their friend.

His facial expressions were worsening, turning his slightly pained but rather calm expression into something that was overflowing with unbearable pain and desperation.

When Bella and Mathias saw this, they knew that something was going wrong.

Without even thinking about it, the two friends rushed towards Nial, ignoring the darkness currents that were tightly enveloping Nial's body as if they were a second layer of his skin.

Oddly enough, the darkness currents seemed to have partially merged with his skin, preventing Bella from getting through it as the darkness repelled her.

Meanwhile, Mathias was not repelled by the darkness, but upon getting hold of Nial, his hand felt as if it had been set on fire.

And when he retracted it, the young man noticed almost instantaneously that Nial's situation was far more dangerous than initially expected.

Mathias' hand seemed to have shrunk in size, the layer of fat on his entire arm devoured, making it look as if his arm was malnourished and thin as a stick.

Upon seeing him stare in horror at his hands, Bella instinctively activated her Innate ability before circulating golden mana currents through Mathias' entire arm.

Her control over her Innate ability was far from perfect, and the extent to which her Innate talent was released was well below 0.1%, but even then, she was considered the most powerful among the three.

After all, there was a reason her Innate ability was called [Celestial transformation], and it was certainly not only to provide her entire being with drastic boosts in all of her characteristics upon activation!

Right now, she was exhausted from fighting the Lesser Titan youngling as she had activated both the [Celestial Transformation] and the [Outburst] ability, overlapping them with each other.

But even then, Bella was unable to hold back anymore as both of her new friends seemed to be in danger.

Thus, she prevented Mathias' entire body from being deprived of nutrition with the use of her highly purifying mana that was intertwined with healing traits.

Enveloping Mathias with it, and even provided him the opportunity to grasp Nial firmly.

Bella got hold of Nial, ignoring the repulsive force as she forced her way through the darkness currents, while tightly grasping his arm with worry glimmering in his eyes.

"You have to come back to us!! Just what are you doing?" She screamed at the top of her lungs, not sure what was going on with Nial.

On the other hand, Mathias had reached his friend's other arm, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation that spread through his right arm as he began to shout out as well.

"Nial….hey Nial!! Are you fine? You have to wake up now!!"

At this moment, Nial's eyes that had slowly been adopting a pitch-black color that resembled the darkest parts of the abyss regained their white, and lackluster color.

Seeing this, both Bella and Mathias couldn't help but sigh in relief, smiling brightly as they looked at Nial.

After a few moments, they turned their heads toward each other before giving their friend a thumbs up.

They were unsure of what had happened to Nial, but seeing that he was regaining his senses, everything seemed to be fine.

Taking a few heavy breaths, Nial's mind was a mess.

He was still hyperventilating, but the Titan heart had finally been devoured, and the changes within his body completed.

As such, the darkness currents were slowly receding and returning to the Odyssey seed.

It had grown in size, forcing Nial's constitution to adjust in a minuscule manner.

From the looks of it, the young and athletic Nial had gained some muscles.

It might not be much, but the difference was visible.

The same could be said about the fact that his constitution had been improved, including his physical strength, the size of his mana core, and his ability to wield mana.

Earlier, his skills were exceptional in the fields of absorbing and controlling mana.

His mana veins were still growing and of the superior grade, after all.

But right in this second, Nial felt that the surrounding mana was fully under his control and that his further enlarged mana core could annex everything within seconds.

This didn't decrease the panic that spread through his mind, but it forcefully distracted him.

Circulating mana through his body, while absorbing more from the surrounding, Nial could still feel the pain radiating from his arms.

It was not an unbearably painful sensation anymore, but owing to the fact that both the Odyssey seed and the mana core had now calmed down, the pain was the only thing that he could clearly feel.

Letting out a sigh, he perceived his friends, their exhaustion, and also the remnants of his dark energy currents that had affected Mathias' arm.

This caused him to jump up from the Titan's chest as he swayed a bit while walking towards Mathias, and slumped to the ground right in front of him before he cursed,

"Fuck…was that my doing?!?"

Nial had no recollection of what he did while absorbing the Titan heart.

As such, he was not sure what had happened, and how his friends had awoken him.

But when perceiving how severely injured Mathias' entire arm looked, Nial couldn't help but feel as if his throat was constricting.

Not a single word of an apology left his mouth, and he was too stunned about what was going on.

It was almost as if he had momentarily turned mute, only to hear Mathias' voice ringing in his ears.

"Don't worry about that. I needed to lose some weight either way. I will just consider this as the result of my dieting!"

Clearly perceiving that Mathias was genuine with what he said and that his friend was not angry about what had happened, Nial couldn't help but feel as if a heavy weight had been lifted from him.

Meanwhile, Bella could only look at the situation ahead with conflicted emotions.

She was not affected by the dark energy currents because her transmuted mana had been more than enough to dispel before any kind of permanent side effect would kick in.

But even then, Bella was unable to lift her gaze from Nial, and was trying to analyze what must have happened to her friend upon coming in contact with the Lesser Titan youngling.

He was the one to have spotted it first before calling it a Lesser Titan youngling all of a sudden and then spent several hours sitting on top of its chest, right above its heart.

In the end, this was not even everything that was confusing as Bella had also noticed the subtle difference in Nial's demeanor.

This was something she noticed only once, and it was just a few seconds that he acted out of the ordinary.

But even then, his control over the black miasma and the dark energy currents was quite high, which was confusing as it had appeared as if he was losing it.

Bella knew that Nial could manifest the black miasma with the use of a large amount of mana.

However, even then, his control over it had never been that precise before.

She wanted to believe that his proficiency had elevated owing to whatever he did with the Titan heart, but the entire situation seemed to be different from before.

And, as if it was the final sign, Nial's latest reaction had also been weird, making her feel as if the darkness currents had taken control over him.

This made her worry a lot.

It was not about her own safety or anything like that, but more about what would happen to her friend.

Despite feeling as if she was weaker than initially thought, Bella knew for a fact that she could survive any kind of situation if demanded.

Her Innate ability was not as simple as an ordinary transformation, after all.

Just like hers, Bella could tell that Nial's situation was not ordinary, either.

'He is definitely hiding something. Even if he bound a Curse to his mana core….this is definitely not normal!!'

It was obvious that he was hiding things, but Bella and even Mathias were the same.

All of them had their own huge secret, and it would take some time before they could trust each other to the extent that they felt comfortable revealing their deepest thoughts and the secrets nobody knew about.

They had their own reasons to hide those secrets from even their close ones, but they knew that right now they needed one another.

This was what brought them together- the feeling that they would be able to understand each other, that it was possible for them to become a pillar of support for the other.

Whether it was their destiny or a mere coincidence that had led them to meet each in that basement didn't really matter.

Right now they were together, and they had to survive the first mission of the Teradan military camp.

As such, even if it was impossible for them to fully trust one another, for now, they had to overcome the hurdles and find a way to pave their through the numerous obstacles without losing anyone!

The group of three took several minutes to calm down, speaking to each other in order to be fully informed about everything that had happened, the three of them began to smile once again.

The last two days had been quite harsh, and all of them were quite exhausted.

But even then, the time the group of three had spent together was enjoyable, and they got to know each other quite well.

After the dangerous situations they had overcome, they now had a fair idea of the flaws of their friends, what they were good at, and even how to help them to improve further.

If they had the necessary time, they would train for a few days, or possibly weeks before searching for the Teradan military camp's base.

However, their current situation certainly did not allow them that luxury.

After all, the runic armaments they picked up from the Goblin Shaman were a bad sign, and so was the Lesser Titan youngling.

The situation on Jundra, their beloved, yet extremely dangerous planet, seemed to be much worse than initially expected.

This worried the three as mankind's future seemed bleak causing them to worry a lot.

At that very moment, a familiar voice rang out from behind them.

"I just came out for a smoke, and what the hell am I seeing here?"