Chapter 457 The Shielder's Sanctuary



"...Phew..." He breathed out, "That's a demi-god for you."

"Ra!" Ciel let out a small yelp to him.

Emilio wasn't happy with having to flee, relinquishing his scale armor as he sat back up, "Yeah, you don't have to rub it in my face. That guy was a monster–he wasn't lying: he really was unable to be hurt."

Picking himself up from the ground, he looked back, making sure he wasn't being pursued by the zealous satyr. It was a short, but heart-pumping encounter, leaving his blood still running hot as it wasn't often he faced something of such caliber.

'He said something important though, maybe out of complete arrogance: "as long as he stands on the soil, he's unable to be harmed"--he could've been just boasting, but I think it might be a weakness. If I can get him off of the ground, he might be vulnerable. Still, I'd rather find the others first,' he decided.

For the time being, he found himself currently faced with the situation of the odd environment before him: it was a forest of tall, interconnected trees of light-brown hides of oak.

He made sure when he fled that he went in the direction that the lightning touched down earlier, leaving him needing to cross through the peculiar region.

'If I can meet up with Sirius, it'll be tenfold easier to regroup with the others—if anybody can handle that satyr, it's him, too,' he planned.

Beginning to explore the area, he walked beneath the large, bridge-like branches, looking around as he did.

It was a somewhat unsettling environment, as the countless branches made it difficult to see far, making it far too easy for something to obscure itself from being seen. Looking up, the trees seemed to stretch endlessly high, with their end unable to be seen beneath the beading sun past them.

'I could probably get a better idea of the area up there,' he thought.

As he swung from the next branch, he ended up directly above the clearing that Everett was sitting in.

Everett was sitting on the floor of scattered, dark-red leaves, "Like I was sayin', we should all team up. With my brains, I can teach ya' all a lotta things!"

The proposal from the human was made to the curious monkeys, who only looked at him like some sort of weird, hairless relative of theirs.

"Ya see, I'm like, really smart so–"

As Everett continued, the man was interrupted as something crashed down in front of him, causing the monkeys to quickly scatter from the unknown arrival.

"Hey, wait–" Everett reached out, trying to get the red-furred friends of his to stay, though they were gone within seconds.

With the dust kicked up along with the leaves settling, Emilio showed himself to Everett, raising his hand in a greeting, "Yo, Ev."

"Emilio!" Everett smiled from ear-to-ear in surprise, "Yer here, too?! I thought I dream walked here alone or somethin'!"

"Yeah, that's definitely not what happened..." Emilio wryly chuckled, "Actually, the truth is–it's my fault you got transported here. It's not just you and me, either–Sirius and Celly are here."

Though there was definitely a reason for the shielder to be upset, Everett wasn't–he instead only looked surprised before smiling.

"Transported? So that's what that was! Awesome, ha-ha!" Everett laughed happily.

"Huh?"

Everett rubbed his upper lip excitedly, "Never thought I'd been able to experience cool magic like that in my life! You did that?"

"Well, I didn't do it, but I made the choice," he explained, "If we're going to face something as large and nefarious as the Children of Chaos, we need to all be strong enough to do so. That's why I did this–there's a temple on this island that lets you take a certain trial. If you complete it, you gain incredible power."