Chapter 289 Intercepted

A/N: There is a poll on Discord in #events-committee channel. It's to gauge reader preference so that I can decide on how to write an upcoming arc. Please take the time to leave a response there. OR check comments of this chapter.

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Dora never expected to travel so far and wide across the Empire in her entire life. Her world was quite small, spanning only the limits of Twilight Village and a few kilometres into the nearby forest including Fancy's meadow. Speaking of-

"I hope Fancy is doing okay... It's disappointing that I couldn't take all those beautiful flowers from that flower shop in the Capital. She would have loved those amazing colours!" Dora murmured forlornly as she halted her skip and observed the array of wildflowers growing near the outskirts of Resting Town.

She used to be so envious of Kano when he went to Radiant City with Medium Sis' family. Her brother brought back so many fun stories and even more souvenirs that it made her head spin!

"I'll defeat him this time!"

She purchased twice the amount of souvenirs and visited twice the number of exotic places. In fact, she was ready to declare with adamant certainty that the Capital was in a league of its own.

"Radiant City is nothing compared to the Capital."

It was massive! It was bright! It had so many people! It had so many shops! It had everything, and more! Of course, she hadn't yet properly been to Radiant City to make a proper judgement, but she didn't care. Kano hadn't been to the Capital either, what would he know?

Dora grew giddy just thinking back to her short yet eventful time at Sunspear.

"Unfortunately, we had to cut our trip short," she said with a disappointed sigh. There were so many more places to visit, though Father and Medium Sis didn't allow her to go. It was disappointing, but she trusted her Father in that he would never do anything that would hurt her or make her feel bad. Where did this confidence come from? Dora couldn't say, it just felt... right?

Dora wasn't old enough to question the meaning behind her emotions. Unlike Kano, who went through training as an artist and was required to be critical about his emotions and feelings, she lived a more upbeat and carefree life. She lowered herself and took a deep whiff of a multicoloured flower, only to reel back with disgust.

"Pheeeew!" She evoked with a scrunched-up face. "It looks so good, but smells horrible."

As she gently guided her discombobulated senses back to normalcy, she noticed something happening around her, which was that absolutely nothing was happening around her. There was complete and utter silence, which was a first. Her usual day was filled with the constant noise of either people or animals. Even the wind, which was just white noise for others, reverberated with unimportant chatter. The only way Dora could ever find solace from all that commotion was to drown it with her own. That was until her Father introduced her to the magical meditation technique called Yoga. It completely changed Dora's life as she no longer had to waste energy to suppress the annoying sounds. She could now live a normal life, and make friends, and people didn't hate her anymore.

But this silence... It was chilling. It wasn't the same, pleasant tranquillity that Yoga gave her. The silence achieved through Yoga felt like true peace - like when a rippling pond becomes completely still. The silence here was as if the pond was empty of water altogether! It was like everyone and everything capable of speaking (to Dora) had just suddenly disappeared.

It was like a completely new world for her. However, it did not come as a pleasant surprise. A life of constant cacophony was her baseline, to be deprived of it so abruptly was unsettling. A creeping sense of foreboding started to bubble up from within as she swivelled her head around. She'd travelled through denser forests than the comparatively sparse shrubbery around her, but the eerie stillness amplified the sense of isolation and claustrophobia fostered by the unusually towering trees. Her breathing grew quicker subconsciously and cold sweats started to form all over her back. She never would have thought that she would suddenly crave the irksome droning of the many tiny insects that haphazardly buzzed around her.

A snap from the breaking of a twig!

Dora's head darted towards the sound, and her eyes grew narrow. There was nothing there.

A crunch from the crumpling of fallen, dry leaves!

This came from the opposite direction, and Dora's eyes tracked it instinctively. Again, nothing.

Silence reigned once again.

Dora shrank into herself as her anxiety grew rapidly. Her whole body was frozen in place - she did not know what to do!

.

.

.

"Dora-"

"AAAAAAAAA!" A primal shriek filled with all the fear her tiny body could accumulate escaped from Dora's lips. She held her head between her arms and collapsed onto the ground in a fetal position.

"Dora?"

"Don't kill me please..." Dora wept. Her words came out muffled as they had to travel through layers of clothes, snot and tears. "I'm so weak and skinny. Please don't eat me!"

"Eat you- Dora!"

"Uuuuu- Eh? Medium Sis?!" Dora exclaimed in surprise.

"What are you doing on the ground?" Jean asked. Although her Medium Sis couldn't show much on her face, Dora was an expert at reading her expressions. And right now, her Medium Sis was confused and concerned.

"I thought you were an animal ready to pounce on and eat me," Dora responded while wiping away the tears from her face while hurriedly standing up on her feet.

"An animal that talks and knows your name?" Jean retorted.

"You never know," Dora said with a distant scowl. "Birds tend to spread weird rumours about you."

"Birds?"

"Yeah! Especially sparrows! They can't even remember that much, but they somehow catch you just when you're doing something embarrassing and never let it up until the whole world knows what you did!" Dora complained exasperatedly. "Did you know that the sparrows in the Capital knew what I did last summer?"

"What did you do last summer?"

"Well Kano was being really annoying, so I-" Dora held her tongue and gave Jean a betrayed look. "I didn't do anything!"

"Okay..." Jean drawled. As she did so, a little head poked out from behind her legs, surprising Dora.

"Oh? Who's this?"

"Ah, right. Dora, meet Kili. She's your age," Jean introduced while moving the shy girl forward.

"Hello, Kili! I'm Dora. Nice to meet you!" Dora extended her hand as a greeting, but the other girl flinched and quickly hid behind Jean's leg.

"You called-"

"AAAAAAAAA!" Dora bellowed in fear as another voice spoke up from behind her. Once again, she collapsed onto the ground in a complete fetal position with her head tucked securely between her arms.

"Don't kill me, please! I'm so weak and skinny. Please don't eat me!"

"Ummm..."

"It's okay, Josie," Jean assuaged quickly. "She's just a bit on edge."

"As you say, Young Miss. You called this slave?"

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Jean hung her head low and produced two phials from her jacket.

"It seems that the Young Miss has settled on an option," Josie confirmed with a thoughtful nod. "Is the Young Miss certain?"

"There's no point thinking about this any further," Jean shot back decisively. "Do what must be done."

"A standard Teleportation Ritual Formation should suffice."

Jean furrowed her brows and said, "Would that cause any issues with the blood sample? It contains the required antibodies, we don't want them to be affected in any way."

"We have been transporting ingredients for many years, this slave is certain that nothing adverse will occur," Josie assuaged before pulling out a chalk from her coat pocket. "Please stand clear. This formation is quite exhaustive."

And with that said, the woman got to work. She first started with a large circle with a diameter of around 5 metres. Then, working inwards from the circumference, she started to draw the rest of the convoluted mess of a ritual formation.

Jean in turn took Dora and Kili and sat down on a large rock outcropping nearby. While Dora curiously inspected the flower growing atop a common Vicarious Shadow Fungus and introduced it to Kili with a serious expression on her face, Jean thought over her next move.

After extracting two phials of blood from Kili, amounting to 500ml in total, she decided to go down the path that would be more in favour of the girl's wellbeing. It was the right thing to do, Jean believed.

If the girl wanted to save others, it was her prerogative. Unfortunately, the little girl wasn't old enough or in the right frame of mind to make that decision.

Jean gazed at the precocious pair playing around. She felt... warm seeing the dreary girl sporting a faint smile.

'It was the right decision sneaking her out of the quarantine.'

Living amidst the dying wasn't conducive to a developing mind. Kili's life should be filled with warmth, happiness and lots of love. Jean was prepared to provide all of it for her.

Josie was nothing but efficient. Within minutes, a massive ritual formation materialised in the clearing between trees.

"It's hard to believe that something this big is needed to just transport two phials," Jean commented.

"Teleportation is high-grade magic after all," Josie shrugged. "Now then, Young Miss, if you will?"

Jean leapt off her rock and moved towards Josie.

Just then-

"Huh?" Dora exclaimed out loud. The movement caught Josie and Jean's eye as the girl's expression turned complicated and started to quickly warp with fear.

Josie followed Dora's gaze and allowed her mana sense to extend in that direction. There was nothing.

Until the very next second, an object with a substantial mana signature came barrelling towards them. Trees were turned to splinters as what appeared to be a man came hurtling precariously but with grave purpose.

"RUN!" Josie yelled before she leapt forward and intercepted the man just as he appeared in the clearing.

"MEET. AGAIN." The man rasped. "KILL! ASSIMILATE!"