Healing System

Chapter 231 Child of Shadows (11)

"Elizabeth..." Kevin let out a deep sigh before continuing,

"I don't mean to undermine your efforts, but what exactly is this?"

She drew a blob with feathers? It certainly did not help him determine what it was.

Elizabeth's brows twitched as she huddled closer and began pointing fingers. "That's supposed to be an eye, and those are wings."

Which part of that blob is an eye... Kevin felt like he was either blind, or she was bad at drawing, but nonetheless, at least it was a start.

"A massive eye with wings? Is that really what you see?"

"Yup, sometimes it appears and just wanders around my visions," she explained with a shrug.

Kevin nodded in response and asked, "Do you know what color the eye is? The color of the wings, perhaps?"

But alas, he received a puzzled expression instead.

"Now that you mention it... I don't know? I never really thought about the color. I just kind of saw an eye with wings, and that's it," Elizabeth replied, scratching her head.

"I see... It's fine," Kevin said and stood up. "Let's explore a bit; maybe we can find a way to get out of here."

She nodded back at him before standing up, and soon, they began traversing the snowy landscape.

Yet as the minutes turned to hours, it seemed like they were going in a loop, but due to Kevin's experience with loops, he was sure that was not the case.

The surroundings were changing, and not a single thing had been a repeat of what he had seen previously, meaning that this land was just that vast.

However, with each passing moment, he felt like something was off; he just couldn't quite put his finger on what.

But soon, he found out, as all of a sudden, some sort of shockwave zipped past the two of them, the force behind it even making his eyes close.

And when he reopened them, he was left shocked.

Just a moment ago, there was so much snow; however, now, there was a desert stretching out as far as the eyes could see.

The same went for the temperature, as now instead of the cold, he was feeling hot.

Noticing that Elizabeth was in a similar state as him, he summoned up a pair of shadows and covered both himself and her with them, completely negating the sun's rays.

While that was only a temporary solution, it would have to do for now, as from what he assumed, the temperature would worsen as time passed.

Even then, he was surprised it affected him at all.

But as those thoughts fell, Kevin's eyes widened since, out of nowhere, a city began emerging.

It was massive and, at first, seemed like only a single tower was heading out of the ground; soon, however, it increased to two towers, and in just a few moments, there were hundreds.

Before long, the actual city emerged, and what was even more surprising was the fact that there were people roaming the streets covered in sand.

However, as he thought that, some weird flying machines appeared and began absorbing all of the sand, rolling through the streets while the passersby simply dodged them before going about their day.

"Is that a city?" Elizabeth's shocked voice resounded, stating the obvious.

No shit.

Nonetheless, Kevin did not state his opinion, instead signaling for her to come along. "Yeah, let's go in."

The two began walking up to the desert-like city when, all of a sudden, a cement road emerged right beside them, stretching out into the city as well as the distant lands behind them.

This is a full-blown city... but is it portable or something? Kevin mused while stepping onto the road and beginning his walk over, Elizabeth trailing not too far behind him.

"This place looks like a dump," she remarked, making his brow rise.

"What makes you say that?"

She pointed at one of the towers in the distance, which appeared to be a skyscraper. "I can tumble that building in one attack. They must not be aware that there are monsters here."

"You do realize that the buildings in Vivum were the same, right?" he questioned her with a raised brow.

"That's not what I mean, princess," Elizabeth replied in an annoyed tone before saying, "Use that weird mana thingy and feel it for yourself; you'll understand what I mean."

His brow twitched at the mention of that nickname. Nonetheless, he proceeded to focus on the building she pointed out.

To his surprise, it was actually very brittle—much like the rest of the buildings scattered across the entire city.

It was almost like this whole city was a facade, yet they were a bit too close to back out now.

"Let's check it out regardless. Unless you have a better idea?" Kevin said, and she immediately did a small bow, causing his brows to furrow further.

"No, princess, let's do as you say."

... He was left speechless but decided not to argue with her, instead finally reaching the first building of the city.

And now that he did, it became apparent that whatever this place was, definitely did not house normal humans.

There were stores scattered around, yet none had any kind of food inside—or anything on the shelves, for that matter.

Almost like a placeholder.

Suddenly, Elizabeth tugged at his clothing before pointing to one of the people they had seen walking around earlier.

Just as he expected, it was not a human, but it did have some humanoid features, such as their general appearance—aside from the face.

Their face had a weird open-shaped mouth, coupled with a single green eye, making them quite terrifying to look at.

Elizabeth tightened her grip on his clothing, ripping out a piece as a repulsed expression appeared on her face.

"Disgusting..."

"Keep it down... it's coming," Kevin warned as the creature managed to catch sight of them. Instead of attacking, it simply walked up to them and bowed.

"Welcome, travelers. We don't get a lot of those nowadays. What brings you here?" it said in a completely normal male human voice.

"Mon—" Elizabeth was about to likely insult the weird being; therefore, Kevin quickly covered her mouth and interjected.

"Is there like a map of this place—or world, for that matter? We were traveling around a bunch and lost ours."

His voice was rather convincing—or at least that's what it seemed to Kevin anyway.

However, the response he got from the one-eyed being was not the one he was expecting.

"You do not need to lie." It pointed towards its eye. "We, the Mehari, can see through deceit. O Shadow human and... Valkyrie?"

As soon as its words finished, the single eye it had widened to the point where it made the already ugly mouth more ugly.

"You are a valkyrie!?" it exclaimed and began getting closer, but as it did, Elizabeth suddenly freed herself from Kevin's grasp and swiftly unsheathed her sword, pointing it at the one-eyed being.

"Kindly fuck off, please," her voice rang out, causing Kevin to practically lose his breath.

This idiot. He urgently looked toward the one-eyed being, and as he did, he noticed that it no longer looked terrifying.

Instead, it mimicked the appearance of Kevin, with just a few changes, such as eye color and height, as it was a bit shorter than him.

Nonetheless, Elizabeth retracted her sword and sheathed it. "You shouldn't get so close to someone you don't know."

"Sorry, Miss Valkyrie. I did not mean to upset you," the being replied with a soft smile before continuing,

"I thought your kind had been exterminated eons ago. It's very surprising to see someone like you, so once again, I apologize for my overreaction."

"It's okay. Don't do it again, though," she stated with an oblivious nod, earning a sigh from Kevin.

But at the same time, this topic did pique a bit of interest, as he had heard of valkyries previously.

They were a race of beings that were said to rival angels.

However, due to their similarities, they had an all-out brawl, and the valkyries did not come out on top, going pretty much extinct in that battle.

Yet here Elizabeth was—an actual valkyrie, according to this strange being from the Mehari race, a race he had never heard of.

As for himself, "Shadow human" was pretty common; it usually referred to someone who had that particular affinity, which in this case was Shadow.

"Here's a map, Miss Valkyrie—and you," the being said with respect, except for the last part, and tossed a small scroll toward her.

"Thank you," she expressed before unfolding it, and immediately, a wave of mana surged forwards, revealing a hologram-like interface that displayed the entire world they were in.

And to say it was massive was an understatement.

The desert region they found themselves in was roughly only 1/20 of the total size of this world, and there were both ice regions, similar desert-like regions, and, lastly, greenery in which countless words were written, signifying cities.

But he noticed something interesting as well, and that was the fact that not too far away from them was a desert cathedral city.

However, what surprised him the most was the black hologram that plopped down in front of his eyes.

[Explore the world and gather the pieces. You are forbidden to leave until you find them all.]

[Duration until first evaluation: 5 Years.]

Fuck...