She was in an empty void, running. She ran far for hours on end, yet there was no destination in sight. She wanted to escape this dream, but didn't have the power to wake up. She at least wanted to see someone in this pure emptiness. "H-Harold, where are you...?" she cried, yet her tiny voice echoed in the darkness. Squinting her eyes more into the darkness, she saw Harold. Her face brightened up. "Hey, Mina." he told her in a soft tone. Her face lit up in happiness, excited to see Harold's arrival. As she ran closer to him, she abruptly felt a sharp pain in her chest. Even in a dreamscape like this, the pain was too real to simply brush off. Looking down, it was a sword pierced right through her heart. As her mouth splurged out blood, her vision became blurry. It became suffocating and horrifying. Deep feelings of rage, fear, and despair flooded her mind as unknown voices spoke incoherently on repeat.
Mina wanted to cry, but she couldn't. Mina wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Mina wanted to die, but she couldn't. This dream was a nightmare from hell, and she wanted peace. An hour later, in her final visions of this hellscape, Harold's eyes flickered in indescribable darkness before she awoke.
She was in the nurse's office at Kane Academy. Observing the surroundings in the room, she saw Ryan lying in the bed across the room with Yue on a stool, resting her head on his bedside in a slumber. Mina, turning her head to the bed next to her, saw Harold bandaged up. Her eyes began to well up in tears. "H-Harold..." The visions of her terrifying nightmare just now flickered in her head. The bizarre and horrifying sight of the malicious darkness in Harold's eyes lingered in her mind in a side-by-side comparison to Harold's resting state. Peace. It feels like that's what this graceful silence of the nurse's office was to her.
She got out of bed and went to Harold. Watching his peaceful, sleeping face soothed her nerves. Subtly, she plants her hand on top of Harold's, staring deep in awe. Her action felt forbidden, but she wanted to let the moment seep into her mind. "H-Harold... Harold!" she instinctively said as she leaned in closer to him.
"What are you doing?" Sorrow disappointingly asked as she emerged into Mina's other hand.
At the top of her lungs, Mina screamed. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
Harold jolted out of bed, his arms and legs swinging as he was caught by surprise. "Huh...?"
He felt a warm sensation in his palms. Grasping it lightly, he looks down to see him holding Mina's hand. Mina, noticing this, screamed again. "GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
"I see that you're having fun." Harlibue says, sitting on the window ledge.
Pointing at Harlibue, Mina raises her voice to the max, managing to wake up Ryan and Yue in the process. "UAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Harold pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his palm. "Mina, stop screaming." Muffled noises from his palm were the only things that were squeezing past the crevices of his hand as Harlibue stepped toward the group. "Now, all of you must listen carefully. Due to the recent attacks, we will shelter you here until the issue has been resolved."
"So we can't go outside at all?" Yue asked, raising a finger in question.
"Nope. You already have housing, food, and protection here. Probably the best place to be in this city right now."
Harold couldn't argue against this. It was only one situation that transpired into a near-death experience for him. This was the best possible solution for their protection. "But wait, what if they were to attack the academy?" Harold questioned, seeing how the academy was a vast area. It would be very easy for invasions to occur due to its size.
"They won't do it." Harlibue responded confidently.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I'm here."
He sounded pretty confident in himself, but Harold didn't care much to look further into it. "By the way, what happened to the guy who was attacking us?" he asked before Harlibue exited the nurse's office. "I beat him. Now I have some important business to attend to. For now, just keep resting till you get better." Harlibue proceeded out of the room, his footsteps growing quieter by the second. "Damn, all of that work, just for Harlibue to beat him in the end..." Harold sighed, staring up at the ceiling. Releasing his palm from Mina's mouth, she let out a small cry. "Mina, what were you doing anyway? You woke up Ryan and Yue because you scream so much." He says as he points at the two. Yue gave a gentle smile, saying, "Oh, don't worry, it didn't bother me at all!" Yue still had in mind of her being the angel sent by God to save her. A mere disruption couldn't bring her to be angry at Mina. Ryan, on the other hand, yawned as he tucked himself in. "I'm tired, so I'm going back to sleep..."
His words didn't sound as energetic as usual. They were drained—full of defeat. Harold assumed it was due to him being tired, but before he could ask, Ryan was sound asleep. Yue, following along, decided to rest peacefully on the chair she sat in, drifting herself to sleep. Harold feels Mina trembling in his arms. She was freaking out internally. Her body shuddered, and her face was of absolute fear. Grasping her, Harold was surprised at her sudden change in mood. "Mina, what's wrong?"
"The nightmare..." she spoke. Continuing her sentence, she says, "The reason behind my actions—I had a nightmare."
He held high concern for Mina, but couldn't believe a simple nightmare caused her this much distress. "But it's simply just a nightmare. Was it that bad?"
"It was scary, and what I experienced in that nightmare felt too real... I-I don't want to sleep again." Her tiny whimpers as she clutched onto his sleeve, clasping her eyes shut as it was painful to think of. Harold carefully placed his blanket over them before snuggling in with her, gently wrapping his arms around her as they lay in bed.
Harold wasn't embarrassed about this either; his only goal at the moment was to comfort Mina. His breathing slowed as he clutched Mina close, making their bodies press against each other. In his grasp, she felt herself drifting away into a slumber, even when she tried hard to fight against the feeling. He stroked her head gently with his hand. "It'll be alright." Those words were the final blow to Mina's resistance, as she couldn't hold herself back from sleeping any longer.
As they both drifted to sleep, Konge emerged, perching himself over Mina's head. Analyzing her for a moment, he gasped. "This is..." Then, as he focused, a large source of divine light shined in that room, causing Konge to fall asleep in the aftermath.
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Harold awoke, having had one of the greatest slumbers he's had in ages. Taking a good look at Mina, she snored loudly with her drool slobbering all over his arm. "Wow... is this what heaven feels like?" Noticing Konge perched on top of Mina's head, he asks, "Konge, when did you appear?"
Konge woke up to his tone, his eyes adjusting to the morning brightness. "Oh, sorry, I was just protecting Mina, that's all." Harold recalled Mina's frightened demeanor and a nightmare that shook her to the core. He wondered if it was related to what he did in any way. "Was it because of the nightmare that Mina had?"
"Kind of." He fluttered to Harold's elbow, perching right in front of him. "Mina was in the process of turning corrupt."
"Corrupt?"
"Yes, corrupt. It's a serious matter." Konge wasn't nagging at him with a grouchy mood as per usual, but sounded more concerned than ever. "What the hell does turning corrupt mean? Like they turn evil?"
"It relates to The Everlasting Darkness I told you about a while back. Back then, when humanity fought against the darkness, people's minds grew wild. The darkness had driven them delirious. They lose their identity and only turn into a monster controlled by their dark desires. This is what it means to turn corrupt."
"W-What?! You're telling me Mina almost went crazy?!"
"Yeah. If I hadn't purified her mind with divine light, she would've turned corrupt."
"But how?!"
"That's the big issue. The Everlasting Darkness should've been extinguished ages ago, yet traces of it seeded themselves into Mina's mind."
"That means someone had done this on purpose."
A deep heaviness pulled on his chest. Harold stared at Mina's vulnerable state, shivering as his body distanced itself from her. "Someone did this to Mina...?"
"Yeah. I can't even explain how they managed to get hold of The Everlasting Darkness. It makes no sense."
Yue stirred awake, rubbing her eyes. "Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?" Harold questioned in a forgiving tone. Yawning, she arched her back as she finally opened her eyes. "No, you're fine. Don't worry." Harold made sure to keep Mina close, seeing how the lack of contact disturbed her slumber.
Konge fluttered into Yue's thigh. "I forgot to ask, but can you do something for us?"
"What would that be?" Yue replied, tilting her head.
"Are you able to make a connection with the angels? I am in desperate need of contacting them."
"Contacting angels?!"
"Yes, I want to contact them." He aimed his feathers at Harold, who sat up in bed. "The mystery of why that kiddo's Artifact was activated could be dire."
"Okay, then... if it's for the Artifact of the Heavens, I'm fine helping you both."
Yue held out her palm. "Please, touch it." Obligingly, Konge set his wing onto the palm of her hand and awaited a connection. As Yue focused, she produced a disgruntled face. "Hmm?" Harold noticed her unease and was hoping everything was going smoothly. Yue focused harder, but she came to a halt. "For some reason, I cannot contact the angels!" The news baffled Konge, leaving him in a stutter. "W-W-What...? That makes no sense."
"Normally, there is a link between nuns and the grace of God, but that link is gone! As if it never existed to begin with!" Panicked, Konge frantically tries to find a solution. "Y-You sure you still hold faith in God?! This makes absolutely no sense!" Yue releases a large bunch of Holy Rysen into the palm of her hand. "Look. If I had lost all of my faith, I wouldn't be able to produce Holy Rysen! This means the link to the heavens has been severed!"
In utter disbelief, he flopped onto Yue's thigh. "It's over..."