'The girl from the bookstore? She is behind them?' He felt fear creep up behind him. He turned to face the lady.
Taking a step back from her grip, Naph questioned, "Why should I believe you? You could be lying to me! I don't even know you."
He moved his hand to his ride's handle, prepared to make a run for it.
Her eyes did not flick to his hand, but she answered with a smile. "Running won't help you now. And it certainly will make our job a little harder." Pointing around at all the streets that enter this particular crossroad.
She stepped towards Naph and said, "You sought the truth of whether there is another continent beyond Tarna other than Regda." Her smile was like a gentle stream of peace. "We can take you to one not known by any on those two continents. A continent west of here."
Taking a breath, her lips parted and she uttered, "One named Jhorime."
Clutching his ride's handle harder, Naph was about to ask when the lady cut in again.
"And my name is Cryst. I promise I'll take you there and you'll be respected and cared for like a respected guest should be."
Naph's lips were shut tight. He was thinking.
'Should I accept? Or should I not?'
An incoherent loud scream came from the street where Zanlo was. Naph thought the scream matched the voice of Zanlo. 'Now why would he be screaming?'
Shutting his inner monologue, he glanced at his first surviving attacker, Rhide. Then at where he thought Zanlo was and then towards Astref. He could not see the Streno knights in the carnage that befell the crossroad.
His shoes were filled with the blood of many. His muscles were aching. He felt his legs nearly exhausted to their limits.
Naph looked up at Cryst and asked one final question. "If what you say is true and I haven't been lied to, answer me this. Is Jhorime on the other side of the ocean?"
Counting on the probable truth Astref said about Zanlo, Naph was counting on it again. 'I need truths. Zanlo gets affected by it even when he can read minds. But why is that?'
Zanlo's scream came once again. And right after Cryst answered in a single word.
"Yes."
Zanlo screamed the loudest.
Cryst smiled, "You were counting on that man's lesio, were you not?"
"So?" Naph nodded.
He thought to himself, 'What's a lesio?'
Before he could say anything further, a loud crash boomed across the crossroad. A building dividing two roads from meeting collapsed into ruins.
Flattened.
Cryst moved across Naph and stood against the rising plume covering Naph behind her. Naph turned to face it too.
Diabolical cackle echoed from the dust plume, a voice Naph recognized belonging to Astref.
He stepped out and towards Naph's general direction. He staggered. Blood dripped from his side, he was missing a hand and his left shoulder lost several large chunks of it.
"You think you could escape while I breathe insect?!" Astref pointed his sword. Except his sword was pointed not at Naph, but in a direction to Naph's left but way above in the air.
"Who is he saying this to?" Naph whispered.
Cryst answered, "I think he has found where is Dykur." She felt the confusion on Naph's face even when she did not look at him. "The one with the spear."
"Ah!" Anaphol's eyebrows rose.
Next he saw the very same man becoming visible in his left way above in the air. Dykur held his spear trained at Astref yet restrained.
"What can't fight me directly? Or is it because you have divided yourself too much!" Astref screamed through bloodied teeth as blood dripped down his mouth.
Dykur narrowed his eyes. Astref jumped to intercept him.
Dykur in his grey overcoat unbuttoned it and dropped it down. His spear floating next to him.
Before Astref reached him, Dykur grabbed on his spear. Dust all over the crossroad began spinning wildly and formed a tornado rising from the ground up. It rose and rose until it covered both Astref and Dykur in it.
Astref, inside the eye of the tornado, spun and slashed the tornado apart.
At that very moment, Naph saw another being stepping out of the remains of the collapsed building. Before it could be clear, the being jumped high and intercepted Astref by kicking him.
Astref crashed into a building acting as the boundary of the crossroad. It also blew apart on impact.
The being landed down some paces away from Naph and Cryst within the same second.
It was none other than Ennet.
Landing her short skirt fluttered, a mix of red and white. Her legs were covered with the jeans commonly found in Confederation of Tarna while she wore a worn out open vest over her unbuttoned yellow blouse.
Naph's eyes were not caught on the cleavage of Ennet but her eyes. 'Why did I not notice it before?' As he stared deep into her velvet eyes. One unfound in most of Tarna.
Cryst coughed but Naph did not stop looking at Ennet.
Ennet cut the staring by slightly tilting her head. Taking steps toward him.
"Wh-what…Oh, I am sorry," realizing Naph apologized.
Ennet shook her head. "Its … uh, fine? I don't mind." She inhaled a chunk of air, "But let's first get you out of here."
Ennet called out, "Svnyo, Nert, Dykur, Cryst, Ovier, Litto! Take him and leave this place to me."
Her velvet eyes took in the carnage and blood of the crossroad's battle. She smiled the same faint smile, and Naph felt it on his chest.
His chest warmed up. Cryst's head tilted too as she looked from Naph to Ennet and back at him.
"You should know that she didn't put her trust in because you did not show your feral side when first time meeting her. But because of the interests you showed despite everything you felt." She dropped her truth.
Naph's head dropped slightly for some moments but he rose it again. Gripping his dagger in his other hand while he gripped his ride's handle too.
"I get it. Now," he looked at Cryst, "deliver me to this continent of yours and help me in my goal."