It wasn't long before they met up at the center once again. One of them, the bald headed guy, was carrying a girl in his arms.
"Dammit! How is she still alive?" The blue haired girl muttered with a pale face.
"Dale, we need your assistance here." She said, voice laced with urgency.
Dale, the dark–haired guy quickly approached the bald headed guy. Gently laying her on the ground, Dale crouched beside the figure, hands stretched out with eyes shut tightly.
His palms emitted a warm golden glow which wrapped around the broken body. Torn muscles, pulverised flesh and broken bones slowly began to merge back.
The brown–haired figure let out a sharp exhale as the healing glow worked wonders. Her once broken state was now fixed. But she was still unconscious.
Dropping his hand, Dale let out a soft breath, face slightly pale.
"She's fine now," he said with a small smile.
"You guys managed to find another survivor… Thank goodness." The calm voice of their leader echoed softly.
"I didn't find any scratch on this one but it won't be bad to check for internal injuries. Aria… stay with Dale and watch over the two. "You're coming with me Duncan... let's clear this rift."
...
A figure slowly stirred from its unconscious state after several hours.
Pushing strands of red hair from his face, Gabriel stared at the source of heat spreading warmth over his body.
"I'm... alive." Jolting up, he let out a subtle smile. "It really did work... whatever that voice did back then... It worked!"
"First, where am I?" He thought, sensing his surroundings.
Though the strange voice had healed him, it had been unable to regain his sight. Strange.
"Can't be ungrateful now," he thought with a soft sigh.
"Ohh. You're awake." A voice broke his thoughts.
"Your eyes…"
He heard a soft gasp and then someone sat beside him.
"Glad you're up." Aria, the blue haired girl said, hugging her knees.
Letting out a frown, Gabriel shifted his body in discomfort. "Who are you?" He didn't recognise the voice. He was sure she wasn't part of the settlement.
Wait… the settlement!
He remembered the voice saying something about being able to save it.
"I'm Aria." She said with a bright smile. "An Awakened." She hesitated for a moment before adding.
"An Awakened! What the fuck!" Gabriel exclaimed in his mind.
'How did I find myself in the arms of an Awakened,' he thought. Clearing his throat, he finally muttered.
"I'm Gabriel. If I may ask... are we still in the... settlement?"
"Yes. But we'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning." She hesitated for a moment before adding.
"Sorry. Sorry we couldn't come quick. How wish we arrived sooner, this... this won't have happened."
"It's alright." Gabriel muttered with a weak smile. "You aren't to blame for what happened here."
"It's our fault for being weak," he muttered, clenching his fist tightly.
"Come on... get some rest. We've a long journey ahead of us." Rising from the ground, she patted Gabriel on his shoulder before walking away.
"Also... your friend has been up," she said, stopping in her tracks for a moment. "she followed Master Jason to put the others to... rest."
With that she walked away leaving him in his thoughts.
"So… the others didn't survive."
"I was the only one that survived," he muttered in thought. "No. She said something about a friend being up."
Meaning he wasn't the only survivor. Judging by her words, she used "she" which means it was a girl.
A flicker of hope ignited in his heart. "Could it be… Cassandra?" He thought.
Pushing the thought out of his mind, he decided to use the moment to go through what had occurred with that strange voice.
"That cunning bastard lied." He muttered with a frown. She had told him he would be able to save the people of the settlement yet he wasn't even awake until dusk.
"Whoa! Take it easy. I wasn't the one who told you to sleep so long."
He heard a familiar voice in his head.
"Shit! I better be hallucinating," Gabriel muttered, eyes slightly twitching.
"A silly one," the voice echoed in his head followed up by that same annoying laughter. "The better you come to accept it, the sooner we go through the details of our deal."
Gritting his teeth, he barely conveyed his thoughts. "How are you in my… head? How's that even possible? And what deal are you talking about? You didn't say anything about there being a deal back then!"
"Really. You see... your situation was quite dire and going through all the details would have cost your life. It's nothing serious though," The voice muttered with glee.
Dammit!
"Ohh... and me being in your mind is due to the bond we now share."
"So most importantly. I had to transfer a part of my powers to heal you in exchange for your blood. Due to that little process we're now bonded together… for eternity!"
"Isn't that nice?"
"Bloody hell! You call that nice?" Getting to live with a voice in your head is annoying. Another thing was the damn voice being a sly bastard!
"Auchhh! That hurts." The voice muttered though Gabriel was able to sense a tinge of amusement in her voice.
"Let's get this straight. For this relationship... or whatever it is…" he muttered, raising his hands up and dropping it down on his thigh.
"To work... you need to come clean with everything… Else I'm tossing you back in that rift."
"Come clean. But that's what I'm trying to do. If only you would just keep shut and listen to all I have to say."
"And I would advise you to listen carefully."
"So let me quickly start over again. I'm bonded to your soul forever, I transferred a fragment of my powers to heal you."
Get a load of this:
"The fragment I shared with you is linked to the void. So you've inherently bonded with the void and open to its powers. But right now you're too weak to access a fragment of its powers."
"When you go through your first evolution you would be granted abilities suited for your level and also have the opportunity to gain unique attributes."
"Ahh. It seems I've run out of energy." The voice sounded faint.
"What do you mean you've run out of energy?!"
"Can't talk much, will explain later... also... whatever you do... don't try… and unsheath... the sword," the last word was barely a whisper but Gabriel had managed to hear it clearly.
"Unsheath the sword? Which sword?" Just as he thought about it, a strange violet glow erupted in his right wrist.
The next moment a sword appeared on his lap radiating an ethereal glow.
"What the… hell!"