Chapter 70: I’m Back
"That’s my key out of here," Adrian said as he looked at the monster.
If Isla’s abilities were absolute this early, then the prince and his Saintess wouldn’t have made it through the first arc.
All he had to do, to escape, was find the ’core’ or this illusion and lucky him, the kid wanted him dead,
This caused her to unconsciously assign this monster as this illusion’s core, something she’d only do, this early in the story.
ROAR!!!!
The cyclops let out a roar as its eye landed on the target that had escaped its first attack.
[Shadow Clones]
Adrian tried using the skill as the ground was quickly approaching, but unlike what he expected, the skill didn’t activate at all.
"...."
"Right, I forgot about that," he muttered with blank eyes and the next second,
BANG!
Adrian’s body was launched across the air as a massive fist connected with his side, sending him slamming into a couple of trees before coming to a stop.
He lay unmoving in a crater of his shape, blood dripping down his face and one of his arms seemed completely out of place.
«....»
Noctis appeared above him, looking at his blank face before saying, «I don’t think now’s the time to be resting.»
"...."
The damn cat was getting it’s revenge because he denied it both the Lotus and Isla’s ’spirit’.
"Can you bypass it?" he ignored its words and weakly asked, not even bothering to move his head as Noctis sat comfortably on his chest.
«Probably,» the cat replied, «but if I do, then you’ll have to let me eat whatever special treasure you find next, deal?»
Before Adrian could reply, the cyclops was already standing above him with its massive foot quickly falling towards him.
BOOM!
The ground shook as a cloud of dust was kicked up when the creature’s foot landed.
It stayed like that for a second, letting the dust cloud to settle before slowly lifting it, revealing a crater in the shape of its foot.
But the bug that was supposed to be squashed beneath had disappeared completely.
"That was too close," A voice came from behind the cyclops and the moment it turned around,
BOOM!
A large spear made of shadow was launched directly into its eye, exploding the moment it came into contact with the eye.
ROAR!!!
The cyclops let out a roar in pain as it lifted both hands to its face and that gave Adrian all the time he needed to make a move.
The Cyclop’s shadow suddenly expanded beneath its feet, cocooning it and as it had done so many times before, spikes stabbed through its body from within, coming out the other end.
The moment that happened, everything around them seem to instantly freeze and the next second, cracks started appearing all around, starting from the still cocooned cyclops.
Adrian stood a short distance away, his broken arm held together by a cast made of shadows, as he watched it happen.
"There we go," he muttered.
The world around him began collapsing faster and faster, entire chunks disappearing at once as the illusion rapidly lost cohesion.
And like glass, the sky and everything else around him shattered, leaving him in what seemed like a void.
That too, soon shattered, and finally, he was back in the training ground with time barely, if at all, passing.
"We’re back," Adrian muttered as he looked down, noticing that the spike that went through him wasn’t there anymore.
Even his broken hand was now completely fine, so he looked forward.
The black haired Isla was now crouched in a ball, repeating one thing over and over, "they’re bad, they’re all bad."
He sighed, though this was a lot more controlled than what actually happened in the manhwa, her state was mostly still the same.
If he tried approaching her right now, she’d just send him in another illusion again and that would just let her fall deeper into the spiral she was currently into.
«I could eat it and separate them,» Noctis, who was on his head, said.
"...." Adrian ignored it.
The damn cat had managed to blackmail him into going on a hunt for a special core for it, so he was pretty unsatisfied right now.
"Isla," he called out calmly.
"You’re bad, you’re a liar," she whispered, her voice trembling, "you said sold him, you took everything from me."
"All of you, you’re all bad," she said, fortunately, she didn’t send him in another illusion.
Adrian let out a sigh, he truly wasn’t used to this. After all, he wasn’t Lucian or Noelle, so it was a lot harder for him to calm her down with his words.
But then again, he didn’t spend years observing human interactions for nothing, he should be able to put that knowledge to play right now....right?
"I lied," he said simply, causing her black eyes to slowly look up at him.
"You—"
"I needed you to get angry," Adrian cut in, his gaze was as gentle as he could get it, "because as long as you keep suppressing it, that thing inside you will keep controlling you instead."
"And I didn’t sell Conan," he added, as he slowly approached her, "he’s sa— he’s getting stronger to protect you."
Adrian couldn’t actually promise that the kid was safe, after all, he was still undergoing Alvíss’s experiment, so there was no way he was.
"T-then I-I tried to hurt you," Isla stuttered out, "t-that monster..."
"It’s fine, after all, it’s my fault in the first place," he said as he crouched close to her, not taking another step forward, "besides, that’s not a monster, it’s a part of you."
Isla was silent for a while as her body continued trembling, but the next second, without warning, she lunged into Adrian’s chest, crying.
"I-I’m scared," she said as she buried her face in his uniform, still crying.
Adrian was caught completely off guard by the action, but not for too long. He soon recovered and slowly patted her head.
Adrian’s hand moved awkwardly at first, as he wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing, but it gradually settled into a slow, steady rhythm as he patted her head.
Isla clung to him tightly, her small fingers gripping his clothes.
"It’s fine to be scared, but running from it won’t make it go away," he continued, his tone calm, steady, "that thing inside you isn’t your enemy, it’s the part of you that wants to keep you safe."
"I don’t want to hurt anyone," Isla said, her face still buried in his clothes.
"Then you’ll have to learn to control it," Adrian softly said before asking, "would you like that?"
"Hmm," She nodded as her trembling slowly subsided, and her hair slowly started gaining its previous white again.
They silently stayed like that, but their moment was suddenly interrupted when,
BOOM!
A hole was ripped through the barrier and Isla’s domain above them suddenly froze and shattered, falling down as snow.
"It seems she’s finally calmed down."
Adrian looked ahead, towards the familiar voice that had just spoken up and he immediately spotted Renelle walking towards them.
She looked unhappy and he knew exactly why, but for now, she seemed uninterested in dealing with him just yet.
Instead she stopped close to him and crouched down looking at Isla who had turned to her.
Renelle was silent for a while as he looked at the child’s eyes gain the beautiful mix of colors and her hair turn white.
With a sigh, she placed a hand on her head and gently asked, "are you okay now, Isla?"
"Hmm," Isla nodded, "I’m sorry."
"It’s fine," Renelle said with a smile, "would you like something to eat?"
"Yes please," Isla softly replied, seemingly having calmed down as she had stopped trembling and most of her tears had been wiped on Adrian’s uniform.
Speaking of him, he looked at the interaction between the two with a smile, noting that Renelle really did like cute things.
"Then let’s go," Adrian said as he stood up, "I know a shop that makes great cakes, consider it a reward."