After giving back Rhea to July, Knox immediately returned to the facility building, which now had turned into ruins because of him. n-/OvElb1n
Half of the building had been destroyed and it would take months for them to be able to rebuild the place again, while half of it, which suffered less damage, was now under repair.
Knox watched the whole scene calmly, as he walked stealthily to the spot where he, Skylar and Gael got ambushed, when they came here, two nights ago.
The darkness around this area helped Knox stay unnoticed by the many people there. He didn't have the same power as Skylar, but at the very least, he was good at infiltrating places.
Thankfully, the system in the building and around this area had not yet fully recovered, so his movements wouldn't be recorded.
Knox went to the same place, where he left Skylar and Gael. He had tried to search for the two of them, but there was no sign that they had left the building, thus, there were only two reasons why they had not yet left, it was either they had been caught or they were trapped somewhere inside.
Just like how he ended up meeting his daughter, Aaron must have played other but similar kinds of tricks on them.
Knox looked around. There were many spots that were not guarded around here and when he sensed someone walking toward him, Knox would simply teleport himself to somewhere else.
He did that until he found that room, the room where they met with Vanesha. She was someone that Gael knew, while Knox only heard a few stories about her.
He stood in the middle of the messy room, proof that a battle had occurred here, as he could feel Gael's energy surrounding this place. The walls had been burned and turned dark, a few things had been destroyed and from the dark marks on the floor, it seemed Gael created a wall of fire to barricade the attack.
Knox then found the two doors that Vanesha mentioned that night and this time he chose the other door, instead of the one that led him to his daughter.
He could feel Skylar's energy, but Gael didn't seem to have gone in here with her. He must have stayed behind to give Skylar time to get to Norbeat.
Knox followed the corridor that led him to another room. As this place only had one way out, he didn't need to choose and just followed the path, which led him to another room.
This room was so quiet and there was no sign of violence. Moreover, it seemed this place was not visited frequently.
In the middle of the room, Knox saw someone sitting on the floor. She hugged herself with her head lowered.
"Skylar?" Knox frowned to see the woman who looked so messy. Her neat hair that she used to tie behind her back was all disheveled, as a few strands of her hair came out of her hair tie. "What are you doing there?" Knox frowned. He walked closer, but there was something strange with this whole thing.
However, he couldn't point out what it was.
"What are you doing here? Why didn't you try to go out?" Knox walked closer to her, but he maintained a safe distance, because he didn't feel like she was herself.
"Knox..." Skylar raised her head and looked at Knox with tearful eyes. She looked miserable, but from a quick examination, Knox couldn't see any injuries on her.
"What happened to you?" It was so weird for Knox to see Skylar cry, since she was very proud about not wearing her emotions on her sleeve.
"Knox, what should I do?" Skylar lowered her head again and hugged herself. She sat on the floor, hugging her legs, while resting her head on top of her knees.
"What?" Knox took a step closer toward Skylar, even though he still had this weird feeling about her. "Did they kill Norbeat? Where is Gael?" he looked around, but he couldn't find his old friend.
"What should I do?" Skylar looked so heartbroken. There must be something traumatic that had happened for her to be like this, thus Knox took a step closer again.
"What? Tell me, where are the others?" Knox furrowed his brows and then took another step closer again to shorten the distance between them. In the end, he knelt in front of Skylar, as she kept saying the same thing over and over again. "What's wrong with you? Raise your head."
Slowly, Skylar raised her head, she looked at Knox through her tearful eyes and this made Knox frown even harder.
"Stop crying, tell me what happened?" Knox didn't have much patience left after his encounter with July, he was emotionally drained.
Therefore, he didn't have the capacity to coax her.
"What should I do, Knox?" Skylar gave Knox a headache, he really wanted to drag her out of this place and find a quiet place, so he could talk to her properly.
Maybe this place drove her crazy or something, even though he didn't feel that kind of magic around here.
He would take her back first and then look for Gael and Norbeat later, after he managed to get some information out of her.
However, before Knox could take Skylar away from this place, the woman had approached him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She hugged him so tight, it felt suffocating.
"What are you doing, Skylar?" Knox didn't do anything, he let her clung to him like this, his voice was impassive and there was no change in his expression whatsoever.
Those words again. He got sick of listening to the same thing over and over again.
This time, Knox didn't say anything, nor did he do anything.
"What should I do... I am not Skylar..." Skylar stopped crying and her last words sounded very icy and detached. "I am not her." She emphasized, a smile curling on the corner of her lips.
Hearing that, Knox tried to get away from her grip, but the arms wrapped around his neck were akin to a pair of tentacles.
Moreover, there was this strange feeling that he felt, as if his energy was being sucked out of his body.
It was so weird and uncomfortable to say the least, but then this feeling only intensified and Knox realized what was happening.
His soul was being sucked out of his body. This was like the same feeling when Chaos tried to suck out his soul from him when he was unstable, he stopped in time before Knox truly disappeared, but the feeling was not something that you could forget.
"What?" Knox tried to push Skylar away from him, but the girl didn't let him go, while he was getting weaker.
Knox frowned.
Aside from being in this predicament, it was shocking to know there was someone else that was able to do the same thing as Chaos.
"How can you do this?"
"I am quite special, you know."
But another thing that Knox realized was; this woman was not Skylar. The real Skylar must have been absolved by her. She used the same magic as Norbeat, which meant the man was gone as well.
Who was this exactly?
Knox couldn't get himself away from her clutches.
=========================
"Don't you want to open your eyes?" Zuri came to see Chaos again, he was still in the same position, leaning his body against the withered tree, he looked at peace and seeing him like this now, one wouldn't even think that he could attack someone or even wreak havoc and turn realms upside down.
"I am waiting for you. How long do I have to wait for you?" Zuri asked in a light tone. She crouched down near the protection barrier that Tia created around him.
"I don't like being here, the weather is too cold for my liking, you need to wake up and we need to go away from here."
Zuri didn't even know exactly where they were or what happened to the others. It had been days since they left east draghar, but now they were stuck here.
"How long do I have to keep up with my nagging grandma? Do you think it is fun to be nagged every minute? She literally drives me insane."
Zuri looked at Chaos intensely, hoping that she could find any movement from him, but there was none, he was sitting still like yesterday or the day before this.
"How long do you want me to stay in this place?" Zuri spoke to Chaos everyday like this and every time she had spare time, she would be here and talk to him for hours.
She was not a talkative person, but with him, she could tell him almost everything...
"You should let me go from this place and let me find a shattered soul for you, so you can feel better."
However, according to Chaos, there were only a few more shattered souls that they should gather and Zuri knew all of them.
The easy target was Rhea.
Should she go find that little girl? Knox might kill her for hurting his daughter. Based on his reaction when he knew that he was a father, probably he wouldn't let this slide, but then...
Zuri didn't feel right. She didn't know what to feel anymore.
"Wake up, Chaos... even if you want to destroy the whole world. Please, wake up... I don't want to be here alone."
Zuri felt so lonely, her training didn't go so well and she was almost on the verge of giving up...