933 War!
"...And Enigma stopped at the last moment," Varian narrated his own experience and looked at Sia. But he seemed to be looking at Enigma. "And she was sobbing. I've never seen her so sad. She was devastated."
Enigma always covered her emotions with an expressionless face. Even though Varian grew to understand her mood through her expressive eyes, seeing her openly expressing how she was feeling was a different experience.
Perhaps under the veil of that cold face, she hid her helpless, lonely self.
"Sia, can I meet her once," Varian stood up from the smooth grass and asked.
Sia bit her lip and nodded.
After the emotional turmoil, she too wanted a few minutes off.
A light covered Sia's body and Enigma appeared in her place with a confused expression.
"Huh? What?"
The recent stress was too much and after Sia took over, she decided to have a deep sleep. But here she was, abruptly woken up without any understanding of what was happening outside.
Before she could even ask, she was pulled by Varian and fell into his embrace.
Feeling Varian's arms wrapping around her waist, and their bodies pressing together, Enigma's mind went blank.
Rubbing her hair gently, Varian said softly. "Enigma, thank you for stopping..."
"?!?" Enigma wanted to ask what was he even talking about, but for some reason, her head felt foggy and she couldn't even speak, much less struggle out of his embrace.
'W-What's happening?' The tip of Enigma's ears turned pink and with her senses, she scanned where they were at.
It was a mistake as she saw Sarah staring at her with a smirk.
'I...no, I didn't do anything!' Like a criminal caught in the act, Enigma panicked and tried to struggle out of the hug.
But her struggles were weak as her body felt soft under his embrace. To add to her woes, Varian held her firmly and after her struggle, he pulled her even closer.
'No, no! What? Why? I'm not Sia! She's sleeping already!' Enigma told herself that Varian was doing this because he mistook her for Sia.
But even she knew it was a ridiculous excuse. When hugging her, he called her name, not Sia's.
"A lot of things happened, I'm sorry from my side. And also thank you. If not for you, I'd have never survived that day," Varian patted her back gently and said with gratitude.
Feeling his breath at the top of her hair and hearing his gentle words, Enigma stopped struggling.
She withdrew her senses and like an ostrich burying its head to hide from the world, she closed her eyes, hoping no one would see her like this, and wrapped her trembling arms around his waist.
"Aren't you one lucky man, Varian?" Sarah said in a teasing tone. "You got three for one."
"Huh? What?" Varian looked at her in confusion.
After seeing Enigma like that, he felt like he understood her emotionally. If she was so sad for what she almost did in that world, what did she feel for what she had already done in this world?
So, he just wanted to console her and also thank her. But why is Sarah looking at him with...teasing eyes?
"I think only you can give your girlfriend that confused look when you're hugging another woman and flirting with her," Sarah crossed her arms and clicked her tongue, "Oh and I saw you pulling her tighter when she pretended to struggle."
Sarah walked to Enigma and said slowly. "And Enigma, closing your eyes when you hug him doesn't mean no one can see you. But it's a cute try."
Enigma's body froze and she trembled in Varian's embrace.
"Oh, Eni--" Before he could say anything, a light flashed and the soft body in his arms grew slightly small as Sia appeared in her place.
Breaking free from the hug, Sia started laughing, "S-She caked out. Oh-Ouch, she's asking me to be shut u--oh, nothing, yeah, I'm just spouting nonsense."
Varian, on the other hand, spread his arms and said to Sarah, "Flirting or things like that, I wasn't doing any of that. I honestly wanted to console and thank her."
"Yeah, sure," Sarah didn't buy his words at all, "Hugging her so tight for a consolation."
"Come on, I don't even see her that way. Don't think too much into it," Varian shrugged.
"Of course, you don't," Sarah rested her chin on his shoulder and titled her head with a dangerous smile, "For now."
"Am I that kind of person?" Varian was worried about his image in her eyes.
"Yes!" Sarah laughed teasingly and her voice slowly turned serious. "Remember, I said the same thing about Sia."
"Urgh, that's an entirely different case," Varian waved his hand helplessly but his girlfriend continued to stare at him with a devilish smile on her angelic face.
Unable to bear that teasing smile any longer, Varian patted his hands and put on a serious face. "We have three more missions to take care of."
-- -- ---
The seventh trial -- "House of Ghosts". To pass the trial, you'd have to reach the exit. In between the participants and the exit were ghost beasts.
They're not hard to kill but they're high in number. The tricky part of this trial was that for whatever negative emotion you feel, a new ghost beast will pop up.
For the previous teams, this trial was hard. But for Varian's team, this was the easiest so far.
Varian didn't feel any negative emotions when fighting. He only felt excitement.
Sarah maintained her distinctive coldness while Sia maintained her indifference. The main reason both of them didn't produce any negative emotions was that the catharsis from the last trial still lingered.
They felt relieved, happy and satisfied. So, even if the battle got tough, they didn't feel bad about it.
The turtles, on the other hand, only fought the Sovereign beasts. And since they lived for so damn long, their emotions were stable.
So, the seventh trial was completed uneventfully and the team entered the trial which only nine teams have cleared so far.
Eighth trial 'Bloody Light'.
The team appeared in an endless desert and standing in front of them was a crowd that seemed to extend all the way to the horizon.
Abyssals, Humans, Beasts, Undead...
The total number easily crossed ten million.
"This is it," Varian unsheathed his sword and cheered. "War!"
