CHAPTER 84: NATURAL TRAP

Anna had made sure to check the route leading to the southern end while falling from the windrazor eagle.

She stared at the moving islanders and spoke with a nod.

"They are moving via the most safe of the paths."

Hanna raised an eyebrow and walked beside her as she questioned.

"How do you know that?"

Anna shrugged at her question and replied nonchalantly.

"I had made sure to check all routes when I jumped from the eagle."

Hanna’s eyes widened as she asked with quivering lips.

"Jumped? W-What are you talking about?"

Neo had a shocked expression, but he didn’t ask anything.

’She jumped from the eagle? Does her trait affect her brain?"

He didn’t know if it affected her or not, but he did know that her brain wasn’t stable at all.

"Mhm. No need for small details, we’ve got an issue at hand."

Hanna heaved a sigh as she asked.

"So what do you plan to do?"

"Nothing grand... we will just trap them all within a cage made of your vines and search for Sir Michael," Anna spoke and turned towards Neo.

"Neo... You won’t be able to help us in trapping the islanders. So..."

Neo looked at Anna for a few moments before nodding.

"I’ll look for him."

Anna smiled at him, and Hanna patted his shoulder as she said.

"You can do this!"

Neo turned to look at her and nodded.

He left to search for Michael.

Anna and Hanna jumped from one boulder to another as they tried to flank the islands and go past them.

"What if they start attacking?" Hanna questioned as she shivered at the sight of the crowd.

"I don’t think they have enough strength to do so," Anna replied with a shake of her head.

"Still..."

"You are thinking too much, Hanna."

Hanna turned silent as a somber look appeared on her delicate face.

She looked at Anna, who was before her with warring emotions in her eyes.

’She has changed... too much. So much so that it frightens me.’

Hanna suddenly reminisced about her normal life at Azure. How she would wake up to leave for college, meet her friends and enjoy the best of the day with them, and the life she had now was the complete opposite of it.

No, she doesn’t hate how she was now; instead, she was very happy with it, she just sometimes found the sudden change strange.

"We are about to reach the front. Get ready," Anna said as the horde of the hexed beings began to go past a natural corridor.

She called out to her golden threads and weaved a net which trapped most of the islanders and merkins at the front, she also made sure to trap awakeneds far from each other by seeing their threads of awakening— red coloured thread.

Anna didn’t know why the Pseudo adept-ranked star beast had hexed merkins, too; maybe it couldn’t control who to hex? Or it was just too lazy to give much thought to some worthless wretches.

"Hah..." Anna heaved a sigh and shouted.

"Now!"

Anna pulled the threads with all her might, causing all of the wrapped merkins and islanders to fall on the ones beside them and then, like a domino, all of the hexed beings started to fall onto each other.

Hanna’s eyes glowed bright green as she erected walls of vines all around them, but the vines alone were not enough; she couldn’t just box them all together after all.

That’s why Anna had chosen the natural corridor to trap them, and just like she had planned, the vines were able to stop them all.

"How long can you keep this?" Anna questioned as she looked at the hexed beings in front, trying to rip apart the vines.

"Not for much longer," Hanna replied with a smile as sweat drops formed on her forehead.

Anna’s expression darkened at her reply, but she didn’t let it show.

Neo moved through the island and made his way towards the southern end.

Suddenly, he felt something entering his head and punched himself.

"The hex gets stronger the closer we go to the southern end," Neo concluded with a grave look.

He didn’t know if he could take in any more. After all, he was physically strong as an Ignited Midnighter, not mentally. He was out of hex because he was too far and had an albit stronger mental defence, that’s all.

"I wonder if it would’ve been any different, had I been an awakened." He mumbled to himself, but soon shook his head.

There was no point in thinking about what could or would have been when he couldn’t even awaken.

"Hah..." He heaved a sigh as he continued looking for Michael.

If Neo had to be honest, he was very jealous of Anieal... because she had what he couldn’t have and that too when she was supposed to be just like him.

He knew that this jealousy was unwanted and baseless, but no matter what he says or does, he can’t stop feeling inferior.

Maybe it was just not in his fate? But who would know better about fate than the one who is bound to it?

"Fate wraps all... yet I alone am the one bound to it,"

Neo repeated Anna’s words with a bittersweet smile on his face. Fate is a peculiar thing to him after all, if everything is already decided, then why do we have to suffer so much?

He remembered how he had questioned Anna about it, and her answer to it was

’Fate doesn’t decide, it ’admits’ to your cause and provides you with effect... It is ever changing and ever flowing—yet it never changes and never flows.’

"Heh... how paradoxical."

Right then, he heard a cry which he had come to know. After all, it was the ride he had taken to come here.

His steps quickened as he ran towards the cry. He jumped over the boulders and went past all obstacles he met, and soon his eyes fell on Michael and the windrazor eagle who were staring into each other’s eyes as a merkin was making way towards them.

"How bad is their luck to fall beside the only unaffected merkin?"

He wondered with a puzzled expression.

—

Hexed beings refer to all living beings under the hex of the malamare.