Episode 26 : What One Yearns For (1)

[00:32:51]

Time was ticking with every flower being placed into the basket. Yet, it wasn't less harder when Mya was getting slightly exhausted from doing her part.

Sweat sliding off her cheeks, randomly dropping onto her clothes and oftentimes her amulet, Mya wiped her sweat away with her numbing hands.

"I must do my best..! I must!" Mya told herself.

'Sister Alaine is fighting on her own..' Mya mused while taking a glimpse at where the Ents and Alaine were.

A sight where dozens of Alaine's clones attacked the Ents, it was no wonder that it was difficult to spot the real Alaine.

[00:30:59]

"Huh..?" Mya spoke when she noticed something coming her way.

[00:30:57]

BANG!

Coming in hot was a crash landing onto the ground, not once stopping from colliding with the ground and bringing ruin to the field of flowers. Whoever it was, was sliding on the grass with utter destruction to the earth.

[00:29:43]

A line of damages this person had brought upon the land, had finally stopped when it slid beside Mya. With smoke and dust going off the body, Mya shockingly and slowly moved her eyes to find out what it was.

[00:29:39]

..Or who it was.

..Her eyes grew wide and wide when her glance was getting closer to identify who it was.

[00:29:35]

[00:29:34]

[00:29:33]

Seconds ticking away without a care of what Mya was witnessing with her own eyes, she finally discovered who it was.

[00:29:30]

..Lips quivered from just saying two words, Mya spoke in pure shock. "Sister Alaine…?"

[00:29:28]

A body which was injured to the brim with wounds and cuts everywhere, wasn't the most staggering at all.

[00:28:57]

"Blargh!" Vomiting all her gut out, Mya removed her glance away from Alaine.

Since this was completely different from when she saw people dying from afar, and even if she was preparing herself for this kind of situation to happen, Mya couldn't handle what she had laid her eyes on.

Teary eyes from just puking, Mya became petrified. 'Her.. her.. Urgh..'

While Mya was puking, Mirai had done collecting some of the flowers Mya had told her, but to think Mirai had to come back to find Mya vomiting while Alaine was..

Mirai went wide-eyed when she witnessed Alaine in such a frightful state.

"Alaine!!"

Dropping the flowers down to quickly go to treat Alaine, Mirai exclaimed in concerns and had her eyes on Alaine's body.

Eventually, Mya asked in a nervous tone of voice with her hands shaking from holding onto Mirai's sleeves. "That..can't be the real Alaine, right..?"

Upon hearing that, Mirai swiftly looked at the clones that were fighting against the Ents. Praying that the real one would be there..

[00:24:52]

..But, there was not a single clone within that area, nor anyone to prevent those Ents from running toward them.

"..Kanojo wa honmonoda." Mirai didn't want to say it, but from her point of view, she couldn't deny it.

* ( "Kanojo wa honmonoda" Japanese → English "She's the real one.")

"I'm sorry.." Alaine apologized while having no energy to get up.

All of a sudden, when Alaine was trying to bend herself up, her arm that would help her accomplish that, was completely gone.

[00:22:17]

"..Eeh?" Baffled, Alaine said.

Her blood raining out of her wide open wound from her non-existent arm, was dying the grass bloody red.

It would have angered Mya since she hated seeing nature getting painted with blood, but when it was Alaine's blood, Mya grew stunned in her spot.

"..aaahhhh!!!!" Mya screamed with all her fright.

"Mya? Why are you acting that way? I'm totally fine." Alaine tried to reassure Mya, but it was to no avail, obviously.

[00:19:55]

Upon knowing that the situation they were facing was a lot more dangerous than before, Mirai gritted her teeth while wrapping her 'Miracle Web' to cover Alaine's wound from bleeding much further.

Afterwards, Mya's hands remained shaking from this horrible scene, however, she was much more concerned about Alaine's well-being.

Terrified, Mya exclaimed. "HP potion..! The potion! Drink it, please!"

Immediately, Mya took out her HP potion from her inventory, thinking that it would bring back Alaine's arm.

Sadly for her, Eve informed everyone as she was watching the whole thing. [I forgot to tell you. Consumables aren't allowed until this event has ended!]

Even without Eve telling her, Mya already knew of this when she was being told about the plan from Frostina.

But still, Mya kept tossing out all her potions from her inventory for Alaine, begging the latter to drink them all.

"P-Please..! Sister... Alaine..! Drink this.."

"I don't need it since I'm fine." Alaine quickly replied while acting like she was fine, giving the potions back to Mya.

Then again, Alaine exclaimed while pointing her finger at the Ents. "Let me deal with them to the end! Y'all just need to finish this phase while I protect you!"

"Baka ga!?!!" Mirai yelled at Alaine.

* ( "Baka ga" Japanese → English "stupid")

"You're already in this state. You can't do anything to protect us right now!" Mirai added.

Alaine used her only hand to clench her fist as she thought, hiding the fact that she was having trouble enduring her injury.

'..I don't care! I just want to be of use to my teammates, that's all! So why won't she let me!?'

[00:15:29]

"...!!!"

Alaine gasped with her stunned expression when she spotted an object going toward her.

"Look out!" Alaine called out, suddenly tossing her dagger at the boulder with her skill, 'Flurry Strike'.

With one dagger, it was enough to bust open the boulder into half, making it go past everyone.

..Be that as it may, it was purely luck that the dagger divided the boulder in two. There wouldn't be a next time and Alaine knew that.

"Phew.." Alaine sighed in relief, thinking she did a good thing for everyone.

But instead, she got gently smacked by a fan from her shoulder. Upon shifting her gaze toward Mirai, she found a worrisome expression on Mirai's face.

"Why are you worried about me? Come on! The timer is about to finish sooner or later!"

Alaine, bravely or so it seemed, stood up from her spot. Not even allowing Mirai to respond, Alaine used her skill, 'Acceleration' to disappear from everyone's side which definitely prompted Mya and Mirai to be more concerned and angry.

"Alaine! Don't burden yourself!" Mirai called out.

Because time was almost running out, Mirai had to choose whether to help Alaine or to help Mya to complete this phase 1. If she were to help Alaine, it would absolutely bring about a failure to phase 1 which would not allow Mirai to receive the chance to resurrect her captain.

Mirai mumbled. "Captain is more important. But she is also…"

Struggling to come to a conclusion, Mirai gazed her eyes on Alaine who was beginning to fight those Ents.

[00:10:46]

"Kuso!!" Mirai cursed as she proceeded to dash toward Alaine's side.

After making her decision, Mirai sprinted toward the Ents as she was creating a humongous ball of web to shoot at those creatures.

In addition to that, Mirai was also inventing something with her silk, appearing to be something useful for Alaine.

[00:09:37]

"Alaine! Take this!" Exclaiming at the top of her lungs, Mirai had thrown the item she had made with her silk toward Alaine.

Alaine, who was dodging an Ent's hand from squeezing her, noticed an object flinging at her.

The moment she extended her hand to grab that item, an Ent had done a clap motion with its hands, seemingly crushing Alaine who had just taken Mirai's item.

…

Silent washing in this vicinity when the moment Alaine got crushed between that Ent's giant hands, Mirai and Mya dazingly stared at this sight as though all hopes were lost.

"Kisama!!" Mirai exclaimed, enraged by what the Ent did.

* ( 'Kisama' Japanese → English 'You' in a rude way. )

By then, Mirai had launched her ball of web straight at the Ent's face to cover its line of sight.

Yet, it wasn't enough to prevent the Ent from crushing Alaine inside its hands..

[00:08:13]

[00:08:12]

[00:08:11]

[00:08:10]

[00:08:09]

"Yo!! Don't stand there!"

Out of all the silenceness, a voice addressed Mirai's and Mya's relieving ears, raising their heads up to look for Alaine.

Only to discover her standing on top of an Ent's head, Alaine waved her arms up, revealing the newly made item that Mirai created. An arm to replace Alaine's arm.

An arm created out of Mirai's strong silk, was smacked onto Alaine. Thanks to the web Mirai had placed on Alaine before, it made for an adhesive to glue the new arm on easily.

And with this new arm, Alaine was using it at its full glory.

[00:07:52]

"7 mins left! So hurry!!" Alaine uttered out while slamming her new arm into the eye of the Ent.

SCREECH!!!!

The agony noises made from those Ents, were shrieking because of Alaine's new found arm.

Because of how strong Mirai's silk was, Alaine figured it was alright if she used her new arm as a weapon instead.

Fortunately for her, Alaine landed a blow to that Ent, causing blindness for it. By using that, Alaine controlled this Ent to attack its fellow species, enough to buy time for Mya and Mirai to do their part of the plan without any intervention from the Ents.

After that, Alaine shouted as she was being flung around by the utter chao the Ents were doing around her.

"Go! Do it quickly!"

[00:05:39]

Even before Alaine had said that, Mirai had already ran over to Mya to resume her duty. Though Mya was still in a startled state, Mirai did a good job by snapping the child out of it swiftly.

But the problem was that there were 10 flowers left to pick and the time limit was only 5 minutes which would make it difficult to complete.

[00:05:00]

..Without a doubt, Mirai must go all out.

Still having a quivering voice, Mya uttered for Mirai to hear clearly. "W-We.. we..need poppy!"

Mirai who always had her hair tied, was now removing the silks that had kept her hair together. Once her hair had loosely fallen to her waist, her hair began to flutter under the wind.

With all her concentration fully focused on picking the flowers, Mirai incredibly controlled every strand of her hair to go collect 50 of poppy.

Only under a few seconds that Mirai was already done with requiring 50 of that flower and putting them in the basket for Mya to check.

Until then, Mirai panted and sweated from having to manipulate all her hair strands, but she kept on collecting another 50 of the poppy.

Even Mya was shocked by Mirai's ability which surprised her a bit.

"What's next?" Mirai called out to Mya which snapped Mya out of it.

[00:04:51]