CHAPTER - 37 - THE MAGICAL FOG OF IRA JEZA : PART ③

Vanzel ordered his party,

"Well, then... Dismiss!"

As Vanzel planned, he went in the east direction of the land. While walking, he realized that it was the same direction from where their portal originated. He thought to himself,

"Hmm... Since our portal was formed on the east side of the land and if it's true that the portal is formed on a blind spot, then this might be an easy spot for investigation. I think that I should have choosen a tough spot as the leader but... Yes! They need practice!"

After walking for a while, he thought to himself,

"Well, I think that I've been walking since a long time now. How would I know that this is the end of the land?"

Since Vanzel was assured that this was the same direction in which their portal was originated, he increased his speed. He used his dark force and took a small flight, no, it was too short to call a flight. He leapt at an incredible speed. He was fast enough that he wouldn't be visible to a normal human being.

After leaping four to five times, he reached the end of the land. The reason how he determined that it was the end of the land was because of a border and the sight of red sky. Since lands were large and rectangular fields, there was an end, unlike the round planets. The border of the land emitted a dark aura which prevented any thing or anyone to enter inside it. The other side of the border looked like sky, but it was an abnormal sky. It was bloody red and emitted a hellish feeling. Vergif inspected the east side of the land and found nothing harmful or useful. He headed near the tower at high speed without any hope of encountering with any kind of foe.

When he returned at their meeting point, which was near the tower, he found Deces. He asked her,

"Deces. Have you completed your investigation of the north side of the land?"

"Yes, leader."

Replied Deces.

"Did you find anything worth mentioning there?"

Asked Vanzel.

"No, sir. There wasn't anything which was worth mentioning...There was just fog...and nothing else."

Replied Deces.

"Hmm... Fog, huh. Well, no problems then. Eris' powers might be related with fog. It is unfortunate that we are not able to investigate this fog carefully... It is just normal-"

"It is an abnormal fog."

While Vanzel was speaking, he got interrupted by Jae-Hyuk. Vanzel turned back and found that Jae-Hyuk and Kyung-Soon have already returned after investigating the west side of the land. Vanzel asked him,

"So... How did it go?"

"Uh... Well..."

Jae-Hyuk started explaining to Vanzel.

While Vanzel was investigating the east side and Deces was investigating the north side, Jae-Hyuk and Kyung-Soon were investigating the west side. They were walking slowly and carefully. While walking for sometime, Jae-Hyuk turned back and said to Kyung-Soon who was walking behind him,

"Uh... I think you should walk beside me, it might be really dangerous like this!"

Even though Kyung-Soon was mature minded, she was still a young a woman. She blushed lightly and stepped forward, in order to walk beside Jae-Hyuk. While she was stepping forward, suddenly, the fog took the shape of a lightly visible hand. The hand of fog slowly came towards Kyung-Soon's leg. She was unaware that the fog was able to change shapes and was also not aware that it was heading for her leg. The hand grabbed her from the ankle. She was not on full guard since she was talking with Jae-Hyuk. This sudden attack surprised her and her balance got disturbed. She fell with her face towards the ground while the hand tried to snatch her away from Jae-Hyuk. Since Kyung-Soon was Jae-Hyuk's lover, she rushed towards her without a second thought and slashed the fog hand by shards obtained from controlling the Earth element. His fastness and bravery brought a shine into the eyes of Kyung-Soon. He gave her a hand and helped her in getting up. When she got up, Jae-Hyuk got really worried and started panicking. He uttered,

"Are you okay? Is there anything I can do? Are you hurt anywhere? What should we do?!"

Kyung-Soon started laughing very lightly. Since he saw that she was laughing, he instantly got calmed and thought that she would be uninjured. After a while, Kyung-Soon said,

"I think continuing this investigation would be dangerous. We should head towards our meeting location for now."

Jae-Hyuk followed her advice and they returned near the tower where they found Vanzel and told him everything.

After listening to them, Vanzel said,

"Looks like my guess was right. Eris' ability is related to this fog. But why did she attacked Kyung-Soon? I thought that she only hated men?"

"Well... Who knows?"

Jae-Hyuk replied.

MEANWHILE...

Schwartz and Zhao were inspecting the south side of the land. While they were walking, Zhao was blushing lightly since it was the first time when she was left alone with Schwartz. Since the ground was uneven, Zhao didn't noticed and stepped on a pebble. She was about to trip and fall, but, she was saved by Schwartz. He rushed towards her and held her in between his two hands. He helped her in standing up. She was embarrassed by her current situation. She looked at him and he asked her softly,

"Are you hurt?"

She stuttered a bit and then replied,

"N-N-No!"

Some while passed. They were at the border of the land earlier than others, because the portal which was opened, was not at the center of the land. They had less distance to cover. After inspecting the complete south side, they decided to come back.

While coming back, they didn't encountered any fog. They almost reached the meeting point, but there was no one to be seen. Zhao decided to increase her pace since she had almost reached her destination. While she tried to leapt forward, Schwartz shouted and warned her,

"Zhao! You should not be impatient!"

But, a lot of things were going on in her mind. Schwartz silence was getting too awkward for her. She was thinking how to release herself from this awkward situation. That was the reason why she lost all of her patience. She didn't paid attention to her surrounding. She was about to pass the tower which was being inspected by Alcesto and Kyung-Soon, but, the enormous amount of fog which was covering the tower, took the shape of a hand and held her leg tightly. Since it was so sudden, the hand captured her into the tower. While the hand was withdrawing, Schwartz rushed towards it to save Zhao. It looked like the tower was made of some kind of penetrable material. The hand disappeared along with Zhao as it absorbed her into the wall, or more like transferred her inside the tower directly through the wall. Whil she was getting transferred, Schwartz was able to hold her hand as he reached for her. Along with Zhao, Schwartz also got transferred inside the tower.

____TO BE CONTINUED____