Chapter 134: Her Story (2/2)

Wendy looked at Gravis and guessed that he had gone through something similar. She moved her legs closer to her chest and hugged them in a comfortable position. ”When we met, he was just a teenager from a town. He was about one year older than me and had already tempered his skin. In the beginning, we fought a lot, but then we started getting closer.”

Wendy looked up into the sky. ”I stayed in that town until I was 14. By then, I had also tempered my skin and bones by hunting in the Hunting Guild. We were already very close at that time, and some romantic feelings started blossoming in my heart. Yet…”

Wendy sighed in sadness. ”It wasn't meant to last. One particular day, we went on a hunt together, and after we had slain the beast, we were exhausted and injured. Just when we had decided to rest, some raiders jumped out of the bushes out of nowhere. I don't know if you know, but in comparison to bandits, raiders are the real outlaws. They kill, destroy, rob, and do other unsavory things.”

Gravis nodded. He still remembered the raiders that attacked that one village.

Wendy sighed. ”If we were at our peak, we could have won against them, but at that time, we had no chance. My husband managed to give me a chance to flee while he remained behind to keep them at bay. I wanted to help him so badly, but I knew that that would only make his sacrifice meaningless. I fled to the Hunting Guild and told them what happened. Luckily, we were not that far away.”

”About an hour later, I returned with several hunters, and we only found some corpses and some blood, but nothing more. I knew how many raiders attacked us, and I saw that only a third of them died to him. I knew that they had taken him captive. Raiders often do business with slave-traders, and someone with tempered skin and bones was worth a lot of money.”

Some tears ran down Wendy's face, but she didn't seem to notice. ”I was heartbroken, and I lost all my will to cultivate and live. I remained in the town and waited for him every day. I couldn't accept that he was gone and spent most of my time looking over the wall of the town, into the wilderness, hoping that I would see him return.”

Then, Wendy smiled. ”About six months later, he actually returned. At that time, I thought I was dreaming. It was a miracle from Heaven! I knew that Heaven wanted him to return! I was so happy, and I wept for days out of happiness. All the light in my life returned at that point, and I was happy that I held out. Before that, I had contemplated suicide every day.”

Gravis could feel that Wendy's feelings were genuine, and he felt for her. ”How did he manage to escape?” he asked.

Wendy smiled sweetly. ”They trained him to be a slave. It's a very torturous process where they break someone down over a long time and make them lose their individuality. At that point, they would only live for their masters. He acted like he was slowly losing himself, but always held out.”

Her cheeks reddened a little. ”He said it was because he wanted to see me again and didn't want me to feel bad for him. At some point, he managed to escape, and they chased him. He used guerilla tactics to engage in many smaller fights, and his life was always hanging by a thread. After a particularly difficult fight, he managed to materialize his will.”

Gravis was surprised. ”So, due to all the torture and the fights, he managed to create a Will-Aura in the Body Tempering Realm?” he asked.

Wendy nodded. ”Yes, and with the power of his Will-Aura, he slaughtered every last raider and freed the slaves. After he had taken his revenge, he immediately ran back to our town to meet me. We fell into each other's arms and confessed our mutual love for each other. We decided that we would marry each other as soon as we would turn 16.”

Wendy's expression turned back to sadness. ”We lived in happiness, and every day felt like I was living in a dream, but after six months…”

”An executioner of the Heaven Sect appeared.”