Chapter 74: A long-lost girl (1/2)

Silence ensued around the dining table as Lily and Number 3 kept staring at each other. Number 3 was waiting for Lily to collect her thoughts and calm down a bit before she would force her to recount her experiences.

Several minutes passed in silence until Number 3 finally spoke up.

”Lily, if you feel you have calmed down enough, start by telling what happened after you got out of your illusion. From our end, everything seemed fine at that point. Make sure you don't miss even the smallest detail.”

Clenching her hands into fists, Lily nodded. Wiping away the tears that started gathering in her eyes, she looked at her with a determined gaze.

”Not much happened until Aiden arrived if I'm being honest.” She started. ”After I bled out from my wounds, I suddenly felt that something pulled me and in the next moment I was drifting in the black swirling tunnel only to fall down to the red dirt just in front of the Old Hermit.”

Lily looked at Number 3 who was focusing on her every word, and after a short pause, she continued.

”When he saw me appearing, he looked at me briefly before he closed his eyes again, and with his weirdly slow and staggered and monotone speech he told me that I completed the first part of the trial and I have to wait until brother also leaves.”

Number 3 creased her eyebrows upon hearing this.

”Did he say the word brother?”

Lily shook her head.

”No, uhm…” she looked above as she thought back, after a while, she snapped her fingers and looked at Number 3. ”I remember now! He used the phrase 'other applicant'. Is this important?”

Number 3 smiled and nodded.

”Yes. It means that everything was fine at this point. You see, the being that was inside the Guardian was called ”The Nightmare”. They are a spectral race, not directly from our world. It's not easy to describe what they actually are, but let's say that they feed on your… hmmm…” Number 3 clearly had a hard time describing how these beings worked. For several seconds she kept mumbling inaudibly before she looked at Lily and continued.

”...they feed on something that is hard for us to understand. They feed on their hosts negative... emotions, so to speak. Like Anger, Sadness, Despair… feelings like that. They feed on these and convert it to their own energy, but we should not get into this for now as it would take too long to explain in a way you would understand. Can you follow me until this point Lily?”

Lily silently nodded her head in response, and Number 3 seeing that continued.

”They invade others and influence their emotions. As the host grows more and more unbalanced, the more power they can siphon out of them, growing stronger in the process, until they take away enough to leave behind only an empty husk. The Old Man was housing such a being, a relatively high level one at that. We thought we had control over it but in the end… in turns out we were so wrong.”

At this point, Number 3 looked at the ceiling and sighed audibly as if the exhale all the pain her arrogance had caused. Reeling it was a fruitless effort, she looked at Lily with pain still lingering in her gaze.”

”Anyways… Lily if you could, please continue.”

Seeing her pained state, Lily didn't know how to react. A few seconds of silence ensued once again, as Lily kept looking at Number 3 with a troubled expression.

”Lily, please… continue. For Aiden's sake.” Number 3 broke the silence once again.

Somewhat flustered, Lily jumped on her seat, then hung her head apologetically. Though snapped from her reverie, it was clear she still had something on her mind. For now, however, she pushed that thought back and continued to recount her tale.

”Not much happened after that until Aiden also left his illusion. I rested mostly on the ground, while the Old Man just stood still like a statue. It was creepy, he was so good at it, it was kind of unnatural…” Lily thought back.

”I see. So, everything was in order until that point. Good. Please continue.” Number 3 said.

”Yes… After a short while, Aiden also arrived. I'm not sure what happened to him in his illusion, but he arrived similarly to me: appearing out of nowhere and plopping on the ground.”