169 Emotional Gratitude (1/2)

As they began descending down the stairs towards the 5th floor, his two-party members had their eyes on him.

John hadn't said a single thing after, he just put the magic stone in his ring, and moved on.

It was already strange enough that he was being quiet, but he also had a different air around him, Master Sylvia on the other hand seemed to have noticed but didn't say anything about it.

It was awkwardly quietly

”H-Hey Serena... Shouldn't we mention it?” Ariel whispered to Serena

”I don't think that's a good idea... Let's just watch for now.” Serena replied

As they got further and further down the stairs, they could feel a change in the air around them. The pressure was much stronger, the air felt thinner and everything felt heavier.

John and Master Sylvia looked unaffected while Serena and Ariel while Serena and Ariel were disturbed

As they got closer and closer to the bottom of the stairs, Serena got more and more annoyed

”Change of plans, quiet John, is intimidating.” Serena whispered

She then moved in closer to John before asking. ”John, let's cut to the chase, were you cursed?”

Serena wasn't joking, she was genuinely worried but at the same time annoyed that he was keeping it to himself. Especially when they were about to have a battle they had never experienced before on the last floor.

Rather than keeping away from each other, they had to at least try to understand each other and come up with a plan. That was what Serena believed.

”Cursed? Hm... Not really.” John replied as he continued going down the stairs

”Not... Really? Stop joking around, I'm being serious! If you're not in top form, we're turning back.”

”After coming all this way? Didn't you say you didn't want to re-do everything?” John asked

”... forgot about that. If we have to re-do it once more then we will.” Said Serena with a serious look as she stared straight at him

Seeing this, John started to laugh

”Hahaha, Serena, that was unexpected.” Said John as he continued to look down while descending

”Wha-”

Serena was interrupted by Ariel who with an also serious face asked

”John, just tell us, are you cursed or not?”

At first john wasn't taking their worries lightly but after looking at their expressions, and seeing how genuinely worried they were, he decided to come out with it

”No, I'm not possessed, but...”

John looked over at Master Sylvia who nodded before he said

”I'm having trouble controlling possession.”

John's emotions and thought process was unbalanced, he himself didn't know why, it was almost as if, the dark spirit which he had conquered was trying to possess him just like Master Sylvia had said.

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”John, have you talked to the dark spirit inside of you?” Master Sylvia asked

”Dark spirit? You mean the one from the trial?”

”Yeah.”

”No, not yet.”