The guy controls darkness just like Alain, Aden thought to himself as he tried to come up with a plan to get out of the situation he was in.
Darkness kept surrounding Aden, growing darker and darker.
Aden tried to reach out in all directions to dispel the darkness, but it disappeared for a moment only to return as if it was its natural place.
"Hmm, so you're just starting? Looks like you've never fought a darkness warrior before," the mysterious warrior said, laughing softly from the background.
He's too strong. I can't disperse his darkness. I have no chance.
"Are you giving up?" the mysterious warrior asked, continuing to laugh.
There's no logical reason he should be here. He must be the killer that's making mom suspicious. If I manage to lead him to a place with guards, I can get rid of him and clear mom's name.
Suddenly Aden started running. He didn't know where he was going, but he decided to keep running straight until he reached someone.
"So you decided to run after all, kid? Wait, don't tell me you're planning to lead me..."
As soon as the mysterious warrior understood Aden's plan, he started attacking.
He sent a solid darkness hand chasing after Aden and caught him.
The hand grabbed Aden , but Aden created light from his palms that dispersed the darkness for a moment, allowing him to escape.
---
In the prison cell where Ann was held, she sat there full of thoughts about what she should do.
She debated whether to forcefully break out of the cell to take her children or stay and wait for the morning to speak to the priests, but the next event saved her the trouble of deciding.
Suddenly, Tamiel appeared out of nowhere to visit her cell.
"I'm glad to see you're managing here," he said, looking at Ann with a smile.
He looks a little tense.
"Did something happen that's making you nervous?" Ann immediately asked.
"Nothing special, but I came to tell you everything is fine. I informed the priests about your message."
Ann heard this and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I really appreciate that, but when will I be able to leave this cell? I don't want to waste a single moment; I want to get out of here and move on to the neighboring kingdoms."
"Don't worry. By the end of the next day, you'll be released for sure. I'll take care of it. We're very close to finding the real killer."
"The end of the next day?? That's too long!"
"Please be patient. I promise everything will be okay. If you cooperate, I'll personally make sure you receive reinforcements and assistance on your journey to the other kingdoms."
"I guess I don't have much choice..."
"Thank you for your understanding," Tamiel ended the conversation and left.
Ann calmed down a bit but still didn't go to sleep. Despite everything, she wanted to be ready to go help her children if needed.
After several minutes of chasing, Alain was finally caught by the guards.
They shackled him with four high-level light cuffs so he couldn't extinguish them.
"What are you going to do with me now?" he asked, with an angry face.
"You're an invader from the kingdom of darkness. You'll be executed tomorrow or used for negotiation if you have valuable leverage."
"Invader? I'm the son of the witch from the Gaia kingdom!"
"Huh? What are you talking about?" one of the guards asked confused.
"Contact your superiors and check for yourself," he said with a sly smile.
The guard holding him was nervous but didn't want to make a mistake he'd regret, so he decided to contact the priests to verify.
He wrote a letter detailing everything and then created a light energy bird from his hand, placing the letter on it.
He sent the bird flying straight toward the priests' building.
Alain, watching from the side, could only hope he'd come out of this situation safe and sound.
---
Meanwhile, Aden ran as fast as he could to reach a place where someone could see him and help.
The mysterious darkness warrior kept chasing him, completely covered in darkness so no one would notice him in an emergency.
They reached an area with several nearby buildings. Aden felt a slight sense of relief but kept running.
The darkness warrior realized he had no choice and released a large amount of darkness energy that began to chase Aden.
The darkness completely blocked Aden's vision.
He tried to keep running straight toward where he remembered the buildings were, but the darkness dulled his senses and slowed him down.
Within seconds, the darkness warrior had already caught him.
He again created a hand of darkness that grabbed Aden, but this time it was solid and stronger than before.
He filled his palm with sharp, solid darkness and prepared to choke Aden.
Just before he did, suddenly a wall of earth grew between them.
"Mom?" Aden suddenly shouted out.
The darkness warrior was confused. His initial instinct was to cover the surroundings in night-colored darkness to hide both of them.
"That won't help you!" a shout was heard from above.
The warrior looked up in panic and saw a girl in white and yellow clothes riding a bird made of light flying toward him.
She created two strong beams of light from her palms that reached him and Aden and dispersed all the darkness.
"You're..." the warrior began to say after recognizing the girl but didn't finish before a thin, sharp ray of light pierced his arm.
"Ahhh!" he screamed in pain and tried to run away.
The girl immediately jumped from her bird straight onto the ground. The landing created a shockwave that threw rocks in all directions.
She ran to Aden to check if he was okay.
Aden looked at her approaching and began to feel a bit embarrassed and confused.
He focused and created light from his palms at a higher level than before. The light completely cleared the dark hand that had been holding him until now.
"So you could manage on your own," the girl said with a satisfied smile as she reached him.