"Hoplite Punch! Thanatos Storm! Reaper Shockwave!"
Lucia continuously waved the cane passed down through generations of her family, summoning Ethereal phantoms one after another. They attacked in all directions, intercepting the Ethereals corrupted by the Filth and keeping them safely at bay.
Beside her, the small Hati acted like a loyal guard, standing in front of Lucia and keeping a vigilant watch over their surroundings.
Seeing this unbelievable scene, Geno didn't hesitate. He immediately ran in Lucia's direction to repel the remaining Ethereals.
"Geno!"
Upon seeing who had arrived, Lucia's eyes lit up with sudden, overwhelming joy. She hadn't expected Geno to find her this quickly.
"We can talk later. Let's clean up these guys first."
As he spoke, Geno drew his greatsword and swung it in a wide arc, sending two Hoplites that had tried to ambush him flying.
However, due to the Corruption of the Filth, even if these Ethereals were struck down, they would recover at a terrifying speed. As long as their cores weren't hit, they would keep fighting indefinitely.
"Still as annoying as ever. In that case..."
Just as he was preparing to activate the power of the Filth within his own body, a flash of sword light suddenly streaked past. The cores of those Ethereals instantly shattered, and an elegant figure appeared in front of Geno.
"In the name of Timefield, I have come to assist!"
Alice stood with her rapier held high, pointing it at the Ethereals before her. Her heart held no fear; she was the very image of a valiant female knight.
Geno froze for a moment. He had initially thought Alice was just running her mouth when she claimed to have combat abilities. He hadn't expected her to actually know how to fight.
With lightning-fast, precise movements, she struck the Ethereals' cores. The monsters dissipated before their Filth defenses could even deploy. Alice's swordsmanship could absolutely be considered professional level.
With Alice joining the fray, the trio's speed in dealing with the Ethereals increased significantly. Very soon, the vast majority of the Ethereals were completely cleared out.
"Phew... That should be the last of them."
Alice pulled her rapier out of an Ethereal's body, then twisted her figure to adjust her center of gravity.
"Careful behind you!"
Lucia cried out in alarm. A few Hati had been waiting for an opportunity and lunged to ambush Alice from behind. Lacking adequate lighting, Alice struggled to notice the threat to her rear and suddenly fell into a panic. She was just about to be struck by the Hati.
"Thanatos Assault!"
Alice's vision went dark as Geno's figure suddenly appeared in front of her. With a swing of his greatsword, he sliced the two Hati cleanly in half at the waist.
Recovering from her panic, Alice quickly followed up with two swift strikes, sending the Hati back to the Sea of Ether for good.
"Phew... Thank goodness you're okay."
Seeing this, Lucia patted her chest, exclaiming how close a call that was. Fortunately, Geno was reliable and prevented a disaster from happening.
After finishing her strikes, Alice's body suddenly relaxed. Her legs gave out, and she was about to collapse to the ground. Geno hurriedly caught her, then called out to Lucia.
"It's not safe here. Let's leave first."
Lucia nodded, and the three of them began making their way toward the cave entrance.
Exiting the mine shaft, Geno set Alice down on the ground, leaning her against a large tree so she could slowly recover her stamina. He then turned his head to look at Lucia.
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to this little guy protecting me, those Ethereals didn't even touch me."
As she spoke, Lucia leaned down and pet the head of the Hati beside her.
"I wanted to ask earlier, what's the deal with this Hati? Did you summon it too?"
Alice, sitting nearby, was also incredibly curious. She had spotted this strange Hati earlier, but seeing that it didn't attack them, she had held back her questions.
Lucia, also somewhat confused, explained to the two of them.
"I'm not entirely sure either. After waking up from my sleepwalking, I found myself already inside the Hollow. It was right beside me at the time, and then it just kept leading the way, like it wanted to take me somewhere. Later, we ran into a pack of Ethereals and were chased all the way here."
At this point, the look Lucia gave the Hati contained a trace of deep gratitude.
"It was Cili who protected me, allowing me to hold out until your backup arrived. It's really all thanks to this little guy."
"Cili?"
"It's the name I gave it. What do you think? Not bad, right?"
"Awooo!"
Seemingly very satisfied with this name, the Hati—no, Cili—barked out loud, echoing Lucia's words.
"It's simply unbelievable. An Ethereal actually understanding human speech and even protecting humans."
Alice covered her small mouth, a light of sheer disbelief shimmering in her heterochromatic eyes. The Timefield family had researched Ether for so many years, yet this was her first time seeing an Ethereal that exhibited such human nature.
"Although it's definitely a bit unbelievable, it's not entirely unacceptable. After all..."
Halfway through her sentence, Lucia suddenly remembered something and immediately looked at Geno. She saw Geno holding a finger to his lips, gesturing for her not to say it out loud. This caused Lucia to abruptly pause.
"After all, what?"
Alice twitched her ears in curiosity. Why did she just stop talking halfway?
"After all... after all, the world is a big place, and there's no shortage of bizarre things! Anything can happen. Even if one day an Ethereal suddenly started speaking human language and walked right out of a Hollow, I wouldn't be surprised. Right?"
Forcing an explanation, Lucia shot a profoundly meaningful look at Geno. Geno, in turn, looked back at her with a face full of helplessness, leaving Alice completely baffled by the exchange.
Are these two hiding something from me?
The little rabbit caught the scent of a secret, but she didn't dwell on it too much. After all, prying into other people's privacy was not something a proper lady should do.
They rested for a while longer. Once Alice's stamina had recovered, the trio prepared to leave the Hollow.
"Leave it to me! I brought a Carrot before I came. As long as we follow the Carrot, we'll—"
Brimming with confidence, Alice pulled out the smartphone that stored the Carrot data. But the moment she took it out, she was utterly dumbfounded.
The phone, encased in an adorable rabbit-patterned cover, was now completely battered. The screen was shattered into a spiderweb of cracks. Clinging to a sliver of hope, Alice tried pressing the power button a couple of times, but all she got were loose shards of glass falling to the ground.
It turned out that during the previous battle, the phone tucked into her chest pocket had been crushed at some unknown point.
Realizing she had made a massive mistake, Alice's eyes widened into comical dots. Like a broken robot, she slowly turned her neck, inch by jerky inch, to look at Geno.
"What do we do now...?" she whimpered tearfully.
Seeing this, Geno merely sighed and offered words of comfort.
"Calm down. We just lost the Carrot, that's all. It's not the end of the world yet."
Geno thought to himself: 'It's just a Carrot, isn't it?' The number of times he had gotten lost inside a Hollow was greater than the number of times Alice had even entered one. Had anyone ever seen him panic?
Of course, being an Ethereal himself, Geno really had no need to panic in the first place.
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