World's Last Hope-Chapter 85: The Silent Pursuit

"Just tell us the news, dammit!" Olivia spoke.

Eric sighed as he responded, "In short, I’m worthy, but my soul is too weak. As such, I’m supposed to strengthen it to become the master of the cathedral."

"Strengthen it?" Aria raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I’ve actually done it in the past, though I’m not sure how it happened or how to replicate the process," he admitted.

"Well, this is better than expected, I guess," Olivia spoke as she got up.

"Oh, by the way, why were you two hug—"

"What are you talking about?" Olivia interrupted him.

"No, but I clearly saw—"

"Don’t worry about it," Aria spoke as she put her hand on his head, still wet from being in the pool.

"If you say so," Eric muttered, leaving the question aside.

The day was over, so Eric and Aria headed to her mansion, while Olivia headed to her own.

Eric couldn’t help but throw a few glances at Aria.

Surprisingly—or unsurprisingly—he found that if he wasn’t in constant danger, he was thinking about her constantly.

For some reason, even the act of her walking made his blood heat up.

’Control yourself,’ Eric told himself. But then he raised an eyebrow at himself.

’Wait, we are dating, so it’s not like I’m doing anything wrong, right? It’s natural that I find my girlfriend attractive!’

A moment later, his eyes widened as he remembered something. Wasn’t he supposed to take Aria on a date? He had made a promise, after all.

"Hey, Aria... if you aren’t busy..."

’Wait, I don’t even have any idea where I can take her on a date! It’s not like I’ve had any free time to explore the city at all!’ Realization hit him, but it was already too late.

"Hmm? Yes, I’m not busy. Do you want to go somewhere?" She turned, her gaze matching his.

"I mean... if you want to go on a date like we agreed on..."

For a moment, Aria’s eyes shined as it seemed she had also forgotten about their agreement for a date.

"No, I—just, I mean, can you give me some time to prepare? What about tomorrow?" It was almost impossible to tell, but her cheeks had turned a bit red.

"Su-sure," Eric stuttered a bit in his words.

They continued their walk in awkward silence.

Not wanting it to stay that way, Eric spoke.

"So we’re supposed to begin some kind of training tomorrow, right? How will that work?"

"As my grandfather is a Grandmaster and has been for a long time, he will teach me the ins and outs, while you will most likely join us,"

Eric couldn’t help but grin. He was expecting to be tossed to train with random people he didn’t know, but training with Aria and her grandfather sounded much better.

Aria smirked a little as she saw his expression and added, "Oh, I wouldn’t be smiling in your case."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Tomorrow, you’ll train with two Grandmasters. I doubt you realize how tiring that will be," she explained.

"Now that you mention it," Eric muttered as he placed his hand on his chin, deep in thought.

He remembered what he saw Aria was able to do in the Colossal Forest, and now he was going to train with her and someone equal to her power?

’Wait...’ His eyes widened in realization as he remembered the glances Grandmaster Gryndor would give him from time to time.

’He isn’t the overprotective type who will beat me to a pulp just because I’m dating his granddaughter, right?!’ He shuddered a little as he imagined what would happen tomorrow.

"This sure would be troublesome..." he admitted as he glanced at Aria.

’Though, it is certainly worth it,’ he thought.

*****

After they reached her mansion, they had a nice and quiet dinner. Of course, they were accompanied by her grandfather, who, if before he was staring at Eric with daggers, now seemed to be staring at him with more curiosity than anything.

Once they had finished, everybody went to sleep.

Was it because of the wine Eric had drunk? For some reason, he felt confident as he was about to suggest to Aria that they share a bed tonight, but he stopped himself, thinking it would be better to do it after their date.

As such, he was laying on the bed he had been provided with, trying to fall asleep.

"Huh, weird. I seem to have gotten so used to sleeping with my armor on that I have problems falling asleep," he mused, but nevertheless, he eventually drifted off to sleep.

...

Clutching his throat with both hands, in a second he rose to his feet.

His throat and lungs were burning, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see anything. Was everything around him darkness... or had he lost his sight?

’What is going on? Where am I?’ he asked himself as he opened his mouth and tried to scream, but a second later, he realized he couldn’t.

’What?’ He collapsed on his knees as saliva began to fall from his mouth.

’BREATHE! BREATHE!’ No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t take in air at all.

His silent panic was interrupted as he heard the sound of a faint step in the distance.

Then another, then another. An eerie whistling reached his ears.

His body shivered as he forced every being in his body to move. He instinctively knew that if he didn’t, he was as good as dead.

"Oh? Still running? It’s pointless, you know."

Eric turned, trying to ignore the voice behind him as he ran in the opposite direction, though at least he thought he did. The dark void he had suddenly found himself in made it hard to tell if he was actually running or staying in one place.

’Oxygen!’ As his lungs were emptied, he collapsed on the ground, unable to move.

Blood began to fall from his mouth and the corner of his eyes as he heard the whistling getting closer.

Each step was louder than the last until the entity stopped just behind him.

"Sadly, we have yet to meet... but don’t worry," he felt something place a hand on his head as he was bleeding liters of blood from every hole he had.

The thing placed its mouth close to Eric’s ear as it whispered, "No matter how far you go, I will still find you."

...

Rising from his bed, Eric breathed in as much air as he could and instinctively summoned his sword.

He observed his surroundings as quickly as he could, only to find himself in the room he had gone to sleep in.

"A nightmare?" he muttered as he placed a trembling hand on his head, trying to calm down his wildly beating heart.

"No, it felt too real to be a nightmare... that thing that hunts me... did it just try to communicate with me?"

He dismissed his sword as he sat on his bed, deep in thought. ’No, it’s just my imagination. There’s no way it could do something like that... but with the things I’ve seen, haven’t I been told that there are no laws in this world?’

"If this was real... was it trying to show me what will happen once it reaches me? I couldn’t even move a finger against it..." He clenched his left palm into a fist, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Did I really allow myself to feel comfortable, knowing this world is on the brink of collapse?"

He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle... no, laughter. He was laughing like a maniac.

"When did I get so stupid to think about romance?!" He put a hand on his stomach as he couldn’t control his laughter.

His only option was to either laugh or cry, so he chose the thing that seemed more favorable to him.

"If what I saw in my dream is what that being is capable of, just being in its presence is enough to kill me on the spot. Then it doesn’t matter how many Grandmasters we have, we will be doomed either way."

He took a deep breath as he stood up. His crimson eyes were already tired, even though he had just woken up, but that didn’t matter.

"My strength isn’t enough. I need more... much, much more," he muttered as he exited the room.

He was going to train until collapse today.