Dimensional Descent

Yuri was stunned for a moment before she suddenly imploded.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

BANG!

A violent invisible force shot out in all directions. The expressions of the three young men instantly changed as they hurried to protect themselves, but it was already too late.

As though a wall of solid wind had hit them, they flew backward like an iron ball out of a canon. In fact, it wasn't just them. The surrounding nature was completely flattened as though a fist had descended from the sky.

The rippling wave spread outward like a fan, sending the three flying for dozens of meters.

"YURI!" Savahn was shocked awake.

Savahn violently pulled Yuri backward, disrupting the eruption of her fury. Then, she sprung forward at her fastest speed, her Force reaching out to slow the blow the three had suffered. She barely made it in time to ensure that they didn't crash against the ground or any thick trees, however that didn't stop the three of them from coughing up blood. Savahn had reacted far too slowly to stop the initial impact.

Yuri was still furious enough to go for another attack, unfortunately, Savahn was standing in the path between herself and the three. Although she had plenty of methods of going around Savahn, she had a feeling that being so close, Savahn would definitely try to block her.

Joel, Allan and Franco coughed out another mouthful of blood, their gazes lit with fury.

"Savahn, get out of the way!" Yuri yelled.

"This bitch." Franco growled, about to get up.

Just when it seemed like things would truly get out of hand, Savahn turned back toward Yuri, her gaze livid. For a moment, she seemed to return to that same fiery tempered girl who always reprimanded Leonel for chasing after Aina.

"YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH! STEP BACK!"

Savahn's near roar shocked Yuri out of her own rage and even made Franco take a pause. He was already furious enough to go all out with this woman, but Savahn's actions seemed to snap them all awake.

Savahn turned back toward the boys, kneeling down. She handed them all healing pills she had managed to accumulate, allowing their injuries to stabilize.

"I'm sorry about Yuri, but she treats Aina like her own flesh and blood sister. She often says and does things she doesn't mean when it comes to her, but please hear me out. She didn't tell you the full scope of the truth and how things ended up this way."

"Savahn!" Yuri's expression changed.

Yuri wasn't a fool. She didn't speak about those matters on purpose because the less people that knew, the better. Not only did it involve a treasure that Miel could be hunted down for, if Aina didn't interact with the world as normally as possible, it was possible that it would have adverse reactions on the reawakening of her personality.

If it wasn't for the fact Savahn was so close with Aina and would immediately realize that there was something wrong with her personality, she wouldn't have been told the truth of the circumstances either.

Yuri had naively only ever seen things from her perspective. In her mind, Aina was perfect and everyone should treat her as such, not to mention care about her wellbeing just as much as she did. So, she had never considered telling them the full story because she didn't think it was necessary. Wasn't what she had said enough? Wasn't it clear as day that Aina had been wronged? Then how could they possibly act like it wasn't a big deal? How could they say such cruel words?

What Yuri couldn't wrap her head around was something that Savahn understood almost too intimately… It could be said that of all the people who understood best how Leonel felt right now, Savahn was at the top of the list.

Unlike Yuri, Savahn had been thrust into this world just like Leonel had, forced to scratch and claw for everything and even barely surviving her first Zone. And, just like Leonel, she had walked out to find her best friend of four years with her bloodied arm through a human's chest…

That event had caused Savahn to become estranged from Yuri and Aina. And yet, instead of trying to bring her back into the fold and support her in the moment she needed it the most, they both left her…

Aina left to go off on her adventures with Leonel and Yuri only ever truly cared about Aina's wellbeing, not considering Savahn very much at all. If Savahn hadn't felt the need to step in during the argument between Leonel's brothers and Aina, maybe they would have all remained estranged for a life time…

And what had happened after that? Well, the broken and fragile Aina collapsed in her arms, sobbing and crying her worries away, pining over a man she herself had chosen to leave.

She brought Savahn out like a crutch, even dragging her to this Sixth Dimensional world so she could continue to be used.

When Aina hadn't needed Savahn anymore, she was fine with ignoring her existence. But, the moment she had, she dragged her back into her life, forcing her to become a shoulder to cry on.

Did Savahn understand that Aina was a broken person? Yes. Did she understand that it wasn't entirely Aina's fault? Yes. Did she blame Aina and hate her like another might? No.

However… None of this changed the fact that it hurt.

No one ever considered her thoughts and her feelings. Despite having friends around, she felt like she was alone.

She had spent four years 'protecting' Aina, but she never received the same in return. There was no one else who understood how Leonel felt right this moment more than she did. But even now, she was willing to help.

So, she explained. The only details she missed were ones that she had never been privy to, but whether it was related to how broken Aina was after leaving Leonel, all the way up to her personality being completely erased, she left nothing out.

When she was finished, the three young men looked toward one another. They hadn't expected to have had the needle moved for them at all. But now…

What were they supposed to do?