Once the [Fire Orb] spell touched an Elite Skeleton's body, it suddenly ignited, exploded with a loud bang, and produced a shockwave. The fire spread like wildfire and devoured anything within its two-meter surroundings.
The explosion blasted three elite skeleton soldiers into multiple pieces simultaneously.
In contrast, the other four skeletons got caught in the shockwave and thrown in different directions.
Some even lost one or two limbs and struggled to stand up.
'My attack spells seem to have strengthened a little!' Abium curled his lips upward and smiled.
Clap! Clap!
Suddenly, Umi's clapping sound came from behind, causing him to pause in surprise.
Chuckling, Abium moved towards the half-dead skeletons and swiftly killed them.
When he sheathed his sword, he suddenly noticed that a black-cloaked skeleton was looking at him from the woods and raised his eyebrows.
'A scout? It's monitoring the battle?'
As he was about to move towards it, the skeleton suddenly turned into a cloud of eerie dark smoke and disappeared!
'What the-? A teleportation skill?' He activated the [Spiritual Scan] ability and scanned the surrounding area.
Soon, he noticed that one red dot was moving in the opposite direction and realized that it was running towards the island's center!
"Stay here."
Abium warned Nicolaus to be cautious and chased after the skeleton.
...
Meanwhile, Nicolaus nodded, turned around, and walked towards the half-built fence. Then, he picked up the old sword he used to cut down the tree branches, started cutting down the tiny branches, and made the wooden pole.
After that, he sharpened the wood at the tip, made it look like a spearhead, and shifted his attention toward the ground.
Then, he dug a two-foot-long pit, put the wood's other end into the hole, and covered it with sand.
While he was doing this, Umi watched his action with her pure eyes and soon sensed something on her right side.
As she turned her tiny head towards the woods, she saw a humanoid figure walking in her direction.
'Bad guys?'
As she was about to warn Nicolaus, she suddenly sensed something was odd.
At that moment, Umi noticed that Nicolaus appeared to be in a frozen state and wasn't moving at all!
Moreover, the trimmed branch leaves and sticks that fell from Nicolaus's hands also hovered in mid-air magically!
She also noticed that even the breathing sound of her mother didn't reach her ears and panicked!
"Tehehe, why are you anxious, Umi? Don't worry; I'm here to help you." A young girl's voice echoed in her ears.
Umi hurriedly took a step back in fear, looked at the humanoid silhouette in the woods, and shouted in nervousness.
"W-Who are you?"
Just as she spoke, the humanoid silhouette walked towards her and soon showed its actual appearance to Umi.
It appeared to be a silhouette of a young girl, probably around the age of 10, with kitten ears, long silver hair, a whitetail, and dressed in a greenish-blue gown.
She looked around 140 cm high, had a square face, and appeared more like a young princess of some random kingdom. She looked unreal, but her illusionary appearance made Umi more anxious.
The young girl made a mischievous smile as she saw the nervous look on Umi's face. She then tapped her finger on the strange flute in her left hand and stepped on the grass.
A second later, she disappeared like an illusion and reappeared in front of Umi, startling her greatly.
"You can think of me as your Elder Sister, Umi." She said as she patted Umi's head and asked.
"Do you need any help now?"
Although Umi didn't know who this person was, she decided not to overthink and hurriedly nodded.
"Save my mom." She said naively, turning to her right.
Meanwhile, the young girl closed her eyes, recited a strange incantation, opened her eyes, and nodded.
"Your mother's soul was in a weakened state, Umi. But I cured her now."
"Oh!" Umi blinked her eyes in excitement, hurriedly ran towards her mother, and tried to wake her up.
But the young girl suddenly appeared next to Umi and stopped her.
"She is in a frozen state now. She will wake up once I disappear from here." The young girl deliberated as she looked into Umi's eyes and asked.
"Do you want to be my Champion?"
A confused look appeared on Umi's face as she heard the strange question.
Noticing her confusion, the young girl puffed her flat chest and decided to ask differently.
"Do you want to protect your mother?"
Umi didn't even show any hesitation and nodded her head this time.
But before the young girl could speak again, Umi tilted her head and asked.
"What is Champion?"
Meanwhile, the silver-haired girl paused and soon broke into a big smile.
"Champions are blessed children of powerful Gods. They are chosen to defeat evil and give justice to the innocents."
On the other hand, Umi suddenly quivered as she recalled something terrible and asked with a fearful look.
However, Lord Priest said that we are demons and need to be eradicated from this world, though."
"Lord Priest?" The silver-haired girl furrowed as she heard the strange term and decided to peek into her memories.
She shuffled through her memories within a blink and soon extracted a cloud of memory from her Sea of Consciousness.
A 50-year-old grey-haired man was whipping Umi's mother from behind and chasing her away from the Light Church in that memory cloud. In the meantime, hundreds of people threw stones and waste materials at Umi and her mother and cursed at them to leave the town.
"Oh? A bunch of religious guys, huh?" She nodded her head in understanding and explained calmly.
"There is nothing called 'Right' and 'Wrong' in this world, Umi. That Lord Priest of the Light God is nothing but a racist. Who is he to hurt you and your mother? Aren't the Light God Welos's followers hunting our kin and killing them? If they are good guys, why are they killing our kin? Demons? Then, what about Light God? Isn't he a demon himself? Do you want to know a small secret only I knew of?" The young girl bent down a bit, moved her face towards Umi's ears, and whispered.
"In truth, Light God Welos is a vampire from the Abyss. He is the true Demon and also a foreigner to this world. But to make others believe in him, he proclaimed himself as a bloodline descendant of High Humans and acted like he despises non-humans."
Meanwhile, Umi got stunned by her words and nodded, even though she only understood half of her words.
In contrast, the young girl straightened her back, puffed her chest, and laughed mischievously.
"Tehehe, do you want to be my Champion now?"
Umi fell silent for a moment and nodded her head.
Suddenly, the young girl raised her right hand above her head and declared.
"In the name of 'Nyara,' I bless you with unlimited potential and opportunities. Rise and break the shackle of oppression and discrimination."
She turned around and started walking towards the woods as she said this.
But unlike before, her eyes shone in golden light, blended space and time, peeked into a faraway Easica Plane, and finally locked on a particular town.
"Let the 'Curse of Forgotten' descend to that land." She muttered under her breath and retracted her gaze.
Meanwhile, Umi stood there with a dazed look as she didn't even understand a word and appeared to be in a clueless state.
Suddenly, she thought of something and opened her mouth.
"Big sis, do you know the answer-?"
Before she could even ask the question, a response came from the front.
"The answer to the earlier riddle is Castor Bean."
A second later, the young girl created a strange ripple in the surroundings, undid the frozen state, and disappeared from there!
At that moment, Umi also saw Nicolaus start to move again and widened her eyes in surprise.
She looked down and noticed that her mother was also opening her eyes.
Tears rolled down her eyes like a broken dam as Umi saw her mom and smiled subconsciously.
"Mama!" She leaped into her mother's embrace, hugged her tightly, and cried.
On the other hand, Nicolaus also got startled by Umi's sudden cry and turned around.
He soon saw the mother-child reunion and walked towards them.
Meanwhile, Umi's mother stood up unsteadily while carrying Umi in her arms and looked around.
"W-Where are we?" she asked, staring at him with a stiff face.
Suddenly, she seemed to have identified him and asked.
"Aren't you Lord Tibbott's son? Wait, how am I still alive? Didn't that ugly bastard r*pe me?!" Her body quivered as she recalled the unforgivable incident and backed away.
Meanwhile, Nicolaus showed a forceful smile and raised both hands.
"I have no ill intentions against you, Mam. We- Ahem, My friend saved you from the thugs and brought you somewhere safer. You don't have to worry about your safety-"
Before he could finish his words, rustling sounds came from all directions.
More than 20 skeletons jumped out of the surrounding woods and slowly moved towards them within seconds.
'What the hell? Did I jinx it? When did my luck turn into this awful?' Nicolaus couldn't help but turn pale.
"I take back what I said earlier," Nicolaus said grimly and then added.
"We are still in a dangerous place, but it's safer than outside."
Meanwhile, Umi's mother calmly analyzed the situation and nodded her head.
"I trust your words." Saying so, she put Umi on the ground, raised her hand above Umi's head, and muttered.
"Crystal Cocoon."
A second later, dense Ice-elemental energy appeared out of her palm and formed a crystalline ice cocoon around Umi.
She coughed up a mouthful of blood and shook her head as she ended casting the first bloodline spell.
"Give me a sword." Umi's mother added.