A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

When Erik heard Elora's words, his heart skipped a beat. Time seemed to freeze as a surge of emotions rushed through him. Seven years of suppressing his pain, loss and seething desire for retribution now threatened to erupt.

His fists clenched involuntarily, nails digging into his palms as the floodgates holding back his emotions began to crack.

While Erik stood frozen as feelings he had suppressed for the last seven years started resurfacing, Elora looked at him anxiously, wondering if she had done the right thing in telling him immediately.

She knew she would have to tell him eventually, as he would just find out himself anyway.

Unfortunately, they both needed at least a few days to recover fully from the teleportation, and she didn't know if she could stop him if he decided to rush straight to the site of his old community.

Still, if their partnership was to last the ages, there could be no lies between them, even if it was for their own good. A real partner would tell it as it is and then stand by the other to pick up the pieces if they fucked everything up.

So, instead of continuing to doubt herself, she decided to continue searching through Emily's memories in an attempt to find any reason she could use to convince Erik to stay a little longer, assuming she couldn't reason with him.

Meanwhile, Erik's fierce amber eyes gleamed with a dangerous intensity, the fire of vengeance reigniting within him. His jaw tightened, teeth grinding against the memories that fueled his anger.

He felt part anticipation at the chance to get revenge and part sorrow at the idea of confronting Edda. After all, despite the hatred he bore her, she was still his first love and someone he grew up with, someone he may have even obsessed a little over.

Not that he would hesitate when the day to face his past finally arrived. No, Edda deserved to die, and he would unflinchingly deal the finishing blow.

Erik stood frozen for another few minutes as he slowly internalized the knowledge that he was back on Earth and might get his revenge after all.

Eventually, he relaxed his hands and jaw and released a long breath. He felt himself take back control as he remembered his current situation.

Now that he was back, revenge was not impossible anymore. That was good enough for now, as rushing off would be more likely to get him killed before he could even find the bitch.

"So… back on Earth, huh?" he mumbled. "I feel like someone is fucking with me, sending me to Söl and then pulling me back to Earth, just when I started to adjust to life there."

Fury was bubbling just under the surface, but he kept it contained for now. No matter how much he wanted to get revenge now that he had the chance, he could see the same thing as Elora: they were not ready.

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Elora released a breath of relief, glad that he seemed to be keeping himself together. Than she nodded in agreement. "We still can't be sure if you ending up on Söl was an accident or not, but getting pulled back here definitely wasn't."

Erik agreed, and continued putting on his Armor while talking to Elora, "Where are we exactly?"

"Seems to be a place called London," she answered with a curious tone. "It's very different from the place you grew up that I saw in your memories. I mean, even before this world began its awakening."

Erik raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "So you and your mother were right? Earth is currently awakening?"

He finally finished putting his Armor on, followed by Elora landing on his shoulder while she nodded. "It seems so. We'll need to be careful for a few days. If this girl's memories are correct, than there are more second-rankers out there than I would have expected. Even this bitch is one, just like you."

Then she frowned with concern, "I suspect there might even be a few third-rankers. Plus, we are not in the best of shapes. I had to spend a lot of energy taking control of her, and healing your soul. Which, by the way, has been stitched together from an even worse state than when we met."

She looked at him seriously, "Remember, I may be a third-ranker, but I have no offensive magic to speak of, and I can't forcefully take possession of someone with her power, so had she not opened her mind in an attempt to enslave you, I would have been unable to do anything to her."

"I know, plus I lost my hammer…" Erik sighed, regretfully.

He had actually taken quite an interest in forging back on Söl, enjoying the peace he felt when working on his creations. That hammer was his greatest result so far and also the first one he crafted together with Elora.

"Right… so can I assume you'll keep your cool for a few days? Despite your obvious desire to run off in search of Edda?" Elora asked cautiously, wanting to be sure. She was usually mischievous and playful, but she knew when to be serious.

Heavy footsteps sounded as Erik walked up to the stairs leading out of this basement while he chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. We seem to be in some kind of residence, why don't we have your new slave show us around? Since we need to recuperate for a few days, might as well do it here."

"Ugh," Elora groaned. "I was afraid you'd say that."

Erik blinked in surprised. "I thought you wanted to wait as well?"

"Yeeaaah," Elora slightly whined. "But you're a bleeding heart, and there's this cute, innocent girl in the building that I'm pretty sure you'll want to save."

Although Elora's efforts had significantly increased Erik's indifference towards the lives of others, she had yet failed to bring him to her own level, as he still had some care left for the innocent and the young. Cute girls in trouble were a particular weakness of his.

Even when it came to humans.

The fact was, although there was a brief period on Söl where he had trouble being around humans, it didn't last long. Living in a world with as many different species as existed on Söl, he eventually realized that hating an entire species was as pointless as idolizing a different species.

Now, he focused his hatred on the people behind the attack on his village, not the species.

But, Elora had come to terms with that by now, and she knew he wouldn't appreciate it if she kept his information from him.

"How do you mean?" Erik frowned.

"I'll show you, alright?" she sighed in response.

* * *

It was now about half an hour later as Erik and Emily stood before a closed door while Erik held a bundle of clothes in his hand and Elora sat on his shoulder in her smallest form.

After Elora had informed Erik about the girl, Elora used her magic to clean the glassy-eyed Emily and had her put her clothes back on. Then she had Emily lead them out of the basement and into the mansion proper.

They hadn't encountered anyone, as it seemed Emily kept her slaves in another part of the mansion. Not that it would have mattered. With Elora in control of Emily, that basically made all those slaves hers now.

First, Elora had Emily lead them to a bedroom, where Emily grabbed some women's clothes and stuffed them in Erik's hands under his confused gaze.

"Is this girl naked or something?" he asked her, curiously.

"For starters, yeah," Elora shrugged, making Erik raise an eyebrow in surprise. "But you'll see for yourself if you go through that door.

She then flew off Erik's shoulder and took place on top of Emily's head instead, "Anyway, her name is Emma, and It's probably best if you go in there alone since you're the bleeding heart between the two of us."

She pointed downwards and continued, "She's this one's sister, but I doubt she'd be much more comfortable with Emily's presence."

Erik only got more curious but started to suspect this Emma might not be in a good state as he decided to simply follow Elora's suggestion and walked towards the door with anticipation before extending his hand in an attempt to open it… only to be met with the resistance of a locked door.

He looked behind him in exasperation as Elora giggled, clearly enjoying the little prank she pulled before she had Emily take a keyring from her pocket and toss it to Erik.

He caught it and turned around with a sigh while shaking his head before opening the door.

However, nothing could have prepared him for what he found on the other side.