The second female lead Dual Cultivates

Maria woke up with her hand in pain. Her eyes registered red when she decided to take a look at her hand. It was covered in blood. The blood was still flowing out of her palm.

"Are you alright? You blanked out." Yuuki sounded worried. The episode did not seem to have taken much time. Kuro and Venus had not come over to check yet.

"Yeah. I'm alright. But more importantly, we can't let Kuro and Venus know what the real meaning of this place is. They need to be kept in the dark or something bad will happen." Maria spoke fast. She wanted to get her thoughts out before she forgot.

Yuki looked overwhelmed at her fast response. Maria was not sure if he understood what she had said.

"I don't know how you came to that conclusion but I would assume that it had something to do with your blacking out. A vision?" Yuuki sounded cautious when he asked.

But Maria could tell that he did not want an answer from her. He was asking for the sake of asking.

"This place has an external influence. And I don't mean 'out of continent' external. More like, 'out of realm' external." Maria tried to hint at the 'higher realm' without taking the name.

For some reason, the information refused to be uttered out of her mouth. She could not say 'upper realm' without feeling her mouth clamp itself shut.

"That's troublesome. Those people from the 'out of the realm'-" Maria was sure Yuuki was trying to say 'upper realm' as well. But he changed his words at the last second.

Yuuki looked frustrated as well. Looked like the restriction on speaking was not only being applied to Maria.

"I see what you mean now. Someone is taking extreme measures to make sure we don't spoil the things happening here." Yuuki concluded.

"We don't have any other choice but to subtly hint at our point across from those two dense idiots." Maria sounded worried. And for good reasons.

Yuuki did not look confident as well. But it was getting late and Maria could hear Venus getting impatient at their long talk.

Maria decided to start heading back toward the group. It would not do them any good to make Venus and Kuro suspicious.

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Maria's gaze fell on the pond adjustment to their campsite and a shudder wracked her frame. She remembered the monstrosity that had attacked them in her vision.

Maria had a feeling that the beast was lurking in the pond's shadows still. It was lurking, waiting for them to slip up.

"Stop looking at the water. Hurry on over. We have food ready." Maria finally broke her eyes away from the pond and headed toward Venus. The girl had been trying to cook the ingredients Maria had presented her with.

The cooking did not look great, but it was edible enough.

"I'm tired. I'm not taking the first or second watch. Decide among yourself." Venus was half-asleep when she spoke those words. Kuro was also falling asleep sitting down.

Maria was not going to count on them to keep watch either. It would either have to be her or Yuuki.

"I'll take the first watch. Maria can take second?" Yuuki purposes. He seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion and his eyes told Maria that they were on their own.

"You'll be alright? Wake me up when it is my time to keep watch." Kuro replied in one breath and he was asleep in the next.

Maria found herself not very sleepy. Her body was tired but her breaking refused to quieten down.

"Yuuki, I'll be going for a small walk. I'll be back in time for my turn at keeping watch." Maria promised.

Yuuki looked displeased at her decision to abandon him but he did not stop her from leaving either. If anything, he seemed to understand Maria's discomfort.

"Alright. Come back when your time to keep watch starts." Yuuki was dismissed as he went back to his position.

Maria decided not to venture too far away from the camp. She let her feet carry her across the cave as she observed it.

And then she began to notice a lot of things she did not do in the beginning. The walls were smoother than in a natural cave. They also were soft to touch.

Maria looked at the wall and watched as it caved in just a little. No stone could bend like that.

Her feeling of danger got even worse as she walked closer to the water. It looked clean at first but there was an emerald glow to it in the darkness.

Maria was not sure if it was her imagination or not, but she could make out a shadow swimming deep in the waters. It was ignoring Maria's presence but she found herself fascinated with the creature.

Maria had her system panel opened to scan the waters and record data in it. She stopped to find something of use.

[User alert issued.

The user is informed that they can use a key item here. Would the user like to use the 'Gem of Requiem'?]

Maria jumped at her system's voice. She accidentally shifted the screen.

[Answer recorded.

The user is advised to take a few steps back]

But of course, her system's warning came late. The gem made contact with water and caused a small explosion.

Maria felt magic swell all around her and then the water parted.

Maria jumped back from the water as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. The gem had touched the water and then transformed it into a portal.

And the magic coming out of the portal felt achingly familiar. It felt like a node.

'S-System?' Maria asked. She had no words to describe what she felt or how to proceed further. She needed help and the system was the only one that could confirm for her.

[Congratulations.

The user had found the entrance and key to one of the hidden nodes. The node is not connected to any continent but has a connection to this space.]

The system informed Maria.

Maria felt her brain ache at the influx of new information. She had not known that there were hidden nodes. How could she ever anticipate coming across them?

Why did things never make sense in this world?

"Let's not touch this node for now. I should get Yuuki's opinion as well." Maria decided but she did not get to make it far.

The monster decided that it had enough of being agitated and jumped out of the water. It was calm one second and Maria had her hand in the beast's grip the next second.

"H-Hey!" By the time Maria's voice echoed across the cave, she had already been dragged into the cold embrace of the cave waters.

The water burned at her lungs and Maria found it difficult to breathe. The water was burning her throat as well as her lungs.

And when she finally felt her body hit the ground, Mari almost cried out in relief. Her lungs decided to steal as much oxygen as they could. Maria finally felt better after she was let out of the water.

"I don't like you. You made a mess of my storybook." The voice came from a silhouette in front of Maria. It startled her but Maria's body did not have enough energy to be able to respond.

Someone touched her face and lifted it from the ground. And Maria found herself looking at a familiar pair of eyes.

She had seen them before. On a face younger than the one in front of her. And also on a face much older than the person in front of her.

The person holding Maria's face in her hand looked like a mixture of Yura and the queen. The only difference was the scale of magic oozing out of this person.

Maria's senses told her that she could not face this enemy. She would not survive the clash and also doom others in the process.

"Come. Sit and have a seat. I'm interested to know why you decided to Interfere in my storybook world." The female patted the empty seat at her side.

Maria did not want to move but her body complied. It was like the other female had a grip on her body and was manipulating it to her advantage.

Maria sat down but her mind was blank. The female's unnerving gaze made her falter even more.

"So. Why did you come to this world? You don't have to answer me if you don't want to. But the consequences would not be pretty." The female asked.

She did not introduce herself and Maria had a feeling the other did not care about it either. The sheer aura of the female made Marka break out in cold sweat.

"I did not mean to end up here. Imu's node sent me to Jamica. I am on a mission to seal them all and to prevent the next demonic was." Maria informed.

She decided to be truthful to the female. She got a feeling that she would not get away with lying here.

And the female did not look like someone who liked a good lie.

"I see. So it's that time already? Sister must be pissed off. And, what does it have to do with you?" The female asked and Maria felt her mouth move on it's own.