Chapter 153 – Fudzzed

After Noah said he would try to break the barrier around the kirk, Samantha saw him sitting down in front of the barrier and close his eyes. He sat this way for almost a minute as if he was meditating. But she could not feel any magic stirring around him, as it was with Kate and Lilly when they meditated. And his head was tilting down almost like…

"Is he asleep?" Asked Kate with her eyebrow raised, voicing aloud exactly what Samantha thought.

"No, it can't be… He said he would…" Said Samantha in the middle of shooting her bow, before turning to gaze at Noah carefully.

"The fuck? He is asleep!" She was finally sure of it herself when she noticed Noah's relaxed breathing and barely audible gentle snoring coming from him.

"This guy!" She said her eye twitching as the strong urge to punch him rose inside her.

However, a moment later something changed in Noah's sitting posture. Small trembles spread through his body. Then it turned to spasms as he inhaled a chest full.

Then something incomprehensible occurred as the light broke out of all his orifices. A beast-like howl tore out of his throat as the beam of light shot out of his open mouth hitting the barrier in front of him. Golden light penetrated the barrier spreading throughout the whole kirk brightening the hall. A few seconds later with a shattered glass sound, the barrier has crumbled.

"Finally!" Roared Mark, taking a firm stance and parrying the hypnotized cleric's mace swing, before putting his entire weight into the punch. A booming clap sounded in the hall as Mark's fist connected with his opponent's lower jaw. A second later cleric sagged, falling to the ground unconscious.

The next moment he heard a second loud clap and saw Samantha knocking out another cleric with no less powerful punch than Mark's. The man she punched fell down before the bow, which she threw out of her hands, before flashing toward her target, could even reach the ground.

Within just a few more seconds all hypnotized clerics, including the real Father Benedict, and Father Aravi were knocked out. Only then Samantha looked around herself and noticed Noah lying on the ground outside the door, a metal puppet protectively standing over him. Noah's words flashed in her mind. Just as he said he managed to destroy this wicked barrier that gave them so much trouble, but as he predicted, this also harmed him greatly. She wanted to go check on his state, but time was precious. So Samantha clenched her fists and turned around walking deeper into the building, followed by Kate, Danyella, Milla, and other adventurers that could still fight.

*****

"Your Holiness!" Roared a woman in the knights' armor slamming open the door to the Saintess' bedchamber, almost tearing off the hinges. A squad of knights barged into the room following her from behind.

"Your Holiness, what's wrong?!" She screamed with a worried voice looking around the room.

"What… What's going on? Where's the enemy?" She asked, swinging her sword from side to side, pointing it in different directions, while searching for an enemy.

A few moments later she finally calmed down enough to take in the whole picture as she turned to look at the Saintess.

The holy woman sat on the bed with a face full of bewilderment of her own, holding her hand outstretched in front of her. A night watch team of the shadow squad lay on the ground in a dazed state, only now coming back to their senses.

"Where is he?!" Exclaimed the Saintess finally getting a hold of herself.

"Who?" Asked the Guard Knight.

"The man! Where is he?!" Asked Saintess, turning from side to side to look around.

"Man? What man?" Asked the knights looking around in attention.

"Your Holiness!" Exclaimed another voice as the figure of another woman clad in black floated out of the shadow, a team of five more shadow squad warriors jumping out of the shadows behind her. With this new arrival, the room now looked packed full of people.

"That naked bastard! He was right here!" Said Saintess pointing in from of herself.

"There was a man in your chamber?" Asked the newly arrived shadow squad commander, staring daggers at the five-women team of shadow warriors sitting on the ground in bewilderment.

"Man? Wh.. what man, your Holiness?" Asked one of the women sitting on the ground in fear. "There was no one here!" She said with a frightened voice turning to look at their commander.

"Lock down the white tower. Raise everyone! Search every nook and cranny." Said the commander turning to the Knight Guards.

""Yes!"" Answered the knights in one voice before rushing out of the bedchamber.

As the knights left, shadow commander closed the door behind them and looked at the team behind her. "Secure the perimeter." She ordered and the five women immediately dissolved in the shadows.

"Tell me what you saw." Said the commamder turning to look at the bewildered night watch team.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. One moment everything was fine, the next moment we were slammed by the wave of divine magic."

"What?" Said Saintess in anger. "What about the man? He was standing right there with…me… and I was… I was standing….over...there" She said as her voice was becoming quieter with every word.

"You were standing there?" Asked commande. "But you sit on the bed."

"It's true, Trish! That wasn't just a dream! I saw him as clearly as I see you."

"I believe you, your Holiness. The night watch team will immediately go to the alchemy department and record their memory of this night. We might find something that they missed, once we analyze their records thoroughly." Answered the shadow commander nodding at the team.

The five women bowed and immediately left the room dissolving in the shadows.

"I saw him, Trish." Murmured Saintess.

"I know." Said the shadow warriors commander walking over to the table. She took a glass of water, taking a small sip. Checking any liquid for poison before passing it to Saintess was almost a reflexive move for all shadow warriors. Then she came over to the bed sitting down in exactly the same spot where the man sat when Lyra just woke up feeling his fingers on her cheek.

As the memory of his touch came back, Lyra unconsciously lifted her palm, touching her own cheek with her finger.

Trisha carefully studied her master in silence for a few moments before passing her a glass of water.

Lyra took the glass from Trisha and gulped the water down in big swallows. As she emptied the glass she stretched her hand to give it back to Trisha.

Commander took the glass but felt that the Saintess did not let it go. She looked into her master's eyes and saw her staring at the glass as if in deep thought but also with a strong confused expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" Asked Trisha with a worry in her voice.

"Did you fill the glass?" Asked Saintess moving her eyes from the glass in their hands to the decanter on the table.

"I checked it on poison." Said Trisha.

"No, did you fill the glass?"

Commander turned to look at the decanter, repeating her action in her memory.

"It was filled…" She said a moment later. "Why?"

"I want to see the records as soon as they are done." Said Saintess.

"Of course." Said Trisha pressing her master slightly making her lay back on the bed.

"I will find him, Lyra." Whispered Trisha looking into Saintess' eyes as Lyra lifted her gaze from the glass when she heard Trisha's words.

"Thank you." Whispered Saintess.

"Why don't you get some rest until then? You barely got any sleep yet. Don't worry I will double the guards and stay here myself."

"I doubt any sleep would come to me now." Answered Saintess with a weak voice.

"You will stay here?" The Saintess asked.

"Yes." Said Trisha.

This was the first time she saw her master so scared in her entire life of serving her. As the Saintess closed her eyes, Trisha felt her hand being squeezed by Lyra's gentle palm. At that moment Trisha's face changed from exotic beauty with mesmerizing eyes to a face full of menace as her eyes shone in fury.

She swore to find whoever was at fault at all costs.

*****

At the door leading into the Kirk, where the battle has just finished, Noah's body lay unmoving, guarded by the battle golem standing over it with attention.

His eyes suddenly sprang open, looking around with a serious face, before standing up from the ground.

"Noah!" Came a worried voice from behind as Brianna came out of the forest.

Noah turned his head to look back at the spider woman coming over to him and something irked Brianna in his gaze. It wasn't her mate, her instincts screamed at her.

"Who are you?" Asked Brianna stopping at a distance carefully watching the man in front of her.

The battle golem turned to look in Brianna's direction before turning back to Noah as if in surprise.

"Yuko." Said Noah.

"Why are you taking over his body?" Asked Brianna with a worried voice.

"Something went wrong. Ugy is trying to find a solution, until he finds out what to do, I will be protecting the body." Said Yuko.

"What do you mean, something went wrong? What's wrong with Noah?"

"We…We can't find him…" Said Yuko with an unsure voice.

"What do you mean you can't find him?"

"His consciousness… For some reason, it separated from the body. Ugy thinks it probably got lost in the dream realm. He is busy searching for Noah right now. All I can help with is to keep the body out of danger." Answered Yuko.

"Zinnia! Aster!" Screamed Brianna.

"Bri?! What's wrong?" Came Zinnia's worried voice a moment later as Dryad floated out of the nearby tree trunk and stepped on the ground, walking over to her.

"Noah! He got lost in the dream realm! Can you find him?" Asked Brianna hopefully

"He what?" Asked Zinnia, her eyes going wide.

"Yuko, tell her what happened." Said Brianna turning to Noah.

As Yuko recounted to the dryad what happened, Zinnia's face darkened with every word.

"I will ask one thing, Yuko. Can you let me into Noah's mind through the firewall right now?"

Yuko closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and shaking her head.

"I can't use any function of the system. I am only moving the body."

"But… but last time you were the one to transfer him to our mansion." Said Brianna as the tears started to fill her eyes.

"Last time Noah gave us administration rights. But this time is different. His consciousness is away and only he can access any system function. I can't use any skill without a permit."

"So we can't even get back to the mansion?" Asked Zinnia.

"I am afraid we would have to get out of here on our feet."

Zinnia turned to look at Brianna seeing her gaze back at her hopefully.

"I am sorry Bri. I can't help. If I try to break through the "firewall" that your mother and Ugy created, I am afraid, I'll only make it worse."

As she said it Brianna could not hold her tears anymore, so Zinnia came over to her and hugged her.

"Don't worry. Ugy will find a way." Said Yuko looking at the two hugging girls.

*****

"Ugy? Is it a success?" Groaned Noah as mind-breaking head pain lessened to a barely tolerable degree after divine light streaming through his mind realm finally ceased.

"Did you manage to redirect the divine energy?" He added taking deep breaths to lessen the pain and massaging his temples.

"Ugy?" He repeated, carefully opening his eyes, but closing them again as he felt a sharp pain from the light. It took him a few tries to finally adjust to the brightness and manage to open his eyes fully to look around.

"What the fuck? Where am I? Ugy?" Said Noah in bewilderment looking around himself. "Ugy!" He called again with a firm voice sensing something was very wrong.

"Oh shit." He said as he did not get any answer from his system. "Oooh, shit." He added with panic flooding into him. "Ugy! That's not funny. Answer me!"

"...." The silence spread around him as he stood in the field of overgrown grass that was pushed from side to side by the gentle breeze.

Looking around Noah found himself in an unfamiliar place with not a single soul in view anywhere around him. A shiver ran through his back as the answer from his system never came.

"Now that is an interesting encounter, Mr. SmartySmarty." Came the voice from behind, startling Noah.

"Alice?" Asked Noah in bewilderment, finding a familiar woman standing behind him smiling with a happy little girl's smile. "Wait… if you are here, then… OH FU…" started to swear Noah, but stopped seeing Alice's eyes go wide.

"...dzz." He ended his words with the first thing that came to mind as he remembered at the last moment how the strange girl reacted to his swearing the previous time.

"Pfft. Hahaha." Started to laugh, Alice. "You are so silly Mr.Smarty-Smarty. There is no such word as Fudzz." She said with a happy smile.

"There is now. Because I am totally Fudzzed."