BXBX NOVEL Chapter 143 Ray's Guilt
"Ughh…" Ray groaned lightly as the slap landed on his face. Looking ahead, he saw Emma standing there; her hand still on his cheek as tears dropped down her eyes. Ray felt pity for her as he looked at her cry,
"Are you okay," he asked lightly, his voice inaudible. However, just as he spoke;
"Bamm" Another slap landed on his face, this time his other cheek turned red as a different hand was glued to it. As for whose hand it was?
Well, it was Aliya's as she stood besides Emma and looked at him with a cool smirk on her face. Her expression seemed as if she was telling him loudly,
"That's what you get for being such an as*hole,"
Seeing this, Ray held his anger for Aliya and decided to stay silent and let her do whatever she wanted to while also saying nothing to Emma.
However, the reasons for both were different as he let one be for being too sassy while the other was too broken to say anything.
"Hopefully, their fingers won't be imprinted on my cheeks," Ray thought.
Meanwhile,
In another opening, the rest of the team sat on the ground as they rested to recover their stamina and heal their wounds when,
"Bamm… Bamm…"
Two loud claps sounded. Looking at each other, they all nodded tacitly and made a run to where the claps sounded from.
"Be ready everyone. The situation seems to be serious or else there won't be such loud claps coming from there. Our first priority is to protect Sirius and the other two," Elina shouted as she took lead and moved ahead of everyone.
"Swoosh…Swoosh…Swoosh…Swoosh,"
The wind blew by as one by one, the whole team sped up and vanished from their spots. With only their silhouettes visible, they all hurried to the opening where Emma and Aliya were healing Sirius.
"Just what could it be? Some unknown enemy or has the dungeon floor refreshed, causing some strong goblins to appear over there?"
"No it couldn't be, if it was something like the dungeon floor refreshing; then each inch of this floor would be infested with those goblins,"
"Its most probably some unknown enemy that might have sneaked up upon them,"
Elina thought to herself as she tried to make heads or tails of the whole situation. However this pissed her off even more, not to mention the tiredness from before,
"To hell with it, I will find out about it when I reach the opening. I just have to run faster and get there as fast as possible," thinking of the situation, pissing her off even more her head throbbed in pain.
She erupted in anger as she muttered,
"To hell with it. I will just go there and see what happens,"
Hence, she sped up even more so she could at least be there before something big happens.
Back At The Opening Where Sirius Was Being Healed,
"Explain everything!.. Now!" Emma demanded loudly, her voice stern as she held her overflowing emotions.
Right now, Emma's emotional state was very unstable due to the condition Sirius was in and she wanted nothing more than to punish Ray for that. However, she composed herself and looked deep into Ray's eyes as she demanded an explanation instead of a bloodbath.
"Wait a minute. I will explain everything, but not individually. I will do so one at a time when everyone gathers," Ray calmly answered.
"Also, if you have calmed down. I would like you to take your hand off my face and please sit back,"
Saying that, Ray placed his hand on Emma's arm as he tugged at it, and asked her to have a seat.
"You too Aliya. Also, what is your reason for slapping me in the face? I get Emma being concerned for Sirius but what about you? Do you have any problem with me? If so, then let me solve your problems," Ray said, his voice cold and detached as a devilish smirk sported his face as he slowly lifted his hands.
"Uhm.. No… it's nothing... I... Uh... Don't know," Aliya stuttered and saw those hands approaching her. Looking at him, her fear apparent as to her, his cold face was more like that of a devil's than that of a human.
Slowly, Aliya backed away in fear and tiptoed to where Sirius lay. Then, being as silent as she could, she started healing him; ignoring Ray as if he wasn't even there.
Ray let her be as he knew that he had scared her enough, any more and she might as well snap and that wasn't something Ray wanted.
However, before Ray could even relax, a frosty aura engulfed the surroundings as a huge icicle was hurled towards him.
"Booom!!"
"Arghh… that hurts guys," Ray screamed in pain, holding his arm in pain as an icicle stuck out of it while a blackish mist oozed out from it and seeped into his body.
Bewildered, Ray looked at the icicle as he wondered,
"I guess they have made substantial progress. To think that Aliya would find a way to merge her curse magic with Kid's ice magic and that too, to cast such a powerful spell," Ray thought in awe as he slowly pulled the icicle out of his arm, the pain making him groan as he endured it all.
After taking out the icicle, he looked at his wound and saw the blackish mist still seeping into his body. Therefore, to stop it from seeping any deeper, Ray circulated a bit of his mana and condensed it around the wound as he canceled the mist's effects.
As for the wound, Ray let his vitality do the job as he knew that the wound would close in no time.
"Good work Elina, I see you have improved by a lot. Also, Kid seems to have improved as well. That icicle was much stronger than the one he cast on the cast floor," Ray said loudly as he made sure to make himself heard and let everyone know it was him and not anyone else.
"Ray! When did you get better? Just half an hour ago, you were frozen stiff like a real-life wax statue. Also, what was that loud clap and why are there fingers imprinted on both of your cheeks," Noah stepped forward and asked, his surprise evident on his face as he rushed forward excitedly and hugged Ray.
"Hey, did you miss me so much? Or is it just a show," Ray teased as he hugged back and skipped the answer for the imprints on his finger or about the loud voice.
Letting go of the hug, Ray spoke;
"I know you all are confused about the whole situation while some of you might even be angry at me," Ray said, glancing at Emma who looked at him with a furious expression all over her face.
"But please hear me out before anything. I was forcefully pulled to another place. A place where only my consciousness traveled. Also, it was without my knowledge, or else I would have informed you all," Ray explained as he added, "Therefore, I want you all to take a seat and listen to my explanation first and then blame me afterward,"
Listening to Ray, everyone felt confused about why Ray started explaining rather than asking them about what they did. They felt that his response was rather exaggerated and that he didn't need to explain himself. After all, he was their leader and he didn't need to explain his actions when nothing wrong happened.
However, they didn't say anything nor did they argue; all because of the same reason. They didn't do so because they respected him and considered him as their leader. Therefore, anything he said; they agreed and accepted he was their leader.
As for Emma, it was the same for her and even she felt guilty about the way she acted with him previously. However, she didn't apologize for her actions as she understood one thing, and that thing was that;
Right now, Ray was in the wrong, and because of him, it was Sirius whose life was in danger. Hence, Emma considered it right for him to explain his actions.
"But why should you? You told us that you had no control of it and it was against your will also, that it was nothing more than an accident. Isn't it enough? Also, even though Sirius fought for you, it was his choice to do so. Not to mention that he is healing back and making a speedy recovery. If everything is going well, then why should you take responsibility for everything when even you were dragged into it," Tim spoke loudly, his voice basically breaking at that point as a small stream of tears ran down his face.
Right now, Tim was aggravated the most because he knew how hard Ray had worked for everyone. It was because he knew the sacrifices Ray had made for everyone.
Taking a deep breath, he turned to everyone and added, "Also, why don't you understand that we all owe him? Why don't you remember the times when he woke up early, hours before us just so he could help us train? Heck! Even sacrificed his personal training time for us," Then turning to Elina, he spoke,
"And you, Elina; don't you know how much he has done for us," Tim cried out loud, his anguish apparent as he fell to his knees and started sobbing.
With this, a deafening silence ensued. Only Tim's sobbing continued as a strange atmosphere formed all over the place with everyone standing in their places as they were shocked and speechless over what to do.
On the other hand, Ray smiled faintly, tears streaming down his face as he approached Tim.
Walking over to Tim, he bent downwards and put his hands on his shoulders.
Feeling someone touch him, Tim looked up. His eyes reddened beyond a point while tears continued to stream down his face.
Seeing Tim in such a condition, Ray shook his head as he pulled him up. Pulling him to stand up, Ray bent forward and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you, Tim. This means a lot but I have to justify myself. If I do not, then what is the difference between me and the others? You know if I don't apologize, I won't be able to free myself of this guilt and it would eat me from inside," Ray muttered lightly as he let go of Tim and wiped the tears off his face.
Doing so, he faced everyone as he spoke,
"Okay, so this is what happened..." Ray said as he started explaining everything.
Ray started from when his power suddenly increased after he cleared the last floor and then explained till the end to the time when he convinced the Void Dragon to grant him control over the bloodline.
However, Ray skipped some essential parts such as the Void Dragon choosing to follow him in his consciousness and the talk about Aurora. Also, Ray stayed vague about his bloodline and explained the Void Dragon as a fleeting creature who had a tiny bit of draconic blood in it.
After all, even if they were his teammates; Ray didn't want them to know the true extent of his powers as it was his secret.
...
A/N:- How you all enjoyed the chapter, and do tell me in the comments if you liked it or not.
Also, today's mention goes to;
1- DomJag213