While the many beehives that were the prominent figures of Higrove were stirred into a state of restlessness, inside the bubble Aiden finally came to a decision. He had to take this chance, he had to try and do everything in his power to save Number 3.

Turning his head to the side, he willed up the system interface for the first time since all of that had just transpired. In the next moment, as his eyes quickly glanced over the system's map, he suddenly froze.

To his great shock and an equal amount of surprise, once again there was an uninvited guest standing just behind him. Luckily, it was green, and though not much could be gleaned from the tooltip the system gave, based on the sensation, he already knew who came to his help.

"You are late." Aiden muttered in a curt, cold, and emotionless manner, remarking the obvious statement while he quickly navigated through the system's interface to the 'Domain' tab.

In the next instant, with a swipe of his arm, the air buzzed, as a Dimensional Gateway appeared, surprising the previously silent Masked Mistress.

Truth be told, the Mistress, for the first time, since what felt like forever, didn't exactly know what to do, or how to proceed.

By pure instinct, she used her strongest, best option to assure the safety of the two. Still, the energy signature was felt by many others, and just simply hiding inside a sub-dimension could only be a temporary measure until they could think of something more.. permanent.

Still, as she was debating how she should call out, Aiden managed to exceed his expectations and also shook her mind.

"You.. How.." She muttered with utter bewilderment as masked face scanned the strange-looking [Gateway]. "What is this portal? Where does it lead to?"

Unfortunately, there were no answers to her questions. Time was indeed off the essence this time, every second, every instant spent here could be the deciding factor that could decide the fate of his master, Number 3.

Ignoring the slew of questions fired in his direction, Aiden picked up the fainted body of Number 3 into a princess carry, and without wasting any time, hurriedly walked towards the portal.

Before stepping through it and vanishing, he halted just for a moment to respond briefly.

"I'm taking her to a safe place. Don't worry, once everything is resolved, I'll go and find you and explain what is going on. For now, just trust me, that this is her only chance and that I will do everything I can."

With that, Aiden crossed through the portal to Haven. His figure, carrying the unconscious Number 3 vanished from this world in an instant.historical

The Mistress was utterly shocked and confused about what had just happened, or more precisely HOW it happened. What Aiden just did should have been impossible, well at least for someone at his level of knowledge. Unless someone was adept at the laws of space or could traverse and cross through the multitude of worlds and dimensions, they couldn't enter and at the same time, escape like Aiden just did.

One has to understand that this spell is anything but simple. The dome that she formed was a special type of Portal that sent everything inside of its domain into a special sub-dimension, a tear between realities that normally only the Mistress knew the way to leave.

Although her intention wasn't to trap and ensnare Aiden and her twin sister, this was the best approach to temporarily shield them from the many eyes pointed towards their direction at the time.

Still, despite everything, going against her expectations once again, Aiden did the impossible and left towards somewhere she herself couldn't trace with ease.

As she thought about it, a thin smile slowly began to curve the edges of her lips, though the ever-present mask on her face made sure it remained hidden. Looking at the empty space for a bit longer, she couldn't help but lightly chuckle at everything.

'Very well, Aiden. I..' She hummed, giving a quick glance at the tavern's direction where the rest of the party waited for the youngster's return with growing concern and worry. '..WE shall eagerly await your return..'

She shook her head as she silently drew a curved line in the air in front of her.

As the black door, the 'regular' [Portal] emerged from the empty air, she stepped into it, leaving the space and returning to her mansion. Just as she left, her spell, the bubble also vanished with her, returning the back alley to its 'normal' state and leaving only an already forgotten, lifeless body in it.

—

Amidst the empty, grassy fields, -which now carried the faint noises of life happening in the distance-; suddenly a rift appeared in the air. The rift quickly grew and expanded, transforming into a semi-opaque door that showed the scene of a nasty, dusty, and bloodied alleyway in the middle of the night.

In the next instant, the surface of the portal began to violently wobble, only to gave way to its master's body to appear through it.

As Aiden traversed to Haven once again, he was surprised to see that unlike back in Higrove, the sky was still bright and the sun was on a descending curve instead of ducking below the horizon.

Still, he had no time to care about the mysterious daylight. Taking only a single step away from the Gateway, she went on his knees, slowly placing his Master down on the grassy natural bed.

Focusing on the task at hand, he ignored the approaching scouts, giving his full attention to the task at hand.

'Enya, talk to me, what do I need to do?' He cried mentally.

'[First and foremost, Aiden: You need to calm down. Your emotions, your mental state, and your full attention would all be crucial, they will have an effect on the success of what we are about to do.]'

Almost instantly, Aiden could feel as the floating spiritual ball appeared to him. Her tone was soothing, showing a set of emotions that normally the system shouldn't allow. Strangely though, there was no retaliation this time, sadly though this peculiarity went past Aiden, he was too nervous, too agitated to spot such.

'[Once you feel you are ready, take out the Mountain Orc's Core you still have in your inventory, and place it above the woman's heart. Also..]'

She turned silent for a moment, as a tinge of embarrassment could be felt in her tone.

Still, Aiden once again turned oblivious to anything that wasn't related to saving Number 3. Following Enya's instructions, the orb-shaped, black crystal object arose from thin air, resting in his hand in the next moment.

As he was about to ask what to do next, Enya spoke again. Her next words finally caused him to raise his brow in confusion.

'[Now, before you do anything, you have to remove all these extra layers of clothing from around her chest area, only leaving her underwear.]'

'What do you-' Befuddled, Aiden wanted to make sure he heard it right.

'[Yes. You heard it right. If you really, truly want to save your Master.. Then Aiden, start undressing her!]'

---

AN: Hey there Readers!

Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading , you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

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/shaele