Chapter 402: Essence Imbalance

Since they had come to, the three members of team apex who seemed to have gained consciousness weren’t themselves.

Their time on the island had seriously scarred their psyche.

This was the greatest loss they had ever faced since the origin descent.

Elaine stared through the window of her room in silence, lost in the orange-tinted horizon.

Her winter blue hair spread coarsely over her bare shoulders, her palm supporting her chin as she sat by the electric night lamp.

Her gaze shifted suddenly as she sat up, placing both hands before her eyes.

She remained silent, showing no emotion or reaction for a moment, before something acted like a pulse, a tide of prickling pain spreading through her body, stemming from her heart.

She groaned painfully, jerking forward uncontrollably, her body spasming.

Her face streaked with sweat trickling down her temples, her expression going pale to an abnormal degree.

She gritted her teeth tight, eyes clenched shut, her breath seizing as she waited for the worst of it to pass.

The pain lingered for 13 awfully long seconds, before fading to nothing.

Her body trembled with relief, the lasting trauma brought by the pain still very much present.

Her breath clouded before her as she panted, her lungs greedily soaking up all the air they could.

Ever since Elaine woke, this constant plague of pain had been consistently assaulting her.

Her eyes closed, she cast introspection, her mental scan weak but functional, projecting a clear image of the chaos brewing in her body on a cellular level...

A clash of energies she never imagined would fall into chaos before now.

Wincing, she rose as she sighed, "What could have caused this..." she muttered.

Walking over to her bed, she collapsed upon it weakly, then rolled onto her back and began staring blankly at the ceiling, lost in deep thought.

The rampage going on in her body was caused by her essence flow, which had fallen into absolute disorder.

The brittle balance between death and ice had been broken, and by some means her death energy was now more saturated and dense than her ice energy.

This was precisely the cause of her current situation.

And till it was resolved she could as well forget about engaging in any form of battle.

Mobilizing essence while it was in such a volatile state was akin to committing suicide.

It could easily cause a reaction that would trigger self-destruction or energy deviation.

This left her between a rock and a hard place. If she wanted to heal this condition, she had to find a way to increase the ice essence in her body to match the might of the death essence.

Something that could only be done through cultivation or by obtaining a treasure capable of elevating her ice essence to match the death essence.

Either way, both means required the use of might to obtain, after all to gain comprehension she needed the pressure of battle, and to gain such a treasure she would need to go to the origin realm...

’What could have caused this?’ she thought with a wince.

She simply couldn’t fathom what factor could cause her death energy ratio to grow unchecked.

In fact, compared to her ice essence, her hold over the death essence had previously been far weaker.

Thinking about this her memory couldn’t help but drift back to the moments before she went unconscious.

"Could it be..." she muttered silently.

That voice, that presence, why was it that she was so sure she had never seen or heard it before, yet it felt so intimately familiar?

Could it be responsible for her current straits?

"No, it has to be it!" Elaine concluded, frowning as she thought back to the dark presence which had taken over her mind a few moments before she blacked out.

That thing had possessed her body and somehow found a way to escape the situation she was in while also rescuing Uriel.

This confirmed its strength...

But Elaine still didn’t know what emotion she should hold towards it or how to view it, whether good or bad.

Especially since it was gone now, and she still couldn’t tell what it was.

That thing had saved her life and Uriel’s, but at the same time it left her in a mess...

She sighed, giving up on the thought process for now, as right now her priority was to fix her ailment.

And to do that there was only one way she could think of...

The Griffiths.

She walked towards a desk located a few inches beside her bed and pulled open the drawers, revealing stacks of neatly arranged envelopes, all marked with the Griffiths family insignia...

"It seems I will have to go home..." she declared softly, running her fingers through the stacks.

Just then, a knock rang out from behind her...

Elaine froze, going stiff, her nose catching a drifting trail of an extremely familiar scent.

Brandon! After days of avoiding one another he was finally here!

Her mind drifted back to the moment they had shared, interrupted by their circumstances.

Her cheeks went flush, her fingers fluttering to smooth her hair, her gaze darting through the room all of a sudden.

She suddenly forgot about all her worries about her condition and her plan on making her trip back home.

As the long-delayed yet inevitable moment for the two lovers to confirm had arrived.

Elaine rushed towards the closet in a blur, dressed in a winter-blue nightgown, her hair disheveled.

Which was to be expected as she had just woken up from sleep...

"Elaine! It’s me... we need to talk..." Brandon’s determined voice came from behind the door.

Her ears twitched as she yelled back in reply, her voice cracking, "I-I’m coming!!"

Brandon, who had his hand over the doorknob, quickly froze.

Retracting his hand fast, he took a step back, remaining silent as he stared at the door.

His jaw set, he wore a strong front, though his fingers curled and uncurled at his sides.

Elaine was the first face he saw when he woke, he had even heard from others that she had remained by his side during the course of his unconsciousness.

Yet despite the fact that a week had passed since his recovery, he still hadn’t finished what he started.

All the courage and determination he had back then seemed to have run dry.

He was still shaken by the foe that had driven his mind into shambles.

As even if he couldn’t recall what happened, it still left marks on his psyche.

He spent all this while wallowing in his misery and weakness, instead of manning up and finishing what he began.

Well, he had delayed long enough, he was here to resolve this...

He was here to tie the knot...