Chapter 192: Crash.
"Did you feel that?" Dina abruptly stood around the same time Sol nearly lost his temper.
"Is master not with Ikaris, could something bad have happened to them?" Arla stood as well, but only a moment later the anger they sensed within him evaporated and was replaced with worry, and then a minute later they lost contact with him and Ikaris completely. "Dina-"
"Let's go." Dina scooped up her bag and took off towards the door, passing skillfully through everyone with Arla doing the same as they rushed out the doors and toward the bathrooms, locking the door behind them and checking each stall before Arla waved her hand and the two of them vanished via her teleportation skill, appearing high in the air above where Sol and Ikaris were last sensed.
What they found was Sara casually playing with Henry jr and not seeming to care at all that Sol and Ikaris were gone.
"She hasn't reacted, isn't she supposed to be searching?" Dina frowned, but Arla placed her hand on the crest in the middle of her chest and shook her head.
"Sara is not worried at all you can faintly feel it since we are connected by the crest on her hand, maybe it was a false alarm...?" She asked, but Dina frowned and stared even harder, extending her senses to encompass the entire span of 10.B and finding nothing out of sorts.
"If it's a false alarm then where are they?" Dina asked, spreading her mana across the entire area, the mountain range and after a minute then while country, but there was nothing at all, no sign of either Sol or Ikaris, and then seemingly out of nowhere the two of them suddenly appeared again, and it was only then that Arla realised there was an illusion cast just beneath them in the cafe lot.
With their return the two registered worry, anger and contentment, and then as sol approached and embraced Ikaris everything else was washed away by a strong desire to protect coming from Sol and Ikaris's mind being at ease made their minds at ease as well.
They waited until both of them were finished before Arla linked herself with Ikaris while Sol received a wave of concern from Dina and together they looked into the air finding the two far into the clouds staring back at them.
"Is this something we need to be worried about?" Dina asked.
"Are you both okay?" Arla queried, and Ikaris kept silent and looked to Sol for a response since she didn't know whether he had the intention of answering or telling them what was happening.
"Don't worry about it for now, we can talk when you get back later." Sol answered and Ikaris nodded and smiled.
"... Okay, If you say so." Dina seemed skeptical based on the rage and the shock she sensed from the two of them before, but ultimately obeyed him and left with Arla reappearing inside of the bathroom in a *thwip and opening the door finding two girls standing there impatiently.
"For fuck's sake, can you at least wait until nobody's here to do nasty shit in the bathrooms?" One of them regarded Dina with her mouth half agape as Dina's aura beautified her to unreal proportions, and then fell silent when she saw Arla who had less control over her natural aura and for a moment seemed to really be glowing.
"Don't drag me into the depths of your degenerate mind bitch, why would either of us ever do anything in this nasty public filth?" Dina snapped out of old habit and held her mouth when Arla burst out laughing as they walked past the girls.
"Do they go here?" The second girl asked, watching them both leaving towards the art division where they had left their belongings because of the urgency they believed the situation held.
"I don't know about the redhead." The other gestured to Arla. "But I've definitely seen that one around in the last few months, she's a transfer from City-Q I'm surprised you don't know who she is, everyone knows Dina Levinas name by now, she's basically the most popular girl on campus."
"I don't see what's so special about her-"
"You mean besides looking like she fell straight out it heaven?" The girl jealously pushed her friend. "Don't be a bitch you know she's hot as fuck."
"Hahah." Arla laughed at Dina's shoulders shaking as she was not only idolised by men but women as well. "You seem to be far more of an idol than you let on."
"I should have hidden my face more." Dina sighed as they entered the class again, seeing their belongings on the professor's desk with the male art student who had a crush on Dina standing guard over them while his female friend sat staring at Arla's drawings.
"Hey, Dina-"
"We should head back immediately, I don't know why but even with the way he assured us I feel a bit uneasy, I mean he didn't deny that something was wrong either." Dina picked up hers and Arla's bags and turned to leave.
"Hold on, Dina." He called to her again, and for the first time he caught her attention when Arla paused and she looked around and looked at his name.
[Mark Hale
22yrs
Male
Single]
"If you have something to talk about ask me the next time you see me, I'm in a rush, Hale." Dina glared at him and then stormed off with Arla leaving the auditorium silent as everyone stared at him.
"Wow you finally got her to say something to you." His friend praised him when he stumbled and fell to the desk sitting and holding his heart. "Are you okay?"
"Oh my god." Mark held his cheeks and checked his pulse. "She actually talked to me, she knows my name."
"We have our names on full display even in the dark, of course she knows your name." His friend scoffed.
"She said my name.."
"Are you kidding me, she's just one girl-"
"She's totally into me!"
"She doesn't even see you-"
"She said she'll talk to me, next time."
"She also looked at you like a pile of turd on the roadside, Mark, you're dreaming."
"But she called my name."
"Your surname!" His friend tried making him see reason.
"I'm totally gonna marry her..."
"Wha~ you're an even bigger idiot than I thought, aren't you?"
They made a show of struggling with Dina's bike to get it into the back of Arla's vehicle, causing several male students to help while the two of them stood to the side and thanked them before leaving when everything was set.
"Say, Arla." Dina glanced at her behind the wheel. "You look a lot different from the first time we met don't you?" She asked, and the elf quickly glanced over herself and focused on the road again.
"I do not think so, do I?"
"I mean," Dina reached across and raised her fingers through her hair. "Your hair used to be auburn, and back on Zola prime it was nearly blonde, but after master's sigils it's a shade of auburn and amber now; almost like fire.
The same for your eyes, they were once clearly brown, but over the past few months they are now bluer than the Arkadian skies, it suits you, it's beautiful."
"Dina... Are you analysing me or trying to seduce me with poetry?" Arla chuckled, keeping her eyes on the road while Dina blushed and stared ahead.
"Shut up." Dina pouted.
"I have noticed but you should know that I spend less than ten minutes before a mirror daily, I was never concerned with my appearance at any given time in my life, but if we are talking about changes then I should tell you that you are many times more attractive than the first time I met you." She glanced at Dina who reddened at her cheeks and started playing with her hair that had grown to half the length of her torso.
"Your mana purifies your body the longer you circulate it, sometimes it changes you for the better, sometimes for the worse, as I am older and have far less control over my mana, it was bound to cause drastic changes when the very nature of my powers changed, but while you have been practicinf for a little under a year respectively you have amazing control and have made leaps in yoir evolution." Arla smiled.
"The result of such a change is every fiber that makes up your body being rejuvenated with fresh cells and giving you a kind of glow."
"Does this explain why Ikaris is so beautiful?" Dina mused and covered her mouth in thought.
"I do not believe so." Arla hummed. "Lady Ikaris has a very distinct purity about her, even after all the horrors she has seen and endured she has remained pure at heart and soul, my belief is that the Ikaris we see on the outside, is the same Ikaris on the inside, her appearance directly ties to her nature, that is my belief."
"Oh..." Dina lowered her gaze, and closed her eyes, but as soon as she did a sensation she had never felt before invaded her head and body and she dipped forward hitting her forehead on the dashboard and falling unconscious.
The same time as she lost herself to the sensation Arla lost consciousness as well and the car swerved off the road and flipped throwing them both out in different directions before it crashed into a tree and exploded into flames.
Arla crashed across the grass and landed into a ditch of rocks with a small stream under her face, while Dina hit the road and slumped against a tree on the opposite side, bleeding from her nose.
[Disaster befalls all who ally with Ikaris, it is inevitable that you both will die by association with her] A voice echoed inside of their consciousness while their eyes flickered white.
[The time draws nigh]