“This might make her speak,” D.ana smirked, raising her right hand and as she did, a visible blue electricity flowed from the said hand that she lifted. With a smug look, the former pointed her hand at Yujin’s direction, viciously attacking the latter with her powerful electricity.

Swallowing a yell, Yujin tightly shut both of her eyes. She prepared herself for the pain and the torture that might occur but… there was none. As if the electricity vanished in the thin air, it did not even touch her toe. When she opened her eyes, all she saw was the confused look from both the two girls. She had to look around just to make sure that no one else was there, playing a hero or a villain.

“What are you doing?” Newsun hissed at D.ana.

“It wasn’t me,” D.ana trailed off, her gaze falling on her hands before going back to Yujin’s face. An unreadable expression was on the former’s face as she observed the latter. “It was her.”

“It wasn’t me either,” Yujin found herself denying when she found it pointless herself. She already had an inkling that it might have something to do with her ability to nullify attacks. “There must be some problem with your powers or something like that. You don’t have to blame me for it.”

Newsun sneered at Yujin. “So, are you really a demon?”

“No,” D.ana spoke up, frantically looking at Newsun. She did not look as confident as she once did. “It does not seem like it. She might be the one, Newsun. She might be the one that Euijin heard from Alodia’s fairy messengers. It felt so different, as if there’s a barrier of some sort that protects her. We need to bring her to the Spheres. We have to.”

Spheres, the word barely clicked on Yujin’s head. If she had not hear it several times already, she would have ignored it. She was facing goddesses, she assumed. Instead of feeling at ease that she was not facing a monster or a demon, she grew even worried. Her mother was a fugitive and if these goddesses were to find out—if they still hadn’t—her mother would be in a big trouble.

“Then, we have to bring her with us,” Newsun simply replied as if it was not a big deal. “Are you sure with what you’re talking about though? She can be a demon pretending to be something special so that she can end our lives.” She glared at Yujin as she spoke.

“No,” frantically, D.ana replied. “I can feel it. She—”

Hurried footsteps did not allow D.ana to continue. No, it was not Yujin—she did not try to escape because she was well aware that she would fail her attempt. Instead, it was some loud and heavy footsteps coming their way.

Yujin did not know how or why, all she knew was that five ugly creatures had appeared. The said creatures looked like a monster out of a horror film—long black nails, sharp fangs, and extremely long tongue. They had the body of a person but they were too hairy and too bulky, almost like an ape. Their faces were hard to make out in the dark but Yujin was pretty sure that they were even scarier. They were going to kill her, she knew because they were staring at her as if she were a prey. Cowardly, she took a step back, inching closer to the two other girls.

“Nightcrawlers, huh?” Newsun taunted. “Did the demons send you to take the girl?”

Of course, there was no replies. Only incomprehensible groans and growls were heard as the Nightcrawlers prepared themselves to attack. D.ana also got into her fighting stance, grabbing a short sword from her combat belt that was hanging around her waist. On the other hand, electricity flowed through Newsun’s body and she turned into a huge five-colored cat—the exact same color of her hair. Yujin felt her body stiffen even more because she had never really faced Nightcrawlers before and neither did she encounter more monsters after that run-in with the Shadows a week ago. She did hear of those creatures before and most of the things she heard were not exactly pleasant.

Gulping, she took out her nunchaku and forced her stiff body to get into the fighting stance that Jun had patiently taught her. Because she was scared, she disregarded the fact that her hard-earned snacks were already on the ground, ready to be stepped on.

Without a warning, the five Nightcrawlers charged at the three of them all at once. Newsun and D.ana professionally fought with them while Yujin clumsily defended herself from one with the nunchaku that she waved in the air. She carefully swung the nunchaku and made sure to aim for the head of the monster. The latter charged at her as if it knew that she had bad reflexes.

Lucky for Yujin, she took a step back just on time and she dodged the attack. She then used her right leg to kick the monster, miraculously succeeding in keeping the monster away. Jun did praise her ability to kick earlier that day though. Knowing that she could not succeed without using any weapon, she took a step closer to the Nighcrawler and swung her nunchaku at it, aiming for its face. She successfully made it double over. The Nightcrawler once again stood upright, showing his long tongue to Yujin as if it were boasting. For a second, the female was dumbfounded because she did not know what it should and would do to her. It was not until she noticed that its tongue was getting longer did she had an inkling.

But the tongue never reached her as D.ana swung a sharp sword at the direction of its tongue, successfully cutting it off. The monster looked angrier than before but D.ana lifted her right hand and sent electricity towards the monster, finishing it off at once by piercing her sword into its chest.

It was when Yujin noticed that the other Nightcrawlers were already nowhere to be found as if they had vanished after fighting with Newsun and D.ana. In fact, Newsun had already turned into a person, watching from the side.

“Aim for the tongue, the tongue is its weakness,” Newsun commented, unconsciously giving Yujin a hint on how to fight Nightcrawlers. “The demons did not even teach you that?”

Yujin was quiet for a second before she realized that it was her time to escape while Newsun and D.ana seemed distracted as they watched how the body of the Nightcrawler vanished into thin air. She took one step back and another and another…

Before she knew it, she had turned around and started to run. She knew it was foolish of her because how could she win against goddesses but she was pushing her luck. After all, she already got lucky that she bumped into some goddesses before some Nightcrawlers decided to show themselves to her. In a way, that was a struck of luck.

“Park Yujin!” Yujin heard Newsun and D.ana calling after her but she just kept on running.

She clearly heard their rough and heavy footsteps. Peeking, she noticed that their distance was not that big anymore. D.ana could yank her away in any minute plus Newsun had already turned into a cat, catching up to her in no time. Hoping to distract them, Yujin took a sharp curve on a corner like how it was in movies. She kept on running and taking a curve at random pathways that she did not even know existed until then. Her legs felt dead as she kept on running. She could barely feel them actually. Even her knees felt like they were about to give up on her anytime soom. The distance remained small until she was suddenly yanked.

No, she was not yanked from behind like she expected but rather, she was yanked in front, forcing her to turn into a corner by the newcomer who was wearing a black and white sleeveless leather dress.

“, they run fast,” the newcomer muttered under her breath, seeing how close the goddesses were close to them. “I in’ hate that cat.”

“Mina?” Yujin gasped in between her loud uneven breaths. She knew it was the last of her worries but why would the fox girl, of all people, come to her aid.

“Be surprised later,” the fox hissed, abruptly changing into a majestic brown fox while running. She was so huge—about three feet or so—in contrary to her originally small frame. Her lime green eyes met Yujin’s dark brown ones. “Get on,” she motioned.

“What?” Yujin asked, confused.

“Now!” When the fox exclaimed, Yujin immediately hopped on its back. Mina then started to run in full speed, creating a huge gap between them and the two creatures from Spheres. “Damn you, Yujin, of all people, you decided to mess with the cat and that annoying goddess.”

Yujin did not say anything. Instead, she just held on Mina as if her life depended on it (in a way, her life did depend on it). She kept on looking back and trying to se