I looked at their bodies, didn't see any chains on their bodies, wondering why only I got chained. After they all came out, they were all staring at me with wary eyes. Not like I cared. The voice just released them without care.
After that, the huge guy saw Aria kneeling on the ground, staring at us. He went to attack her, probably because of what she'd done, but the voice just moved one of its tentacles, slamming him back away from her, with him hitting the wall and bleeding from his mouth.
And the voice said, "Just because I saved you doesn't mean I can't kill you. That woman Aria is my slave now. Touch her and die."
After that, the voice turned to her and called out, "Aria, is it?"
And she replied, "Yes, young master."
And he replied, "Protect me."
Then the voice told me, "Time is up. You have to hurry out of this place because I am sure the person who set up that barrier is heading this way after finding out his barrier was broken. So hurry up and leave this place. He should get here in a day or two. And that Aria is strong enough to protect you from those kids."
And I shouted, "You keep saying protect me from who?"
Then the voice replied, "Remember I told you there's a side effect? Well, you are about to... fac... it... I am alread... of..."
Then I couldn't hear the voice again. Then it felt like all the energy left my body. It was more like I ran a whole marathon race and just collapsed due to lack of air. Well, that's how it felt. Until I felt I could move my body. Then I did, and the next thing I knew, it felt like my head was going to split into two.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Then I screamed because it looked like my bones were breaking from the inside, from my hands to my legs. I could swear it didn't hurt that time I fell and broke my shoulder back on Earth. Now, it felt like someone was using a hammer to smash up my bones. I could feel every pain.
From the outside, all the people in the room could see my body breaking. Its sound breaking the silence in the room, and my screams were so high until I couldn't scream anymore.
Aria already moved to my side, since she already figured out something was about to happen when I told her to protect me. I am pretty sure she didn't expect that the spike tentacles went back in, each move of it drawing pain to my nervous system, until it completely disappeared, same with the claws. After that, I could feel myself again. I was breathing so hard.
After that, I rested there for about 30 minutes. I just kept breathing. After a while, I stood up and asked Aria if there was any way I could take a bath, and she simply nodded and chanted something. After that, water appeared from thin air. I wasn't really surprised this time, so I just waited till she dropped the whole water on me, thereby washing all the blood off my body. After that, she cast a wind magic, drying all the water from my body.
After that, I just shook my hair, using my hands as a comb to comb it. Touching my hair made it feel like the softest silk. Besides, I still didn't know why my hair grew this long because from the memories, the hair wasn't even blood red—it was just black and was short. And from the memories, it showed that they'd cut down the hair three times, but it seemed to always grow back to touching my waist. So I didn't worry about it.
I just turned to Aria, saying, "Let's go." And we moved out of there, Aria leading the way. We got to the side of the wall in the front, with her pressing something, and the next thing we knew, we were out.
When the first ray of sunlight hit my face, I had to raise my hand to block it out. It felt like I was just coming out of my room back on Earth in the morning after a long sleep, after keeping my room dark. Anyway, I looked around me. All I saw was a forest with trees growing really high. Then I turned my head to see we were actually inside a mountain, or that's what I would like to call it.
Then I turned to look at Aria. She was still staring at the chains—well, technically not chains, more like cuffs on my hands and legs, even my neck, which had a chain collar. When the voice broke the chain, it didn't remove the collar and the cuffs that looked more like bracelets, though they were far bigger than what you would call bracelets. Still surprised they hadn't broken. Well, I left them there and asked, "Where are we? This doesn't appear to be any place I know of."
And Aria replied, "I don't know myself. I never left this forest. I always use the teleportation circle anytime I want to leave. That was how I was brought here."
I simply stared at her, seeing her shake from my gaze. I shrugged my shoulders. Since the mountain led us to the front, we would just have to go out through there until we came across someone who could lead us out of here. We simply moved forward. Taking 10 steps, I heard the sound of footsteps behind me. Turning my head, I saw those five kids. They were basically following us.
Then I shouted, "Just so you know, I don't give a fuck if you guys die or live. I'm pretty sure this forest is infested with a lot of magical beasts. If by chance I get caught by one of them, I will not hesitate to sacrifice one of you."
After saying that, I turned back and started moving forward. I didn't care if they were following me. I kept walking. When it was afternoon time, they kept following me. The forest was simply too quiet, making me ask Aria if she recognized any of this place. She said no.
I simply plucked fruit from some trees, eating them while moving forward. I could already see the sun going down, meaning it was almost nighttime. I looked around until I found the highest tree. I didn't know how those powers worked or what the voice did to my body. I tried to imagine the sensation while imagining the claws. My hands changed slightly to that of the claws, but not really as sharp or as big, but I didn't care. I did the same thing with my other hand, and it grew just like the first one.
When the kids saw it, they all shifted back. I just simply snorted and climbed the tree with the claws, trying to mimic a movie I saw back on Earth where the dude climbed the walls with claws. First try, it didn't work. Then I started putting much strength into it. Then I stabilized myself and climbed up to one of the branches, just sat down there.
Then I turned to Aria, telling her I was going to stay up, and that she should set up a camp. And well, I just lay down there, trying to understand things, wondering why I was brought here or who that voice was. I couldn't tell if it was male or female; it sounded like both. Not like I cared anyway.
Then I looked at my hands. Though I knew the owner of this body was 12 years old, I didn't look like that. I looked more like 15, no different than that kid with a scar on his face. And what was with the hair color change? From the memories I saw, the kid had died two days ago, until I got into the body. Even Aria confirmed it before telling that man who he was.
I haven't gotten the time to ask Aria questions, and my eyes—they were never different colors. They were always blue, just like my mom's, and even my dad's eye color was black. So how come? Why did I become like this? Well, I would find out later. For now, I needed to rest. I stayed there, and before I knew it, I passed out.
After what felt like hours, I woke up. It was probably hours since when I slept. I looked down and saw Aria had already set up a tent. She probably had a spatial treasure that let her store things because I didn't see a ring on her hand, so I was pretty sure it was probably a spatial pouch or something. I looked to the left and saw the huge kid resting at a tree below. Then I looked right—the scar-face guy too was resting, but he seemed to be having a bad dream due to the expressions he was making.