Survive in the parallel world, please!

215 Pick up the scent, please! part It’s Stefan!

I use my stealth skill in hopes that he doesn’t have his revealing skill active, but it proves to be useless.

“Come outside young man, there’s no need to lurk in the shadows like a beast”

Before going out I set my passive skills in a more battle oriented manner and walk out with my hands above my head.

“What are you doing in here?”

Before I can get my answer, I watch in horror as a priestess with a black blindfold over her eyes crouches and picks up Mochi.

Are they really going to use my cat as a hostage?

Mochi seems to be oblivious of the danger he’s in and starts purring in the priestess generous bossom.

“It’s a bit dirty for people from the church to use such dirty strategies, leave my cat out of this”

.....

“Don’t be silly, I love this little guy”

The priestess chuckles as she squishes the cat a bit harder, intensifying the purring.

“Lower your guard young man, we come in peace”

Stefan says calmly. Now I see none of them grabbed their weapons, even after I came out of the woods. I lower my hands, still on high alert.

Stefan is wearing a new set of armor and he’s carrying different weapons, he also has a shield on his back. Next to him there’s a priest with a mace on his side, there’s nothing interesting about him except his buzz haircut. Although he’s a priest, he looks like military.

Then, there’s the beautiful woman that picked up Mochi. She has a gentle look, so strong that she almost shines, she has a fair complexion and a beautiful figure. She kind of reminds me to someone I know but can’t put my finger on it.

“There there Mochi, did you miss me that bad? I missed you too.”

“How do you know my cat’s name? who are you!?”

“It makes me sad that you don’t remember me, Ryu.”

I don’t know why, but It’s like I can’t hold back my tears. An intense emotion overwhelms me and It makes it difficult for me to call her name, I’m scared of being wrong.

“He-Helena!?”

She nods with a kind smile on her face. I run towards her like a child to their mom, completely forgetting about anything else.

After a long lasting hug that filled me with joy, I finally composed myself.

“Wow! you look...”

I tried to keep myself from pointing out the obvious blindfold over her eyes, but I just couldn’t get the words out of my mouth.

“Gorgeous right? I lost some weight!”

She said happily as she took a spin on her heels.

“Helena, why are you here? what are you doing with those guys?”

Helena doesn’t let go of my hands keeping me close to her, it’s a bit unsettling to be like this near enemies, but her soft touch took me back to the times where she used to hold my hand to comfort me, giving me a deep feeling of calmness.

“I came here to look for you guys and to clarify a misunderstanding”

“A misunderstanding? Do you seriously call that a misunderstanding? these guys tried to kidnap Sera and...”

“No, that’s not what happened. They were actually going to rescue her from the hands of the corrupt kingdom”

She shook her head cutting me short.

“Did they? then why did they attack Anne?”

“I can answer that. We were on a sacred mission to rescue a magician from those filthy heathens and we were caught by miss Anne. I had no way of knowing she was arch priestess Helena’s friend and for that, I humbly ask for apologies”

“You say that, but you also commanded Lea to kill my sword, I know you did and there’s nothing you can say in your favor”

Helena turned towards the paladin, it seems he omitted this piece of information.

“That’s actually true, it was a cursed sword and it was a threat to your life. I asked Lea to bless you, but we didn’t attempt to harm you while you were down. If we really wanted to harm you, it would have been easy for us to kill you”

If they had done so maybe a month before I would have been really grateful, maybe there wasn’t a way for them to know that the curse had settled in and it wasn’t a threat to me anymore.

Thinking about this, I lower my gaze.

“Ryu, I know you’re distrusting, but I’m your friend, you can always trust me. The sacred empire is actually a good place, everyone will see that once they arrive”

“What do you mean? you aren’t going back to Ironwoods?”

“Why would I? There’s so many people that need us in the sacred empire, we have a mission to fulfill. You promised to help us, remember?”

“Helena, you can’t be serious. We haven’t seen each other in how long and the first thing you say is how we should go over to a place that sent people to kidnap us and they even attempted to kill Anne. What if they succeeded? would you still be siding with them?”

“Probably not, but they didn’t. Everything that happened was the will of the gods, can’t you see? If you come with me, you’ll be able to become so much stronger and you’ll be able to actually help people instead of playing around in sinful actions”

This is weird, Helena never spoke like that. Actually, despite being really nice and kind, I always suspected she had a lewd mind. I still remember her frustration when she learned that priestess aren’t supposed to have sex.

“What made you change so much? you don’t seem like the Helena I used to know”

“I saw the truth!”

Helena said as she took off her blindfold, revealing her white eyes that couldn’t see anything anymore.

“You really are blind!?”

“Yes, but It doesn’t matter. I can see so much more than I used to, I see your energy, your stance, I can even feel the strong presence of Mochi. You two have gotten stronger, but you’re no match for the people in the sacred empire.”

“This is madness, you’re mad Helena!”

“I am not! I saw god in person, with my own two eyes. All I want is for you to experience the same thing, you’ll thank me later. I’m an arch priestess now! You can’t imagine the power I hold in my hands right now!”

“There’s really no point in arguing. Why don’t we find the others first and then make a decision?”

“The others? oh! yes, they’re coming this way already”