289. Snow's Fear (II)

Levian peeled away the layers of string-like energy off his body. He shook his hand, tearing it entirely out until he stepped out. The change was drastic.

No more was the lanky-looking demon but instead was built with muscles from head to toes. His eyes became even hotter with red and black as if it was made from molten lava.

Snow didn't pay attention to Levian. Closing her eyes, Snow spoke. “Resurrection.”

Awash of light energy erupted out of her body and dove straight into Dairen’s.

Snow fell into the abyss.

Snow couldn’t move as her mind was busily searching for Dairen’s spirit. She could feel it close by, but something was hindering her from resurrecting him. It was as if there was a tightrope keeping her in place.

The light energy didn’t want to listen to her as the dark energy fought against her.

“You won’t be able to bring him back,” Levian replied in a deep voice. “A demon prince can not be resurrected by a saintess.”

His words were cold as ice, making him realize that Dairen was getting further and further away as time went by.

The darkness around his soul wrapped it tightly ever so harshly that untangling it was impossible.

“Snow,” Levian called out her name again.

Snow didn’t answer. She fought against the current of darkness, hoping that she could make a breakthrough.

“Snow, this is a fact. You are our natural enemy. The breath of life is not allowed to bring us back to this world. So just be happy that he is back in his old world, forgetting that he had ever come into this.”

Sweat dripped down her face. The light energy and dark energy fought hard. It didn’t want to listen as it tangled up into ugly knots. The more she dived into the darkness, the harder it was for her to move.

She fought hard, pushing the darkness aside as she trekked deeper into darkness.

Levian frowned at how hard Snow was trying to revive Dairen. “You haven’t changed even the first time I met you.” he shook his head at her. He then turned around. “This is goodbye, Snow, no Saintess. This time, I will save the world, and you will thank me for it.” A black portal shimmered into view. He looked over his shoulder one more time and then stepped through.

The moment Levian disappeared, the dungeon crackled, telling everyone that the dungeon was cleared.

Mike groaned, blinking as he looked around. Then, when he saw Snow hovering over Dairen, sweating as light energy glowed around her, he pushed up and crawled over.

“Snow?” Mike weakly called out her name. He pulled himself over toward Dairen and stopped.

Reaching over, he placed his hand on Snow. “Let’s bring him back, Snow.” Mike took a deep breath, he spoke. “Goddess Hidelger, if you hear my prayer, please lend me your strength to assist the Saintess to bring back my dead friend.”

At first, nothing happened.

“I will exchange something in return!” Mike shouted. Sparkling light of thunder erupted from overhead, bringing with it a scattering thunderstorm.

Goddess Hidlgar had heard his plea and sent down a lightning strike straight toward Mike’s hand.

Snow felt an electric jolt coursing through her body. It was as if the electricity cut straight into Dairen’s body, slicing away the demonic energy that he once had and leaving behind the usual power that he personally had.

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At that moment, Snow dove deeply into the spirit world. Darkness completely consumed her. She ran, searching for the multiple spirits that lingered around. Many were demons and dark spirits that wanted to take over her body or obliterate her soul.

The spirits and demons screeched, clawing at her body and face.

Snow raised up her hand, pulling light around her.

A soft barrier formed around her body, keeping her protected from the barrage of assaults that came her way. There were a few that broke through, cutting her arms, legs, and even body. Even still, she pushed through, pushing, shoving, and punching her way to find who she was looking for.

“Dairen!” Snow screamed, hoping to find him. A blast of light rippled outward.

All the spirits scattered, except one.

Instantly, Snow knew who it was.

“Dairen!”

Snow frantically ran. Every step she took, the stronger the light energy around her became.

The shadow that was walking away from her stopped.

“Dairen!”

Turning its head toward Snow, the shadow gazed at Snow.

“Dairen! Hold my hand!” Snow reached out toward the shadow.

The shadow stopped and slowly reached her hand.

Snow took this chance and grabbed a hold. A blistering light erupted around them, pushing away the shadows that kept Dairen wrapped tightly in its claws. She pulled him in, relieved that she was able to grab him.

Dairen's eyes flickered to life, realizing who it was.

A demonic entity appeared from behind Dairen. Its claws reached out, grabbing Darien by the shoulder.

“Ugh!” Darien let out a painful yell. Black and red energy swirled around, trying to pull Dairen back into its clutches.

“Get back!” Snow shouted. The light energy around her became more vicious. It stabbed into the darkness, pushing it back. She yanked him toward her as if she was trying to keep it away.

“Dairen,” Snow smiled, happy that she was able to get ahold of him. “Let’s go home.” Her fingers wrapped around his.

The bright light covered them completely, pulling them in.

Snow woke up with her hand curled up in Dairen’s hand.

Mike was breathing heavily. His eyes fluttered open. Smiling that she was awake.

“Thanks.” Snow replied in a soft whisper as her throat was rough and itchy. She glanced back down and noticed that Dairen was breathing normally. But he wasn’t awake.

Snow leaned down, placing her ears by his chest. His breathing was apparent; even the hole in his chest was gone, and he was left with shiny new skin.

“It’s going to take a bit of time for him to heal,” Mike replied. “Give it a few hours. After that, we should get up and get out of here.”

Snow shook her head. She looked around, noticing that everyone else was waking up. She let out a sigh of relief to see that everyone was okay.

“We should get the others as well and get out of this hell hole and get back.” Mike weakly chuckled. He stopped as he wheezed.

“What happened to Levian?” Red groaned. She had difficulty getting up, rubbing her forehead.

“He left,” said Snow. She wasn’t so happy that he escaped. Mainly because he was now a Demon King. Who knew what exactly he was planning to do.

“That idiot.” Red snapped. “When I get my hands on him next time, I’m going to make a barbecue out of him.”

“You and me both.” Audrey agreed. He rolled his right shoulder. “I don’t like how he just got up and took everything. He even killed one of us.”

Red nodded vigorously.

Everyone was coming back together. Getting up to leave.

“Is the sacred tree alright?” Red asked.

Snow turned toward the direction to check up on the tree. She was glad to see that the sacred tree was still standing. There were a few burnt spots here and there, but the power of light was still present, pulsating gently outwards.

“Yes, it should be able to recover for the next couple of years.” Snow reassured them. She was glad that the tree was destroyed.

“Good,” Red got up.

The others slowly came too one-by-one, until finally, they were all ready to leave. Stepping out of the castle, they headed to the walls.

Thousands upon thousands of dead demons and monsters littered the streets. The soldiers were picking off the leftover monsters that were trying to escape.

Quickly, everything was being swept away, allowing the city to come back to life.

It didn’t take long for Snow and the guilds to count how many were still alive and how many had passed away. For the ones that had their bodies still well intact, Snow could heal the body before Resurrecting everyone she could find.

The ones that were completely destroyed or unable to resurrect were luckily a handful.

The leftover powers appeared before Snow, thanking them for their help. Unfortunately, there wasn't much that Snow could do to help. The clean-up was done by the citizens.

The longer they stayed behind, the stronger the dungeon seemed to grumble and shake, telling them that their time was slowly coming to an end.

Nobody wanted to stay more than they should as the dungeon life wasn’t easy.

Eventually, Snow and the rest of the group left the dungeon.