Ritler Island (Part 1)

After Alusec calmed down, Ruby tried to explain what happened two months ago, but then he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her closer...

"Master, what are you trying to do?" Ruby asked with reddened cheeks.

Alusec made eye contact and pulled her face towards his, placing his forehead on hers.

Ruby checks were so flushed that they could be mistaken for tomatoes.

"Stay still and let me inspect your memories... it will be better for me to see what happened than for you to start explaining everything, don't you think?" Alusec asked, clarifying his actions.

Ruby finally understood what was happening and broke off the eye contact with Alusec in embarrassment after misunderstanding his intentions.

"Yes, master..." She consented to his request.

"Alright, just guide my consciousness to your memories two months ago," Alusec instructed as they both closed their eyes.

***********************************

-Two months ago

In a part of the galaxy, dimensional rifts were being torn open with intensity after a blast happened in space. Countless stars were destroyed as thousands of meters in that area was dark and empty.

A man on dreadlocks could be seen drifting in the vast space, with his black robes in tatters and severe injuries all over his body. Blood kept seeping out of his wounds and floating in space. He had already lost consciousness so he didn't notice that he was floating towards a rift.

Drrtikkllllliikkl!

The space in the rift crackled with intensity. It so looked dark and unstable, that if any human were to go in, they would be ripped to shreds in less than a second.

Triinnng!

Just When he was few meters away from the rift, a glowing doorway appeared on his left side, a pair of fair hands reached out from inside the doorway grabbing him and pulling him inside.

"Master!" Ruby hugged Alusec, holding onto him as they traveled through the doorway. She stared at his injuries with shock, 'I've never seen him bleed, even when he was captured he never bled..'

Drrtikkllllliikkl!

Ruby was drawn out of her thoughts when a dimensional rift opened up right beside them before they could travel through the doorway completely.

They got sucked in before Ruby could react.

"Miracule, Vitu..." She called out, but there was no answer. She understood that the rift they entered had cut off all chances of communication and stared at the endless dimensional rift.

On entering the rift, the gravity felt weird. Ruby felt like, she was being expanded and compressed at the same time. Ruby had entered dimensional portals and rifts before but this was the first one she was entering that was this unstable. If she was not powerful enough, her body would not be able to withstand the pressure.

Violent energy trashed around in the rift, with waves of space turbulence spreading around. Ruby used her body to shield Alusec from the waves of energy coming towards them.

Rip! Rip! Rip!

"Ugh!" She moaned in pain as several cuts appeared on her back and arms with blood dripping from it. She saw more waves coming but she didn't back down and still hugged Alusec's unconscious body to hers.

"Master, I wasn't there for you five hundred thousand years ago when you needed me, but now I will make sure I protect you.." she said while transforming into a giant kunpeng.

After her complete transformation, she still held Alusec in her bosom, protecting him from the violent waves of energy.

This continued for some time, but Ruby never let go of Alusec, she kept shielding him. Her body was already soaked in blood with long gashes all over, and although the space was dark she felt that they had already been traveling through the rift for a week.

Suddenly, Ruby noticed an opening on the right, a distance away from them. This opening was the only source of light that they had come across while traveling through the rift.

Through the opening, Ruby could see the outline of a sandy area with tall blueish looking trees.

Ruby immediately flew towards the opening which was getting smaller by the second.

Swwwooooosshh!

Ruby passed through it and dropped down from the air, placing Alusec on the sandy surface. She transformed back into her human self and lied down beside Alusec. Blood covered her entire body, including the white coat that Alusec gave her.

Huff! Huff! Huff!

She was breathing heavily, feeling weak and exhausted. Protecting Alusec in the rift had depleted her energy completely, she even ignited her source essence, which meant that after recovering, her strength would drop by a level. Ruby was not even bothered by her supposed drop in strength, she turned to face Alusec and held his face with a loving gaze.

"This is nothing compared to what you faced, all those years ago.... so no matter what, I'll endure." she spoke softly while caressing his cheek.

Ruby stood up after some minutes of resting and looked at the area that the dimensional rift led them to.

"This is..." Ruby finally could hear the sound of waves hitting the shore in the distance.

"An island?"

She stared northwest and saw a beautiful teal green colored sea, with tidal waves rolling around from time to time. She turned around to look behind and saw a dense forest with blueish trees about twenty meters to forty meters long and red leafs growing out of their trunks.

She extended her senses beyond the forest,

'Thank goodness there's a town close by' she sighed in relief and walked towards Alusec, lifting him up princess style.

She strolled into the forest carrying Alusec with her.

Grrrrhhh!

After strolling some miles into the forest, Ruby heard a growl coming from the distance, signifying that they were trespassing into a beast's territory.

Grrrrrrhhhhhwwwww!

Ruby opened her mouth and growled back.

Birds in that area flew away in fright and the forest immediately quieted down.

Ruby continued moving forward unrestricted.

She got to a particular area in the forest and saw a small cave with several medicinal smelling plants in the surroundings, she extended her senses into the cave and smiled after noticing something.

She walked towards the cave, dropped Alusec at the entrance, and entered inside, there were rays of sunlight coming from the cracks on the cave ceiling that illuminated the place.

when Ruby entered, her nostrils were assaulted with the smell of medicine.

"Meridian healing grass, Bana chakra shrub, elephant trunk flower, indulus mango..." Ruby recognized all these plants and rejoiced at her luck because there were all good herbs that she needed to give Alusec necessary treatment.

She made a bag from the large leaves on some of the trees and packed all the plants away. Everything in the cave was cleaned out.

The beast that growled could only watch as its cave was being cleaned out because it had a feeling that it would be beaten up if it tried obstructing the fierce lady.

After cleaning out the cave Ruby came out with the loot, carried Alusec once again, and continued on her journey.

After walking for more than two hours Ruby was already close to exiting the forest when.....

"Kiaaarrrhhhh!"

A loud scream echoed through the forest.

Ruby wanted to ignore the scream and mind her business but she could hear footsteps approaching their direction.

She turned left as her gaze passed through countless trees and settled after seeing a teenage girl around the age of fifteen being chased by a group of six young men with an arrow lodged in the back of her shoulder.

"Hey! give it back you brat." One of the men from the group shouted.