"What's happening to Rulu? He looks like he's in terrible pain." Kallen murmured to herself, watching from a distance in the direction of Rulu and C.C. Even from this far away she could sense that Rulu was enduring some kind of immense suffering, though since there was no visible change in the environment around him and C.C., and the trunk of the great tree looked the same as before, she had no idea what was actually happening to him.
"Enemy..." Six-Tail let out a low, indistinct sound. Hearing it, Kallen immediately turned to look in the direction Six-Tail was facing. A dark creature that looked like a wild dog had appeared nearby and was nosing its way toward Rulu and C.C.
"That thing is moving toward Rulu. I have to drive it off." Knowing that Rulu couldn't afford any disturbance, Kallen gripped her lance and charged at the wild-dog-like creature. The beast froze for a moment at the sight of her, then bared its teeth and lunged, launching an attack.
Kallen immediately took a fighting stance with her lance and engaged the creature. Though it wasn't large, it was extremely agile, making it difficult for her to land a hit. However, the beast's Psionic power level wasn't particularly high either, and it was equally unable to do any real damage to Kallen. The two sides reached a momentary standstill.
"Six-Tail, help me deal with this thing," Kallen called out to Six-Tail, who had been watching from the sidelines. After the time they had spent together, Six-Tail and Kallen had gradually warmed to each other. Seeing that the wild dog wasn't especially dangerous, Six-Tail pounced on it. Together, Kallen and Six-Tail pressed their attack, and the creature quickly crumbled under the combined assault, retreating and fleeing the area.
Afterward, Kallen and Six-Tail continued to stand guard near Rulu and C.C., keeping other creatures at bay. In the time that followed, only a few small animals appeared nearby — no powerful beasts — and Kallen and Six-Tail drove them off without trouble, ensuring that Rulu and C.C. remained undisturbed.
Meanwhile, C.C. and Rulu were still working through what they had come to do. As time passed, the pain Rulu was enduring grew more and more severe. His eyes were vacant and unfocused, groans of agony escaped him continuously, his struggling became increasingly violent, and blood began seeping from both his mouth and nose.
"This isn't good — it looks like Rulu can't withstand this knowledge and power yet." Seeing Rulu's condition, C.C.'s face filled with alarm, and she muttered to herself: "What do I do now? If this keeps up, Rulu might be in mortal danger. Should I stop? But if I stop now, all of this will have been for nothing — Rulu will never forgive me. What on earth do I do?"
"Wait — that method might work." Something suddenly came to C.C. She fixed Rulu's eyes with a strange, intent gaze. At that, the agonized expression on Rulu's face faded. He grew gradually calmer and stopped struggling. A moment later, his eyes slowly closed, and he seemed to sink into an unconscious sleep.
"Phew. It's finally done."
About twenty minutes later, C.C. let out a long breath and the gravity left her face. She lifted her palms from Rulu's head and waved to Kallen in the distance.
Kallen hurried over and looked down at Rulu. He was pale, his eyes were shut, his body completely still, and dried traces of blood were visible at the corners of his mouth and nose.
"What happened? Why does he look like this?" Kallen said anxiously. She crouched down, held her hand beneath Rulu's nose, then pressed it to his chest. Feeling his breath and heartbeat, she let out a small sigh of relief.
"Don't worry. He's only fallen unconscious — he'll wake up shortly." C.C. said wearily, her face etched with exhaustion.
"Did it work?" Kallen asked. "Did Rulu obtain that knowledge and power?"
C.C. replied with an uncertain tone: "I think... it could be considered a success?"
"What do you mean, 'could be considered'?"
"Well... wake Rulu up first, and then we'll talk."
"Alright." Kallen immediately wrapped her arm around Rulu and gave him a vigorous shake. She patted his cheek and called out loudly: "Rulu! Time to wake up. Stop sleeping."
Rulu's brow twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes. He stared at Kallen and C.C. with a dazed look for a moment, then an expression of strained concentration crossed his face as he tried to make sense of what was going on.
"Ugh, my head..."
Suddenly a pained look crossed Rulu's face, and he instinctively raised both hands to clutch his head.
"What's wrong, Rulu? Does your head hurt?" Kallen asked.
Rulu exhaled and said weakly: "My head is spinning, and I feel like there's no strength left in my whole body. What's wrong with me?"
C.C. said: "That's only to be expected. Didn't I tell you before? When you receive that kind of knowledge and power, your body takes a great deal of damage. Feeling physically depleted right now is completely normal."
Rulu said with a puzzled frown: "But... why can't I remember anything? I'm sure that before I lost consciousness, I saw all sorts of strange things and learned a great deal. Why can't I recall any of it now?"
"Well..." C.C. blinked, her expression slightly uneasy. "You just woke up, so that's probably why. Maybe it'll come back to you after a while."
"That doesn't seem right." Rulu didn't quite believe her. "C.C., be straight with me. Did we fail?"
"Well... we didn't exactly fail. It's just that I temporarily sealed the knowledge and memories you obtained, which is why you can't access them right now."
"Sealed? Why would you do that?"
C.C. explained: "That body of knowledge is enormous — most people's minds can't handle it. You're far above average, Rulu, but even so, absorbing something this vast in such a short time was more than you could bear. When I saw how badly you were doing, I sealed it all away to protect you. Otherwise, you'd have lost your mind by now."
"So we failed, then?" A look of dejection crossed Rulu's face.
"Not at all — because those memories and that knowledge are still inside you. You simply can't access them for the moment. If I can seal them, I can also unseal them. Once your condition improves, I'll gradually lift the seal little by little, letting you absorb the knowledge in stages. You'll eventually be able to recall everything."
Hearing this, Rulu felt somewhat reassured. "Good. So we did succeed after all." With that, he slowly rose from the ground and began looking around.
Kallen said: "I didn't quite follow everything you two were just saying, but it sounds like we've accomplished what we came to the Sanctuary to do. What now — do we leave immediately?"
Rulu said: "Yes, we need to get out of here as soon as possible. My body feels weak — even walking is an effort. If we run into another powerful beast, I don't think I'll be in any state to deal with it."
"Then let's get moving. I have absolutely no desire to stay in this godforsaken place a moment longer."
"C.C., which way do we go? Do we head back the way we came — back to that city?"
"No, the way in and the way out aren't quite the same. We should..." C.C. began, but before she could finish, a clear, piercing cry rang out from the sky in the distance. The sound startled all of them. They looked up — and there, far overhead, a large orange-yellow bird had appeared, hurtling toward them at tremendous speed.