The Twenty Virtues Book 1- The Twenty Generals

31-Those Destined to Victory.

A day then passed, and all of our heroes slept for a good amount of time. Protected by the fact that the generals did not know in which space and time they were located. As time went by, the groups slowly began to awaken, let's start with Helena's group, shall we?

Helena slowly awoke, Pedro was by her side, staring at her intently, a huge smile on his face as he noticed she was regaining consciousness.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!" The young man shouted with all his joy, almost bursting the eardrums of the half-redhead; she would have hit him if she wasn't still sleepy. "SHE'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!"

"Stop yelling, Pedro." Helena scolded, then she noticed the mark on his neck, still purple and probably painful. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, about that? I guess I had a ridiculous attitude during the fight, didn't I? Sorry, I didn't mean to be a hindrance."

"It's okay, I didn't do much either."

"No? Then who..."

"Oh, right." Interrupting Pedro's question, the half-redhead jumped to her feet. "Where are Emily and Clark? Are they okay?"

In response, Pedro just pointed to a redhead sleeping near Helena, the man seemed to be wrapped in tree leaves.

"The trees stopped his injuries; there are plants like cashew trees, wormwood, among others, that are good for healing. As for Emily... well, she's not okay." Noticing the confused look on the half-redhead, Pedro explained how Emily had woken up depressed; she hadn't said a word since waking up and was just sitting in the corner, deep in thought. "If what she went through was similar to what we went through, then I think she must have been quite scared. She's just... spaced out, there but not really present."

"Yeah... that thing really did a number on us. What did you dream about?"

"What do you mean? You were there, you saw."

"Hm? What are you talking about? You were in mine."

"I was? I don't remember that..."

"And you won't remember." To their surprise, Clark sat up with painful movements. "It was my power that put you there, my power connects hearts, not minds; you won't remember because your consciousness wasn't there. Anyway, Helena, you managed to defeat that creature, apparently, only you could."

"Actually, no. It trapped me in some kind of clay; I couldn't do anything but think..."

"If it wasn't you, then who was it?"

"I... don't know." You do know, Helena, your mind just refuses to remember. You don't want to remember, you don't want to think, you don't want to know. Funny, you were so eager to know the truth, but now that you know and don't like it, your mind tries to ignore it.

But you can't ignore it; that was what you wanted to find out. So your mind sends you flashes, visions of your doppelganger who took control, who can take control, and your heart began to race.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." Helena quickly got up and began to bite her nails, thinking. She couldn't think as deeply as the others, but she was thinking desperately, anxiously, and nervously. Afraid, angry, confused. Who was that woman who looked like her? What happened?

Clark gradually calmed Helena while Pedro just looked on confused. Due to all the commotion, even Emily came over, looking tired and worn out, but still showing concern.

"Warrior..." Then the being appeared, as always, at the worst time, out of nowhere. Why wouldn't he just leave them alone? The monk walked toward them before they could say anything. Helena, unable to look at the man's face any longer, marched like an ogre toward him, grabbing a piece of his robe and confronting him.