Naia almost fell down in shock, but fortunately, the new ledge was bigger than the other one, so she didn't die so idiotically by accidentally falling down the cliff. She sat down, as her body was still recovering, and just stared at the vast forest below in a daze.
So…what just happened?
Teleportation? It seemed different from what she knew.
In either way, this wasn't her ability—
"Don't take it off."
Kael's cold, but gentle, voice echoed in her mind. In retrospect, there seemed to be a pleading tone underneath it, which confused her.
She looked at her ring finger, but found nothing there, but remembered the earlier heating sensation and pulled the neckline of her loose shirt.
Buried on her skin, right between her collar, was that same stone that had been on her finger when she died. Now, it was embedded on her chest as if it were a part of it, much like a necklace without the string.
Now that she was out of danger, her mind told her what it was.
An Essence Stone.
Whenever a person awakened, they would develop a core that served as a battery for their powers. It was not exactly the sole source of the power, as it was found in all parts of the body, but there was a concentration of it in the core.
To use metaphors, if the ability and the energy related to it were like blood, then the core was somewhat like the heart. Its role was to help the human control and 'pump out' power, but not necessarily produce it.
There had been some experiments on newly-perished awakeners—specifically by the Radical faction—and they, sadly, knew these things as a fact.
They knew that the essence cores could be extracted manually, but they would not provide the person with the power they stole. In terms of the previous metaphor, the heart wasn't the organ that produced blood; it was just there to regulate and control it.
Kael's…was damaged back when they were young, precisely because he was experimented on. It was why his abilities were so unstable.
But…what was this now? Did he actually give her a portion of it?
In theory, people could condense a part of it externally, for some reason or another, but no one had actually done it before.
According to the scientists, her and Kael's cores were much bigger than others, and more integrated to their bodies and could not be extracted like others.
But this size was probably a good portion of the whole. Did Kael…give her half of his? How?
Why?
She took a deep breath and calmed her heart. She'd deal with this later. For now, she could use the skills she received to do what she had to do.
It was already approaching dusk now, so the sky was dabbed with an orange glow. She preferred the blue skies, which were so saturated, unlike the dead color she had been used to, but this color was also fine.
The sunset she was used to was a bit different due to the change in atmosphere. There, the sky burned in dust-muted orange and dull reds. It was a bit depressing. The associations weren't very good either, because it was more difficult to fight against the aliens at night, which was what dusk represented.
In this world, the light of dusk bloomed, colors spread, softened, and glowed. It was very vibrant, and it made people's hearts beat a bit faster.
She watched it until the sun really slept, and a drab of darkness spread throughout. She waited so she could, more or less, recover a bit more, but also to provide a cover for herself.
As the darkness surrounded her, she used the 'teleportation' skill to climb up to safety, and the first thing she saw was the villa, some tens of meters away from where she stood.
This was the scene of her murder, a bungalow villa in the middle of nowhere.
The house itself was isolated from others, with the nearest house being a 10-minute walk through the forests, which was difficult to traverse at night.
It was also a fairly good villa, objectively speaking. It was not one of the high-end ones she saw from Nadia's memory, but the old man was definitely well-off.
The walls and gates were quite high and sturdy, and there was even an electric fence on top of the cement wall. Most would think it was to keep intruders or wild animals out, but she knew it mostly served to keep people in.
She could only imagine how those other women desperately called for help, but no one would hear them.
The image of tragedy passed by her head, and her eyes sharpened in response.
Obviously, this kind of scum was already a prevalent poison in society even before the apocalypse descended. It'd grow even worse when it did.
She grabbed a stick and swung it around. Though her body was slow and untrained, her years-long training and experience in the apocalypse should make up for it to some degree.
She headed to the villa in silence. She wasn't purposely trying to be quiet, but it was more like a habit of hers from the apocalypse, where every bit of noise could unnecessarily attract aliens to rush over.
Even from outside the house, she could hear the old man cursing someone.
"What? Then you should've given me a sturdier one! If you don't give me back my land, I will sue you!"
"You think I can't kill you!?"
"Police?! HAH! I can just tell them you used my house to murder your own daughter. What proof do you have that I killed her? Meanwhile, I bet there's a lot of evidence of you dragging her here."
Naia's eyes sharpened. So the old devil was talking to the damned sperm donor.
Also, she noted that the old man wasn't stupid, and even the other bastard couldn't beat him. It was probably how he was still at large even after the questionable deaths of five of his ex-wives.
Arrogance and vindictiveness dripped out of the old man's tone. "I'm telling you! If you're not here by the time I wake up tomorrow, you're dead!"
Naia listened well, and various plans formed in her head. When she finished making a preliminary plan, her eyes darkened a bit, staring at the other side of the wall.
Finally time to get rid of scum.