Pulled by her elf friend Rina, Aisa treaded the rocky ground of Beastmeh Canyon stark naked again. She had to move her legs faster than usual to keep up with Rina's faster movements, leaving her bare breast swaying left and right. She could not help but to took a peek at Rina's vigorous body and was peeved at the jiggles of her more endowed breast.
"Where... are we going...?" Exhaustion had almost taken toll on Aisa, but she was still not sure about where Rina was taking her to. She trusted Rina, believing there was a good reason behind her sudden actions, but the anxiety of being seen naked and wanting to return to Aldar filled her mind.
"We are heading to the Shedar's port, south east from here. I'll get you clothes there and after that we'll leave by a ship. It's a long path, but don't worry, big-sis assures that the path is straight!" Rina's definition of straight was different from Aisa, which made her felt even less motivated on continue running.
"Wait... huff... that's too long... I still... got things to do..." Each step Aisa took used up more and more oxygen from her. Her legs started to feel dull, and she knew she was almost at her limits. Moreover, she felt hungry, not remembering what she ate yesterday due to the effects of the Brain Reset.
After 10 minutes of running under the scorching sun, Aisa's sight grew dim and dimmer under the strenuous running and collapsed onto the ground, like a heavy weight suddenly fell onto her. Rina was panicked at Aisa's sudden collapse and quickly attended to Aisa.
"Aisa! Are you alright?"
"Ahhh... this is my limit... I want to rest now..." Weak words came from Aisa's mouth, asking for a break. Rina was surprised at why Aisa did not use Encouragement Aura to keep up with her movement, like how she used to. Rina checked her surrounding, after finding that whoever that were chasing after them, including the lizardmen, were out of their sight, she let out a sigh of relief.
"We are out of their sight, so let's get to the canyon beach."
"Beach?" Hearing the word beach slightly excited Aisa, however, when she saw the plain hot rocky ground that was ahead of her, she immediately lost her enthusiasm, and lay back onto the ground.
"That's right. It was downhill from here, a few hundred meters of..."
"I don't have energy to move anymore..." Just by hearing Aisa's weak response told her how weak Aisa was after her exhibitionism in the town. Rina searched for her bag pack and took out a green bottle with a vegetable label, written Elixir -- Vegetable Flavor.
"Drink this." Rina handed the green bottle to Aisa, who took it from Rina's hand and examined its content. Aisa face turned sour upon reading the word vegetable flavor. She knew that elixir is a medicine that restores energy to user, but she hated the vegetable flavoring.
"Drink it." With a cold shuddering fury sipping from Rina's smile, Aisa quietly drank the elixir in fear. She knew that even though Rina was always calm, whenever she gets angry her anger was like an erupting volcano. Letting the liquid ran inside her body, her body felt well, as if her hunger and exhaustion felt like a lie.
Feeling the familiar smell of the beach, Aisa stood up from the ground, dusting out the sand that stuck on her naked body, careful not to touch her private parts to arouse them. She walked closer to the edge of the cliff and found a beach under them, and was excited about the sizzling waves of the sea water.
"We might be able to reach the beach faster with your Buffer Legs." Rina walked closer to Aisa, suggesting her to use Buffer Legs on both of them.
"That's right." Aisa agreed with the wise decision and started chanting an incantation, concentrating mana onto her legs. One minute of trying to channel mana to her feet however and nothing happened. She tried ignoring her nudity and putting more effort into concentrating her mana, same results.
"Kukukuku... as for your magic, it's probably taken away by the pink crystal."
Kayu's words replayed in Aisa's head over and over again. She finally understood the reason behind her magic lost. She laughed at herself for still holding the World Shard, before falling onto her knees, clutching her head, on the verge of crying.
"This is a lie... I am a magician..." She was still in denial of her inability to cast magic, like a man who was in denial of having his limb cut off. Tears of desertion well up on Aisa's eyes, she spent her childhood and teenage years majoring in magic, and everything was taken away in just a flash of light from the World Shard. Before she could think further, she felt a pat on her shoulder. It was Rina, who was looking at Aisa with her usual smile.
"Don't worry, your magic lost is temporary."
Rina's word of assurance temporarily snapped Aisa out of her despair, but she was now even more surprised at how Rina knew her magic lost is temporary.
"But... how?"
"Don't think too much about it." With her usual tone, Rina brushed off Aisa's worries as just a temporary phenomenon. However, Aisa was starting to suspect Rina knew more than she let on. When she started asking herself why Rina planned to escape with her, she was cradled from the ground, surprising her.
"Ahh!" Feeling a sudden contact, which felt like a caress with her naked body made her shiver slightly. It made her panic at what Rina was planning to do. "Wh... what are you planning to do?"
"Jumping down, but it's going to be alright!" Before Aisa could utter the word wait, Rina immediately jumped down the cliff, carrying Aisa. Rina's unexpectedly rash action caused Aisa to scream in fear, closing her eyes to avert her fear. A few seconds under the pressure of their freefall, Aisa heard a loud thud and they landed on the sand below the cliff.
Fearing for the worst, Aisa quickly stood up to check Rina's condition, and was shocked yet amazed at what she saw. Rina, an elf girl with a figure that would attract many suitors, was standing on the sandy beach stark naked, exposing her fair white naked body shone brightly under the early evening sun. Her D-cup breast was swaying up and down, buffering from her freefall. She looked exactly like a well-endowed human woman, other than the pointy ears she had as an elf. As much as Aisa was amazed at Rina's beautiful body, she was peeved at why that body could not be hers.
She barely managed to control her jealousy, before asking a more rational question. "Big-sis, your clothes..."
"That tall tree got them." Rina responded disappointedly, pointing the very tall canyon tree that was on top of them, with her torn clothing and underwear dangling on a sharp branch. She knew it was impossible to reach to the top of the 3 meter canyon tree, and decided to give up on her clothing. Aisa felt guilty over her inability to use magic
"I'm sorry, it's my fault that..." She apologized, thinking that if she could use her magic it would prevent Rina's clothing from being completely torn by the tree. Rina did not let Aisa finish her apology.
"It's okay, you're not naked alone now." Once again Rina shrugged it off with her usual tone, without bothering about the problem having no modesty.
Aisa could not understand her calmness. She knew how vulnerable any girls would be when they are stark naked, but at least she was slightly relieved she had someone to join in her mishap. "But we have to continue walking naked..."
"Other than that, let's get our body off this heat." In an encouraging smile that removes any worries one might had, Rina took off her white boots and pulled Aisa's arm with her. Aisa followed her, and their barefoot made contact with the cooling water of the beach.
Aisa felt the cooling waves of the water lapping on her feet, bringing out her inner child. She scooped up some water, trying to splash it onto Rina. She was faster than Aisa, already splattered a scoop of water onto Aisa, splashing her. Feeling the water around her body, Aisa laughed and retaliated with the scoop of water on Rina, splashing her. They happily continued to retaliate with even more water splashes, enjoying the cooling water flowing on their naked body.
After spending several minutes having mindless fun to splashing water at each other, both of the girls got bored and sat of the sand near each other. Aisa looked forlornly at the cloudless blue sky. She remembered that she questions she had to ask from Rina.
"So big-sis, why are you planning to take me out of this country in a hurry?"
"Oh, I should tell you the reason now." Rina knew Aisa as a girl who won't be satisfied without a full answer. She decided to reveal her reasons.
"If you're planning to take me on a mission with you, you should wait for me to finish my official mage exam." Aisa answered plainly, she knew that Rina would come to ask for her help involving collecting rare herbs or getting rid of pests. She never expected Rina to be so forceful about following her.
"Do you know about Project SMA?" Rina's first reveal bothered the curious Aisa, having no idea of the project name.
"Project SMA? What's that?"
"It's a conspiracy plotted by a group of mages involving your spiritual void."
"..." Listening to something Aisa did not expect to hear from her elf friend, she gasped and fell silence. Aside from the Nature Mage Guild and her relatives, no one else should know about her spiritual void, not even her closest friend.
"2 days ago when you went out, some shady figures were standing outside your house discussing about capturing you."
Aisa tried to resist the urge of suspecting the Nature Mage Guild having a hand on the incident. Besides, the guild members treated her like any other members of the guild, like an inseparable family. If it was not the guild, then who could it be?
