Noelle tilted her head back as she absentmindedly gazed up at the sky. It was nothing more than an endless sea of pink, and as she stared at it, her thoughts consumed her mind.

Noelle pondered where Felix could even be in this world, since she hadn’t taken the time to gather that information the last time she was here. There was no telling how vast the spirit world even was.

Searching for him seemed like a daunting task that would only end up leaving her with zero results. Yet, for some reason, she couldn’t stand the idea of just waiting around for him to appear.

Noelle's expression became determined as her thoughts finally cleared up. Her main focus was on finding him; she would worry about the little details along the way. It didn’t matter how challenging this task might prove to be.

“If I were Felix, where would I be?” Noelle mumbled to herself as she held her chin between her thumb and pointer finger.

She soon became lost in her thoughts. Her eyes widened when an idea of his whereabouts finally dawned on her.

She walked along the same path she and Felix had taken the first time she had entered the spirit world. After a couple of minutes, the small town hosting the festival came into view.

A frown formed on her lips when she noticed that all the pretty decorations that were up during the festival were now gone. The town looked deceivingly just like an ordinary town from her world.

Wandering around the town, she saw a familiar shade of green in the corner of her eye. It belonged to the same amber-eyed woman who had spoken to Felix during the festival.

“Um, excuse me,” Noelle said as she moved closer to the woman, who turned when she heard Noelle’s voice.

“Oh, it’s you again. I do hope you enjoyed the festival, Noelle. Also, did you happen to need something?” the woman said with a bright smile that radiated pure happiness.

“I was actually looking for Felix, and I was wondering if you happened to see him,” Noelle asked.

“Well, I did see him pass by here yesterday with someone, but I can’t remember who it was, since I didn’t get a good enough look at their appearance. But I saw him wander off to the frog pond earlier this morning; he might still be there,” the woman said with a kind smile.

“I see. Thank you very much,” Noelle said with a smile before she hurried off in the direction of the frog pond.

Her disappointment deepened when she arrived at the pond and didn't see a single chubby frog in sight. The things were too adorable for their own good. She was certain that they would have lifted her spirits a bit if she had happened to see one.

To make matters worse, Felix was nowhere to be seen, which increased her frustration in her quest to find him.

As she circled around the pond, a sickening feeling crawled up her stomach, causing her to look outward to the deeper part of the forest that surrounded the pond. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was watching her.

The feeling caused her to glance around multiple times as she tried to pinpoint what was responsible for making her feel this way, but to no avail. She found nothing.

With a small gulp and a sense of confidence, she headed deeper into the forest, doing her best to brush off the feeling of someone watching her as she continued to walk forward. But the further she walked into the forest, the stronger the feeling of being watched grew stronger.

“Look, Felix, quit playing games with me. I’m not in the mood for…” Noelle shouted angrily before pausing mid-sentence when she heard some grass rustling not too far from her. Just before she walked in that direction, a thought crossed her mind.

What if it wasn’t Felix? She softly shook her head as she put that thought out of her head. She was the Gatekeeper, after all. If something did end up going wrong, she would just use a couple of spells to get herself out of the mess.

“Felix?” Noelle softly called out before she cautiously wandered over closer to where she had heard the grass rustling. With each step she took, the sickening feeling in her stomach was growing stronger.

It was as if every fiber of her being was telling her not to go any closer. But if she let her nerves make her decisions, then how was she going to find Felix?

She soon made her way out of the dense foliage and stepped into a clearing in what she assumed to be the middle of the forest. Her heart dropped, and she clenched her jaw at the sight before her.

Six large dogs were wandering around the clearing, and their ears twitched when they heard the rustling of the grass as Noelle entered.

Their ribs were showing against their skin, which could be seen somewhat through their mangy black fur. They turned their heads toward Noelle, and she took a couple of steps back when she saw their glowing yellow eyes.

You gotta be kidding me, Noelle thought to herself as she got into a fighting stance to prepare herself in case they suddenly decided to attack her.

As Noelle waited for the monstrous dogs, a wave of panic suddenly washed over her as a concerning thought crossed her mind. Since her time here, she had never actually tried to use any spells.

If she found out that she couldn’t use a single ounce of her power in this situation, there was no way she was going to make it out of the current scenario alive.

But she couldn’t worry about that right now. She had to focus on dealing with the opponents in front of her. With a deep breath, Noelle steadied her stance as she got ready to face whatever these dogs planned on doing next.

Each of the dogs pulled their mouth back into a snarl as they bared their fangs and rushed toward her. Noelle sucked in a breath before raising her right hand. It glowed green, and a fierce gust of wind sent two of the dogs flying backward.

She quickly rushed to the left to dodge one of the dog's bites. It was then her right leg that glowed green, and she kicked the beast that had missed attacking her into a nearby tree with all her might.

But her eyes widened when black blood spattered into the air. Noelle had never seen anything like this mentioned in her books, and she knew better than to underestimate these dogs.

With a deep breath, she channeled her power, and her entire body glowed green. She crossed both of her arms into an x shape and sent a fast gust of wind at the remaining dogs, slicing into four of the monsters and ripping them into pieces. Two of them dodged the attack.

If she was being honest, the last thing she wanted to do was use her spells against spirits. But what other choice did she have when these spirits wanted to spill her blood?

A shiver ran up her spine when she heard a bush rustling behind her. She turned around quickly. Her eyes widened when a dog jumped out of the bushes toward her.

It swept its clawed paw at her. Due to its speed, Noelle didn’t have enough time to react to deflect its attack.

A pained gasp left her lips as the claw ripped through some of the flesh of her arm. Before the dog's claw could dig any deeper into her skin, however, she quickly gathered herself and sent the dog flying deep into the forest with another spell. Gathering herself, she sent a whip-like wind current that flung the other two dogs out of her sight.

Noelle's heart was beating quickly against her chest, and her breathing was coming out in a wave of quick gasps. Her vision was starting to become clouded with darkness, and the pain in her arm was increasing.

The sudden increase in pain caused her to lean against one of the trees nearby. That’s when she spotted a dog rushing toward her. She must have missed it.

She couldn’t find it in herself to move as the dog lunged toward her, but her eyes quickly widened when black blood spattered on her face. Within a split second, a dark, pink, spear-like blade sliced the monster dog in half.

The darkness was quickly consuming her vision, but she wasn’t going to give up until she found out who or what had finished off the dog. As Noelle stumbled forward, her eyes fell upon a man with short, bubblegum-pink hair. She could only see the lower part of his face because her vision was worsening.

“It's you,” Noelle said in a low, weak tone as she started to fall to the ground.

Before she could hit the forest floor, she felt her body tugged forward.

The last thought that made its way into her mind before she lost consciousness was that this must be the spirit that Damien had been telling her about.