A Second Promise

Good news for Leo; he wasn’t transported back home. Bad news for Leo; he was now in a dense forest with a knife to his throat. Pinned to a tree by a woman with dark red hair with strength that was unexpected from her frame. The first thing that happened when the red light faded from the locket was the two locking eyes in sheer confusion. The speed at which Leo was pinned was far beyond what he could even expect from people on Earth.

“Who are you?” The woman said in a hushed voice betraying the near boiling anger in her eyes.

Leo, through some form of luck or self-preservation, kept his tone low and tried to answer, “I’m… Leo.”

The knife pressed harder to his skin. “Why do you have my husband’s locket?”

“He… Zeke died.”

“Did you kill him?” The woman confirmed herself as Natasha, Zeke’s wife, with her blade pricing Leo’s skin causing a trail of blood to form.

“No, no. I found him like that.” Leo needed to stay as close to the truth. No sudden movements, but no crazy things like summoning to throw her off.

Natasha stared into his eyes, almost scanning for something, then removed the blade from his neck and pushed him down to the ground hard. “Be quiet, no sudden movements.”

Leo nodded as she soon crouched down as well.

“Mama… is Daddy not coming?”

A quiet monotone voice suddenly whispered near where Leo was sitting surprising him. It took all his nerves to not shout in surprised. This had to be Zeke and Natasha’s daughter; Zentella. It was as if she appeared out of nowhere, but Leo had seen and read too much media to just assume that she somehow hd her presence.

“No little one… He’s not.” Natasha then let out a groan and held her side.

“You’re bleeding.” Leo noticed

“This is nothing.” She then looked around, “Damn it.”

Leo then went to the small satchel on him. The spacious bag was from their party, maybe it had a health potion of something to heal her.

What Leo was not expecting to happen almost disappointed him in a way. What appeared before him could only describe was a system like screen reading:

Would you like to activate a skill?

[YES] [NO]

The sudden appearance shocked him. It also concerned him that the screen itself was red. That fact would have to wait for now. Maybe this was his “cheat” ability that authors love to throw in these kinds of stories? None of the memories from the party had this system. Leo knew he should hesitate, he shouldn’t do anything rash, but something guided his hand. Nothing malicious, just desperate because something in him knew that Natasha was badly hurt.

[Yes]

Leo nearly had a heart attack when the system screen started cycling through prompts

[Contract confirmed.]

[Error]

[Summoners no longer active. Locating…]

[Error]

[Summoners can no longer be found]

[Diagnosing Summoners' last will]

[Wills confirmed]

[Configuring]

[Skills categorized. Redundant skills consolidated]

[Removing Summoners Blessings]

[Error]

[Blessing of Goddess Tressa could not be removed]

[Summon Spirit: Leo Salazar is now combat ready]

[Combat Score: A-]

The screen calmed down and settled on what looked like a character stat page. Leo disregarded most of it for now and looked at the skills section. There he saw a list of skills categorized under the names of each of the former party members. He quickly went to the skills under Rebecca.

‘Yes! There are healing skills here’

He then turned to Natasha and slowly reached over, “Pardon me, but I think I can heal you- Gah!”

His arm was then caught by both Natasha and Zentella.

“Nope.” the little girl shook her head.

“You can’t use magic right now,” Natasha looked around, “Damn it, it isn’t safe now. They can track you mana if you expose yourself like that.”

“Ok, then here there has to be a potion or something in this bag.”

Natasha gave a confused look. Her face darken. She wanted help from her husband, but if he was dead, she was running out of options.

“Zentella…”

“Mama?”

“Can you promise me little one?”

“I can.”

“Good girl, promise me you will get you both out of here.”

“I promise Mama.” The mother and daughter shared a tight embrace. The last embrace the two would ever share.

“You,” Natasha looked at Leo pointedly, “Protect my daughter with everything you have.”

Leo gulped and nodded his head, “I promise… but what about you?”

The mother and daughter released each other. Natasha reached for the bag, quickly retrieving red vials and other items and then turned. “I’m doing everything I can to protect my daughter. Beware the Crimson Eye.”

Before Leo could protest Natasha seemed to vanish with only the small rustle of the trees giving her away that she was on the move.

“Uncle.”

“Hey, I’m not that old!” Leo looked towards Zentella as she tugged at his sleeve.

“Hide now.” Her expression was still blank as ever even with her mother departing. At least it was before she too disappeared.

“Zentella!” Leo whispered out, “Wait, where did you go.”

“You are supposed to hide.” Her voice startled him again as she appeared. “Can’t you do that?”

“No.” Leo looked at the screen before him, “Wait, can I?”

SHINK!

It was quick, far too quick. Leo looked down to only witness the blade that pierced him was already leaving his body. Shock overtook him as he fell to the ground as blood filled his mouth.

“Hmm, Zentella hid herself again.” The voice above him spoke ignoring Leo’s presence. “It’s time to go home Zentella.”

CLANK!

Zentella jumped at the man with a dagger who seemed to have excepted the strike and blocked the small girl with ease. She jumped back and darted into the bushes hiding once again. Quickly she began darting in and out attempting to slash at the red cloaked man only to be blocked at every strike.

Both having no interest in Leo slowly dying on the ground. After all, why should they? He once again couldn’t keep his promise.