Her gaze focused on Xou, she kept track of his every movement until she realised that he was heading straight for Hajime.
As Xou was almost close to grabbing Hajime, in that split second, she vanished from the position where she was and reappeared in front of Xou with a death glare on her face while readying an attack with her fist as her punch started to glow a silver color.
Xou grabbed Hajime by his hand as he turned his head to look at Rose with her glowing punch, while his dark smoke started to disperse from his body and covered Hajime's hand, and some of it started to form a humanoid figure. Rose's punch reached Xou, but the moment it did, Xou broke it using his bare hands as he let go of Hajime.
"Uww!" Hajime uttered.
He fell as he slowly turned his head to grasp the situation, but the moment he was able to fully turn, he was no longer with Rose and Xou; he found himself standing in the middle of the forest with no one around, but the dark smoke still clung to his hand while some of it still had the humanoid shape.
He scanned the area while not noticing the smoke on his hand.
"What happened?" He asked while still scanning the area.
Not long after, the dark smoke turned into Xou. His breath seemed to have been depleted from running away with Hajime. His smoke seemed not to have fully cleared yet as it swelled around his body.
Meanwhile, blood was spilling from where Rose was standing. In front of her, Xou was bleeding so badly that half his face was up to the point beyond recognition. His lower body had been sliced in half, and his arms and legs were torn apart.
"A clone, huh?" Rose muttered as she looked at Xou's body with a crazy look in her eyes.
In the area, some of the trees were broken down due to the impact of Rose's punches. Some knights who were nearby got hurt in the process, while some were blown away, and the carriages that were nearby all got destroyed, including the one that was close to Mathew.
For some reason, not even a single grain of dirt was on him, and he was still sleeping while holding a bottle in his hands.
"...What's going on?"
Some of the knights began asking each other as they got up, while some tried to help their fallen friends who were caught up in the damage Rose caused.
Rose looked to her left, and a second later took a small step towards it while her eyes still with a crazy look and her face was serious as if she was about to murder everyone who would get in her way.
Inside the forest, Xou sat down while holding his chest as sweat ran down his face.
"...Are you okay?" Hajime asked while looking at Xou with a confused look on his face.
Xou looked at Hajime as he bit his lips while still touching his chest.
"...Yeah... I think I'm going to be okay...?"
He turned, looking at a path that looked man-made to his right.
"Head that way... And when you start running... Don't stop for anything..."
He turned, looking at Hajime with a smile, and continued.
"...You got that...?"
Hajime turned, looking at the path Xou was looking at as his left hand trembled with terror.
"...Wh, what do you mean...?" He turned, looking back at Xou with a confused facial expression.
"Just go...!" Xou said out loud.
Hajime took a step back and started heading down the path Xou had shown him, without looking back.
"...Well... I guess this is it for me..." Xou thought as he looked up at the trees.
From nowhere, a tree was falling from the sky and heading straight for Xou. With no time to react, his body phased and turned into a small amount of dark smoke before the tree reached him.
Suddenly, Rose appeared while approaching the position where the tree had hit.
"Found you." She said her tone was angry.
On the side in front of her was Xou, who was turning back to normal after he had turned into smoke.
"...How did you...?" Xou asked as his face turned pale from turning himself into the dark smoke.
"How clever of you to split yourself into two?"
"But you weren't smart enough to realise that you left a trace of your aura all over the forest." Then she added while continuing to approach him.
"Now... Where is my brother?" As her body starts to be covered in a silver light, followed by a large amount of clear smoke.
Somewhere in the forest, along the path, Hajime had taken. The forest looked as if it was closing itself in as Hajime ran along it. He kept moving forward without looking back and was unaware of where he was headed. And with the night, it was so dark that some elements of the forest looked a bit distorted.
Ashe was running, without knowing what was in front of him, he bumped into a tree that was standing in the middle of the path. This tree was like a landmark that separated two new paths leading to two different, unknown locations.
He took one of them without even knowing where he was headed. Suddenly, an arrow that came from an unknown location passed him, but missed hitting a tree that he had passed a second ago. But he didn't notice it, he as it was passing by, because it looked like a branch from a tree with the darkness surrounding the forest.
He kept on running when he stepped on a rock covered with moss. He tripped and fell at the same time, as another arrow covered in some kind of fluid was thrown and hit him on his back and piercing him until it was halfway inside him. And with no time for his body to react, he lost consciousness.