Xavier stared at Sangrea for a few seconds after that. Despite her unsealed state having such a matured appearance, deep down, she was the same Sangrea inside.
'Cute and Sexy, one hell of a combination...' Xavier thought to himself as he patted her once again.
Xavier had been trying to avoid it, but even he didn't know how much longer he'd last. His late adolescent desires amplified by his evolution was grabbing a hold of him.
On his mind, the most surging thought he was having whenever he stared at her was pinning her down.
The one following after that was how hungry he was.
Ignoring those thoughts Xavier began his walk over towards the broken trail on the rooftop.
"Um... Xavi..." Sangrea called out.
"What is it?" Xavier replied.
Her expression grew redder but she didn't look away. "It's been awhile since we've had each other's blood..."
Xavier smiled when he heard this. "After we're done with everything, I'll let you drink as much as you want."
"M-Me too." She replied happily.
Xavier turned back over to the trail before taking in a deep breath.
'With that said and done...'
[Rewind Level 3...]
Xavier's crimson irises slowly began to take the form of a golden red clock. The clock had the timing slowly rewinding backwards.
"Revert." Xavier muttered.
*VWOOOM!*
One by one, all the tiles which had been flung out had began flying back into place, restoring it back to the state it was before as Xavier walked down the path on the rooftop.
Their eyes widened as they witnessed the sight, they could never grow tired of seeing it. It was like watching a video being played back in real life.
Xavier's spiky silver hair had risen up as the air around him became dense. They were watching his newly unlocked ability [Revert.] In action.
Thanks to the ability it didn't take long for Xavier restore the roof back to the state it was.
"Truly fascinating..." Mumbled the head butler as he ran his finger across the restored roof tiles. "It was as if they had never been broken in the first place.
"Shall we move onto the next location?" Asked Xavier.
"Yeah, you said the time limit was thirty minutes so the sooner the better." Responded the butler as he got up.
The butler then turned over in Sophie's direction before watching as she continued to fiddle around with the puzzle. An angered expression could be seen on her face as she moved the outlined pieces.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'How interesting... To think she's attempting to solve that... Even I had no idea about how to go along with it.'
The butler's eyes then narrowed as he stared at the puzzle itself.
'But that thing... What's something of that level doing here?'
The butler looked over at Xavier before adjusting his glasses.
'You continue to surprise me, time and time again... Just what are you?'
The group proceeded to return back to the mansion. Xavier and Sangrea who stayed glanced over at Sophie who was focused on the puzzle.
"Aren't you going to come in? The rain's getting stronger."
Sophie shook her head while keeping her eyes on the puzzle.
"I'm fine, don't worry about me. The rain helps me concentrate."
Hearing this Sangrea gave her a nod before wishing her luck. With that they all went back to work.
Xavier and Sangrea rushed straight the remaining sides of the mansion which needed repairs before starting their tasks.
With her [Shadow Manipulation] Abilities, Sangrea rounded up all the debris in one fellow swoop and put them in their respective places for Xavier to revert.
Doing this allowed Xavier to consume less energy when reverting and it also resulted in less time being consumed per room.
They repeated this, at fast speeds, rushing from room to room, while fixing up everything they could.
Meanwhile, the others all rushed in after, tidying up the rooms and making sure they were all neat and presentable.
Viera was using this as an opportunity to practise her [Reconstruction] ability as it surprisingly also worked in this sense.
She was getting practise by using it to fix up cracked patches in the walls and floors.
The head butler was surprised by her progress when he saw it he couldn't believe his eyes. Xavier was one thing but for his to get the hang of her ability in one day. It was truly unexpected.
'They're a family.' It makes sense they share talent.
The only one who couldn't really do much to help in the construction sense was Elaine, but she made it up for the excellent job she did whilst tidying.
With a series of tasks ahead of them, the group poured their all into completing everything as efficiently as they could.
-
-
-
*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*
[Energy: 16/100]
Laying on the floor, Xavier stared at his energy bar, regretting his uses of the new ability.
'Rewind Level 3... Revert... It's extremely useful, but god does it Zap my energy... I definitely need to get my Stamina up one way or another, otherwise I'll die from using it in succession.'
"This is the exact definition of a double edged sword..." Xavier complained as he let out a sigh of exhaustion.
"Here's some water." Said Viera as she sat beside Xavier, handing him a cold bottle of water.
"Hm...? Where'd you get water from? I thought they only had blood here."
"It's the water you brought back, remember? Anastasia gave it to me, she told me to hand it to you."
Xavier took the bottle out of Viera's hands before unscrewing the lid and chugging it down.
*Gulp* *Gulp* *Gulp*
"That hits the spot..."
*Gulp* *Gulp*
Viera sat quietly beside him as he gulped down on the bottle of water. She leaned against his shoulder as he too sat up.
"What? You sleepy?" Xavier asked.
"...A bit..." She responded as she closed her eyes.
"...Then get some rest." He muttered.
"..."
Following those words, the two exchanged nothing but silence. Xavier tried not to move too much as she seemed to have settled into a comfortable position.
He planned on slowly laying her down once she fell asleep but until then, he'd remain silent.
'...'
"...Hey, Brother... Today I realised something..."
"Is that so... What did you realise?"
"Yeah... I realised that I'm powerless and weak, and that I'm only holding everyone back."
"I wouldn't say that-"
"No, I am. I never thought I'd be saying this to my small and defenceless brother."
"Small and defenceless? Is that what you thought of me? I was your dependable older brother you know."
"Dependable? You always used to get bullied for being short. You also barely socialised with people, what part of that was dependable."
Xavier froze, those words cut deeper than he'd expected.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"I take back what I said." He muttered.
Hearing this, Viera giggled.
"It's too late to take it back."
"...Shut up."
"But yeah... I'm weak. That's a fact... But watch me... Soon I'll go back to being your dependable older sister... So that what happened today doesn't have to repeat itself."
"That's quite a margin you're setting for yourself."
"Not really, I've always been the dependable one, I'm just taking back my spot."
Xavier gave his sister another pat before getting up.
"Believe what you want."
"Wha-Hey. I was just about to fall asleep. Why'd you move your shoulder."
"You're dependable aren't you? Why don't you go find another way to sleep?" Xavier asked with a grin before vanishing.
Xavier chuckled a little as he heard his sister's quiet and annoyed squeal from down the hall. His eyes then drifted upwards to the roof as he wondered how Sophie was getting along with the Ancient Relic's puzzle.
'I should probably go check on her.'
*Fwoosh!*
With that single thought, Xavier rushed into the room and out of the window before leaping up to the roof. The wet and slippery roof almost tripped him up as he landed on it but thanks to his balance, he was fine.
Glancing on the other end of the roof, Xavier could see Sophie still fidgeting around with the cube. It was vastly different in appearance compared to before.
Some of the outline parts had stuck out, extending a cube out in a layer. And through that layer Xavier could see it.
A faint trace of what appeared to be a core at the centre of the cube.
'That girl... She's already gotten this far?' He wondered before rushing over to her.
Xavier's figure blurred across the rooftop, splashing water everywhere before coming to a stop in front of Sophie-
*SPLASH!*
Unfortunately, his sudden stop ended up resulting in her having water splashed against her entire face.
"..."
Without saying any words, she slowly wiped the water off her face. She then slowly looked over at Xavier with a glare before asking.
"What?"
"Haha, sorry about that... I was just coming to check on the puzzle. We're finished with repairs."
"Already? That's fast. And I've sort of figured it out."
Xavier's eyes lit up.
"You have? I knew i could count on you!" He responded with a bright smile.
Startled by his words and the smile, Sophie slowly looked away. Her cheeks slightly reddened as she did so.