The three of them stepped out of the room, but the sandstorm outside had yet to die down.
Nahida asked, "Are sandstorms like this common in the desert now?"
Candace shook her head. "They were never this severe before. But recently, the sandstorms have become far worse than in the past, both in how wide they spread and how long they last. And there are those strange beasts hiding inside them. Wait... they're here!"
At Candace's warning, Lora and Nahida looked through the yellow haze and spotted the Rift Hounds concealed within the storm.
At a glance, there were already more than a hundred visible to the naked eye. If that many Rift Hounds charged into Aaru Village, it would be a disaster for all the villagers.
Candace tightened her grip on her spear and shield, staring ahead with a grave expression.
Nahida had no memory of the Khaenri'ah disaster, nor of these Rift Hounds, but that did not stop her from sensing a power within them that did not belong to this world.
"It's the power of corruption. Irminsul was polluted by this very same power they carry," Nahida said in a low voice.
Lora rolled her wrist and said to Candace, "Just wait on the side. Leave this to us."
"But they're dangerous. I should fight with you," Candace said hesitantly.
"No need. We're really strong!" Lora said, showing off her fair arm.
Nahida raised both hands, scattering emerald light, while Lora created a rippling mirror of water in the sky and brought rain pouring down over the area.
The rain instantly dispersed the sandstorm, fully exposing the Rift Hounds hidden within it. Then the emerald light seeped into the earth, mixing with the falling rain and giving rise to thick, sturdy vines.
As soon as the vines burst forth, they moved as if they had minds of their own, sweeping toward the Rift Hounds.
A few managed to dodge, but most were bound tightly by the vines.
Nahida brought her hands together in front of her, and under the vines' crushing force, the trapped Rift Hounds were swiftly destroyed. As for the ones that escaped and tried to flee, what fell from the watery surface in the sky was no longer rain, but water arrows.
Each Rift Hound got ten water arrows. Fair and even.
Seeing Nahida and Lora so easily deal with the dangerous beasts, Candace said in astonishment, "You two are incredible! You actually made a patch of greenery appear in the desert. That's unbelievable!"
"Basic stuff. No need to be surprised," Lora said, waving a hand.
If it had been the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata in her day, she would not even have needed Lora's help watering the land. With her own power alone, she could have made a stretch of green burst forth from the desert.
Once the commotion outside died down, the people inside came out as well.
When Paimon saw the patch of greenery beyond Aaru Village's suspension bridge, she cried out in surprise, "Huh? What happened here? There wasn't a patch of green here when we came in, right? Am I seeing things?"
"You're not seeing things. I saw it too," Dehya said, shaking her head. She looked at the greenery and frowned. "But why do those vines look so weird? It's like they're wrapped around something."
Alhaitham and Cyno both turned their eyes toward Lora and Nahida, who were standing beside Candace. The two of them were sharp enough to know this sudden change had to be their doing.
Candace said to Lumine and Paimon, "Of course your two companions did it! To be honest, the two of them are incredibly strong. Those beasts in the sandstorm weren't any threat to them at all."
Lumine nodded. "Of course I know that. There's nothing here that could threaten Lora."
She trusted Lora completely.
Just then, an old man came out from within Aaru Village and walked over to them with a smile. "My apologies. I was taking care of the village's elders and children just now, so I wasn't able to welcome our guests right away."
"Huh? You are...?" Paimon looked at him blankly.
The man replied, "I'm the village chief of Aaru Village. You can call me Uncle Anpu."
"Uncle Anpu?" Lora blinked. As soon as she said it, Lumine and Paimon both gave her strange looks, and Paimon immediately said, "Um... Lora, you probably don't need to call him uncle, do you?"
"Huh? Why not?" Lora asked.
"Because you're thousands of years old!" Paimon said.
At those words, everyone except Nahida and Lumine looked at Lora in shock. Even Cyno and Alhaitham, who had both kept serious expressions the whole time, looked visibly surprised.
Candace was especially stunned. "I never expected that you... no, that you are actually someone with such a long lifespan!"
"No. I just turned eighteen," Lora said, shaking her head and looking at everyone with complete seriousness.
"Uh..."
Dehya immediately changed the subject. She turned to Uncle Anpu and asked, "Uncle Anpu, how come I haven't seen a single Village Keeper since I got back? Where did they all go?"
"Village Keeper? Who's that? Isn't that just a guard like Candace?" Hearing an unfamiliar term, Paimon stopped worrying about Lora's age and how Uncle Anpu should be addressed, and asked curiously instead.
Cyno looked at Paimon and explained, "Village Keepers aren't guards. The villagers of Aaru Village call the mad scholars exiled here by the Akademiya Village Keepers. Most of them were scholars who lost their sanity after studying in Avidya Forest. The Akademiya believed their mad ramblings would have a harmful mental effect on other scholars, so they exiled them to the desert... but in my view, that's all nonsense."
Uncle Anpu sighed as well. "That's exactly what we're investigating. All the Village Keepers in the village have disappeared one by one for no clear reason, yet no one in the village saw how they left... Since Dehya is back, if it's not too much trouble, could you help us investigate this matter?"
"Of course, no problem at all!" Dehya replied immediately.
"...I've had contact with those mad scholars before. I'll find a way to get to the bottom of what happened to them, so please don't worry," Cyno said seriously from the side.