Foreboding Storm - Chapter 140

“Well, how is it? Are the preparations complete?” Aarya Quime looked at her appearance in the mirror, her purple eyes flashing in excitement as she placed a jewel on her wrist.

“Yes, I did everything you requested. No apprentice in the Academy will bring up Princess Qamari’s topic. But I can’t say the same for the elders. There’s also the Great Magician and the Medical Director. I can’t control them.” A young man with a scar across his face replied deferentially.

As he looked at the pretty woman, he was enamored with her to the point of wanting to clear all her obstacles and solve all her problems. Even if that meant he had to commit murder.

“It’s fine. We won’t worry about them right now. After the first step of our plan is complete, we will take care of them later.”

“Mistress, can you trust that Marui Osklain? Her nature doesn’t appear to be of the enduring or meek type. What id she ruins your good deed in the future?”

“Isn’t that why I have you around, Death? To douse out any flame that attempts to get in my way, right?”

“Hmm!”

“Good. Keep a close eye on her and if you see her behaving suspiciously, take care of her.”

Raising to her feet, Aarya Quime looked at herself in the full-size mirror from head to toe. She lifted her dress and twirled in place before smiling radiating at her reflection.

“Now, let’s go and see how the task of the Hunters Guild is going along.”

A while later, in the same dark and damp cave, Aarya Quime set up her magical stones to activate the communication device. The device floated in the air before its grey fogy screen cleared and the white-robbed woman’s appearance displayed.

“Is my task complete?” Without any niceties, Aarya Quime voiced her concern.

“Your task? Heh…Aarya Quime, because of you, I suffered a very serious loss. You requested the clearance of a target whose elemental level isn’t level 1 or 2, but 3 and maybe above…how are you going to compensate my guild?”

“What did you say!? Level 3!? I don’t believe it! That girl joined the academy the same period as I, so how could she be level 3?” Aarya Quime’s earlier confidence and joy disappeared like the burst of a bubble as a mortified look adorned her face.

*

Princess Qamari stood on a wide field riddled with cracks and holes. Elemental magic, ferocious and fierce, swept through the land, wreaking havoc and destruction everywhere they passed.

Humans scattered in every direction, running and screaming as hordes of magical beasts flew over them and rained flames, ice storms, and gales of fierce winds.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Someone, save me!”

“Save us!”

Shrieks of pain and despair resounded, drowned within the surge of a devastating flood. More cracks appeared on the ground, and people tumbled into them like a stack of cards.

Princess Qamari felt horrified as she witnessed a magical beast with steel wings skewer a group of children with its barbed tail. Blood splashed like a broken dam as another group of humans got crushed under the mountainous body of a behemoth.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” The sight before her terrified her out of her skin.

It felt like the descent of the apocalypse…

*

Crown Prince Lail felt his heart lurch, then pound three times in quick succession, that he doubted whether it really happened or he had only imagined it.

“What was that?” His wife’s image flashed in his mind and the Crown Prince found himself distracted the entire day as walked through the Halls of the Stone Mansion.

It was the day of his departure, but Crown Prince Lail felt strange. He couldn’t bring himself to walk towards the teleportation portal.

As if something was preventing him from leaving, Crown Prince Lail anxiously paced around his guest room. A gentle breeze blew through the only open window, and as he stopped next to it, he glanced into the distant mountains.

“Why do I feel so restless? Is Qamari in trouble?” He couldn’t help but worry.

*

“What’s happening to her? Why is she spasming?” Bai Lan cared too much about the prophesized girl to stay away. She restlessly paced outside for a few heartbeats and burst back into the shack to check the situation. Her plan was to take a look and retreat.

But when she saw the girl spasm like a fish out of the water, her original intent flew out of her mind and she worriedly ran to her side.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her. All her wounds automatically healed themselves. I only had to replenish the blood she lost. By logic, she should’ve gained conscious by now. But contrary to expectations, her condition seems to have worsened instead.”

“Then, what should be done? How do we help her?”

“Aye, healers can only do so much. I healed her body, but her mind and her heart are out of my area of expertise.”

“So there’s nothing we can do to help her?” Bai Lan grabbed the unconscious girl’s hand, her gaze fixed on her pale face as she asked bleakly.

They’ve been looking for her for so many years; spreading scouts and conducting searches throughout the Factions in the Northwest and beyond. And yet, when they finally found her, the girl was on the brink of death…

“We can only pray the heavens will spare her.” The old healer sighed and grabbed her medicinal materials. Giving the unconscious girl a final glance, she moved back to her corner and continued separating her concoctions.

Outside the shack, the group of black-cloaked men anxiously surrounded their leader, their bright gazes flickering with impatience as they waited for his update on the girl’s condition.

“Leader Ku, how is it? Is she going to make it?” Losing patience, a female stepped up and directly asked.

“Yes, Leader Ku. Will she make it? She’ll make it, right? After all, she’s the one mentioned in the prophecy. She can’t die so easily.” Another female stepped up with an equally anxious expression.

“So, what is it? Will she make it or not?”

Seeing the Jinn Hunters’ concern, Leader Ku frowned in confusion.

Since when did his people begin to concern themselves with affairs unrelated to jinns?

Since when did they worry about individuals that weren’t their comrades in arms?

As far as he could remember, he never saw his Jinn Hunters throw even so much as a glance at the impoverished kids laying on the village roads…

“Whether she’ll make it or not, is none of our concern. We are Jinn Hunters and our only concern are the jinns.”

“But Leader Ku, she was attacked by the Dark Jinn! That should at least concern us, right?” Even under the cold glare of their leader, the first female didn’t back down.

She herself didn’t know why, but she found the girl covered in blood pleasing to her eyes. And the fact that she was attacked by the Dark Jinn, the craftiest and trickiest of all the Seven Jinns, raised her interest even further.

“Hu Wan, you…” But before Leader Ku could continue his words, darkness descended.

“Is this…?”

“Oh Seven Heavens! It’s begun!”

“The ascent of the Dark Moon!”

The Jinn Hunters gasped in astonishment and shock. Exchanging dumbfounded glances, one by one, they all raised their heads and gaped.

There, right in the center of the dark sky, was a round black disk.

Surrounded by a ring of light on its outer edges, the black disk loomed over the land like a harbinger of doom.

“It’s…it’s…it’s really…the Dark Moon…” Hu Wan stammered, trembling uncontrollably as she uttered the words on everyone’s mind.

“The Dark Moon… the symbol of impending doom…” Leader Ku took in a deep breath, his heart racing as his mind swirled with the storm about to sweep through the seven realms.

“Leader Ku, what’re we going to do?”

“Yes. The Dark Moon ascended. There’s no doubt a great storm is about to descend. What do we do?”

The female members of the Jinn Hunters felt fear and anxiety as they thought of their families. Weak and powerless, they would crush and shatter apart under the madness and chaos brought forth by fear and despair.

However, the male members, although shaken, weren’t as disturbed.

“Hmph! Isn’t it just a Dark Moon? What’s there to be scared of?”

“That’s right. Just as there’s a bright moon, there’s a dark moon. You can’t love one and hate the other right?”

“But this isn’t just any dark moon. This is the Dark Moon prophesized hundreds of years ago!”

“Yes, well, even if it…”

As he watched his people argue among themselves, Leader Ku felt a headache coming on. Rubbing his temples, he glared at the arguing squad and kicked the makeshift table.

“Enough! What has gotten into you all, today? Would you look at yourselves? The great Jinn Hunters are bickering like three-year-old kids!”

The arguing Jinn Hunters flushed at the reprimand and lowered their heads.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the descent of the Dark Moon or Dark Jinn. As Jinn Hunters, we’ll do what we always do. Hunt Jinns and protect the human souls. As for other matters, we’ll take them in stride and deal with them when we encounter. Understood?”

“Yes, Leader Ku!”

With serious expressions and firm eyes, the Jinn Hunters raised their heads and pushed out their chests, brimming with confidence and determination as they looked at their leader.

“Good. Now scatter and get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us.” Waving his hand, Leader Ku sent his people. Alone and chilly, his sight went back to the Dark Moon, before he turned and walked towards the shack.

Inside the shack, Bai Lan was still on her knees, holding the girl’s hand.

As she watched every rise and fall of her chest, her hanging heart drummed in her ears.

“Come on. You have to get better. There’re many people who’ve been restlessly anticipating your appearance. If you don’t get well, all of those people’s hopes and dreams will be shattered. Do you want to carry the guilt of shattering so many people’s hope?”

Raised in the rocky plains of a hidden settlement, Bai Lan grew up hearing stories and tales about the prophecy girl.

Unlike the other individuals who only cared about what the girl’s presence entailed, Bai Lan felt inspired by the characteristic traits and attributes of the girl.

They were the traits of a leader she strived day and night to stringently follow.

And the day she’d encounter the girl was one of the dreams she looked forward to.

But when they met, they met in a situation where she couldn’t even ask for the other’s name…

“I have yet to know your name. I want you to recover and tell me yourself.”

Flap!

Right at this, the shack’s makeshift door screen flapped open with Leader Ku’s return. Walking to her side, he looked down at the sleeping girl.

“Bai Lan, is she not showing any signs of waking?”

“No, not so far…”

“Sigh…Bai Lan, the Dark Moon ascended. What do you plan to do now?”

Bai Lan tiredly ran a hand over her face and sighed. She herself didn’t know what to do. In such a short period of time, too much happened for her to completely digest.

She had left her settlement with the sole purpose and intent of finding and returning with the prophecy girl.

What she hadn’t expected and anticipated was such a twist of fate.

“The Dark Moon…if the Dark Moon ascended, then it’s either flee or die. I’m planning on taking her with me to Bai settlement.”

“Will that be a good idea? She is being targeted by the Dark Jinn, after all.”

“That’s something I want to discuss with you.” Gently settling the girl’s hand on her side, Bai Lan got to her feet and turned, training her solemn gaze on the impassive man.

“When she wakes up, I want to ask you to train her. Train her fierce enough, fast enough, and hard enough to take on any jinn.”

“What!? You want me to train her!?”