Chapter 77: The Dark Phantom.
Everyone stopped and stood motionless as they looked at Haru standing holding the crumpled bullet between his fingers. None of them knew what to say.
Jake was the first one to comment "Haru how did you just do that?" He asked also looking at the bullet. He walked over and touched it. The metal was still hot. He withdrew his hand from it quickly.
"Ouch ouch ouch," He said as he shook his hand in the air. He didn't expect the bullet to be hot. It was a mistake on his part as his skin started to blister. He used healing magic to heal his fingers before the burn could get any worse.
"Ah, that's better," He said and then he stared back at Haru he still hadn't said anything.
"Hey, are you okay? What is it?" Jake asked. And then without warning, Haru's head turned to look back into the forest. He had located where the bullet had come from.
About five hundred meters into the forest there was still one of the men remaining. He was probably the last survivor from the onslaught from earlier. Haru looked him straight in the eyes.
The man holding the gun up to his shoulder felt a great terror as he saw that his bullet had no effect. 'What is that? Is it a demon?' He thought as a black mist started to come from the back of Haru's body.
"Erm, Haru what is that?" Jake began to point toward the mist. The rest of the people nearby began to slowly back up further and further away from him. Haru slowly turned to see what everybody was so afraid of.
As he looked at the huge cloud of smoke a face began to form in the centre of it. "What is this?" Haru said as the mist slowly took on the form of a human.
A few seconds went by and it was finally clear enough to see the face. It was like a mirror image of Haru's face. He took a few steps back before it shot up into the air and disappeared deep into the forest. A loud scream echoed out as it vanished into the trees and then. Any sign of it was completely wiped away. It suddenly appeared in front of Haru again.
Its face was clouded in shadows. And the aura of death emitted from its body. It was like the whole thing was created by the death of thousands of people. Haru felt terror as he looked back at the image of himself. The more he looked at it the more he felt like it didn't exist.
Not just that it didn't exist. This cloud of darkness shouldn't exist. It then reached out toward him. Haru stood ad mindlessly watched as it's Handley ever so slowly approached his face. He was too fascinated by it to think of it as dangerous.
"Haru. Get away from it right now." Lao's voice boomed at snapping Haru out of his daydream. He immediately backed up as fast as he could. He looked from a distance this time as a smile appeared on its face and it turned back into a cloud of smoke and then drifted under the doors of one of the trucks.
'Wait. Was that the thing being kept inside the coffin? But if that is the case why would there by chains wrapped around it like it was containing the thing inside, if it could get out that easily?' Haru thought. Before Jake tapped him on the arm.
"Haru, Please tell me that is something that you made appear?" Jake had come to the same conclusion that Haru had. The chains couldn't;t actually hold whatever that thing was.
"I didn't make that. I don't have any idea what that thing is." Haru said and then they both looked over at Cui. She seemed to have a troubled look on her face like she knew what it was.
"This shit is too crazy for me," Cap said as he noticed the look that Jake and Haru both shared. He then went to finish changing the tire. It wasn't any of his business after all. He didn't want to hinder the conversation that was about to break out. So he left without saying another word.
"Cui. You know what that thing is don't you?" Jake asked her.
She looked to face him. "Urm, No I don't know a thing!" She then turned away.
'Was she always this bad at lying or is she purposely acting like that?' Haru wondered and then took over from Jake's question.
"So what is it? Tell me. It took on my form. I think I should know if I am something dangerous or not. What if I die because of that thing?" He complained to her.
Cui looked over to Haru and crossed her arms. "I seriously can't tell you. But you won't die. You should be completely fine." She said and then stared at him for a response.
"If you can tell me that I will be fine. Why can't you tell me what it is?" He asked again.
"My grandpa said I'm not allowed to tell anyone. If you want to know then ask him." She handed her phone to Haru. The phone number was already loaded on the screen. The name was saved as grandpa.
Haru looked at it for a few second and then saw the slight smirk on Cui's face.
"Fine." He said and then dialled the number.
Cui looked at Haru with a worried face as he started to call him. The phone rang out four times before the voice of an old man on the other side took Haru to be surprised.
"Is there any developments? Did you find out where he ran off to?" The voice of the sect master called out from the phone. He sounded worried.
"Hey old man," Haru said. A few seconds went by and there was muffled chatter in the background as the sect master fiddled around and waved his hands telling all of the people in the room to get out.
"Haru? Is that you? You sound older. Are you okay? Cui said you ran into the forest with one of your friends." He asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But there is something more important I want to talk about." Haru said. It didn't take long for the sect master to reply.
"Sure, What is it?" He asked. Wasting no time.
"Well, What is that thing you are transporting? I'm pretty sure that it just killed somebody." Haru said and then looked over into the forest at the body of the man who shot him.
"It killed someone? Well, that's unfortunate, I hope you weren't close. And honestly, I'm not too sure what it is myself. I can tell you everything I know about it. But it will take a while." The sect master said.
Haru looked around at all of the men getting back into their trucks at the command of Cap. He then nodded to Cui and Jake. They both got into the car and Haru followed soon after.
"Sure I can listen for a while." He said as he got back into the car and put on his seat belt.