Chapter 27: Ocean Manor (3)
It was now morning, the rays of the sun rising from the east caused orange streaks to appear in the sky, the happy chirping of birds as they went about their business, the delightful scent of honey as faint buzzing sounds filled the air.
The gentle rustling of the leaves as squirrels moved between them.
Everything was so peaceful, and Nicholas would have believed so if not for what he had witnessed two nights ago.
Gazing upon the wonderful sight, Nicholas couldn't help but say with a dry chuckle,
"Beautiful things are often the most dangerous."
He had woken up from his meditative state, which he had gone into by slowly spinning his essence pool.
He had been calling out to Helios throughout the night, but he didn't answer.
'What happened to him?'
Nicholas thought, even though he didn't know who Helios was, he couldn't deny the fact that Helios had helped him countless times.
While he was lost in thought, Kevin came out of the cave and shouted from below,
"Hey! Are you going to stay there all day? Come down and have breakfast; we have to move while the sun is up."
Waking up from his thoughts, he walked over to the edge of the platform he was standing on and looked down,
"Sure, I'm coming,"
Nicholas said with a smile and jumped down from the platform to meet Kevin.
"Look at you showing off your power," Kevin said while rolling his eyes.
Nicholas laughed as he followed after Kevin, who without stopping said,
"I forgot to tell you yesterday, it would be better if you don't challenge any trials for the time being so that you will consolidate and strengthen your foundation."
"What I mean is you didn't pass through rank 1; you went from 0 to 2, which means that your foundation is not steady, so it'd be better and more advisable to only use beast crystals and advance to rank 3."
"Oh okay," Nicholas nodded.
They entered the cave and ate. Kevin left to take a shower in the cave while Nicholas gathered all the things they needed and put them in his storage space.
Kevin had urged Nicholas to wash up in the water fall but he strongly refused.
After some time, they were ready to go. With Kevin taking the lead, Nicholas and the little wolf - who was sitting on Nicholas' shoulder - followed closely behind.
************
In a huge black expanse filled with nothing but twinkling little lights.
A black hole appeared, and from it, two beings stepped out of it.
One was wearing a long black coat over his incredibly tattered clothes, while the other was obscured by plumes of thick black smoke, only revealing a pair of ethereal blue eyes.
They waited in silence. After a while, white lightning appeared out of nowhere and struck the empty space.
The place the lightning struck seemed to churn as it broke and formed into a black hole, and from the black hole, an onyx-black four-wheeled carriage drawn by two onyx-black horses with no driver moved out and stopped in front of the two.
The door opened by itself to reveal the plush red cushions that the inside was made of.
The two beings stepped into the carriage and sat down while the door closed behind them.
Just a few meters in front of the carriage, another black hole appeared, the two horses snorted and moved, disappearing into the black hole.
In the carriage, Don and the other being sat in silence, each one looking straight ahead.
************
Somewhere far away, a huge onyx castle was situated in a place where time was hard to tell as the entire place was always in perpetual darkness.
In the dimly lit throne room of the huge onyx palace. The room had two thrones, and behind them was a huge ceiling-to-floor window that was covered by curtains.
One throne was larger than the other.
On the smaller one, a woman dressed in a black dress with red embroidery patterns on it, the dress had two slits at its side revealing the woman's pristine white skin.
She had long waist-length black hair, emerald green eyes, and blood-red lips.
On her hand was a ruby bracelet.
The woman was sitting with one hand on her chin, deep in thought.
Her thinking was disrupted by the sound of knocking coming from the huge ornate double doors opposite the thrones.
"What do you want?" The angelic voice of the woman sounded.
"Mistress, your visitors have arrived," a hoarse voice responded from behind the doors.
"Hmm? Oh, invite them in."
"Yes, Mistress," the hoarse voice replied, and the owner of the voice opened the doors and bowed before stepping inside; he stopped just at the end of the red carpet that led to the thrones.
Behind him were Don and the figure of the other being who followed him into the room.
They had arrived at the castle not too long ago.
The woman on the throne squinted her eyes as she sized up Don.
Turning to the obscured being beside him she asked, "Seems like the ritual was a success."
The obscured being bowed before replying, "Yes, Mistress, it was successful."
"That's good to hear, send him to The garden, precisely Ocean Manor, I need him there for something," the woman said with a dark smile.
"Yes, Mistress."
The three beings bowed and left the room.
"Hehehe perfect, this is just perfect," the woman chuckled darkly as she watches the doors close.
**********
_In the garden_
"Haha finally, we finally made it," Kevin let out a joy-filled laugh.
While pointing at the huge walls in the distance.
Nicholas chuckled as he looked at the walls from atop the 'little' wolf, Kevin was using his ability to keep up with them.
When they were almost at the gate, Kevin told them to stop.
"Hey Nicholas, tell your pet to reduce its size, don't wanna scare the people in the city now do we," Kevin said in a cheery voice.
"Alright alright," Nicholas said with a smile as he jumped down from the 'little' wolf and let it reduce its size.
The little wolf climbed Nicholas' body and rested on his shoulder as they continued to the city on foot.