Chương 96: Chapter 95

It had been a few months since that day, the little priest thought. Ever since the truth had come out and it had been revealed that he was, in fact, not related to the gaunt man, he had felt rather relieved. But in the next moment, it had been revealed that he was, in fact, related to the handsome young dude he had seen, and that their parents were none other than Mr. Hemmingsway, a very handsome man, and the woman who had been there at the time, whom he later found out had once been named Elena.

Although she had changed her name from Elena to Abelina, she had a new identity now, and he chose to respect it. But gaining a new family out of the blue was really awkward. He didn't know how to feel. It wasn't until Abelina, his now biological mother, had covered her mouth and run away to the bathroom to puke that he began to feel that he was probably someone she didn't want. He felt rather disheartened.

Even though he kind of didn't want a family, it was rather hurtful to have the person he had just found out was his family member puke after discovering that he was, in fact, her biological child. It was very disheartening. Once she left, everything became really, really awkward. He had quietly gathered his things, but before he could leave, Jake, the young lad, had stopped him and told him that he wasn't going anywhere. At least, not until the situation with their mother was taken care of.

Jake had also taken him away from the others. From what he had noticed after everything had come out, Jake had become rather distant toward the man, even though he had thought that they had a good relationship. Later, he found out that it was because their biological father had assaulted their mother. They were products of rape. Well, he didn't know what to think about that. All he knew was that he had been an abandoned child. At least Jake had his mother take care of him.

It wasn't until later, after the woman in question had gotten her bearings and come to him to apologize and try to build a mother-son relationship, that he found out that the Count and Countess Tempo were actually the ones who had kidnapped him. They had tried to use him to threaten their grandfather, the father of their mother, in order to force him to work for the family. When their grandfather had found out that they had kicked out his daughter, he had decided to stop working in the finances of the Empire.

In order to force him to return, they had kidnapped his grandson and used the child to threaten him, which made him go back to work for the glory of the family, even though they had still kicked his daughter out. But eventually, their grandfather had taken his own life so that they would be able to take the child back. After he had taken his own life, the Count and Countess had told Abelina that they had killed the child. And that was it.

When the little priest heard the story, he didn't even know how to feel about it. He really just wanted to go back to the Temple. But his situation was at least better than that Hemmingsway guy's, because during this time, he had seen the man nearly grovel at the feet of the woman who was his mother, which was still weird to think about. For a couple of months now, Hemmingsway had been trying to gain her forgiveness, even explaining himself. Today, the little priest thought it would be another day of that.

But instead of the man coming again, a bunch of official-looking people had come in. They placed a bunch of papers in front of Abelina, who didn't give them much attention.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're here to inform you that, due to Mr. Hemmingsway's retirement and relinquishment of power, he has relinquished his title of Marquis, as well as everything underneath him, and has transferred it into your name."

"What?" Abelina felt that she was hearing things wrong. Even the little priest, who had been eavesdropping, felt rather dumbfounded. But his surprise went even further when he heard the individuals say that his supposed father had gone into the monastery to become a monk and atone for the rest of his days. The little priest didn't know whether he should applaud the guy or consider him stupid, because during this time, he had seen that his supposed mother was not as angry as she had been with him.

She was more or less conflicted, and given enough time, she would probably come to terms with a few things. Even he was still rather conflicted about this family, despite having been with them for months against his will. He tried to go back to the Temple every chance he got, but due to Seraphina always sending him back, his attempts had been very unsuccessful. Even now, he had yet to reveal his name to his parents, well, his family.

He didn't know whether or not to call them mother or brother, as those words were not within his vocabulary. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Everything was just too weird. So he didn't know how to feel. But when he saw the anger boiling up on his biological mother's face and watched as she angrily demanded to know where Hemmingsway had gone, the little priest could only watch.

When the people refused to answer her, she threatened to use her powers to make sure they didn't have an easy day until they gave her an answer. After finally getting her answer, she angrily walked out. The little priest couldn't help but sigh. He really felt as though he were watching a play. As he was thinking about that, someone came down the stairs. Looking up, he saw that it was none other than Jake, his to-be biological brother, who came down and asked what was happening.

With a brief explanation, the little priest caught him up to speed. Jake, too, became silent and joined him in sitting on the stairs. … In a dark room, Seraphina, Rosa, Furen, Ronan, Nina, Nate, and Janette sat in a circle.

"Is it time?" Furen asked.

"Yes," Seraphina replied.

"Today, at sunset, in the middle of the square, Calamity will appear. This will be different from anything else. It's not something you guys can even handle. Nina and I will need to go within the whirl of its mist."

"Can we not do anything?" Rosa spoke up. Seraphina turned her attention toward her. Everybody in this room had their own level of Golden Merit, which she could see, as none of them seemed to have any raging ghosts attached to them. But Seraphina was the one whose Golden Merit had quadrupled over these years with every raid she did. Seraphina squinted her eyes, counting deeply in her mind. It felt close. She closed one of her eyes, the golden eye, leaving only her purple iris staring at Rosa.

With her golden eye closed, she no longer had to see the Golden Merit surrounding everyone. She felt much better. Just as she was about to speak, the door opened with a bang.

"Sorry we're late." Nate and Janette walked in, looking at the people who had already gathered. Seraphina first looked toward Nate as she met him face to face.

"Have you guys prepared the transport?"

"All good and ready."

"Good. Let's go." They rode toward the center of the plaza, looking up at the clear blue sky. Ronan felt rather skeptical.

"Are you sure it's happening today?"

"Yes." They waited for a couple of minutes. Eventually, a few people grew tired and sat down, chatting among themselves. Seraphina, on the other hand, was watching the clock. Just as she saw it strike six, she looked up. 6: 00 p. m. The darkness slowly began to creep across the sky. Everybody throughout the land saw the phenomenon.

"It's time," Seraphina stated, grabbing Nina's hand as she walked toward the center of the plaza. And as they did so, clouds began to swarm together, forming a tornado. The moment it hit the center of the plaza, a wave echoed throughout the land, leaving everybody in nothing but a frozen state. Everyone except Nina and Seraphina. The two continued walking toward the swirling dark mist, the Calamity. As they walked, Seraphina spoke to Nina.

"I don't care how you do it, but whatever you do, you better not end yourself. This is the last step." In the midst of the frozen world, no one noticed as one of the heroes' hands slowly twitched. As Seraphina and Nina walked into the center of the tornado-like Calamity, the dark mist swallowed them whole.... The System looked around the imprisoned area and sighed lightly. After it had injured Cause and Effect, it thought it would last for a decent amount of time.

Little did it know that not even four weeks later, it would actually be kidnapped and brought out of its space, and now be stuck in this area. The System felt mindlessly. How many days has it been? It stopped counting after 2, 190 days in order to go into a restful state until something changed in this place. Hopefully, it could get back before Nina faced the Calamity. Hopefully, she didn't die during this time, as it had no guarantee that it would be able to help her. She should be safe.

Only Seraphina and a few others... Not many can kill her. The System fell into slumber until a shake echoed in this area, waking it up. It saw a faint gap within its imprisoned state. It quickly used that gap to escape before quickly running back to its place. Something told it that if it wasn't quick enough, another incident, similar to last time, would happen yet again. But as it ran, it was met face-to-face with Cause and Effect, who blocked off its way. The System could not help but be pissed.

"If you don't let me through," the System stated, "I don't care what laws I end up breaking. We can repeat this hundreds, even thousands of times. I have nothing but time." Cause and Effect sighed deeply before stepping aside and letting the System go by. Good riddance, the System thought, as it sped up. Please, please, please, please, please, for all that is good. Don't lose all the cards yet. Once the System went into its domain, it activated the time freeze before heading towards where the host was. …

Once they stepped inside the Calamity, Nina thought something chaotic would happen right away. Or else, why would Seraphina tell her not to kill herself? But as they continued through the nothingness, Nina didn't know what to think. Turning her head toward Seraphina, she wondered if she should ask. But when she opened her mouth to speak, she realized nothing was coming out. She couldn't even hear herself. And as she waited, Nina knew something was bound to happen eventually.

What Nina didn't know was that the Calamity within herself had began to bring forth in the cards that Nina had. Little by little, it began eating all the information that Nina had sorted about the different people. And as it did so, Nina's legs slowly began to dissipate. The more it ate the cards, the more her body began to dissipate. It wasn't until the Calamity had reached Mr. Blackmore that Nina felt something was wrong. But she attributed it to simply being in this place for far too long.

What she was seeing was the reason why she had reached that day. She was seeing the memories in reverse of everything Mr. Blackmore had done for them, all at incredibly high speeds. Most of his scenes were quite minimal. But she recalled the experience of how he had calculated everything before turning, and as time turned back, how that had helped. Then came the people, the individuals, organizing things that even Lucian could not handle.

She watched everything as if a tape were being rewound backward while the scenes still played on the screen. Next came Mrs. Blackmore and the way she had handled the town and its people, how she had helped them. Then came Lucian. It started from the time they had been present as he tried to figure out what was happening, all the way back to when they had talked about different things and designed different areas in the Can't Make it, But I Can old building. The next one was Damien.

His scenes showed him being there, being rather supportive, especially when he had protected Abilena and Jake. It went all the way back to when they had saved that old lady. Nina started to feel that something was not right, but she couldn't put her finger on it. And then it was Lily's turn. It showed, in reverse, everything that Lily had done. When she had first seen the town. Her little adventure. When they decorated the old building. When she went to the banquet. The painting that she drew.

Then back to when she had formed her relationship with Rosa. And all the way back to the very beginning, when she had first come. Nina's eyes widened. She knew something was off. Every time one of those things left, she felt numb. But this one... This one hurt the most. As Nina's mind calculated everything that had gone by, she knew. All of them were already gone. Everyone except Elias. Nina clutched her head, screaming, trying to get everything to stop. But Lily's last scene had finished.

She was left in momentary silence. She didn't know what to do. She knew that in the next moment, she would also view Elias's memories. And when that was done... It would be done for good. Nina, who was absolutely floored by what was happening, didn't realize that every time one of those montages ended, she lost a life. Mr. Blackmore. One life. Bringing her current lives down to seven. Then Mrs. Blackmore. Down to six. Lucian. Five. Damien. Four. And then Lily brought it down to three.

Nina had no idea what was happening. But in her haste, she was able to bring out the persona card of Elias, holding it close to her heart as she felt that this was the only way to prevent it from disappearing. Even though she knew intuitively that his montage had already started.

"Please…. not him too."