When Bella threw the mask, Lana took the chance when they were distracted with Bella and hid it in her closed fists but wore it the second their eyes were away from her.
Lana kept observing the situation with the woman in front of her. 'That woman is wearing a mask like this and still able to move her body like that, which means her mana isn't restricted like ours, but since she's fighting them...I suppose she's not one of them; as for which side she's on, it's another story...'
Seeing how the men in black ended like bones, her body felt so cold.
"This is no longer a magical ability. What the fuck is this...?!!"
Bella turned her aggressive gaze at Lana, making her shiver in fear that she was next, but her next words stunned her.
"I need you to make a hurricane."
"What!???"
Bella scratched her head, feeling confused. "A hurricane? Is it that hard to understand...???"
Lana stood from the ground, removing dust from her white fairy dress. "Why are you asking me to do that?"
"Well, you're the strongest wind magician I know in here, duh." She crossed her hands and shouted at her, "Do you think I want to come for you if it's not an emergency, you airhead flatty bitch?"
Lana was stunned, lost for words, processing what she just heard: 'Only one bitch calls me that...'
She rushed at Bella and grabbed her neck, almost strangling her.
"Oh you motherfucker, who the hell allowed you to insult me when all you had was that figure and no brains at all, huh?!" Lana said.
Bella tapped her hands in surrender.
"Stop, stop...I give up...ugh...Flatty, you're killing me…"
"Then die."
"I'm...seriously out of breath…"
Lana reluctantly let go of her and clapped the dust away from her hand.
"Humph, bitch."
"Cough, cough, cough...Flatty, just you wait till we get out of here…"
Lana didn't bother responding and pointed her middle finger at her, making her veins pop out from her bottled anger.
"You...?!"
Lana changed her gaze to Serenity, who was standing on top of the stadium, pointing her bow and shooting arrows nonstop.
"And who is she?!"
Bella took a deep breath and looked in the direction of her gaze. "Oh! You mean the princess…"
Lana launched a chain of questions at Bella, "A princess?...Which world princess is she? Why haven't I heard of her before?
Bella raised her eyebrows at Lana. "Really!?! Now??!"
She nodded her head as someone who can't hold back his curiosity. She didn't stop there.
"Yes, now...and what the hell happened to you?"
Bella removed her transformation back to her original form and placed her indix over her mask ,
"Hush~...Haven't you heard of the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'?"
"What?!??"
"I believe we have work to do ...so for now keep the hell shut."
"Bitch"
"Oh why Thank you."
Lana stood there surprised by how secretively shameless Bella was. 'The fuck is she that secretive for?...It's only a name; if I wanted to know, I would with or without her, and her reaction makes me more excited to know.'
"Don't." Noticing Lena's expression, Bella found it a must to warn her, "For our past connection, I will warn you this once ... if you search her, you'll be digging your own grave, and those behind you won't be able to protect you."
"Why?"
Bella smiled, "Let's just say...her roots are deeper than yours."
Lana froze, stunned with a mix of emotions distracting her. "A connection stronger than mine, but the only one like that will be only the king. Is she connected to the king?" ' she looked up at serenity ,'i need to inform my little aunt asap '
Bella saw her worry but chose to stay silent. 'I'm sorry, Lana, but if your aunt were to fight her over his majesty, I would stand by Serenity's side because I know.... no one stands a chance against her.'
After recalling last night's events Bella turned her head, asking a question, snapping Lana out of her train of thoughts.
"So about the hurricane?"
Lana shook her head in confusion,
"Hurricane?...What hurricane?...I can't even use my mana; don't mention a hurricane, not even a breeze I can make."
Bella grabbed Jarvis' hand, looked at the time on his watch, and started counting.
Jarvis surprised by her act asked ,"What are you doing?"
"Hush...5...4...3...2...1...snap...now you can."
Lana stared at her Blakely. "Are you kidding me?!"
"I am not... try gathering your mana, and you will find out."
Lana, although doubtful, tried it anyway. 'What worst could happen?'
She closed her eyes, feeling that familiar fresh feeling after confirming she stared at Bella.
"What?"
"How?"
"The mask, obviously," Bella clapped her hands. "Can we pass the pointless stuff and focus on what's really important? We need a hurricane urgently."
Lana gave an ok, "Leave it to me."
She moved forward till she was at the centering point of the entire stadium, with one leg in front of the other; her seven dark green magical circles covered the entire arena.
Raising her head to the sky, she chanted,
[Spiritus silvae viridis, domini totius naturae]
Her eyes glowed in white as the wind in the entire stadium started moving wildly in one direction, clockwise, and with her voice echoing through the entire stadium, the sky turned dark.
[Hunc halitum levem in poenam vertunt pro iis qui voluntatem nexus vestri contemnunt.]
Upon her complaining about her chanting, all the wind hurried toward her, running around her, creating a huge tornado with her centering it. She raised her right hand, pointing toward the sky, and the tornado was lifted into the sky.
[dimittis]
The entire tornado was scratched into the clouds, but due to the overwhelming strength, it created a huge hole showing the sun hiding behind the clouds.
Lana slowly closed her eyes, dissolving her magic. Under the watchful eyes of everyone,
"That felt refreshing "
everyone was excitedly whispering and was about to shout, but Serenity's strict, intimidating voice suddenly echoed through the entire stadium, quickly snapping them back to reality.
"Shut up, the entire island is under attack. If you don't want our efforts to go to waste, then you better not make any noise to draw their attention here, got it?"
The entire stadium went into dead silence, making Serenity frown at them.
"Hmm."
All in the stadium started nodding their heads, including kids who were teary but dared not let out a sound.
With jaw dropped, Lana looked at Bella, pointing at Serenity.
"Your friend is a hard one."
Bella shook her shoulders. "Don't look at me; everyone owns his actions."
"Isn't she your friend?" Lana asked.
'Friend?...She's more like my tribulation; for the limited times I have seen her, I almost made my mind to kill myself, and you're telling me a friend?...A friend, my ass,' Bella thought with a blank expression.
"Who knows?"
"Huh?!?!?"
"Me using my magic was already noisy enough, yet she is telling us not to , is she dead perhaps? "Lana asked
Bella shoke her head, "if she's deaf then we're dead"
"What do you mean?"
"Stop playing around, you two." In the middle of their conversation, Serenity gave them a task: "Go gather the devices with Daniel; with his speed, we won't end today."
He felt wrong complaining, "Hey...I am doing my best here; it's not my fault : they are just too many."
'If you have the guts, come gather them yourself instead of giving orders like that,' he thought, but once he looked up, he found Serenity jumping from above, he almost fell to the ground,
"Hey ,hey,hey, i was joking..no need to come.."
He covered his face but after a while she didn'tcome and he removed his jands and saw her walking down the stairs towards the arena, and kept staring at it for a long time. Bella and Lana ran to help Daniel.
Lana turned to Bella, confused. "Wait, why am I afraid of a little kid?!"
"A little kid? That's your ancestor."
Bella said, but thinking about every encounter between them, she started shivering. 'I can't look her in the eyes; she gives me a strange sense of superiority. I barely stop myself from kneeling, i can't treat her as a kid even knowing iam older ....that woman definitely have some unspoken secret on her.'
"Acho...why is it cold again?" Daniel said and instinctively looked towards Serenity, and sure enough, the entire area around her turned ice cold.
"What is she doing?" Lana asked.
Bella's gaze widened as she murmured a few words that stunned Lana.
"I can't feel any mana coming from her..."
"What?!?!"
Lana turned to Serenity as well, and sure enough, she couldn't feel any mana, but seeing her frozen in place, they ran towards her.
"What's wrong with that kid?"she said
All the people who were tied to their chairs around the area where she was standing were shivering from the cold, hugging each other looking for warmth.
Bella shouted while running towards her, "Serenity, are you okay?"
For bella she was more than just a teammate ,'if anything happened to her he might kill me'
Lana, who was running with Bella, reached Serenity first considering her magic granted her incredible speed.
Lana shouted ,"Stop! You're hurting them."
She placed her hand on Serenity's shoulder, but the second before they touched, a wave of energy pushed her more than three meters away.
-Fwish-
"PwaUgh...thud...cough, cough... What in the world just happened?!"
Seeing her hand covered in solid ice, Lana's wide eyes looked up at Serenity; her gaze was full of fear, and Bella, upon seeing such a scene, stopped moving forward and froze in place, eyes fixed on Serenity.
She thought, 'Maybe that princess has an idea in her head; we need to trust her. I mean...after all the efforts she made, she won't be such an ass as to waste all of them, right?'
Watching the thin ice layers covering the entire stadium and all the people present, they felt terrified.
Lana turned her head to Bella, not saying a word, but the gaze in her eyes explained everything, but Bella was just like her, understanding nothing of what was happening.
In the middle of their confusion the ice started cracking; all their gazes turned to Serenity.
-crack…crack-
"What is she doing?"
She removed her gloves and raised her right hand, and the ice scattered into small pieces just like broken glass, floating in the air and all gathered into a small glassy ice ball in her hand.
She closed her fist on it, and for a moment ice flakes of all sizes appeared clearly on whatever area was seen of her body, especially her face and neck.
When she opened her hand again, the glassy ice that was in her hand disappeared, and her body went back to normal. She shook her hand, looking all disgusted, then looked back at Lana.
"If you ever touch me again, trust me, it won't be as simple as a push."
'Someone plese tell me who is that woman' , she thought but From the overwhelming pressure, Lana covered her mouth, afraid of talking, and frantically started nodding her head.
"Good," Serenity said.
Bella walked towards them confused and asked, "So what exactly did you do?"
Serenity wore her gloves back, saying while looking at the crowd, "I don't need an extra dead weight so as not to die. Follow what I say... all of you stand still at the gates; nobody gets out and nobody gets closer to the arena or his life is his own to protect, understood?!"
A greasy old man from the crowd suddenly raised his hand. "Excuse me, miss, but we can't move out of our seats."
She walked towards the seats and pulled the man who talked from his chair; she let go and said,
"Problem solved."
Serenity let go, didn't look back at him, and moved downstairs towards the arena, unbothered with him, continuing her words, "Don't crowd, make absolutely no noise, and start moving already."
The man she pulled up started complaining, "You're so bossy. Why the hell should we listen to you?"
He looked around him and saw everyone moving. While he was busy complaining, everyone started climbing the stairs just like she said.
In the middle of confusion, that man felt out of place. Although reluctant, he had no choice but to do what she said, "Fuck, whatever...worst case, I will sue that bitch."
Serenity moved toward the stadium front seats and sat there staring at the arena while Daniel and Bella were still gathering the bags.
Lana collected herself together and moved toward Serenity, sitting, leaving two chairs between them; apparently she's traumatized from touching her, then she started questioning Serenity.
"Who are you?"
Serenity didn't bother looking at her, but she replied calmly, "No!...The right question is, who the hell are you? Why do you think I have any obligation to answer a complete stranger about anything, huh?!"
Flustered Lana waved her hands frantically. "My friend, I didn't mean anything by asking. I am...just curious as to why you have such strange powers; that's all."
"Sometimes when you're curious, it's best if you keep your mouth shut." She crossed her hands, raising her head to the sky. "Little girl, keep this in mind: I am not your friend or anyone's friend, and I certainly am not the good person you think I am."
'You saved us, yet you say you're not a good person. Are you taking me for a fool or what?...That woman is a weirdo,' Lana thought.
She scratched her head then said, "Are you telling me to stay away...???"
Serenity lowered her provocative gaze at Lana. "You're not that stupid after all."
'If not for the fact that she saved us, I would've beaten the shit out of that mannerless bitch already.' Feeling annoyed, she lowered her head, feeling helpless. "Ugh...Your words hurt, you know…"
"I know, but saying it or not won't change what we are, don't you agree?"
The lower tone of her voice made Lana's face turn red; she instinctively turned the other way. 'What the hell is wrong with that woman...??...No! What the hell is wrong with me?'
She slammed her cheeks then quietly and slowly turned her head to glance her way but found Serenity already closed her eyes, not paying any attention to anything.
"Are you okay?!?!!" She asked.
Bella suddenly came from behind and put her right hand over Lana's shoulder, scaring the hell out of her. Afraid of making any noise, she covered her mouth but unintentionally bit her tongue.
"What are you doing?"
She turned at Bella with teary eyes. "Fuck!! ... You scared me to death. Why the hell did you do that?"
Bella placed the few bags in her hand gently on the ground then sat next to Lana totally pissed. "Say the bitch who left me all the work and is sitting leisurely here. What do you think? Should I be angry or not?"
Daniel came towards them shouting his grievance.
"Neither of you has the right to say anything when I did most of the work all by myself."
"Then finish it to the end." Bella pointed at the bags on the ground and smiled. "Blow them up."
"As you wish."
Daniel threw all the bags in midair and bunched them with a huge fireball, turning them to ashes. After that, he clapped the dust away from his clothes. "Done."
Both of them gave him a thumbs up; he ignored it and walked toward Serenity.
"So what's the plan…?"
Serenity slowly opened her eyes, fixing her gaze on the arena without saying a word.
Daniel had a serious expression looking at all the people crowded near the gates. "Surely you didn't let them stand there for show," he said, turning his intense gaze at her. "Tell me, what do I need to do?"
"First things first, how are you with the shadows?" she asked
"Not so bad, I guess..."
Seeing her not saying anything Daniel looked at his hand armor then explained, "After fussing with them like this, the amount of mana I needed to cast my magic was reduced significantly, and I guess you already knew this was going to happen..."
Daniel's gaze narrowed looking at the cold serenity. "Why did you want me to reserve my mana?!"
"You need it to do something else " Serenity patted the chair next to her. "Sit down first…"
Daniel did as she said, confused, looking at her for answers, but what she said next shocked him.
"Can you distinguish between your shadow and your magic?"
"Huh?!!!!?!"
"I want you to use your shadow power to control your own shadow."
"What's the difference? Isn't my shadow still my shadow?!"
Serenity found it pointless telling him anything and decided to apply it herself.
"You won't understand even if I tell you; turn around and show me your neck..."
Lana and Bella kept glancing at each other.
"What are they talking about?"
"I don't know…but it seems important…"
Lana turned her head at her. "You serious?!?"
"No!"
"That's what I thought too."
They both kept observing them silently from far away.
'That doesn't make any sense; I don't understand what she wants to do...' Even though he didn't understand, he did what she said, curious to see what she planned to do next. 'After the eternal flame, I doubt anything could surprise me anyway.'
Not until he felt cold on his neck and everything around him turned bitch black did he finally panic.
"W...where the hell am I?"
In the middle of that dark place a purple mystic eye suddenly emerged, staring right at him. His very existence was shouting for help, but his mouth was numbed and his mind unable to think; all he could do was stare back at the eye that was slowly pulling him closer.
Just the second before he touched the eye, he was caught by ice chains that pulled him away.
Serenity's voice suddenly echoed in that dark place.
"Pull yourself together; don't let the darkness swallow you."
"Acho"
The cold snapped him awake, and he finally gathered himself together. He opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by white glowing butterflies. Curious, he asked, "Where the hell am I?" and what the hell is that thing?"
"A magical rift inside you ,Look carefully at the front …"
"I see nothing but that creepy eye, are you telling me that thing is inside me?" he asked totally confused
"Humph...what creepy eye? That's your shadow bloodline circle; it's just in the form of a mystic eye."
Confused, he asked, "What bloodline? ....I have my fire bloodline circle already; what the hell are you talking about?"
"The situation is urgent, and I don't feel like interfering much.... Listen carefully: the shadow power in you is not magic but a selection. The true essence of the shadow chose you as its host, but until this moment you never recognized it, and as a result it became hostile and started devouring your mana. That's why you're stuck at the third circle." She said
"This doesn't make any sense??"
"It does. If my guess is right, your fire attribute magic stopped at the third circle, while your shadow attribute suddenly formed its first circle, right?"
'Come to think of it, I discovered that power at that time as well.' Daniel looked up at the empty space. "Why did you bring me here anyway?"
She said, "With my help as the master of your contract, I will give you something that is supposed to be acquired only after achieving the eighth circle with your shadow bloodline."
All the glowing butterflies started moving around him in circles, while one of them flew towards the purple eye in the sky; the closer it got, the larger it became. Its size, until it was bigger than the eye itself.
The glowing butterfly closed Its wings on the eye swallowed it whole, turning the previous white glow into a purple one that flew at an incredible speed into his forehead.
"This is going to hurt," she said.
"What?!?!...Aaaaaaaaaah!" He didn't have time to process anything and was hit by a terrible pain.
After the butterfly entered his body, he started falling apart as his skin started turning black, covered in red veins. At that moment, the glowing butterflies attached themselves to his body, covering him whole, and started healing his injuries.
Not long after, a total of three hours had passed, and the butterflies started detaching one after another, and the entire place glowed in white, shocking him back outside.
"Haaa, huff, huff, huff..."
He was hardly taking his breath; his body was sweating heavily. As he slowly opened his eye and was horrified to find his vision turned blurry, he grabbed her hand tightly.
"What in the world did you do to me?"
Serenity grabbed his wrist tightly, forcing him to loosen his grip, and then she shoved him away.
"Stop fighting it when it's part of you..."
'What the fuck is this? I am the one hurt, but I am also the scared one. Why is that?' Although unable to see clearly, he could feel a cold chill from her side. "What should I do?"
"Absorb it," she said with a steady voice, "absorb the purple smoke the same way you absorb mana."
Confused, he asked, "What purple smoke?"
"Close your eyes," she said.
"Close my eyes...o...okay..."
After closing them, he was back into the darkness, but this time it was filled with colorful smoky clouds and shining glowing dots flying in the air.
Mesmerized by the place, he forgot what he was doing in there. "This place is so pretty ... I don't mind staying in here for a while longer."
Serenity's voice suddenly came, snapping him back to reality, "Do it,....stay and you will lose more than just your life."
"Oh...you're here again."
"Not surprised this time good....See that slightly dark color under the clouds? Go over there."
"How?! ...I can't even move, and you expect me to go there...."
"Stop making that silly face; just think about being there and you will find yourself there. Simple, right?"
'Simple my ass, just looking at it gives me goosebumps...Whatever.' He directed his gaze there like she said, and all he felt was as if his body and mind were being swallowed by the dark.
Not long after, he was teleported right in front of it. Only when he was close enough did he manage to see the purple smoke Serenity talked about.
"So that's it..."
He extended his right hand and began absorbing it. After finishing, he opened his eyes back outside; this time he was able to see, but he saw an extra thing when he looked at Bella and Lana.
"What are those colors over their heads?!"
"It's their bloodline power," Serenity said. "If you look at your eyes in a mirror right now, you will realize they changed into double pupils."
Daniel took out his phone and saw his eyes have extra golden pupils. He turned to Serenity in shock. "What happened to me?"
"Don't worry; except for you and me, nobody else can see them. For others, it's just a normal eye." Serenity started explaining, "Those eyes of yours have the ability to see through the world, illusion, bloodline, and magical weakness; anything is possible, just like right now."
Serenity pointed at Bella and Lana. "The colors over their heads refer to their bloodline, and its density refers to purity. For Lana, a yellow green aura color becausse she's a viper; as for Bella...it's better not to ask. In short, every color has a meaning. Originally you were supposed to awaken them after reaching the eighth circle, but our contract allows me to lend you a hand, but still don't use it often, or it will drain you."
Daniel was confused and surprised; he turned at the crowd of people behind him and saw their different colors, but then an idea came through his mind.
'Why don't I see how much purity Serenity had?' He turned his head at her, all excited but ending up disappointed.
"Why can't I see anything on you?!"
"Come on now...You're my nexus, not the other way around."
"I see."
"Whatever."
Daniel stopped joking, and his face turned serious. "So why did you give me such ability?"
Serenity pointed at the arena. "See for yourself."
Daniel turned to look, but his eyes suddenly widened, blinking in disbelief. He stood up frozen.
"No wonder you said we're a living sacrifice."
In Daniel's eyes he saw a black summoning magic nearing completion in the arena. He said, "Why aren't you doing anything to stop it when you felt it??? ...If that thing is complete, we're done for."
"It's not like I didn't, but can't .... that circle is absorbing a strong-rooted magic; if I disturbed the process and the source exploded, you can't imagine what might happen" she said as calm as ever.
Curious, he asked, "What source of power?"
Serenity pointed at the ground, "They're using the mana stones that are forming the island; we have no choice but to let it form. You get what I mean, right...?"
'We have no choice but to let it form ,If she interfered The entire island will turn into dust, and all of us are going to die.' His silent, surprised face quickly shifted to pure anger, eyes narrowed, lips pressed together.
"Those motherfuckers actually wanted to sacrifice all of us."