CHAPTER 98: FOLLOW ME

Inside the thick black room, Kai stood there, shaking heavily and blinking as if death had laid its hands on his shoulder.

Feeling the darkness piercing through his eyes and sending his vision dull, Kai paddled his hands, trying to find something to hold onto.

"Hello... is someone here?" he said, taking unstable steps forward and leaning at the jagged pillar his leg bumped into.

Though he could sense breezes flowing in and out of the room, he couldn’t see or hear any movement. And for thirty minutes, he stood by the pillar, trying to clear his vision and be able to see through the thick darkness.

As he heard chattering sounds echo at where he looked, he pushed himself from the pillar and stepped forward.

But the moment he took five steps forward he froze, hearing a loud voice bouncing and vibrating through the room and his bones like a nuclear blast.

"Kai..."

Hearing his name, Kai’s vision began to clear slightly, and in that instant he saw countless humanoid figures sitting in a lotus posture.

At every figure he moved past, Kai’s tension increased as he brushed his fingers on the body of the figure and noticed they were soft and live like a living human, but remained as cold as a fish pulled from the depth of a high cooling area.

After Kai moved past the fifth figure he halted, and in that moment felt a soft cold arm moving at his shoulder.

And when he turned, he saw the man who had entered and vanished from his sight standing behind him smiling.

"Follow me..." Yung Mai said, tapping on the boy’s shoulder, then moved past him and walked straight to another door inside the room they were in.

Kai, who now felt slightly okay, followed the man without questioning him.

When Kai reached the door the man had entered, he heard bird humming erupting from the inside of the room, and when he entered, his eyes widened.

Stepping into the room, Kai’s breath hitched as he saw bright light falling from the top of the room and landing on the ground in a circular shape.

Yung Mai halted at the center of the room filled with countless circular torch-like lights falling from the top of the room, then grinned.

Yung Mai squeezed his eyes as the boy closed in on him and placed the bag at his back on the floor.

"Why bother yourself and bring things you’ll never use here?" Yung Mai asked, feeling a bit dissatisfied with the load which the boy had brought.

Yung Mai moved closer to the bag, grabbed it, and raised it in a ready-to-throw stance.

But at that moment, Kai knelt down and looked at the man. "Please... let me at least take one precious book I was gifted with... please."

Hearing the boy’s plea, Yung Mai lowered the bag and handed it to the boy, then turned toward the huge sculpture standing like a whole building on its own.

"Take only the book you pleaded for and throw the bag and everything in it in the fire at the far right side, then follow me." Yung Mai said, moved toward the table placed at the front of the sculpture – where the incense were burning.

Yung Mai tilted his head slightly then smiled as he saw the boy walking toward the fire he’d pointed to, then turned to the table.

He took two of the incense sticks, lit them, then held them tightly. Yung Mai bowed seven times holding the sticks to the sculpture.

And when he raised his head after completing the seventh bow, he heard yawning sounds echo from his back.

"Keep quiet!" Yung Mai said, silencing the boy standing behind him and yawning heavily, then began reciting words.

On the table from which he took the incense, Yung Mai took the black beads with strange carvings on each of the twelve beads, and began moving the beads in sync with the words he recited.

Kai, who knew nothing of what the man was doing, stood there quiet. Since he’d been silenced even when he was just yawning, he opted not to even open his mouth or make the subtle noise.

...

Meanwhile, outside the inner temple that Kai had been taken into, Clara and a few other wine-dressed monks stood at the top of the staircase, staring downward.

"Are you really sure he can survive?" she asked in a worried voice that made all the monks standing beside her tilt their gaze at her and smile.

"It’s been two days and I haven’t seen him walking or training with those who just started their training."

The white-bearded monk standing at the left side of Clara closed in, placed his wrinkled arm on her shoulder, and exhaled.

"Time there is different from ours," he said, turned to those behind him, then gestured to them to leave.

"What! How is that possible?" Clara screamed, her eyes opening wide and the tension and wariness in her increasing.

"Yes..." the old monk said, calmly pushed Clara forward, and walked her to one of the temples with carvings on them.

"Listen... in this temple... every cult, every disciple has its own timeline they move with."

"How is that possible?"

"Just listen..." the monk said, shaking his head.

"Do you know why you only saw the Shadow Cult’s leader and not his entire group?" the monk said, moving toward one of the pillars which had a strange dragon-like symbol carved on it.

"No... unless you tell me."

"Alright. Long ago, before this temple and its subsidiaries came, two beings fell from the sky; one with blue and red eyes and the other with only pure blue eyes."

Looking at how the lady squeezed her face, the monk paused, lowered his head and grinned.

"Are you sure you’ll be able to withstand what I’m about to tell you?" he said, staring at the lady with a strange and sinister expression.

And when the lady nodded, the monk exhaled.

"The time difference took place fifty thousand years ago when the two beings who fell fought with each other, then vanished without a trace."

"When your brother called us and told us of the kid he wants to send to us, everyone felt at peace."

"Why? How will hearing about the boy make everyone in this temple feel at peace?"

"We believe the boy... Kai... is the reincarnated version of the being that caused the time swap in this temple. And we know under the Shadow Cult’s care, the cult which the being with the blue and red eyes created before vanishing can make him remember his past."

Hearing the rubbish the monk was saying, Clara turned, paddling her hand in the air. "No... no... no... that’s not possible."

"Stop it! You just want to divert what I asked you."

Clara walked from where the old monk stood, angry.

The monk stood there silently and watched the lady leave his presence.

...

At the far distance from the shore of the sea to the southern part of Westeros, smoke and screams filled the air as countless children laid on the laps of their parents dead.

And at one junction, where the two Elinas in the village stood – one being the priestess and the other being the youngest and most beautiful lady in the Gilgal village – seven men dressed in green uniform and holding guns walked toward them shouting.

"Hey...!"

All the seven men stretched their guns at the two ladies, and triggered the handles of their guns.

But as one of the seven fired his gun, a slightly old lady appeared, dragging herself and screaming. "Please... don’t kill them... don’t kill them... the boy you’re looking for is not in this village anymore."

Though the other six men released their fingers from the trigger, the one bullet that flew in the air struck the forehead of the priestess, creating a hole.

And at that instant, the young Elina’s eyes widened as she grabbed the priestess and screamed her name.

"Stop firing...!" a loud voice rumbled at the back of the seven men.

Hearing the voice, sweat beaded the faces of all seven men, as their legs began to shake.

"Who fired?!" the voice echoed again, and this time, metallic footsteps erupted from behind them.

When the footsteps stopped, blood spilled in the air as the sharp blade of a long sword sliced through the neck of the soldier who fired his gun, chopping his head off.

When the remaining six men turned, they swallowed as they saw Lieutenant Wang standing behind them, gasping like crazy.

Knuckle-cracking sounds echoed as Wang tightened his grip on the sword and stretched it at the six men, letting them run off in an instant.

Watching the men halt at the advanced military truck closer to the black Jeep, Wang stepped forward and closed in with the two ladies who had wrapped their arms around the dead priestess.

"I’m sorry for your loss... but only one of you can live," Wang said, licking his lips as he scanned the young Elina and the slightly old lady at the right.

"Choose before I choose..." Wang said, placing the tip of the sword drenched in blood on the neck of the slightly old lady.

Before he could raise the sword back, the lady swiped her neck on the sharp edge of the sword, letting it cut her.

Seeing how blood tilted from her Auntie’s neck and snaked on the shimmering blade of the sword, Elina screamed, loosened her grip on the dead priestess and grabbed her Auntie.

"Why... why... monster!" Elina said, tilting a wild gaze at the man standing and laughing.

Gulping sounds echoed as the Auntie tried to speak, "Elina... Look for..."

Hearing the uncompleted sentence from the Auntie, Elina screamed and placed the dead and bloodied body on her chest.

After two minutes of watching the lady go mad, Wang grabbed her and pulled her from the corpse and forced her to sit in the black Jeep.

And when he started the engine and drove off, the six men holding guns exited the truck and moved into the houses in the village, firing their guns at everyone their eyes fell on.