CHAPTER 57: STORM OF UNHEARD

Extra Chapter for completing the 100 collections goal.

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Hanna stared at Anna with widened eyes as her body transformed,

Anna’s emerald-like green eyes had turned deep onyx-like black, and her shiny blue hair had turned silver. Her already captivating face looked nearly enthralling.

Hanna didn’t know what to make of this situation as Anna was still not awake; her unmoving eyes gave her a lifeless appearance, but she was still alive. She wasn’t in agony any more.

Hanna picked up Anna and lay her on the sofa, thoughts running wild in her mind.

She looked at Anna with a solemn look and mumbled to herself.

"From when?"

She stared at the lying figure of Anna with both concern and relief... relief that she wasn’t alone... she was not the only one cursed by the cruel fate of being a Midnighter.

Those thoughts disgusted her... but, deep down, she knew... she knew that she always wanted to run away from these powers of hers one way or another, and her deteriorating mental state didn’t help her at all.

She fell onto her sofa with a lost look on her face as a stifled chuckle left her lips.

"How loathsome... how disgusting..." she mumbled as she reminisced about her nightmares.

***

Within the dark expanse, which was Anna’s mind plane, huge waves were forming as the sea trembled with currents. The whole dark sea was chaotic.

Anna was on her knees as she grabbed her head, which had golden veins sprouting and wiggling all around the forehead. Her face was pale and distorted in a scowl full of agony, short screams and groans left her lips from time to time. The harrowing pain even took away her words.

"AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!"

She felt like breaking... her mind wasn’t supposed to handle so much pain, even if she was a Midnigther... and it did, it started to break apart, but whenever she reached the point of losing herself, the golden warmth covered her.

Then the pain returned stronger than before.

"ARGH!"

Her soul body had golden veins all over, but the strange thing was her full black eyes, which had a white ring in place of the pupils; the ring pulsated with a dim white glow from time to time as if calling out to something... to something which she needed the most.

Time passed, and after about fifteen minutes, the pain subsided, her eyes once again turned normal — White with deep black onyx-like pupils— Anna breathed heavily with a grim look on her face.

"W-what’s happening?" she tried to speak, but it only came out as a broken whisper.

The pain she had felt was twice the pain when she had touched the golden egg, but even then, it was not for this long.

Anna fell on her back as she rested. She took deep breaths to calm herself.

"I have to calm myself," Anna mumbled with a serious tone as she rubbed her face with her hands.

A few moments later, she left a deep sigh as she stood up on her feet.

She turned and looked at the golden egg, which was always within her mind plane, but it was no longer there.

"What?" Anna’s lips dropped into a deep frown when she didn’t see the golden egg.

Soon, the dark sea beneath her feet started to tremble, and waves started to form all around the dark sea.

The place where the golden egg used to be started to part away, as an old broken shrine and seven broken pillars started to rise, golden threads started to come out from all over the sea and join together. Once again, it took the shape of an egg.

Anna had a shocked and awed look on her face when she saw that transformation taking place. Her legs moved towards the shrine on their own. Anna stood in front of the broken shrine, which was covered in black soot. Anna stepped forward and touched the shrine.

*Rumble* *Rumble*

As soon as she touched the shrine, it started to tremble, which caused Anna to take a step back. The threads unravelled from the golden egg and moved towards Anna as they buried themselves in her eyes and forehead. Anna, who had predicted the second coming of agony, closed her eyes, but nothing happened.

The threads returned to the egg, and Anna tilted her head in confusion.

"Eh? What was that?"

And just as she said so the water once again ripped as a wall made up of black stone with engravings of a crescent and stars rose behind her.

Anna looked at the wall with interest. The wall parted open as red light started to illuminate from the cracks within the wall.

Anna’s eyes started to gleam when she saw that. She moved towards the door.

"This looks interesting," Anna said as she circled the wall. It wasn’t that high or large. It was barely five meters long.

She turned around the shrine, seemingly losing her interest in the wall, but just as she did so, she heard it.

A cry. A cry of someone she knew very well.

"A-Anna W-what are you doing?"

Hearing the voice of Elise, Anna turned back with a look of confusion and shock.

"A-Ann Augh?!"

The voice stopped.

Anna’s face turned pale, and she involuntarily moved towards the wall, which had already parted open. She stopped in front of the wall. Her body was once again in her control.

"Calm down," Anna mumbled to herself in a shaky but serious tone as she took deep breaths to calm herself.

She let out a deep sigh as she once again looked at the wall.

"It can be a trap."

"But... I can’t ignore it even if I know that."

Anna said as she bit down on her lower lip and clenched her fists.

"DAMN IT!" Anna yelled as she looked at the wall with an expression burning with fury. She knew that getting angry wouldn’t do anything, but she just couldn’t control her emotions, not after what she had heard a few moments later.