Chapter 1030 – The Call Of Darkness [Part 2]
Inside the Wicked Thorn Forest…
Celine gritted her teeth as she crumpled the bedsheet with her hands. She felt very faint as if her consciousness was about to fade at any moment, but her willpower was strong, so she endured the call that was coming from the North.
A quarter of an hour passed, and her suffering finally ended. She lay limply on top of the bed, gasping for breath. Ten minutes later, Baba Yaga entered the room with a pale expression on her wrinkled face.
As the very embodiment of Dark Magic in the Demon Realm, she was also affected by the power of the ancient ruins. However, she was a Demigod. Her resistance was stronger than Celine’s so, aside from looking exhausted, she was mostly fine.
“I’ve decided,” Baba Yaga said with a determined look on her face. “Pack your things. We will travel to the South. Maybe we can meet up with that William boy along the way. According to Joash, the boy will take two to three weeks to arrive here, but we can’t wait that long. The attraction is getting stronger each time, and I’m afraid that you will not be able to withstand it before long.”
Celine weakly nodded as she forced herself to stand up. Although everything she owned was inside her storage artifacts, there was some stuff that she had procured inside the Wicked Thorn Forest that she planned to bring with her as well.
Suddenly, Oliver, the Parrott Monkey, entered the room through the window with a tired look on his face.
“The dark magic candidates entered the Ancient Ruins a third time not long ago,” Oliver reported. “The best case scenario is that less than twenty of them will be able to return alive. The worse case scenario, on the other hand, is a complete wipeout, leaving no survivors behind.”
Baba Yaga nodded her head in understanding. “The first time there were less than fifteen survivors from the first group, and eight survivors from the second group. All of them are taking turns to challenge the ancient ruins, and get its guardian’s approval.”
“I’m afraid that those with weaker willpower wouldn’t be able to run even if they wanted to,” Oliver added. “It seems that the Holy Land is seriously taking its time to pick its heir. Mistress, we need to leave this place. We are too close to the Ancient Ruins.”
Celine nodded. “Master already planned to leave with me. Oliver, do not wander off. The three of us will leave this place together.”
“Understood.” Oliver closed his eyes to rest. He had been spying on the movements of the Demon candidates for the past three days. The Parrot Monkey didn’t even bother to sleep because he was afraid that he would miss something important if he closed his eyes.
Because of this, he was dead tired, and decided to take a short nap, while waiting for Celine to finish her preparations.
An hour later, a giant wooden house, propped up by two giant bird legs, started to traverse the Wicked Thorn Forest. This was Baba Yaga’s personal artifact, which she called Domus Mactabilis.
It was a mobile house that could go anywhere, as long as Baba Yaga willed it. Although the old hag usually traveled using a giant flying mortar, the giant wooden house was her home, and she didn’t want to leave it behind.
As they broke away from the vast forest where she had stayed for more than a century, Baba Yaga felt a weariness deep inside her bones. As a Demigod, this was not a good sign because it meant that something bad might happen to her in an unforeseeable future.
“Oliver, that boy, William, can you find him?” Baba Yaga asked the Parrot Monkey who was currently perched on the nest that Celine had made for him, after arriving at her Master’s house.
Oliver nodded. “I can.”
The Parrot Monkey had supported the Half-Elf when he was still young and inexperienced, because of this, he had left a mark on the boy’s shadow that allowed him to sense William’s general direction.
“Good,” Baba Yaga replied. “Tomorrow, at first light, go and find him. I will put a tracker on you, so that I will be able to know where you are. Once you find him, notify me right away. We will head to his direction as soon as you find his location.”
“Sounds like a plan. Consider it done,” Oliver nodded before shifting his attention to Celine who was still feeling under the weather. “Mistress, your Prince has come for you. Are you ready to meet with him?”
“He is not my Prince,” Celine replied. “Even if he is, I will not recognize him as such.”
“This is why you are a late bloomer, why must you play hard to get?” Baba Yaga chuckled. “You and the boy have already rolled in the sheets. He’s already your man, and you his woman. Why make things difficult?”
“I agree, Your Excellency,” Oliver commented. “I can vouch for my boy, Will. I was the one that taught him his moves.”
Celine and Baba Yaga looked at the smug faced Parrot Monkey with amused expressions on their faces. Both of them knew that Oliver was just exaggerating, but they didn’t call him out on his bold antics.
“It’s quite unfortunate that my scrying doesn’t work on the boy,” Baba Yaga said as she sat down on her chair. “Whenever I try, all I see is a gray mist that can’t be penetrated by my keen eyes. This can only mean one thing.
“The boy has a very strong protective charm that prevents anyone from spying on him, or someone else is spying on him and preventing others from doing the same. Truth be told, I am leaning on the latter. However, if that is true, this is a very concerning matter.”
“Why is it a concerning matter, Master?” Celine inquired as she gazed at her Master’s wise and wrinkled face with worry.
“Celine, I am a Demigod. The strongest Demigod in the Demon Realm,” Baba Yaga replied in a confident tone. “I can see anyone if they are in the Demon Continent. For me to not be able to pierce that misty veil means that the one who is blocking my sight is someone stronger than me.”
Oliver and Celine exchanged a glance and their faces turned grim because they finally realized what Baba Yaga meant.
“Someone stronger than Master is…” Celine’s hands trembled as they rested on her lap.
“A God.” Baba Yaga smiled wryly as she finished her disciple’s words. “I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing, but for him to attract someone of that rank is simply amazing. Celine, I advise you to always be on your guard once the two of you reunited. You don’t know who is looking, so make sure that when you pin him down… you do it inside the artifact Eternity, okay?”
Celine lowered her head, which made Baba Yaga chuckle like the witch she was. Even Oliver had a happy expression on his face when he saw Celine’s flustered expression.
The beautiful Elf sighed internally as she thought of the red-headed teenager that had taken her first time. She had done it on a whim because she wanted to confirm if William was the Prince in the Prophecy.
She knew that her sister, Celeste, planned to kill the Prince once his identity had been discovered. This was why Celine needed to know and sacrificed her chastity to confirm her suspicion.
If, at that time, a mark had appeared on her body then her worst fears would have become a reality.
She had steeled herself to take William to a faraway place where no one would be able to locate him. Celine would do this to protect him from Celeste, as well as the other forces that planned to use him to fulfill the prophecy.
Fortunately, William wasn’t the one that would cover the world in darkness. Because of this, her worst fears disappeared. However, another worry started to grow in her heart. If William really wasn’t that person then that only meant one thing.
‘Whoever it is, it doesn’t matter,’ Celine thought as her purple eyes glowed briefly with power. ‘I will be the one to kill him, and end this hateful destiny that made me and my sister suffer during our childhood years.’
Baba Yaga stared at her disciple and sighed internally. Although she couldn’t see Celine’s face right now, her clenched fist that was filled with hate was enough to tell her all that she needed to know.
‘Don’t worry, child. As long as I am around, I will not let anything harm you,’ Baba Yaga vowed.
This was the promise that she had made long ago after learning about her Disciple’s ill-fated fate. As someone who had treated Celine as her own daughter, she would stop at nothing to ensure that she would be able to live a peaceful life, out of harm’s way.
