Chapter 330: Darkness.

‎Rasmus followed the path in the middle of the night with Aris following from far behind with Yur in its child form. He had never felt scared of walking in the woods before, however, this time it felt somewhat eerie for him. He couldn’t keep looking at the sides from the corners of his eyes.

‎”Not even a single spirit is seen ever since then…” Rasmus muttered under his breath. “How could this place to be your place for solitude…” he added, thinking about his father.

‎Aris was looking at the woods and she could see the spirits hiding in the trees. Those spirits were terrified of something, and not her. They were hiding from something that might roam around the forest in the middle of the night.

‎”Lady Aris…” Yur floated behind Aris, gripping on Aris’s shoulder as Yur looked around and at the back. “I don’t want to live here, and I don’t think the other spirits want to stay in a place like this too…” Yur continued.

‎”If the demons haven’t touched this place, that means this place is safe. This is suitable for you and the other spirits to live in,” Aris said as she looked at how dense the Mana was in this forest compared to in Spring Forest which was already abundant in Mana. “However, I want to know first what makes this forest safe,” she added.

‎Yur whimpered as Yur hid behind Aris’s back, completely sticking on her back like a backpack.

‎Rasmus suddenly stopped walking, his gaze pointed at the distance. He saw the lake in the distance with the water that reflected the moonlight. He also saw the massive dead tree on the small island in the middle of the lake, the same tree that didn’t seem to grow old or bloom as if the tree was frozen in time.

‎The moment Rasmus used his draconic eyes to look at the dead tree in more detail, suddenly the clear sky became cloudy again. It happened in almost an instant, and that alone was enough to make the three of them look up.

‎”I’m a great spirit, but to think there’s someone that can change the weather in this large scale in almost an instant…” Yur said, staring at the thick dark clouds in the sky, making it a complete darkness. “I really hate this place…” Yur squirmed, wrapping its tiny arms around Aris’s neck.

‎Aris also found this phenomenon to be bizarre and shocking. She felt like such power could only be possessed by a dragon. She began to realize that the one who was sovereign of this place wasn’t just residing in this forest, but rather controlling the whole area as if it was under its dominion.

‎”This energy…” Yur suddenly perked up its ear and turned into an owl. “This is worse than I thought…” Yur continued, staring at its surroundings.

Aris looked at her surroundings and didn’t find any abnormalities. However, when she looked at how the Mana moved and behaved, she noticed something was squeezing the Mana, sucking it and devouring it rather than transforming it.

‎”That tree…” Aris pointed at the tree where all the Mana was being sucked and devoured.

‎Rasmus turned around to look at Aris and Yur, who seemed to be disturbed by what was going on. He could see the Mana gathering around the lake, the Mana looked like a thick mist, and how it moved in circles was similar to how a storm was brewing.

‎Suddenly, the thick Mana turned into dark smoke that blocked their vision. The whole lake was covered by smoke until the smoke began to spread out at the speed of sound. It was enough to push Rasmus and Aris away, and how their skin became dry and hard.

‎”Is this demonic energy?” Rasmus asked as he looked at the dome of black smoke.

‎”No… this is Dark Energy,” Yur answered, holding onto Aris’s shoulders. “It’s similar, but different.

‎”Dark Energy?” Rasmus furrowed his brows, thinking if it was the same thing that Videl had shown him before about Black Magic.

‎”Yes, some humans learned this, and it’s not demonic energy, but a process that turns Mana into a more dense and uncontrollable energy,” Yur answered, nodding its head repeatedly. “Dark Energy originated from spirits, but not from us, it’s from Dark Spirits,” Yur explained, staring at the dead tree in the distance.

‎”Dark Spirits, they’re not a part of the big five?” Rasmus asked as he stared at the dead tree.

‎”They’re not a part of us. Dark Spirits are anomalies, a mistake. They’re born from True Dragons’ resentment, but we know that True Dragons’ don’t bore such feeling, they’re the highest being who don’t hold any emotions,” Yur answered, terrified by the fact a Dark Spirit existed in this place. “With that being said, Dark Spirits are the opposite of natural order… They’re chaos,” Yur revealed as its whole body trembled in fear.

‎Aris narrowed her eyes, remembering her encounter with Aristoria in the Void Realm. She remembered that Aristoria and Sanya went to the Dragon’s Maw where they found remainings of True Dragons’. The mystery of their extinction, and the birth of Dark Spirits, it was all connected to each other.

‎”Rasmus, you’re on your own here,” Aris said calmly. “If I tried to follow you over there, whatever that resided in that dead tree will try to fight me,” she pointed out.

Rasmus was a bit surprised that Aris didn’t want to take this opportunity since she always wanted to have a fight with strong opponents. However, when he stared into her eyes, there was something amiss, something that he couldn’t understand, something that she didn’t want him to know.

“I see,” Rasmus nodded with understanding as he began to take step forward on his own.

“Please! Don’t wake it up!”

“Don’t wake it up!”

“Please!”

“Please…”

The voices of the spirits were heard around Rasmus like chattering in the skull. He could feel their fears and desperation to stop Rasmus from going further. However, Rasmus ignored the spirits because oddly enough, he felt like the dead tree was calling for him.

The darkness surrounded the island in the middle of the lake, Rasmus was standing there on the edge of the lake, staring at the circling black smoke in front of him. He took a shaky breath as the ambient made him anxious, and then he held his breath when he saw a glowing pair of eyes from beneath the smoke. Glowing golden eyes that pierced through the darkness as it stared right into Rasmus’s soul that made his heart stop beating for a brief moment.

The moment the smoke dispersed, that was when Rasmus, Aris, and Yur saw the soverign of the Trivula Forest. Rasmus’s eyes widened when he saw a shadow standing on the edge of the island with the oozing dark purple smoke that lingered on its body. The shadow had a pair of wings, wings that didn’t look demonic but rather dragonic, massive with claws on each edge of the wings.

The shadow being slowly raised its right arm and beckoned at Rasmus, signaling him to approach the shadow. However, Rasmus chose to stay, staring at the shadow being without any sign of being intimidated or fearful. At that moment, the shadow disappeared and appeared right in front of him in a blink of an eye, floating above the lake. The shadow was twice the size of Rasmus, towering over him and could devour him if the being wanted to.

Aris clenched her fist and she was ready to pounce on that Dark Spirit if something happened to Rasmus. However, the moment she had such an intention, the Dark Spirit glanced at her, knowing her intention, and the worst part was the Dark Spirit provoked her by beckoning at her, challenging her. Aris put up a smirk, mocking the arrogance of the Dark Spirit, and it was quite refreshing to see such behavior.

“Resentment of a True Dragon, what an arrogant spirit,” Aris scoffed as she crossed her arms.

The Dark Spirit focused on Rasmus who was standing right in front of it, its piercing glowing draconic gaze pointed at Rasmus’s eyes. However, the Dark Spirit found nothing but emptiness in those eyes, no emotions, no desires, nothing.

“Your name…” The Dark Spirit asked, its voice vibrating that made its gender unknown because it wasn’t deep or high.

“Rasmus Blackheart,” Rasmus answered, staring back into the Dark Spirit’s eyes.

“Ah… you’re Aristoria’s son that she talked about…” The Dark Spirit responded, narrowing its majestic and gorgeous golden draconic eyes.

Rasmus was a bit surprised that the Dark Spirit mentioned his mother rather than his father who used to go to this place. He thought the Dark Spirit would mention his father, but then he connected the dots and realized there was a chance the Dark Spirit was brought here by his mother.

“My mother brought you here, didn’t she?” Rasmus asked.

“Yes, she did. She raised me, and took care of me…” The Dark Spirit smiled with its eyes.

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