The sky was black tranquility married to the poetry of stars that filled the sky like pale corn into freshly turned ground. It was the softness that called the body and brain to rest and let the heart go to its steady rhythm. Night came as a reward of sorts, a restfulness above to calm anyone's soul except it couldn't calm Ethan's.
The more Ethan thought about everything, the more questions emerged in his mind. Eventually, he ended up with more questions than answers. Diana's heart bled looking at the tears running out of Ethan's eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to stop the tears from forming in his eyes.
"How am I gonna protect House Winston when I couldn't even protect my wife and son?"
"It'll be alright Ethan"
"No, it won't be Diana. You were right, we cannot go to war with Skyhall, at least not with our current strength" It took an immense amount of effort for Ethan to sit still, controlling his killing intent towards Skyhall. Every single fiber in his body wanted him to fly to Skyhall and kill the ones responsible for what happened to his family. However, years of leading the Winston family and the maturity he achieved made him think rationally rather than act on impulse. As the mysterious Oracle said, if he did anything without thinking it through would only put his loved ones in harm's way.
"First we need to find a way to break the seal in your body. If you could cultivate again without alerting them, we'll be one step closer to saving our son" Ethan wiped the tears off of his face as an unwavering resolution to fix his mistakes appeared in his eyes. His biggest mistake was being so weak and he decided to fix it once and for all.
"Rowena and Noah must not know about this, Dian. If they knew what the Skyhall did to you and their brother, they would wage war against him without a second thought, especially Noah" he said, gently wiping off the tears away from his wife's face.
Although he knew winning a war against Skyhall is near to impossible, he had to look confident as a good husband and a leader should. Even if the odds were against him, he wouldn't forgive himself if he did nothing to save his son.
"Our son, he's staying in the Sunrise sect right?"
"Yeah, our son is the Core disciple of the sect" One could see the pride in her eyes as clear as a day. She knew her son earned that title.
"Let's just go there" she let out a quick bark of laughter in disbelief. As much as she loved to see her son again, she didn't want to alert the Skyhall which might be watching her every move.
"We can form an alliance with the sect. The least we can do for our son is make his life better and keep anyone from harming him. What do you say, Dian?"
"I'll go get ready"
Her face brightened instantly like someone holding a candle in front of her face. Before he could remind her that it's night and they should leave in the morning, she ran back into the house to get ready.
**********************************
The mountains around the Sunrise sect looked like a majestic painting. They rose in snow-white brilliance, a silent invitation to good for the soul not to accept. Upon the rise of the sun, the forests covering the mountains were so snow-white. The forest seemed calm on the outside but under the snow-blanketed canopy, a blood trail could be seen on the ground.
One could follow the blood trail to see a man running for his life. He was breathing heavily, his clothes were partially burned as well as most of the skin on his back.
Regardless of the wounds on his body, the man kept running. After running for an hour, he finally stopped running.
"Who is there?!"
The man with the wounds stumbled onto a tree in exhaustion. He stared in the direction the voice came to see a man holding a spear walking from the darkness of the forest.
"Axel!" Regardless of the wounds and blood on the man's body, he was immediately recognized by the man holding the spear.
Finally, Axel let his body collapse thinking that he's safe from it.
"Is that Axel?!"
"What happened to him?"
"Are we under attack?"
"Ari, what happened to Axel?"
Ari, the man who was dragging Axel to the camp, was swarmed by his fellow bandits. No one knew there's a bandit camp in this part of the forest. The ocean of trees, the thick canopy as well as the predators roaming around the forest prevented anyone from the Sunrise sect from finding out the whereabouts of their camp.
Ever since a disciple was killed in the forest, the sect was hunting every single bandit hiding in the forests. The forest was endless yet the size of the forest never stopped the sect from hunting the bandits.
Ari dragged Axel through the knee-high snow to one of the huts.
"Ari" there were three bandits inside the hut. Unlike the bandits patrolling the area around the camp, these three bandits wore thick fur-covered winter clothes, covering every part of their bodies to keep their bodies warm. It indicated their higher status among the bandits.
"Put him here" one of the three bandits pointed at the table on the hut's center. The other two bandits quickly wiped off the maps, documents, and things lying on the table as Ari put Axel's unconscious body on the table.
"Open his mouth" Ari forced open Axel's mouth as one bandit poured a healing potion into his mouth. The healing potion was not as dark green or consistent as Michael's potion. This potion was watery consistent with pale green color.
"Where's Captain Quinn?" while the potion was slowly healing Axel's wounds, he asked the three lieutenants.
"He went to meet a client. Do you know what happened to him? Did he say anything?"
Ari shook his head, "He collapsed before I could ask what happened but isn't it obvious, his camp must have attacked, just like the others" the three lieutenants stared at each other in silence for a second before one of them said,
"When he woke up, ask him what happened, just in case. I'll go and bolster our security"
"Bolster the security?! Are you kidding me? We have to leave, now!"
The more camps they lost, the more tension rose among the bandits. Many started to rebel against the lieutenants while some even fled the kingdom fearing for their lives. This camp was one of the few last camps remaining around the forests of the Sunrise sect. The only reason many bandits were still sticking around was Captain Quinn's promise to them, he said he would take them to the main camp in the forests of the Royal land yet they were waiting to move for two months.
"Calm down, Ari. We can't be sure of what happened to him. Captain Quinn already sent a team to hunt it down, I'd bet they already killed it"
"He did?"
"Yes. You know Captain Quinn, he would always put his men first before the bounty"
"GRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
Just when Ari's anger was somewhat calmed down by the lieutenant's words, a thunderous roar echoed through the forest. Ari's body became rigid as he felt a cold chill in his spine. He dropped the spear in his hand, losing all the courage in his heart.
The lieutenant seemed no worse than him. He was shivering and mumbling something under his breath. The fear of death overwhelmed their senses.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Soon the silent forest became chaotic. Ari could hear the screams of agony outside the camp.
"No...i...can't...die" Ari mumbled in fear. At this moment, there was nothing more important to him than his own life. Therefore, he decided to escape, only to get stopped by the two lieutenants in the hut.
"You can't leave. Go fight that thing, it's an order!"
"Fuck off!" Ari shoved them away forcefully. Ari was stupid enough to stick around even after the sect started to hunt them down like prey but he was not stupid enough to obey a suicidal order.
He ran as fast as he could to the outside. The moment he stepped outside of the hut, his heart stopped looking at the embodiment of the death and carnage itself, Nightmare, the dragon of Sunrise sect.
The camp huts and trees around the camp were reduced into nothing but charcoal. The waves of heat from the dragon fire melted the many bandits' skin off. The dragon before Ari was huge with shiny crimson scales and two horns protruded out of its head.
"Where is Quinn?!" his bladder betrayed him when he heard the dragon speak. Yet the wetness around his crotch instantly disappeared due to the heat coming from the fire around him.
Zzzhhuuuuuuuuu
A crimson red fire that had a mix of violet streamed out of the dragon's mouth, turning the bandits trying to escape into ashes. At the moment, only the lieutenant's camp was not on fire.
Ari wanted to run before the dragon's gaze could fall upon him yet his body refused to move. He stood still in overwhelming fear. Everyone he knew is dead, burned alive. Their screams filled with agony now replaced by the sound of fire cracking the woods.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
The moment the dragon's red eyes fell on him, he screamed as loud as he could unconsciously. The last thing Ari saw before everything turned black was the dragon's gigantic claws approaching him.