Raylene and Claire immediately stood up from the bed as the bed was on fire after hearing the disciple. The disciples standing in the room with Claire heaved a heavy sigh of relief, beaming in joy.
"Where are they?" Claire asked. She felt like an immense amount of pressure was being lifted off her shoulder.
"They are at the foothills and coming here" Instead of flying here, it was Michael's idea to land at the foothills and take a stroll. He wanted to see how the sect has changed since he left.
"Go wake up Nightmare, he's at my house with the baby"
"Yes, Sect Leader!" The disciple left the room in a hurry to wake up Nightmare who is sleeping with Cindy's brother. Despite his big scally terrorizing body, Nightmare was pretty gentle with the baby. No one in the world would have believed that Nightmare, a dragon loved babysitting.
"Brother!" Cindy jumped off the bed full of energy. Before they could stop her, she leaped out of the bed, running towards the outside.
The others couldn't do anything but follow behind the little girl. Hearing that Ghost had returned, Cindy ran outside showing no signs of fever or exhaustion.
When Claire reached outside, she saw disciples rushing towards their dormitory in fear. Only a few daredevils remained outside of Ghost's house to see his and Aelia's reaction to Jack's death.
"Where are they?!" Cindy shouted at one of the disciples waiting for Michael. She kept bouncing from the ground to see the distance.
It took everyone a few minutes before vaguely noticing two figures in black slowly walking towards them.
"Look brother Ghost is back!"
"Is that really him?"
"Wow he looks different"
"Of Course it's brother Ghost. Who do you think walking beside him?"
"That's sister Aelia you've been telling us about"
"Sister Aelia gonna lose it"
"Just let Sect Leader Claire break the news"
The disciples began to chit-chat. Some seemed excited while some seemed terrified. Those who recently joined the sect from various towns had never seen GHost before. Therefore, they waited for the famous Ghost of River town with their own eyes.
"Sect Leader Claire, Lady Raylene '' Claire turned back to see Daniel and Ricky rushing towards them carrying a basket full of wild mushrooms for Raylene's soup.
"We heard Master Ghost is back," Daniel said. One could see a sliver of fear in his eyes. Ricky on the other hand looked pale as a white paper.
Both of them were more afraid of Aelia than Ghost because they knew Master Ghost is a level-headed calm person while Aelia is the exact opposite of him.
Besides, all of them knew Jack was Aelia's handyman who followed her behind like a puppy dog. Among all the disciples, only Jack had the guts to talk to her and even ask her for favors. It was not a secret to the disciples that Jack worshipped Ghost and Aelia as his siblings.
*******************************
At that moment, Michael and Gaya were walking towards the home with the biggest frowns on their face. Along the way, they noticed several guards of the Winston family and adventurers patrolling the path to the sect. They expected a line of noble carriages from the foothills to their home to buy potions and pills yet they saw no carriages or a single person other than a disciple of the sect or a guard of the Winston family.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Michael thought to himself.
"Brother!" Suddenly he heard a high pitch shout of Cindy as he saw the little girl running towards him as fast as she could. Her cute face put a wide smile on Michael's face. Almost twenty meters away from Claire, Raylene, the disciples, and his house, he was welcomed by Cindy. The little girl leaped from the ground, throwing herself to Michael. His haircut, new clothes, or buffed-up physique was not enough to give the little girl a hard time recognizing Michael.
"Hey there butterball" Michael caught the little girl in the mid-air safely. He felt her wrap around his neck getting tighter and tighter.
"You're back" as she said, she removed her one hand to hug Gaya.
"I missed you too, tiny human, '' Gaya giggled. She moved closer so the little girl could hug both of them at the same time. Cindy didn't stop with the hug as she tried to climb on Michael's chest using her tiny feet.
"Whooooo you're back. Don't let the bad man hurt me" she sobbed, hugging him tightly.
"I think she's crying," Gaya said.
Michael was confused. Her sobbing didn't seem like a cry of joy. The little girl kept trying to climb on Michael when she pulled her apart from him by lifting her by the arms. Cindy's face was pale, there was no redness or baby fat in her face. She lost weight as Michael could see her collar bones and feel her ribs on his hands. Moreover, black circles could be seen under her eyes because of her lack of sleep.
Her transformation, what she just said about a badman and the reactions of the people around them made him realize that something bad has happened. He expected them to welcome him with joy and cheers yet he only saw fear and anxiety on their faces.
"Where's Nightmare?" Although he made sure absolutely no harm could come to Nightmare, seeing their reactions made him automatically think of Nightmare.
"Don't leave me again" In his arms, Cindy cried. Michael hugged her as Cindy buried her head on his chest.
"I know something's very wrong here or you wouldn't have closed the Majestic. Where is that little shit? He better have a valid reason like dying to make me stop from what I'm planning to do to him"
Ricky and Daniel were responsible for the restaurant in River town while it was Jack's responsibility to keep the Majestic up and running without problems while they were away. Hence, Gaya looked for Jack having zero clues about his demise.
"Brother Jack...whooo….whooo" Tears began to roll out of Cindy's eyes.
Gaya saw everyone avoiding direct eye contact with her when she mentioned Jack. Her eyes slowly turned cold as she walked towards Claire.
She then grabbed Claire's shoulder,
"Where...is...Jack?"
"Teacher" While Gaya was asking Claire, Michael saw Olivia running towards him from the direction of the herbal garden. Olivia too had no smile on her face.
"Spit it out!" Claire felt her surrounding air turning colder. With tears filling up her eyes, Claire finally opened her mouth,
"He's dead. Jack's dead, Aelia"
The entire surrounding became deadly silent. No one dared to utter or make a sound. Michael's mind got filled with questions when he heard Claire.
"Dead?" Gaya asked. The veins in her eyes popped, turning her eyes red. Her entire body shivered in anger.
"The bad man killed him," Cindy blurted out.
"He was murdered? Who?" Gaya asked Claire.
Everyone's gaze was locked on Gaya. Michael didn't show his inner emotions as Gaya but he was feeling the anger boiling inside him after knowing that Jack was murdered.
"We don't know," Claire shook her head. Finally, Gaya let go of her shoulder.
"He was murdered and you don't know who" she repeated the sentence again and again as she walked towards their house.
"Lord Lucifer, I suggest we take a few steps back. '' Michael heard Azazel's voice. He was standing right beside him yet no one could see the butler because of his phantom form skill.
Everyone felt the killing intent radiating from Gaya skyrocketing.
"You don't know!'' Suddenly she shouted, throwing her fist at the house.
Boom!'
The wall exploded into smithereens as the entire house shook. The front wall of their house completely collapsed. In a few moments, countless cracks formed in the ground beneath the house as well as on the other walls.
"HE WAS KILLED AND YOU DON'T KNOW!" Her shout almost busted their eardrums.
"Lightning Dash '' Michael immediately covered Cindy with his coat before activating Lightning Dash. He pushed the spell to its maximum potential to save Raylene, Claire, Ricky, and Daniel from getting hurt by the debris.
Gaya went mad as she kept punching the house until it completely collapsed to the ground. A mushroom cloud of dust enveloped them. Only her mad screams could be heard in the area.
"Aelia!"
"Stop!"
Claire and the disciples screamed.
"Take them away!"
Thanks to Michael most of them survived Gaya's rampage with little to no wounds while some of them had their heads opened due to the debris, hitting them. He was like Flash rescuing civilians from evil supervillains.
Michael was glad there was no other building in the area for her to go, breaking them all. She disappeared from his sight into the dust storm.
Michael yelled at Claire before handing Cindy over to Raylene. Claire and the disciples did not linger around to get hit by debris. They ran away taking the injured with them.
"AHHHH!" Michale heard her mad shout coming from the ruins. It was obvious she completely lost control of her anger. Unlike Michael, she wasn't trained to control her emotions and anger. Michael wanted to stop her before she harm others and herself.
Cracks of lightning surrounded him as he was about to rush into the ruins of his house when he saw a red ball dashing into the ruins from the skies.
"Nightmare?"