The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 238: Light and Darkness

Chapter 238: Light and Darkness

Before Annalise could have wrapped her mind around his words, the man had already pulled her into his arms right before his red misty light surrounded both of them.

She felt a sense of familiarity taking over her as soon as she stepped into the passage through space and time while being surrounded by Esme’s powers, but it was not the kind of familiarity of the energy or sensations she used to feel while passing through voids, or while casting spells. Instead, it was a complete different and strange kind of familiarity that brought really old and vague scenes in front of her eyes, ones that she couldn’t see clearly at all.

She had to shake her head constantly to get herself out of the grip of the energy that was trying to pull her into a very familiar but dark place. At one point, she almost felt like she was going to loose the fight but then they were already stepping out at the other end of space that opened up to a completely different world.

Despite feeling like it had been several very long minutes, it took barely a couple of seconds for them to shift between places as Esme teleported them out of the Secret City and to a place... that looked like a forest made of darkness itself.

A loud gasp escaped Annalise’s lips as her eyes took in the scene around her. She unconsciously stepped backward as if to put as much space between herself and thd darkness as possible but the sudden zap of angry energy from somewhere behind her made her cry out in shock and stop in her tracks before she turned to face whatever had attacked her.

Esme was immeditely there, pulling her behind him as he attacked at whatever had attacked her first and instead of his usual red energy, the one that left his hands this time was dark purple in color.

Annalise heard a painful cry before the sound of a loud thud as somethjng heavy landed on the ground and their whole surroundings hissed as if feeling the loss of one amongst them. She slowly peeked from behind the man and saw a complete black creature lying dead on the ground. It’s entire body was covered in the same black mist that was also filling the entire forest and its eyes were blood red. It reminded her of the dark beasts she once encountered while she crossed the ward of the orchard and ended up in a forest like place.

Her sight was blocked when the masked man turned to face her and shifted to black her from looking at the creature. As she looked up at his face, she found his eyes slowly scanning her body as if to see whether she was hurt or not. She almost felt like thanking him for saving her life but for some reason, the words refused to come out of her mouth.

"Stay right next to me. This place is filled with darkness..." he warned her while stepping closer to her, close enough that Annalise had to crane her head to look at him. "... darkness that will eat you alive in your current weak form... and only I can save you from that darkness in this entire freaking world."

Annalise wanted to tell him that one of her husbands had saved her once from this darkness and that they would do it again, she wanted to tell him that he wasn’t the only one but something stopped her, something that was telling her that despite her judgement, he was speaking the truth.

That’s why, she eventually nodded her head in understanding and followed right next to him as he started walking. She couldn’t stop herself from sparing a quick look behind over her shoulder only to see no sign of the dead creature, as if it was never there to begin with.

Letting out a sigh, she focused her attention ahead and followed the man closely as she wasn’t looking forward to meet anymore of those dark creatures and if he was the only one who could possibly keep her safe, then she should be following his order until they were out of this weird dark place.

The trees, plants, shrubs, and everything seemed to be parting to give way as they continued walking through the forest. It only made her question the identity of the masked man. He was either powerful enough to face this much dark energy without any worry or he was one of...

She shook her head before she could have thought about the second possibility as it was not only absurd but also impossible.

She wanted to ask him where they were heading but had a feeling that he won’t even spare her a glance let alone an answer. Hence, they walked through the forest in deep silence... a silence that was filling the entire forest.

Who knew how long they walked before they finally seemed to have reached the place Esme wanted to take her to. It seemed they had walked to the very end of the forest and what stood in front of them was definitely a scene out of some horror fairytale.

Annalise stared at the clouds, or maybe smoke, of dark and light energy that was standing in front of her. It seemed to be emerging out of the ground and reaching the sky that was covered in dark clouds. It was also spread to no end on her both sides, like a never ending wall.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings and she noticed there was no color present there except for black and white. However, it was definitely more black then white. What really surprised her was how her white clothes and platinum blue hair made her stood at the side of light and Esme’s dark clothes and half made him stood at the side of darkness.

The man turned to face her as he ordered, "Press your hands against this ward and tell me what you see."