Chapter 18: Terrifying Eyes
The reassembled “Oracle” shattered again, this time into even smaller pieces.
Bai scratched her hair, embarrassed. She had expected this, but she hadn’t expected it to crumble into dust…
“Uh, Eleanor, I’m sorry…” Bai said apologetically, but Eleanor didn’t respond.
She was still staring at the broken crystal, her eyes glazed over, seemingly lost in the strange images she had seen.
“Eleanor!” Bai called out, and Eleanor snapped back to reality.
She stumbled back, her face pale, her gaze shifting to Bai.
To a pair of burning, dark-gold vertical slits.
In that instant, she heard the screams of a million tormented souls, felt the chilling despair of a world in its death throes.
“Eleanor!” Bai called out again, her voice laced with a gentle psychic energy.
The illusion shattered, and Bai’s eyes returned to their usual pink, her beast ears twitching slightly.
“Phew…” Eleanor gasped, clutching her chest, her heart still pounding.
“Eleanor, what did you see? Besides the gray shadows?” Bai asked, her brow furrowed.
“I saw—” she started, but the image of the dark-gold eyes was already fading from her mind, a memory erased, leaving no trace.
“I… I can’t remember.”
…
“She’s forgotten again.”
In the Divine Temple, High Priestess Nimora opened her eyes, her expression grim.
The image of the dark-gold eyes had vanished from her mind as well. She had seen it countless times, but each time, the memory would be erased within moments of waking.
She had tried to record it, but the records would also be erased, as if the world itself rejected any memory of it.
“Perhaps… with the power of the Divine Temple, of the entire sacred lands, I can retain some of the information, even if it’s just a fleeting fragment…”
She had a feeling it was connected to the Battle of Vikarn, the one that had changed the fate of all of Solor five years ago.
But the details of that battle were hazy, even for those who had been there, like Empress Lilia and the nine Legendary Knights. They had all experienced the same memory loss.
But this… this was the key to the future, for the Bewildering Forest, for all of Solor.
Just then, an elder approached, bowing. “High Priestess, we are ready.”
She had commanded the entire sacred lands to assist her in her divination, to contribute a small portion of their power to sustain the ritual.
Now, nearly a million elves had emerged from their homes, their prayers rising to the Divine Temple, a million points of light converging at its peak.
“Good,” Nimora said, standing up and ascending to the highest point of the temple, the elder following behind her, her own prayers joining the chorus.
A low, gentle chant filled the air, and with the power of the sacred lands and the Divine Temple, Nimora began the Great Prophecy, a ritual only she could perform.
She closed her eyes, and the vast, endless river of time appeared before her.
Countless fragments of the future flickered within it, a billion souls drifting through its currents. She followed a faint, intuitive pull, traveling back through time.
She stopped at a specific moment, a moment she had experienced before.
The moment she had tried to divine the future in the capital.
A little girl with light brown hair, reluctantly placing her hand on the “Oracle.”
The “Oracle” had flashed with images of the future, then shattered, unable to bear the weight of destiny.
This was what she wanted: the power of the “Oracle,” before it was broken.
The river of time could reveal the future, but it could also erase memories.
Nimora knew this, which was why she was using the Great Prophecy to travel back, to use the “Oracle” of the past to see the future.
And at the same time, far away in the Twilight Marsh, Bai had reassembled the crystal ball and, on a whim, had placed her hand on it.
And in that moment, Nimora saw what Bai saw, what Eleanor saw.
Countless gray shadows, wandering a desolate wasteland, an aura of despair and sorrow permeating the air, a place of true nothingness, a place even the void feared to touch.
“Where is this…?”
Nimora’s breathing grew heavy. She couldn’t maintain the prophecy much longer.
But just as she was about to break the connection, a pair of burning, dark-gold vertical slits appeared in her vision, an ancient, unimaginable terror radiating from them.
“Don’t disturb her. Let her continue!”
“A futile struggle… but not without meaning.”
Countless whispers echoed in her ears.
The “Oracle” of the past shattered, and she was thrown from the river of time, stumbling back.
The elder rushed to her side, but she waved him away.
The memory of the “Oracle’s” vision was fading, just like before, but this time, with the power of the Divine Temple and the sacred lands, she managed to hold onto a fragment.
“Summon the council. I have an announcement to make,” she said, her voice firm, as she walked out of the temple. “And inform the human Empire and the beastkin. Have them come to the Bewildering Forest. This concerns the fate of all of Solor.”
“Yes, High Priestess,” the elder said, then, her curiosity getting the better of her, she asked, “What did you see in your vision?”
“An eye,” the High Priestess said, closing her eyes, the faint impression of the vision still lingering in her mind, her voice trembling slightly. “A… terrifying eye.”
