Chapter 43: storm 1
I swallowed hard, and my expression darkened.
That strange storm was blocking our path.
At first I thought it was far off, just dark clouds on the horizon, but with every passing second I realised we were heading straight towards it, at an absurd speed.
I didn’t like that.
The black clouds covered a large part of the sky, touching the ground, slowly swirling over one another, whilst flashes of red lightning flared constantly within them.
It wasn’t a natural sight... or perhaps it was, but I’d never seen anything like it before.
The sky suddenly lit up with a powerful bolt of lightning, and the red light reflected off the window pane for a brief moment.
I felt a slight shiver run down my spine.
The closer we got, the stronger my sense that there was something unsettling about that storm.
I raised my head slightly, trying to see what was inside it, but the rain and thick clouds obscured most of the view.
And yet... in one of the flashes of lightning, I thought I saw a huge shadow amongst the clouds.
In fact, I had already stood up. We had to turn back. I even tapped my glasses quickly to turn off the system display that was blurring my vision, as it kept flickering on and off, but it didn’t work.
It felt as though the system was breaking down faster the closer we got to the storm.
I wasn’t the only one who had stood up; I could see the tension clearly etched on the others’ faces. Liana, Osrin and Liwa all had the same look on their faces as I did.
I hurried towards the front of the bus and saw Liwa asking the driver to change direction, but something strange happened; the driver didn’t respond, but seemed as though he hadn’t heard him at all.
This prompted Liwa to place his hand on the driver’s shoulder, and only then did the driver turn towards him.
As soon as that happened, my gaze fell upon him.
I felt a shiver run down my spine as I took a few steps back.
The driver was smiling a broad smile, so broad that I could have sworn it reached his ears, whilst blood was streaming from his eyes.
Then he said:
"Everyone, please take your seats. We haven’t reached our destination yet."
Leo tried to say something, but he couldn’t. He froze completely in his tracks; he was probably scared.
To be honest, I couldn’t blame him for that; he was closest to the driver. In fact, there was something unnatural about the driver: whenever Liwa tried to reach out his hand, it would suddenly stop in mid-air as if something were holding it back. Even when I tried to approach him, I couldn’t move from where I was.
Meanwhile, the driver turned his gaze back to the storm and continued driving towards it.
"This thing... is scary."
Whatever was happening, it was clear that it wouldn’t end well.
Not to mention that we were heading straight into that storm.
I held my breath and did what anyone in my position would have done.
I tried to find a way out of here.
At that moment, I heard Srin mutter in a low, trembling voice, almost lost amidst the roar of the storm:
"No... I can’t sense mana. I can’t sense anything."
Hearing her words, I stood there without saying a word.
I tried to sense the mana around me, but I couldn’t either.
However, I pushed this problem to the back of my mind. There was something more urgent right now.
I lunged with all my strength towards the window. If the bus wasn’t going to stop, I’d get out of it myself. It was simple, wasn’t it?
Or so I thought.
The moment I collided with the glass, I realised I couldn’t even scratch it.
Instead, I felt a sharp pain in my head, before I fell heavily to the floor.
"Nero!"
I heard two voices shouting at the same time.
When I struggled to lift my head, I saw Srin and Liana rushing towards me, their faces clearly etched with concern...
"Nero, are you all right? You haven’t been hurt, have you?" said Osrin as she helped me to my feet. Liana, on the other hand, furrowed her brow and stared at my face before saying in surprise:
"Since when have you been wearing glasses?"
"..."
"Can you see her?"
"Of course I can. Do you think I’m blind or something? It’s as clear as day."
That confirmed exactly what I’d been thinking. That storm was capable of interfering with the system.
And if that was the case, there would be no obvious way out of this predicament.
And as expected, just a few seconds later, we entered the storm.
The moment that happened... the bus took flight.
One moment we were driving along the road, and the next, the wheels’ contact with the ground vanished completely.
"What—?!"
I couldn’t even finish my sentence.
The bus flipped violently.
The floor became the ceiling, and the ceiling became the floor, whilst my body slammed into one of the seats with such force that the air was knocked out of my lungs in one go.
— Boom.
Red lightning struck inside the storm, illuminating everything for a brief moment in a terrifying crimson glow.
Then the bus spun round again.
I no longer knew which way was up and which was down.
It was tossing about as if it were a dry leaf caught in a massive tornado.
The windows rattled violently, so much so that I thought they would shatter at any moment.
At the same time, the wind howled madly around us, as if invisible beasts were screaming from all directions.
I clung to one of the seats with all my might, whilst my feet left the ground and my shoulder slammed against the bus’s metal wall.
I felt a sharp pain, but I barely noticed it.
Because what was outside the windows was far worse.
All I could see was a massive whirlwind of black clouds and red lightning swirling around us from all sides, as if the bus had fallen into the heart of a living nightmare.
Then the lightning flashed again.
And in that brief flash, I saw something moving amongst the clouds.
Something so huge that it made the bus look smaller than an insect in comparison.
I couldn’t make out its full form.
I saw only a fragment of a massive black shadow passing through the vortex before the darkness swallowed it up once more.
The blood ran cold in my veins.
"..."
In fact, that wasn’t the only thing I could see.
There were countless strange images and scenes swirling within that storm, so much so that I began to doubt my own eyesight.
For a moment, I even thought I might have hit my head harder than I realised.
Why?
I could see something that looked like a giant island spinning inside the storm, as if it were stuck at the heart of the vortex.
Nevertheless, I convinced myself that what I was seeing was nothing more than hallucinations caused by the impact.
For although the bus was occasionally struck by huge fragments of rock, it remained incredibly intact.
I clung to one of the seats with all my might, as the bus tossed violently.
As I tried to make sense of what was happening, my eyes fell on the faces of Liana, Lio and Osrin, who were clinging tightly to their seats.
They were all as terrified as I was. I wasn’t the only one who realised that things had long since gone beyond the bounds of reason.
Then my eyes fell on the driver. He was still sitting in his seat. And for a brief moment, I saw something glinting in his hand.
A faint silvery light.
As I focused my gaze, I realised he was holding the Silver Trinity Flower, his head turned unnaturally towards us, that broad smile still etched on his face.
But this time... I could see it clearly. His smile wasn’t natural.
There was a long gash stretching from the right corner of his mouth to his ear, and another just like it on the other side, making his mouth look as though it had been split in two.
My heart began to race as he spoke. His voice was enough to make my breath catch for a moment.
"The Land of the Lost... welcomes you."
No sooner had he finished speaking—than his head exploded.
Blood and shrapnel scattered in every direction.
At that very moment, a bolt of red lightning struck the bus directly. A massive explosion of crimson light engulfed everything.
Then... the world vanished.
