Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 230: Back to the past

Chapter 230: Back to the past

Alex could barely believe his ears after he heard what Ana had to say.

Blinking repeatedly in a bid to find out if Ana was teasing yielded no fruit as she truly had said the truth.

Pursing his lips, he inquired. "Since when?"

"... It’s been a long time. I don’t want to talk about it right now. Just know that I barely escaped that day but even though I did, I was unable to avoid getting struck by something quite troublesome."

"It must have been a terrible experience," Alex muttered before asking. "Can the Great Family heads not take care of it?"

"I wish they could. But the corruption affecting me isn’t an exertion of will and it quickly became an integral part of me. Their Antimagic can only work when the Will of the World is subverted by the will of another being. If it happens to be a natural phenomenon, maybe born as a side effect of the person’s existence, then their Antimagic is as good as useless." Ana explained with a sigh.

Falling into deep thought for a moment, Alex replied. "So that’s how it is."

"I’m sorry. I had hoped you would be able to help me take care of it."

"Why me?"

"Your power. The first time you utilized your Ability before me, I could sense that it had an effect on the corruption within me. If it could be controlled properly, it might allow me to restrict the corruption long enough to take back what was once mine."

"So without it, you won’t be able to send me back?" Alex inquired.

Ana bit down on her lower lip as she replied. "... I can’t risk it."

"Then that’s fine."

"No..."

"Take my hand." Alex simply said as his form materialized, taking on a more tangible state.

Ana paused, unsure if she’d heard him correctly. "... I should take your hand?"

"Yes. Take it." Alex repeated as he stretched out his hand.

Hesitant at first, Ana decided to trust him as she reached out and seemingly grabbed at nothing.

The next moment, however, everything changed.

She found herself on a strange island made out of sparkling black rocks with vegetation that seemed to hold the beauty of the night in them with some having white stems and black flowers while others had black stems and white flowers.

She blinked, completely astounded by the beauty before her.

"What do you think?" A voice suddenly said, jolting her from her reverie.

She glanced back to find Alex standing at the beach with an endless black sea behind him.

Taking a deep breath, she muttered. "Where is this place?"

Alex revealed a smile as he replied. "Welcome to Evernight. My domain."

***

Lionel had noticed when Ana had stepped aside from their group and though his attention was still on getting to Natasha as soon as possible, he didn’t forget to ensure Ana was still in his detection range.

Of course, it didn’t take long for her to disappear prompting him to pause as he tried to detect her presence, however, try as he may, there was nothing.

His expression turned grim as he pondered whether to go back or keep going forward.

"Sir Lionel, is something wrong?" Marcus inquired as he drew close.

Lionel didn’t answer as he pondered for a bit longer before finally making his decision.

He kept moving forward while muttering under his breath. "Be safe."

***

"... This is your domain?" Ana asked with an incredulous look on her face.

Alex nodded. "Indeed, it is."

"... Unbelievable," Ana muttered as she glanced at the sky, the familiar scene of twinkling lights reminding her of Alex’s Eternal Night.

Giving her a moment to admire Evernight, Alex soon spoke up. "You may send me back now."

"..." Ana turned back to face him. "I already told you..."

"Nothing will happen here, I promise," Alex spoke with conviction, leaving Ana further conflicted.

After more than a minute had passed, she nodded.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and immersed herself in the ambient aether that made the air appear rich and full.

By the time she opened her eyes, Alex quickly noticed a change in the atmosphere which made him prepare himself for the transfer.

Immediately, Ana began to chant in dragon tongue, exerting her will on the world as she did so.

Behind her, an illusory clock quickly took shape with another appearing before Alex.

"So this is the full power of a dragon," Alex muttered.

At that moment, Ana spoke up. "Step into the clock. I must warn you that you can’t spend more than 15 minutes over there and whatever you do, do not attempt to change any of the events that have happened in the past."

"How big of a change?"

"If it causes the flow of Time to pause, you might be directly erased from existence. If not, you’d just end up creating an alternate timeline."

"So as long as what I do doesn’t change anything important, it’s all good, right?"

"... What do you intend to do?"

Alex revealed a sly smile. "I’ll be back."

With that, he stepped into the clock and the next moment, turned into cosmic dust.

***

Alex appeared in the center of a busy city.

Pedestrians went about their business as carriages moved about the paved streets.

It gave him a sense of deja Vu, like he’d already seen this scene before but he found himself unable to recall.

Pursing his lips, he was just about to make his way down the streets when a sudden boom echoed from somewhere far away with the streets trembling as though an earthquake had struck.

Quickly realizing something, he rushed into an alleyway before snapping his fingers to teleport to the top of the roof while simultaneously activating Twilight Steps to hide his figure.

From the top of the building, he quickly recalled why the sense of deja Vu had been so strong.

Watching as a cloud of darkness rushed toward the city, he recalled where he’d seen this before.

It was the day Popolis got destroyed.