CHAPTER 10
~GABRIELLA'S POV~The silence in the air was unbearable. I could hear my own breathing, and with every step, I took crushed dried leaves under my paws, making sounds that echoed through the forest as if informing the other wolves of my location.I moved steadily, my eyes focused on the prey before me—a large, dark brown deer. As I got in close range, I leaped toward it, but before I could reach it, it jumped out of the way and took off. I landed head-first on a rock and yelled in pain.“Hunting is so hard; how am I supposed to survive this?" I thought to myself, using my paw to gently rub my head.“The other girls are gone; there's no way of finding them now, and the bell is going to ring anytime soon. What to do, what to do..."I said this as I sat there with a worried look. It had already been the first hour; I had never gone hunting before in my life, and my wolf wasn't fast or strong enough to run from other wolves.I let out a sigh,got up from where I sat, and walked through the bushes in my continued search for a simpler prey, something that wouldn't easily jump out of the way. Christine said the forest was bustling with wild life this time of the year, but all I could see for miles were just bushes and trees. Maybe I was in the wrong part of the forest.As I fell deeper and deeper into my thoughts, I noticed a large rabbit across a small bush a little distance from me.“Rabbits, they're really fast, but maybe I could..." I said silently as I crounched down, readying all four of my feet to pounce on the rabbit. I waited a few seconds for the right moment, and when it finally came, I pushed myself off the ground, and in an instant, the rabbit's upper body was between my jaws.I bit harder into its torso, holding it to the ground to make sure it didn't have the chance to run away, and after a few minutes, it stopped moving.I let go of the rabbit and sat by it, waiting to see if it would move, but it was dead.“I did it; it's only a rabbit, but I finally caught something. I won't have to go back empty-handed,” I said, letting out slow breaths as I was heavily tired from moving around so much.As I leaned forward to pick up the rabbit, I felt a heavy blow on my side. I was sent flying into a large tree that stood a short distance from me, and after hitting it, I fell to the ground with a subtle thud.The pain I felt as I slowly rose from the ground was unbearable. I opened my eyes and turned to see a larger wolf walking toward me. I couldn't tell who among the maids this was, but I knew things were about to get ugly.She slowly closed in on me, growling loudly, every one of her fangs exposed to incite fear. I stepped back. There was nothing I could do at this point; she was larger and stronger than I was.All my senses went stiff as they recognized she was about to attack, and my legs petrified with fear as my fur bristled.She launched at me, spreading her large mouth with killing intent. Suddenly, another large wolf leaped out of nowhere and pushed her in another direction.She got up from the ground and was about to attack the intruder, but she noticed something strange about him. I couldn't tell what it was, but I could see her eyes slowly fill with fear. After crouching down before him in a submissive manner, she took a few steps backwards and ran off.The male wolf stared in the direction she ran off in for a few seconds, then turned to me. I stepped back in fear as our eyes met.I thought this was going to be the end for me, but to my greatest surprise, he gently picked up the dead rabbit and dropped it in front of me.I shifted back into my human form and nervously placed my left palm on his snout. As I steered into his eyes, a memory flashed by in my mind—one where I and Steven were locked in the storage room, staring at each other silently as our hearts beat in synchronicity.Suddenly the bushes rustled, and a little girl came out. She had a large hat on like a witch and wore really dark clothing.“Hey, is she alright?” the little girl asked before turning to me.“Oh, hi Gabriella... I see you've met my friend, not that you haven't already met before," she said with a giggle.She walked toward the large wolf, placed her palms on his back, and gently climbed onto him.“It's a good thing you were able to sense she was in danger. Things would have gone really badly, but we have to leave now before someone from the mansion sees us; these hunting grounds are for the alpha alone," the little girl said.The large wolf, as if obeying her, turned around and began walking away from me.“Hey!” I yelled, and he suddenly stopped.“Who are you? And... how do you know my name?” I asked.The little girl turned around and said, “Does it really matter? We saved your life; you should be thankful. By the way, you should head that way; there are more wolves coming, and there's already a deer killed in that direction; if you hurry, you might make it before the bell rings,” she replied, pointing to her right.I was dumbfounded by her words. How did she know all this? How did she know about the hunt and about the bell?I was about to yell again when she continued, “You're an important piece of this puzzle, Gabriella. Don't get killed before the story even starts.The ground suddenly started to rumble. I could hear and smell multiple wolves coming in my direction. I looked left and right in panic, and when I turned back to where the wolf and the little girl stood, they were gone.I immediately shifted into my wolf and ran in the direction the little girl pointed. After I had run for a few minutes, I found the deer I was previously going to catch lying on the ground.“Did they... do this?” I thought to myself, staring at the dead animal on the ground. I quickly grabbed the deer's leg and pulled it all the way back to the door where we started. The moment I arrived, the bell rang, and to my surprise, no one else had arrived."That little girl; she showed me a short cut,” I said, letting out a sigh.CHAPTER 310~GABRIELLA'S POV~Just as Clarabelle warned, the entire world forgot that there was such a thing as the alpha-J drug, and every trace of it vanished from the face of the earth after she reversed the fate of everyone who consumed it and became an artificial. Things went back to normal so quickly that it almost seemed like nothing happened at all—like all the struggles my friends were put through by Episteme, Evelyn, and Agnes were just a dream. People forgot that a company like Higher Wellness Pharmaceuticals existed and that Governor Gerald was a criminal.Newspapers and written reports about the matter disappeared without a trace. Because of this, Steven’s company was unaffected by Evelyn’s actions, and the criminals involved were convicted secretly by the council. Questions were asked about Governor Gerald’s and Queen Elizabeth's disappearances, but people soon got distracted by other things and lost interest in the matter. Steven offered to hand over the position of h
CHAPTER 309~3RD PERSON’S POV~Maria and Clarabelle stood in front of the gates of the Dragnon mansion with umbrellas above their heads and worry on their faces. They had been waiting for Marie and the others to return for hours, but there was no sign of them returning at all.Clarabelle did well to protect everyone from the intense heat, and now that the sun had moved away from the earth, she was sure that Marie and her friends had won the battle. In fact, as the Immortal of Fate, she already knew they would win, and she already knew who would bring that victory, but she wasn't allowed to say a word to anyone. What she wasn't sure of was if they had survived or not, because she refused to look that far into the future.“Do you think they'll return safely?” Maria asked with worry in her voice. She has lost her husband before and was very afraid of losing him again.Clarabelle turned to her and saw the worry in her eyes, then turned away. “Let’s just be hopeful,” she said softly. A f
CHAPTER 308~3RD PERSON'S POV~~Earlier~“Huh?” Gabriella blinked repeatedly in confusion as she stared into Lunaris's eyes. They both sat in a pool of water in the black, empty void that was Gabriella's mind. “What’s going on? I thought I died already,” Gabriella asked softly.“You did—well, not exactly. I put you to sleep for over four months to get some things done in your world. Now that my plot is complete, I'd like you to return and continue living the life you've always wanted,” Lunaris said with a smile.“Oh, you mean I didn't have to die for you to take my body?” Gabriella asked.“Yes, Gabriella. If everyone knew that you were still alive, they would not have grown as much as they have now... especially Marie. I had to make everyone believe that your death was necessary for me to come to this world, so that the plot I couldn't finish years ago would finally be completed,” Lunaris responded.“Oh, I can't believe it's been four months already. How's Marie and the others doing?
CHAPTER 307~3RD PERSON’S POV~Marie and her sisters, Cortana and Yuna, sat inside a large metal dome created by Angela. Angla had created multiple domes like this to accommodate the entire army of Vedantya, and this was because the temperature of the atmosphere has risen to an unbearable level. Daniella used her manipulation of heat to cool down the domes so the occupants wouldn't die of heat stroke.The air around the domes looked like it had been stained with gasoline fumes, and rocks around them had begun melting.Valerie tried again and again to open a portal but failed every single time. The spell that blocked her ability to use spatial magic wasn't very powerful but was somehow too complex for her to undo. It was like the spell reformed itself at light speed every time she broke it, and there was no way of stopping it.“This is bad. If we stay here longer than this, the whole world is going to melt down,” Angela said with worry on her face.“No, we can't give up yet; I'm sure I
CHAPTER 306~3RD PERSON’S POV~“What have you done to me?!!” Agnes yelled with a gory voice.“I poisoned you, Agnes. Ordinarily, poison wouldn't be enough to kill a witch like you, but depending on how powerful the poison is, it would be enough to weaken you. The souls of the fallen Immortals despise you, Agnes. But as much as they want to escape, as souls, they're not nearly strong enough to go against the spell you put on them. It's just like Sabbath and Mary; without Mary's body, Sabbath can't use his power. So, without Agnes's body, the immortals are weak to her spells. But spells require serious mental concentration and physical reinforcement to hold together, and once those two things weaken, the spell comes apart and the souls of the Immortals have their chance to escape.” Agnes gripped her stomach tightly as she felt an agonizing pain coming up. She bled from her nose and mouth as the souls of all the Immortals began seeping out of her body and flying off. “After the Immor
CHAPTER 305~3RD PERSON'S POV~~years ago~“You idiot, don’t go playing with sharp objects if you’re going to lose your mind like that; you know how dangerous that power of yours is,” Agnes queried.“I’m so sorry, I was only trying to get over my fear of blood; it’s really hard,” Mary replied nervously, stroking the back of her head slowly.“Don’t do that anymore. You’ll end up hurting everyone around you,” Agnes said. “But I’ll have you to slap me back to my senses before that happens, right?” Mary said.Agnes smiled. “Yeah, but next time I’ll make sure to slap you even harder so you get knocked out before coming back to your senses.” Both she and Mary laughed together, and the four teachers just stared at them with confused expressions on their faces.~•••~“I lied to you the other day, Mary. I’m not friends with you because you’re a good person or make life interesting for me. I mean, you do, but that’s not the reason.”“Then what is?” Mary asked.“It’s because I feel very ashamed