Chapter 81 - Trick Destiny

"That's Gem…. right?" Sir Grand said carefully, pointing at the girl on the tablet.

"We don't know that for sure," Venedette said, laughing nervously at him for being silly. But deep inside, she was just scared of the possibility that Gem might really be the girl in that picture all along.

"Can you move away for a second?" Sir Grand suddenly said, which flustered Venedette.

"Why?"

"Just…" When Sir Grand let go of Venedette's hands, he saw the image in the tablet shifting into another picture violently as if there were ghosts fighting to escape from it.

But aside from the spine-chilling transition that the tablet did when he let go of Venedette's hands, he was also utterly dumbfounded by the picture that the tablet was now showing in a monochromatic brick colored-scheme.

"This! Are you also seeing this?" Sir Grand said, carefully facing the tablet to Venedette without making skin contact with her.

"Is that…?" Venedette was also lost for words.

She just saw a Crone holding two boys captive outside a worn-down store with chaos in the background. But the most shocking part of it was the store's resemblance to the place where they found the well and tunnel where Von and Lei were hiding that morning.

Sir Grand was meaning to ask Von and Lei first about the old lady in the store, in case they also saw her as he did, but since Von and Lei were both caught up in Fily and Petunia's rendezvous, Sir Grand had no chance to ask them about it yet.

"What in the world…" Venedette mouthed with concern as she strode near the picture. "This is Von… and Lei… and the Crone that you said you saw earlier. But what is this? Why is the village behind them on fire? Don't tell me…" Venedette said as she started putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Since this is a Prophecy, it might happen soon which means we have to keep both Von and Lei safe and away from that village or that Crone." Sir Grand concluded.

"No. This isn't happening." Venedette said under pressure. 

"Shh, it's okay. We're going to be fine." Sir Grand whispered to her and hugged her tightly, "We'll keep them safe, okay?"

"H-How did a Crone get here without being noticed? Crones can't fly and we don't allow aircrafts to travel on our island, so how? How could it go past the borders and even set foot on this island without being noticed?!" Venedette went from feeling despair to pure wrath and anger.

Someone within their ranks must be a traitor. It was the only plausible answer as to how a Crone with the same lowly abilities as the Goblins among all the other monsters outside their protective border could do such a thing.

Crones were the epitome of longing since their only nature was to lure children into living with them and eating them afterward. They used to be humans too a very long time ago, but during the dark areas of the great doom, their cities became deprived of any source of agricultural environment, leading to the development of their sickening nature of cannibalism and incestry, making their genetics unstable and eventually too defective to be even considered as humans.

They refused to eat anything other than humans which made them one of the most savage monsters in the wastelands. And since they are cannibals, Crones could be rarely seen traveling in packs. It was even a surprise to Venedette to hear about Crones when she thought all along that they were already dead from eating each other.

But as it turns out, some of them were still alive, continuing their traditions silently amongst Superhumans. And although Superhumans were undeniably stronger than just a mere Crone, it was still hard to assume for sure that superhuman children would be safe from this sly and cunning monster who uses every child's curiosity to lure them in.

"Oh my gosh." Venedette covered her mouth upon realizing the fact that her son and Lei were both almost killed by a Crone!

"Shhh, they're safe now, okay?" Sir Grand caressed her hair quietly and even kissed her forehead which made Venedette cry even more. "We will hunt that monster down I promise you, I won't let that monster near our children anymore."

"I can't believe I-" Venedette tried to make the words out of her mouth but she was just too traumatized to say it all in one go while sobbing. "I arrived there just on time, and if it wasn't for Lei..."

"Shhhh…" Sir Grand tried to comfort her once again.

When Venedette finally calmed down, she asked Sir Grand to hold the clay tablet in his hands once again, revealing the same scenery of the Crone with the boys in front of a burning village which looked like the same village where Sir Grandoise first saw the Crone and also where they found Von and Lei.

"Here. This is a prophecy," Venedette started. "And prophecies don't lie. Which means that this will happen, one way or another."

"I won't let that happen-'' Sir Grand said but was cut by Venedette immediately.

"It will happen." She said firmly, "My great-great-great-grandfather knew about how the 'End of the world' would happen including the meteor shower that he used to his advantage in order to save our species, but he could only save us and not the whole planet, why is that?"

"Because he didn't have enough time?" Sir Grand guessed quietly, unable to follow along with Venedette's theory which she only shook her head on his wrong guess.

"Because Prophecies don't lie! Which means that this image right here, will and should happen! Or else something far worse would happen that we wouldn't be prepared for." Venedette said exasperatedly.

"But how about Von and Lei?" Sir Grand said out of confusion.

"It doesn't have to be Von and Lei. We just need to complete this picture right here and do exactly like what Dr. Lectric and his team did to trick destiny."