Chapter 96: Master Lin

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Master Lin and Nate have begun traveling away from the town of Bristol after getting out of the dome. However, soon when the night kicks in, and they have just closed their eyes for a few minutes to rest, their consciousness gets transported into another realm. 

The darkness they dwelled inside while resting suddenly lights up, shifting them to a land covered in flowers. A stillness reigns the entire plane, in fact, so still that both men become unsettled to even move from their standing spot on the only narrow pathway to a single gazebo on the hill. There is no wind present or sound. 

The cloudless sky blends in bright orange, yellow, and soft pink palates, but time stands still so that they know that is the eternal scene of the sky.

Nate turns his head nervously to look at his new surroundings with a high alert, but when he looks at his master standing beside him, his nerves settle down a bit when he sees how indifferent Master Lin is to the strange place that they randomly went in. As if his master has been to this place plenty of times for him not to be surprised anymore.

"Master Lin…" Nate nervously awaits answers.

"Let's go to meet with the one who has summoned us," Lin replies to the curiosity arising from Nate.

Master Lin walks towards the white structure where a circular table sits in the middle. A young teenage girl with a long silk dress and dark hair quietly sits on one of the chairs around the marble table.

"Goddess Yue," Lin bows to the deity.

Nate quickly gives a glance and nervously follows Lin, lowering his head as he curiously peeks up.

"Lin, you know that you don't need these formalities when we meet," Yue places down her pen and closes her notebook.

Nate immediately gets drawn to the pen and notebook on the table. He has never seen such precision in the makings of paper, ink, and writing instruments. 

Nate quickly gets an elbow from Lin, and he takes off his eyes from the objects despite his interests.

"Lin, my master is displeased that you allowed Kyrie to get involved with the dirty creations of those shamans. You do not touch that child, Lin."

Nate immediately lifts his head since he knows that he was the one who passed the potion to Ian. However, Master Lin immediately presses Nate's head down again.

"Master! But I was the one passing the potion."

Certainly, Nate has passed the potion to Ian, but Nate does not know that Lin has passed one as well.

"I was just making trades," responds Lin after a moment of pause.

Yue smirks and says, "You can't avoid Kyrie from his fate, Lin. Trying to get him to lose memories will not stop the course. What an incredible act of fatherly love! After leaving a mess for your child to deal with in the other world, you want to screw him over even more by trying to erase his memories!"

"He was not supposed to come into this world," Lin digs his nails into his palm.

"That is not up to you to decide," Yue's words harden.

"Nor the gods," Lin lifts his head. 

His eyes cannot hide his pent up frustrations.

"So basically, you went and looked for that old shaman to check on your child's future. Then decide that the best course of action is to intervene with fate?" Yue slams her hands on the table, and the entire realm shakes!

"Steady table you have there," Yue leans back, scuffing at the response from Lin's mouth. 

Lin smirks, "I don't want to hear that from you, Yue. You gods first decide to change fate, and now you bring Kyrie back to this world. Are you regretting now what you did in the past since fate complies with no one?!"

"That world is in an eternal loop that you don't have to experience over and over again! You don't know what that has done to my master!" Yue shakes as she speaks in between her teeth.

"Your master has created this mess! She has no one to blame but herself!"

Nate looks at the two back and forth, unable to connect anything from what they are saying. However, he can pick up that Kyrie is not from his world and that his appearance will change fate. He has no idea of what memories the two are talking about, nonetheless.

"Goddess Yue, I also passed a potion. I am not sure why Master Lin is getting all the blame," Nate nervously speaks up, having hard trouble to swallow his own saliva.

Even though Nate is usually a coward, he is not an ingrate. He cannot let his master take all the blame for him. He has a debt to Lin for raising him.

Yue sighs, "Your potion would have done nothing, human. It would not change the course of fate. Your master here made sure that the potion is used on his own child."

'His own child? Master Lin has a child?' Nate widens his eyes as he finally picks up that piece of information.

'But it does not make sense,' Nate looks at Lin, and his eyes land on Lin's pointy ear and eternal youth, 'Master is an elf.'

"I will warn you again, Lin. Don't intervene with fate again!"

After Yue speaks those words, their vision turns dark. 

Nate wakes up in shock as if he forgot to breathe and heavily grasps. On the other hand, Lin just silently opens his eyes. His eyes harden, and he punches on the ground.

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Ian takes the ring off from Cynthia's finger. Then, he holds her up from the collar. Her eyes continuously go unfocused as blood trails down from her forehead.

Hardening his eyes, he raises his hand with electricity zapping violently for the finishing move.

However, Ian's heart suddenly feels a sharp pain when someone's presence weighs on top of him. The black mana stone vibrates in his pocket. So, he lets go of Cynthia and takes out the stone. The mana stone's power continues to increase, so he quickly throws the mana stone.

The stone explodes, pushing everyone in the vicinity away by the force of the explosion. A magic circle casts from the stone, opening a portal.

Imogen shakes as she looks at the figure that comes out of the portal. Although she can feel that it is just essence with a sliver of consciousness, she cannot help but shake.

Erebus steps out of the portal, and his eyes direct to Kyrie. He frowns as he watches, and the shaman suddenly stops as if her body froze. Her mirror shatters on her hands, turning back to green smoke as the particles of the mirror dissolve in mid-air. Erebus's eyes turn red, and his expression turns colder by the minute.

Shadows on Erebus's feet lift him towards Kyrie, and he presses his thumb on the shaman's mask even though the shaman is shaking as if she is trying to break away from invisible chains. The mask breaks, uncovering the youthful face that contradicts her other features. She screams as her mind jolts and turns into green smoke. 

Kyrie lands on Erebus's arms, and the green smoke suddenly gathers, rushing back towards Kyrie. 

'Kid… This might be the last thing I will do for you.'

Erebus quickly loses his hold on Kyrie when Ian snatches him away. Erebus lets out a small smile, not minding that Kyrie got stolen from his arms. His eyes land on his pathetic-looking servants. 

"Return," Erebus instructs them, "and prepare for my descent."

Erebus's body turns into black mist, and the mist shoots towards Sil and Cynthia, wrapping them inside. Then, the mist disappears along with the two. 

'He did not even give me a glance…' Imogen grinds her teeth.

Laurel grabs Imogen's arm as she becomes concerned when she looks at Imogen's eyes filled with hate.