Chapter 257 History Will Repeats Itself
'Truly interesting.' Nial thought as his curiosity about Hana kept increasing.
"Miranda, didn't the information I received earlier say that terminally ill civilians were kidnapped by the Eclipse Assassins?" He asked all of a sudden and turned to his master.
"Yeah, the Eclipse Assassins kidnap terminally ill civilians for the Heaven's Gates organization. You know that. Why are you asking?" Miranda answered in an irritated voice due to his sudden interruption. She then made a few more inquiries about the Heaven's Gates organization when Nial and Mathias were busy with their conquest.
She had already received a bit more information and was waiting to hear a lot more when the news about the descending plateau, the Forest of Life, reached her.
Miranda gave Nial all the files she had, which was everything she could have done to help her disciple at that time.
However, now that there was a connection to the Originals association's network, even in the small base near the Forest of Life, things had become much easier, and Miranda had received even more files filled with information.
"The files you read through a few days ago came from a spy within the Eclipse Assassins. He or she is at a higher position and only after I paid several tens of millions of dollars, did the anonymous provider share the files with me.
Everything should be written there." Miranda was not sure what exactly Nial wanted to say, but she felt that it was not something she was looking forward to.
"I know that this is everything you have, but I noticed something odd when I fought with Hana," Nial remarked, without revealing anything about her special traits, not yet, at least.
Not many terminally ill civilians had been kidnapped in the last few years, and even fewer were ever seen again. Nial presumed that they had, most likely, died.
The lives of others didn't really matter to him but considering that the chances of staying alive in the Heaven's Gates organization as terminally ill patients were low, Nial had been a bit worried.
This was another reason for him wanting to fight Hana. Even if he couldn't tell for sure, Nial was pretty sure that Hana had been terminally ill just like Sabrina!
And when Nial shrouded Hana with his dark energy to prevent any of her mana fluctuations to influence the people in the surrounding area, Nial simultaneously visualized her entire body from inside-out to 'see' whether there were signs of a terminal illness or not, if he could detect something odd about her.
In the end, Nial didn't find much, but the little traces he found were more than enough for him to conclude that Hana was one of the few civilians, who had been kidnapped by the Eclipse Assassins and brought to the Heaven's Gates organization.
"What did you find out?" Now, even Mathias was interested, and Nial could only smile faintly.
"She was terminally ill, similar to my sister, Sabrina, and to make things even more interesting, Hana is terrifyingly talented.
Somehow, the Heaven's Gates organization turned Hana's terminal illness into something advantageous." Nial was still not sure what exactly they had done to Hana, but she didn't seem to resent the Heaven's Gates organization as much as he did for taking his sister away from him.
'Maybe her memories were sealed, or she lost parts of her memory? But, who am I to determine that? I have no idea about who Hana even is.' The more he thought about the Heaven's Gates organization, the more frustrating it was.
However, on the other hand, Nial had to acknowledge the bitter truth that his sister might have already died by now. He didn't want to accept reality but even if nobody had kidnapped Sabrina, or done anything stupid, he could not ignore the possibility that she might have died by now.
Her terminal illness was at an advanced stage and it had progressed rapidly. Nial knew that which was also why the Heaven's Gates organization could be considered the last ray of hope for his ailing sister.
'Do I hate them for taking away my family, or am I supposed to be thankful for whatever they did? Well...if my sister is alive and healed, I would probably be thankful, I guess?' Nial was confused, which only increased when he visualized that Miranda's expression had worsened.
"What is wrong?" Nial asked, worried that Miranda might have something bad to say about his idea. 'Is something wrong with my family?'
Right now, Nial was not able to think reasonably anymore. Everything was way too confusing, after all.
'Is it like that?' Miranda wondered as a deep frown appeared on her face.
Miranda thought about it for quite a while. There was no reason for the Eclipse Assassins to kidnap someone, who was bound to die.
There was also the possibility that the Heaven's Gates organization used the terminally ill patients as lab rats to conduct experiments. However, terminally ill people were weak and there had to be a reason to experiment on someone, especially terminally ill civilians.
Miranda had discarded this possibility quickly when she realized that there was something else, something that sounded far more logical. 'All kidnapped patients had terminal illnesses that were unknown to the doctors, and they could only find a bit of respite and be somewhat tended to with the use of mana-based medicine...'
"What if Hana, and maybe even your sister, were never terminally ill, but that they were in possession of some sort of special constitution or trait that their body couldn't handle?" She asked all of a sudden, her eyes gleaming brightly as she looked straight at Nial.
"That...." Nial started to speak but he quieted down in an instant.
'Is that possible? It should...'
"So...the Heaven's Gates organization is searching for terminally ill people like my sister, and they try to awaken their special traits before nourishing them?" Nial thought that it made sense.
Hana was bound to reach the Prometheus rank at an extremely low age. If not for the Forest of Life and the Elves' appearance, she would have already been on the way to becoming the strongest Original in a matter of years.
Now things would change a bit but Hana was destined to become powerful nonetheless.
"So your sister is definitely alive, maybe even healed? That is amazing!!!" Mathias was exhilarated. He rushed to his friend and hugged him.
Mathias didn't care about the gazes his loud voice of action attracted. Right now, he was just happy for his good friend, glad that Nial's hard work was paying off and that he received good news.
There was still hope for his sister and Nial himself and that was worth a hug!
Nial couldn't hide his smile anymore. They didn't know anything for sure but the chances seemed good. Hana had overcome her terminal illness as well, so his sister might actually be alive!
'Hana also said that Sabrina could be the other veiled woman.' Nial recalled. Earlier, he couldn't take this information for granted, let alone hope that it had to be Sabrina.
However, now the chances were rising, and Nial's heart was beating wildly.
The Ankh was glowing brightly as well. It caused the Odyssey seed to thump as well.
Excitement streamed through Nial. 'Today is a great day!' He thought with a bright smile.
Yet, just when he thought that things couldn't get any better, Nial's hair stood up on its ends.
With a light push, he moved Mathias away from him.
A moment later, Nial's range of perception was instantaneously expanded to its limit and he used a large amount of mana to supply it to his [Mana Sense], further expanding his range of perception.
His range of perception is now spread in a radius spanning more than 10 kilometers in that state. But even then, there was nothing odd that he could sense.
"Weird, I could swear..." He muttered in confusion before his face drained of all its color. He paled in an instant as blood trickled out of his nose.
"Nial!! What is going on?!" Mathias immediately screamed out, shocked by the dark-red blood that splattered on the ground.
"Nial?!" Miranda was also alarmed at the sudden change in her disciple's behavior and his well-being.
Nial looked up as blood continued to trickle out of his nose, while his face turned even paler if that was even possible.
All of a sudden, something about his milky and lifeless eyes changed. Darkness crawled out from the corner of his eyes. It devoured not only the white of his eye but the pair of lifeless eyes in its entirety that had been staring at the sky in a particular direction.
Darkness oozed out of Nial's eyes, and an eerie gloominess shrouded his entire existence as he opened his mouth slowly.
"Makilu Historia, Sanik Oliav," A hoarse and dark voice that didn't belong to Nial escaped his lips. The language he spoke was not something anyone could understand.
Even the Elves that were present were incapable of understanding what Nial was saying.
Raging winds emerged around him, and darkness oozed out of his pores creating a cloud of darkness. Nial was its center and the darkness that swirled around him expanded rapidly.
The darkness wanted to devour everything in Nial's range of perception, take over all life, and turn the puny existences around it into its mindless slaves.
In seconds, the training ground was engulfed in darkness before it began to encroach on the surrounding nature that was slowly being destroyed.
The Elves looked at him in terror. They were frozen in place and couldn't move in the fear of being destroyed as well. Nial's darkness destroyed everything, and only the Prometheus Elves were able to do something.
Seconds after the training grounds were engulfed in Nial's darkness, they appeared in the trees. Valvian was also amongst them, and he could only stare at Nial's face in terror, just like everyone else.
Whatever was going on was getting out of hand and Valvian didn't like that at all!
'Just what is going on?!' He thought in confusion. His gaze was fixated on Nial, who was now also bleeding out of his eyes. It was almost as if he was consumed by the darkness he ought to have under his control.
But what was the trigger for this sudden change?! Maybe not even Nial knew...
"We have to stop him, now! Otherwise, it will be too late to save the Forest of Life!!" One of the Prometheus Elves exclaimed in a shaky voice.
Yet, before anyone could act to prevent Nial from destroying everything, a faint trace of white could be seen in his pitch-black eyes. Just a moment later, Nial bit on his lip so hard that it started to bleed.
His fingernails dug in his palm and the Ankh began to shine even brighter, filling Nial with the essence of life.
"This fucking bullshit. I cannot even be happy for a short moment. These annoying memories, go fuck yourself!" Nial cursed out, without holding back.
He had been deprived of his short moment of happiness, and that was certainly not something that made him happy.
His head was aching painfully. It was almost as if someone had stabbed his brain with thousands of blazing hot needles.
However, Nial knew that there was no time for him to think about what just happened, and why it happened, let alone to rest for some time.
With weak movements, his hands lifted to the sky in the north,
"War will emerge, chaos will descend, and history will repeat itself. They're coming, hundreds of thousands of them..."
**
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