18 The Beginning of a Nightmare (III)

After leaving a note on Yiheng's coat pocket, which told the father-son duo to imemdiately head home once they woke upa nd to be careful, Xueyue left the office and the building in general. She immediately headed to the Li Family house to check on Qianhao and Simeng. The youngest Li had a cold the day they mysteriously fell asleep so Xueyue was sure he was in the house together with Qianhao.

Xueyue gave a sigh of relief when she saw the mother and son in the same room. Simeng was on the bed while Qianhao was beside him. She was sure Qianhao was comforting her sick son before the bizarre situation even hit. Just to be sure, she checked Simeng's condition only to have her eyes widen when she felt magic coursing through his body.

"This is…"

She was already aware the Li Family had great affinity to magic, but remained untapped. Until Yiheng that is, she had been training him. She even hypothesized it was one of the reasons Liu Bai took the family under his wing in the first place.

Xueyue sighed. "I'll probably have to talk to them later. Looks like he no longer has a cold, that's good."

She looked around the property, checking for any mutated persons. Thankfully there wasn't any so she breathed a sigh of relief. She left a note on Qianhao that said to wait for her husband and son. She also told her she would bring Erhua and Sanhao home soon. Afterwards, she immediately casted a spell that had a timer on it; it would activate once both Qianhao and Simeng woke up, and nobody would be able to go in or out of it apart from herself and the people she gave permission to.

"Those people with the cloaks seem to keep an eye on people with potential to magic." she mumbled to herself. "It'll be suspicious if they suddenly couldn't enter the property."

***

Xueyue arrived in the SVIS rooftop after Liu Bai. The latter told him he arrived a few minutes before her. The two immediately shared to each other what happened. Of course, they did not forget to cast an illusion of The Seven all passed out in the rooftop since there were people in cloaks roaming around and checking.

Liu Bai told her that he found the Liu Family in their house; all three of them. Thankfully, they didn't seem to have mutated but only Yixing seemed to have magic within him. He left them a note, telling them to stay put and that he would be getting them. He also said he saw one of the cloaked individuals and heard him (he was pretty sure it was a guy) marvel at Yixing adapting to the new environment.

"I heard a cloaked guy say that to Yiheng and Weixian as well. But there's more."

Xueyue immediately recounted her story to Liu Bai who only gave a look of shock.

"Are you sure you heard him say Vastia?" Liu Bai questioned, his eyes still wide.

"Her. It was female." she corrected. "And yes, I'm pretty sure she said Vastia."

"But what does she mean with adjusting into Vastia's environment?"

"Will I be as curious as you are if I actually know the answer?" she said, sarcasm dripping on her voice.

"You think it has something to do with that?" Liu Bai asked while pointing to the sky.

Xueyue looked up as well and took a deep breath. It was the same things she saw when they were doing their errand; a huge portal was in the sky and they could see the other side, a vast land with nothing green whatsoever. It was pretty much a wasteland.

She studied the image inside the portal, a theory already forming in his head.

'It cannot be. It's not like that, right?'

She wasn't even sure it was but she thought there was no other explanation.

"Let's play along for now." she said. "Those cloaked individuals seems to check on everyone, both mutated or not. It will be suspicious if they do not find us here. Whoever's doing this, they seem to be connected to Vastia in some way. I'm pretty sure we'll know sooner or later."

Liu Bai, being the faithful and loyal person he was, agreed.

***

Jiangran woke up groggily with a bad case of headache. He felt like having a hangover, not that he ever experienced it, but his head was pounding. His mind woke up first before his body. His body felt so heavy, like he slept for days. No wonder he was groggy.

He sat up abruptly when he heard a few groans around him. He immediately observed his surroundings and saw his friends just waking up as well.

'That's strange.' he thought. 'I don't think I actually took a nap for lunch, much less all of us.'

He watched as the others tried to wipe the sleepiness off their eyes, aside from Liu Bai who seemed to still be stuck in dreamland. He wouldn't budge no matter how much Feng Xian shook him so he watched as Xueyue took matters with her own hands.

She gave him one swift smack each on his cheek and his eyes immediately snap open.

"Dude! I was having a really good dream!"

"Hey, do any of you remember taking a nap?" Wuji questioned and looked at her watch. "Crap, we're late for class! We should-"

"Uh guys?" Hae-song called, getting their attention. On his hand was his phone and his eyes were fixed on it. "Why does it say it's already the twenty-sixth? I'm pretty sure it's the nineteenth."

Jiangran immediately took out his phone to check, just like everyone else. He was bewildered when he saw the same thing on his phone's date. His eyes widened when realization hit him!

'The heck! Don't I have a competition scheduled on the twenty-third? I missed it? Did I seriously sleep for seven days?' he looked up and saw the same bewildered look from his friends. He even saw Xueyue and Liu Bai trying to call someone with their phones.

"There's no service." he heard Xueyue say grimly. "The calls aren't going through."

This made Jiangran worried. He glanced at his phone and true to her words, his phone did not have any reception. Not even WiFi was on!

"What the hell's going on?!" Song Tian exclaimed and started crying.

They did not have time to talk and figure things out though since a deafening roar echoed from the city streets. No, it wasn't just one, but a whole lot or roars.

"Uh guys?" Feng Xian called. "Is it just me or there's land in the sky?"

Jiangran looked up, so did everyone else, and their jaws figuratively dropped to the floor. Feng Xian was right!

But that wasn't only it. Somehow from that land, which Jiangran was pretty sure was a portal, like the ones in the movies and books, fireballs were launched and they were exiting the portal. The huge fireballs landed outside the city. The seven friends had to huddle together as the ground shook everytime a fireball landed.

'Shit! Is this a nightmare? Are we going to die?' Jiangran thought out of fear.