4 Foreboding

Hecate frowned again, unable to tolerate the interruption anymore. Her concentration was slipping as the negative energy that had appeared suddenly when she was cultivating her mana started to gain her attention, forcing her to stop her meditation.

Unable to ignore the disturbance anymore, Hecate's eyes snapped open and the moment she did so, the light around her vanished. She stared at the spot in front of her sternly as she let out deep breaths to curb her anger.

"Show yourself to me." She ordered, still seated in the position she had donned before she had started cultivating. Her voice was menacing and cold, and immediately after, an old man appeared before her.

Hecate's expressionless eyes moved up as she watched the man kneel before her. His eyes were lowered while he trembled in fear, sensing her anger radiating from her.

"Plea...please forgive me, Goddess Hecate, for disturbing yo..you." He apologized at once as he bowed before her. His terrified form did not appease the irked deity whatsoever. She glowered at him, staring hard at his wrinkled face.

"Who are you and why are you here?" She queried with her eyes narrowed and the timid man dropped his neck a little, feeling the pressure around him decrease. The aura around her was too intense for him to bear and he was having a hard time facing the Goddess in front of him.

"I am Finne...Finnegan Morr and I was once the royal...royal physician during King Emmanuel's reign at Aranill." He forced out his identity with great difficulty. The deity in front of him was still infuriated and he was unsure how long he could survive before she punished him for disturbing him.

Just like everyone else, he too understood the consequence of disturbing any of the three goddesses at this time. In just a few hours, the year would change and the three goddesses would merge to become one, with the moon goddess, Luna becoming the strongest among them all. And he had chosen exactly this moment to disturb Goddess Hecate, interrupting her in her cultivation of mana.

"Please forgive me for interrupting you, Goddess Hecate. I have something important to inform you." As soon as he recalled the reason he was here, Finnegan's fear decreased and he lifted his neck, straightening his back a little. Even though his eyes were still downcast, he seemed more confident and Hecate's anger receded, albeit only slightly.

"What do you want to apprise me about?" Hecate controlled her temper and asked him patiently even though she was pressing for time. She just had a few hours to gather as much energy as she could before she merged with Luna.

Since the day the protectors had left Mount Selas after the deities' orders, she had gone into isolation, submerging herself into gathering and cultivating her lost energy. Though at first, she had ignored the disturbance, it soon became impossible to do. Sensing the desperation, she had allowed the spirit to come to her. If not for the urgency in the situation, no spirit approached her on their own. It was always her who summoned them.

Hecate observed the old man, waiting for him to reply. Though she did not know who he was, she had a faint impression of the King he had mentioned.

Emmanuel had been one of the strongest kings she had known, and unfortunately for him, it was his own people who had betrayed him, forcing him to his death even before his time was up. Chaos had erupted in the Underworld when the reaper had brought his soul back even before it was due.

"Goddess Hecate, since a few days, a sense of uneasiness and foreboding has been filling me and I am unable to rest in peace," Finnegan revealed the reason he was here, and Hecate stared at him in interest.

"Continue." She ordered on seeing him stop.

"I am not sure as to why but I feel that danger might soon fall on the world I am from."

Hecate did not doubt his words for she surmised what he speaking about. It was not a wonder that some spirits could foretell future events, and she had a faint idea about the foreboding he was referring to.

"Aranill would soon become a battlefield, and I am afraid to say that many people would soon be dying."

Now, Hecate was stunned. This was not what she had expected to hear and she squinted her eyes, her dark aura spreading around her at once. It was not danger he had sensed, but deaths and this rendered the Goddess worried.

Finnegan too felt the change around him and he sucked in a deep breath in fear as he waited for the Goddess to speak.

"Did you just say that there would be deaths soon?"

Finnegan nodded at her in response, too frightened to speak after sensing the shift in the Goddess' demeanor.

"Did you find out anything else?"

Finnegan frowned and unknowingly, he lifted his head to meet the Goddess in the eye. But the next moment, he lowered his head again when he realized what he had done.

"Please forgive me for my insolence, Goddess Hecate." He pleaded for mercy immediately.

"Answer me." Hecate ignored his impudence and focused on the matter at hand.

Finnegan thought for a while as he tried to recall what he had sensed when he had been taking a stroll around the place he had last stayed before his death. Goddess Hecate was a merciful deity, and all the good souls in the Netherworld were allowed to visit the place they wanted once after their death. It had been his chance this time.

But who knew that the moment he stepped on his land, on Aranill, his home, he sensed the doom in the air. All he could see was blood and dead bodies of people whom he did not know but felt connected to.

Finnegan felt chills run down his spine when he remembered what he had seen and for a moment, he found himself staring at one of the dead bodies in front of him. Unable to watch it anymore, he closed his eyes only to open them immediately when he recollected something else.

"I remember now, Goddess Hecate. Although I did not get to speak to him much, one of them revealed that all the people were killed by the person they least expected to before he took his last breath."