Surreal

At the endless desert of Barasan...

Angel was startled awake as the morning sun's rays beamed directly onto her face. She felt an intense pressure in her head, and her eyelids felt as heavy as lead. A cool, damp cloth gently grazed her forehead, and as she slowly opened her eyes, they met a pair of intense, dark obsidian eyes that initially displayed a hint of emotion.

Was it a concern? However, it was fleeting, and when Angel blinked, the dark orbs quickly turned into a cold, icy gaze.

Gavin Reeves, who was driving, turned his head and spoke with genuine concern, "Angel, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?"

"I feel awful. What's going on with me?" She inquired, her expression reflecting her bewilderment.

Gavin reminded her, "Do you remember what happened the other night? You were out cold for a whole day and night."

Angel's forehead creased with concentration as she struggled to recall something. Suddenly, a rumbling noise emanated from her stomach.

Leoric handed her a piece of soft bread and a clear tumbler brimming with water. The water was a little bit warm, but because she was too thirsty, it tasted cool and refreshing.

"Thank you." She politely thanked Leoric.

"Why are you thanking me? Hurry up and eat. We don't want you to drag our journey if you get sick." Leoirc said coldly.

Angel let out a frustrated sigh and silently scolded herself for thanking him. He did not deserve it all. As she tried to sit down, she felt an unexpected wave of weakness washed over her. It was as if her body had turned to jelly, and she struggled to understand why. Then, a fragment of memory from the previous night surfaced in her mind. A voice echoed in her head, warning her that her body's weakness would lead to her being devoured if she didn't find a way to strengthen it against the power that had been bestowed upon her.

She stuffed the bread in her mouth and drank a few gulps of water. 

"Last night, I remembered walking in the desert, and then the moon turned blood red." Angel shared what she recalled. The fog in her mind cleared. She vividly remembered as the desert sands shifted beneath her feet. She gazed up at the sky and saw the moon transform into a deep, ominous shade of blood red. She was debating whether to reveal the surreal experience of being lifted from the sand and hearing the mystical voice in her head. Ultimately, she chose to keep the extraordinary event to herself.

She was not close to the people around her. Her new husband was her enemy. Dr. Gavin Reeves seemed a nice person, but he was still someone that she had known only for a few days.

Leoric and Gavin sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. They couldn't help but reminisce about the eerie events that unfolded when the moon turned a deep shade of red before the entire desert was plunged into an unsettling darkness.

Three people witnessed when Angel was caught up in the moon's reddish beam. 

Nayou's eyes widened in astonishment as he recalled the ancient prophecy depicting the moon bathed in blood, foretelling the arrival of a baby girl who would one day liberate the people of Astralis from their oppression. He couldn't help but wonder why Mayari, the goddess of war, seemed to be bestowing her favor upon Angel.

At the brief moment when Angel was enveloped by the reddish halo, she became like a ruby radiating a crimson brilliance that momentarily blinded him. Yet he refused to look away nor blink. 

Suddenly, it was as if he could envision Angel being transfigured into his beloved "Tala," with a crimson glow enveloping her. The swirling radiant red light began at her head, gracefully tracing down her form until it reached her toes, then looping back up to her body before finally entering her chest.

The third person who witnessed the surreal event was Talon. He was one of King Toren's trusted phari, but Zurin manipulated him and turned him against Toren. In the end, he betrayed his king. 

He successfully tracked Tala to a parallel world where she opened a portal. Before the portal closed, he was able to slip in and eventually landed on that yacht, mingling with the humans. But what he could not understand was how Tala suddenly disappeared and why he was sucked back into Astralis. He has scanned the yacht for any aura of Tala but failed to find her.

He had a strong suspicion that the woman Angel mentioned, who had drowned, was Tala. But the question lingered in his mind: why would she take her own life? Even with poison in her system, she should have had several more years ahead of her. However, it was clear that she wouldn't be able to live, as his duty was to remove the remaining threat to King Zuren's throne.

As he lay half-asleep on the night of the blood moon, he was jolted awake by a strange sensation in the air, a disturbance of mana that prickled at his senses. Compelled by an unknown force, he followed the trail of this disturbance and as he gazed westward, he beheld a spectral figure unlike anything he had encountered in his forty years of existence.

He felt confident that the woman before him was Angel. However, as she became surrounded by a crimson glow, he couldn't shake the feeling that he saw King Toren gazing back at him with his piercing amber eyes.

'Why did you betray me, Talon?' he heard the voice in his head. He felt a surge of panic and instinctively conjured a towering pillar of sand to shield himself from Angel's accusing gaze, which he perceived as Toren. Then everything turned dark, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

He did not want to betray his king, but he could not go against his father's wishes. 

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