Chapter 131: A Prophet’s Curse - Part 2
"My ability shows me chaotic visions of the future. They’re overwhelming unless I focus, and each vision only comes once."
Darius intentionally paused, allowing Silas to absorb his words.
"Over the years, I learned how to interpret them. They show me the disaster waiting ahead, but somewhere within the chaos, they also reveal the path to avoid it."
His gaze settled on Silas.
"And back then... you were that path. You were the hope that I would survive."
A complicated expression surfaced on his face.
"That’s why I approached you first. That’s why I wanted to become your friend."
He had expected anger, disappointment, perhaps even betrayal. From Darius’ perspective, he had manipulated Silas from the very beginning.
Instead, Silas simply nodded.
"So that’s why you never treated me the way everyone else did."
"That’s why you kept coming to stay with me even when everyone shoved me away."
Darius stared blankly, his thoughts freezing for a moment.
’He... isn’t angry?’
Silas suddenly laughed before shaking his head.
"And here I was doing everything I could to warn you about Vaelous."
"Yet you knew all along he was evil."
The more casually Silas reacted, the more stunned Darius became.
"I saw him standing beside the other Enhancers... killing all of us."
His voice turned heavy.
"Killing me."
Since Silas showed no intention of dwelling on the part Darius feared most, Darius chose not to linger on it either.
Deep inside, an immense sense of relief quietly spread through him. Silas hadn’t changed. He wasn’t angry, nor did he look at him any differently than before.
"But my visions don’t reveal identities, names, or anything that specific," Darius said. "I only see fragments of the future, then I have to piece them together myself and figure out who and what they’re about."
Silas finally understood what Darius meant. As terrifyingly powerful as his ability seemed, it was far from omnipotent. Every vision only gave him scattered pieces, leaving him to spend countless hours uncovering the truth behind them.
"Then you already knew about the dragon... and that impossible mission."
Silas wasn’t asking. He was merely stating a fact.
"That’s why you always knew which path to take, where we shouldn’t go, and what we needed to do."
"Not precisely."
Darius interrupted him before he could continue.
"This was the first time I’ve ever received multiple visions within such a short period."
Silas frowned, prompting Darius to elaborate.
"It didn’t happen all at once. The first vision showed the dragon arriving before we even left the academy... and everyone dying. Then, after we entered the mine and the distress signal arrived, more visions kept appearing."
He paused for a moment.
"Normally there’s at least a week between visions."
"But this time, only a few hours separated one from the next."
Silas couldn’t fully grasp how abnormal that was, but Darius had lived with this ability for more than ten years, and never once had something like this happened.
To him, this one-week period was like a preparation time before the disaster would befall. So having these visions come in succession at short intervals scared him back then.
"Anyway..." Silas let out a slow breath. "It’s time for my condition."
Now that he roughly understood how the ability worked, he was ready to ask Darius of something.
As Darius started his talk with a condition of his, Silas intended to finish it with a condition he had already prepared.
Darius seemed to realise that as well.
"From this day forward," Silas said calmly, "whenever you receive a vision, you come to me immediately and tell me about it."
"Understood?"
’That’s exactly what I was afraid of...’
Darius said nothing.
The conflicted look in his eyes was enough as an answer. Silas studied his expression before speaking again.
"You’ve already seen another vision."
The moment those words left his mouth, Darius’s face stiffened.
"Is it about our next mission?"
"Are we going to face Cher’s father again?"
The possibility had crossed Silas’s mind the moment he understood Darius’s ability. If his friend could foresee disasters before they happened, then there was no reason he wouldn’t have seen something about their next mission.
After all... Even Silas had a bad feeling about it.
For Darius, however, the situation was completely different.
His entire life had been shaped by those visions. Whenever he foresaw a catastrophe he couldn’t stop, he changed the future the only way he knew how, by running away before it happened.
He had abandoned countless friends. He had betrayed people who trusted him. He had done whatever was necessary to survive.
And now another vision had appeared.
To survive, he would have to do the same again. He knew the best way to survive was by running away from Silas... Or worse, betray him.
’Why am I hesitating?’
’Damn it...’
His thoughts suddenly came to a halt.
He had already struggled with this very dilemma aboard the shuttle, and he had already reached his decision.
’I’ve spent my whole life doing despicable things just to survive.’
’I’ve been nothing but a coward...’
’I’m tired of living like that.’
His fists clenched almost imperceptibly, yet Silas still noticed.
"Listen..."
When Darius spoke again, his expression had regained its usual seriousness.
"I can’t tell you everything I see."
"I want to know all of it."
"You don’t understand."
Darius sighed.
The memory of telling his parents about one of his visions resurfaced in his mind. Instead of believing him, they had thought he was possessed... or simply insane.
That experience wasn’t the only reason his life was terrible back then.
"There is another problem."
"If I reveal an entire vision..."
"The future changes."
Silas frowned.
"For the worse."
Silas instinctively wanted to dismiss the warning. For a brief moment, he suspected Darius was simply using it as an excuse to avoid revealing everything.
But Darius continued before he could respond.
"I can still tell you certain things."
"The core of every disaster I see."
"As long as I don’t reveal the complete vision, the future won’t spiral out of control."
He looked directly at Silas.
"Will that be enough?"
Silas fell silent.
’He trusted me with the secret he has carried his entire life.’
’Settling for this... isn’t unreasonable.’
He nodded.
"Fine."
"Tell me the one thing that lies at the centre of what’s coming."
Silas was already convinced the vision concerned their upcoming mission. Even a single clue would be enough for him to begin piecing together the rest.
What he failed to realise was just how terrifying Darius’s ability truly was.
"What I’m about to tell you..." Darius said quietly, "is almost impossible to believe."
"But it’s exactly what my visions showed me."
Silas met his gaze without hesitation.
"Say it."
"I don’t scare easily."
Darius looked at him for a long moment.
Then he spoke.
And the words that left his mouth became, without question, the most shocking thing Silas had ever heard.