Chapter 238: Light and Darkness
Before Annalise could have wrapped her mind around his words, the man had already pulled her into his arms right before his red misty light surrounded both of them.
She felt a sense of familiarity taking over her as soon as she stepped into the passage through space and time while being surrounded by Esme’s powers, but it was not the kind of familiarity of the energy or sensations she used to feel while passing through voids, or while casting spells. Instead, it was a complete different and strange kind of familiarity that brought really old and vague scenes in front of her eyes, ones that she couldn’t see clearly at all.
She had to shake her head constantly to get herself out of the grip of the energy that was trying to pull her into a very familiar but dark place. At one point, she almost felt like she was going to loose the fight but then they were already stepping out at the other end of space that opened up to a completely different world.
Despite feeling like it had been several very long minutes, it took barely a couple of seconds for them to shift between places as Esme teleported them out of the Secret City and to a place... that looked like a forest made of darkness itself.
A loud gasp escaped Annalise’s lips as her eyes took in the scene around her. She unconsciously stepped backward as if to put as much space between herself and thd darkness as possible but the sudden zap of angry energy from somewhere behind her made her cry out in shock and stop in her tracks before she turned to face whatever had attacked her.
Esme was immeditely there, pulling her behind him as he attacked at whatever had attacked her first and instead of his usual red energy, the one that left his hands this time was dark purple in color.
Annalise heard a painful cry before the sound of a loud thud as somethjng heavy landed on the ground and their whole surroundings hissed as if feeling the loss of one amongst them. She slowly peeked from behind the man and saw a complete black creature lying dead on the ground. It’s entire body was covered in the same black mist that was also filling the entire forest and its eyes were blood red. It reminded her of the dark beasts she once encountered while she crossed the ward of the orchard and ended up in a forest like place.
Her sight was blocked when the masked man turned to face her and shifted to black her from looking at the creature. As she looked up at his face, she found his eyes slowly scanning her body as if to see whether she was hurt or not. She almost felt like thanking him for saving her life but for some reason, the words refused to come out of her mouth.
"Stay right next to me. This place is filled with darkness..." he warned her while stepping closer to her, close enough that Annalise had to crane her head to look at him. "... darkness that will eat you alive in your current weak form... and only I can save you from that darkness in this entire freaking world."