290 A New Ability, The Sudden Gift Before His Departure (1/2)

Day 44 – 3:25 AM – Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

Mark sat on the edge of his bed as he tried to recover him calm. Around him were Amihan, all the [Blood Children] and Miracle who was currently switched consciousness with Aephelia.

”Your Majesty, breathe deeply. It is better for Your Majesty to calm down.”

Aephelia spoke. Fortunately, Miracle's cute voice that came out as she spoke had better effect in this. On the other hand, Amihan was flying beside Mark's head silently while patting his hair. The [Blood Children] that surrounded Mark were also worried.

Mark had just experience another episode of painful suffering. It was because of his Empathic Abilities recovering. This time however, it was not just like the previous one. The pain he felt in his head was about twice or trice stronger if compared. Even the very first one that happened and even called that phenomenon was not as painful as this one. More than that, he suffered for three whole hours.

All that while, everyone here had been watching him with worry. Since they could not ask anyone for help as this was one of Mark's secrets, all Aephelia and Amihan could do was to wipe the sweat on his face and neck.

Just before Mark woke up however, he started to release a thick bloodlust from his body. It was too thick that everyone in this room felt it despite the fact that the bloodlust was not targeted to them. If they were just normal people, they might have felt suffocated.

Despite the thick bloodlust however, none of them left or even stepped back. They all knew that Mark would not harm them in the slightest. Instead, they felt worry about what was happening.

None of them even realized that outside, the clouds were moving oddly. A kilometer wide ring of clouds could be seen with the moon at the center. The inner parts of the ring of clouds swayed and vanished as if being sucked at the center. The moment that Mark woke up, the ring of clouds vanished at the same time.

Only Mark knew what really happened.

This time, Mark had fully recovered his Empathic Ability. Not only that it recovered but was even stronger to a certain degree. Right now, his ability to detect and absorb emotions of people could cover the whole base that there were still extra areas outside. However, the thing that Freed warned him about started happening.

As his Empathic Abilities were strengthened, so as the concentration of emotions he could absorb. If this was not regulated properly, it would start to affect his mental state. Luckily, his subconscious trait was Emptiness and most of these emotions were sucked into nothingness. It would be harder to for these concentrated energies to fully consume him. The only thing he needed to mind was that the thicker the emotion and mental energy affecting his mind, the longer it took to be cleared and sucked away.

However, what was the reason he released that amount of bloodlust?

It was because while he was suffering in pain and his mental abilities recovering, his [Clairvoyance] kicked in. However, it was different this time. Not only that he saw the future, he was even given the scene of the past. He was there…

…At the meeting, watching.

Every single word they said, he heard it clearly. Rather than seeing the past, it was more accurate that his soul traveled into the past to actually witness what happened several hours before.

Unfortunately, he had no control towards what he was going to see. If he could, he would have tried to find Mei and the others to see how they were doing.

After witnessing the whole meeting, he was subjected to the scene where he failed to arrive on time or did not arrive at all.

He saw where all of them…

…Died.

It was all due to the machinations done behind the scenes.

There was no way that he would let that sort of thing happen. It will be the total opposite.

”Your Majesty, here is the towel.”

Aephelia said as she was about to hand a towel to Mark.

”Thanks.”

Mark replied and tried to take the towel. He then froze. There was no towel where he stretched his hand towards and grabbed nothing but air. No, he was not mistaken. He saw the towel being handed to him but Aephelia has yet to fully stretch her small hands holding the folded towel towards Mark.

Not only Mark but also Amihan and Aephelia felt strange seeing that. Especially Aephelia when she saw Mark had already tried to grab something in the place where she was supposed to place her hands as she handed the towel.

”What is going on?”

Mark waved his right hand in front of his eyes. He saw two hands moving towards the same direction. It was just one of the hands appeared several seconds before he moved his actual hand.

”This…”

”My Lord, maybe, because of your eyes.”

Amihan voiced what she was able to see. Aephelia on the other hand had not realized it until Amihan said it. It was because of her mannerisms as Freed's personal maid. It was impertinence as a royal maid to directly look at their king's face. That was why she tried not to do it most of the time and looked down as she spoke to Mark.

Hearing what Amihan said, Mark sluggishly stood up and took a compact mirror from his work table. As someone who was not blessed in terms of facial appearance, he did not like to look on a mirror. However, he needed to see what was happening this time. On his reflection on the mirror, he saw his eyes. His pupils were glowing in a bright purple color. It was very different from the usual red chilling glow. It was also different from Karla's eyes that seemed to be covered in light.

It was really strange. Not to mention that everything that moved in his eyes had two figures. The first one was quite blurry or transparent while the second figure was solid. He was having a hard time due to this. There was also the sensation of feeling drained while it was ongoing.