Chapter 488: The Final Era (1/2)

“Did you really plan on leaving while just leaving a note? What about Zac? What about our daughter?” Robert wheezed, his franticness turning to anger mid-sentence.

“Don’t mention that little monster. And I am doing this for our daughter. She is destined for greatness,” Leandra retorted. “Against all odds, she is an actual match. She will finish what her ancestors started tens of millions of years ago.”

Another wave of pain intruded in his mind, but Zac growled as he forcibly pushed it away with far greater fervor than he had done before. He refused to be disturbed by the other tribulation at this point. He wasn’t sure if this was all real or not, but he needed to hear what his parents were saying.

What the hell did she mean by calling him a monster? And what was with the ambiguous wording of his dad? His mind was running a mile a minute, but he had no chance to digest the words of his mother before she spoke up again.

“You know what? Why am I even-“ his mother’s continued, before a muffled scream followed by a thud came from the room on the other side of the corridor, his parent’s room.

And the room where his sister slept.

“I’m sorry, Robert,” Leandra sighed, her voice barely audible through the door. ”In another lifetime, perhaps.”

Terror was clearly written on the face of his younger self, but Zac still saw himself slowly open the door and sneak outside. There was a shining light coming from the next-door room, and he steeled himself before he glanced inside.

Only to lock eyes with Leandra who stood next to the crib, an unconscious Robert by her feet.

“You heard us?” she said as she looked at the younger Zac with an unperturbed face.

His younger self didn’t say a word, but he only looked down at the unmoving form of his father, before his eyes turned back to his newly-born sister who still radiated a red light from her forehead.

“Some things have been set in motion that cannot be stopped. You were the first, and she is the second. Perhaps this is for the best, I was never happy with the original plan in any case,” she said with a calm voice as she looked down at him. “And the heavens proved me right.”

Zac observed his mother as a specter behind his younger self, and it felt like a wave of memories were awakened by the familiar face. However, there was a difference between the gentle woman that hazily appeared in the back of his mind, and the woman in front of him. The gentleness was utterly gone, replaced by far uglier emotions hiding within her eyes as she looked down at his younger self.

Disgust and rage.

He, or rather his ten-year-old self, was clearly in shock by the turn of events, but he still spoke up.

“Is Kenzie sick?” he said hesitantly as he fearfully took a step toward the crib.

“You want to protect her?” Leandra laughed. “Well, perhaps you can be good for something. I can’t stay here. My awakening has already alerted the Cursed Heavens and some other old bastards. Someone will need to stand guard as we rebuild from the ground up.”

It looked like his younger self received a shock the next second, and he fell over right next to Kenzie’s cradle. The present Zac was still there though, and he looked down at himself before his eyes once again turned back to Leandra.

It at least looked like she wasn’t aware of his existence, in contrast to Be’Zi and her husband who could sense his presence in his visions. She gave the two unmoving forms on the floor a long look before she once again focused on Kenzie, but Zac couldn’t understand what she was doing.

She stood unmoving with her hand on his sister’s infant head for a good ten minutes, but there were no changes and no energy fluctuations as far as Zac could tell.

“It can still be salvaged,” she breathed in relief as she took a step back.

The next moment she bent down and put her index finger against his forehead, and a shudder ran through his ten-year-old body. Finally, she walked over to a cabinet in the room, and a familiar item appeared in her hand; the pendant. She placed it next to a paper before she took one last look at the room where she had lived the past ten years.

“Keep her safe. I’ll be back to claim her after I’ve dealt with this mess,” she mumbled down at Robert, or perhaps himself. “She is carrying the fate of the Final Era.”

A rift opened up in space the next moment, and she walked right through it without a second glance.

Confusion muddled his thoughts as he tried to make sense of the vision. Was this really what happened twenty years ago when his mother disappeared? Had she wiped his memory of the actual events, planting the story of her mysterious disappearance?

And what was with her reaction to him? Zac didn't remember her fondly due to her abandonment as a child, but he had to admit that she had been nothing but a good mother before she disappeared. But the eyes of Leandra had been those of a fanatic on a mission, almost reminding Zac of Salvation.

There was one possibility that immediately came to mind though; Robert wasn't his biological father.