Chapter 99 The horror, the truth
ANGELICA'S POV
With the help of Xyla, the alphas and I were teleported to the area where the Black Coven witches were residing.
I opened my eyes once we were there, then looked at Xyla so she could show me exactly what she needed me to see.
“You'll see it yourself,” Xyla said.
I hummed vaguely before starting to walk near the caves in the forests.
I looked at the translucent houses floating in the air, which I am sure would be invisible to the naked eye of other species.
People were working, mostly females. They were farming, but not the usual food. It looked like herbs.
From what I read about so far, I could see there was wolfbane and Vampbane, too.
Why were they growing poisons for other species? I wondered.
She was showing me the truth, but I am sure this wasn't what she wanted me to see.
As I kept walking, I felt a child running toward me and stopped with a smile. I spread my arms to hug the baby when I felt like it would crash into my legs, but the moment the child reached me, it vanished into thin air.
I looked around before averting my gaze to Xyla.
“Lily's soul, who could never leave the coven even after her death,” Xyla explained.
The smile on my face faltered when I realized it was just an unsatisfied soul.
For a soul so little to not be able to…
“What happened to her?” I asked.
Dylan and Ericson stood behind me, their warmth seeping into my back as I tried to face the reality Xyla wanted me to see.
She didn't answer. Rather, she turned around and walked further towards the coven.
I did the same, not stopping myself from looking around.
As I kept walking farther inside, I noticed there were only a few males in the coven, and all of them looked over 50. The females were worse; they looked at least 60.
But how was that possible?
The witches who had come to meet me weren't so old.
It was as if Xyla could hear my question; she turned briefly.
“We use our mana to hide our true form. But among our people, we don't need to use that kind of mana on hiding. After all, we all are suffering from the same thing,” Xyla said.
I hummed vaguely.
I was about to ask her what they were suffering from when I saw an old woman cutting herbs, but her hand slipped, and she cut her finger.
“Careful!” I walked over to the old woman to see if she was alright.
I noticed there was a deep cut on her finger, but what amazed me was that she wasn't bleeding.
Was she even feeling the pain? I wondered, and my question was answered soon when I saw tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Are you hurt? Do you want me to help heal you?” I asked, but the woman didn't even look up, like she couldn't see or hear me at all.
I wondered if she was a soul too and extended my hand to see if she would disappear into thin air like that kid.
“She is alive,” Xyla’s voice startled me.
“That girl you are seeing and think is 60 was actually only 7 years old. That's why she is a klutz and still learning. Due to her rapid aging, she lost the ability to see, sense, and hear, which is why she didn't respond to you,” Xyla explained.
I froze as I looked at the girl.
Only seven years old? How was this even possible? Just what happened to the girl to change from seven to sixty and lose all her senses? From the way she was moving, she didn't have any mana either? But how was this possible? She was part of the Black Coven.
We had the strongest witches, right?
“Why are there no kids? Do we not have any new additions to our coven?” I asked.
Xyla chuckled at my question, but that smile never reached her eyes. Rather, all I could see was endless pain, and it made a shiver run down my spine.
Something told me I wasn't going to like the answer she had in for me, and I didn't know if I wanted to hear the truth.
“Now let me take you to the extraction zone,” she said, taking my hand and pulling me in another direction.
She said the extraction zone. What was it? Do they produce some kind of poison or herbs there? I asked myself, trying to guess.
However, nothing in this world could have prepared me for what I saw next.
I saw a large translucent sphere hanging in the air, glowing with what looked like electricity, just not the blue but red kind.
I saw a few people standing around it with their hands facing the sphere.
“Do you see what's happening?” Xyla asked.
I shook my head. It was hard to comprehend. I was still new to this stuff.
“These people are giving away their mana to that sphere. That's what most of us do. You see, whenever a newborn arrives in the Black Coven pack, the demon king arrives to see if the baby’s heart could be used to awaken his kid. If he seems right, he takes the baby away despite our opposition,” Xyla said, and my heart skipped a beat.
I thought this was something my family suffered, that my 99 siblings went through, and the next number was mine. But was the coven suffering too? Why?
Alchemist said he needed the heart of the kid born from an angel. Then why was he doing the same with other witches?
“And what if he doesn't like the child? He should leave them alone, right?” I asked.
Xyla smiled sadly.
“Then that child has grown in isolation, and once it's of age, it is expected to give away all its pure mana with no corruption to this energy sphere, which is benefiting the demons. One of our kind, Aurora, betrayed us and created this sphere for the demon king so her baby would survive his wrath. And now all of us are suffering,” Xyla explained.
She didn't need to tell me anything. Now I understand why that seven-year-old looked like sixty and lost her senses and why that little girl’s soul was unsatisfied and her purpose unfulfilled.
With this, I understood one more thing: that Xyla might not have wanted me to realize.
“The demon king never came to our house or appeared in my dream. He never pierced through my subconscious. That was the same day I had talked to Alchemist about allowing a witch. You arrived before I could invite you and showed me that view of the demon king. You are the one who has been haunting my dreams and reality,” I whispered, loud enough for her to hear.
Xyla looked at her feet, ashamed of her work.
“Is that true?” Ericson asked with a low growl.
Xyla looked at the alphas in slight fear before stepping back and nodding.
“Alchemist vowed to protect you and would've never brought you here or told you the truth of what we are suffering. But I wanted to see the gist and history of it. You are our leader. If not you, who will help us?” Xyla asked before she got on her knees and joined her hands.
“Just like you, my sister is pregnant too. She is due in a month. Rather than being happy, she is spending every day and night in pure fear. When the child is born, the demon king will come again. Will the kid survive another day? The fear is killing her,” Xyla said.
The silent plea for help made my eyes water as I realized how much my coven was really suffering because of the demon king.
The thought of how many kids had to lose their lives because of the king made me mad, and I wiped my tears furiously.
“Nothing will happen to that kid. It's a promise your leader is making to you,” I said to Xyla before I grabbed a random stick from the ground.
I walked towards the energy sphere.
“Angélica, no! It will absorb your energy!” Xyla shouted from behind me, and I am sure the alphas got worried, too, but my powers said it was fine.
That we were powerful enough to do what I wanted, and I wanted to listen to them this time. My powers want to live too and would never do anything that jeopardizes our lives.
That's why I knew they wouldn't allow me to make a wrong decision.
As I kept walking towards the large sphere, I felt the wind around me pick up its pace. It was getting harder to breathe the closer I was walking.
I don't know if it was the witches’ mana or if it was the energy’s magnetic field, but the moment I started closing in on the sphere, my heart started aching terribly, almost like I was going to incur a heart attack soon.