The Wolf Queen stood in the front, looking down at the flame leaping with its vicious tongue them.
“ Can we believe this woman? ” Roe asked her brother.
Xie placed a hand over Roe's shoulder and said, “ I can see something is different about her.I no saint. Let us give her a benefit of doubt. There is no other knowledge that we can at the moment. Let's see if her method works.”
“ But what if she tries to manipulate us again? What if we lose more ... ”
Xie pressed her hand, “ Watch... ”.
They saw their mother slit her wrist and then she made a drop of that blood fall in the furnace.
The fire reached the height of the heavens. It's color turned the darkest crimson and then it down to its normal height.
The fire changed its color a couple of times, matching Lin's changing eye color. And then miraculous happened.
The fire split from the middle, creating a way for them and everyone looked at each other in .
“ How did you do that? ” Roe asked, very skeptical.
But Akata had no time for any other conversation. He ran through the path, followed by Lin,
Boshu and the rest.
Roe was the last one to cross over, right after Xie with her mother just behind her.
But as soon as Roe crossed over, the fire snapped back gobbling their mother... swallowing her whole.
“ Noooooo... mother... ! ”
Roe was about to jump back into the fire to retrieve her but luckily Xie was fast enough to catch by her waist. He swung her away as they both fell on the ground. It was at this point that realized their mother had sacrificed herself to make a path out of that fire.
Roe sobbed inconsolably.
“ I hope this was for the best. I hope she found her repentance... she found her peace. ” Xie to console his sister between intermittent sobs.
But the terrain they were in, did not allow them to mourn their dead.
“ What is this place! ”
Boshu exclaimed as realization struck him hard.
“ The Land of Eternal Sunset... ” Lin exclaimed, looking back at the Wolf siblings, very worried.
“ What is it? ” Xie finally asked, looking at Lin with worried eyes.
“ The land of the Eternal Sunset is a mythical land ruled by the Night Crawlers who... ” Akata lines from his school text book.
“ ... who are the mortal enemies of Wolves and take pleasure in devouring them. ” Boshu his statement with shivering lips.
It took a few moments for someone to start calling the shots because everyone seemed .
“ Akata, you cover aunt Roe. Xie, come between Boshu and me. We need to hide your scents the creatures on these lands get triggered and come for us. ”
Years of imprisonment and hardship had not diminished Lin's street smartness in any way. It only when it came to his Mia that he became overwhelmed and weak.
***
Akata ran with Roe in his arms. Her blood soaked dress clinging unto him. He neither cared its stench nor about the heavy wounds on his bare feet. They were running across the of Night Crawlers, a place covered with active volcanoes and thorny carnivorous .Behind them were a thousand Night Crawlers, abandoned souls with an insatiable , chasing in desperation to latch onto the rare immortal passing through their land.
Especially their favorite, wolves.
It was like the ' hell on earth ' for all immortals. They had souls that couldn't cross over due to never quenching thirst for life and were discarded in that region.
It was the land leading to the Tower where the Core was.The Core of the Celestial world. The of all life.
Akata needed to get Roe inside the Core before the doors to the Celestial World closed.
They were attacked relentlessly by the Night Crawlers as soon as they got the sniff of wolf .
Akata and Roe separated from the rest. They were highly outnumbered. Akata fought with all he with Roe's help but it seemed like his powers weren't enough.
When he saw Roe getting butchered and sustaining severe injuries, he made a tough decision.
He stopped looking for the rest of their group, abandoning his father and uncles because Roe in a very bad shape and he needed to take her away from there.
The hungry Night Crawlers were in no way going to let their only opportunity to suck the life out of an immortal of Akata and Roe's stature and replenish themselves for another , go in vain. They hunted the duo like a pack of hunters behind a lone sheep. Their lust down their empty sockets for mouth. Their long thread like dark limbs climbing from the rugged mountains covering the landscape. They called in an eerie chorus like a , that once appeased even the toughest of deities. The voices swelled as Akata leapt from peak to the other, while heavily injuring himself in the process.
Some of the souls fell back from the pack as they stopped to lick Akata's discharges off the , as if getting food after a long famine. The sound of their slit tongues licking their after tasting his drip made Akata tighten his grip around his aunt, in fear and .
The blueish light on the other side was faintly visible.He knew it was the glow emitted form the
Celestial Realm. Nobody told him. It was pure intuition.Everything was pure intuition at the .Akata just had to move a little faster to get themselves there.
One leap, a second and then the third. The blue light was shining with its bright brilliance on
Akata's face. He smiled, thinking how hard it had been to have finally made this far, when
Akata’s face froze in horror. He turned to see a soul dangling down the cliff, latched perfectly on wounded legs. He looked on helplessly as another joined to form a chain. Then another, a fourth. They kept coming from all directions. Akata looked at the almost lifeless Roe in arms.
He needed to take her to the Core. Not only for her revival but also for Merindale and his . He looked in all directions hoping for a savior, a God. The irony of the self hoping for in itself.
Just then Lin and Xie with Boshu came running from two opposite directions . They could see
Akata but could not cross over due to the sheer number of Night Crawlers,surrounding him.
Akata motioned with his hands for his uncles to cross over. Lin pushed Xie and Boshu on the side of the barrier. They tried to rush towards Akata but the barrier prevented them from back. Their voices too were inaudible. They kept banging on the barrier as if urging
Akata to take their hands.
But Akata knew he could not cross over. Not with those weighing him down in the thousands..
They should never have access to the other side.And the only way for them to crossover was by onto an immortal.He had read this at school. Finally with a smile and relief in his heart,
Akata placed his hand on the barrier, opening it enough to toss Roe inside. Xie caught her, and
Boshu hurriedly ran to pull Akata in as well.
But he pulled his hand out, closing it immediately, motioning with his hands to take her inside.
As his uncles watched in horror, Akata turned back , hitting one ravenous Night Crawler after with the flick of a hand. It would have been an easy game had they been on the turf, or Akata hadn't been injured or had he not given up his shield for the sake of his , back at the Well when he was young.
One by one , a landscape full of them, piled up on the lone soldier, as Xie and Boshu stared in .
But before they could pull Akata down with them, Lin jumped in the middle, dispersing all of for a split second, forcing Akata on the other side, with a full thrust.
The barrier closed over him permanently.
He spared Akata a warm smile.
“ My beloved Aku, take good care of your mother. I have always loved you. You have always here my dear boy. Always! ”
He pointed at his heart.
“ Father , noooooo! ”
Akata yelled his lungs out, banging himself on the barrier again and again. Slamming his body it so hard that he fell on the floor, exhausted.
Boshu placed his hand on the barrier sobbing for his brother and friend.
“ We didn't even get to catch up Lin... ” He sobbed like a little child.
They watched Lin go down the cliff in a muddle, as his energy got leeched slowly.
Xie stood there, shedding silent tears. His heart was the heaviest. He didn't even have the time apologize properly for all that he had done.
The air in the Celestial world already seemed to be healing Roe without them having to reach Core for her to revive.
She walked slowly towards them and went straight for Akata.
“ This can't be... I can't lose my father. I barely made any memories after I got him. Aunt Roe, him back. Please. How am I supposed to explain this to my mother when I find her?
Please. ”
Roe didn't answer. She pulled Akata in her arms and wrapped him over her bosom, patting his , just like she used to do when he was little.
She kept staring where they last watched Lin vanish. All of them.
After what seemed like an eternity of staring their eyes off, Roe finally rubbed his face and .
"We should be getting inside."
Boshu looked at her as if it was a stranger speaking to him " What? What did you say? "
" We need to get to the Core. Before it's too late. " Roe pointed at the gates that were about to .
Boshu walked like a mechanical robot carrying out an order. He kept walking till he broke into a and stopped only after reaching the door that was the main entrance to the Celestial World.
He banged the inner barrier open with a toss of his almost lifeless body inside.
" Boshu ! What are you doing? " Roe yelled as she caught up.
" Doing what needs to be done.We need to find the ladies, don't we? " He grunted like a wild .
" Boshu. Come to your senses.No one was the reason... " Roe had to pause and gulp before could articulate her next words, “no one is the reason we lost Lin. "
“ Roe, look, ” Xie broke between the couples, breaking the tension as he pointed at the gates opened before them.
“ The Celestial World... ”
All of them gasped.
The world beyond their realm, unattainable, unreachable... waiting just a few feet away from .
Boshu tried to burst inside.
“ Wait, ” Roe pulled him by his collar. It wasn't the right time to do so. He seemed like he could her then and there.
“ We cannot just enter through these doors. It will extract our souls and throw our lifeless bodies of here like we throw seeds away after eating from a melon. ”
Roe exclaimed.
“ I don't care, ” Boshu still looked in denial.
Akata stopped him this time.
“ Aunt Roe is right. The gates of the Celestial Realm, aren't meant for Immortal bodies. None of will survive if we dash right in. We must find a way around this. Let's look around. ”
He suggested.
Just then Akata saw that same flickering he had seen the other day in the woods.
His eyes went after it. But he stopped and looked at the others.
They could see it as well.
It was not a fragment of his imagination.
“ What is that? ” Xie asked.
“ I don't know. Looks like a little girl. ”
Roe looked at her brother and husband who looked equally puzzled.
The little girl floated towards them. She looked at all their faces with deep concern in her eyes.
But she kept looking behind their back as if waiting for somebody else. But after a few seconds, went straight towards Akata and looked at him with teary eyes.
Akata tried to reach out with his hands but she moved several steps back.
She took a quick glance around the place and then floated towards the bend around the corner.
She came back in a hurry and it seemed like she wanted them to follow her.
The others didn't seem to understand since Akata was the only one accustomed to her ways.
“ Aku... where are you going? What is that thing? An apparition? A Celestial God? I don't . ” Roe held his hand and asked.
Akata smiled.
“ I don't understand much either, aunt Roe. But trust me on this. We need to follow this little . She was the one that guided me to your tribe when I was alone and lost in the woods. I 't know. Might be a guardian spirit. She is getting paranoid ,aunt Roe. She wants us to hurry.
”
Akata ran after her.
Roe had no other choice but to follow her nephew. Xie and Boshu followed suit.