Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 142: Rise of the Mountain Beast (1)
The flashing lights from the cameras kept striking Leon’s face even after he stepped out of the MRAP and was being shielded by Hei Yung and Longwei.
For a brief second, the cold, hot wind of Thule made Leon’s chest tighten as it touched his skin.
The air here smells different from Agatha’s, he thought, then shifted glances with the two men by his sides.
When the air brushed through his damp hair and slipped beneath the collar where the red cloth lay, Leon blinked, then inhaled sharply.
In a flash, the reporters surged toward them like a broken tide.
"Is he really Andrew Storm’s son?!"
"Why are the strong men of Agatha walking with him? Are they protecting him, and from what?"
"Did the Painter’s son join the Elite Special Forces?"
"Has he returned to continue his father’s painting legacy, or something different?"
The microphones thrust forward. Long camera lenses shifted and focused with clicks. Behind the cameramen, a woman in a grey coat nearly stumbled trying to get closer.
The recorder held tight under her grip slipped, fell, and rolled to a stop at Leon’s feet.
Leon crouched, grabbed it, and handed it back to the lady.
The moment it touched her palm again, she thrust the microphone toward him.
"Leon Storm, please say something!"
Leon shifted a quick glance at Hei Yung, then back at the reporter. Shifting eyes with the flashing lights and the reporters sent a deep wave of pressure into his spine.
Longwei gave a low whistle, then tapped Leon’s shoulder.
"They like you already."
A short laugh escaped Hei Yung as he also touched Leon’s right shoulder.
After a minute, Hei Yung stepped forward, then raised his arm calmly.
"Move back."
Some of the reporters swallowed and obeyed at once. The rest hesitated until the soldiers behind the three shifted their weapons.
Boots scraped the gravel on the ground as the front line of the reporters retreated just enough, creating a narrow path between the convoy and the corpse-littered ground.
At the front, the black-stone mountain stood ahead like a dead god.
Staring at its jagged ridges and uneven dark skin felt as though the whole thing had been forged from cooled lava and old bones.
Smoke curled from the side of the mountain.
Behind the thin rising smoke, Zoe stood.
The smoke thinned, then waved through the air like a ghost.
Zoe moved a step forward, passed Ewan and Dairan, then stopped just enough to see Leon clearly.
Leon...
The name rang in her head, and her cheeks reddened.
Daring to pull the attention back onto himself, Darian stripped parts from the dead Oculus creature he stood on. The blade carved through flesh, and blood sprayed into the air.
A painful thud echoed in Leon’s chest when he saw some of the creature’s bodies split open from crown to abdomen. Others were crushed, their many eyes burst and dark fluid leaking onto the stone.
Then a faint pulse moved through the ground.
All the reporters began to move back as if they had seen the end of the world.
"What is it?" Longwei asked, though his eyes had already narrowed toward the direction the sound started from.
Leon lowered his gaze, then pointed to the ground.
"I felt the ground shaking just a second ago."
Hei Yung shifted his gaze from the reporters’ strange retreat, then back to the mountain at once.
At the far side, Darian pulled out his sword after failing to draw even a single bit of attention, dissatisfaction filling his gut.
When Leon locked eyes with him, everything dimmed for just a second.
In the eyes of Darian, Leon saw a friend. One who had given his mother and sister shelter.
Darian’s smile stretched, but not enough to hide the strain around his mouth.
"Well," Darian pitched his voice loud enough that the nearby reporters heard the confidence in it, "you returned with company."
Leon said nothing as he stared at him.
But an excited laugh escaped Leon when he shifted his gaze slightly toward Zoe, who stood two steps away from Darian.
Zoe’s lips parted.
For a second, she looked like the same person who used to smile at him, play with him, and sometimes try to seduce him when he was in the Qing clan.
"Leon."
The soft word escaped her as she dashed forward, loosening her grip on her sword.
The blade bounced, clicking the ground twice before settling.
A faint breath escaped Leon as he took one step forward.
Cool air flashed across Leon’s face, carrying the fragrance she wore when Zoe stopped a step away from him.
"I never knew you had a lover here," Longwei said, pushing Leon on the shoulder, then laughing as he clutched his stomach.
Kira’s eyes moved between Leon and Zoe, carrying a jealousy only she could understand.
She cleared her throat.
The sound drew the attention of Leon, Zoe, Hei Yung, and Longwei.
"Thule has been restless all day, and now Agatha brings us the Painter’s son."
Longwei frowned, then clicked his tongue.
"You talk too much."
Hei Yung ignored the woman’s claim and kept looking at the mountain.
Feeling discouraged, Kira turned toward Darian’s direction.
Leon and Zoe followed Hei Yung’s gaze.
The mountain stared back at them as if alive.
Then, before Kira could reach Darian, rocks began to fall from the mountain.
Dust spiraled into the air the moment some of the rocks struck the ground.
Pebbles beneath the reporters’ feet began to bounce.
The reporters started running back toward the MRAPs, their cameras still pointing toward the mountain.
A low sound like human breathing came from inside Basalt Mountain just as the last rock struck the ground and splattered into countless pieces.
In a flash, some of the reporters lowered their microphones.
Their faces turned pale one after another.
Although they said no words, their cameramen followed, lowering the cameras.
Before anyone could predict it, a charged wind blasted the left side of the mountain and washed across everyone’s faces.
Before Darian could turn toward the direction the sound came from, one of the dead Oculus creatures twitched.
"RUN!"
A scream tore through the reporters, followed by a stampede.
Closer to the stone ledge, every head snapped toward the corpse.
There, the corpse’s split ribcage jerked.
Black fluid trembled around its body as one of its many eyes rolled sharply toward the reporters.
Then, with a wet scraping sound, the rolling eyes dragged one limb against the ground.
"THAT ONE IS DEAD!" Ewen shouted, but his voice was lost in the screams.
Before he could move, the corpses began to move one after another.
Dark liquid pulled backward into the wounds as if dragged by invisible threads.
Their broken limbs spasmed, and clawed legs punched into the stone.
"BACK!" one of the Thule soldiers screamed, waving at the Qings.
Cameras fell. Some of the reporters tripped and crawled away on their hands and knees.
Standing beside Zoe and Longwei, a chime rang inside Leon’s skull.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Presence fluctuation detected.
The translucent panel vanished before he could focus on it.
Then the mountain roared so violently that the black stone beneath everyone’s feet jumped.
A crack zigzagged across the mountain, splitting it in half and sending sparks and dust around.
In a flash, the heads of the corpses raised in unison.
Howls erupted from their throats.
"That’s not normal."
Longwei’s voice had lost the teasing in it.
Blue lightning exploded around Hei Yung as he shot forward, placing himself between Leon and the mountain.
Longwei stepped five paces ahead of Leon, rolling his shoulder, then spreading his fingers as if warming them for work.
The first awakened Oculus lunged forward, dragging its body behind it, mouths splitting wider.
Before it could reach three meters, a bolt of lightning descended with a savage crack and erased the creature from the ground up.
The impact lit every face in white-blue light.
Then, as if unstilled, three more Oculus creatures surged from the pile of corpses.
Longwei clashed with the one that had converged with another head-on.
It’s been a while since I fought.
The thought flashed through his head as he drove his right fist forward.
The fist caved in a ring eye and sent the merged creature flying backward.
The impact slammed the creature into a boulder, where it burst apart.
"Stay where you are," Hei Yung stated without taking a glance back.
Leon’s legs remained still, but his eyes followed every movement: the mountain, the corpses now awakening, Darian’s shocked expression, the soldiers dashing forward, and the fleeing reporters.
While the lightning from Hei Yung kept shooting forward, dark clouds began to gather in the sky.
Poisonous wind lashed the field as more dead Oculus bodies jerked, rose, and howled.
"Sir!" a female Agathan soldier shouted. "They’re all moving!"
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the ground behind the corpses split open with a booming crack.
A black-red vapor poured out, thick enough to sting the eyes of the reporters.
Then small creatures began to rush from the lower stone vents along the mountain’s base.
"They’re fleeing."
Longwei grabbed his waist and began laughing, though his eyes sharpened.
Hei Yung cut down two more Oculus creatures at the mid-lung.
"From what?"
As Zoe gripped Leon by the elbow, the face of the lizard-lady flashed in Leon’s mind, followed by the chime and the translucent panel.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
Unknown entity detected.
Leon’s throat went dry as the words of the lizard lady echoed in his head.
"Grade B! Before twenty-five!"
