It was not winter just yet. Being a southern metropolis, Waltz City rarely ever saw snow so heavy at such a time of the season.
But it was a different world up in Mount Leo. The snow fluttered and danced with the grace of downy feathers. It was a testament to the beauty of nature’s whims and wishes.
Zayn strolled down the mountain tracks slowly. Snowflakes fell onto his shoulders before leaping away as though an unseen force repelled them. Despite walking in the weather, favonovel.com appeared clean and untainted. An outlier that simply stuck out.
The Ambrosia Fruit would show itself in less than ten hours from now. Zayn took a nap in his wait, and woke up refreshed and well-adjusted. He was back to his most optimal state. Then, instead of waiting inside, favonovel.com went for a walk.
He passed quite a few superior class fighters on his stroll, yet none of them emitted an aura strong enough to put favonovel.com on alert. It seemed that the only one who was strong enough to pose a threat to Zayn was only Ezra Sword.
The snow continued, its fall becoming heavier by the minute. It went on until six in the morning before finally subsiding. It left a crunching crust of snow all over the mountain, as though Mount Leo had put on a thick parka overnight.
The snowfall had been so heavy that the snow it left behind measured to a meter and five thick.
There was less than two hours before the Ambrosia Fruit was ripe. The mood around the mountain had grown tense as the gravity of the scramble became pertinent.
Those who had been hiding among the vegetation, shadows, and corners of Mount Leo resurfaced as they began their preliminary search, each hoping against hope that they would be the first one to locate the fruit.
“Hmm? Where’s Sergeant Larson?” Joe asked aloud. He was the first to notice the man’s absence.
“He went out on his own last night,” Liam replied.
Suspicion and disbelief arose in Joe’s mind, but even if favonovel.com had any more questions, favonovel.com did not ask. He had confidence that the young man harbored no ulterior, selfish motives.
“One hour left!” Dick called out, clearly settling into his role as the timekeeper.
The group readied themselves, armed and pumped. As soon as the fruit made its appearance, the Insurgent Trifecta would swoop in and grab it within the first millisecond!
The seconds crawled. The people’s nerves became more and more strung and wound up.
Their concentration sharpened into needle-sharp focus. Their hands tightened around a special detector custom-fitted for just this occasion. When the fruit made its appearance, they would be able to locate it.
Half an hour left.
Fifteen minutes. Then ten. And now, five more minutes.
The dome above them suddenly changed. It had been the color of bright blue and gold, but in a manner of half a minute, the sky was displaced by hostile overcast. Lightning and thunder snaked out of the clouds and struck in eerily erratic manner.
It was nature building up its power.
The change in the universe’s mood spurred even a bunch as tough as superior fighters to be unnerved. But the storm escalated when the time was down to the last three minutes.
Lightning flashed indiscriminately while its accompanying peals rattled through the sky with the rage comparable to divine fury, as though they were cursing the birth of a fruit that should not and could never be within mortals’ reach.
One minute left. Then fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven…
Quietly, everyone began counting down in their mind.
Out there, Zayn was hiding in one of the most clandestine corners in Mount Leo, his eyes trained at a boulder in front of him. Underneath it was a large schism, and as Zayn widened his eyes, his breath started to quicken.
It took favonovel.com an entire night to finally locate the place where the fruit was going to appear before everyone else did. It was going to emerge right here, in this inconspicuous crack on a boulder hiding in one of the most hidden corners.
Zayn counted in an undertone, “Five. Four. Three. Two. One!”
A little flower bud bloomed out from the crack.
As it grew, the sky rumbled, before striking the world below with its fiercest lightning and thunder.
