The twilight casted long shades that stretched across the camp, and with them came the families seeking solace. They had missing members and clung to rumors of a girl performing miracles in the south wing gym. Everywhere Alice went, she was either welcomed as a savior or regarded as a witch—she didn't know how to respond to being blamed for something she hadn't done. She felt the weight of their hopes and fears pressing in on her from all sides.
"Please help my son—he's very sick," begged a desperate mother, her eyes red and swollen with tears.
"Please help me find my daughter," pleaded another, her voice shaking with emotion.
Alice explained herself as a regular person repeatedly until her words ran dry, still hundreds of people lined to see her everyday. She finally decided to hide herself from people, and collapsed into much-needed rest. But minutes after midnight an icy wind blew over the camp from some unknown source, thick with portent. Even it was in the middle of heated summer, Alice shivered in her sleep and woke by nightmare.
Alice rose, drawn by a familiar figure in the darkness. "Travis?" She followed.
The cold intensified around her until it felt like a claw that held her in a firm grip and told her stories of Hell in her ears. Then she heard her parents' voices pleading for her from the emptiness of the street. "Mom! Dad! I'm okay! I'm fine! Don't worry!" She screamed like a madwoman, but no one answered. Instead, a low chant reverberated around her, beckoning Alice to follow it to its source. In her hypnotized state, she could only feel the rough pavement beneath her feet, as she walked like a zombie on the dark deserted street.
A midget holy priest with a low, booming voice appeared without any traces nor hints, stood and donned a brown robe with yellow cape, calm as a rock amidst roiling storms. "For I have not owed and will not fear you," the monk chanted, his words seemed to be directed at Alice, unafraid in the face of these dreadful creatures. Alice could hear the rustle of his robes as he moved. "For you who will never be full, have no place in victory," he declared. "She belongs to no one but her own will. Leave her in peace." Alice felt a wave of relief wash over her by his words.
The hell beasts sneered, "Don't you dare intervene," they growled, asserting ownership over Alice.
The darkened street crackled with an inexplicable energy. With eyes closed, the old monk mustered all his strength till a bolt of lightning from the clear sky seared the ground near, and all the streetlight brightened on the sidewalk.
"Fine," the beasts relented. "You can have her for now. Heh heh heh... Grand Master Kwon." And with that, they slunk back into the night, leaving Alice alone with the monk.
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The mid-summer night was as bitter and dank as the deepest winter, the air laden with chill that pierced the skin and lingered in the wounds of the injured. Painful, pitiful cries emanated from the camp - tales of haunting ghosts told by the elders spread like wildfire. The informed and the respected urged all to remain indoors, for evil was near, a foul taste in the night breeze that left everyone mouths dry, and throats parched.
Alice's heart raced due to the encounter with the hell beast, her body trembled despite being buried deep beneath blankets and layers of cloth. The weight of the fabric pressing down upon her, a sensation akin to comfort and confinement at the same time. Claus and Grand Master Kwon looked on, helpless in soothing her distress, their eyes glistening with concern. "It's almost like they were looking for her," Claus mused. She rubbed Alice's hands together, the friction creating warmth that she desperately needed. "They must already know that she is the one destined to find the Gatekeeper."
"Yes," Master Kwon agreed, he spoke with the timbre of a soft murmur, "but she doesn't even understand her destiny yet. I can only pray that she will accept it." His eyes peeked at Alice with expectations, a reminder of his own youth, before he continued in wistful tones, "The earthquake – the only person I know has the ability and strength to execute such powerful spell, Awaken the Dragon, has to be the Gatekeeper himself."
A sacred smile fluttered across Kwon's face as he fell into a trance-like state, his breathing trifle and irregular, a rare kind of meditation technic. Suddenly, his eyes opened, rouse and gleeful, the irises shimmering like the surface of a moonlit lake. "He has become all! He has reached the greatest realm of holy practice!" He jumped up and down with excitement, the sound of his feet thudding against the ground like the beating of a drum. "The Gatekeeper was responsible for Awaken the Dragon, stoking fear amongst hell beasts and challenging them to prove their power! The Gatekeeper has total advantage facing-off against the hell beasts!"
Claus shook her head fiercely, unwilling to accept this new revelation. "Awaken Dagon is a power granted only by Gods; the Gatekeeper has no such skill!" Her voice cracked with disbelief.
Master Kwon fell silent once more, he stared into distant and said to Claus. "You will believe me sooner or later. Now you just have to accept the facts that I am giving you." The words were soft, almost inaudible, like the gentle rustle of leaves as they fell to the ground.
Master Kwon grunted, the sound a low rumble in his throat, his jaw tightening as he clenched his teeth. The empty space around him vibrated with the force of his conviction. "The highest level of all discipline…the great completion!" His veined hands rested onto the tent's walls as he surveyed the horizon, the fibers of the fabric groaning beneath the tension of his palm, betraying his outward calm. "I sense a shift in the balance of the spirit realm—something big is under development. I have been following the tracks of the Gatekeeper for years, I know he's near." The words were heavy with the poise of knowledge, bitter yet compelling, impossible to ignore.
Claus bit her dry lips and confronted Master Kwon, "How can you act with such pleasure when our time is limited? No one can face up against the army of hell beasts on their own."
Suddenly, Master Kwon rose his tone that thundered around Alice and Claus, resounding beyond the confines of the tent: "For who knows his present, shall fear no more!" The words rang out like a large bell, their resonance penetrating every corner within miles, leaving a lingering hum in the ears of all who heard them. A visible energy seemed to course through him, pulsating like heartbeat, representation of an otherworldly discipline that Claus and Alice could not comprehend. The energy infused with electric charge prickled their skin, demanded their full attention.
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Alice, contemplated ways to outwit the feral packs. In this native world, she had no help from anyone but herself. Meanwhile, Master Kwon had descended into his own revelry, hollering with a neighboring refugee camp like a wild child searching for toys.
"Someone get this old crazy fool out of here!" a man from the adjoining camp bellowed.
"Cheers! He has achieved the highest level of spiritual practice—what we call Great Completion. Those fiends are no match for his power. Have a drink—this is sake; it's quite delicious!" The teetotaling monk had suddenly gone wild, offering up forbidden sin.
"Sorry, he's simply intoxicated. Please excuse us! He lost his family," Mother Turtle hastily fabricated an excuse.
"Yes, I'm drunk! I'm celebrating the return of the Gatekeeper!" Kwon howled on, the wild abandon of his recent act made Alice concluded some manner of evil spirit had taken hold of the priest and quailed his thoughts. Claus, who flushed at her side, her cheeks blushed in hue, tried to explain, "He's a priest of great accomplishment; yet I don't know why he is acting this way." Master Kwon was their only hope, and now he had become an unrelenting burden.
"To cast the rain spell is at my best ability; however, if I do so, I am afraid it will only enrage them even more," Claus stated gravely. Alice yearned for contact with her parents after the horrifying encounter last night, "I'd be safe if my family were here," she thought.