Looming Darkness

"Who are you?!" James said rousing the little amount of Qi he had left from the stunt earlier in the day preparing for battle. It would be one thing if the person in front of him was someone he recognized but for some random stranger to be standing over him when he wakes up was not normal in the slightest.

The man seemed amused by this as he also roused his Qi but when he went against James' they could both immediately tell that the man had a far superior Qi strength.

"I would save your strength if I were you. I'm not going to hurt you so don't worry, plus the two just outside this door would kill me before I could even touch a hair on your head if I tried to." The man laughed as a click sounded from the door across the room.

Soon after Cara and Noel entered the room making James calm down and take back his Qi while smiling glad to see them. Now that they were there his eyes didn't leave them for one moment which they noticed making both of them smile inwardly.

The random person left in the room felt awkward as he could sense the three honed in on one another. However, the person named Noel was obviously still watching him as he could feel her Qi trained on him in case he tried something.

The only thing the man could do is sigh to himself as he had already explained who he was to the girls but they still didn't trust him any more than when they were strangers, especially Noel. She was someone who could kill him if she wanted to so he left her alone while Cara was basically on equal strength with himself.

"I can tell I'm not welcome anymore so I'll leave but my name is Marcus. I'm a friend of Colton and the owner of that restaurant you were at." The man said smiling before leaving the room shortly after leaving only the trio left in the room.

Once Marcus left the room James jumped out of his bed into the arms of Noel and Cara who had smiles on their faces as they hugged him as well, "Glad to see you're alright my love~" Cara happily whispered as Noel also seemed happy but also distracted.

"What's wrong?" James questioned Noel as they were enveloped in a hug before suddenly Noel placed her hands on his head pumping a large amount of Qi into his brain and into his knowledge sea.

James went into his knowledge sea the second Noel's Qi came in contact with it confused about what she was doing. He didn't try to stop her or disturb what she was doing since he trusted her completely and even if she was doing something to harm him or kill him it was alright since she was one of his loves.

When he did finally see the Qi he watched as it searched all of his mind checking for any other trackers that may have appeared in his mind before gathering in a circle in the middle of his knowledge sea and making a seal similar to the one placed on him before but this time it was colored black like Noel's Qi which had been fully infected by the black Qi.

Soon after that another swirl of black Qi went inside his knowledge sea which James identified as Cara making a similar symbol that covered the lake of Qi surrounding him.

Once these marks were set all three of them went back to the present looking at each other in silence making Cara and Noel nervous about his reaction to what happened before James spoke up first, "Thank you two for protecting me and setting up these precautions, I love you. I promise to get stronger so I can be the one protecting you." James said with a smile before kissing both of them gently.

****

Farther away from James' position inside another hotel much fancier than the one James was staying in, a girl had just laid down in her room to sleep with a happy look on her face.

This girl could be recognized as the one that watched James in the arena and the one that had consumed the dark Qi that flew out from James. She had taken the time to slowly assimilate the Qi to her Dantian finding that it made her much more powerful than she was before and continued to make her stronger at an alarming rate that she had never seen before.

Although she was newer to cultivating she had still amassed a strength that was not easily increased and especially not at this rate. Due to this, she had decided to keep her newfound power hidden for the moment until she had a way to explain the sudden growth to her companions.

While she was sitting there thinking about her newfound situation a burst of golden Qi suddenly shot into her room hitting her dantian as the girl had a wave of pain suddenly hit her and a connection she had formed suddenly became severed.

"GAH!" The girl shouted in pain prompting the older woman from before to come barging into the hotel room soon after looking at the girl with worry.

"Stella what's wrong?! I heard you shout from next door." The older woman said with her brows furrowed and scanning the girl named Stella all over with her Qi to check for any abnormalities.

Stella was a bit caught off guard by everything that was happening but the first thing she knew that she needed was to get this woman out of here, "I'm fine Linda thank you for checking. I just stubbed my toe getting into bed so it was nothing big." Stella said with a positive smile easing Linda's worries.

"Alright just call me if you need me then." Linda said as she walked out once more. When she finally left the smile on Stella's face disappeared as if it had never been there and was replaced with a deep frown.