Divine Heritage: Only I Can Judge The gods-Chapter 38: In the Nick of Time

Ark held onto his seat belt tightly as the woman made a nasty turn that almost threw him out of his seat.

The tires screeched on the pavement, and the smell of burning rubber assaulted their nostrils but the woman paid no attention to it.

Instead, she smiled slightly while even attempting to go faster.

’I know we need to go fast but still...’

’There will be no point if I die before getting there!’

Ark watched the road, taking note of how she was rushing past multiple cars with ease.

"What work did you do before the center, miss..."

"Nora, you can call me Nora. And before the center—I was... hmmm, how do I put this in a more acceptable way?"

"Well, I guess there’s no softer way to say this. I was a heist driver." She said while laughing.

Everything finally made sense, her skill behind the wheel, the speed at which they were going and the confidence she had while driving so fast.

It was almost like she had done it a thousand times already.

Nora pulled out her hair tie, allowing waves of long hair that had initially been tied in a ponytail, to cascade down her back and the sides of her face.

The wind coming from the window blew against their faces, sending her hair into a spiral but her eyes remained locked on the road.

Not too far from them, two cargo trucks had pulled into the road and were practically blocking their path.

Due to the amount of goods they were carrying, they were also terribly slow and would cost them a whole lot of time.

"Tch." Nora let out a disgruntled sound when her attempts at passing them came to naught.

Then her eyes strolled to the side of the street... at the sidewalk. It was relatively early so people had not yet filled up the path.

Ark knew what she was going to do before she did it. Nora held onto the steering wheel tightly.

"Hold tight!"

He didn’t need to be told twice, already, he had grabbed onto the grab-handle and steadied himself.

Nora rotated the wheel to the side, causing the car to immediately divert onto the sidewalk. Ark’s body rocked violently as the tire climbed over the curb, but then he was thrown back into his seat.

She placed her hand on the gear shift and pushed it forward, setting it in fifth gear.

Vroom!

The car practically pounced, exploding through the side wall like a rocket. With another twist of the wheel, the car moved right in front of the two trucks.

Allowing Nora to floor the pedal.

The speed of the wind whistling past his ears, the feeling of vertigo with each bump, the satanic roar of the engine and the undoubtable skills of the driver... 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Everything around Ark made him strangely excited, so much so that although he was running late for what was probably the most important event in his life... he was smiling.

Nora glanced at him, her smile broadening slightly.

"That’s the spirit!"

*

After about four hours of continuous speeding and speeding their way through cars, they were finally brought to a complete stop.

Already, they had lost quite a lot of time due to traffic and annoying roadblocks on the way but they expected to be free from them by now since they were farther from the city center.

But this time they found themselves in a gridlock, ten minutes already, and no movement whatsoever.

Nora cursed as her fingers thrummed impatiently on the wheel.

"This doesn’t make sense, we shouldn’t have traffic this far out."

She glanced at the clock on her dashboard and sighed.

Meanwhile, Ark unbuckled his seatbelt.

"How far away are we from the exam site?"

Nora observed him for a moment, taking note of his now serious expression.

"We are 3 kilometers off."

"3 kilos huh..." Ark began to open the door.

"Wait, you can’t possibly want to walk the entire 3 kIlometers. You will never make it in time that way."

"Who said anything about walking? I’m going to run the distance."

Nora stared at him dumbfounded.

Ark was slowly beginning to suspect that she drove wherever she went.

"Even if you make it in time, you will be exhausted. How are you going to pass the examination in that state?"

"Don’t worry, it’s just 3 kilos, I’ll manage somehow."

Seeing that he could not be dissuaded, Nora pointed at the mountain some distance away.

"Get to the foot of the mountain, you should find them there."

He nodded, just before he dashed past the cars and onto the sidewalk.

"Good luck!" He heard Nora scream just before he left her car in the distance.

***

Kiera stood alone, resting her back on a tree while she observed everything around her.

Apart from her peers, there were a few more experienced curse bearers as well as an ambulance at the scene, hinting how truly dangerous the examinations would be.

This exam was what would solidify their future as curse bearers, the squadron they would choose as well as the potential guild offer that they would receive as well.

Already, representatives from both the clans and the government were seated at the top of the mountain, watching everything through specialized cameras that would be following the students around.

In a few moments, the exam would start and the professor would move them all to their respective start points. Everything was in order, but—

Something was wrong.

Kiera covertly took note of every single person that was present here, Ethan and his group were here, the person that had first summoned her primary artifact was here, everyone was here.

Everyone except Ark.

It was an event Ark wouldn’t miss even if his life depended on it so Kiera could only suspect that something must have happened to him.

Someone was preventing him from attending the examinations.

"Last call for registration! Last call for registration!" A man screamed from the counter. After this time passed, whoever had not written their name would be automatically registered as absent

Kiera mentally reprimanded herself for not noticing earlier, it was a five hour journey from here to Lorsine, making it to and fro was impossible for her...

The man observed the area, making sure that there was no one yet to register.

"I guess that is all of you."

The man who always wore elegant suits while accompanying the professor, was next to him with a wide smile on his face as he watched the man flip the cover of the book.

But just before the book closed—

Whoosh!

A dark shadow washed over them, as a figure rushed through the clearing, appearing right in front of the counter within seconds.

When the man who had instinctively closed his eyes opened them, he realized that the cover of the notebook was somehow hanging in the middle, neither closing nor opening.

At the corner, Kiera’s hand was inconspicuously pointed at the table, she was using her telekinetic ability to keep the book open.

Ark took a deep breath, sweat rolling down his now wet skin. His clothes were roughened by dust, even his hair had not escaped its touch.

He stared down at the table, still panting.

"Ark Lysander, Present!"