Vol 2. Epilogue

Pow! BANG! Crack! Thud…

A sudden impact sent a bloodied body across the interior of the dark room and it soon slammed into a thick brick wall, leaving cracks like that of a spider web on the wall as the body gasped in pain unable to breathe. The sounds of cracking bones was audible in the otherwise quiet room as the body dropped to the hard stone floor in a dull thud.

The bloodied body slowly squirmed around as it tried to move in an attempt to stand up only to collapse back down over and over again. There was a single lit touch at the far end of the room that was apparently the only source of light. The dim light revealed the slim and slender figure of the body.

Her mask had fallen off at some point in time, revealing a bruised childlike facial features with ember green eyes that had almost lost their luster. Even with the cuts and bruises on her face one could still tell how cute she would be under the layer of blood on her.

The room was small and dark with markings, runes and strange designs on the walls. There were also no pieces of furniture inside the room. As the young girl struggled to stand, another figure walked out of the shadows and approached the mangled up girl on the floor.

The figure was lithe and slender with black watery hair that reached the lower parts of her back. She wore a similar outfit to the childlike girl at her feet. Spotting a similar black mask that covered the lower parts of her face and dark purple metal greaves that matched the same colored gloves with metal knuckles.

Her outfit was just as tight as the girl before her with the only difference being their vastly different proportions. Her purple-colored pupils stared at the girl below with disdain and a slightly hidden murderous intent. Walking over to the girl, she moved her hand and made a slight gesture with her fingers and Amra’s body was flung up like she had been pulled by something.

Her body slammed into the ceiling and was then slowly lowered to around the same height as the woman. She looked like she was being held up by invisible ropes. A crisp and curt voice soon entered the ears of both girls from the entrance of the room and through the large door that had just been swung open.

Two figures then entered the room. “Is she ready?” Aur asked as he walked hurriedly inside the almost dark room escorted by another female figure dressed similarly to the other two except for the colors of her greaves and vambraces.

“She hasn’t spoken a word since she returned a week ago but she should be ready.”

“Good,” Aur responded, turning to the girl beside him he commanded. “You may begin.”

The girl with red hair and matching greaves nodded as she walked over to the restrained Amra. She looked like she was around the age of Amra but had more bounce to her steps. When she was about a feet length of Amra, she stopped and extended her right hand activating her innate ability.

“Invade Mind.”

Every member of the Ghost legion was trained to withstand mind control and other control effects magic or skills. Their minds would rather break than reveal any information regarding their master. Since most of them weren’t demons it wasn’t logical to use a demons pack as only one person could be added by blood. However, there were other, more brutal ways of getting information out of them. This process requires a lot of time and they would have ample opportunity to either escape or take their own lives unless the one using this process was Aika.

She could bind her targets to the point that escape or death wouldn’t even occur to them. The one using the mind control ability was Bela and this was her only duty amongst the ghost, making her almost as valuable as Aika. Bela’s eyes went white as her ability was successful, there was barely any resistance as that had been beaten out of Amra over the past week.

“Aika, use crystal mirror, I want to see this myself.”

“Yes, Lord Aur.” The black-haired woman replied as she walked over to Bela and placed her hand on her shoulder casting the spell, “Crystal Mirror.” A single gem of crystals appeared in that air and rapidly expanded to form a mirror made of white crystals as images flashed through the surface.

Several faces appeared in the mirror as Bela scanned through Amra’s memories until they finally found what they were looking for. It was the face of a cloaked figure moving in the snow with two orange-skinned individuals. They fast-forwarded through her memories and watch as the cloaked man weaved his way through a forest from afar.

Soon they saw him reach a safe zone only to find it empty and they watched him from above thanks to the spell. “Curse of Remote Viewing” That Amra had used on him back in the city. They continued to view her memories at several times the normal speed of events and soon they had found what they were searching for.

About a week ago Amra was sent out by Aika to keep an eye on the now treasonous Zomatsu. With the help of her spell, she had monitored him from the hotel to an apartment where her spell was blocked by several layers of defense. That was all the clue she needed to deem him treasonous but she did not act. After watching him back to the Darknar forest and as he tracked a group of ogres and beastmen, she finally found an opportunity to strike.

Yet, not only had she failed but something that they couldn’t fathom had happened to her. She managed to escape back here but she wouldn’t speak and all she did was shake in fear at a corner of the room. Left with no other options they had to resort to such barbaric means to break her will and the instincts they had drilled into her to resist mind-reading stacks.

The image in the crystal mirror changed and they saw Zomatsu break down to the ground in pain. Since there were no sounds they didn’t know why such a thing happened but they knew it was an opportunity for Amra. Sure enough, she had made her move and not even Aur could criticize her for it. Even though he thought taking action without proper information on what was happening was too rash.

Surprisingly the two trash that accompanied him had gotten the courage to interfere. At this point, the mirror had changed its view to that of Amra’s eyes as her spell was no longer in effect the moment she showed herself. One of the trash was quickly disposed of and the other followed, or so they thought. Zomatsu surprisingly did not take the chance to escape but interfered and the mirror went blank.

The memory continued soon after and they saw both Zomatsu and the last remaining trash hit the ground. Things were progressing smoothly yet Aur was developing anxiety. He wanted to see nothing. He wanted Zomatsu to meet his end and the mission to be successful, yet the fact that he was standing here and invading his subordinate’s memories said otherwise.

The screen fluctuated and two figures appeared out of nowhere as they had just strolled into their backyard. Aur’s brows twitched and his body trembled slightly. “Spatial Movement…?” He couldn’t help but mutter attracting the attention of Aika who quickly turned her head around as her eyes narrowed. She soon realized her mistake and focused back on maintaining the crystal mirror that was about to break.

They focused more on the screen wanting to see the face of the individual that could use such skills. They saw the figure of a man and a dark-skinned woman but luck was not on their side as the mirror immediately cracked and the rest of the memory became hazy. Fragments of memories flashed by quickly but their keen senses did not miss any image.

They saw Amra engage in a fight with the dark elf but before they could figure out what happened next the memory changed to Amra in front of an unconscious Zomatsu and was just about to take off his head.

Aika felt a sense of relief, even though they had met a formidable enemy as long as they accomplished their main objective then this failure was manageable. However, Aur knew better. The scene changed and Amra was now in the arms of the strange man and Aur noticed his left arm that held into her shoulders as it continuously infected Amra with something, but it must’ve been so weak that no one had noticed, especially Amra.

Amra somehow managed to escape but Aur had an ugly expression on his face. He folded his arms and tapped his feet rapidly on the ground causing small cracks on them. ‘Who the hell was that!? Why in the world could he use that skill, don’t tell me someone has broken into the castle ahead of us…’ He frowned and turned around, he needed to report this to the elders. Luckily he could push all the blame this time on Zomatsu as he had planned. He could always find another opportunity to kill him. That is if the man in the memory doesn’t kill him first.

No one would take in a traitor of one of the Great Five and judging by how intelligent this man was, he would most likely just torture some information out of Zomatsu and kill him. He had used several anti divination spells on himself before entering the scene knowing fully well that someone might be watching. That meant he didn’t want the Great Five to know who he was, meaning even though he was strong, he was still no match for one of the Great Five.

As Aur turned to leave he was stopped by Aika’s voice as she asked. “What do we do with her.”

“She is no longer of use to me, get rid of her,” Aur said without even turning his head as he left the room and Bela immediately canceled her mind control magic and followed him with hurried footsteps.

Aika waved an arm and the invisible strings holding Amra up snapped, dropping her down like nothing but a bag of bones. She looked at her with a complicated expression as the previous malice and disdain were nowhere to be seen. Her eyes held a hint of pity, concern but still held her usual cool calm.

Aika shook her head after resigning herself to Lord Aur’s orders. She slowly turned illusionary until she had completely vanished leaving only the bloody and near unconscious Amra in the dark and quiet room.

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End of Volume 2 – Behemoth

Next, Volume 3 – Mysterious Merchant

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