NOVPUB“SAVE ME!” a young man tied in a turtle shell binding ran fanatically in between the astonished crowd who had just exited the dungeon.
“Stop!” a veiled crazy girl ran after him, catching him in seconds by jumping and pushing her knee into his sorry back, toppling him into the ground with her over him. “Where do you think you are running, I… AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” The girl gasped and then fell unconscious on top of the young man as an elder, who appeared out of nowhere, struck her head from behind with the edge of his palm.
“Ah…. Elder Drago!” The young man, who was shocked for a moment there, quickly yelled in glee as he recognized the old man’s stern face.
“Yulian… It has been tough on you, but your trial is over!” the elder said in a tired voice. “This is your sister, right?” he asked as he grabbed the unconscious girl’s veil and pulled it away to reveal a face that made all of those watching from the sidelines gasp in shock. Some even had a tint of greed glaze over their eyes while others took their phones to take photos.
Too bad for them, the bewildered elder quickly regained his composite and quickly put the veil back to cover her face before grabbing and carrying her from her waist as if she were some kind of a cloth bag.
“Be careful, if she wakes up, she might bite…” Yulian warned. He didn’t know why he said that, maybe for a little revenge against her for what she made him go through in the past few days. And she did tell him to make it look realistic!
“Oh…” the elder hesitated for a moment then took out a talisman and pasted it on her head. “Let’s go…” he said as he turned.
“Elder… Can you untie me first?” Yulian asked, with a self-depicting smile.
“Oh right,” The elder who took a few steps, turned and slashed his palm toward Yulian, and in the next moment the rope was cut into pieces.
“Thanks…” Yulian said as he stood up with difficulty then hurriedly followed the elder.
“STOP! YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEFORE THE COUNCIL…. AHHHHHHHHHHH….” the guard who tried to stop them burst into flames as the elder headed out of the encirclement with Yulian behind him.
“HEY… AHHHHHHHH…” A second guard wanted to say something but like his friend, he was fried alive.
“JOHNNY… YOU…”
“STAND BACK! LET THEM LEAVE…” a commander who finally noticed the crow insignia on the elder's cuffs ordered his men while cursing inside. Damn, those families! Always overbearing, treating normal players like slaves!
With his eyes on the old man, he failed to notice the few girls who had long used the commotion to activate a disguise of talismans and slipped away using a pre-prepared sewer escape route.
***
Victor, who left the cauldron, sat in his bedroom in Rosette's mansion with his gaze looking outward through the window, toward the lively city. He was not focusing on anything in particular, as his mind raced.
That recording talisman he placed within the storage ring was a technique he got from the artificer demon soul from the soul necklace, the ring was a test of sorts and he didn’t expect it to reveal anything to him as the talisman he hid in the storage space, would only be able to transmit what it recorded the rings were to be unlocked, which in part required some crazy amount of authority.
Still, when he got that transmission, he was shaken to the core.
Three lords, Fate, Blood, and … What was that third one again…? Ah, he almost forgot, right Oblivion. That last guy was someone he didn’t know about, but now it was clear that it was him behind Clarisia and Abe’s murder!
What he got, could be summarized in a few points.
1. Those three guys had something very wrong with them. According to their conversation, he could safely assume that their ‘Sparks’ were damaged somehow and this affected them. Also, it was clear that they clearly couldn’t enter the world, living and moving in hidden zones created inside Ruins. He could tell this through the recordings in the talisman. In fact, right now he had a very clear idea where that Fate lord’s palace was, and it was indeed very deep inside the ruins.
2. There was clearly something that they were hiding, going as far as to erase everything about their existence from everyone’s memory… And maybe some other things too. Thinking about this, made him shiver a bit as he felt like he was some small shrimp in some other guy's launch!
3. They seemed to be talking about some old plot and someone named Queeval whom they called a Bitch. She seemed to have been some time traveler who had enough power to change the world itself. He wondered if she was the fourth talisman of his trip, or was someone who crossed on their own.
4. The ‘Markers’ they talked about made him suspect that the latter option was the right one. A totally different timeline!
From what he got from the fate lord’s conversation with his court, which was also in the recording, they had something that had to do with Lily's bad luck.
He might have been completely wrong about it having something to do with her having an Empress fate. It was much more complex and might have something to do with the changes in Mona.
'Another timeline' was the keyword… A timeline that even those guys didn’t seem to know much about. Maybe Lily’s presumption was correct all along. Mona did come from some other reality!
5. Those guys really didn’t like Scions, calling them ‘That bitch’s doing’. Was his presumption about scion’s wrong all along?
6. They were planning something big, and it had something to do with Caspian being a demon. It seemed like they knew all along! They mentioned something about a Tower, but he was not sure what they meant. Still, it clearly had something to do with them gaining enormous power, and it was pretty close too…
7. His world had too many damn lords! He already knew about the existence of the Light, Void, and Poison lord.
8. Not all of the lords on the same team, as they clearly held some hostility to that Poison lord.
9. The dark chamber seemed to be working against them, but their purpose remained unknown. Still, that mention of a legacy reminded him of his ancestor’s supposed heart which the poison lord took!
10. There was some kind of a danger they called the Invaders. Did they mean the demons that attacked the world after the reckoning? He was not sure.
11. He was royally screwed, as those guys got him on their watch list!
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Victor sighed, as he looked out of the window at the fantasy scenery outside. After a quick thought, he began cross-referencing that info with what he knew from his past life.
1. At that time, lords other than Fate and Light didn’t show themselves… So, this meant that either they chose to remain hidden, or some part of their plan might have gone haywire.
2. Scions really did leave the world after the demons were defeated. The official narrative was that the world expelled them because their fate was so strong, but could this also be a lie? Could those guys have something to do with it?
3. The power to control the rules of the world itself was not something he was privy to back then, but with his experience here in Ismeralia, it was clearly some kind of privilege that the Lord and powerful demons had. So that Queeval was definitely a really big shot!
Mona might be one of the keys to knowing about this, but he doubted that the chick would be willing to tell him the truth.
4. That Tower they mentioned, might be the Green Jade dungeon. He remembered hearing rumors that in it, the Von Krone found the treasure that allowed them to rule the world!
5. Alpha, not being able to enter dungeons, was super Sus at the moment! He suspected that she might have really become a lord due to the spark he gave her!
He sighed again; his head hurt. There were just too many variables to keep track of… When did his life go wrong?
Never mind that, his priority now should be to return then arrange a new cover to hide all his activities. Too bad that Lily would not be usable for the next few months…
Knock Knock…
A knock on the door startled him, so he hurried and removed the sealing talisman he placed on it and opened it.
It was Aerith in her military uniform. She seemed to have just returned.
“I heard you were not feeling well…” she asked worriedly.
“Just a little tired of having my memories erased every time I meet the lord…” he said, moving to the side and gesturing her in with his hand.
She hesitated for a moment then walked inside. “Don’t blame her… One can never know where demons are, and there are many secrets that need to be guarded against!”
“I know, I know…” Victor waved his hand. He might have believed that if it were not for a certain thick fate thread that was conspicuously wrapping around his throat. “Were you worried about me?” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist.
She quickly stepped back, escaping his grab. “Just a little…” she said, blushing a bit as she looked away. “Tomorrow morning, be sure to be ready, I will take you to the place her lordship decided for your master’s sect… Would he be there?”
“I have a talisman that he told me to summon him with when the time comes…” Victor said. “That guy is very slippery, I suspect he is avoiding the storm lord on purpose, “he sighed.
“I suspect as much…” Aerith nodded.
“Maybe he is afraid of her roofing him!”
“Stop with that…” she pinched his hand, and failed to notice his eyes that were focused on a certain fate thread that grew slightly darker. “Did he mention anything about opening a return gate?”
“Only that it should happen in the next week or so… Not sure about the details, but he seemed to be in a hurry…” Victor said, grabbing for her again, this time he got her wrist and pulled her toward him.
“Stop…”
“Stop what?” he asked as he wrapped his hands around her hugging her thin waist.
“...I can’t lose control now…” she whispered.
“Then when?” he asked.
“Later when…” she didn’t continue as his lips covered hers, releasing a tiny bit of his demonic bloodline while using his disguise skill to hide it from the Storm lord who was definitely watching.
Aerith didn’t know it, but the next moment she felt something snap inside of her and…. She didn’t even bother to reach the bed to push poor Vector down like the horny girl she was.
Oh, and she also totally forgot the door open where her pool little sister would pass by 2 hours later and then run away like a frightened rabbit.
…
“NOW!” Nightshade said, ushering Jane and Nova who were carrying the passed-out Morrisa to follow her as she made her way out of the cell.
Just now, she used a bent pin to unlock the door.
Leaving the cell, they quietly followed Nightshade through the dark passageways.
“There are really no guards!” Nova whispered suspiciously.
“Like I told you, when they took me to interrogate me last week, I overheard them planning to go partying, there should be a couple of guys around though so be careful…”
“Shouldn’t we check the other cells too?” Jane asked. The passageway had many doors.
“Let’s not risk it…” Nightshade replied, “We can always call the police when we leave! Seriously, you could have left his girl in the cell and they would have dealt with it!” she added, looking at Morissa. She had no idea who was she and why Alpha threw her with them in the cell.
“Didn’t you see the wounds on her body…” Nova said stubbornly. “I just couldn’t leave her…”
“If you slow us down because of her, I will leave you and go…”
“I know… You already said that 100 times already!” Nova complained.
“Guys… Straight ahead…” Jane warned the three girls to quickly run to hide behind some conveniently placed large boxes.
A mean-looking thin guard walked right next to them, silently curing under his breath for having to stay here instead of going to the brothel with his pals.
PAM!
Nova struck him from behind, then dragged him toward her, and in one fell swoop stole his dagger and decapitated him.
“NOVA…” Jane gasped.
“Take his keys… Give me the dagger…” Nightshade said, grabbing the weapon from Nova’s hand without even caring to glance at the ‘scapegoat’ guard, before continuing her way.
Nova carried Morissa and quickly followed. Jane sighed and also continued to move after giving the guard one last look, committing his features to her memory.
After climbing 2 stairs and crossing many passages, with half of them being dead ends, they finally reached what seemed to be a security room.
This time, it was Nightshade who attacked the guard who was busy reading an adult magazine, by slitting his throat from behind.
“He also has no phone…” Nightshade frowned as she quickly searched him.
“This is strange… Why are there no cameras or security monitors here?” Jane who was feeling that something was not right this entire time finally said.
“It may be because this place is on the edge of a ruin… This would explain the lack of electronic devices.” Nova was the one who replied as she squinted her eyes. “Didn’t you notice how they are using torches here for the bottom floors…”
“Ah…”
“Maybe… Let’s go now… I found the exit! There is a car outside!” Nightshade didn’t argue as she pointed to a map of the building on the wall, leaving Nova to make any kinds of stupid conclusions that fitted her imagination. In fact, there were cameras downstairs, but they were hidden enough. It was all made to make escape from this place possible.
“Ok…” the other girls nodded and quickly followed her, crossing two other hallways before reaching a door where a third very large guard was sleeping in his chair.
Disposing of him, they opened the door and walked outside.
Under the moonlit sky, they found themselves. It was a strange village surrounded by primal forest. And the facility they walked out from was disguised as some kind of a hut… One of few others around the village. It felt completely natural with a hen house to the side and a cabbage field behind it.
“Let’s go… Make sure not to pass by the chickens less they make a lot of noise…” Nightshade ducked and ushered the girl to follow her as she looked around.
“There…” Jane pointed to an old pickup truck that was parked 200 meters away. “Hopefully the keys would be inside…”
“Like it would be that easy…” Nova said as they reached the truck.
Although the door was open, it had no keys.
“You are a real jinx; do you know that…” Jane complained. “Adding to that this car is a manual transmission…” she complained again.
“Don’t worry…” Nightshade said as she broke the dashboard and pulled a few wires from it, and after using her dagger to cut them, she quickly rewired them. “I told you I am a special agent…” she said to the girls who were looking at her with interest. “Now hope on! This thing is quite old, and it will be noisy as hell, we need to run for it!”
“Ok…” they quickly threw Morrisa behind, then climbed onto the front booth.
“Keep low…” Nightshade said as she started the car.
Vrooooom Vrommm…. Vroooooooooom…
“HEY… WERE…” A fat man walked out of nowhere and hurried toward the car.
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
“HEY!”
Nightshade disengaged the clutch pedal, allowing the truck to explode forward.
“NO!” the man yelled as he jumped to the side, then watching the car go he ran toward a bell to the side and began to ring it. 𝚗ov𝚙𝚞𝚋.c𝚘m
Sadly, by that time the car was already out of sight.
“That’s enough…” a leather dressed woman with an eyepatch who walked from one of the buildings told the guard 1 minute later.
“But… Who are you... AH…” the man fell in a pool of his own blood. She had just shot him.
“Take care of the scapegoats' corpses…” she told one of the 10 girls who walked from the other huts.
“Yes, mistress Alpha!”
“Also… Send someone to switch back the signage on the roads1 “she said.
“Already did!”
“Good, the others should return in two days, so I will leave debriefing them in your hands! Now that this is over here, I need to go have a talk with that slut and show her who's going to be the boss from now on,” she said with a smirk.
