Click
The door to the bathroom closed, while Aurelia looked around the room.
"He was supposed to be here."
Shaking her head, she left the room and knocked on both Eldrain's and Shin's rooms.
Both doors opened as the two men stepped out. "Is Raghav with you?"
Eldrain shook his head as he frowned. "He's still out?"
"Out?" Aurelia asked.
"Yeah, Raghav went to your uncle to share something with him. I thought he was back and in his room."
"When was this?"
"Maybe six hours ago, it was right after you went to your room." Shin shifted his gaze to Eldrain for confirmation, who nodded.
"I am worried about him. Let's go look for him."
"As you command, Princess, let us grab our equipment."
Shin bowed before reentering his room, Eldrain did the same, while Aurelia went back to her room to wake up An.
In a few minutes, they were in the warehouse, where Vrisht walked out from behind the stable, shaking his head. "Gati is not here."
"Can you track Raghav's scent? Because the locator spell came up with nothing."
An asked, wiping the runes from the barrel lid. "I can, shall we?"
Aurelia looked at him and gave him a nod before he sniffed the air around him, his left ear stood up, and he ran out and to the left, and the rest of the band followed after him.
In the distance, they could see smoke rising into the night sky.
.
.
.
The main market was in chaos, as the gangs made their final stand against the Special Forces.
It had been turned upside down in the wake of the ensuing battle.
Behind a couple of crates stood a black man with a black hat and a long, dark brown coat.
Peeking out of the corners, observing the soldiers and goons go at it.
Occasionally, a stray attack would find its way towards his general direction, but none landed.
'As much as I would not like to admit, luck seems to be on my side.'
Lost in his thoughts, he was brought back into the moment when a goon was slammed into the wall to his left.
Ugh
The goon looked to his left with squinted eyes as the groan escaped his mouth, and he saw the man in brown.
Their eyes met as the goon gritted his teeth, pulling out a knife from his thigh, ready to throw it at the man, who stood up, raising his hands.
"Now, hold on, we can talk."
However, the goon had no desire to listen to him and pulled his arm back, ready to throw the dagger. That was when a white wolf bit him in the arm and flung him across the plaza.
"Are you alright?"
Vrisht asked the man, who stared at him, with an open mouth and frowning eyes.
Repeatedly moving his head back and forth between the man and the wolf. "What?"
That was all he could form of this situation; that was when Shin landed on the crates, looking down at the man.
"Wassup homie, long way from the hood."
"What did you just say, rice man?" "What you heard, chicken boy."
"What are you two talking about?" Vrisht questioned, looking at the two with raised eyebrows, tilting his head.
"Nothing, just the good ol' racism, from Earth."
Silence loomed over them before the black man laughed, kicking the crates.
"Get down, fool. You are going to draw more attention to us."
Shin swayed along the crates unbothered as he pointed over his shoulder. "Aw, come on, you are basically invisible if you just stay in the dark."
Before the man could get back at him, Shin gestured behind himself. "Besides, you no longer have anything to fear. The Band of Heroes is here."
The man leaned to the left, looking out at the battlefield, and he saw Aurelia, tearing apart a horde of enemies with her swords.
None of her attacks were lethal; all were calculated strikes meant to disarm and apprehend the goons.
They tried their best, but they stood no chance against the newly ascended Master Rank warrior.
On the other side of the plaza, An was toying with the enemies, using Mana constructs ranging from strings to choke the enemies and control their movements.
When one person tried to stab her in the back, the sword melted as it travelled closer to her body, and the man yelled out in pain as the molten metal fell on his hand.
But that cry did not last for long as he was hit in the face with a kick, knocking him unconscious.
She then shot out runes made of Mana onto the enemies and flipped her hands, sending them flying up in the air with anti-gravity magic before letting them plummet to the pavement.
Sparing their lives, she lowered their descent to the point that it would only knock them out.
While all of this was going down, Eldrain was sitting on top of the pillar in the middle of the fountain.
His eyes observed the chaos as he sighed, removing his hand from under his chin.
Shin turned back to the man. "What's your name?"
"Jacob Smith, and you are?" "Shin Furukawa, a pleasure to meet you, fellow Earthling."
"I must admit, it feels nice to meet another person from Earth in Paneria."
The two shook hands as Shin looked to the left and saw a man crawling inside a tavern.
"I will be right back with you in a moment. Vrisht, keep the man safe, will you?"
Jacob looked to his right as Vrisht just sat down beside him. "My apologies for not greeting you properly, Mr... Shall I call you Mr?"
"You do not have to call me anything, just Vrisht would be fine."
"I must admit, talking to a giant wolf anytime soon was not up there in my list of things."
Meanwhile, Shin opened the door to the tavern and saw the chairs, flipped upside down and placed them onto the tables.
"I know you are in here. Come out and we can do this peacefully."
Walking inside the dark tavern, Shin's eyes fell upon a bottle of wine placed on the counter.
A perfectly sealed bottle of wine, and not just any wine, but an imported bottle from Eldrathis, made in 1189 TNW.
He could not help but gulp at the sight. He took a deep breath before blowing it out again as he walked towards the bottle.
'No.'
A voice called out in his mind as he looked around. "Raghav?"
However, he shook his head, looking back at the bottle as his lips parted slightly with an audible sound, and he reached for the bottle. Behind the counter, the man smirked.
'It worked, they were correct, he really is a drunkard.'
The man waited in the silence as he heard the bottle being lifted from the counter. "Thank you for this. You seem to know me quite well."
Then he heard footsteps moving towards the door as it opened and closed.
Finally, the man sighed in relief and stood up, peeking over the counter.
No one was there. This made the man smile, but that smile was soon shattered when a hand landed on his shoulder.
A chill ran down his spine as he slowly looked behind himself. "I will take the wine, but I am not sparing you."
With an elbow to the side of the head, Shin knocked him down and walked around the counter and sat on the stool.
One hand gripped the bottle while the other reached for the cork. "Do you really want to disappoint him that much?"
Shin froze as he turned towards the door. "Eldrain?"
That was the moment he saw Eldrain through the gaps in the door, sitting on the fountain, looking back at him. "Raghav considers you his best friend, despite your imperfections, it's ironic really. But still, he believes in you, that you will be better, and each time you fail, you not only fail yourself but him as well."
"The choice is yours. No matter what you choose, he will stay by your side, guiding you towards the right path. He does not abandon anyone he has taken hold of. So make your choice without fear, without hesitation."
Eldrain turned away from him and began looking at the rest of the team, wrapping up the battle and securing the criminals with the soldiers and the men of the city watch.
Inside the tavern, Shin stared into the bottle without an expression on his face; his eyes did not blink once, glued to the label on the bottle.
"Taste of happiness."
He read the line out loud, his hand shaking as his grip tightened around the bottle the moment he attempted to pull his hand back.
"Raghav, I won't disappoint you." He declared before throwing the bottle into the wall.
Then the door of the tavern was swung open as Shin walked out, holding the man in his arms and handing him over to some soldiers.
Trod Trod
Came the sound of a horse running through the street, a sound that the band recognised immediately as Gati.
'Raghav!'
They all thought simultaneously, why wouldn't they? Gati was Raghav's horse after all.
Reality is often not what is expected, as was the case here, when the man riding Gati turned out to be Galreid.
Behind him was a convoy of carriages; the carriages circled the plaza, stopping near the hordes of criminals, and soldiers began throwing the criminals into them.
Galreid came towards Aurelia, who smiled upon seeing her uncle. "Uncle Galreid."
The moment Gati stopped, Galreid got off her and smiled at Aurelia. "Aurelia, how are you feeling?"
"Better now, you could have asked us for help. We are in this fight together, this practically started because of us."
"I could have, but there was no need; we would have dealt with this situation either way. This operation had been in the works for the last year, ever since we discovered the existence of the underworld. We were waiting for the perfect opportunity to execute it."
"Oh, so even you were unaware of the underworld?"
"We were, my child, we were. These people are like water; they seep in the tiniest of cracks and decay the structure from the inside."
Aurelia closed her eyes as she nodded. "Do you know where Raghav is? I am worried about him."
"In the mines, at least that was where he was headed the last I saw of him. He was tasked with finding and apprehending the criminals hiding there. We even forgot to check in with him because of these riots around the city.
The group gathered beside them. "So he's down there?" Shin asked Galreid, who shrugged his shoulders.
"Could be, one way to find out..." Eldrain stopped talking as a supersonic blast of Mana went past his head, aimed directly towards Galreid.
Everything stayed still, ranging from the Mana blast to the people around him, as Eldrain looked at it. 'Judging from the angle of descent and the speed, it came from...'
'Right here.'
He now stood at a clock tower, nearly thirty kilometres away from the market plaza. He could see a black figure trying to run away from the other side and grabbed it by the neck and ran back to the group, holding the figure by the neck.
By the time he saw the blast, figured out where it came from and went and got the figure, the blast had moved by about a foot.
Moving dangerously close to the group, but this was of no concern to Eldrain, who held the blast in his palm and crushed it.
All Galreid felt was a gust of wind as he, along with the others, looked at Eldrain's hand with smoke emitting from it.
"I found this on the clock tower."
He threw the figure to the ground between them.
The figure looked up at them and was grabbed by the jaw by Shin, and their black mask was taken off.
It was a woman, with short black hair and a sharp face, who was grinding her teeth. Shin let go of her immediately and was replaced by An, who kept the woman down with telekinesis. "Who sent you?"
The woman did not answer as the ground beneath her cracked. "I won't ask another time."
"Mark sends his regards."
She then bit down on something and began to foam.
"Cyanide!"
Shin yelled as he bent down, placing his hand on her neck. "What's Cyanide?" An asked him.
"A poison from Earth that kills the moment it enters the body, she probably had a pill hidden in her teeth."
Galreid sucked in his lips. "We could have gotten some answers from her."
"We should look for Raghav. Mark has to be behind Raghav's disappearance."
"Shin's correct, we should search the mines, Galreid, stay somewhere safe." Eldrain spoke, looking at the corpse.
Before anyone could say a word, they were instantly moved to the edge of the cliff, where the mines were.
"How fast are you?" Shin questioned as he drew a sharp breath.
'He leaves no shockwaves, just like Reinhardt; he must be the one who taught him that move.' Aurelia thought before shaking her head and looking down from the cliff at the numerous mines.
"Which one is he in? I sense his Mana everywhere." Eldrain questioned with gritted teeth.
"The lowest one, that's the only one with his scent. He must have sent clones in the rest." Vrisht answered, getting a chuckle out of Eldrain.
"Of course, because why not. Ready?"
They all nodded and took the lift beside them.
As they slowly descended, Shin crossed his arms and looked at Eldrain. "Tell me, I want to know how fast you are."
Eldrain sighed. "Somewhere around the speed of light, on the lower side."
"How do you deal with the drag and friction, that speed should be catastrophic."
"I have my ways around those issues. I will tell you more about it later. For now, let's focus."
The lift stopped at the bottom, and they stepped off the lift.
Hahaha
Shin burst out into laughter, causing the rest of them to look at him. "I will be damned, would you look at that?"
Eldrain followed his gaze and read the name on top of the mine. "Huh, it would appear fate just won't let us and Mister Markus part ways just yet.
They found the tunnels closed off by mana barriers, and as they moved in deeper inside the mine, they found the miners and the site chief on the ground.
An and Eldrain checked on them. "They are alive, just unconscious."
They left them there and moved further inside the mine, and found a man with long hair on the floor. "That's Markus."
Shin called out, pointing at the man.
"I sense something." Aurelia said as she looked around, her eyes falling on the pile of rocks a few feet away from Markus.
She moved the rocks out of the way with her telekinesis.
A blinding blue light emerged from behind the rocks, yet none of them were affected by the light and moved forward.
Standing at the edge of the mine, they stood before the giant pocket underground.
"If this space is to collapse, it will destroy the entirety of Old Plied with it. The shockwaves will travel and even knock down New Plied."
An voiced her concerns as Aurelia smiled, shaking her head. "That will not happen, look over there."
She pointed towards the source of the blue light at the centre of the cave.
There he was, the man they had been looking for.
Raghav sat on the ground with his legs crossed and his wrists resting on his knees.
A constant chanting under his breath, a faint word that echoed through everything around him. "Ram, Ram, Ram..."
"Raghav has been holding the entire city up."