by Brian Nyaude
33
Several minutes went by without any progress. So yes it seemed I was lost. The treacherous castle caved into different alleys that seemed to fork in almost every direction. From the inside, this castle was far much bigger than it looked. I bet it was half the size of Saza and that was saying something. Searching randomly for Tye and Paul was not going to be easy. Aside from the castle guards everywhere, I had to worry about the traps and illusions possibly set all over the whole castle. While resting against a wall, I felt the soldiers draw closer towards my position. They were persistent and organized, two traits I hated the most right now. As long as I stayed in this uniform, I would be safe for a while. The light from the sun shined brightly down, guiding me and warding off the darkness that haunted this stronghold. I heard footsteps from my north and east, all from the soldiers looking for me. There was nowhere safe to run from them. Given that I knew little about this castle, I was in a terrible bind.
“Now what,” I sighed not knowing what to do.
The building towers around me all looked the same, filled with so many mind bending turns that stretched randomly in all corners of the citadel. It was almost like a labyrinth, designed to fool intruders like me. What was I going to do? Had all of my actions be in vain?
A clanking noise distracted me, causing me to look up to my left. There was someone there, a citizen perhaps. Out of options, I ran towards that direction with my fists raised cautiously. In the corner of a large dump, I found a man sitting in dirt with a face of hopelessness. He wasn’t a soldier nor did he have any hostile energy within him. He wore clothes that were ragged and the sores on his feet were full of blisters. He didn’t look healthy at all, his ribs were showing and his mouth was dry with crust on his lips. Looking back and forth, I ran towards him cautiously and bent down to talk to him.
“Please have mercy,” the man cried getting down to his knees with tears in his eyes. “Please haven’t I suffered enough already”
What the! His word uttered sadness into my very being as I felt sympathy for him. What horrors had this man been put through? In his eyes, I looked like one of them because of what I had on. I looked in every direction to make sure there was no one close by before grabbing his arm tightly. I pulled him into a dark alley, letting his hand go gently. The look on his face was filled with horror and sadness.
“Please don’t punish me,” he whimpered falling to his knees. “I will do…”
“Shh be quiet,” I placed my finger on his mouth, completely silencing him. “I am not one of them, but I need your help.”
Cautiously, I turned my head again in all directions, trying to sense the presence of any soldiers or anyone with a massive energy near us. Even in this dark alley, safety wasn’t always guaranteed. My only hope was to get as much information as I could from this tortured soul.
“I’m looking for two people,” I began giving him a vivid description of Paul and Tye and what they were wearing the last time I saw them.
“I have not seen them so please don’t hurt me,” he cried slowly raising his hands to cover his face. “Any people claimed dangerous are sent down into Pitto, the layer of the fire dragons.” “Pitto!” I replied confused.
That truly didn’t sound good at all. Anything related to fire dragons was never great news for anyone. I really hated this part, the part where I make a stupid decision to go down there and search through the layer. I looked into his eyes and realized he was telling the truth. The man coughed out loud, falling down to his knees. I think he was losing consciousness due to his seriously weakened body. No, I had to help him since I needed his help to find the others. Getting on one knee, I supported him with my hands, letting his back rest on my knee. I took the bottle of pills and placed one into his mouth slowly. There were only three more pills left inside, but I didn’t care since I wanted to save this man with all of my heart. Enough suffering had been done in this city, it was time for this obscurity to end for good.
“This will ease your pain a bit” I said sincerely laying his head to the ground.
The man crunched on the pill and swallowed it without hesitation. His heavy breathing started to fade slowly as he started to get some of the color back on his skin. Taking out my small hidden bag, I also offered him what little water and food I had left. Without delay, he graciously accepted it and ate everything like a wild animal.
“Thank you stranger,” he smiled struggling back to his feet with weak legs, barely able to keep himself straight. “Why are you here? Don’t you know that once a person is trapped in this castle they will never leave?”
My jaw opened; however, nothing came out. I was still unclear of what I was doing. I had been merely acting out of impulse and worry, driving myself beyond pain and fear to this very point. Now faced with his question, I had no solid response to give. Nevertheless, I still knew what I had to do; my choices had already been made for me. For the sake of my two dear friends, I would go even to the edge of the world. Thinking back before all of this, made me laugh a little to myself. The old me would have heed this warning and left, I wouldn’t have gone this far for anyone else. I used to treat others like they were disposable, inferior beings whose life meant nothing to me. And now, it was different. I was a changed man, a man with something precious to protect. Something I couldn’t leave without, something very deep and dear to me. I paused on my thoughts and took a really long sigh, looking straight into the eyes of the man in front of me. There were important questions I needed answers while I still had the chance.
“Where are the prisoners?” I asked, stepping a little back from him to watch for any soldiers nearby. “You are the first prisoner I have seen at all.”
He didn’t answer at all. The facial expression on his face had changed quickly, looking almost fearful and sad. Tilting my head down, I watched him carefully without rushing him. I think the memories were far too gruesome for him to speak of. For a while, he kept his eyes peeled on the floor, avoiding any eye contact. It looked like I wasn’t going to get a lot out of him, meaning I had to take a bit of extreme measures to get my answer. The soldiers were not far off from us, they were eventually going to stumble upon our location in the next few minutes. Without warning him, I used my mind slipper technique, invading his mind for answers. My word, it was truly terrible and awful. The memories in this man’s mind haunted my very being to the core. I had never seen anything like this before. I felt my anger rise as I saw what that vile tyrant and her minions had done to this man and his family. All of their land lay in ruins, covered in smoke and darkness. In my opinion, this must have happened after she defeated the Okaya King. This man’s family, Katarina destroyed them all without mercy. Only keeping him alive to torment him and remind him of what he once had and loved. It didn’t end there, this man was put through severe torture chambers for a long period like the other survivors, only to somehow escape miraculously and run into me. That’s enough!
I didn’t want to see anymore of his thoughts and memories. I had gotten all the information I needed from him and it was time to leave. Looking down at him, I felt his drive for revenge strongly than before. Although, in his weak body condition, he wasn’t even going to get anywhere near her. I sympathized with him, sharing his loathe for that despicable woman and her evil ways. Someone had to end her reign, this atrocity had gone too long unpunished. Before leaving, I left the man into one of the abandoned buildings and placed him under a sleep command using me will, just for a few hours. I didn’t want him going after Katarina alone and in that weakened state.
“I will get you the justice you deserve,” I made him a promise looking at his motionless body. I made a hasty glance around the towers, looking vigilantly for my pursuers. Everything was too quiet, not even a slight pest lingered anywhere within my sight. I left the building where I had the citizen prisoner and proceeded to move towards my new destination, Pitto. The thought of going into a layer of dragons was sending mad shivers down my spine.
I
ran through the shifty alleys, fully aware of where I was going thanks to my mind slipper. The coast was clear ahead, I only felt the guards from far behind to my south. Had to say, running into that citizen prisoner had been a stroke of fortune for me. Without his memories, I would have been lost in this maze of a castle. That being said, I was not out of harm’s way just yet. This castle was guarded by monsters and beasts beyond my wildest imagination at all four towers of each corner. If I could stay hidden enough, there was almost a chance I could get past them with ease. Further to my advantage, there were hidden passages unknown to most people below the castle that went through the castle to the entire city of Danyen. It seemed this man had been once a royal servant for the previous king and that’s why he had managed to escape and possibly the reason why Katarina Fox had tortured him so badly for his insight. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I think there was something of great value hidden beneath this castle, like that golden room in Jura. After one quick look across the other section of the castle, I made a quick dash through the concrete road, planning to make it to the other side unseen. All of a sudden, I felt great tremendous energies above me in the air. Bloodlust, I felt it too. I was being followed by a platoon of soldiers, powerful ones at that. Pausing for a second, I looked for them with my eyes in every direction. I saw nothing, not even a slight disturbance in the air or on the ground. I ran quickly and hid behind an open building, bending halfheartedly to my knees and listening. They were getting close. As long as they didn’t see me, I would be okay.
The heat from sun was starting to burn intensely. This location wasn’t hidden enough, I moved away stealthy to another section of staked buildings, hoping to stay out of sight. At this point, I was starting to wish I had retreated back to safety with the others. It had been more than an hour or more since I had separated from the others. I wondered if they made it out of the tunnel alive. I could only hope they did, otherwise I had sent them to their deaths when I told them to go back.
“Search this way you two,” a loud voice with power rattled as the ground shook greatly. “Don’t let him get past you.”
I quickly stopped and placed my back against a wall, starting to panic slowly. In all honesty, I thought I had lost them on the other side of the castle and now I knew I was wrong. I heard more footsteps to my left and then to my right, coming from both sides of the small alley. The two groups were closing in on my position faster than I had anticipated. I was a trapped, stuck in the middle of a closely guarded passageway. And to make it worse, the men coming from both sides were very powerful. I felt their immense raw power even from here. No doubt, they were probably the elite guards of Katarina’s army. Truly not a force to be reckoned with.
Without blinking, I adjusted the helmet and mask I had taken from the trio from before and made sure everything was in order.
“Sir I spotted a soldier here,” one of them hissed, pointing at me to alarm the others to my location.
A horde of soldiers suddenly surrounded me, observing me with evil eyes. I did not see them coming, it felt like they appeared out of thin air. Just where did she get these people? Upon closer look, I realized they were not normal soldiers at all. My word, I had finally seen it all now. This whole platoon was made up of monsters. Some of them had large scaled tails while others had menacing sharp fangs and claws. The black robed uniforms were the only thing similar on each of them. From the prisoner’s memories, I recognized them as the “Brutal Annihilation Squad.” A battalion made up of the most ruthless and heartless of all humans and monsters, only answering directly to their mistress. For me, this was not good.
Out of the horde, a tall huge broad armored man or beast stepped up to me. His metal uniform armor and helmet were gold, covered with magnificent glimmer and design. His eyes looked like that of a beast, and his mask was far much more menacing than the others. I trembled down to my knees for a slight second, realizing my depressing situation.
“Soldier have you seen the intruder?” he growled slowly in such a fierce voice that could send weaker enemies running. “I am assuming yes since you are way out of your assigned location. You must have seen him or you have a good excuse for invading in our jurisdiction.”
Shifting uncomfortably, my eyes wandered around, trying to come up with a good lie. But fear had grabbed a hold of me. There was something about his voice, something that was frightening me in a strange way. It felt like he was constricting me, completely controlling my mind. I could not comprehend what was happening to me or why I wasn’t saying anything back. Wait..! Could it be? Was this a mind slipper technique or something similar? Yes, I think he was somehow trying to invade my mind with a power similar to my mind slipper technique. In that case, I took the liberty of blocking all my thoughts, letting the lie come out of me naturally.
“I saw him go that way,” I said quickly without even thinking. “He was using the roofs of the buildings to evade us completely. I followed him all the way here until I was stopped by this soldier.”
I pointed to the soldier who had alarmed the others of my position when I had my back against the wall. The soldier was startled, looking at me and then to his superior in a fearful way.
“I’m sorry sir I didn’t know,” the soldier panicked. “I only wanted to...”
Before he could even finish speaking, the tall man beast in the golden armor moved swiftly up to him and slapped him senselessly in the face. The ground trembled beneath my feet as we heard a almost thunderous noise. I watched the soldier fly back hard into the building wall, practically destroying it with his tattered body. How ruthless!
A cloud of dust rose up into the air, completely camouflaging everything within sight. I coughed out loud, choking off the debris in my nose and mouth. It was then, I saw the dust start to disappear, being sucked up all in one location. The dust was all being sucked in by a soldier into his mouth quickly. By my guess, that was his power granted to him by the white water mist. It was a safe bet at that point to say that practically each and every one of them had these unique abilities of mist origin. Not good!
Within seconds, all the dust had vanished leaving nothing, but clear air and rubble. I looked back at the tall man beast in front of me, ready to anticipate the worst. He looked at me for a second before looking away at his platoon.
“What did I tell you men?” he roared at them unsheathing a very long thin sword from his waist.
“You never interfere with another soldier who is doing an important job at all. Is that understood?”
“Yes commander,” they all replied together.
He then turned to me. “My deepest apologies young soldier, continue with your search and when you find him, alarm us with the castle code okay? And I shall inform Jolias your superior officer of your important job.”
With that said, he turned around and signaled his men to go in the direction I had told him the intruder which was me had gone. As before, they vanished just like they appeared in thin air. So fast, I never even blinked. In terms of pure speed, they were faster than Ken and Dashe combined. I sighed out loudly, unable to get everything I had witnessed out of my mind. How could he do that? That man or beast in the golden armor had knocked away his underling like he nothing at all. Like his underling’s life had not mattered at all? Would I have turned out like that if I had never been banished from Rogue? I looked at the fallen soldier and felt a bit of pity for him. Even though he had been my enemy, it was because of my lie he was in that state right now. Realizing that I had wasted too much time, I took one last glance behind me before taking off towards Pitto.
