Category: Chapters – Version 1

At the same time that Ignis was talking to the members of Diei Noctis, Nihil had just reached the next town over. Not many people were around since it was the small hours of the morning, but he still called up to the guard at the top of the wall. He needed a quiet place he could freely enter and exit for the day.

Due to being unskilled at illusion magic, he unfortunately couldn’t change his appearance, but he did deactivate the belt that was hiding his tail, and pulled his face deep into his cloak’s hood. This way he hoped he could fool the Royal Guard if they came by asking if a ‘human’ with golden eyes had been spotted in the area.

“Do you know if there’s an inn open at this time of night?” Nihil asked the guard as he passed through the sally port.

“You’re in luck, I’m just about to finish my shift for tonight, and my partner often wakes up early to cook dinner for me. He claims it’s to prepare breakfast for his customers, but he could just buy the bread from the bakery rather than making it from scratch himself.” The guard laughed with an appreciative smile. “If you wait for a bit, I can bring you with me. Regan’s inn is one of the smaller ones in this town, but the service is top notch. I promise that I’m not just biased because I’m his boyfriend.”

Smiling, Nihil agreed to wait for a while, and in another half an hour they were already at the doors of Regan’s inn.

“Aki! Welcome back. How was your shift?” Reagan greeted, having clearly been waiting for the guard.

“I’m home Regan.” Aki responded, his love practically dripping from his voice.

Not wanting to be a third wheel, Nihil chose this timing to step out from behind Aki and remind them both of his presence.

“Oh yeah, this is Nihil, and he was hoping to rent a room from you so that he could crash today.” Aki blushed and introduced the man to Regan.

“Hi.” Nihil greeted. “I’m sorry to impose at such an hour, but I got separated from my merchant caravan. As such I’ve been travelling non-stop for a couple of days now, so I would really appreciate a comfortable room to sleep in undisturbed.”

Nihil hoped that this story would be enough to guarantee that no one would try to enter whichever room he was given.

“Of course! I’ll get your room set up right away. In the meantime, why don’t you help yourself to some breakfast. You must be hungry by now, and Aki can show you where everything is. I always make plenty of food, so eat as much as you’d like.” Regan quickly jumped into action upon seeing Nihil’s weary face and drooping tail.

With a small smile, Nihil commented to Aki. ”Your partner seems like a caring man.”

“He’s the best boyfriend anyone could ask for.” Aki shamelessly gushed as he led Nihil inside towards the kitchen. “Actually, he doesn’t know this, but the reason I’ve been taking so many night shifts like this recently, is because they pay more and this way I can save up for a ring. I’m planning on asking for his hand next month.”

“Ah! I hope it all works out for you guys.” Nihil replied with a gentle smile. “Though, if his expression when he looks at you is any indication, there won’t be any problem.”

At those words, Aki blushed happily. He had been keeping his plans a secret from everyone, so he had desperately wanted to tell someone and Nihil came along just as the guard was about to burst.

Thinking to himself, Nihil suddenly flipped his hand out in front of him, and produced two necklaces that dangled from his hands.

“These are just something that I made a while ago and never got rid of. It was just an experiment, but you guys can have them if you’d like.” Nihil explained.

The necklaces both had half a ring attached to a delicate silver chain. The ring was made of a dark blue and gold flecked lapis lazuli magic stone, and the two halves fitted together perfectly. The chains were long enough that the rings could comfortably fit together even when both were being worn.

“A long time ago I was messing around with a storage ring and accidentally broke it. Naturally this caused everything inside to materialise and the ring stopped working.” Nihil started explaining one of his recently recovered memories around mouthfulls of food. “However that got me thinking if it was possible for a broken storage ring to continue working.

“Well, anyway, one thing led to another, and I eventually developed that ring. However, since it doesn’t have much practical use, I never really thought about it again.”

“What? You mean that this is a fully functioning storage ring!?” Aki asked incredulously.

“Yep. Though both halves have to be held together for it to work.” Nihil replied just before he ate the last bite of his breakfast. “There’re only around ten square metres inside, but each half is constantly seeking it’s pair and so even inserting your mental energy into one half tells you the direction of the other.”

“They have that kind of function too!?” Aki exclaimed, understandably shocked. “Are you sure you’re OK with just handing them over to us?”

Nihil may have explained all this as if it was extremely basic, and had almost no actual use. However, the opposite was actually true. In the first place, 10 square metres of space was actually on the larger side for storage rings. Never mind the fact that it was thought to be impossible for a broken storage ring to continue working with no problems. And on top all that they had a tracking function that was said to be one of the more complicated inscription patterns that only the best enchanters could engrave.

However, even with all these points, to Nihil they truly were a pair of items that held no real value to him. He’d only kept ahold of them for as long as he had because he hadn’t known what they were and a vague sense of nostalgia had prevented him from directly throwing them away.

“Of course. I wouldn’t have brought them out if I wasn’t certain that they would be of more use to you two. The colour mix even matches Regan’s eyes.” Nihil replied with no regrets.

“Thank you so much!” Aki exclaimed as he threw his arms around the man’s shoulders in gratitude.

Many years later, and the two still wore the pendants around their necks even in their old age, before eventually passing them on to their adopted son and his wife. The pair of necklaces made their way down through the family just like this, and it never occurred to anyone to try to sell them despite receiving countless exorbitant offers.

Back in the present and Nihil and Aki continued chatting for a while before Regan came back, letting his customer know that the room was ready. Nodding his head tiredly, Nihil followed Regan to his temporary room, and locked the door behind him. Regan put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door so that his housekeeper didn’t accidentally try to enter and disturb his sleeping guest.

As soon as he was alone, Nihil made sure that Regan had left. He then swiped his hand down, creating a gate in the room. The destination was just outside of the town he was currently in. He’d previously set up a pin before calling out to Aki. This pin meant that people would be less likely to approach the area unless they had a specific reason to go there. It was just a subtle suggestion so it didn’t last long, but it was still active for the time being.

Once he was outside the town, Nihil turned into a phantom that seemed to flicker in and out of sight as he rapidly created and ran through gates to areas he could see before him.

In this way, Nihil was able to cover the entire width of the country in just a couple of hours. When he arrived at the rocky plain, Nihil slowed his speed down as the likelihood of bumping into the Royal Guard and other travellers would increase from then on. Not that it was at all guaranteed by any means.

The border between Avalon and Sheol was indicated by a helpful gorge that ran the length of the plains. Apparently it used to be a river that ran into the sea, but the spring had long since dried up, just leaving a deep gully behind.

There was a base for the Royal Guards at the entrance of every bridge that crossed the valley. This way they could monitor who was entering and exiting the country to some degree. They also had regular patrols to even monitor the areas without a bridge. They did this to try to limit the movement of any fugitives.

Luckily Nihil was a mage. He’d also recovered some of his mental strength while he’d been eating and relaxing. It wasn’t much compared to his usual amount, but it was plenty to just make the trip into Sheol and back.

Hiding from a group of guards that happened to walk along the cliff just as he approached, Nihil dropped behind an outcrop of rocks.

“Everything OK?” A laid-back voice spoke up when her partner suddenly started lagging behind.

“Yeah … it must have been my imagination.” He responded while staring directly at the same outcrop that Nihil was hiding behind.

“Come on, there are brownies waiting for us when we get back.” The first woman replied excitedly. It wasn’t often they got treats like this, and she was slightly concerned that they’d all be gone by the time they returned to base.

The two figures quickly disappeared at the woman’s words. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nihil slowly peered over the stones and concentrated his sights on Sheol’s side of the gully. It was a good few kms away, but Nihil’s sight-line was mostly uninterrupted, so he could easily make out the other side.

Double checking that no one was around to see him, Nihil then swiped his hand to create another gate. On the horizon, a corresponding dark line appeared in the air. Without hesitation, Nihil stepped through and instantly emerged in Sheol.

Looking back at the ravine, Nihil travelled further into Sheol until he could no longer see any sign of it. He then continued moving for another few kms until he found a promising stone hill just before the plain gave way to sand dunes.

Circling the hill, Nihil decided on the best spot, and then started making a cave for Diei Noctis to stay in until they could all meet up again. Using magic he was able to make it surprisingly comfortable for them, as he carved out stone beds, tables and chairs. He also took the time to make a stone toilet with a lid to contain the smell. The hole was deep enough that it would take a long time to completely fill up, even when taking into account their large party size.

In a separate room, Nihil also left a large water storage gem and a storage ring with food and cured meats inside. It was just a normal storage ring so the food could still rot, but it was much cooler inside the ring than in the cave, so it would last longer inside. Unfortunately a fire would only serve to draw attention to them, so he didn’t bother with a chimney or a fire pit. They would have to make do with cold food for a while.

Once everything was set up, Nihil materialised another gate that opened up directly into his room at Regan’s inn. Since he still had a while before he absolutely had to get back to the adventurers, he decided to crash out for an hour or two before sneaking out again.

* * *

When Nihil next opened his eyes, he quickly got dressed and connected a gate to the group’s camp from the previous evening. He wasn’t sure if they would still be at the same camp, but it would at least be closer to them than outside the town he was currently in. Also, if they did happen to be at the same spot, he trusted Ignis to be able to move the group away in time to prevent any injuries.

Just as everyone was sitting down to eat lunch around the fire pit, Ignis suddenly called out. “Archer and Alexis, I’d move from that spot if I were you.”

Something about his tone made the two people jump away from their seats before asking any questions – despite the laid-back way of phrasing things. As soon as the area was cleared, questions were no longer necessary as a black oval appeared, disintegrating the tree stumps they had used to sit on. Nihil casually stepped out from that oval and it immediately vanished from behind his figure.

Seeing the state the stumps were in, everyone shared a collective gulp and thanked Ignis for his timely warning.

“That saves me some time.” Nihil commented under his breath, glad that they had stayed put. “I take it Ignis has caught everyone up?”

Seeing everyone’s surprised expressions Nihil was almost worried that Ignis hadn’t explained things to them yet.

“Ah. Yeah, he did.” Claude replied, coming to his senses first. “He just didn’t think to tell us that there was a possibility of being vaporised if we happened to be in the wrong place when you returned.”

“It just kinda slipped my mind.” Ignis replied somewhat sheepishly to Nihil’s sharp gaze.

Rolling his eyes, Nihil casually grabbed a bowl of soup from above the fire pit and a buttered bread roll from his void ring. The roll happened to be one of the ones Regan had cooked that morning, and a small smile flitted across his lips as he thought about the couple. The two were the first he’d come across that didn’t even seem to notice his aura, and just treated him like a normal traveller that was down on his luck.

Seeing his tail swing about expressively, the group couldn’t help but feel a little closer to the normally aloof man. Since he usually wore the belt to hide his tail, Nihil wasn’t as practised at hiding his emotions with it as he was with his face.

“So you actually had a fox tail?” Linley commented with a smile.

“Ah. I forgot to reactivate my belt.” Nihil replied with a suddenly stiff tail. “Well, whatever.”

He shrugged his shoulders and quietly sent a strand of mental energy into his belt again.

“Aw, it was cute.” Merry muttered, sad to see it go.

Nihil chose to pretend that he hadn’t heard her say anything. But that was soon proven to be difficult.

“I know, right? It never fails to betray his true thoughts.” Ignis chimed in with a laugh.

“So, who am I taking into Flumen?” Nihil rapidly changed the subject to the task at hand. Flumen was the nearby town’s name.

“That would be me.” Lucas spoke up at this point. “Is there a message board anywhere in town?”

“I’m not sure since it was still dark when I was walking around, but if there is it should be relatively easy to spot when you enter. Maybe try by the gate?” Nihil replied pensively.

After everyone was finished eating, Nihil stood up and took Lucas with him to the area by the gate to Flumen. Since the aversion magic was still working slightly, Nihil had decided to use another portal.

“Ugh, how can you use these so casually?” Lucas complained the moment he stepped through. “I feel nauseous from just one trip.”

“Huh? I thought you were a cultivator?” Nihil genuinely didn’t actually mean this in a rude way.

It was normal for mages to find the gates disorienting since there would always be sudden changes in the world’s energy between the two places. Not to mention that the gates themselves greatly affected the flow of magic in the surrounding areas. However, none of this should have been possible for a cultivator to sense, let alone have it affect them.

“Well, excuse me.” Lucas replied somewhat testily since he still felt like he was going to puke his guts.

Seeing this, Nihil decided to test something and waved his hand to stabilise the surrounding energy. The moment everything was settled, Lucas’ face relaxed and his completion got noticeably better.

“Huh? That’s odd. It almost feels as if my nausea was just a lie.” Lucas commented, confused.

“Hmm … Lucas you wouldn’t happen to be a ‘Caretaker’, would you?” Nihil asked deliberately being cryptic. Caretakers weren’t exactly well known, after all. In fact, not even Callum knew about them – though Nihil was certain that it was information the man would kill to get if he ever learnt of its existence.

“Caretaker? What’s that?” Lucas replied, but the panic and shock in his eyes wasn’t very skillfully hidden.

“OK, I’ll leave it at that then.” Nihil acquiesced easily. “Anyway, I’m supposed to be in my room right now, so I’ll wait for you here while you go and leave the message.”

“I’ll be right back then.” Lucas replied, still in shock while he stumbled towards the town gate.

He had never expected to hear that term this far away from Alfheim. However, he currently had a job to do so he quickly refocused his attention. There would be an opportunity later for him to ask Nihil about that particular subject.

When he reached the gates, Lucas passed through unhindered when the guards saw his adventurer’s emblem pinned onto his cloak. Just beyond the gates was a giant message board. On it were adverts for various missions that varied from finding lost pets, to hunting missions for specific magic beasts. There were also recruitment postings for different jobs around town.

There was so much going on that there was barely enough space for them all to fit. He did manage to spot a small section that was just big enough for his square of paper with Diei Noctis’ emblem drawn on it. The placement was in an inconspicuous corner of the board, so it was perfect for his purposes.

“Good afternoon. Is this spot here still available to place my group’s emblem on?” Lucas asked the guard stationed next to the board.

It was this guard’s job to manage and take payment for the fliers that were pinned on the board. The space was rented out to people, and when the time period payed for was over, they’d then take down the corresponding fliers. They’d also make sure that each flier was readable while trying to keep as much space free as possible.

“Yes it is. How long would you like to rent the space for?” The guard answered. As long as he got paid, he didn’t care why the man wanted to put his party’s logo on their message board.

“Thirteen days should be enough.” Lucas replied. He allowed a few extra days to allow for travel time, and just in case Stella’s group got delayed for some reason.

“That will be 39 silvers*, then please.” The man stated as he wrote down the dates in the book and took the paper out of Lucas’ hands to both pin it up, and to write a number on it.

Lucas handed over the money and then took a walk around the town before returning back to Nihil.

---

* A/N 1 gold = 100 silvers and 1 silver = 100 coppers

A/N: From this chapter onwards, the originals will follow the new name for the Sun and Moon Adventurers. This is because we’ve now caught up with the stockpiled chapters I had already written, and it’s confusing to have to switch between the two different names. As such, ‘Sun and Moon Adventurers’ will now become ‘Diei Noctis’.

---

It turned out that Scarlet’s squad weren’t actually very far away – just far enough to not be discovered, but close enough that they could respond quickly if they received Scarlet’s distress signal. Luckily everything had happened quickly enough that she hadn’t had a chance to send such a signal, and now that she was in Nihil’s pocket dimension her magic wouldn’t be able to reach them.

Looking at the softly shimmering gate, Ignis silently sent his friend off before returning to the room Scarlet was in. He decided to use this chance to question her further about the earlier information he’d touched upon about Nihil’s past.

While his friend was interrogating Scarlet once again, Nihil had arrived a small distance away from a military camp comprised of roughly 24 soldiers from the Royal Guard. From their uniforms, Nihil could immediately tell that they were from the stealth corp. He knew that just his basic mastery over the dark and wind elements wouldn’t be enough for him to avoid their notice for very long. As a result, he decided that the best course of action would be to find a patrolling guard.

Finding one didn’t take Nihil very long. Sneaking up behind the figure, he covered their mouth with his left hand and squeezed his right arm around their neck – silently carrying them away once they’d passed out. Once he’d put enough distance between himself and the camp, he sat the unconscious body against a large tree bordering a nearby field. During the day horses usually grazed in this area, but the owner had long since stabled them for the night.

Nihil contemplated bringing the guard back and having Ignis read the woman to find out how much the sergeant was planning on revealing to their higher ups. However, Nihil ultimately decided against doing this as he wasn’t certain how much the guard knew. Besides, his reason for coming wasn’t to stop the information from being leaked. To do that he would have to massacre everyone in this squad, and Nihil wasn’t yet willing to resort to that sort of action again.

Instead, Nihil actually planned to make sure that the intel was passed on safely. Normally he’d also use this opportunity to also steal anything of value that happened to be lying around as well, but he wasn’t planning on doing that this time. Aside from anything else, it would alert the squad that he’d been here and had discovered Scarlet tailing them.

After feeding Ignis again to heal him, Nihil’s mental energy was running dangerously low. In fact he’d actually used up more energy this time than the previous time, so it was a miracle that he’d even managed to stay awake at all. A normal mage in his position would be helpless in a fight even if they did manage to stay awake and on their feet. However Nihil was different. He could also use his cultivation to fight.

As his recently recalled memories told him, Nihil had been born able to use both magic and cultivation. This was partly why Callum was so determined to retrieve ‘Zero’. Despite being able to use both types of energy, though, Nihil normally preferred to use magic as it complimented both his and Ignis’ fighting styles better. However, this being the case didn’t hinder Nihil’s efforts at all.

After stripping the guard of her outer wear, Nihil stashed the woman in some undergrowth. He left her in her shorts and a thermal top that was underneath her clothes for warmth. Being a cultivator, these clothes and the small amount of protection from the ferns was enough to prevent her from any serious sequelae, so Nihil didn’t bother too much about the guard.

Nihil had deliberately chosen someone that had a similar height and build to his own, so hiding his face was enough to pass unhindered by the others in the camp. Luckily the guard had worn a cloak with a hood, so the intruder silently shrunk his head back into the depths of the cove created. Though it felt weird to be wearing women’s clothes, it afforded him an additional layer of camouflage. It was just that the skirt was a bit short for him to easily forget what he was wearing. Considering the glances he received from the guards in the camp, the woman he’d knocked out was pretty enough to draw attention, but ferocious enough to scare them into not approaching her. Seeing this, he was glad that he’d chosen the right person.

Heading toward the main tent in the centre, nihil gradually seemed to merge into the shadows and disappear from any prying eyes. After Nihil saw that it was quiet even after a messenger pushed their way into it, he cautiously approached. Judging from their muffled conversation that Nihil could just about make out through the thin material, it seemed that was the messenger that Scarlet had contacted with the news of the two fugitives’ whereabouts. They seemed to be discussing her lack of communication for the past few hours with the sergeant.

Letting out a small smile, Nihil waited in the shadows cast by the torches next to the entrance to the Sergeant’s tent. Just then a new person entered and interrupted the two’s conversation somewhat rudely. Surprisingly though, it didn’t sound as if the Sergeant was particularly upset by this behaviour.

“Ma’am, it’s been several hours now and we haven’t received an ETA on when the 1st lieutenant will manage to get here with his platoon. What are our orders?” A gruff voice asked.

“John, we’ve talked about this. You can’t just barge into my tent like that.” A calm voice gently spoke in response to the gruff man’s urgent tone. “But to answer your question, your orders are to remain on standby. We will leave tracking the group to Scarlet until we hear more from her. There’s no use in jumping into action early, only to alert the fugitives as to our presence. That would only serve to hinder our efforts.”

“But, Sergeant, I know that we can catch them ourselves!” The man growled.

Nihil didn’t recognise the voice, but he figured that the man must have been robbed by Ignis and himself at some point. Otherwise his gung-ho attitude didn’t make much sense. However, this soon proved to be the wrong conclusion.

“Why should the 1st lieutenant come in at the last moment and steal our glory when we’ve done all the work?” The man continued.

“It’s just protocol. It’s nothing personal to us.” The Sergeant explained calmly. “Especially for these two. They’ve managed to elude better soldiers than us before. If they also managed to slip through our fingers just because we got greedy, could you take responsibility for that?”

Of course, what they didn’t know was that it was precisely this protocol that had allowed Nihil and Ignis time to evade their pursuers for so long. Although in this specific situation, nothing the squad did at this time would make any difference to the outcome. Scarlet’s little slip up had seen to that already.

After the man had apologised somewhat sheepishly, the same big, burly figure from before stepped out from the tent again and brushed past Nihil’s hiding place. At this time another voice spoke up. This was probably the messenger’s voice this time.

“Ma’am, something has me worried.” The young boy’s voice nervously started. After a short pause he carried on talking. “I didn’t notice it at first, but just before Scarlet hung up the communication device there was another sound.”

“What kind of sound?”

“I’m not quite sure, but I’ll replay our conversation for you.”

After some faint noises of the young boy faffing around with the communicator, a burst of static blasted out just before snapping back to perfect clarity of sound as Scarlet’s voice rang out.

“This is Scarlet. I have been tailing a suspicious group for a while now, and just confirmed our two targets within their ranks.” Contrary to her vicious tone when talking with Nihil and Ignis, she actually managed to sound respectful during this recording.

“What? They’re actually here? I didn’t entirely believe the reported sightings before, I would’ve thought that they’d be in Arcadia’s territory by now.” The young boy’s confused voice was the next to play.

“I’m not sure why, but they are travelling with a group of low levelled adventurers so this pace is actually about right for them, I guess?” Scarlet sounded just as confused as she tried to work it out from what she could see in front of her.

“OK, keep tabs on them and let us know if there are any changes. I’ll go report this to the Sergeant.”

“Roger.”

Just then, there was a muffled thump that almost sounded like Scarlet had only fumbled a bit with the orb as she hung up. It was clear to Nihil, however, that it must have been coincidentally at that point that Linley had appeared and knocked Scarlet unconscious.

That was close, any sooner and the alarm would have been raised, making Scarlet’s capture a lot more difficult. Nihil thought to himself.

“Normally I’d say that this wasn’t anything to worry about. But considering that we haven’t received a report from her for several hours now, I want you to get a team to work on analysing that sound.” The Sergeant decisively ordered.

“Yes Ma’am!” The young boy presumably saluted before running out of the tent as well.

Once she was alone, the Sergeant sighed to herself before busying herself with making another call to HQ to see if they could give her any more information. Unfortunately no one picked up the call so she was left to just quietly cuss out the higher ups under her breath.

Hearing this, Nihil quietly chuckled to himself. He thought that had things been different, then the two of them might have surprisingly gotten along pretty well. With things as they were though, there was no way that would be possible, so Nihil just slowly stood up and made his way back to where he’d left the guard unconscious. He’d managed to confirm that the sergeant had passed along the information, and that there wasn’t anything too dangerous for them to know. The sound at the end of the recording was a little bit worrying, but given how short a sound it was, he didn’t think that there would be anything incriminating against Linley in it even after analysis.

* * *

After changing back into his own clothes, Nihil quickly returned to Ignis’ side. By this time, he had already finished questioning Scarlet for his own investigation. However, he wasn’t sure just how much he really believed, so he still didn’t mention anything to Nihil just yet. All that was clear was that Scarlet herself truly believed it.

“The information has already been passed on to their HQ.” Nihil reported simply.

“Does this mean that it really is time to part ways with everyone?” Ignis asked, unsure as to which reply he was hoping for.

“From what I heard, it seems as if the platoon directly above them is dragging their feet to arrive for some reason, but now seems like a good opportunity to leave as any. If we stay with Diei Noctis for too long then we’ll only drag them into our mess.”

“They were just starting to warm up to you, though.” Ignis replied somewhat despondently.

“In any case, we should return to them for a moment and get them out of the area before we part ways with them for good.” Nihil mused as he tried to figure what would currently be their best plan.

“Wouldn’t that mean revealing our abilities to them though?” Ignis questioned worriedly.

“Perhaps, but it’s better than them getting caught up in our business.” Nihil responded calmly. “Besides, there’s no reason for you to do anything, it will all come down to my spacial magic after all.”

A subtle frown flitted across Ignis’ face before he quickly corrected his expression. He hated how Nihil always tried to take on the difficult tasks himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything – especially since he’d just failed on his end when capturing Scarlet.

Not noticing his friend’s conflict, Nihil continued playing around with his torture tools while he was deep in thought. The action was entirely subconscious and was done to help him focus more easily, and just this conveyed enough about the man to greatly worry Ignis.

Just then, Nihil’s eyes seemed to become sharper as he finally firmed his resolve and made his decision.

“I’ll run ahead and find a good spot to open a gate, and then return to meet everyone. This way I can reduce the likelihood of transporting everyone into the middle of a town or directly atop of someone.” The last sentence was muttered under his breath, but it was a very real concern for Nihil.

This was why he didn’t like teleporting across large distances. Aside from the obvious problem that his lacking memory provided (making his aim unreliable at best), there was the very real possibility of a mishap occurring. If someone happened to be in the spot he opened a gate, then that person would at the very least lose a part of their body to the void. Needless to say, this wasn’t a very pleasant experience for anyone involved, and Nihil wanted to avoid this at any cost.

“OK then, I’ll head back to the group and let them know what has happened and what we’re planning on doing. I’ll also try to see if they would be willing to keep this from Stella and Lunam for a bit as well.” Ignis agreed, choosing to put aside his growing doubts for the time being.

He wasn’t worried about what Nihil may or may not have done in the past, Ignis was only worried about how that knowledge would affect his friend if he found out.

Nodding his head, Nihil first opened a gate for himself and his friend. They decided to leave Scarlet hanging on the hook for the time being, and once they reached Bule they would hand her over to the inter-species council as a hostile witness.

Once they were back in the clearing in which Nihil had apprehended Scarlet, they both headed opposite directions. Ignis headed north west towards Diei Noctis, while Nihil headed south east towards the rocky plain that separated Sheol from Avalon. He thought that it would be easiest to directly transfer them outside of the country and then leave a message for Stella’s party to catch up at the town closest to the capital. If they’re not worried about hunting during their journey, then they should be able to make pretty good time.

* * *

After 5 minutes had passed, Ignis regrouped with the adventurers who were in the middle of searching for the missing two men.

“Ignis! How did you get away from Scarlet? Where’s Nihil? Are you OK? I saw your ears bleeding before.” A sudden barrage of questions flooded out of Lucas’ mouth the moment he noticed Ignis.

Lucas often acted almost as a mother figure to Diei Noctis, as a result whenever people got hurt or disappeared he usually was the one that fretted the most. He was also the scariest person to anger in the group because they all knew that he was only getting angry for their sakes. In fact, he was one of the first people to actually accept Nihil into the party wholeheartedly. However he never really approached Nihil, as he could tell that the man was trying to keep his distance from the group.

“Nihil and I are just fine, don’t worry.” Ignis answered just as the others were gathering around him, cutting off anymore questions from anyone else. “Nihil healed my ears, so there’s no problem anymore. He’s gone ahead to scout out a place to transport all of us to in a bit. He should be back by lunch time tomorrow – well I guess it’s ‘today’ now.”

Looking around at the blank looks, Ignis decided to get everyone to sit down and he explained while he re-lit up their camp fire from before in order to cook food for the group of 8 including himself.

“I can’t promise the food will be as good as Nihil’s, but it will definitely be better than Clark and Claus’.” Ignis started, provoking an embarrassed laugh from everyone. “After Scarlet dragged me off unconscious, Nihil managed to catch up to her a short distance away from here and somehow succeeded in freeing me. Unfortunately he had to let her escape since I was unconscious. Naturally this means that her sergeant has definitely received news of our whereabouts, and that we’re travelling with a group.”

“We expected that when she managed to escape from us, to be honest. We were thinking of leaving a coded message in the next village warning Miss Stella and Miss Lunam’s group to avoid us for the time being.” Lucas responded.

“What was that about Nihil transporting us somewhere, though?” Claude piped up. Of those in Diei Noctis, he was the only one who knew even a little bit of what Nihil was capable of, so this information hadn’t surprised him at all.

“Yes, well Nihil has a similar plan to you guys. He guessed that you’d have a code to pass messages to each other in the case that you get split up, so he was hoping that you’d be able to compose a message to let Lunam and Stella know that the rendezvous location had changed to the rocky plains beyond Avalon’s borders. This way it will be harder for the Royal Guard to act so openly even if they do somehow manage to figure out your identities.” Ignis explained the reasoning first.

“That makes sense, but how are you planning on getting us there quickly enough that wouldn’t search in that area by the time we get there?” Alexis asked, curious.

“Well, the truth is that Nihil is a mage with a space attribute.” Ignis started. “He can create ‘gates’ that will allow us to travel across the remaining distance in no time.”

“If that’s the case, then why didn’t you guys use that ability before? There’d be no reason for you to group together with us as you could have easily reached Arcadia which is out of the reach of the Royal Guard.” Merry asked reasonably.

“The problem is that if Nihil hasn’t been somewhere personally before, then his aim can easily go awry and we’d end up in the ocean or even in the middle of a rock wall. So normally he just travels to preset destinations, or to somewhere he can see. We didn’t exactly want to backtrack right into the Royal Guard’s clutches.” These reasons were only part of the truth, but it was much quicker and easier to leave it at that.

“I guess that’s fair.” Merry readily responded.

“Another thing, if you guys could keep this to yourselves for as long as possible – don’t even tell Lunam and Stella.” Ignis broached this issue now that they had understood and accepted the plan. “The more people who know the truth, the more likely it is that someone will let something slip and the Royal Guard will know that you guys were the ones that helped us. They are deliberately going along with our disguise as being just a couple of northmanni. After all it’s easier for the both of us like this.”

“Just what have you two done that it’s easier for the Royal Guard to claim that they’re having trouble with two northmanni?” Lucas asked incredulously, knowing that a straight answer was unlikely.

“That’s also something that’s better left unsaid.” Ignis replied.

The reason the Royal Guard claimed that they were northmanni, was that then it would be irrelevant whether the two were claiming to be mages, or cultivators. It was still a secret that dual training was possible, after all. This embarrassment, though, was a big part of the reason that their grudges were more personal than if they’d just been ordered to capture two random fugitives.

“OK I’ll compose the message, but I will have to go the nearest village to leave it in an inconspicuous location. It’s only a simple code, so if the Royal Guard find it, it won’t take the very long to decipher its meaning.” Lucas agreed to the plan, but deliberately made no mention about keeping all this from their two leaders.

Even though Ignis noticed this, he decided to drop the matter for now. “That’s no problem, when Nihil comes back he’ll first transport someone to the village.”

Just as the sun was dropping below the horizon, a small shift in the stalker’s movement alerted the group to her awakening.

“Heads up.” Klaus warned the group.

Linley stepped forward to question the girl’s intentions.

“So, what’s your name?” He decided to start off small to gauge how willing she would be to answer their questions.

She raised her chin arrogantly and sneered as she replied. “My name is Scarlet Blade.”

“That’s a rather strange name.” Klaus scoffed, suspecting she was using an alias to fool them.

“No way! That Scarlet Blade?” Merry exclaimed in surprise. “There’s no way you’d be that easy to capture if you were truly her.”

“Huh? Who is she?” Klaus turned to ask Merry.

“She’s an elite assassin in the Royal Guard. No one knows her real name, but they say she earned this one when she slaughtered an entire ‘evil’ guild alone. As you can imagine, by the end of the massacre her sword was scarlet with the blood of her victims.” Nihil explained coldly, disgust dripping from his voice.

An ‘evil guild’ was just a generic term to refer to groups of people that cultivated or practiced magic through ‘evil’ methods. Some of these methods were harmless, but went against the teachings or religion of the country they existed in. However, some truly were despicable as they increased their powers through sacrificing innocent lives – and not a small number either. The group that Stella and Lunam grew up in was an evil guild of the latter kind. However, the kind of evil guild that Scarlet slaughtered was the former type. Since they were harmless, Nihil didn’t care for this woman one bit.

Knowing their leaders’ past, the party automatically assumed that the guild Scarlet destroyed was also the latter type. As such, they didn’t notice the disdain in Nihil’s voice, and were suitably impressed by Scarlet’s history.

“That’s amazing. That must have been a tough battle.” Klaus replied in awe.

At the same time, Linley looked towards Nihil and Ignis. “That means she’s with the Royal Guard.”

His implication was obvious – it was highly likely that her targets were the two boys before him.

“Now that you people know who I am, you should realise that I won’t stay captured for much longer.” Scarlet spoke up haughtily.

“Who were you targeting?” Nihil asked, pointedly ignoring her comment.

Nihil knew that she was likely after himself and Ignis, but he had no intention of blowing their cover until she confirmed this objective herself.

“Do I really have to tell you? I should think that much would be obvious.” Scarlet replied, rolling her eyes. “My mission is to track you two boys down and retrieve what was stolen from us, and to bring you back with me – by any means necessary.”

“Great job you did there …” Nihil replied sarcastically.

“Just how bad of an assassin do you have to be to get captured as easily as you did?” Ignis piped up mockingly. “It seems that your so called ‘perfect record’ is just a result of weak opponents.”

“Seems like you’ll have some trouble fulfilling your mission.” Nihil said before the woman could voice her complaints. “Anyway, how much does the Royal Guard know about where we are and who we’re with?”

“Ha! Do you take me for a fool? There’s no way I’d tell you that.” Scarlet replied, effectively distracted from the earlier mocking.

“OK then, how far away are the main troops?” Nihil asked a different question after looking towards Ignis and seeing him subtly nod his head.

“Are you kidding me? If I didn’t answer the previous question, what makes you think I’ll answer this one instead?” Scarlet asked incredulously.

“Well, it’s not like it hurt anything to ask.” Nihil replied, shrugging. He then continued in a sarcastically optimistic tone. “But maybe you won’t mind answering how many are pursuing us?”

“Of course I mind!” She angrily responded, then she turned to face Ignis and continued. “He’s an idiot, right?”

At these words Linley and the others quietly chuckled to themselves, while a frown flitted across Ignis’ expression.

“Since you refuse to tell us anything, I think we should confiscate your belongings and ditch you somewhere the Royal Guard will find you.” Nihil commented with a bright smile, while he shook his head at his friend to prevent him from acting rashly.

“You just try it.” Scarlet replied viciously, suddenly releasing a wave of magical power that shredded the rope tying her up.

“Crap! Sorry guys, I didn’t realise she was a mage!” Linley exclaimed in frustration as he quickly released a flurry of small blades similar in size to a scalpel. They travelled at tricky angles, seemingly magnetically drawn towards their target.

It was clear that the group was a seasoned party of adventurers, as everyone was instantly up and prepared for battle. Frowning, Nihil stood back from the fight and disappeared into the tall grass without anyone noticing.

Very soon, Archer’s blades also joined Linley’s in their attack, surrounding Scarlet with a whirlwind. Scarlet resisted the attacks for a few seconds before releasing a spell that caused the blades to all fall motionlessly to the ground, revealing her form covered in several small scratches.

“A pathetic attack like that wont work on me!” Scarlet exclaimed as she whipped her hand out horizontally and unleashed a wind blade attack on the group, knocking Claude back as he skilfully stepped in to use his whip to counter the magical attack before it hit Linley and Archer.

Having successfully blocked the magic, he flicked his wrist to send out a rapid counterattack that managed to strike her squarely across the front of her neck. Taken by surprise, she coughed and spluttered for a second before forcing out a furious roar to use a sonic attack that blasted into everyone’s ears.

This attack was especially effective against this particular group that comprised of elves, demons and mysterious beasts. Even as a half-demon, Claude’s senses were still just as strong as a pure blood’s. Most of an elf’s senses weren’t particularly better than those of a human’s, but their vision and hearing wouldn’t lose out to those of a mysterious beast. As a result, the sonic attack was just as devastating to Merry, Alexis and Lucas as everyone else present.

Grimacing due to the pain, some blood even dripped from Ignis’ ears as he tried, in vain, to muffle the deafening roar with his hands. The others were doing much better than him, but they still couldn’t remove their hands from their ears.

At this point Lucas sent a bolt flying from his crossbow. Luckily he’d loaded it before Scarlet had started screaming, and was standing further away from her due to being a ranged attacker. However, he still couldn’t completely remove his hands from his ears, so he had to fire the shot one-handed. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, since he used a heavy crossbow so that he could use it as a makeshift shield in case he was forced into a close-quarters battle.

As could be expected from his desperate attack, he missed his mark but still managed to shut her up for long enough for Alexis and Merry to send their own arrows flying her way.

Growing annoyed with the protracted fight, Scarlet gathered a massive amount of the world’s energy and manipulated it to form a tornado that spread it’s diameter to blow back the entire party – with one exception that is. Scarlet had managed to grab Ignis before casting her spell, so she took him with her as she disappeared from the surrounding area. Despite the chaotic situation, she still didn’t forget her mission. She had noticed Nihil’s absence after her sonic attack failed, so she decided that she should save time by avoiding the fight altogether.

About 5km away, Nihil was planning an ambush in a clearing, when he heard a loud roar coming from the direction of the party.

“Shit! She had a sonic attack?” Nihil swore to himself, worried about how Ignis was coping with it given his exceptional hearing.

Nihil had known that the adventurers wouldn’t be strong enough to defeat Scarlet. Besides, there were some questions he wanted to ask her – ones he couldn’t with everyone else around. He’d asked Ignis to stay behind to keep an eye on the woman, and help guide her to the ambush point if she didn’t head in the direction Nihil had predicted.

Nihil was much better at stealth than Ignis, so that was why Ignis had been the one to stay behind. However, with this development he started to think that it would have been better if they had switched their roles.

Shaking his head Nihil decided to trust his friend’s abilities and focused on the direction Scarlet should be coming from, as he didn’t know how long he’d have until she arrived. He didn’t have to wait too long, as she soon came flying over with Ignis in her arms.

Scarlet was human, but she was using her wind magic to improve her speed by supporting herself in the air.

Given that the practitioner didn’t have an innate racial ability (such as the demons’ or dragons’ wings, even some bird-type mysterious beasts had the natural ability to fly), flight was something that was only possible for wind specialised mages, or for the high level wind attribute expert cultors.

It was more difficult for cultivators to fly, as it required emitting a large amount of their internal energy out of their bodies. As such they could only use this technique for short periods of time to help them escape. There were legends about special cultivation techniques that altered the body of the practitioner, causing different animalistic traits. Some of these techniques could supposedly even allow a cultivator to grow wings. However, these types of techniques were incredibly rare – if they even actually existed, that is.

Seeing his friend’s still bleeding ears, Nihil’s expression turned severe as he became almost as angry as he was when that had happened back then. The only difference now was that there was only a single enemy.

Furiously slashing his hand down in a chopping motion, Nihil opened up a spacial crack in front of the two figures. Spacial and flame magic happened to be Nihil’s specialties, and most of the time he could barely use any other spells without enchantments.

This spacial door just looked like a slight shimmer in the air, so Scarlet didn’t notice that anything was there – nor could she dodge it. As a result, she ended up flying full force into the ground (which was where Nihil had set up the exit). With his spell, he had skilfully separated Ignis from Scarlet’s hold, and the boy fell through a second crack that had appeared next to Nihil.

Catching his friend, Nihil worriedly checked Ignis’ condition. Nihil’s expression relaxed when he confirmed that the boy had just been knocked unconscious, but he soon narrowed his eyes again when he heard the sounds of Scarlet struggling to get up.

As a mage, she naturally had a much more fragile body than cultivators, so the force with which she hit the ground was enough to break her arm and give her a minor concussion. Groaning in pain, she shook the stars out of her eyes and growled in anger. If she hadn’t been an elite in the Royal Guard, an onlooker could’ve easily believed that she was actually a high level mysterious beast in human form.

Ignis may have turned out to be ok, but Nihil was still furious with her. Now that his friend was unconscious, there was no one left who could even try to calm Nihil down. Frowning, Nihil’s eyes locked onto his opponent – focused on first capturing his opponent. Fortunately it wasn’t a difficult problem for him at all.

Taking advantage of her dazed state, Nihil launched himself towards her, leaving a deep imprint in the ground from the sheer force he’d he’d applied to his right foot. He covered the 20 metres between them with just one stride. Stomping down with his left foot, he efficiently halted his forward momentum and punched Scarlet’s stomach at the same time. Even with just a fraction of his strength, the woman was sent flying backwards as she choked, desperately trying to breathe again.

While she was still spluttering on the ground, Nihil flipped his palm and a pair of heavy manacles appeared and dangled from his hand. Clasping the chain, Nihil approached Scarlet. Grabbing her wrists he attached the manacles so that her arms were behind her back.

Naturally she had tried to resist, but Nihil’s arms hadn’t even budged a millimetre so her efforts remained futile.

“Damn you, bastard!” Scarlet snarled as she flung her head back to glare at Nihil.

“Hey, you’re the one who was chasing us. It’s not my fault that your superiors underestimated our strength.” Nihil responded calmly.

“DAMN IT!” She shouted in frustration. After releasing her pent up frustration, her face relaxed again. “Have you already forgotten? It’s not that easy to subdue a mage.”

Under Nihil’s mocking smile, Scarlet’s expression quickly changed from smug, to confusion, to concern, and then finally to full-blown panic as she finally figured out what was happening.

“Y-you have Azoth Shackles!?” She exclaimed in shock. “It shouldn’t be possible for -“

She quickly shut up when she remembered just how easily the two boys had managed to steal those high profile items from her bosses. If they could swipe even the void-space storage ring, then naturally some anti-cultor shackles wouldn’t have been a problem. What she didn’t know was that the manacles were actually a ‘souvenir’ from their past.

At this point, Nihil dragged Scarlet over to another space door. Throwing her in, he turned around and carefully carried Ignis through with him.

The other side of the spacial crack opened up to a simple concrete room. The only things present were dark copper stains, covering almost every tile on the floor and walls; a chain and hook, hanging from the high ceiling; and a single door in the corner. It was clear that the room had been used a lot in the past.

Nihil brought Ignis through the door, leaving Scarlet sprawled on the floor. Behind the door was a small, simple room with a comfy-looking sofa. However, the wall decorations weren’t nearly as innocuous. Every available surface was covered in vicious weapons and strange looking devices.

Gently laying his friend on the sofa, Nihil returned to the main room. Strangely, neither of these areas had any other doors or windows – except the one door connecting the two.

Removing the chain from one of the manacles, Nihil brought Scarlet’s hands in front of her, and then reattached the chain. Next, he hung her chain on the hook dangling from the ceiling. Scarlet glared fiercely at Nihil while she let out a sharp grunt of pain and surprise.

Nihil decided to wait for Ignis to wake up again before he questioned Scarlet. This would probably turn out to be faster and definitely more reliable than simple torture. Besides, there was no way for her to escape these rooms without Nihil knowing immediately. After all, this was a pocket dimension that Nihil had created a long time previously. He continuously supplied it with his own magic, so it was extremely stable despite being such a small dimension.

Normally the larger a pocket dimension, the more stable the space would be. This was because the creator of a space was effectively transforming a section of the void into a usable area. The larger dimensions required a huge amount of magic to create, but would become fairly self-sustaining after that point. This was because they would require formation stones that would clearly mark the boundaries of the dimension. These boundaries resisted the encroaching nothingness of the void and stabilised the entire plane.

However, smaller dimensions were generally designed to be temporary and as such didn’t require the formation stones to stabilise the domain. In exchange, the creator’s own magical energy would instead be used to solidify the boundaries of the dimension. As such, unless the magical energy was periodically replenished, the domain would collapse in on itself once the supply was completely drained.

In this way, it was easy to imagine just how sturdy his dimension was compared to others’.

“You have a cruel streak don’t you.” Scarlet spoke up at this point.

She’d just got her breathing under control, after getting accustomed to the pain from being hung from her broken arm, but Nihil just ignored her.

“They didn’t warn me about any of this. How come you’re so freakishly strong!?”

“Naturally they couldn’t tell you about that which they do not know.” Nihil begrudgingly answered her, just to shut her up quickly.

“But shouldn’t they have found out stuff like this while that was happening?” In her pain, Scarlet unwittingly let something slip that she immediately regretted. “I-I just meant when you were stealing the void-space storage ring!”

Her hurried attempt to explain away her slip up only gave her away even more. At this point, Nihil’s expression had gotten even colder, with his golden eyes almost appearing black in the dim lighting of the room.

* * *

Just as a dangerous glint appeared in Nihil’s eyes, he seemed to notice something which cleared his expression slightly. Punching Scarlet’s stomach once again, he knocked her out and headed back into the smaller room.

Ignis was just rubbing his head and sitting up when Nihil entered.

“How are you feeling now?” He asked in a quiet voice, worried that a louder sound would cause his friend even more pain.

“Ugh, like someone’s crushing my brain in their fist.” Ignis replied with a groan.

Hearing this, Nihil quietly approached his friend and gently rested his hand on Ignis’ head with a frown as he concentrated. Nihil let out a small stream of magic and Ignis’ tense jaw loosened a little.

“Eat this and regain some of your strength.” Nihil instructed his friend after conjuring another dense green flame similar to the one Claude had seen him produce before.

“Thanks.” Ignis replied before obediently eating his fill.

By the time he was done, Nihil was looking like the weaker of the two instead.

“Where are we, by the way?” Ignis asked, licking his lips in satisfaction from the meal.

“My pocket dimension.” Nihil responded in a steady voice, despite his pale complexion. “Well, I had to use it a few times before we met, but it’s been a while since I’ve come here.”

“Before we met? You regained your memories?” Ignis questioned, realising the significance of what his friend had just said.

“It’s all a bit jumbled, but I understand the gist of the parts that have returned. But I get the feeling that I’ve only unlocked one part of the seal on my memories.” Nihil replied with a flash of frustration quickly passing across his expression at the end.

“That’s great! We’re one step closer to figuring out who you are!” Ignis exclaimed in excitement.

“Is it a good thing?” Nihil muttered.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Ignis asked in concern.

“Well, I get the feeling that the rest of these seals were placed by me.” Nihil explained. “Perhaps I would be better off if I didn’t remember it all. I think I know enough now to understand the key points, and I don’t like the direction they’re headed.”

“No matter what you choose, it’s your decision to make.” Ignis responded gently, then continued in a slightly sterner tone. “Though, for what it’s worth, I think that you should face yourself honestly and straightforwardly. And that would require you regaining all of your memories.”

Smiling wryly, Nihil let the matter drop with a sigh as he thought through his friend’s advice. Honestly, even just the existence of this pocket dimension was enough to raise warning flags in Nihil’s mind – just why would he have needed such a room that was obviously designed with dark purposes in mind. Nihil just couldn’t think of any legitimate reasons for doing so. He could also say with confidence that he could get anyone to talk – no matter how loyal or stubborn they were – as long as he could get them into this space.

Shaking his head free from these dark thoughts, Nihil knew that he wouldn’t be able to properly mull it over within just a few minutes. As such he changed the topic back to the memories he currently did remember.

“Recently I’ve been having these images flash through my mind. And, from what I’ve understood of them, I seem to have lived longer than either of us first guessed.” Nihil started, feeling somewhat apprehensive about his friend’s reaction to his following statement.

“Oh?” Ignite prompted, thinking that it would just be a difference of a century or so.

“I can remember my birth …” Nihil explained in an attempt to stall the conversation slightly.

After saying this, Nihil mustered up his courage and started describing the relatively few memories he currently had. Despite trusting Ignis completely, he was still nervous as to what his friend’s reaction would be upon learning the truth.