Tag: Version 2

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 bear-like guard laughed with an oddly cute 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. And I promise that I’m not just saying that 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. The building was a relatively large cottage with a thatch roof, and blue sky vines climbing up the side of the walls. The pastel colours of the petals softly glowed in the dawn light.

“Aki! Welcome back. How was your shift?” Reagan greeted, having clearly been waiting for the guard. He had a similar stature to Nihil, but his hair was a tidy brown that had been pushed back with a head band while he was baking.

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

Not wanting to be a third wheel, Nihil chose this timing to step out from behind Aki’s large figure 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 newcomer to Regan.

“Hello.” 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, though the dining area and into 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.

While Nihil was thinking to himself, Aki grabbed the breakfast spread and brought it through into the dining room. There was a long table that stretched the length of the room and was had two places set up with crockery for breakfast. He then proceeded to set up another place, and Nihil and Aki ended up sitting across from each other with the third place set at the head of the table between them.

At this point, 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 taking a sip of his orange juice. “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 giant arms around Nihil’s now seemingly tiny shoulders in gratitude.

Many years later, and the two husbands 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 bit while eating 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’ (as he called it) before calling out to Aki. This pin made it so that people would be less likely to approach the area unless they had a specific reason to go into that area. It was just a subtle suggestion so it didn’t last long, but it would still active for the rest of the day.

Once he was back outside of 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 – even while avoiding the more populated areas in Avalon. 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. He did dot light gems around so they could see properly. He also made sure that there were plenty of air holes throughout.

Once everything was set up, Nihil materialised another gate that opened up directly into his room at Regan’s inn. For long distances, it was easier to focus on a specific room rather than a more generic town wall. Arriving safely, Nihil decided that since he still had a while before he absolutely had to get back to the adventurers, he would crash 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 certain if they would still be in the same area, 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.”

Despite the laid-back phrasing, something about his tone made the two people jump away from their seats before asking any questions. 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 in the area. “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.”

“Er … 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 Flumen’s town wall.

“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 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.

“C-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 as 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 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

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 even if she somehow got out of the azoth shackles.

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 he saw that it was quiet even after a messenger pushed their way into the tent, 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. It was 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.

Once he reached the unconscious guard, he changed back into his own clothes again, and then redressed the woman. Propping her up against the tree from before, he made it seem like she’d just fallen asleep while on patrol. He then opened a gate and sent a stream of energy to the woman’s head just before stepping through and back into his pocket dimension.

This stream gradually woke the guard up, and once she realised where she was, she quickly straightened her clothes and pulled her hood up to cover her bright red cheeks. She hurriedly continued her patrol and was especially careful for the rest of her shift – she wanted to make sure she didn’t fall asleep again.

* * *

By this time, Ignis 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.

Just before Nihil’s gate opened, Ignis sensed the fluctuations and made sure to be the other side of the room. Nihil had chosen to directly enter the oil storage room, as that was both where he’d left Ignis, and where he could talk to his friend without worrying that Scarlet would overhear them.

“The information has already been passed on to their HQ.” Nihil reported simply the moment he stepped through.

“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 his friend 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 them 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.”

At the same time that Nihil was talking to Ignis, Stella was pouring over the inscription pattern, memorising each and every minute line that was marked down on the blueprint. At this point her aim was just rote memorisation, so she put off trying to decipher and understand it’s construction until after she and Stella had met their master.

In order to not distract her sister, Lunam was passing the time by catching up with a couple of old friends that lived within the capital. The group of five people were sitting around a table in the busy pub section of Stella and Lunam’s inn, enjoying a few drinks. After the small talk had passed, the topic naturally shifted to Lunam telling stories of Diei Noctis’ escapades over the recent years.

After excellently portraying some of the exciting battles and quests the party had gotten into – including the various stories of how the group had gradually grown to be quite so big – Lunam took a long draught of the water that was on the table in front of her.

“A couple of interesting guys have been travelling with us recently. They work as bards, so they probably would have told those stories better than I did.” She laughed in high spirits.

“Oh? Did they have any good legends to tell you guys?” A small, fairy-like girl, with sparkling gold hair, asked from across the table.

“They did share one, but it directly contradicts history and that didn’t sit too well with Stella especially.” Lunam laughed awkwardly in response to the girl called Rashida.

“That’s got me interested now too.” A tall lady with mint green hair and pointed ears piped up from next to Rashida.

With nods of assent from the other two present, Lunam was forced to summarise the song Nihil had performed then.

“Before we start, can one of you cast a soundproofing barrier, please? It doesn’t align with history and the atmosphere’s a bit tense in the capital at the moment.” Lunam requested after some thought.

Only once the barrier was in place, did she start telling the story Nihil had described. By the time she’d finished, the group of four had shocked expressions and even had tears in their eyes that they steadfastly refused to let fall.

“That’s definitely a new take on Avalon’s history.” A strange voice that seemed neither totally present nor completely absent, agreed.

This voice belonged to one of the four people sitting around the table with Lunam. He was a special type of demon that didn’t have a physical form. As such people from this ‘Soul Clan’ wouldn’t have a choice except to become a mage – as they had no body they could cultivate.

The final member of the small group was a low-ranking demon with a light red tail and a matching pair of wings. Despite his bloodline, he was still a decent mage falling into the upper end of average. In fact everyone in the group Lunam had met was a mage at least at the upper average level.

As mages from the Mage’s Guild, they were guaranteed to be skilled. Average and weaker mages would invariably end up in the Adventurer’s Guild (which is why the Sun and Moon adventurers didn’t have any even in such a large party).

The small girl named Rashida was a half elf, half dwarf cross. The green haired, tall woman was called Mel, and she was a pure blooded elf. The translucent demon from the Soul Clan went by the name of Seis. Finally, the pretty boy, red winged demon’s name was Rood. They were all old friends of Stella and Lunam, and used to be part of the same party before they all transferred to the mage’s guild and the girls had founded Diei Noctis. They’d still often bump into each other on various quests, though.

At this point Mel spoke up quietly. “Actually I have heard whispers of this story back in Alfheim.”

“You have?” Lunam asked, surprised.

“We elves are naturally longer lived than humans, so it’s not unusual for our histories to be more accurate – especially when the humans are deliberately trying to hide the truth.” Mel pointed out.

“Why would they try to cover that up, though? It’s a very touching story.” Rood questioned, confused. Demons lived for roughly the same length of time as elves, but they were more solitary and generally didn’t bother with passing down histories.

“The problem isn’t with why it was founded, but with how. It’s not apparent with this story, but it’s actually set before the Great War.” Mel explained.

Avalon’s official history stated that the country was formed after the Great War in an effort to help the survivors’ lives regain a sense of normalcy and peace.

“This Nihil seems to have deliberately worded it so that the timing wasn’t obvious.” Mel continued in an impressed tone. “So I’m sure he already knows of the father and son’s crimes following the end of this story too.”

“Crimes? Just what did they do?” Seis questioned, thoroughly intrigued by his friend’s teasing.

“Haha, ok I’ll stop beating around the bush. We already have a soundproofing barrier up, so I might as well just say it bluntly.” Mel laughed. “In an effort to increase their country’s power rapidly, and to completely establish their rule, they caused the Great War.”

““““What!?”””” A collective shout rang out.

“Wait, wait, wait. Why would that even help them!?” Rashida asked, shocked.

“I’m not sure what they were actually planning – if they meant for the casualties to be as high as they were, or not. But, if you think about it, the result was that the races’ hostility to each other grew; the population decreased by a lot; and they were one of the more powerful groups of humans since they had been fully prepared for the war far in advance of everyone else. By the time the Inter-Species Council had calmed the war down enough that the pact could be signed, the Royal Family were the only possible representative that humans could send to sign it.”

The other four people at the table all had shocked looks on their faces, like they couldn’t quite believe just how smoothly it had gone for the two.

“What the hell!?” Rood’s muttered exclamation effectively summed up everyone’s thoughts at that moment.

“If even you know this much, then how could the Inter-Species Council let them get away with it?” Seis asked.

“No-one knew about it until much later. At that point it was too late to do anything. Even now, these are only rumours flitting around in Alfheim. Though the reality is that the Inter-Species council are greatly suppressing Avalon’s Royal Family.” Mel answered.

“Perhaps this is part of the reason why Prince Pravus is so hostile to the other races?” Lunam mused.

“That would explain a lot.” Seis agreed, nodding his head.

At that point, Rashida looked outside at the moon high in the sky. “Ah! It’s this late?”

“We should probably go back to our own houses.” Rood agreed.

After they’d all said their goodbyes, Lunam made her way over to the counter to talk to Hera.

Making her way up the stairs, Lunam softly opened he door to her shared room with her sister.

“It’s about time to wrap up your studying today.” She gently reminded Stella after seeing the girl still absorbed in her research.

“Mmn …” Stella agreed, still looking at the blueprints.

Just then an enticing smell made its way to Stella’s nose. Glancing up, she saw her sister holding a tray of delicious food and a tall mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate chips. Seeing this, her eyes lit up and she immediately stopped what she was doing.

“Thank you!” Stella exclaimed at the same time that her stomach let out a loud grumble.

Lunam just laughed and handed the tray over. While watching her sister eat, Lunam asked how the research was going.

“Mmh, it’s taking a while, but I should be able to try it out for the first time tomorrow.” Stella replied around mouthfuls of food. As she ate, her cheeks bulged out, reminding Lunam of a hamster.

Smiling gently, Lunam told Stella how their friends we’re doing. She didn’t talk about the last conversation they’d had though, because she had no way to set up a soundproofing barrier, and Hera’s warning about there being prying ears was still fresh in her memory. She decided to tell her only after they’d left the capital again.

* * *

While Nihil was describing his few memories to Ignis, he had been fiddling with the various weapons in the room so that he didn’t have to see his friend’s reaction. However, once he’d finished speaking he didn’t even have time to turn around before Ignis had slung his arm over Nihil’s shoulder, ruffled the man’s hair, and unhesitatingly declared “No matter how old you are, or what you’ve done before, I know who you are right now. You’re my best friend.”

“You might want to withhold that statement until you see the next room.” Nihil had briefly mentioned what he’d done, but hearing about something, and actually seeing it were two completely different things.

Seeing his friend’s serious expression, Ignis nodded his head. Judging from the plethora of weapons in the room they were currently in, he had already started to form an image in his mind of the next room.

Stepping through the door, the room that greeted him was a lot plainer than Ignis had expected. He’d been picturing a stone table with various large torture devices around – such as an iron maiden or a stretching table. By contrast, the chain and hook was completely innocuous.

Despite this, Ignis could clearly see just how much the room had been used in order to get such a uniform coating of the walls, floor, and ceiling. In truth, such a revelation was a bit of a shock to the system, and he had to take a few steadying breaths before his emotions calmed down enough to properly focus on the woman currently hanging in the middle of the room.

While Ignis was getting accustomed to his surroundings, Nihil’s eyes seemed to get just a little more lifeless – he had a feeling that this room was just scratching the surface of what he’d done in the past. If this had been a normal situation, Ignis would have noticed this minute difference in his friend immediately. As it was, he was too distracted and didn’t spot it at all, and by the time he looked at his friend, Nihil had automatically hidden the change. It was unknown whether he’d even noticed it in himself.

“Wake up.” Nihil calmly said.

Contrary to what most people would expect, this actually was enough to wake the woman up. But that wasn’t surprising to the two men, after all Nihil had used magic to project his voice even into her subconscious.

In a confused and dazed state, Scarlet focused on the two before her and her face paled when she remembered what situation she was in.

“N-no matter what kind of t-t-torture you put me through, I-I won’t t-talk.” She stuttered out in an unconvincing tone.

“That doesn’t matter.” Ignis replied when he realised that Nihil wasn’t paying attention. He casually nudged his friend before asking the first question himself.

“Who exactly sent you after us? And how much did they tell you?”

Scarlet’s face paled even more – it was clear that she was desperately terrified of the one who’d given her this mission. In a similar fashion, Ignis’s face also blanched a second or two later.

“No way!” He exclaimed as he fell a step back. “Callum? I thought he was …”

Hearing this name, Nihil snapped back to his senses as he tried to reassure his friend. “We’re not in the same situation anymore. I also have some of my memories back, so I am a lot stronger now too.”

Stepping in front of Ignis, Nihil’s eyes hardened as he started asking questions again once Ignis seemed to have calmed down somewhat.

“How much of our past do you know?”

“Well, I’m now wondering if Callum has any connection to you guys, at least.” She mocked. Seeing Ignis’ reaction was enough to make her feel confident again.

Naturally she’d wondered how Ignis knew it was Callum who’d sent her, but she assumed that she must have said the name out loud by accident. He had always terrified her, after all. Luckily it seemed to have had the same affect on her captors as well, so she didn’t panic too much.

With all this going through her head, Ignis had to indicate to Nihil that he didn’t get what they needed. Receiving his friend’s signal, Nihil’s eyes flashed as he struck her left cheek bone with some brass knuckles that Ignis hadn’t noticed his friend pick up from the other room.

“Remember the situation you’re in. You don’t have the luxury to be able to look down on us.” He all but snarled viciously. “How much does the Royal Guard know about us?”

Ignis glanced worriedly at his friend, but quickly refocused his gaze back on the captive who was spitting out some blood that had trickled down her cheek into her mouth.

Scarlet showed her bloody teeth in a scathing smile as she replied. “I. Won’t. Tell. You.”

This time however, Ignis had gotten what he needed. This allowed Nihil to move on, but the man still spitefully struck her again in the same place as before. Hissing in pain, Scarlet just clenched her jaw and glared at Nihil, while thinking some vicious swear words in her heart.

“What exactly were your orders?” Nihil asked his next question. This time Scarlet didn’t actually mind answering as she knew it would serve to further piss them off.

“Haha! Callum doesn’t actually care about the red head so much, but he’s desperate to get you back.” She replied smugly, knowing exactly what would be in store for him when he eventually got recaptured. “You can’t run forever. We will hunt you down, and make you wish you’d never been born!”

This ferocious fanaticism concerned Ignis, so he frowned and focused even harder on the person in front of him. A few seconds later his eyes widened and he flung his gaze over to his friend.

That can’t be true! Ignis thought vehemently. But … what if it is? I can’t tell him until I know for sure. The way he is now, he’ll just accept it as fact without verifying it, and he’ll hate himself even more.

“Why is Callum’s goal so important? Aren’t people strong enough already? More power will only create more destruction.” Nihil asked without waiting for his friend’s signal.

He wasn’t sure why he was quite so certain of this fact, but something in his subconscious was telling him he’d experienced this for himself.

Grabbing Nihil’s elbow, Ignis dragged his friend back into the other room.

“What’s going on with you? Ever since we joined up with Diei Noctis you’ve been letting your emotions show a lot more easily.” Ignis started. “While that’s normally a good thing, if you let them overwhelm and control you then you’ll be no different than a magical beast.”

Ignis’ words managed to get through to his friend, but it still didn’t look like Nihil was ready to talk about it yet. He wasn’t sure why, but Ignis instinctively felt that bad things would happen if Nihil ever got too caught up in his own emotions. For most others, Ignis would have been happy to see them coming out of their shell, but he only felt a growing sense of dread whenever he saw his friend doing just that.

“I should probably tell you what I’ve learned from our captive.” Ignis quickly changed the subject.

He had a bloodline ability that let him read the flow of mental energy around a person and accurately decipher what they were thinking at that moment in time. Ignis had only relatively recently discovered this ability so he wasn’t all that good at using it yet. As a result if a person had mental defences set up, or wasn’t currently thinking about something when he was trying to read them, then he couldn’t get much useful information. This was why Nihil had had to prompt Scarlet with the questions earlier, since even if they refused to answer out loud, people usually couldn’t help but to think of the answer when prompted.

“Most of the Royal Guard aren’t aware of the specifics, they just know that Callum was researching how to allow people to both cultivate and develop their magic as well. They know that you are the key to this, and that you aren’t human so they don’t think that forcing you to take part is wrong.” Ignis explained. “It almost seems like they were all brainwashed by the prince when they were training to enter the Royal Guard.”

“That could be a problem – even for the inter-species council.” Nihil muttered in response. “Do we know what the average Avalon citizen thinks of these human supremacist beliefs?”

“She didn’t think about that, so I’m not sure. But she also had orders to keep her actions a secret from the general populace, so I would guess that they’re not all on board with that line of thinking.

“Since Callum doesn’t care about my whereabouts too much, it seems that we were successful at convincing them that I was just another failure, though.” He answered helplessly.

“That’s great. I wasn’t sure if we’d let it slip during our escape.” Nihil replied with obvious relief. “What about the earlier questions?”

“She was only sent as a scout to figure out where we are. Despite her fame for the ‘Scarlet Blade’ incident, she’s actually much better at stealth than combat so she only attacked us because we discovered her.”

“That’s unexpected – her sonic attack didn’t exactly seem to lend itself to stealth.” Nihil commented.

“It could have been developed to help her during combat – it does effectively stun most non-human opponents.” Ignis pointed out, shrugging his shoulders.

“That is true.” Nihil realised and smiled at his friend. “If she was sent to locate us, then how much has she told her sergeant?”

“That’s the problem. She told them we were travelling with a group in this area. Luckily she only found us after we split up and she doesn’t know the group by name, but it might still be best to leave the adventurers – for their sakes.” Ignis was worried that they’d drag people into their mess and that someone would get hurt because of it.

Since they had already disappeared for a while, it might be better to just stay separated like this until they managed to either resolve the situation or report them to the inter-species council.

“Where is her squad? I’ll check in on them quickly.” Nihil decided to check on the situation before he committed to a particular option.

In response Ignis just furrowed his brows while he concentrated hard on sending a set of coordinates and an image to his friend. Receiving the information, Nihil opened a gate and stepped through, leaving Ignis and Scarlet behind.