The Figure Behind

With a brilliant flash of light, Asher's senses dulled for a second before he disappeared from the spot. When he recovered his senses, Asher discovered that he had appeared in a secluded part of the explored region of tunnel number 5. He was able to discern this from the fact that there were mana-powered light bulbs on the ceiling and supporting structures that prevented the place from any possible collapse.

"This was one heck of an adventure." Asher sighed.

"Young master."

Asher turned towards the voice and spotted Luther and Aaron running towards him.

"Thank heavens you're safe."

"What happened?" Asher asked.

"Right after the collapse, we tried to leave the tunnel. We found a loose spot on the wall and dug our way into a different tunnel, but we were lost without a guide. Just a while ago, a white circle appeared beneath our feet, and before we knew it, we appeared close by here. Aaron said he sensed your aura this way, so we arrived here." Luther explained.

'Looks like that fragment brought them up before me.' Asher thought.

"What about the guide?" Aaron suddenly asked.

Before the entrance had closed, Luther had tossed Asher to the other side. Even before that, the guide had managed to make it through. The difference between the two events was roughly five seconds and while this was enough time for a second-stage Guardian mage to cover quite some distance in a rush, Asher should still have been able to meet him back then.

'That's true. I only met him a while later.'

Asher recalled the strange occurrence back then.

'Was it his doing?'

The image of the soul fragment flashed in his head.

"I don't know. I didn't see him." Asher shook his head.

Since the guide was but a soul clone of the original, Asher didn't want to alert the main body until he figured out his identity. As long as no one tried to track down the guide's body or something similar, the original would not be so cautious as to go into hiding. As long as they are not in hiding, Asher could track them down.

'Having to deal with assassinations all the time is no fun. It's about time I begin to retaliate a bit.'

. . .

Far, far away from Vermont city, or to be precise, back in the Arnhaunt family's domain in Red Maple city, a man stood in front of a glass candle chanting. The 'candle' was entirely made of glass that reflected diffusely[1], but it didn't melt from the heat of the flame above it; on the contrary, the flame was ice-cold. The flame was strange not just in temperature. Its colour wasn't the usual orange, neither was it red nor yellow or anything close. On the contrary, the flame oscillated between blue and green, depending on the chants the man whispered. In its dormant state, the flame was usually blue, but right after the man began chanting, it turned green. This was around an hour ago or so. Ever since then, the hooded man remained in front of the candle occasionally chanting some words at it.

Crack.

Suddenly, a crack formed on the glass candle. It wasn't noticeable at first, but it abruptly widened the very next second.

"Shit!"

The hooded man cursed as he hurriedly chanted a bunch of words. Just as he did so, the flames began to transition back to blue, but it was too late.

"Impudent!"

A mysterious voice reverberated all over the room.

Bang.

The glass candle broke into pieces with glass shards flying over the place, some of which stabbed the man. The man's body also flew back and crashed fiercely with the walls. Just as it did so, a barrier erupted from the walls that prevented the impact of the man's body from destroying the walls and sending his body flying out of the room.

Thud.

The man's body slid from the wall and randomly fell to the ground.

"Cough. Cough."

The hooded man uncontrollably coughed out blood on the floor. It didn't even take three seconds for the area close to his mouth to be stained red.

"Curse you." The hooded man gritted his teeth and murmured.

"Even if you've killed my soul clone and damaged my soul, so what? We've already found where you are as well as your legacy holder. For going against HIS will, you both deserve death."

The man forcefully brought himself up, although his footing was unstable. He then walked towards a cabinet by the wall and opened one of its drawers, taking out another glass candle. Placing it on the spot the previous one was, he lit it up by whispering some words and a blue flame appeared atop the candle. After some more chanting, the flame turned pale green, a weaker colour compared to the previous one. Surprisingly, the hooded man did all this while still in pain and bleeding from his injuries; a result that came about from being injured by the immense force of the glass shards that exploded out.

"There's a reason why I'm the emissary sent by HIM. Kill one soul clone, I make another. My arrangements might not be as old as yours, but they're still detailed." The man seemed to be speaking out loud, but to himself at the same time.

'I can only activate my new clone from slumber. Before I make use of it, I have to change location before he does something else.'

After just two minutes of further chanting, the hooded man stopped and packed the candle back into the drawer.

Whoosh.

With a wave of his hand, the cabinet and all the other items that belonged to him disappeared in a flash. The man then took out a piece of paper that he held before him and set it ablaze. Throwing the paper to a counter filled with random books, his figure slowly began to sink into the ground. At the same time, the flames on the paper erupted with much vigour and set ablaze the books. Just a while after the man had gone, the entire room was now on fire.

As a member of an extremely covert organization, mere carrying away evidence was not enough to erase their presence or make them certain they can't be tracked. Destroying the site was one method they utilized for complete wiping of any possible detail that could be traced back to them.