9 Chapter 3 (3/5) - The Grudge that falls on me.

"Hah! To think you'd get hit by him, aren't you supposed to be strong if you're the lead? Want me to take your place?" the gorilla's voice rang out.

"Take his place? Aren't you forgetting something here, gorilla?" came the voice of the bickering woman.

"Call me that again and I swear I'll...."

"You'll what?"

The gorilla couldn't find the resolve to pass that line, shrinking back, embarrassed.

"Did we get him?" the ice-mage spoke weakly, exhausted by his usage of mana. To cast a high-level spell was indeed taxing.

"You think we didn't? He's just a small fry, 'MurkVeil' this, 'MurkVeil that', they're all dead anyway. He just survived because he was a cripple. A cripple that didn't even deserve to die." the humanoid-gorilla again spoke up, his skin thicker than a log.

"Now do you think a cripple could have done this?" came the voice of the leader, the one with white hair.

Pointing his right finger to his chest, where he let himself get hit. It was hard to see it clearly because he was wearing black clothes but on closer inspection, the part where he got hit looked a little darker than the rest of his clothes. If his clothes were as dark as ink, then this would be light-less dark.

And upon inspecting closely, blood was flowing out, seeping through. Ink-black blood, that should've been red.

Awe-struck, the humanoid-gorilla could only stare wide-eyed at the wound that was barely visible. Was it even wounded? He didn't know.

The ice mage quickly went close, trying to freeze the 'wound', but couldn't.

The bickering woman, stood quietly, pondering over it.

The black-clothed woman stood silently as ever.

One thing was certain, they were surprised, definitely surprised that their leader was injured. To think that their leader would be wounded like this when he was the strongest of them all, what would happen if it were them instead?

"Not to worry, it's more of a scratch. If it's only this small then it won't be hard to close it when we get back. But if it were bigger or on any vital parts then... I don't need to mention it do I?"

The rest were silent, they really were careless this time. Underestimating someone because he was a 'cripple' forgetting that the word 'noble' came first.

"Now we can assume what he's capable of, that is, two of his tricks or trump cards maybe. I can't see through this trick though, it might even be something entirely new."

"Does that even matter? We've got him now and he ain't getting away!" Shouted the humanoid-gorilla.

"Got him? You're really underestimating our little 'cripple' aren't you?" Saying that he pointed his finger, this time to the large chunk of ice formed by the spell. The wind blew and the mist surrounding it now parted.

The ice appeared like they expected. But what they didn't, was that there would be nothing inside the ice. No 'body' or 'corpse'.

"Now how do you think he did this? Don't worry, even if you can't guess, I can. And with it, we can now at least assume the range of his capabilities."

From start to end, the 'white-haired' man had a smile on his face.

"Now clean up and let's go back, it isn't that urgent anyway." With a snap of his fingers, the ice broke and with it, my transference also stopped.

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*pant*pant*

Breathing heavily, I could hear the sound of my footsteps ringing out. Where was I running to? Where was I? I didn't know, and I didn't have time to care. Right now, all that I could think of was heading west, away from the square.

I was in an alleyway, not the previous wide path near the place where I was supposed to go. Was it three blocks near that wide path? Two? I didn't know. What about that wide path, could I find it again?

"Damn! I have to get my thoughts straight." Thinking wasn't enough, I had to voice it out.

Fear and anxiety made me uncertain. My exhaustion was making me weak, and with it my thoughts too were weak. I had to find a place to rest.

Where did this alleyway lead? I ran straight without taking turns, even though the road split into more or less three ways a lot of times.

"This should be far enough." I stopped, hiding behind a wall. What were these buildings even? Could an alleyway like this even exist?

I looked back and saw no one.

"They didn't chase after me, huh." If they really didn't then I could tell a lot about them, and also that I could take a rest.

"Honestly, I wouldn't have to go through all this trouble if I could just fuse them." Why didn't I just fuse my souls and just silence them thereafter? I couldn't, for some reason, my souls or soul pieces couldn't fuse. That's why I was caught in a fickle.

I literally had to 'use' it like an item if I couldn't 'fuse' it to myself. Fusing it would be like adding strength directly to me, it would only make me stronger without many demerits. But if I had to literally 'use' it then I would get exhausted really early, like swinging a giant greatsword. It would be even more problematic if you couldn't wield it, luckily I could.

"They really were determined weren't they? I'm baffled that they aren't even chasing after me. But then again I would've probably done the same if I were in their shoes." Their leader wounded with something they couldn't recognise, with the fact that he was actually hurt. Actually failing to capture me. Even an idiot could see that things weren't going their way.

"But wasn't it seriously overkill? Five against one? A cripple at that?" With a lineup like that, it would be hard to find anyone that would win against that... Correction, anyone else, not anyone because...

"The old hag probably knows everything, right? She must be just taking a nap or something, leaving all the dirty work to others or in this case, just me." The old hag would surely be strong enough to destroy this 'Viath's council' by herself if need be. And I'm sure the five of them weren't the only ones in it.

"To attack me so openly, they must have authority and no small amount at that. Magus Sphere? No, they must be with other intentions." I had a feeling that their aims and beliefs wouldn't match. They would likely 'infiltrate' Magus Sphere instead. I might be able to use this to my advantage.

But was that really open? I couldn't feel the presence of anyone in the square or around in. The buildings were vacant, and they were likely to have been inhabited. The square didn't have much dust like it was swept early morning.

"Like the whole place was semi-isolated. Sound, sight and presence." The only one who could do all three and once would either be a 'concealment' mage, one falling under ancestral magic or a variated space mage. And trust me, these were rare, almost as rare as a live MurkVeil.

As for how I got away, that could be credited to my dagger. It might only be a handle, but even molten lava or worse, a fire mage's sun blast or nebula wouldn't melt it. Even I couldn't recognise what it was made of. Only thing I knew was that it probably was my ancestor's once and that it had the crest of the space lord on it. Another old fogey, space being his hobby.

I activated it by swiping the line on the crest. Then run as far east as I could, this time it was to where their leader stopped me. Then with a press on the crest, it would teleport me twice the distance that I covered from the activation time, in the direction opposite to that I ran from where it was activated.

All of this supplied by my mana, with the little I had, I could handle teleportation like that for three or for times at most. It was more 'shift' that teleport.

Now for the palm. That was the 'dark' element and a special one at that. When it was dark, then things had a dark or black shade because there was no or ample light. When something was black, then it absorbed all the spectrums of light. My 'dark' element combined these if you put them in terms of magic.

In other words, my 'element' also had an absorbing property. It literally absorbed the mana blocking it, then went for the skin and after that would be the insides. It wasn't absolute, but it wasn't far. Sure, it could be stopped or neutralised. But you needed to be really strong, compared to me in a mages way that is.

Here 'absorbing' could also mean 'corroding' in some cases since what was absorbed was the 'mana' that 'should' be present in literally all things normally. And that 'absorbed' mana didn't come to me. Yes, that made me a bit sad, but back to topic.

What time was it? I stared up and the sun had already set, I could see those white minuscule lights in the sky that were blinking. Were those stars?

"No, they can't be. It's still too early to form stars." Just what were they, and now...

"Just where am I?" Still, in the alleyway, I must have been in a pseudo-sleep state while I was thinking. I could see the walls of the buildings, made of stone, smoothed, paved. This was an alleyway that was fresh, clean and dark. Not like those dirty alleyways black at the other world... I mean the other plane. Thought it was still dark and cramped.

"That's right the map, I had it around here somewhere." I ran my hand through the inside pocket of my blazer, amazed that it didn't get dusted from all that running and tumbling maybe.

Pulled out the map, old scroll map.

"Let's see, we went south-west from the hill then to the east and then... What? The place I'm at isn't on the map?"

'My luck really is bad. Just where the hell am I at?' I could only give a dejected sigh. It seems I would have to wander through the night. With my sense of direction, it would be amazing to get out before noon tomorrow.