Insanity

"Where are you sleeping, Khas?" said Iris as Khas was about to leave.

Khas turned around, looked her dead in the eyes, and said: "Good question... On a side note, Charles is that tree still around?" After saying that he turned toward the old king and smiled.

The old king shook his head and asked: "Would you mind staying at the castle." He then raised his hand and 4 maids came and presented themselves. They then showed Khas the layout of the palace and where his room is.

After the tour Khas went and talked to Ash. The two were sitting outside, in the middle of the night, the moon shining down on them. "You see, Ash, if you accept my offer you will become what a reaper would describe as a leash. Shackles. The necessary boundary."

Ash looked at him puzzled and asked: "What do you mean? You make me seem like a monarch establishing laws..." With each of her words, the moon shone a brighter blue. And with each second that passed, Ash realized more and more that Khas wasn't sane.

"No reaper is sane. All of us are lost; we leave by our laws and nothing is stopping us... them." With each word Khas said, the darkness grew deeper and deeper. The pressure was suffocating, even the old king, who was revered as the strongest of this land, had problems breathing.

"Sorry. Answers to your questions only she has. And she refuses to tell me so you have little chances." Said Khas, with an emotionless smile, as he walked away.

…

The next day Khas got his answer. The king has accepted Khas as Ash's new mentor. Khas then announced: "In three years or later the disaster comes. For the next six months, I will make preparations, after that we are leaving... I can't train a being on par with the gods in a sheltered place."

Khas pointed to one of the windows and asked: "Is she gonna keep following? Someone tell me who hired her. She is so bad at her job, even Ash realized she was watching." As Khas said this Ash pouted, having been made fun of.

The king made a hand gesture and 10 hooded people appeared in the middle of the room. Khas pointed to a girl positioned very close to the window to his right, the one opposite of the one he pointed at. "She isn't sneaky. I was better at stealth when I was wearing that stupid mask and made everyone aware of my presence by creating smoke around."

The girl seemed angry but Khas didn't care. What he was interested in was that it wasn't the girl but an illusion. He paused briefly before starting to speak again: "The information network has expanded and the new blood seems promising. So you must know that an army is approaching from the south. I would like to be the one to meet them, I'm also taking Ash."

Hearing that all the hooded people jump at Khas' throat and Count Eric starts shouting: "You dare... You. Dare... I will kill you, I will SEND YOU TO HEl..." Before he could finish, the girl hiding behind the window appeared behind him and restrained him.

"At least you are fast. Let him go so that I don't have to kill any of the others." Khas said before dissipating into a fog and quickly having 10 clones taking his place pointing weapons towards the assassins. All assassins dropped their weapons and Khas retreated his clones.

"We are leaving tomorrow. Ash pack up 3 days' worth of clothes. Nothing fancy, understood?" Said Khas as he was stretching. "Also don't forget to pack some food. Or at least some water and cooking tools. I can hunt so no worries about starving."

...

The next day, Ash woke up early in the morning. The summer sun was bright, and she could see people starting their day of work and... "Where is Khas?" She kept looking for him and she didn't find him at all. She then was about to give up, she heard a voice: "Sorry for the wait, I was making sure we are good to go and I was also checking the maps. But before we go, take this." It was Khas, handing out a needle to her. She was startled, but she was curious about the needle so she reached for it to take it. The next moment, Khas used the needle to pierce her right eye. Ash fell sleeping as Khas caught and put her in the wagon to rest. He then told the coachman to go forward and gave him a silver coin to shut up about it.

...

After a day of going by wagon, they have reached a city near the border. Khas told the coachman to stop there and woke up Ash. She was confused as some people around her seemed to lose their color. She was feeling dizzy and she almost fell. Khas offered to help her and after they got inside one of the rooms of the inn, Ash finally asked: "What happened, what did you do, why did the reapers do, I am dizzy..." She then fell asleep again.

Khas went to get some food and water, returning after 20 minutes. Ash was wide awake with a small mirror in her hand looking at her right eye in horror. "Don't worry about your eye Ash. If you really don like it I can close it tomorrow once we get back in the capital. Also if you don't like how it looks you can just stop giving it mana. The magic circle in it will become dormant if you do that. If you have problems tell me, I can help. Also, tonight we are going towards the forest to the south of the city. Eat up."

Ash was confused, to say the least, but she did eat, as she was hungry after a day of sleeping. She was busy eating so she couldn't ask immediately, but that gave her time to think. After she was done she finally asked: "What exactly did you do?"

"I gave you an enchanted eye, isn't it obvious? But to put its function simply, it allows one to see my movements. You see I am very fast. You will understand tonight. Get some rest." said Khas, shortly leaving after. After a few hours of failing miserably to get rid of the magic circle in her eyes, Ash got up and went outside to find Khas. As she was leaving she bumped into a soldier that hastily brought her to the border of the city.

After a few minutes of walking, Ash and the soldier reached the border of the city and stood atop the city looking down at the enemy conversing with Khas.

"By Divine Decree, you are to surrender to our forces for we come in the name of the Life God and have The Hero with us." Said a general of the enemy army. Hearing that Khas asked: "Let the hero show himself."