Chapter 8: The slum

Aros, the main city in the lower region of the Cuwran Kingdom. It was the smallest land comparing it to the other region of the kingdom. There, in the Aros city was Calles' street known as the red light district in the city. From there, at the far end stood the Slums.

The Slums is an empty land where useless things were thrown away. The dumping site of the kingdom. A disposal site where solid waste, such as paper, glass, and metal, is buried between layers of dirt and other materials in such a way as to reduce contamination of the surrounding land.

Dead bodies, useless people, and people who are on the verge of dying are thrown inside the slum. People inside the slum only had one thing to do, it's to die.

At the entrance of the slum, stood a lonely signboard welcoming you to the empty land. There was a homeless old man beside the signboard. His action and clothes are bizarre. He held a rustic can in one hand and move it sideways making a rhythmic sound of coins hitting the can inside while the other lay listless on the ground.

He sits on the cold ground and had a strange appearance, his hair was smoky-grey and straw-like. It was so dry and sticky that it amasses all together. His brown eyes are cloudy, probably can't even see, as he is very old and a very distinctive beard covered half of his face. The cold moonlight fell on the old man, inexplicably carrying a sense of melancholy.

In front of him, red circular ripples appeared at the entrance of the slum. Three shadows in the darkness move.

The shadows wore black robes and a red spider flower embroidered, paired with a black mask, covering their whole face and only the eyes could be seen.

The symbol of The Shadows.

The Shadows is a group of assassins. Consisting of six different individuals. The four are usually seen except the two other member. They are notorious at killing their prey with the person knowing they're going to be killed. The Shadows will send you a warning before they assassinate you. You can run and hide or guard yourself and hire someone to protect you but either way, none of their targets ever lived.

Geros watched the old man breathing his last breath. It's only a matter of time for the old man died and they happened to arrive as the old man took his last breath. For a moment they remained silent as a way of respecting the dead.

They may be assassins but they are not as evil as to ignore a dying person. Well except for Ono.

Beside the old man was the signboard, it said slum written in dried blood. Geros didn't know if it was written by the old man himself using his blood but it didn't stop them from entering the premise.

Geros narrowed his eyes and carefully scanned their surroundings. The hoot of the owls can be heard in the silent night. Surprisingly an empty land and a dumping site have many trees surrounding the area.

He looked sideways. "Let's go." Together with Zaco and Tahis, they entered the slum.

Geros and his team have been looking for the young master. They were lead from Calles to all around the slum, that's why it took them the whole night looking for him. The young master was originally kept in a warehouse in the Calles, but when Geros came back, the young master is nowhere to be found. They looked all over the Calles but didn't find the young master.

So Geros go back to his master and report that the young master is still missing, that was when Anslo was getting tortured. But now a night passed they finally tracked the young master's smell again.

But another problem occurred, his smell somehow showed up again in a dumpster near the slum. When they followed the scent, they go back to Calles but this time he lingered outside a bar. And again go back to the slum.

The next moment, they found themselves standing in front of a run-down and shabby courtyard. Dull moonlight shone through the pitch-black night sky and the sharp cry of a crow could be heard somewhere.

A chilly wind blew past and penetrated through his clothes, making Geros sneeze. A slight change of temperature and his body decided to give him a cold. Of all the things he can do, one thing he can't tolerate is the cold weather. He might catch a cold, he thought but ignore his condition. He continued to look for the young master's smell.

In front of him was a worn-out apartment building. Shrouded in darkness, it seemed as if abandoned and no one lived for a very long time. But you can see people come and go. They tried to go in but somehow as they step closer, they would end up to where they started, which is in front of the building.

They tried to follow someone who's living inside the building but they ended up being lost again.

The front yard of the building wasn't even that complicated, there's a playground that only contained a pair of swings and a sandbox.

There's a couple at the corner of a tree, minding their own business fondling each other, in the darker side of the playground. While on the sandbox near the tree was a kid alone, busy playing on the sand. From time to time looking at the couple's playing to each other's body in front of the kid.

People also hurrying to come home from work are walking around.

*crunch*

Geros heard the crunching of footsteps. He looks back and saw Zaco suddenly appearing out of thin air. He frowns somehow he felt something is off. It wasn't because he appeared out of thin air, Geros knew that Zaco is good at illusion, what irked him as he made a sound.

The first training of being an assassin is not to make a sound no matter which plane they stepped onto. But Zaco made a mistake. Zaco may be the youngest in the group but he's not careless like Ono.

Zaco is an apprentice student at the mage academy. Zaco's only 15 when he joined the group. Master Symon recruited the child as he saw potentials in him, now five years later, Zaco becomes a powerful mage at the age of twenty. His element is wind and specialized illusions, enabling him to detect and make illusions. In the group, he's the main reason why they can be successful in assassinating their prey.

While Zaco is a mage, Tahis is on another level of her sword art. She's the blade of the group. Although she's deaf and mute her daggers can pierce through and kill its target, without a sound.

"Leader," Zaco greeted him as he came back from scoating the whole area "There's seems to be manipulation from mages."

Mages?

*schick*

As if to prove, Tahis' two blades flew in two different directions. The first blade targeted a person walking, only the blade passes through and hit the playing kid on the sandbox. Now the kid is bleeding and a blade on his forehead but it didn't stop him from playing.

While the couple at the corner of the tree didn't even notice anything about the blade on the kid's forehead but got angry at them when the other blade hit the wall that was supposed to be a tree.

The three of them are in shock, especially Zaco. As a person who's more knowledgeable in terms of magic and illusion manipulation, he can tell that the person who's controlling the illusion is very powerful.

Mages who specialized in illusions can create, shape, and manipulate, causing one to sense things that do not actually exist or perceive differently from what they truly are. Some mages can create complex and detailed worlds, others able to manipulate the senses; sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

The walking person who Tahis targeted is a sensory illusion that everyone could see, feel touch and hear, while the kid who was hit by the blade is another person inside of another illusion. That's why the blade was ignored and the kid didn't feel any pain because, in the eyes of the kid, the blade which Tahis threw didn't exist the same as them.

The second blade that pierced the wall instead of what they saw, a tree, is also manipulation in senses but it was from them, it was their illusions. The three of them saw a tree while the couple might see differently.

Suspicion gradually seep in the corner of their mind. They realized that their surroundings are weird. It was not an ordinary illusion but rather a complicated and powerful one.

This is the first time Zaco encounters such a perfect illusion. He can feel the cold night, hear the sounds the crow, smell the scent of the young master. That's why they were to here, they followed the scent of the young master and probably also trapped in here.

"Leader, the young master might be trapped here."

"That's also what I thought."

Geros looked sideways. "Let's go." Together with Zaco and Tahis, they entered the slum.

When they entered the slum they were lead at the apartment that looked abandoned. When they tried to enter, they ended up at the entrance of the apartment.

Geros scans his surroundings, looking for something that could trigger such phenomenon. Geros scans the surrounding, he didn't find anything odd. No obvious fluctuation in sight. Even the faint smell of the young master is there. It was obvious that whoever keeping young master, they want them to know that he was there. But why?

He look sideways to both Tahis and Zacon on his side, "Let's go." Together, the three Shadows entered the slum.