A Night of Wits (Part 1)

"It's no use Gabriel, even if I should die here another person will take my place and hunt you to the ends of the earth. Repent now and maybe the Lord would be merciful enough to grant you a swif-"

*PUCHI*

The bounty hunter would not be able to complete his sentence as a dagger sliced his throat at a speed his eyes couldn't follow. He held onto his throat and slowly succumbed to the darkness that is death.

He wasn't the only one though as across the barren plain was a lot of corpses, each one killed in a way more gruesome than the other.

"If we don't kill them like this, then we won't be able to scare the others off..." Gabriel looked down at the carnage he had caused without any change in his expression. If it were before he might have regretted his actions but this phase of his life was forging him into something even himself couldn't recognize.

"There's no need to explain anything to me, I understand but he has a point. If this keeps up, sooner or later we won't be able to hold on. Even if we are both immortals, our energy is still limited. "

" Don't bother about it. This situation won't continue for much longer, I already left behind some pieces in Skycloud and some other cities. They should be making their move this evening at the latest. By tomorrow, the church would be more concerned about flushing out any other hidden pieces in their territory and the pressure would ease somewhat. "

" As long as you have it all planned out then it's alright. We should hurry back to the safehouse, if night falls we might get entangled with those nocturnal beasts and leave traces for those hunters to follow. "

Gabriel nodded in affirmation but as he moved forward, his world went dark and he fell towards the ground. Hazy Mist Immortal was too tired from the fight and didn't notice his condition so he fell on the ground with a thump.

She heard the noise and turned back to see what even at her moment of death, she would remember as the most scariest thing she had ever witnessed.

Gabriel laid face down and blood was leaking from all his pores and orifices, quickly forming a pool around his body. She shrieked and charged towards him to inspect him.

"Poison? The church would actually resort to such means and to make matters worse the poison was administered for quite a while and has been building up power across the many battles we've been through and now it must have capitalized on his grievous injuries and the hidden ones to bring out it's greatest effect. No the church cannot develop such a poison but then again it doesn't mean they couldn't buy one."

She scrambled for some pills and without looking at the label to their containers emptied them into Gabriel's mouth.

"Hey there are traces of a battle up ahead, we must be getting close"

She heard voices and footsteps and she knew the bounty hunters were catching up. Without time to completely stop his injuries, she threw him across her shoulder and dashed towards their safehouse while she pulled out a ball and threw it into the sky.

It blew up and left a red smoke in the sky and just when the hunters were contemplating what the smoke bomb was for, the people besides them suddenly launched attacks towards them.

It turns out that Gabriel had hidden some pieces among the hunters and was saving them to use on a rainy day and it was this move of his that saved his life as it gave Hazy Mist Immortal the chance to escape with him.

The last thing Gabriel saw before he blanked out was a field of corpses spreading out through his field of vision and the red smoke in the air seemed like a bloody sky that carried all the resentments of the dead.

'I know some of you might not deserve such a death but I can... I can only sacrifice you for the greater good' With this thought he completely lost consciousness and could only leave his life in the hands of Hazy Mist Immortal.

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Skycloud, Opening Ceremony for the Literary Union Faction in Skycloud.

The sun was gracing the city with it's golden light and the skies were clear without a sign of rain. The common people took it as a sign of heaven supporting the Literary Union but the real big shots know that William must have hired a practitioner to ensure such a smooth weather in the middle of autumn.

The streets were lined with exquisite carriages that told of the affluence of their owners. The simple commoners that came to witness the event ohhed and ahhed at the dressings of the rich and noble while wishing to one day join their ranks. The nobles and rich seemed to pay them no heed but one could tell they were pleased with the adoration of the multitude from the pride in their eyes.

A simple carriage came along and stopped outside the venue for the gala. The door was opened by the coachman and as he bowed two figures stepped out of the carriage. One was a charming young man dressed in an exquisite three piece suit and a beautiful young girl dressed in a beautiful one piece dress.

The young man's athletic figure could not be hidden by the suit with his broad shoulders and deep black eyes drawing the attention of quite a number of ladies. The girl beside him naturally attracted attention to herself due to her eyes. Her hair was black like the young man's but her eyes were a bewitching velvet.

The two walked beside each other with poise and grace befitting of a noble and soon enough they had become the topic of discussion for the gala.

"We seemed to have brought much attention to ourselves when we should be doing the opposite. If Charles finds out I'm here, he wouldn't mind inviting me out for a dance which I would probably never come back from. " Fiona was anxious but it didn't show on her face, Davis didn't seem to share her worries as he had a smile on his face.

" If what you said is true then he already knows your in the city and besides even if he knew you were here I refuse to believe he has what it takes to overlook the governor and attack us here. "

Fiona thought his line of thought agreeable and complained no further. Instead she started relishing in the adoring gazes of the masses and a sweet smile was on her face. Davis laughed at her antics, thinking this girl's vanity could be so easily satisfied?

He didn't know anyone here at the gala so he had planned to find a quiet corner and wait it out till the evening gala started but he spotted a familiar scholarly figure whose face didn't seem like it would sprout facial hairs in the near future, heading towards his direction with a smile on his face.

He was a bit surprised but then he quickly smiled and led Fiona towards Williams. The guests at the gala were surprised to know that the relationship between the president of the Literary Union and the previous heir of the Newman Empire was so good and they couldn't hide the look of surprise on their face.

"Mr. Shakespeare has made quite an achievement, expanding the literary union across the realm and giving every person a chance to be great is a feat that will be admired for ages to come "

" Haha I'd much prefer you call me Mr. Williams but you still refuse to oblige me. I have achieved all this through the help of great scholars who share the same dream as I. "

Davis and Williams conversed a bit amidst the shock of the crowd and in the end they separated when Williams moved to greet one of the arriving guests. Seeing the closeness Davis had with Williams, Davis was swamped by those who sought to build a relationship with Williams using Davis as the bridge.

He didn't mind and he skillfully dealt with them before he finally settled down at a table with Fiona who had a look of scorn on her face.

"I knew the church could be sneaky but who would have thought even the so called scholars would be involved in this dirty puddle"

"It can't be helped. The Literary Union has to have some backing if not it would not be able to achieve what it has today"

The two sat and whiled away the time discussing the strategy that Davis came up with amongst other things. Davis thought that things would continue like this peacefully till the time of the evening gala but then he spotted a group of people heading towards him with obvious malicious intent.

Initially he didn't recognize anyone in the group and wondered why they would have such malice towards him until he spotted a brown haired figure among them.

To think my predecessor would leave me such a headache. I really don't have time for this childish squabbles, the problems I have are much bigger than that. Unfortunately his wish wouldn't be granted as the malicious group still headed for his table.

"Well well if it isn't the once, valedictorian of the accounting department of Glory High School, Green Newman."

" How are you doing Angelo? Hope you've been well?" Davis replied back to the brown haired young man's taunting with a smile, leaving him stunned. He didn't know what to do next after all no matter how much enmity he had towards Davis, he couldn't slap a smiling face. That would just make him look barbaric among the nobles so he simply snorted at Davis and left.

Davis looked at their backs and let out a wry smile. His previous self was the valedictorian of his set but before the graduation ceremony the case with his father was brought to light. Angelo was salutatorian but was never satisfied with his position but up on till the end he wasn't able to surpass Davis and that led to him developing a feud with Davis.

In the end however he was given the valedictorian status after the incident of the Newman family. He wasn't completely satisfied but he decided to accept it but he heard that through some miraculous course of events, Davis' family was redeemed and now he was even given an invitation to the evening gala of the Literary Union.

It may not seem like much but if he can provide a satisfactory presentation at the event this evening then he might be able to weasel his way back into the ranks of the high citizens and that was something he was not willing to see.

"Forget it whatever his plans are, they're not going to affect me. Let's see if he can even survive through the night's events before I will take him seriously."

There was no other problem and the rest of the day quickly went by. When evening was approaching, Williams announced the venue for the evening gala only to the people invited and also mentioned the event he organized.

The person who gave the best presentation at the evening gala would be given the position of a 3rd Class Scholar, 1000 Gold Coins in any preferred currency and the chance to spend as long as he can in William's personal library without sleep or rest.

The prize was quite attractive and it was rumoured many unranked scholars have already spent months of preparation in order to take it. Davis however felt slight pity for them because he knows that no matter how much they try, his article was bound to take the prize after all how could they compete against the wisdom of an entire world.

He boarded the carriage he hired and set off for the destination of the gala while going over his plans again. His plans to frame Charles would start from the attack at the Gala and there was no room for mistakes. He took in a deep breath to calm his nerves and prepared himself for what would be the most critical part of his plan.