Through the Night

"Why were you even brought here 084? You seem normal enough to me.." a skinny person asked suddenly. He was crouched down on the dirt, digging a stick into the ground.

"Me? My parents gave me away because I said I heard voices." 084 answered in alternating breaths. He was standing next to 097 and swinging a stick vertically, sweat dripping down from his body. "What about you 097?"

"Oh..." 097 stopped digging the ground. He reached out with his hand towards the dirt and picked up a worm with a smile. "I guess I admitted myself.."

"Admitted yourself?" 084 glanced at him, but he didn't stop swinging his stick. "Why?"

"Haha... I came for a checkup because I was seeing and hearing things.. Then the doctor didn't let me go home and admitted me in here." He threw the stick away and began playing with the worm in his hand.

"You see things? What do you see?" 084 got curious, but he still didn't stop swinging.

"I don't know what it is. It's like a silhouette of people. I see it frequently and it tells me to do things."

"A silhouette? Oh! I saw about that in the Television! They said people see that during sleep paralysis." He began to cackle maniacally. "Hahaha! You should have gone to that man in the television! You served yourself to the psycho doctor instead! Hahahah!"

"Yeah Yeah... But it was the silhouette who told me to come here...." 097 sighed. He let the worm go back in the dirt and turned towards 084. "Uhh..." He made a strange face and pointed at him. "What are you doing?"

084 stopped swinging his stick and looked proud of himself. "Hah! Impressed?"

"I saw this in the television too. It's called training! You should try it too."

---

Zane suddenly woke up with a long breath. 'Haah.... A dream from the past again....' He got out from the sleeping bag and rubbed his face with his hand. 

"You awake?" The Grandmaster scoffed and stared at Zane. He was sitting on a log by a small fire accompanied by Myron.

'Why is he looking at me like that?' Zane looked back at the Grandmaster before groggily walking towards them. 'I just slept for 2 hours...' He lamented at the unfairness of the situation. He stayed up all night checking if the Saint made a move, but was being wrongfully judged for sleeping for two hours.

"So? Is the Saint still there or should me move right away?" The Grandmaster asked, his voice rising. He knew that Zane also needed some rest, but the anxiety he got while Zane was asleep blinded him and made him angry. It was natural as he was worried about Arcturus.

Also, the situation he was worried about did happen on two different occasions. When Zane was asleep, the Saint had already moved to another town, so they had to move without rest to catch up.

"No, he is still in the town." Zane moved to the opposite side of the fire and sat down. With the noise they made, Slem also woke from his sleep and walked groggily towards Zane.

*Plop*

Then he sat down next to Zane and leaned on him. Seeing this, the Grandmaster picked something up from his side and threw towards them.

Zane caught the packet and glanced at it. It was beef jerky, the food they had been living on for the past four months. He took out two pieces from the pack and threw it back to the Grandmaster. Then he gave one to Slem and began chewing on the other.

The four chewed on their beef jerky for quite some time before Zane suddenly sat up straight. "He's moving!"

As soon as he said that, the three of them stood up. Zane grabbed Slem and ran towards the carriage. Myron was the same, but he jumped on the driver's seat and as for the Grandmaster, he doused off the flame and entered the moving carriage.

Inside the carriage, Zane was already looking at the map with his eyes widened. When the Grandmaster entered the carriage, Zane turned to look at him. 

"The Saint... he is moving as fast as he can through here." He pointed at the map. The route he pointed at was the fastest route to Arcturus, with only two or three towns and villages across it.

The Grandmaster was shocked when he heard this. Myron also entered the carriage, leaving his duplicate to control the carriage. As soon as he entered, the Grandmaster looked at him.

"The Saint will reach Arcturus tomorrow at this rate!" He clenched his teeth. "Should I follow him by myself?"

"No.." Myron shook his head. "If you expend all your energy in chasing, you won't be able to fight him later."

He looked at the map closely to look for an alternate route, but there were none. "We will follow them in maximum speed for now." 

"After reaching here," he pointed at the first town on the route. "We will ditch the carriage and ride on horseback... If we push the horses, we can reach Arcturus tomorrow too.." He sighed. They all knew following this plan would mean the horses death, but they were prepared to sacrifice horses to save their people.

"Alright..." the Grandmaster nodded and sat down. "Follow him at maximum speed."

They began to follow the Saint as fast as they could. The horses were pushed to their limit. But when they reached the first town, they were surprised. The town was not destroyed and the people were not killed.

Following their plans, they ditched the carriage. But they didn't use the same horses, as they were already tired and the Saint had left the town alone. So they borrowed three horses from the town and set off once again, following the Saint even faster.

It was already night when they reached the second town. Changing the horses again, they didn't stop even in the night. This was because the Saint hadn't stopped either. They were contemplating whether to stop if the Saint stopped, but the Saint just kept on going.

They followed the Saint through the night, till the morning. The Saint had already passed through the third town, which was the last town before they reached Arcturus.

All three of them clenched their teeth and rode as fast as they could, but they knew. However fast they pushed their horses, they knew they would reach Arcturus considerably late than the Saint. And with the power he had shown during the last four months, they doubted if Arcturus would still be standing when they reached there.