Chapter 25: Plan [3]

Vester was too scared to turn around the moment this person spoke. He couldn't think of an exact description that matched this person's voice. Man, woman? Boy, girl? If it was a guard? Haa! He was definitely screwed. If it was the Admiral? hahaha! He was dead meat! If it was the girl? Well, how hard could that be?

'I said who are you? And why were you in my room.' the angry voice questioned again.

Vester was sure now. The voice wasn't thick or coarse nor was it matured and bold. Instead, it seemed lovely and childlike. He smiled. It definitely was the girl.

Turning around slowly to meet the girl's bewildered stare, she asked again with widening eyes and furrowed eyebrows, 'What are you?' seeing the illogical mask the intruder used in covering his face.

Inside the mask, Vester let out a disenchanted sigh. If he too was in her position he likely would want to understand why someone would use nylon bags as getaway masks. The only image he could picture from his memories now was the stupid face of that retarded Mordecai.

In the hope not to worsen the situation, he surrendered his hands up.

'I–I–I…' he didn't complete his statement before firing off in speed away from the girl.

'Hey! Get back here.' the girl roared but didn't go after him.

Vester ran as fast as his legs could take him, causing his shoulder bag to swim through the air as he ran. He hoped not to come across any guard, because if that were to happen. He shook his head and dispelled the thought.

Funnily enough, after running for a while there were no signs of any guards. The only thing was that the long hall of this building had uncountable paper drawings on every opposite side: to be precise, the drawings looked more like an optical illusion for Vester. When one would think one line is shorter than the other, they were the same size.

Soon it became slightly odd. Until it became totally odd. Vester kept repeating the same hallway he passed over and over again. Seeing the exact same drawings on the previous walls, now on this wall. Stationed exactly like the rest. Even when he thought this phenomenon to be an impressive coincidence, one thing was made certain before his eyes. The girl remained where she stood. With disgust and contempt in her eyes, she gawks at Vester.

Vester immediately drifted back, causing him to fall awkwardly but he soon regains stability and continues to dash opposite the girl. This time the girl stood there with a glare watching as he ran away.

It didn't take a minute for Vester to stumbled on another hallway with the same girl glaring at him. He fell to his butt again as he tried to turn around in an instant. Even after he did, the next hallway he entered the girl was there. In that same spot. It now looked like she was the one moving when Vester was still catching his breath.

The next hallway, the same occurrence.

And the next.

And the next.

And the next...

Until Vester gave up the run. He helped himself stand with his hand on a wall as he panted neverendingly. Every hallway he entered was the same. He was starting to think this building was playing tricks on him.

'There's nowhere to run. You might as well turn yourself in, burglar.' the girl stood as she spoke with contempt.

Inquisitive Vester raised his head slowly and found the girl not too far from him.

'You are imprisoned here. You're not getting out till we apprehend you. Which is why…'

As the girl kept narrating Vester current predicament, Vester himself got distracted by an unnatural occurrence. Ethereal pipelines made of light green ran across the ceilings of the hallway. Two at the ceiling's edge and two at the bottom of where he stood. With time, other immaterial pipelines formed a channel straight to where the girl stood.

As the lines revealed themselves, so did Vester trace the track of the lines with his head as they formed. The girl furrowed her eyebrows: it seemed Vester had noticed something he shouldn't.

In a matter of seconds, the pipelines became more and more while converging to the girl's front, to the extent Vester now looked at her like he saw something else.

'What is that..?!' the girl asked worriedly.

Vester was about to answer before his world turned around. This ethereal pipelines gathered so much around themselves till the view in front of him turned into a mirage. A mirror mirage. The space in front of him rippled like uncalm water, including the girl's image. Until the view of the hallway transformed into an endless white road. Both his front and back seemed bottomless.

'Hello..!!' he screamed. But it only echoed until the sound got lost far in the white road.

Due to fear, he ran into the white road. But it felt like he was at the same spot. He kept screaming words that kept getting lost in the white road.

After walking for a while, those same pipelines appeared again. Running ahead of him and creating a door. He dashed to and opened it, and then…

There was a loud crash. Like a window was being shattered. An object flew out from a mirror and caused the detritus to clang around on the ground.

This object was Vester.

As he came from the door he broke the illusion barrier placed upon the mansion by several ScrollMasters.

The next thing he knew was he was on top of the girl. He crashed landed on her. Immediately she tried tossing him to the other side, she was drawn to his world: riveted by the nature of his eyes. Pale-white eyes. She'd never seen anything so beautiful like it before. Around the circumference of his pupils was multicoloured interwoven lines. For that brief moment, she thought she had seen the rainbows and the everlasting peace immanent in it.

Until she was propelled back to the situation at hand after Vester quickly stood up from her body and ran away from her

'Stop..!' she shouted while angrily standing up and chasing Vester.

As Vester ran he was sure he passed several other hallways that were different from the first one he encountered. Meaning, he was getting out of this shithole. That was before he saw two guards on a full plate white armour at one of the hallway ends.

'Hey! You there..!'

The moment he entered the hallway they caught his image and chased after him.

Being chased by a Seraphim Hand made him think of so many ways they would deal with him. More precisely, so many brutal ways they would deal with him. Trapped in thoughts he obviously ran towards two other guards.

'Stop..!!' they shouted and ran after him.

Vester was perplexed, the entire building felt like he was running in a maze. He knew he wasn't running in fake circles now, but nevertheless, he was completely lost. It wasn't long before he entered a hallway that was shut off by a statue. A female statue, placing her compendium on the floor with a hand and rested the other of her hand on her waist. Most likely a Seraphim Expert, Vester thought.

When he tried to go back, the girl ran towards the entrance of the hallway he was.

'It's obvious you don't know your way around here… that gave a chance to find out what you stole.' the girl calmly spoke but shouted her next sentence, 'My Disk Pass! Give it back.'

Vester slowly surveyed the surrounding area then the girl and his shoulder bag using only his eyes and not moving his head. If he could kick the girl out of his way, literally out of his way, that would buy him enough time to escape before the mansion guards arrive.

Dang it!

Why he had chosen to rub a Seraphim Kingdom's branch? Before he could even reply to the girl's statement the guards appeared at her back. About ten of them.

'Lady Sasha, how did he get past the barrier illusion?' one of the guards asked.

A powerful and independent mechanism set up by not just one person but several ScrollMasters masters which were masters in illusion casting. The main focus of this mechanism was to disorient any foreign presence and at once and alert every member of the mansion that they've been a break-in.

It isn't an ordinary mantra casting. It comprises of numerous items that were invisible to the naked eyes. So breaking out of this mechanism was almost impossible to many. Unless you happen to be present at the time of its creation or you are an expert in illusion mantras there's no escaping.

'I don't know. He has the disk pass to the Head of Scrolls. Arrest him.'

The guards manifested their ethereal rings around their wrist. If this person could come out from the barrier mechanism, something they couldn't do themselves not even an admiral could do such. Then that means this person was not simple.

But just as their rings shone brighter, a very large circle appeared above them. They were shocked to their very core as it appeared. A circle with an eye and almost uncountable shapes twirling inside it.

They have never seen anything like it before so they immediately went to protect the girl and take her somewhere safe.

Just as they went to protect her, they felt something attack their consciousness. Like their soul was ripped from them and their lives terminated, and on their last breath, they caught glimpse of another image standing next to the intruder.

It was a man. Red hair ponytail. Blue plate majestic armour, and before they knew it they struck their head on the ground and their body followed suit.