13

In the secluded mini garden where a flowerbed was located. There was a formation array for a secret passage to the Skywave sect and this was the first target of the general.

They accessed it without notice as qi energy gathered from the ring of Xi Chen. Opening the array entrance, Ryo with the general disappeared from their spot, they appeared infront of a foggy forest and it has a blurred path that was made by cobblestones, parting the trees aroumd.

"Where are we?" Ryo asked.

"We're not in the TwinCity continent anymore," Xi Chen concluded as he felt the unfamiliar environment and the flow of the qi energy. Its very thin and not really present.

"What continent does have Granea trees as their source of qi energy?" The general asked the latter.

"It's the Phoenix continent, general. Then are we on Phoenix continent? The Skywave sect is on this continent?" Ryo exclaimed.

Xi Chen nodded and strode towards the path, leaving Ryo. The general used his ring to detect the stolen 'object' of the King.

"Are we not disguising ourselves, general?" Ryo followed.

"I am already on a disguised," Xi Chen simply said and continued his work.

"You're right. They did'nt know us so we can just be ourselves---"

"Idiot. Look at me through the communicator's camera."

Ryo took out his communicator from his storage space and obliged to what Xi Chen had stated. While looking through, he gasped as the appearance of the general was just an average looking man with no aura of a superior. He was wearing a Skywave sects' uniform.

"How did you do it, general? Is it some kind of sorcery?" He exclaimed with amazement and he suddenly removed the communicator. It went back to the general's handsome appearance.

"Eh?"

"You're the only one who can see me like this but others just see me as an ordinary outer disciple," Xi Chen explained to the slow-witted person.

The general then walked off, continuing his path.

"But what about me?"

"You stay behind. Just wait for me here at this tree." Xi Chen instructed and ignored the desperate looking Ryo.

Xi Chen strode for a hour, when the ring lit up in a red color, blinking thrice. The general sent a message through the communicator to Ryo.

The Skywave sect has it.

----

Art travelled through the path of another secret passage towards Skywave sect, coincidentally he appeared before Xi Chen and Ryo can bypassed the formation array in the flowerbed.

He jumped tree by tree near the cobblestone pathway and glided stealthily towards the Skywave sect's inner courtyard.

"Young lord, I am now inside the sect," Art said on the mind link.

The silver haired youth was smiling lazily as she watched the monitors infront of her. Amusing herself to what her students were playing at.

Processing the words of her butler, her lazy face turned serious.

"Let me in," she responded.

The insignia on her right eye shone, appearing brilliantly. Her consciousness now was on her butler's subconscious.

"Art, you can feel my instincts now and my feeling says that we are near," Chun stated as she possessed half of the consciousness of her butler while her original body was on a sleeping state.

The butler hidden himself in the shadows of the dimly lit hallway of the sect. Inside Skywave sect, there were patterns on the wall that were carefully intricated. Each end of the hallways were another dividing path and paintings of respected members or elders of the sect were hanged at the side.

"Wait," Chun said to her butler.

Art stopped infront of a painting. It was a man with a frivolous smile, his dark blue hair was unruffled as he posed with his sword. The sword has a vivid name on its blade 'Titanium Light'.

"The sword is familiar, Art," Chun expressed.

"I felt it, too," the butler stated as he had half of the consciousness of his young master. Art stretched his hand out to touch the glinting sword.

The sword suddenly emitted light as well as the whole painting, the painting disappeared and a door emerged. The inside of it was calling upon Chun.

'Come in... my goddess. You're locked up, pieces of you needs you.'

A seductive voice was heard in the mind of Chun yet Art did not heard it. It was only meant for the youth.

"Art, did you heard the voice? Let's go inside," Chun stated as she can't wait to see what this room contains.

They went in and the door disappeared.

In the middle of the room was a glowing box. It was a silver box and attached around it were heavy-duty chains, the chains were thick like an adult size arms.

The seductive voice again prompted Chun to go near the box and unbridle the chains of it. The silver haired youth commanded her butler to take the box. Without question, Art followed his young master's words despite this silver box spoke tragedy.

Art used his brute strength to remove the shackles of the silver box, after he took the silver box, he stored it in his spatial storage.

"Finally, someone freed the goddess from its misery," the mysterious man appeared from the shadows. Only his face was blurred as his long silver black hair were flowing with the shadows that he carried.

The butler backed meters away from the  stranger. The strange man chuckled and opened his palms, black shadows came forth from it.

"My blackie loves to play around," the man laughed and the black shadow from his hands turned into a silhouette of a chimera. It has three heads and a body shape that can't be described due to the unclear form of it.

The silhouette named Blackie attacked Art. Chun felt the danger from the dog-like creature.

"Dodge, Art! You can't handle that dog while I'm possessing half of your consciousness," the youth stated on her butler's mind.

"I know, young lord."

Art dodged and avoided the frantic attacks of the dog-like creature, every location that it landed left a crack mark to it. The butler can't launch his offense as he would consumed the life force of his young master in this possession state and Chun can't unravel her state right now 'caused she would suffer from the drawback of it.

"Let's escape, young lord." Art said in his consciousness.

"Oh you're planning to escape? I can't let you---"

The strange man stopped in mid-sentence. He was suddenly in a trance like he was communicating to someone.

He laughed and turned his attention to Art, "Too bad, the great Vernunium can't accompany you further." He withdrew his so-called Blackie.

"By the way, keep Pandora's silver box safe," he then left through his shadows.

-----

On the other side.

Xi Chen already infiltrated the Skywave sects' inner courtyard when an alarm sounded from the sect. Outer and inner disciples scrambled outside, whereas the elders had a very angry visage.

As a disguised outer disciple, the general asked someone near him, "What happened?"

The outer disciple glanced at Xi Chen and turned back his attention towards the sounding inner building while replying, "Some thief stole a precious item of the sect."

Xi Chen nodded with an indifferent face but inwardly he didn't liked the situation. The ring stopped glinting as it did not detect the object. It means that the stolen item of the King was the one stolen by that thief and the thief already escaped.

With a grimmed face, the general slowly moved back, vacating the crowded location. He immediately went to Ryo's hiding spot and they escaped, too.

----

(Be warned)

Labyrinth.

The students has tensed faces as they looked at the crying Li Li as she was tied upside down from her feet and her uniform skirt fell down, making her underwear being seen by them all. Han, Ryo and Kai Sun blushed while turning their gazes away from the pink underwear while the two young women were glaring at them. Lerrent just uncaringly stared at the white haired Alex, not even blinking. They were having a staring contest with each other.

Before all of this happened.

The seven students planned to look around for clues that could made them conclude the real identity of Alex. They finally realized that they were inside of the mind of Alex due to some traces of his memories and his complex personality, and in order for them to escape this place, they did not need to find the exit but to find the real Alex.

Chun was testing there profiling ability as he gave them this complicated case, a case were a person had ten personalities.

As they went through many boxes or spaces of the maze, they witnessed the other personalities of Alex. The crazy Alex, murderer Alex, mischievous Alex, lustful Alex, delirious Alex, transvetite Alex, serious Alex, cold Alex and others, so far they only met the nine personalities that left them a bitter taste on their tongue because dealing all of them was like dealing with your own life and death situation.

Currently, they were dealing at this crazy Alex. He installed a concealed trap to this box that even Li Li did not saw it coming.

"Uwaaahh! Help, guys!" Li Li cried.

The crazy Alex was touching her pig tails and spinning her around.

"Alright, what do you need?" Lerrent broke off the maniacal show.

Crazy Alex turned his attention away from Li Li and grinned at Lerrent.

"Hmm... well, let's play a guessing game. If you guessed wrong, I win and that means all of you will be part of my collections!"

"And if we guessed right?" Terra asked with seriousness on her voice.

"Then obviously you win," he rolled his eyes as he seated himself on the cold ground.

"Please join me," the others seated themselves at the ground, facing crazy Alex.

"What are we guessing?" Kai Sun asked.

The crazy Alex darkly chuckled and said, "Guess the real me, and because I'm in a good mood, I'll give you three chances and every wrong guessed leads to a removal of an object that girl's wearing on her body of my choosing," crazy Alex pointed at the upside down Li Li. And it made the weeping Li Li cried loudly.

Lerrent frowned while Han glared at the other, not responding at all.

"Let's begin!"

Kai Sun opened his mouth, "I know. This is the real you, a crazy psychotic bastard. No offense there though."

The crazy Alex chuckled and stood near the weeping Li Li, with sarcasm on his voice, "I'll take that as a compliment."

He slowly travelled his hand from the young woman's leg, through the chest area and stopped at there.

"What do I need to remove?" He caressed the shoulder of Li Li as the young woman cried loudly.

"Bastard!" Han was about to kill the jerk when he was stopped by Lith.

"Remember, this is just a simulation. It attacks our brain nerves in order for us to react according to the situation." Lith reminded him.

Crazy Alex laughed and suddenly removed the tied pig tails on Li Li's hair.

"I'm just teasing, okay? I'm not into molesting. So let's guess again!" crazy Alex exclaimed.

Han gave him a death glare, a very piercing glare.

"Okay. The next one I'll be removing is her doll, no malicious intent there, alright?" Observing Alex, he shuddered a bit from Han's death glare.

Terra suddenly concluded on her mind while observing the reactions and actions of Alex, and pieced the clues that they collected. What's the common trait of all of his personalites... they were all helpless!

"I know who are you."

"Yes?" Alex frowned.

"Alex Dalorte, that's your name. You were a helpless child when your parents were killed in their bed and it was rumoured that you killed them---"

"Stop! I did not kill them!" Alex glared with anger at Terra.

The walls of the labyrinth suddenly shook a bit.

"The helpless you can't deny it as you were witnessed by your own loved maid, with blood on your hands as you stabbed them," Terra continued, looking at the helpless youth on the ground who was covering his face with his two hands.

"That maid Shia! That traitor! She killed them and I was framed," Alex defended as his white hair slowly was turning black.

"I believe you," Terra said and it stopped Alex from his outburst.

The crazy Alex has now a black hair and black eyes. He smiled at Terra with sadness and wiped the trailing tears.

The rope lowered Li Li on the ground as Kai Sun helped her up.

Alex stood up and handed something at Terra while saying, "I'm truly helpless."