Chapter 9: Illusions

Geros'

"Achoo!"

Geros felt a shiver in his spines and sneezes. A cold wind just blew on him and he's already sneezing. 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.

They were lead from Calles to all around the slums, that's why it took them the whole night looking for him. The young master was originally kept in a warehouse in the Calles, a red district forms the lower class. 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.

But another problem occurred, his smell somehow showed up again in a dumpster in the slums. Then from there, they go back to Calles but this time he lingered outside a bar. And again go back to the slums and yet they found another dead end.

They are in front of an apartment building that looked like it was abandoned 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, they can go inside the building but somehow led back at the entrance.

*crunch*

Geros frowned.

"Leader," Zaco said and appear in front of him.

Geros frowned deepened, confused about what is happening, it was as if he heard this before. A feeling of having experienced a similar situation. A tediously familiar.

"What is happening?"

"There's seems to be manipulation of a group of mages."

Geros saw Tahis' movement at the corner of his eyes. The next thing he knew is the blade was pierced a child and a couple angrily shouting at them.

Again

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

For a moment Geros was silent. He looked sideways at Zaco and said "let's go."

And they entered the slum.

. . .

Zaco's

Haaa... haaa...

Zaco catches his breath as he runs away from the monster that had been chasing them the whole time. The monster is unknown he just knew they being chased.

Both Tahis and Geros can't seem to penetrate through the skin of the monster so they are hiding now. But every time they hide they always be will found. It's like the monster knows where to look for them.

It was so accurate and absolutely terrifying.

"What should we do leader?" he asks gasping for air. He's useless in a battle that's why most of the time he only put them in illusions and if they break the illusion Tahis and the others would give chase on them.

When he looked back to asks his leader, he was nowhere to be found. Both Tahis and Geros was gone.

"Leader?"

Zaco looked around, the empty room that they were hiding in but both of them are nowhere.

"Aaah!" he heard a piercing scream of Tahis, from outside. She was being dragged by the long tentacles of the monster. Then he saw the leader fighting the monster with his broken sword.

Instinctively he goes out and tries to rescue Tahis. A green magic circle appeared under his foot, it was a spell to speed him up. If he's going to rescue them he needed to take advantage of speed.

Although he specializes in illusions, he's still a wind user. He glides through the huge flexible, mobile, and elongated tentacles of the monster. Avoiding its attack as he advances, the leader is busy distracting the monster while he sneaks on it.

*klunk*

"Ugh"

*THUD*

Zaco stops his steps, when he looked back he saw the leader slowly collapsing as the tentacle pierced through his chest. Then as if wasn't enough, Tahis who's screaming was eaten by the huge monster.

When that happened he sees red.

Suddenly strength that he didn't know he had burst out of him. The wind element he had become a sharp and deadly weapon.

He minces the monster into pieces. He killed the monster.

Zaco was surprised that he had that kind of strength. He didn't know what spell he did, he just knew it and it happened.

He's gasping as he looks at his trembling hands. He didn't know if its from exhaustion or from his excitement. Nevertheless, a smile was plastered on his face.

He's celebrating and forgot about the dead body of the leader ?

Really a child. He forgot what was important.

. . .

Tahis'

Tahis was walking around the slum. They decided to look for the young master separately. It was easier and efficient since the slum seems to be a huge place.

She was jumping from roofs to another when she heard a faint voice. She immediately stops. She looks down and saw Zaco and the leader on the ground.

She hurriedly came closer to investigate. She saw the leader bleeding and Zaco cradling the leader as he weeps his tears out.

"Leader!" he called desperately. The young man shakes the lifeless body of the leader as if he would wake up when he does it. Although Tahis and Zaco have the closest age, Zaco is far from being an adult.

"Tahis!" Zaco look surprised to see Tahis, alive and was not eaten by the unknown monster. Relief could be seen in the young adult's eyes. And then tears seeped through his eyes and cried again as he tried desperately.

"L-leader..." Zaco tried to explain with a trembling voice.

Tahis was frozen in spot. She cannot believe it.

"Leader sacrifices himself to me." *hic* "H-he cover for me"

Zaco cried.

Tahis drew her sword and slash it towards Zaco's heart. She coldly looked down at Zaco as he looked at her with disbelief and hurt. He cannot believe that Tahis would kill him.

Tahis watched 'Zaco' slowly died. His blood spills out of his mouth and to the ground.

Ah~ she shouldn't have killed him in one slash. She should have tortured him first. She's been itching to do that before. That arrogant Zaco, next time when she sees him again, she will definitely smack his face.

She swings her sword to clean the blood on it.

Then she goes back to the roof, this time she's not looking for the young master. She already knew that she's in an illusion the moment she heard something.

She's completely deaf and mute, how is she able to hear subtle noises? Less if she suddenly could hear Zaco and his ugly snotty face? There are only two reasons for that, one someone healed her to be able to hear. And the other is she's in an illusion that she could hear.

Also, the leader would never sacrifice himself for someone except for the boss. There are only two rules in being assassins', aside from able to kill your target, you have to know when or how to bail out as soon as trouble arises.

That's why assassins are hard to catch. Kill and escape. Basic rules. Even though Tahis found Zaco stupid, it has not been to the point of mentally retarded like the one she just saw.

Now where to find that shtty illusions enthusiast to help her break the illusion?

. . .

A person in navy blue woolen coat stands at the entrance of the slum. He looked at the three collapsed bodies outside the gate. They wore black robes and a red spider flower embroidered at the corner of their robes. They all wore the infamous black mask of the Shadows.

One by one he look at the faces underneath those mask, two males and one female, none of the three he recognized. He sighed a relief breath. At least he wasn't the one they're following.

He dragged the three bodies and deposit them to the dumpster on the side.

Yesterday, he woke up in the same dumpster and found little Maru. Realizing that, he let out a laugh. He was dump by Toke inside the slum but rescued by the tiny human. Guess he had reason to save the child now, but he still needed a week to completely heal the tiny human. So for now, he just let the three people to be trapped inside the slum.

After he put the bodies inside the dumpster, he put a protective barrier around it so that they won't be able to touch them. He look around and saw in the shadows of the hungry eyes from the citizen of the Slums. He ignored them and goes back and look at the old man sitting on the ground. He sat next to the old man. For a moment they watched the movement of the clouds covering the moon.

Aros, the main city in the lower region of the Cuwran Kingdom. It was the smallest land comparing it to the other regions in 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 of the small region, stood the Slums.

As he said before this is where useless things was thrown. Inside the Slum is a place called slum. It's a place where no one leave when they entered, like the garbage you throw in a bin, you will not get back once you put it inside, thus the whole place was called the Slum. Please do be mindful that the slum is a place inside the Slums.

The slum is a vortex of illusions. It will pull your consciousness and trap you inside, making your body left alone die. There's no way you can go out of the illusions except if someone pay you back from outside.

"Sorry for using you again." Al said silently. Al felt something soft fall on his shoulder, as if to answer him the cold body of the old man leaned on him, comforting him. Al smiled.

The dark sky cleared and the moonlight fell on them, inexplicably carrying a sense of nostalgic. The old man before him, slowly turn to unrecognizable human bones.

He died a long time ago. His name is Laco. He once been the grand archmage in the whole land. Now he had a sad story.