The group of people advanced towards the city at a moderate pace. Suddenly, a group of reapers appeared in their path. The beasts were eager to attack and devour them whole.

Norman casually took out his sword, then put it back into its sheath. A simple, slightly bizarre movement. At least, at a first glance. In the next moment, the bodies of the reapers stopped moving. Blood flew in all directions. The imposing monsters were now nothing but a pile of small pieces of meat.

Gorn gulped.

Unlike the girls, he faintly saw Norman’s fine movements. The difference in power was just too much. A cold chill travelled across his spine.

Norman paused for a moment, and looked towards Gorn: “What do you think boy?” his face was rather emotion free.

“Not even a gust of wind. Impressive…” sensing the immense danger, Gorn’s entire body started to undergo small changes. Black lines were slowly covering a large part of his body.

Unlike the previous instances, this time seemed to be somewhat different. Norman carefully analyzed what was happening, keeping a stoic face this whole time.

“Let’s go!” with a single phrase from him, the journey resumed.

Part of Gorn’s shadow extended beneath his clothes up to his feet, and through his sole entered the ground. From there, it split further, into several more pieces. Unbeknownst to anyone, the small dots of shadow secretly attached themselves to the girls.

A few moments later, when no one was close anymore, a small part of that shadow resurfaced, and swiftly headed towards the nearby corpses. In the blink of an eye, everything was absorbed, leaving behind only fine dust.

Just like being attracted by a magnet, the shadow returned to Gorn at a great speed. Traveling through the ground, and switching its composition, it left no traces behind.

Reaching the city gates, Gorn saw numerous guards. Their number was higher than last time. Apparently, some measures were taken after his previous raid. Everyone entered the city under numerous watchful gazes. Not even a word was spoken.

Slowly, but steadily, they got closer and closer towards the Mercenary Guild. The city was unusually quiet, giving the impression that nothing was wrong.

Numerous guards were placed at key locations, and despite the fact that the city looked like a ghost town, the citizens were still present. However, their location was changed to small, and large work camps that were quickly improvised, and placed outside the main pathways.

Entering the higher part of the city, Gorn was yet again met by the beautiful scenery. Nature combined with human architecture at its finest. Unfortunately, this place was, at the moment, the territory of another man.

‘I also want to have such a place,’ thought Gorn, feeling a strong jolt inside his body.

Elisa’s face was full of worries. Seeing countless guards, and no other ordinary people around, was proof that the political structure of the city changed completely. She was extremely worried about her daughters, and the inability to do anything to help them made things even worse. Glancing at Gorn, she hoped with her entire being that he had some sort of solution to their predicament.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Being back in the city so soon shook Lora and her family. By the look of things, the situation seemed hopeless. The girls feared for the worst case scenario, and secretly hoped for Gorn to have a way out of that mess.

Under fearful gazes, Norman led everyone up an enormous tree, and into a luxurious tree house. Unlike the wilderness, there were countless stairs connected to the tree, and the houses were on a completely new level when compared to the simple cave that Elisa and the rest crafted for themselves outside.

Despite all the luxury, and the good conditions, freedom was missing. In its place was uncertainty, and the blank looks of the brainwashed guards that were present almost everywhere. That eerie feeling brought forward an unspeakable pressure.

“Have a seat,” said Norman while sitting down at the large table that was present in the middle of the room. Various pieces of premium quality furniture, and monster trophies were present all around, emanating a deep sense of wealth, and power.

The big scary guard with the tracking ability sat down. His name was Zeto, and by the looks of it, he was a well trusted aid of Norman. Gorn looked at the girls for a brief moment, then also sat down. Despite having various questions, he waited patiently for the other party to start talking.

Using his shadow, captain Norman grabbed a grape from the nearby plateau that was full of fruits. Zeto copied his actions. “You should be able to do the same, right?”

Looking at Norman’s inviting gaze, Gorn extended his shadow, and grabbed a piece of grape as well. However, he did not eat it.

“Wonderful! You see, we are all the same. Join us!” said Norman without beating around the bush.

Gorn was surprised by the direct invite. Thinking for a few short moments, he asked: “What about the girls?”

Norman glanced over the lot, then looked towards him again: “They are just some fakes. In fact, this whole place is just a huge farce. Therefore, whatever happens to them is of little importance.”

His words shook everyone present. What they were hearing was just too outrageous.

“What do you mean by that?” Gorn was quite puzzled by those words, and wanted further details about the matter if possible.

Norman ate a few more grapes, and continued with his thoughts: “Did you have any weird dreams lately? Like being stuck in a bizarre place, barely being able to move?”

Gorn tried his best to keep a straight face, unfortunately, there was a slight change in his facial muscles giving him away. Norman smiled: “Don’t worry, we all have them. However, what you might not know is the fact that those are not just dreams. That is the reality, and those are our real bodies.”

Pausing for a moment, he continued: “If we don’t manage to escape from that place soon, I’m afraid that there will be some dire consequences…”

With these words, his previous statement made some sense. Despite that, this was an outrageous hypothesis. Gorn was flabbergasted for a moment.

“So, what do you want to say is that we are trapped in some kind of prison, and all this is but some kind of illusion?” asked Gorn, while at the same time pointing at the people, and the surrounding things.

Norman put one of his legs on the table. “There are a few more secrets to it, but mainly, yes, that is the situation we are stuck in.”

Gorn had a million questions right at this moment. “Aren’t all the people here in the same situation?”

Norman laughed for a second: “Of course not. There are only a handful of such people in this entire city, and its surroundings. You and I included.”

At the same time as all of this discussion was happening, Gorn controlled his shadow to silently move underneath the floor. His target, this time, was Zeto. Just like with the girls, he attached a small fraction of his shadow to the sole of that man’s feet.

Zeto didn’t show any fluctuation in his facial appearance, or behavior. ‘Is this going to work?’ though Gorn, his brain, and heart being on overdrive from all the stressful changes, and information. In the next moment, Gorn cut from his main body that small part of his shadow that was connected to Zeto.

The shadow did not disappear, and he could still feel, and control it, albeit a little harder. The advantage was, however, that he was able to feel the location of the shadow even if it wasn’t connected to him, or it was further away. The same thing was done to the girls prior to arriving at this place, and with those reaper’s corpses as well. Now, he extended his main shadow yet again beneath the floor, and connected it to the already existing bits that were on each of the girl’s feet.

‘Does this count as me touching them? If I teleport away, will they teleport away together with me?’ this was the only decent plan of escape that he could think of in all that time.

Furthermore, he planned to use that severed part of his shadow to keep track of Zeto’s position.