‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ thought Gorn, doubting that even half the things he heard were true.

‘Some things he says seem to be true, but almost everything being an illusion is just too hard to believe at this point…’ trusting blindly the words of another man would not be wise. The best he could do at this moment was to find out as much information as possible, then, later on, sort it out using his own intellect and experience.

Of course, a way out of the current situation was mandatory in case things went south. A loud slap on the table attracted everyone’s attention even more, disturbing Gorn’s thoughts, and secret actions.

Norman looked him straight into the eyes: “At this point, things are rather simple. Join me, and find out the answers to all of your question, and much more, or you all die.”

Hearing about dying, the girls trembled inwardly, and their expressions turned unsightly. It was like a bolt of lightning struck them directly. Unlike the wilderness, they had zero chances of escape in this kind of situation.

“Of course, if you want to join me, you must swallow this pill, and willingly declare your loyalty to me,” said Norman in a calm tone, like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Gorn’s pupils constricted on the spot. ‘So this is the catch…’ Seeing the huge pill on the table, Gorn felt a big sense of repulsion towards it. It was entirely black, and he had no idea what was inside that thing. ‘But why isn’t he forcing me to eat it? Furthermore, he wants me to willingly submit…’ the most logical reason he could think about the matter was that this kind of procedure was mandatory in order for it to work. That, or Norman was just a very nice guy, which he doubted.

Tapping with his index finger on the table, captain Norman added: “You have ten seconds to decide. Ten, nine…” Zeto watched with great interest what was happening. Beneath that scary face, and robust physique, one could subtly perceive feelings of deep dread, and uneasiness.

As Norman was slowly counting down, Gorn felt his blood rushing through-out his entire body at an immense speed. Elisa, Lora, and the rest were starting to panic. If Gorn refused to do what he was told, they had absolutely no doubt that they would all die when that countdown reached zero.

Gorn gulped. His shadow became restless, and a few drops of sweat fell down to the floor in slow motion.

‘All or nothing,’ thought Gorn, quickly extending his shadow beneath the floor, and towards Norman. Like with Zeto, he wanted to leave a small amount of his shadow on Norman’s body.

In half a second, the deed was done. Staring unblinkingly at Norman’s straight face, he couldn’t see any changes. His opponent did not discover his actions. In the next moment, he extended his shadow towards the girls, connecting it with the already present segment.

“Three, two…”

‘It is now or never!’

With deep focus, he imagined holding the girls, and then activated his blink ability. The destination was, of course, the skies. In the next instance, the scenery changed entirely. Instead of that room together with captain Norman, and his men, in his line of sight was now the vast skies and the distant horizon.

‘The girls?!’

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Thankfully, all the girls were present next to him. They were held by his shadow, that was now in a tangible form, and clearly visible to the eyes. Gorn’s mouth curved into a smile as he activated his blink ability several more times. Now, they were already dozens of kilometers away from the city, and at a very high altitude. Beside them, nothing could be seen for miles all around, including the taller trees.

Closing his eyes, Gorn ignored everything else, and focused on his shadow. He could faintly feel the segments that he left on Zeto, and Norman’s body, as well as their approximate location.

“Bwahahahaha!” all of a sudden, he erupted in great laughter. The shadow on his body, as well as the strange symbol in his eye, became even more noticeable.

The girls watched with apprehension everything that unfolded. The rollercoaster of strong emotions was still ongoing. They didn’t dare say a single word. Nora hesitated for a few moments, but in the end, she called out for him: “Gorn.” Simple, and direct.

Gorn turned his head towards her. His face was rather scary, and bizarre looking. After a few more silent moments, the strange symbol in his eye started to fade away. The same could be told about the shadow marks on his neck, and body.

Using his shadow, he brought Nora next to him. Grabbing her by the waist, Gorn held her close to his body, and in his arms, while whispering in her ear: “Thanks!”

Nora blushed slightly, and did not say anything further. Gorn’s gaze then turned to the rest of them. Judging by everyone’s expression, it wasn’t too hard to guess how they were feeling.

“A lot of unfortunate events happened lately…” pausing for a moment, he then continued: “Thankfully, we managed to avoid the worst outcome. The current situation is currently under control.”

Everyone breathed out in relief. While the matter was far from over, the worst case scenario was avoided for the time being. A powerful gust of wind blew into their faces, reminding them their current position. Looking at the very far away ground, the girls gulped in a mouthful of saliva. However, compared with being together with Norman in that room, and under those circumstances, this was by far better.

“They silently appeared out of nowhere, there was nothing that we could do…” said Elisa full of emotion.

While Zeto’s tracking ability was troublesome, it wasn’t anywhere close to being perfect. The fact that he wasn’t immediately coming in his direction was proof of that. Them being found so quickly was also due to luck, partly.

“I understand. What happened is due to some of my mistakes, nothing more, nothing less.”

It wasn’t so hard to figure out that he was the main point of the focus, and not the rest. Elisa wanted to say something about this matter, but Gorn stopped her. “Enough about that. What’s important now is the fact that we are in this together. There is no going back at this point.”

“What do we do now?” asked Rebeca with a worried face.

Gorn adopted a serene face. “Foremost, we need to calm down. Being so scared will not help our situation. Secondly, while the enemy is currently stronger than us, the difference is not that overwhelming as it appears. Proof to that is the fact that we escaped right from their faces. In addition, there is more. Look carefully at me.”

His last sentence made Rebeca somewhat confused. However, she soon found out what he meant by that. Gorn activated his stealth skill. His body and his presence suddenly became very hard to notice, even from that close distance. The effect enveloped Nora as well.

Everyone watched in shock. “With these abilities of mine, the chances of them finding us again are very slim.” He then proceeded to extend his stealth ability to all of them.

The ladies felt a wave of energy enveloping their entire body. This very energy made their presence fade away. Apart from the faint aura the energy caused around them, they could see their bodies, and between themselves, just fine. The fading effect was only perceived from the exterior, or more exactly, by everything else that was not under the same aura.

“This is amazing!” exclaimed Rebeca. When everything was added up, Gorn’s words made a lot of sense.

There were disadvantages as well. For example, even if the skill consumed a small amount of energy, when extending that effect, the energy consumption increased. Keeping it active at all time was not very realistic. At least, not until his regeneration skill reached a way higher level. On a second note, they had to be together all the time. While not impossible, it was very inconvenient.

“That’s not everything we have. There is more!” said Gorn, wanting to make sure that the morale of the rest would grow exponentially.