Red strolled along the coast, past the ruins of Sola Dorma, and became engulfed in his own thoughts.
“Everything has been moving entirely too fast. I need to get my bearings. So what do I know?”
The land near the sea began to slowly slope upward. Red stepped to the side and sat on the incline with his head in his hands.
“I don’t know Yasuke or Day’s status. Considering how close they were to that explosion, it’s not crazy to assume the worst. Either way, I need to return to Oldum.”
Red watched as the water danced back and forth on the shore. He grabbed a rock and skipped it across the water. It grazed the surface dozens of times before eventually disappearing into the horizon.
“And then there is Valarfor’s quest…” Red clenched his fist tight, “He said kill the shadows of my past, so I can step into the future without regret. Who is the shadow of my past? King Uther? Heran? No, that last part, without regret is the most important aspect. It has to be…”
Red’s thoughts trailed off as he stared at a rock formation on the coast.
“Weird…” Red examined the giant cliff, “That cliff is not real. It’s not entirely fake though…this must be the hideout Semaj was referring to.”
Semaj attempted to look through the spell to no avail.
“That’s has to be an illusory wall. There’s probably a supporting spell around it, so people can walk in and out of it without being spotted immediately. If I waited around for a while I could probably catch somebody coming out, but I don’t have all day to wait. Maybe I can at least get an idea of how many people are behind there if I listen in.”
Red attempted to get closer to the cliff. He hid behind a tree nearest the rock illusion. Red closed his eyes tight and turned his head toward the sky. He entered a trance-like state, and the distractions of the world ceased to grab his attention.
He allowed the flow of the overwhelming arcana to consume him. He attempted to pin point the illusory wall and anything behind it, but it served as an impassable obstacle. The flow of arcana stopped at the wall completely.
Although he couldn’t pass through, there were faint voices behind the wall. He got closer to the wall and listened in.
An indistinct, genderless voice began to speak, “Why do they have so many of us stationed here? This is a lot of mercenaries for such a small operation.”
“Not exactly sure,” A second voice spoke, “I think it’s to keep the slaves in line, let them know there’s no hope of escaping. And to deter anyone who would want to snoop around, if they did discover this place.”
“Speaking of snooping, are there any updates on the man who was poking his nose around this area?”
“We discovered it was that mute boy’s father. Once we caught him we disposed of him, per the master’s orders.”
Red immediately ejected himself from the trance state and fell to his knees.
“That’s enough. So they’re killing anybody with the audacity to try and get their child back?”
Red slammed his fist into the dirt and shouted, “MAXIMUM BLOOD!”
Red’s eyes became bloodshot and his veins jutted out of his skin. He emanated an aura from his body that distorted and refracted the air.
He stomped up to the illusory wall and attempted to put his hand through. It slipped right through the solid object, but it was poked by something he was unable to see.
Red backed up slightly, and three knights wearing bulky sand yellow armor emerged from the rock wall brandishing spears.
Red grabbed one by the arm, and before he could react he tossed him out into the sea.
Turning to the other two, Red scratched both arms with his nails and used the blood to turn his forearms into swords.
He closed the distance between them and in one stroke sliced directly through their armor.
Red walked through the wall to find a small cove, just large enough for a medium-sized home and a few surrounding buildings.
As Red walked through, he was met with twenty soldiers all wearing the same sand yellow armor. Some of the soldiers were armed with swords, others with magic spells.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Red snarled and clapped his hands together and yelled, “Diamond Dust!”
A thick fog began to fill the area and icicles began to circle around and strike the soldiers.
Under the cover of the fog, Red escaped from view and reappeared to strike.
He readied a blood spear and stabbed one soldier through the chest.
He picked another soldier up with one hand and slammed them into the ground.
The icicles began to move through the air faster and tore through the soldier’s armor.
This went on for a while until he finally dispelled the fog and confirmed all of them were down.
Red let out a few long exhales, and his body slowly returned back to normal.
Red walked up to the door of the house and jiggled the knob, but it did not move at all.
Red held his hand over the door and the door began to glow, “I’m not good with complex stuff like this it’s going to take forever for me to open this up.”
After several minutes of concentration, the door popped open.
Red stepped into the house to find it almost completely barren, save for a desk and a few straw beds lying on the floor.
Red paced around the empty room, and eventually stopped at the desk. There were a few pieces of paper scattered on the desk and a few that had hit the ground.
Red picked one up and analyzed it.
“Invoices…so that confirms they have been completing their ‘transactions’ here. Hopefully, the gold should be stored here somewhere as well.”
Red tapped on the wall farthest from the door.
“Hollow…”
Red attempted to punch the wall, but only hurt his hand.
“No matter how much physical strength I use, I would never bust this down. I don’t even think I can come up with a counterspell to open it like with the door, I just need to sap the arcana from it. This is going to take a while…”
Red put his hand out and called out, “Steal!”
A massive network of intertwining and intersecting white runes appeared on the wall.
Red slowly began to absorb the arcana from them into his body.
He remained completely motionless, absorbing the arcana for over an hour, until he suddenly snapped to attention.
“Voices?”
Red snapped his head around the room, only to find it still as barren as before. He threw himself under the desk and attempted to listen to the voices outside.
“Every one of these damned mercenaries were killed?” A woman angrily shouted, “Every single one? What did we even pay them for?”
“There are patches of ice everywhere…This probably wasn’t any of the kids. I checked and made sure they didn’t have any magic.” A deep-voiced man responded.
The woman spoke again, “Look at this, some of their heads were smashed into the ground and some of their necks were snapped.” There was a large thud.
“D-don’t kick them!” The man said nervously.
“I bet it was that mute kid! He put up quite the fight when we took him, and he always has that feisty look in his eye! It was your idea to take him! Why do you always mess everything up?”
“Now honey…”
“Don’t honey me! Look they even broke the spell you had on the door! Next time let’s hire someone with actual skill for this.”
The door handle jingled and Red jumped out from under the desk. As the woman entered the room, Red summoned a blood lance and skewered her into the wall.
The woman attempted to speak but blood gushed out of her mouth.
Red looked out the door and spotted a hand in his face. Runes ran up his arm and he chanted to himself readying a spell.
Red clasped his hands against the mans and whispered, “Steal.”
The runes dissipated from the man’s hand. The man desperately attempted to free his hands from Red’s grasp.
Before he could make any progress, Red snapped his fingers.
Blood gathered up from the corpses of the mercenaries into spikes and stabbed the man from multiple angles.
Red put his hands on his knees and hyperventilated as he looked back and forth at both of the bodies.
He did this for a while until something moved in the corner of his eye.
A child, who looked exactly like the man he just slayed, looked at him mortified.
“Wha-wha…” The boy sputtered out.
Red wiped the blood off of his face, “What is it, kid?”
“What did you just do to Mommy and Daddy?” The boy burst into tears.
Red sat down on the ground with his legs spread open. He motioned to the boy, “Come here kid, I won’t hurt you.”
The boy walked up to Red and hugged him.
“This kid, did he see what just happened?”
Red spoke softly and petted the boy’s hair, “It’s okay kid. You may not have known this, but these two aren’t your parents, they’re doppelgängers! Have you ever heard of those?”
“No…” The boy said shyly.
“Do I have to…no I can’t do that to a kid! I’m not with Brittanius anymore, I don’t do heinous things like that anymore!”
Red smiled wide, “They’re nasty creatures, that imitate a human form! I run across them a lot in my travels. Don’t worry, your parents are still alive, the doppleganger just captured them. Now, I need to perform a quick spell and make sure the doppelgänger’s friends aren’t tracking you.”
“Will it hurt?” The boy asked.
“I have too many easily identifiable features. If he blabs to somebody about the man with stars in his eyes, or the man with the flaming red hair, anybody who is vaguely familiar will piece together that it’s me. What do I do?”
Red chuckled and nodded his head, “Just for a second though. It’ll be a quick sharp pain. Is that okay?”
The boy began to sob harder, “Why is this happening? I want my mommy and daddy!”
“What do I do? What do I do? I don’t know anyone with any memory erasing spells. I could turn over the kid to Semaj, but he might turn around and let the kid spill the details just to get law enforcement off his trail.”
Red fixed his eyes onto the ground, “You did nothing wrong, it’s okay. I’m bringing you to Mommy and Daddy very soon. What I want you to do is close your eyes, and imagine that you’re already back home with them okay? Once I use this spell, we can go out and search for them.
The kid nodded his head and closed his eyes.
“I guess I have to do this. It’s the only option.”
Red closed his eyes as well and transformed his right arm into a blood sword.
“I’m going to countdown from three and I’m going to use the spell on zero. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready,” The kid called back.
“Okay then…three…two…”