Valerie had gotten the crystal message and began to move. She was beginning to regret her choice of letting the man go the first time, but she while she had complete trust in her ladies judgement. This was something she wasn't sure was the right thing to do. Taking a deep breath, Valerie opened her spell book and a map. She started to prepare a locator spell. All she had needed was Vincent's name and appearance, and she had both.
”Fair enough” Vincent nodded as he spoke. He had heard movement from behind him. Sounded like someone was spying on him and the scientist. He calmly walked pass Kreuger, went through his house’s front door, got his sniper… and vaulted through the open window to fire at the scout who was spying on him.
As he’d thought, there was a person watching him. One from the Cershestin barracks as well.
”I’m sorry if that was a little extra but you know me” he added after he had preformed the kill in his own fashion.
The forest was large enough that the locator would help only so slightly. However, it can possibly be thought that Vincent, a renowned Cershestin assassin, would set ‘home’ near Atruvianir nor near Setriutan. Those areas were most likely out of the list. Yet, about 90% of the forest remained and no one outside could know where he is.
Valerie took a deep breath and started to cast the spell. She watched as the sigil appeared on her arm and a small glowing dot appeared in the forest. But it was bigger than she had expected. At least she had a place to start looking.
After a sudden change of plan, Varsha’s now sitting in Vincent’s house. She was still kind of confused, over everything that had happened. While she was still Piecing together the things that happened, someone else came into the house, it was the Cershestin scientist that was in the meeting with her. Once, he entered the house he started talking to Vincent, ignoring her and the magician. She sat back and watched them talking, when she saw the scientist pushed Vincent down and raised his axe she just sat there, spectating them like she was watching a show, she just didn’t feel any killing intent from the man so she didn’t take action. After watching them for some time, she got bored so she went into Vincent’s bedroom, sat down on the bed and started meditating. She sensed some people outside the house, she opened her eyes and used her power to lock down the locations of the intruders.
If Wissian had received the crystal message, that would have meant Valerie would have gotten it too…
“I hate to break up this happy little reunion, but you have a woman who is currently honing in on your location with a spell.” He rose from the sofa, peering out of the nearby window. Valerie would only need a name and face to locate Vincent——and through her own stupidity, she had both. That prospect frightened Wissian, because I’m order to neutralise Valerie he would need to delve deep into the pit where his true powers lay. A very dangerous thing to do…
Valerie took a moment to find an area that she had a teleport sigil in the area. It was close to the glowing area but not as close as she would want. She frowned but grabbed the map and began to active her sigil. She would hear the assassin out first, as she had done the first time. Though in the end she would either kill him or take him back to the sorceress. The spell finished and she felt her body reapperate in the forest. She pulled the map out and quickly cast her shield spell to protect herself from any attacks that might come at her.
Vincent had turned to Wissian upon hearing those specific words. He sighed and went back inside the house.
”Alright, I guess I won’t be staying here for long. Thanks for the help so far” the assassin said to everyone, in this case Wissian and Kreuger. He wanted them to leave, not for privacy reasons but for safety reasons. If they were said to have found and to have let him go, they might as well get into trouble.
”Now… I might have to ask you guys to leave…” he was unaware of the royal guard who went inside his bedroom, thinking that she might have left already.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Wissian shook his head slowly, a firm expression in his eyes. “I want to give you that future I showed you, so no way in hell am I leaving you to Valerie.”
The magician cringed when mentioning Valerie’s name. He had always hated that woman.
Valerie was making her way through the forest. She glanced at her map silently hoping the dot on the map would grow smaller, it didn't. She was careful to be quiet and kept an offensive spell at the ready though she hoped it didn't come down to that. After walking sometime she finally spotted a house, that had to be where Vincent was hiding. She took a deep breath and wiped the locating sigil while keeping the shield sigil.
”Huh… strange…” the assassin muttered under his voice. He would have attempted to invite the magician out again but decided that perhaps it was useless to try anyways. He sighed and walked into his bedroom, only to find Varsha in there, closing her eyes. He acted as if he’d seen nothing and turned to the living room: ”Give me a moment while I change, alright?”
He closed the door and locked it. True to his words, he took off his shirt and was about to get changed… when he turned to Varsha and a weird idea came into his mind. He shook his head, wanting to get rid of such a horrible… well, pleasurable idea.
He’d sensed something… perhaps someone outside the house. He knew it was a magic user judging from their flow of mana but he could not pinpoint who it was exactly.
When Valerie would come close to the house, one of the Cershestin scouts spotted her and came straight towards her.
”State your name” the scout would say. They had a knife as a weapon and was bold to say the least. Seldom do people have such courage and stupidity running through them.
Valerie was ready to attack the scout. She took one look and realized he was from Cershestin. Her posture immediately turned further hostile, "It is none of your business, I assure you."
The scout didn’t flinch ever so slightly at the words of the magician. He did, however, moved considerably closer to the magician.
”I do as my general say” the scout said, jumping up and coming down, attempting to attack the magician.
The attack did nothing merely stop the moment it hit the sheild around her. She wasted no time, "Missilius." A shot of pure magical energy left from her fingertips and straight through the scout's heart. She stepped around the body and made her way towards the front door.
Varsha had confirmed all the positions of the intruders in 2 kilometers radius around the house. Once she opened her eyes, what she saw was indescribable, a river of blood started flowing down from her nose. "W..w..what are you doing?" she asked the question, even though, she was still watching Vincent without a blink. "Oh..right, there are some annoying rats around the house you know?, I'll go finish them of real quick."
”Yeah, yeah—“ the assassin mentioned as he went to his closet ”—I just decide not to pay attention to them” he added as he got out his royal uniform and wore it, adjusting its accessories so that it can be well-dressed. He also got out a mask; a white and plain one with a red ‘X’ across it.
”Also, no need for that”
”Have you seen Wissian?” the Sorceress asked one of her arch magicians and as expected from the magician, the answer was no.
The Sorceress gave a long sigh before she turned to another magician.
”Send a crystal to get Wissian, I want to know where the hell he is” she ordered as a crustal shard flew out of the castle and towards the forest.
The scout was killed quite simply. However, the front door of the house was locked and from the look of the house itself, it wasn’t going to be a surprise if no one was inside. The window was fogged up so there was no peeking in.
(Aight sorry just woken up. I’ll have a response as quick as I can)
(thumbs up)
Wissian’s vision started to blur. It was happening again, and it couldn’t have picked a worse time. He stumbled away from the window and towards where he might have found water, possibly a bathroom but he couldn’t quite make out where he was.
His power was also a curse. Time, for Wissian, had stopped roughly 3 years ago. His body had just stopped one day. Meddling with time always has its consequences, and this one would eventually drive him insane.
A large swelling in his chest caused him to collapse, falling against the locked bedroom door. He needed to stay calm, he needed to remain the level headed one. But it was definitely easier said than done when he was a ticking bomb.
After Vincent rejected her offer she made a little pouting face. She was kind of disappointed because she hasn't had a serious fight for some time, so she got kinda bored. ”Anyway, Vincent… Now what…Do you have something in your mind”
”I do but now’s not the time I would say” the assassin mentioned, unlocking the door and opening it. However, it was a bit harder to open the door and upon seeing what was blocking the door, he leaned down and helped Wissian up.
”Are you alright?” the masked Vincent asked, now it was clear that the mask had changed his voice and even his hair color. He now had a raspy and crisp voice with fully black hair.
Wissian opened his eyes, squinting at how bright everything was. “Vincent…?” his voice cracked as he winced. The pain in his chest stung harder with every word he spoke. His heart had stopped, every analogue clock on his body had stopped. This wasn’t uncommon, what was uncommon was the fact someone was there with him while he was going through it. “I’m fine, time differences are just a pain.” And as if to prove his point, he showed Vincent the clock around his neck. The second hand wasn’t moving, then suddenly it would jump backwards. Every time the hand moved backwards, a harsh breath of air escaped the magician’s lips.
“Everyone is searching for you, the sorceress of Setriutan is searching for me. If she finds me, she will execute me.” He couldn’t tell Vincent that he was a time bomb.. that was completely out of the question.
The assassin noted what the magician had said. This was not great. He helped the magician to a more comfortable place, namely his couch. He went to his equipment box and got out a pistol, two smoke bombs, and a glowing knife which he kept on his belt.
He unlocked the front door and stepped out of the house, turning to the magician who was outside. He was still in his ‘disguise’, unnatural clothing, a mask, non-similar features, and a different set of weapons.
Closing the door… he turned and looked Valerie in the eye.
”Do you need something?“ his voice was altered to the point where it no longer sounded like him.
Valerie scanned the figure who exited the house. He didn't appear to be one of the magicians and the locator spell had directed her here. While he wasn't who she remembered, but the events didn't lie. She readied a capturing spell, since killing him didn't feel right, "You, Vincent, alive preferably. However I'll take your body back to my sorceress if need be."
These goddamn magicians… the assassin thought but didn’t exactly react to the words of the magician. He opened his hands in a welcoming manner before shaking his head, not allowing the white mask crossed with red fall off his face.
”If that is the person you seek, he is not present here unfortunately… if anything, I can tell you where he went” the ‘figure’ offered. That wasn’t the smartest move, he knew, but he wanted to be peaceful at least for the time being.
(I want to have some fun with Atruxiavir…)
”Hey, has anyone here seen Varsha?” one of the other royal guards asked.
”Now that you said that, no, actually” one answered as the others either nodded or agreed in some manner.
”She might’ve gotten lost? That happens a lot” another royal guard suggested with a shrug.
They were all talking behind the queen.
Valerie raised an eyebrow at Vincent trying desperately to act like someone he wasn't. She would play along for the moment, buy him time till his inevitable end, "Oh really. Then do say where did he go?"
Upon hearing some of the guards talking about Varsha, the Queen realised that she hadn't told others where her guard had gone.
Though to be fair, she should have been back some time ago. What had happened?
She left one of the guards to round up the folk who were willing to fight, while she herself ran back to her palace.
Upon returning to her palace, she ran down hundreds of stairs before coming to a wooden door at the bottom. A long corridor awaited her, the room she needed was at the very end. A blood room as she liked to call it. It held blood samples of all her people, including the guards. She scanned over all of the shelves until finding the bottle of Varsha's blood. It swirled slightly as she picked the bottle up, but Maerda didn't have time to think about what her guard was doing and focused on her coming home. She popped the cork, sticking her pinky finger into the blood while thinking about Varsha coming home. At this point it would have been foolish not to obey the queen.
Vincent smiled under the mask, though he was aware that the magician knew that under the mask and the new clothing was him. Now was probably an appropriate time to use that. The masked figure gestured to their right.
”If my memory is correct, that way is where he went” and true to his words, a figure that looked exactly like Vincent was in the distant, fighting off the last two of the Cershestin scouts who were after him.
He had his sword in his hand and his gun strapped to his back. When the questionable figure turned his face just enough for the magician to see, he looked like himself.
While Varsha was meditating she suddenly felt strange, her body didn't obey her, she felt as if her blood stream was stopping for a second. She was sure that something like this happened to her before. ”Oh…right, Its the queen’s power”. She then realized it was already a day that she left the castle, the queen must’ve worried about her, but at the moment she still had no way of getting back to the castle, her wyvern mount has already been killed by the magicians. She concentrated hard and tried to communicate to her queen using the magic flow, ”Your majesty, right now I am unable to return because my wyvern has been slain by that pesky magicians from Setriutan. But I will be back as soon as possible”