Chapter 56 The Central

Edited by Mjonir77

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The hall room was smoky and charred. At every edge of the place you could see ashes on the ground and some smoked up body parts which once belonged to the mutant werewolves. There were only 2 individuals standing in this room and one of them was the infamous witch doctor “Caïne”.

– (Tak Tik Tak Tik).

Footsteps could be heard throughout the big hall as Caïne made his way to another individual who was in the room. Surprisingly, that being wasn’t harmed at all from the previous sea of flames that erupted in this room. It wore a black robe with a big hood hiding it’s face; it’s back was crooked and it’s stature looked very small. It’s hands were almost branch like, as if they would break at any moment but deceiving to the eyes they were strong and held onto a big staff that had a giant crystal on top of it.

– 21th century and not one demon ever learned how to knock a door, I am astounded demon.

Caïne said with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

– Be quiet lizard ! Your fate has been sealed ! I have been ordered to kill you and I will do so !

Caïne gritted his teeth for a second, you could see anger in his eyes and his tattoos also started to radiate a strange power… He was infusing them with something.

-We will see who will die first ! And also, I don’t think you are getting home this time around.

He gripped his sword tighter which was radiating the most killing intent I had ever seen in my entire life; for a minute I thought the sword was alive…

The strange individual raised it’s staff and without a word, dark powers started to engulf it’s surroundings. At that very moment, something kicked inside of me and I knew what to do.

I learned from my mistakes and letting him finish what he was doing didn’t really seem to be a good idea; at that moment I just stopped time and started approaching the strange being…

The dark smoky clouds that were protecting him were just simple smoke to me as I shoved them apart and drew the plasma sword. Making one clean swing, I cut it’s neck off, stepped back a couple meters and so I started time again.

– …!?

Caïne was surprised by my appearance. It was probably because he didn’t feel my presence when I stepped inside but I knew he had noticed us at the entrance because at the time I caught him glancing at us.

The strange individual was also shocked and turned to me. I couldn’t see it’s face because of the hood; I was also not interested by it and just did it fast. The dark smoke like power that once covered him evaporated in an instant.

And so with a “Tchak” sound, his staff also fell down. The 7 seconds delay was already over but his neck wasn’t dropping on the ground. I got a bit anxious and thought I should try again.

– Don’t worry, it’s already dead : look at its feet.

Caïne told me and so I did. To my surprise the bottom of the individual started to disappear into black fragments but its movements were still there. As it watched me intently for a minute I was glad I didn’t look into its hood and before he disappeared he said :

– You will pay for this…

The feeling was really ominous and didn’t make me feel good at all.

Once he was gone, I could hear a lot of thumping noises coming from the roof; they were probably coming from the mutant werewolves he controlled and now, without their master to control their strings, they were no more than ordinary husks.

– Well, thank you I should say ?

I turned my attention back to Caïne who had a really forced smile on his face. The other 3 were also coming into the room, realizing the danger was no more present.

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– HAHA you came here to take a request !

Caïne said as he drank the bottle of whisky he was holding in his right hand. We already moved from the main hall and got inside a room that looked like a bar. Caïne was sitting on top of a couch; he looked a bit dirty and I could see his skin a bit charred here and here… Was this caused by his own fire ?

Anyway, while we were on the move I explained Caïne the reason I was here but on the way he would always cut me off with another question, asking my name, how old I was or how many girls I had banged which was another unknown term to me. Tanya, Alissa and Rupert seemed to know about this term but they didn’t want to explain it to me. He put some snide comments here and there and judged me with those dragon eyes, but in the end he didn’t seem to mean any harm. Overall, Caïne was a very strange guy… Eccentric should I say ? And an alcoholic, in which Alissa didn’t seem to be wrong about.

– So what do you want me to do ? As you can see, I have nothing better to do. Can you even afford it pretty boy ?

I felt the sarcasm in his voice, thinking about all the corpses and destroyed buildings in our area… But at the same time he was pushing fun onto me, trying to test me it seems.

I just smiled and said :

– I have heard your services are quite nice…

He interrupted me once again, smiled and said :

– They come in all sizes if you know what I mean…

I could hear Tanya and Alissa snort at his comment; Rupert on the other hand seemed amused by it and laughed for a bit until Tanya slapped him behind the head… Me ? Not so much. I pulled out the golden pocket watch from my breast pocket; the faint golden light it radiated made the other 3 behind me gasp for a second as they stared at the bizarre item. Even Caïne seemed to be interested by it.

I showed him the watch and said :

– I need you to find the person this watch belongs to. I was told you may be able to find that person; you don’t need to search for yourself, I just need you to show me the direction.

He looked at the pocket watch a bit dazed, his expression changed from amusement to seriousness very suddenly as I gave him the watch…

– This item…

He narrowed his eyes… Could it be, he knew where it came from ?

– I see you aren’t someone so simple are you ? No, I shouldn’t ask that ! I don’t wanna get hit by lightning after all. Alright, I’ll do it !

His comment made the others who were standing behind a bit curious about why Caïne answered like that. Then they stared holes at me, but I didn’t answer them.

Caïne watched the pocket watch he was holding and sighed for a bit. I wasn’t sure what he was doing but I could see something like strands appearing on his palm as it engulfed the whole watch he was holding. After another few seconds the strands disappeared in a small particle effect. The edges of the watch had now a slight purple light to it but you wouldn’t notice if you didn’t look closer… Was this one of his witch doctor skills ?

– It’s finished.

That fast ?

– So, where is that person ?

I asked but instead of answering me, Caïne presented me the watch.

– You tell me, the moment you touch the watch again you will see the location of the person you are looking for but before you do that.

He gave me the whisky bottle. I was a bit confused about why he gave it to me.

– Drink ! It’s to ease your mind for a bit; I can tell you had previous problems regarding magical portals or visions. This won’t be any different from those times, I have to warn you…

His voice held an edge to it. I already knew I didn’t have any affinity towards magic, making me really weak to it…

I blinked for a second and looked at the whisky bottle that I was holding in my hand… Yeah, I really wanted to avoid a sea sickness.

I quickly took one gulp from the bottle. It was the very first time I drank alcohol and the sensation was very hot in my throat. It was going through my body, giving me a nice warm sensation… Yeah, I could see what he meant by “easing your mind”.

– Well here you go !

I hesitated for a bit but in the end I touched the watch and all of a sudden… Everything went black…

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The place I was in was dark; I looked around, a bit panicked but over all fine, and after another few seconds, pictures started to appear before me : names, places, people and then everything stopped. There was only one picture and it showed me the appearance of a little girl…

– …

I looked at the picture, a bit shocked. The girl was really small and looked like a corpse. I meant it, her eyes were hollow and she had numerous bruises on her body, even scars and other nasty things. She had very long white hair and golden eyes just like mine; she was sitting in a metal cage too small for her to properly stand up. She was sitting in a ball snuggled in her knees, her attire was also something meager : it seemed to be a potato bag made into a one piece dress… I gulped for a bit… As more picture started appear before….

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And like that I was back… I was panting really hard, I could feel sweat dripping from my head. I was a bit light headed but okay. It seems the alcohol really helped somewhat, huh… I now had the needed information and I knew where to go, now I only needed a way act…

I coughed a couple of times, Rupert who was next to me helped me to stand up; in the mean time Caïne just drank his alcohol and looked at me, indifferent.

– So, do you know where to go ?

I nodded at him and was about to summon the bag of money I had stored in the Clavicula until he waved his hand at me.

– Don’t… take this as a favor for the help you gave me back there. Honestly saying, I wasn’t sure if I could have killed that lich but you did it easily. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t like owing people.

Me neither. I thought. The worries before I had met Caïne were now all blown away. Caïne’s character was really straightforward, he was also very powerful, especially that japanese sword he had from before. It was also a really potent weapon but now it was nowhere to be seen. The charred places on his body were also a mystery to me, I didn’t understand how a dragon could burn himself… But for now I needed something to get to my destination.

– Before I leave, do you know where the central is ? I think it’s a place called Colosseum…

This was actually the only thing I could remember clearly from all of these picture I got, that and the appearance of the girl I was looking for…

For a second, Caïne stopped his drinking and looked at me with a really strange gaze. The others were equally weirded out for bit.

– What ?

I asked.

Caïne laughed for a bit because of my cluelessness and said :

– The central is a marketplace in the overworld; the collosseum you’re talking about is an arena for slaves. It is said that people who go there are usually nasty individuals, cruel and sly; even the murder rate in that place skyrockets too. Out of all the places in the overworld, not even I would want to go there intentionally because you can get easily killed there.

Okay, that just made my task a lot harder I guess…

– How do I get there ?

Caïne froze for a bit and looked at me with a strange glare.

– Boy, do you have death wish ? What ? Did you not understand when I said the murder rate is really high ? It’s over 76% percent you know ?

It’s not like I had a choice did I ? I would die regardless if I didn’t complete my task. I looked back to Caïne. When he saw it, he just heaved a sigh, quickly got up and told me to follow him. Regarding the other 3, I could see it was going to be a goodbye, it was not like I expected them to follow me so I just went after Caïne.

– Don’t die, jackass !

Tanya said. I could hear her stutter when she said that; I smiled momentarily and told her :

– I won’t, scary face !

She didn’t retort anything so I just followed Caïne until we soon reached a basement where a giant transportation gate was drawn on the ground… You know what I didn’t like about this place ? It was a basement !