On a path between the dark woods, there was a horse-cart which belonged to the masked assassins. Half a dozen of them rode horses around the cart. It looked like they carried someone on it.
There was someone whose hands were tied behind his back and his mouth was covered with a cloth. He struggled, but it was in vain. The person was none other than Joseph.
"Struggling would not benefit you," A masked assassin riding a horse said. "We would have killed you but there are orders to keep you alive. Do not make it harder for us."
EARLIER
When Joseph had ran out of the passage and arrived in the woods, he suddenly got ambushed by the black zombies. They surrounded him.
"Where are you running off to?" One of the said and attacked him. Joseph somehow stepped aside and dodged the attack and slashed the chest of his enemy.
"I will annihilate all of you!" He said in rage. Even the masked assassins felt the aura and hesitated to attack him. Eventually, they had to jump at him when the one leading them ordered them to attack.
"Attack!"
Joseph blocked a blade above his head, but received a cut on his thigh. "Ah!" He sat on his knee while still holding the sword above his head. The others placed their blades on his neck.
"Leave your sword and surrender," One of them said.
Joseph shouted in rage before throwing his sword away. "Damn it!!" The Black Zombies tied his mouth and hands, and took him with them.
…
Kyther, on the other hand, searched for him in the woods. "Joseph!" He called his name but was getting no response. "Where did he go?" He roamed in the dark woods in search for him. "Did something happen to him? I have a bad feeling about this." Suddenly, he stepped on something. He saw it was a sword, the same one which Joseph was using a while ago. Now, he was sure when he looked at it. Something did happen to him.
"Just where are you, Joseph?" He muttered and searched for some clues. He somehow got out of the forest and reached a street. There he saw tyre marks and marks of horses' feet under the moonlight. He had a feeling that these marks had to do something with Joseph. They looked afresh as if someone just passed by.
"They must have…" He looked ahead as he followed the marks with his eyes. "… gone in that direction." He took a deep breath and decided to follow those marks.
Tyler, meanwhile, could not believe what happened. Someone opened the metal door and shot the remaining masked assassins with arrows. They dropped to the ground one after other. He turned to see who it was. "You…" He was shocked to see Princess Rebecca and her two maids with bows in their hands, standing up on the stairs. "What are you doing here?" He asked in a tired voice.
"Saving your life, tribal man," She said while drawing her bow. She shot the last remaining assassin who was approaching Tyler from behind. "Come with me," She said and walked up the stairs followed by her two maids.
Tyler somehow followed her as he found it difficult to walk with all his wounds. "Where are we going?" He asked as he walked up the stairs. The princess did not respond and continued to walk for a while.
"Where are your friends?" She asked after walking a minute or so. "Are they…"
"No, they are alive. They have escaped," Tyler answered as he reached another metal door at the end of stairs.
"And you remained behind to fight them. How heroic," She said with a straight face and opened the door. It opened to some corridor of the palace.
It was the door royals had used to reach the underground dungeons, and Tyler too was brought in there through that door with his friends.
"There are no soldiers guarding this place," He said in surprise as he looked around. He had seen many soldiers guarding the door when they had brought him through there.
"I have sent them away," responded the princess before she walked ahead. "Follow me."
The corridor had lavish chandeliers on the ceiling at a certain distance from one another, red carpet on the floor, and strange colourful paintings on both sides of the wall. Tyler looked at one of the paintings but could not understand what it was. Disproportionate faces and asymmetrical body parts did not seem to make sense to him. He decided to not look at the paintings anymore as it put a strain on his brain and followed the princess.
"Hide." The princess suddenly pushed him aside and hid at a corner when she saw a soldier coming. They came out in relief and moved ahead when the soldier passed. Tyler suddenly began to feel dizzy. His vision blurred and he could not feel his body anymore.
"Let's go, quick." He could only hear her voice in echo. He suddenly dropped to the floor and passed out while the princess expected him to follow her. He lost his consciousness because of his wounds.
It was morning now. The Black Zombies took Joseph to a cottage somewhere far away into the woods. "Mmm… mmm…" He continuously struggled to break free. He passed out when they hit his head from behind before taking him inside. They carried him and threw him inside a room.
"What are the orders?" One assassin asked the other assassin who stood guard outside the cottage.
"The boss will arrive here. He wants to see him," The other assassin replied. "He will give us orders after that."
When Joseph was unconscious, he heard some voice. "Can you hear me, Joseph?" It was Mogu's voice. "Joseph?"
He slowly regained consciousness after some time. He opened his eyes and looked around. He saw he was in an empty room. There was nothing but him, and an exit a few meters from him.
He tried to stand up while struggling but they had tied his legs too. His wounds bled and still hurt. Yet he was not ready to accept being chained. At the very moment, a black zombie entered the room and saw him struggling.
"Oh, so you are awake," He said. "You do not have to struggle so much. You can not get out of here."
"Mmm… mmm…" He noticed Joseph was trying to say something. So, he went up to him and removed the cloth tied to his mouth. "I will kill you!" Joseph said as soon as he could speak.
"Whoa, such anger." The masked assassin did not take him seriously. "Many had tried to annihilate us but they never succeeded. What can you do to us by yourself?"
"I will crush your head and the rest will follow," Joseph responded.
At this, the assassin laughed out loud. "Do you even know who our head is? How would you crush him?"
"It doesn't matter. No matter who he is, I will still kill them." The masked assassin could see the conviction in his eyes. Even he felt that pressure from him.
"Do not worry. He will come to see you soon. Let us see what you could do." He walked out of the room.
Kyther, meanwhile, still followed the marks. "Just how far did they go?" He panted as he walked as he had been walking for hours. Suddenly, he sensed someone coming from ahead. He quickly ran inside the woods to hide himself and saw a masked assassin passing by on a horse. When the assassin passed by, he came out of the woods and was now sure that Joseph was in some kind of danger and he was on the right way.
Joseph was still on the floor and thought about the two instances when he had heard Mogu's voice. One was when he slept in the dungeon and the other was just a while ago, but both seemed like he was dreaming, so he was not so sure if he really heard his voice.
"Joseph, can you hear me?" He heard it again. This time for sure, he was not dreaming.
"Mogu? Is that you?" He said in surprise.
"Joseph? Can you really hear me? I can not believe it," Mogu said in an excited voice.
"Me neither. Where are you, Mogu?" He asked. "What happened to you?"
"I am in some kind of wooden chest in the fourth room from the right-hand side of the third floor of a building in the middle of the forest," answered Mogu which was too much for Joseph at once.
"Wait, wait, do you know your exact location?"
"No, but the leader of those black clothed people is keeping me here. It looks like this place is their headquarters."
"Their boss?" Joseph thought for a second and replied, "Listen to me properly now, Mogu. Those black assassins have captured me and keeping me in some kind of cottage."
"Wait, are they doing some shady stuff with you!?" Mogu reacted in a shocked manner.
"What do you mean by 'shady stuff'?" asked Joseph with a raised brow.
"Ah, it is nothing. You were telling me something."
"Yeah," Joseph continued. "Their leader is showing up here today. He has some business with me. This is what they said."
"Wait a minute, did you…" Mogu phrased in a surprised manner as he realized something. "… did you come to save me, Joseph? I am so…" He was about to break down. "… I am so happy. Although I am not interested in men, but you won my heart, Joseph." He began to cry. "Uwaaa… Uwaaa…"
"Don't get the wrong idea, you talking round piece of..." Joseph said in between his crying. "... cute iron. I am not here for you. I am here for my vengeance."