The next moment, the shadows seemed to come alive as it leapt for the torturer's arms, gripping it and drawing taut, causing the searing instrument to fall out his hand.
Still on edge, Lieren grasped the situation immediately, his senses a mess, haywire.
'This is my chance!' Pushing mana to his legs and arms, Lieren Augmented his appendages and dashed past the tall man, his figure wreathed in shadows.
The Mad Hatter pointed with a glare. He exclaimed loudly:
"Prison!"
Slam! Just as Lieren was about to leave the cell, an opposing force collided against his face, turning his senses into disarray, the sudden shock knocking him off his feet. He fell down with a grimace.
Gritting his teeth, he got up and felt a sudden shiver run down his spine. Stepping to the side, he glanced at his torturer—Brad, apparently, and yelled:
"There's a barrier!"
Simultaneously and without a sound, the shadows writhed again. With his mana-enhanced vision, Lieren barely made out the constant convulsion and ebbing of the dark substance coalescing into a definite shape…
A spear. Leaping out of the darkness, it shot out like an arrow and crashed into the invisible barrier.
Crash! Smash! Noise rang out akin to a shattered mirror's. Stepping through the now-open cell door, Lieren pushed even more mana to his legs and hips, pushing against the floor, dodging a strike from Brad.
And then, he faced the Hatter.
But that wasn't his mission. Not right now. The Hatter didn't have his Cane of Sagittarius with him, a true godsend, and so his abilities were limited somewhat. Lieren reveled in that and threw a punch.
The Hatter raised his arms up in defense, unable to make a barrier at close-range. But his attacker missed, purposely. His eyes grew wide.
It was feint! With a mana-enhanced step, Lieren leapt past him and into the dark room neighboring his: Umbra's cell. Immediately, he noticed the spiral of glowing runes converging to the young girl at the center.
She had raven-black hair and pitch black sunken eyes, as if she was made of true darkness. There was an empty look on her face. But then, she muttered in a hollow voice:
"The key. Mad Hatter has it. It's white and has runes all over it." She muttered, empty and hollow.
"Gather!" A voice resounded behind Lieren.
*TumpTumpTumpTump*
A stampede of footsteps echoed down the hall like a litany of thunder. Lieren speculated that there had to be at least thirty men quickly running down the hall, with even more surely on their way.
As an Accomplice, who's strength was even acknowledged by King, Mad Hatter's ability in Manipulating his goons was one with an exceedingly high ceiling. Using his mastery in his respective category, he used what Lieren surmised as a recall spell to call for his Manipulated goons.
A bead of sweat ran down Lieren's face, his heart rapidly palpitating. The nerve and stress of his imprisonment was catching up to him. Couple with the weight of the current situation, he couldn't help but feel his mind waning down. He had to calm down.
But that can wait until later, probably. Right now, there was more urgent matters to address. Glancing at the Hatter, he eyes his waist, and noticed a various keys hanging; one of the was white and had various runes all over it.
'There!' Lieren reached out, but stopped, his intuition willing it so. Bending down, he ducked as a blurry object whipped above his head. If he hadn't ducked, then he surely would have faced the brunt of that attack.
Looking up, he flared Manavision, Enhancing his visual acuity and motion perception. This reduced his light sensitivity, making the world darker, but not to such a degree that he would helpless. To his eyes, Brad and the Hatter were nothing more than wispy silhouettes.
But that was enough. He just had to make do. Forming a fist, he lashed out at the Hatter.
But the latter didn't try to defend. Instead, with a grin, he simply glanced at the taciturn torturer, making the tall man lash out with his fists, as well. He was expecting another feint.
Well… he had expected wrong. Enhancing his muscles at the last second, Lieren didn't stop and let his fist smash against the madman.
"Guh! Wh-What the…?!" The Mad Hatter grunted, confused. He had not expected this at all. And Lieren made immediate use of that confusion, reaching for his belt and—with a spur of Enhancement—ripped the white key.
Feeling a cold shiver run down his spine, he quickly stepped back, narrowly avoiding a strike from Brad's fist. Turning on his heels, he pushed his Augmentation even more, quickly arriving in front of Umbra's cell, and opened it.
Wooo! Suddenly, a cold and domineering aura wrapped around his entire body. It came from the cell, the runes spiraling within it quickly growing dim. The trapped figure suddenly stood up, her pitch black sunken eyes looking at him without trace of any emotion.
When she spoke, however, her voice was filled with warmth and grace. She said to him:
"Thank you, Lieren." She smiled, still hollow and empty. "Thank you."
"What have you done?!" A mad voice pierced the atmosphere. It was the Hatter's.
"Get 'em, Brad! Kill that sow!" At the call of his name, the taciturn torturer suddenly rushed with arms spread wide, hands open. He was intending to restrain Umbra.
But she would never let that happen. Not again. Raising a pale hand, Umbra eye's darkened even more, swallowed by a thick veil of shadows, and with a breath… she caught the Brad's shadow. And restrained him.
'Wow...' Lieren gaped, then frowned when he noticed black bile streaming from the edge of Umbra's lips.
"What's wrong?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
She wiped the darkness away. "I'm fine. It's just fatigue, I haven't used the crux of my abilities for some time, so it's a little difficult right now."
Then, she smiled at him, warm and hollow. "I'll be fine, don't worry. It's just a little hiccup."
Facing Brad again, her facial expressions dissolved instantly. A deep grimace replaced them.
"We need to leave now."
There was a deep urgency in that voice. The litany of footsteps was growing ever closer.
…Actually, Lieren could already see the first and fastest of them approaching. Among them was the Fighter with a curved sword who had beaten him.
"Right," he nodded, and suddenly, the two of them were covered with shadows.
The next second, they had disappeared completely.
"Dammit! They escaped!" he cursed, looking at his Manipulated goon. "This all because of you!"
"..." Brad said nothing, rather, he couldn't say anything.
He was just a goon, after all.
With a huff, the Hatter stomped away, berating the late reinforcement, and gritted his teeth as anger seethed inside him. Before he left, he made sure to send guards around the dungeon for search for any clues to the runaways' whereabouts.
When Sai, the Fighter wielding a curved sword, arrived, he couldn't help but look darkly at the surrounding shadows. His eyes were full of suspicion and concern as he guided the Hatter out of the dungeon, his hand rested on the hilt of his sword.
Just like that, Lieren and Umbra escaped the Hatter's grasp.
…But the truth of the matter was entirely different.
◇◆◇◆◇
Lieren couldn't see anything. Sight, taste, touch, and smell had been stripped free off his being as shadows painted over his body.
Sight was of no use; he couldn't see anything past the impenetrable darkness. Darkness prevailed.
*Ba-dump**Ba-dump*
Luckily, he could still hear his own heart. He sighed, realized that he couldn't do so with his entire physical being entirely wrapped by Umbra's shadows, and went back to listening to his heart's beating.
In a world of utter darkness, only his own proof existence served as proof that he still breathed. Just as his thoughts began to stray, the creepy air suddenly shattered, accompanied by a familiar voice.
"Wait here for a bit, okay? We'll just wait for the guards to pass, then I'll release you. That or I run out of strength. Whichever one comes first, I guess."
In his mind, Lieren imagined smiling.
'Sounds… reliable,' he hesitated, then focused more outside.
In the deepest parts of his mind, he barely felt the pitter-patter of fading footsteps some distance away, growing weaker and smaller.
Time passed.
After a while, the darkness dissolved, and Lieren found himself in a room with a spiraling circle of runes on the floor. Beside him, he realized belatedly, was Umbra.
Shrouded by shadows, he couldn't see much of her figure other than her hollow facial expressions, which contrasted her unruly attitude. She was a different person from the inside and outside.
Gazing left, he heard footsteps down the hall through auditory Enhancement. Just as he was about to preparing for an ambush, he suddenly stopped, his head turning back.
"Hah… hah…" Umbra heaved for air, her breathing rough and unstable. There was constant perspiration running down her face.
Her stamina had been spent.
'Curse it.' Lieren grit his teeth and supported her from the side, pulling her arm over his shoulder.
"What… hah… what are you doing?" She cast gazed an empty gaze at him, her voice seething with some unknown emotion.
Lieren said nothing and pulled her close to the wall, where the shadows were deepest and darkness prevailed. With her apparent affinity towards shadows, and her residual strength, he surmised that she'll at least be able to conceal herself from any suspicious onlookers.
"Stay here. I'll try and see if I can do something about that guard."
He made to leave, his senses numb from the surreal experience of being completely submerged in shadows, but suddenly, he stopped.
Tilting his head, he looked back at the girl completely enshrouded by shadows, her figure seemingly melted into the background.
"What is it?" He emulated cheerfulness, deceiving himself.
More than any other thing, Lieren hated liars the most.
For a second, there was no response; but then, a voice suddenly emanated, empty and response.
"…Sorry, I said we were going to escape, but I just ended up being a burden. Again, sorry."
He smiled. A fake smile.
"Don't worry about it. I've read somewhere that helping damsels in distress is something heroes do. This much isn't a problem." He whispered.
The guard's footsteps were quickly approaching.
"…What was that?" Umbra sounded genuinely confused.
Apparently, he hadn't heard his whisper. His voice had been too low to understand.
His smile grew even bigger. As did the lie.
"I was saying not to worry about it. Rest for a little, mmkay? You'll need as much strength possible if we're busting out of here."
Turning away, he stuck close to the walls, doing his best to calm his unsteady breathing. Recalling the deceptive and explosive battle art of the lying giant Vesba, Lieren felt for the approaching footsteps and crouched down near the entrance of the dungeon room.
For a moment, everything was still and quiet.
"…?!"
And then, all hell broke lose.
The guard's sword flashed, the sparse light glinting in its metal surface, his movements quick as an arrow.
But Lieren was faster. Ducking under the iai slash, he tucked his shoulders and held his arms to his chest, pushed off the floor with Augmentation, and used Fortification on his upper body, making it tougher and more resilient.
Launching himself from the floor, he head-butted the guard straight to his chin. However, even with Augmentation increasing his physical abilities, his weight was nothing to be impressed about.
At best, he could stun the guard for two seconds.
And two seconds was all he needed.
Lieren had not originally wanted to do this, but the situation called for it. Reaching for the familiar sensation—that moment of primal fear etched to his very soul—he activated Invisible Abjuration.
His blue eyes flashed, and space distorted as the blurry image of an arrow tore through the air, as if released from a bowstring.
And cleaved straight through the guard as it grazed his shoulder, then converged upon contact, shrinking for a short moment, and expanding at an astonishing speed immediately after.
With an unnatural sound, hard-to-explain sound, he ripped the man's left shoulder apart, splattering blood and eviscerated bits of flesh and bones shards all over the hall. Some even hit Lieren's face, dying it crimson red.
*Thump!*
The man, the nameless guard fell to the floor unceremoniously to the turbid floor with fear and horror forever frozen on his pale face.
The man had died.
The guard had died.
One of the Hatter's goons had died.
Someone had just died.
For a moment, Lieren couldn't think. He, himself, had been frozen in place. As if some strange force was binding his feet, rooting him on that spot.
'Move, you idiot.' He mouthed, not realizing that he had just thought the words, failing to say it aloud, unable to even whisper.
And moved he did, burying his subconscious deep down. Guilt wasn't necessary, no matter how much other say it does.
…Right?
Closing his eyes, Lieren took a deep breath, then exhaled. It was then that a drop of blood entered his mouth and fell on his tongue.
He vomited, bending over and emptying whatever remained in his stomach. Nausea and a headache; if he could help it, he would rather not have any of these, bit here he was, assaulted by both simultaneously.
But even that paled in comparison to the guilt. Wiping his lips, he sighed and looked away, then glanced back at the cell and whispered in a fake, lying tone:
"He's dead. Come on, we have to get going."
Once again, Lieren lied to himself.