Adryan heaved a sigh as he looked at a ball of fire in his hand.
He hadn't gotten much sleep because there was so much going on in his head. To avoid drawing Flora's attention, he had faked being asleep and entered the City of Calamities to think about certain matters...
'No matter how I look at it, I don't know why the Fanatic would give me a hand... It's impossible for him to know that I know Will so is there some ulterior motive?' the redhead thought heavily while the fireball danced in his hand.
'Also if is not 'Him', why would the Paranoid help me? 'He' has no reason, 'He' should seek to help the three-flavored soup...' Adryan narrowed his eyes.
'Is he looking for me to grow up to become a good pot? Like, fattening the cow for juicy meat?'
He is the carrier of the City of Calamities.
For someone like the three-flavored soup he was one of the most juicy and a target to possess!
'That would be a good reason but now that I know I have Hunters Hallow that shouldn't be possible...Of course unless he has a way to take this robe from me...' he thought as he closed his fist crushing the fireball.
'I'm sure that this strange robe has many more abilities that I don't know about. Who says that possession of that soup isn't something it can prevent?'
'At first I thought that Hunters Hallow didn't have this ability because Steve had managed to possess me but when Flora had tried the last level of parasitization the robe reacted and trapped her inside me without the ability to escape or steal and spy on any of my secrets...'
He could even use Miss Worm as if she were an artifact with no negative effects!
'Besides, the Raven didn't even dare possess Klein so what hope does the soup have of doing it with me if he doesn't even have a fragment of his original strength?'
"You are a stinking corpse now, not even a shadow of what you were, you have no chance of carrying the corruption of the City of Calamities..." the redhead said amused as he looked at the City in the distance.
"Besides, it's not like the soup is going to get a chance to possess me.
As soon as he comes out of the seal he will be trapped in the body of the Useless Writer and I would be far far away from Backlund..."
Adryan's biggest concern was the Paranoid and the Fanatic...
But again he couldn't help but feel that this was not the hand of the Paranoid.
It was the same with the Fanatic...
Also, it's not like he was planning on taking Jerry to be a part of his team!
She already had her life here and her father.
He wouldn't take that from her.
Shaking his head, he released another sigh as he began to sketch the sphere of light in his mind.
...
"Xio are you sure about this?" Fors asked with a bit of fear in her voice as she looked at her friend.
Xio adjusted her sword and looked strangely at Fors.
"Holmes is weird but so far he's proven to be reliable. I'll get the formula and you'll confirm it. Besides, it's not like you're going to talk to him."
Fors felt a hit at those words and she looked away while laughing awkwardly.
At first, Xio had offered to accompany her to obtain the formula but she had refused.
She didn't want to be around someone like James Holmes!
In addition, the man's mask made her uncomfortable and she didn't even saw the real one!
Only images from newspapers and drawings.
Only after a deal to be able to sleep all day until Friday was she convinced.
Xio, faced with her friend's attitude, shook her head while lifting her hood.
"Get ready, we'll leave in 10 minutes"
Fors looked at her tiredly as she got up.
"It's 6:00 in the morning..." she muttered as she got ready.
Xio rolled her eyes at that, and watched as Fors changed without any energy with a bit of disbelief.
'You slept 9 hours, how come you're still so tired?' she thought, not understanding how Fors got tired so quickly if she spent all day lying down.
Seeing how the woman took out a ball mask and put it on along with a mouth mask, she felt déjà vu.
"What are you doing?"
Fors took off her ballet mask and looked at her friend.
"I'm not going to let that crazy man see my face, I don't want him to know who I am" she responded determined, putting on her ball mask again.
Xio's expression became flat, she raised an eyebrow without changing her face.
"It's not like he doesn't know who you are already."
Fors froze as she looked at her dear friend.
"What?" she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.
"How do you think he knew that I had a friend who is an Apprentice?" Xio replied nonchalantly.
This was something that she had realized when rereading the letter that Holmes had written to her.
She hadn't noticed that detail because she hadn't paid as much attention when reading it the first time.
'If I had noticed this detail, would my reaction upon reading it have been different?' she thought as she watched her friend fall weakly on the sofa.
The first thing she had done was go directly to her house to look for Fors.
She hadn't thought of the possibility that there was someone on guard ready to follow her when she took the letter.
Besides, she never thought about the great coincidence that the second formula that the man mentioned was the one that Fors needed.
It was so obvious that he knew the existence of Fors...
'I'm still very inattentive. I have to be much more alert and careful' she thought heavily as she touched the hilt of her sword.
Releasing a sigh she looked at her friend who seemed to have lost her soul.
"Get up we're leaving"
Fors let out a sad groan as she stood up and tossed aside her ball mask and mouth mask.
But her ball mask bounced off the sofa and fell to the floor.
"No!" she screamed in terror as she knelt down and carefully lifted the mask.
She had moved so fast that it shocked Xio.
She turned it around in fear but seeing that there weren't any scratches or cracks she let out a relieved sigh as she hugged the mask and wobbled from one side to the other.
"You're fine, you're fine, you're fine" she sang in relief as Xio watched this with a quivering eyebrow but still somewhat understanding her friend.
That mask had been a rather expensive gift that Fors had received from a fan...
Even her heart jumped when she saw how the mask fell to the ground but she hid it.
Sensing that it was getting late, she walked up to her friend and grabbed her arm.
"Let's go!"
"Hey wait" Fors said taken by surprise as she was dragged but as she could she freed herself, quickly and carefully placed the mask on the table, and followed Xio.
...
Adjusting her hood, Fors kept as close to Xio as possible as they moved through the streets of East Borough.
This wasn't the first time she had entered the East Borough but it was the first time she had gone so far.
She could feel being watched like a piece of meat but no one came close due to the majesty that came out of Xio's body.
Although this did not prevent everyone from avoiding them, Xio was more than enough to deal with the brave few...
After turning aside and taking several alleys to lose anyone who followed them, they arrived at the factory.
Reaching the fence that surrounded the factory, Xio skilfully climbed it and fell on the other side.
Xio turned to see her friend and saw how she 'crossed' the fence with a calm step.
"What?" Fors asked with a bit of arrogance in her voice at Xio's gaze.
Xio shook her head.
"Holmes should be inside, come on" she said calmly as she walked to the entrance.
Fors froze for a moment and stood in front of the factory alone.
The wind hit her and a chill ran up her spine.
'Don't leave me here!!' she screamed in her mind as she ran to the entrance.
She entered the factory and looked around her but all she saw was old machinery, garbage, and dust, a lot of dust.
Xio was standing next to an old and rusty machine waiting for her. She had pulled her hood down and was looking at the ceiling above her.
Fors found this curious but she didn't pay attention to it, instead she ran until she was in front of her friend and angrily said.
"Don't leave like that!"
Before Xio could say anything, an amused laugh sounded just behind Fors who turned pale.
She slowly turned her head around and saw a tall man dressed in black with a creepy mask on his face standing just behind her.
"What's wrong? Did the Boogeyman eat your tongue?" Adryan asked mischievously.