Arion grew anxious as his face had been clearly seen, not only his but also Liora's. There was a probability that the general would recognize her, judging from her nobility.
He knew there was no point in teleporting away as the the military was able to locate them by tracing the path they traveled through within the portal.
He moved to Liora's front, able to cover her as he was taller.
He looked straight into the general's eyes, then made up his mind to fight, although he was aware that defeating the general with his troop was like building a castle in the air.
"I just need to buy time, after which we will teleport out of sight," Arion conceived the idea.
But he realized shielding Liora might be meaningless since the soldiers were all around them, so Liora wasn't safe either.
"The demon king would not forgive you for assassinating his vice. Your penalty should be obvious to you!" said the demon general in an angry voice, his eyes fuming. He would even be very appreciative if the king would give him the privilege to take the man's life.
Arion realized he had been completely mistaken, taken for an assassin when he sought vengeance for innocent people.
He imagined what the general would probably do if he were to witness the dead bodies inside the cage at the silver palace.
However, the fuming evident in the man showed he won't listen to any excuses.
"Wait...what? You killed someone? I wasn't aware of that!" Liora said frettingly.
Arion replied, "I told you I had personal issues to deal with. I suggest you make a run for it now that the situation isn't that tense-"
"No! I won't leave your side!" Liora declared. Arion was agape. Why was she still be acting so cool after knowing he killed someone?
"She asked me to come save you, and besides, I would have done so on my own."
Arion was surprised. "Who...who is it?"
Just at the moment, he caught a glimpse of three soldiers spinning towards him.
The style of their attack surprised Arion as he was kicked off, sprawling on the ground.
Liora's face got exposed since Arion was now away from her front.
Nevertheless, she summoned her sword in sheathed form and released an incapacitating blue light to the men.
Arion was excited at the display of power Liora showed. Nevertheless, he summoned his sword, jumping to his feet.
The general saw the runes on the sword. He was bewildered that even he, who had cultivated magic since childhood, could not understand the runes.
He muttered, "That sword must be more than ordinary. This rascal is unpredictable. "
He dropped his sword in air horizontally and immediately balanced it in air as he activated black fumes on it.
Then a couple of sharp arrows sprouted in thin air, and he shot them at Arion, who was engaged in the fight with the soldiers.
The arrows pierced into his skin, and he fell to his knees. The soldier before him took the advantage to slash his arm, and blood rushed out from it.
"Goodness!"
He grimaced and widened his hand at the soldier, using psychokinesis to throw him away. He felt the pain of the arrows, making him unable to move any part of his body.
He was bewildered by what happened, making him realize the effect of getting hit by those arrows. "I have possibly been paralyzed. What do I do?"
"Arion, look out!" Liora saw a dark arrow heading toward Arion when he did not notice it.
What would she have done if she knew he had been paralyzed by five already?
She spun opposite the arrow's direction and destroyed it with her sword, then released a purple pearl to the general.
The pearl had a weakening effect, so the general's strength was weakened as the pearl hit him.
Liora shifted her gaze at Arion, moved to him, fretting, and bent down to eye level with him. His eyes were pale, and his entire body was stiff, in total discomfort.
"Are you okay? What's the matter with you?" Liora asked him nervously, seeing something was off with him.
"I will distract the men. Quickly leave this place. I can stop them from going after you," said Arion.
But it was evident from the moment he urged her to leave that she won't comply. "I can still sa---"
Arion paused as he saw the soldiers circle them again. Liora looked up, seeing them as well. Arion stared at his sword on the ground, and it rose by psychokinesis.
Then he shifted his stare at a soldier, and the sword slashed the soldier's arm; he looked at more and more, until all the soldiers surrounding them were incapacitated by the sword.
"Coast is clear now. Escape this instant, Liora. You don't have to think about me; I will be okay on my own."
Just at that moment, a figure cloaked in a skintight black dress and a mask appeared in their midst. The woman's hair was wavy, styled in ponytails.
"Who are you?" The general queried, after getting over the weakening effect Liora did on him. He walked forward with black fumes blazing on his hands. The fumes healed all the injured men, making them stand back on their feet.
The masked woman looked at Liora and Arion and said softly, "Take him to a nearby hotel and give him treatment."
Without hesitation, Liora wrapped Arion's arm around her neck.
She found out he had fainted as she lifted him up. She shouted, "Snap out of it, Arion! Arion!"
The woman interrupted, "He was hit by a paralyzing arrow, so he fainted. You have to treat him quickly, if you don't want even his heart to be paralyzed."
Hearing this made Liora even more nervous. It meant she would be responsible for anything that happened to Arion thereafter.
"Thanks for assisting us again," Liora said.
"No problem," the woman replied.
As Liora had wrapped Arion's arm around her neck, his weight rested on her, giving her a problem.
Nevertheless, she must endure it and get him treated, so she began to move.
"What are you looking at?! Block them!" The general roared. When some soldiers were about to cross Liora, the strange woman got a grip of them all with a long whip and flung them away.
The general was angered, and he flashed to her in fury. He hit her with his enchanted hands hardly, and she was sent flying in the sky; however, she balanced back on her feet on reaching the ground when she was supposed to have crashed without balance.
The general was surprised for a moment. Then looking to his left side where the other woman and the assassin took, they had disappeared.
"What the hell!" He yelled.
The soldiers headed toward the masked woman. Widening her palm, a big greenish ball with red orbiting inside emanated from her palm. She struck the ground with it, which spread out, and all the soldiers went flying in thin air.
In the evening, at the high palace, Seraphis broke inside the soldiers armory and planted a gas jar in a corner.
His nose was covered. He opened the jar, and smoke erupted, after which he vanished.
The smoke filled the entire dorm while all the armies were asleep in their respective dorms in the armory.
At Thorian's library.....
"Did it go well?" Thorian asked Seraphis in his chamber. Seraphis bowed his head, indicating he had finished the mission.
"They will dance to your tune very soon," assured Seraphis.
Thorian dismissed him later on, and he headed into the secret room with the possessing bell in his hand.
Liora found a nearby hotel as the woman said and she had taken Arion into the room she booked. There happened to be a native doctor in the hotel, and the doctor had been directed to treat Arion.
She walked to the backyard and she saw different people, mainly men, having a drink and enjoying themselves.
She thought, "I hope she makes her way from there. She just risked her life for us to be safe."
The bar house was an open space where you could see those inside, just like a deck.
Liora turned her gaze away from the bar house and looking forward, she saw an old man walking toward the place.
At first, shivers ran down her back. She grew a strange feeling about that man, not that he was evil, but a kind of connection she might have with him in the future.
She got curious about why she had to feel that way all of a sudden and why she would get connected with him.
She saw him holding a long stick. She knew it wasn't a working support at the first instance as the man walked pretty fine. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a magical wand.
"Welcome, Immortal Jasmin," greeted a woman in a bow, placing her two hands together on her abdomen. She looked quite old and had her hair tinted in red. It was styled in a French plait, and she was at the entrance of the bar house.
The man was Immortal Jasmin, the seer who revealed the Soulshift Sorcery to the emperor.
"It seems he is a regular here," Liora said. The man entered the bar, and he sat on a small pillow placed in front of a short table.
The woman approached him, smiling with her hands still on her abdomen, "What would you like to take today?"
"Anything you have to offer," said the man, placing his wand beside him.
The woman then asked him the mode of payment, and he replied, "The usual."
The woman fully understood the message. Liora was unexpectedly getting drawn to that man, and most especially, why she had strange feelings when she saw him.
She thought she should join the man in the bar house, just to find out some things.
Then a set of girls appeared with a tray containing five jugs of wine and placed it before Jasmin, and they left. A few moments later, the woman earlier came to him with three ladies. The three of them seemed to be of the same age.
Agony was evident on their faces as they were brought to the man. The woman said, "Do a reading for them to pay for today's drink. I have to know the level of their productivity before selling them to the brothel."
The three ladies whimpered, and the old man noticed that. Then the woman left, saying she would come back a little bit later.
Jasmin thought he got the reason for their agony; they must have been sold as slaves to the hotel and would be resold to the brothel, where they would be made into prostitutes.
Different kinds of men would sleep with them, even the ones that had aged as much as their fathers.
The man lifted his gaze up when he heard a voice from his front, knowing the voice didn't belong to any of the three ladies whimpering beside him.
Upon looking up, he saw a woman with curly hair, identifying her as Chen Liora when he read through her mind.
"May I ask what the water fairy of Golangane is doing in a world of darkness and misery?" Jasmin said. He smiled, "Let's have a drink, if you don't mind. Besides, you had something in mind to have approached me." He said, and Liora smiled wryly.
She didn't expect the man to be so fast at identifying her. However, she thought that was all for her benefit; she would be able to go through his mind to know who he was and predict what their relationship would be like.
***
In the secret room of Thorian, the entrance was hazy.
Eerie sounds flung from one corner to another, landing vibratory sounds.
Not only was that entrance hazy, but also dark; like the world of darkness, making another tiny sound that was significant to that of a dropping needle.
Uncanny whispering voices also contributed to the noise, which increased as a bell was rung.
The bell sounded harder and harder, while the uncanniness maximized as well.
All of a sudden, the haze of thick smoke lifted gently from the entrance, as a black cloak set in.
Gradually as the cloak limped in, the haze dissipated but the eerie cries won't stop.
Then the bell began to ring at a constant rate; the entrance became clear, and eerie cries loudened. In the aftermath, the black cloak appeared.
Upon the appearance, the eerie, sinister cries turned to laughter.
It sounded monstrous, yet delightful. Did this imply the uncanny beings had been yearning for this moment for long?
Thorian lowered the bell and stopped ringing it.
He looked straight into the faint and clueless eyes of the figure standing before him. He finally had gotten full control over the single person who had always stood unparalleled, someone he was never able to control and who always was a restriction for him.
Arion's eyes were not moving. He was only physically present there, but his mind was far gone; not because he wanted that, but because his soul had been forced out of his body.
He was partially alive then, his body was in the hotel at the demon realm but his soul was summoned to the secret room.
"After all the doubles and triples, I have been able to get a hold of you," Thorian said, his face sour and maniacal. Arion's lifeless eyes were focused, however, on Thorian.
"You are all mine now. You have become my puppet, Arion, and I will direct you any way I like. Unfortunately for you, your great power can't save you from the enchantment I have placed on you," Thorian said, his face filled with slight pleasure. He then said, "The torrent of magic in you can only do one thing; go to Heka sect and murder your master and then...end your life as well. That's it."
Arion's face didn't waver. At the hotel, he woke up. His face was unwavering and much colder than he used to be in the past.
Grabbing his sword by his side, he rose from the bed.
He shifted his gaze to his injured arm. Then the wound began to close, healing up. He was just able to heal himself by mere staring.
The wound healed, and there was no mark on his arm either. And then, he jumped from the window to the ground. He didn't realize anything else nor was there anything in his mind, only what he heard last. To kill Lysander and afterwards, himself.
The statement kept on repeating in his mind as he walked into the forest, gripping the sword tightly.
"Kill Lysander and put an end to yourself afterwards."
Meanwhile, it took long before Liora remembered she left Arion inside the hotel room.
She believed he must have woken up by then.
And then, she walked out of the bar house, concluding she would return to this business later on.
But on getting inside the room, the room was empty. She shouted,
"Arion! Where are you?"