I had got what I needed for my plans and then I headed towards the Celestial city yesterday. I got some informations that was a little unexpected. I heard from Jystice that Curie had been executed by the Anti-Libra member. I didn't knew about it so it was a little surprise for me but I had already considered this possibility where Curie might be killed by her own comrades. Anti-Libra had never showed any mercy whether they are enemies or their own members.
I wanted to use Curie in order to dig some information but Anti-Libra had predicted this outcome and executed Curie as a result. I also recieved information on Voila and Ryuji, those two fought too hard against the culprit who killed Curie. They were both trying hard to capture the culprit, unfortunately another member of Anti-Libra joined the battle and defeated both Voila and Ryuji. Both members managed to escape without leaving any single trace.
Another information got leaked out when Voila had reported to Jystice. This information was about Shadow Tear. This artifact was obtained by the Anti-Libra successfully for their plans.
"Shadow Tear...huh?" I muttered.
The arbiters were requested to be present at the Libra base today. I prepared myself and set my foot outside to go in the direction of Libra base.
"Good morning Orion!" Chloe waved her hands while she said that.
She was cheerful as always, her friendship had been improving with me. However there was something off with her behaviour. Her friendship, for some reason, seemed to be improving at higher rate than I expected. I wondered what was the cause of this but I gave up on that since it was not really a big deal. Besides if her bonding is increasing attack faster rate then it is just beneficial for me.
"Good morning Chloe, sorr- I mean I was a little bit more busy yesterday so I hadn't contacted you."
"No problem, everyone has their own problems to deal with after all. However if you need my help, don't hesitate!" She said with a smile.
"I won't, thank you." I replied while implying that I would take her help if its necessary.
While heading towards the Libra base, we were chatting about normal stuff like new groceries on sale, new trending places to visit, and many more. I hadn't thought of such topics but Chloe automatically selected the topics to start the conversation. She knew me very well that I'm not good at starting the conversation and talk much about it, but she seemed to be fine with it because she still enjoyed.
Its not like I was not replying or saying something rather I was gaining new experience from her on how you can keep a conversation flow. Though I was not really trying to master this ability, besides it seemed like only girls are more talkative.
"Ah, I didn't realised that we are already here."
She didn't realised that we reached the Anti-Libra base. "Anyway I guess I will get new information from Libra". I thought.
We went inside and reached the hall. There were quite a few arbiters present here. Mikazu, Raido, Zack, and Reina were present here as well.
"Good morning everyone. As you all know about the incident happened with Curie, I don't think I need to explain this over again. The betrayal of Curie and member of Anti-Libra who killed Curie is also revealed. Many people were not able to grasp situation quickly but it seemed that no one got panic, thanks to the information that spread a little late to avoid panic among citizens."
Although some people were panicking but most of them were able to grasp the situation.
"We got two new information, one is about the Shadow Tear and second is the strange drugs."
"Finally everyone will know some details regarding the Shadow Tear.". I thought while I waited for the information to be revealed. However the second information was bothering me a little bit.
"Starting with the first information, It seems like we had failed to get any information regarding the Shadow Tear..."
"What?" Raido spoke his mind while he looked a little shocked to hear it.
"We tried our best to get the information regarding Shadow Tear but failed to get any information on that. I apologise to everyone that we had failed to meet your expectations."
"But you said...No I think thats alright, you must have some information that will help us right, Lord Jystice?" asked Reina.
As Jystice nodded, everyone seemed to be a little relieved.
"That's correct Reina, there is a new information that will help us to counter the Shadow Tear regardless of its effects." Jystice remarked.
"The way to counter it?" said Zack.
"Based on the information we recieved, it seems there is an artifact that opposes the Shadow Tear. The name of this artifact is "White Tear"." said Jystice.
"White Tear?" Chloe muttered.
"Apparently we found that this artifact can counter the effects of Shadow Tear. We don't know what Shadow Tear will be used for. However, in order to defeat Anti-Libra, we need this artifact to prepare for the worst outcome that may arise due to Shadow Tear." said Jystice.
"So, where can we find this artifact?" said Raido.
"The correct location of this artifact is not found, however, we found a village that will potentially lead you to the artifact. The name of the village is Kraken village. Going through the Deep-wood forest and taking the route that leads to the "Mystic Gorg Abyss". Mystic Gorg Abyss is a Cave but it's dangerous one. Strong monsters reside in that Cave as you all heard it before."
Mystic Gorg Abyss was originally called Mystic Gorg Cave, However, it was found that strong monsters started to appear one after one. The Cave became dangerous and was prohibited to enter unless you are strong or have strong companions. That is why people said it's like a Abyss and so it's new name was found.
"After you pass through the Mystic Gorg Abyss, you will find the Dream Grassland and you can reach the village from there."
"But what we need to do there?" asked Reina.
"You have to ask the mayor or villagers but that is just my suggestion because we had no available arbiters or guild members or other official candidates who could visit the Kraken village when we were investigating. Only thing we found is that Kraken village is the only village that will give you the lead." said Jystice.
"I see." said Reina while nodding.
"This time, some of the guild members would be joining you. Besides many of you arbiters will not go on this mission. You were all called here so that we provide you with information. Many arbiters will have to look after the city they were assigned for. I will select the arbiters who will go in this mission. But before that..." said Jystice.
The second information was going to get revealed. About the strange drugs he talked about earlier.
"About the second information we recieved is also related to Anti-Libra. It is revealed that Anti-Libra members are producing the drugs called Cursed Potion. It is in tablet form and have the ability to give insane strength compared to normal drugs. The drugs are prohibited due to its side effects and Anti-Libra is also doing something similar that is banned. However, these drugs are different. We found that these drugs can be used to control the consumer and give them massive amount of strength."
Harmful drugs are banned but they broke the laws as they already did so many times.
"What the hell!?" said Raido.
"When someone takes the drug their mind goes blank for few minutes. Then, within that time limit if someone say anything to you, then your mind will automatically take that as command and your control over your body will be lost."
"...!?"
"Unlike normal drugs, these drugs will give you instant death after it's effects are gone." said Jystice.
"No way!" said Reina with a little concern.
Control magic users like Zander can control anyone if that is not beyond limits, however, drugs are not magic. These drugs can easily let you control anyone without the help of magic but drugs have their own limitations.
For example, Zander can control the target if they are weakened and he can control them as long as he wants. On the other hand, drugs can also do the same thing if the person or monster takes the drug. However, the effect is only for short time while giving insane strength beyond human level. Though it's almost impossible to make these special kind of drugs.
"It is confirmed that the production of these drugs are conducted in Celestial city." said Jystice.
"The city I'm assigned to, huh?". I thought.
"Orion, Please come forward."
Jystice called out to me, urging me to come to the stage.
"I'm assigning the task to you, to find and capture Anti-Libra members. I don't know but they will try to produce drugs secretly in the shadows within the city, they are collecting items necessary to make drugs in the city." he said.
"Whatever they are planning, it looks like it's a bad news. These drugs will be used against us as a weapon if we don't stop them." I thought.
"Understood." I accepted the task, besides I can't deny it anyway.
Jystice turned towards the crowd as he started speaking.
"Orion will be tasked with handling this case, so he will not participate in this mission." He remarked.
I was choosen for this task as I was assigned for Celestial city. Jystice signaled me that it was now okay to return to my position where I had been standing before. I went to my original position according to what he meant by the gesture.
"I will now select the arbiters as I said earlier, there will be two arbiters among you who will go on this mission along with the guild members. Reina and Elena, please come forward." said Jystice.
"Elena? As far as I know, she was assigned for the Aetheria city.". I thought.
This city is one of the liveliest and beautiful city. It's area is wider than Celestial city.
"You two will be participating in this mission, other guild members will also join you to find the White Tear." said Jystice.
Both Reina and Elena looked confident as if they are ready for everything that will come in their way.
Jystice told us who will be going on this mission from the guild. Voila and Ryuji will be going in this mission.
"That is all for today." said Jystice while declaring the end of this meeting.
It was confirmed that selected people for this mission would be dispatched on the same day of confirmation. "So, they are going on this mission today, huh?". I was lost in thought then suddenly-
"Orion? Did something happen?"
".....No, I was just lost in random thoughts." I honestly replied.
"Oh, I see. So it seems like I won't be able to help you on this mission." she said.
Jystice also said that Chloe would be going in this mission as well.
"Don't worry about it, I will be fine." I said.
"Yes, but please take care of yourself, Orion." she advised me to be careful.
"I will."
"Alright then, see you later Orion." she smiled while saying that.
"Yeah." I replied.
"Now then".
I was thinking on where to start searching for the clues.
When I arrived at Celestial city, I was wondering how can I proceed.
"Maybe, the Herb shop would help me find some clues.". I thought while making my way towards the herb shop.
The herb shop includes all the items related to medicines or instant potions like heal potion. I already knew about many ingredients or recipes to make drugs or medicine as I learned it before but I never heard or got any knowledge about this rare drug and how to make them.
That is why I thought I should probably seek information from a person with extensive experience and knowledge about medicines and drugs.
I visited the herb shop to seek advice from the shopkeeper.
"Ah, if it isn't Orion, Welcome to the shop. It seems you are doing your job as an arbiter very well. So, what can I can help you with today, do you want something to buy?" Shopkeeper said.
"Actually, I'm here on the business."
"I see, I will help if its within my approach." He replied.
I told him the details of the drugs and asked for some useful information.
"I get what you are saying but even I can't help with it but there are some common ingredients that are normally used in the drugs."
I already knew about common ingredients that are used to make drugs but I still listened to what he had to say and surprisingly one or two ingredients were new for me. I'm not an expert so I certainly don't know quite few of the knowledge about medicines or drugs.
"I see, can you tell me how many people come here and take those ingredients from you that can be used to make drugs?" I asked.
"Well, quite a lot of them comes in the shop so I don't remember many of them however just this morning I had noticed something." he said.
"Tell me."
"There were a bunch of people who bought the same ingredient from me."
He told me that only one ingredient was purchased by few people. There was no other ingredient that was purchased. The ingredient they purchased is called Cosmic spice. This ingredient is used to circulate your blood vessels and this ingredient can be used to make other medicines or drugs.
"If those people are the ones who want to create those drugs, why would they only take one ingredient?" Shopkeeper said while in confusion.
"Don't worry about it because it's not your fault, besides I think its possible that those guys may not be the one I'm looking for..." I said.
I made sure that shopkeeper would not get in trouble. "Now, I guess I should take this as a clue for now.". I thought.
"What is the time when they show up? Tell me how regular they visit your shop. Finally tell me whether you saw their faces or not."
"It is the time when they come to visit my shop and they visit every week. I also saw their faces and it seems the one week is over so they will come here at any time."
"I see."
"Is there a place in your shop where I can hide?"
"Yeah I think."
"And also can you do something for me?"
"Like what?"
I told him something that would help me in future.
He helped me to hide behind the backdoor of the storehouse where I can also hear the voices. Before I came to this shop, I already took care of the spies who were watching over this shop. They didn't seemed to know anything about the plans and they were not from Anti-Libra rather they were just hired for this simple task. I didn't let them go even if they never knew about the place where the drugs were produced. I can't risk anything after all.
I was quietly waiting for them to visit the shop. After few minutes the door opened.
"Welcome to the shop, what can I help you with today?"
"Hm, give us some Cosmic spice."
I heard the ingredients name. I sensed that a bunch of people came to the shop. After purchasing the Cosmic spice, they left. I left the shop as well while following them.
After few minutes later, I found myself lost in the lower district.
"Where did they go? I saw them a moment ago and they suddenly vanished..". I thought.
Then I noticed the strange magic around, it was the portal magic.
"So, one of them can use this magic...". I thought.
They teleported from the backalley streets where no one usually pass by. This portal magic has it's own limitations just like other magic. The user have to visit a place to unlock them as the checkpoint and the second condition states that you can teleport to a distance depending on the magic energy you can put in the magic ability. In other words, the lower the magic energy level the more it becomes impossible to travel a long distance and vice versa.
I sensed that the magical strength was not so high that could transport them out of the lower district. They simply just used the portal magic to avoid getting caught.
"How am I supposed to find them?". I thought.
I had already seen their faces and what they were wearing. I started asking to the people around whether they got any information about those men but none of them saw them.
"Well, it is obvious that they won't show themselves so easily if they want to visit their secret base or something..." I muttered.
"Hey mister!"
I heard a voice coming from the kid. He called me out.
"Hello, do you need something?" I asked.
"Is that true what I just heard?" he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"About secret base or something, I heard you saying something like that." He said while showing the smirk.
"What about it?"
"I know a secret base, Hehe."
I thought for a second that he was just in the mood to play or something however-
"Look look, what I got from them. Doesn't it looks good."
"....."
What I found on his hands was-
"Can I take a look?"
"Sure here take a good look, this thing looks amazing isn't it? They were talking among themselves that this thing can easily be the best invention." He said but I ignored his voice for a second.
"This is...a drug...." I muttered.
Secret base where this kid found a tablet and it turned out to be the drug. This has to be my lucky day I guess...". I thought.
"Can you show me where is this secret base that you found? And also I'm taking this tablet."
"Wha- but I found it. It looks so amazing. It has colourful design."
"This will probably harm you and your family, are you okay with that?"
"Ah.....no, okay you can take it."
"Good now take this candy instead, it has also good design on it. Now I ask you to show me the secret base."
"Wow, thank you! It looks good."
Whenever kids played with Chloe, she usually gave this candy to kids. This candy somehow happened to be in my pocket so I thought I should give this to him. "Kids sure love candies and Chloe could not help but give better quality candies rather than focusing on the quantity.". I thought.
"Now then, can you help me?" I asked.
"Sure! I would have asked for some pocket money to show you the secret base but since you gave me the good-looking candy, I will show you."
"I think his attitude is like a businessman...". I thought.
The kid lead me to one of the backalley and we were standing near the chamber.
"If you climb down through the chamber, you can reach the base. Just take right turn them left and right and then right again."
"Are you sure about this?" I asked him for confirmation.
"Absolutely, but be careful those guys were scary."
"I see, thank you for your help."
"Same to you, Mr. Orion."
"How did you know my name?" I asked.
"Miss Chloe told me about you and I think you were also with her. I just remembered you. Miss Chloe said you are a kind hearted person, more kind than other people."
"I think Chloe is spreading such rumours without my permission but I guess she was just being honest according to what she experienced so far.". I thought.
"I see, but remember there are other good people as well. Just remember that..."
"Sure! I also think the same." He nodded while he said that.
I went inside the chamber and started moving forward according to the direction I was given by the kid. After following the direction, I saw a gate.
I opened the gate and saw the narrow path leading to the straight direction. The walls, ceiling and floor, everything was in metallic. After walking for a while I noticed there were magic devices. Suddenly two walls from each side appeared while blocking the way.
"It can't be helped though, I was aware of this." I muttered.
The walls started to close the distance as it was going to crush me. I was unable to use the magic because these walls temporarily disabled my magic.
"The walls are metallic and therefore it's structure is hard.". I thought.
The walls suddenly destroyed by the explosion.
"Thank you for your help." I said.
"No problem, the shopkeeper told me to follow you so that when you are in trouble I can help you." said guild member.
I knew something distasterous would happen so I told the shopkeeper to send the trap magic user and some other reinforcements.
He is a trap magic user, this is one of the common magic used to set traps. He set the trap magic on my body, the trap magics are not identified and seem to be vanished until someone or something trigger this magic.
In other words, walls were unable to identify the trap magic and failed to disable this magic. Then, just as walls came closer, the trap activated and destroyed the walls.
"There are three of you, huh?" I said.
"Yes, but enemies noticed our presence. I think it should be better to raid now since the magic devices can't be ignored." He said.
"Yeah we should just do that!" said another guild member.
"Alright..." I agreed.
After few minutes when we had passed through the narrow passage, we found ourselves in the hall like area that represented factory.
"The people were waiting for us, how nice." said a guild member while clapping.
"Tch, who the hell are you guys? You are not allowed here." said a person.
"You are all from Anti-Libra, right?" I said.
"It can't be helped, you know a lot of things. Sorry but you have to die."
"So you are really from Anti-Libra after all." I said.
"Hey, that guy with stoic expression face! I saw him at the Hage village when there was the conflict. He must be one of the arbiters." said.
"Heh, I may get some promotion if I kill an arbiter."
"Don't ignore the guild members you bastards. We will not let you do as you wish." said one of the guild member.
"It would be very nice if you just surrender yourself..." I said.
"You are getting cocky young man, we will show you what it means to go against Anti-Libra. Hey let's get them!"
There were many of them but they were not so strong. However, we were being careful with our surroundings to avoid getting in some kind of trouble like before when those walls popped up out of nowhere.
After a few minutes of battle, we emerged victorious against the Anti-Libra members.
"Now tell us what you guys are upto, huh?" said an aggressive guild member.
"Heh, even though you won but it's too late."
"What do you mean by that?" Guild member asked.
"When we got information from higher ups that you guys dispatched some arbiters along with guild members, then we all were given orders to transport the drugs to Kraken village and let them consume the drug so that every last remaining of information or clues about White Tear get buried down. We can't reach Kraken village ourselves because of the ancient sorcerers who blessed the village so that whenever evil humans try to infiltrate they get destroyed immediately."
"Hehehaha, we made this drug so that it gets transported in disguise of medicine and people would die after taking the drugs but we made this drug for a certain someone who might be a threat to Anti-Libra. So when that certain someone appears, that person would be eliminated by the villagers. Villagers will also die after that and then the White Tear will never be found! You all are going to fail on this mission. I hope those arbiters also die along with that person." said another member.
"...." I didn't replied.
"Aside from drug, blessings of sorcerers and that unknown person who is a potentiel threat for Anti-Libra, I already knew they would do something like this to stop us from getting the White Tear at all cost."
Awakening of Darkness Arc - Ends
To be continued...