'Where is he going?' Liam wanted to know but he didn't want to push his luck as they watched the well lavished carriage leave their grounds. By sight alone it is rather clear that the person has a lot of wealth greater than the king. Sure the royal family lived big but not to such an extent as with those standards,it would make an impact on their financial status. The carriage surely attracted a lot of attention as even the royal family wouldn't ride in such a luxurious carriage but the puppet acting as the coachman with his SSS rank deterred them from trying anything stupid. They left the kingdom before setting off to Darwarke at an unrealistic speed.
[{Hey Bill, are there any other forms of reality?}]
Luke asked as he always felt there was much more than just the hundred planes.
[{Bill>Yeah, other than reality there's unreality but getting there isn't the problem. It's existing there. Why do you ask?}]
[{Curious. Can I venture there sometime?}]
[{Bill>I thought you were hellbent on finding your sister but if you're free then I don't mind as it should help strengthen your will.}]
[{Fine. Thanks}]
*At Darwarke*
"Your Highness, we have an unexpected visitor. He claims to have been sent to build something" A soldier going on one of his knees. "Just dismiss him,tell him I'm busy." Eva responded without a care. "I'm sorry your Highness but we've already tried to tell him to leave but he adamantly refused and claimed to start killing everyone." Eva was busy arranging kingdom matters before resuming looking at the paperwork infront of her ,"Just shoo him away and if he refuses then kill him. What rank is he anyway?" The soldier looked at Eva responding hesitantly ,"He is in his carriage whereas his surbodinates are duelling us. His surbodinates are members of the Horace's syndicate." Eva shot up before leaving her room. She knew Aldritch wanted to control the black market and it was currently under the leadership of Horace,a shady individual who was SS rank but the artifacts he had on him and resources could make him on par with a SSS ranker.
Arriving at the scene,she saw most of her soldiers injured but not gravely. Natalie was breathing heavily holding her sword gifted by Aldritch but seeing how Horace who was rumored to be elusive was fighting Natalie who was SS rank herself knew that he was holding back. "Horace,welcome." She hurriedly addressed him because if the person in the carriage was to start a massacre right now,the entire kingdom would be dead. "What are you doing my queen? He is an intruder thus he must be eliminated." Natalie similar to the rest of the guards were in shock as what they saw. "What took you so long to get here?" A man appeared out of the carriage outside making his way towards them. There was no way she could ever forget the individual standing before her. "My apologies as I was held up with my work." She looked at Aldrich's shadow with a slight worried expression. "I'm not here for chatting rather for something else." Natalie saw how Eva was in her situation was puzzled. She knew how powerful she was able to easily subdue a SSS ranker but now she was visibly nervous. "I don't know who you are but do you know where you are? This is Darwarke not some regular kingdom so ..." Horace's sword at her neck stopped her from continuing her grand speech which no one was paying attention to. "Should I kill her?" Horace asked. He seemed to be in his late thirties adorning a grand lavished black robes with a well built physique with jet black hair and a smooth face indicating his lifestyle. He was rumored to be invincible as the king's never participated in his capture but one day a shadow appeared out of nowhere and took over.
Sure he put up a fight only to fail miserably submitting to his fate as his servant. He was convinced that there was no one more powerful than him as the shadow was able to put him down faster and after realizing that they were heading to Darwarke,he thought that they were here to overthrow it. He had heard how powerful the king of Darwarke was but he also knew that his master was also potent. "Do you have any idea to whom you are addressing in such a manner?" He ordered looking at Natalie. "You can't kill her." Shadow said in his dark eerie voice. "Why are you here anyway?" Eva asked with a much more relaxed face. She knew Shadow couldn't kill her but that wasn't the same for her servants. "Aldritch sent me to build something for him here. He should be making his arrival." Eva was startled but as long as he wasn't going on a murder spree then it was okay. 'Why didn't he tell me that he wanted to build something? We have skilled masoners and highly experienced craftsmen so why would he trouble himself this much.' Shortly after a carriage arrived and by the looks of it,it was Aldritch. It was rather stunning to see a SSS ranker to serve as a coachman but once Aldritch got off no longer disguised as Luke,it made sense. "The material you asked for is here." Shadow spoke addressing Aldritch gesturing at the material in store. "Well, let's head out then." Aldritch said as he was walking towards the carriage he came in accompanied by his shadow and Eva. Horace and Natalie followed them in their respective carriages and set of to Mordant. Breaking the silence in Aldrich's carriage,Eva asked ,"Where are we going?" She was clearly in the dark of what Aldritch was trying to achieve so to sate her curiosity she inquired. "You'll see." Aldritch said continuing to look and admiring the beautiful landscape as they had already left Darwarke.
The ride was pretty quiet as nobody spoke, Aldritch was busy looking outside while Eva even though had a lot of questions but did not want to bother him. His shadow just sat in eerie silence. After a while the carriage came to small desolate town,sure there were Slowly the vast green luscious grasses visible from the distance slowly reduced in number as the temperature slowly dropped. Eva being a vampire didn't feel the change n temperature while Andrew simply made a small barrier around him preventing him from feeling any cold. His shadow was fine as it was incapable of feeling anything till they saw a kingdom at the horizon. The structure of the kingdom gates were well built as if to keep something out as it was well reinforced with the various enchantments protecting it with numerous spikes covering it. "Why is it so reinforced?" Andrew asked looking at Eva and not out the window. "It's to protect the kingdom and it's citizens from numerous hazards. The bears and wolves do tend to prey on humans especially at night so they built that to counteract it." Eva giving a small but brief reason. But Andrew shot her another question ,"Why don't they relocate?" Eva looked at him pondering for a few minutes before responding ,"I actually don't know why they wouldn't move it. Sure they get game from the wild animals which fetch high prices but when it comes to development, this kingdom took the longest due to the environment. Their economy isn't doing to well and actually putting a strain in our own kingdom since I can't effectively administer it due to the long distance."
They continued on with the rest of the journey till they arrived at the edge of what seemed like a forest. Their pace decreased till they came to a complete halt as one of the other two carriages passed them making them in between the two. They continued through the forest but Aldritch found something off about it,the forest appeared as if it was recent before running to a slight problem. Natalie got off her carriage along with some of the kingdom soldiers before engaging with some goblins. The woods didn't allow much light making it easier for bandits and ambushes to be carried out so it would make sense for these goblins to be here. Snarls meant to intimidate the knights were heard from the goblins but proved pointless as they already had faced much more perilous scenarios and had a lot of experience. Sure the fight was short lived as her crew was highly skilled and the goblins weren't that properly equipped but the question presented itself ,'Why are there goblins here?' Usually the goblins would be usually found between the human and elven kingdom and even there they rarely ventured out as they preferred to stay with in herds but here they were now,between Darwarke and Mordant which was an astounding distance from where they usually lived. "It's quite odd to find goblins here." Eva commented wondering as she contemplated for a plausible explanation for this. "Strength is everything. Besides the cause will unfold later." Aldritch simply said before closing his eyes. Eva looked at Aldritch and wondered whether he knew the cause but as of now she pushed this thought back of her mind.
From then on the trip was met with goblin ambushes but there were no casualties before making their way out. As soon as they got out they increased their pace before passing through what seemed like a small town in the distance. As they got closer, the small desolate town appeared more clearly and to say the least it appeared quite dilapidated. It didn't look as if it had any form of a proper establishment as the few sparingly houses seemed to be made of bricked clay which seemed rather crude considering the architectural advances in Darwarke. The mode of dressing wasn't any better either but strangely instead of proceeding on with their journey,they stopped here under Aldrich's orders. Naturally using his will it was easy as expected. His shadow taking the lead opening the carriage door promptly followed by Aldritch then Eva. Aldritch got out before taking in a small breathe. "You're free to ask as you should feel free around me." Aldritch said without looking at Eva who was standing behind him. "My apologies Aldritch." She said making a small bow intentionally refraining from addressing Aldritch as master Aldritch. He had already told her that she could address him as she would to her sister as he hated the idea of being revered. "Please do not hesitate to correct your subordinate but why are we making a stop here?"
As his shadow dematerialized returned to his body, Aldritch said with a small smile on his face looking at Eva ,"Because I'm hungry." The other knights alighted off the first carriage along with Horace's crew was ordered to stay put while he went for a small walk with Eva, Natalie and five knights tagging along. "We can prepare the finest dishes in the kingdom which would most certainly satisfy your hunger, my Lord." Natalie said as they walked around intimidating the locals with her cold temperamental face. Most of these locals didn't appear as if they had their mana pools unlocked yet so it was understandable why they tend to avoid her scary aura. "I'm honestly tired with it. It's time for something different." Aldritch spoke as they continued their walk now towards a small lake. Honestly he had tasted the most delicious food not only on the third dimensional plane but also the higher dimensional planes and in comparison to that what he tasted here was comparable to slop. But still even in the higher dimensional planes he really didn't like the food as he found it completely plain just added a few incentives here and there but the feeling was overrally the same. There were murmurs of the local residents but they ignored it as they made their was to the lake. "How good is your aiming?" Aldritch unexpectedly asked Eva who was caught off guard with his question.