-17-

There was no denying that Geffen was near. The grass had darker shades of green, and the sight of many wizards loitering there gave him the hint. Then again, something seemed strange. He was only at the outskirts of the Geffen territory, which was usually deserted, yet it was rather rowdy.

Even inhabitants of the city were among the scattered groups of people. They did not look like their usual self, the peaceful, serene kind. Instead, a mask of panic was what's displayed. He walked past them without any attention, unlike before he came here, where people stopped their work, whispering about him quietly, all the while looking at his battered state.

Geffen was still quite a long way from where he was. Skull tilted his head to look above the trees, and saw smoke drifting into the air. From his experience, he gathered that it was smoke from war. He extended a bloody hand to stop a mage passer-by.

"What lurks in Geffen?"

"Err… We're under attack by the Lord of Death! As you can see, everybody evacuated immediately when the invasion started," the mage said, interested more about his wound in the stomach than his question.

Skull gave a wave of his hand to indicate that he was done asking. He went deeper into the Geffen fields, encountering more residents and young mages making their escape. A few families stopped in their escape, one of their members suffering from an injury. This certainly did not bode well, for they foreseen that the four would pursue after they were done with the city, the process that would not take too long considering their combined might.

Realizing the seriousness of this, he half-ran to the city. If Geffen was to be destroyed, the wizard council, and especially the followers of magic, would be utterly devastated to lose their sole home of sorcery. The assassin exited a wooded area and found himself in an open field, with a large white structure not too far away. He could see Geffen clearly now, several prominent tall structures and buildings ablaze, a few more wizards streaming out, barely making their way out.

A hand grabbed his ankles, almost making him fall. Skull looked down to see a blood soaked wizard lying barely conscious. His mouth was moving, as if trying to tell him something, but he could not hear anything. He was on the verge of telling the wizard to release him so he could run ahead, then changed his mind. This man was going to die anyway, no harm listening to his last words. And so Skull knelt beside the wizard, leaning his ears close.

"H… help… help a per… person inside. H… he… he aided us in battle, bu… but he… he's trrr… trapped… help him."

"Who's trapped? At least tell me his name!" Skull said in irritation.

The wizard, around in his thirties, had his white robes torn at many areas, revealing hideous wounds. He heard the assassin's question, wanting to give him a reply as quickly as possible. He then rushed himself, at the expense of having difficulty breathing.

He could only choke out two syllabus of a word, which Skull heard it as "reneg…", then his breaths stopped.

The assassin clutched at his stomach wound as it acted up once again. The bandage came off when he was in the prison, after the guard whipped him with his whip. He suppressed his pain for the moment, his mind still trying to figure out what was the last word. He came out with several possibilities, but realized that it did not make much sense.

"Renegade?" he thought suddenly as he went into Geffen through the east gate. From what the young mage told him earlier that the Lord of Death initiate this attack, he found it startling that there was no sign of him. Instead, what he saw was only a city full of dead wizards defending without success, and a black robed figure lying unmoving near the square of Geffen. Skull immediately identified that person as Sagizeulus, and so, his last guess made sense.

"Stop right there!"

Skull turned and saw two brawny men running to him with a flail. At first he thought that these two high officials came from Prontera to survey the aftermath of the war, judging by their breastplate, a bandanna with a Prontera eagle logo and a ball'n'chain (leg cuffs) hanging from their belt.

He was wrong apparently, when one of the two unslung a bow, aiming an arrow at him. Skull did not need to think for a second, summoning a row of bone spikes at the high official, piercing his foot as he let loose the arrow. The assassin had to dodge this arrow, otherwise he would be paralyzed, then ultimately death, since these high officials tend to use venom-tipped arrows to hunt their victims. Fortunately, the injuring of the high official's foot caught him by surprise, the arrow released at a small force. Skull did not even have to sidestep, for the aim went awry.

The other official, seeing his partner took down by the assassin's heinous act, came at Skull. The official executed an overhead swing, but was deflected easily by the Infiltrators. The flail swung again, the spiked ball attached to the shaft by a chain almost smashing into Skull's cheeks. The assassin measured his opponent, then ducked at another swing.

Seeing some kind of structure behind him, he did a back flip and cloaked into it. The official increased his awareness, moving cautiously in case his evasive adversary sprang out of nowhere. He moved along the structure in his cloaked state still, until he reached the end. He stepped out of the structure quietly, digging his boots for a dagger where he had hidden. The official's back was facing him, still taking each step slowly. He was open to attack, but Skull did not strike just yet, even though it was tempting to.

He had something else in mind. He was deep in thought as he applied a layer of venom over the blade of the dagger, a potent one that would numb someone completely, then die from it. Unless it was a wanted person, the king would not have dispatched his highly efficient officials to work.

Only then did he knew that the king had branded him a terrorist, a wanted man to be executed no matter what. Satisfied with the amount of venom applied, he aimed casually and took a shot. The sound of a flying dagger made the official turn around, only to be hit slightly below the throat. The potent venom began to take effect immediately upon the hit, though the official was pretty much dead from the hit alone.

Skull walked over to the dead official, whose face was disfigured and bleeding from the mouth. Pressing his left hand on the body as a lever, he extracted the toxic dagger with his right. He took his eyes off the macabre corpse, thinking that the coast was clear for now. He approached the black robed wizard mid way­, and an arrow struck his upper back, etching deep into the flesh.

He screamed out, the poison-tipped arrow immobilizing him completely. The venom coursed through his body, searing his internals, constricting his throat. He could not speak nor move, well aware that the other official would drag him back to prison, then executed on the spot.

Scolding himself for being careless, he began thinking that he would be reuniting his sister in the nether world soon. The world started fading, blurring into a swirl of colours. The pain in his stomach wound ascended a higher level, likely aggravated by the poison. Feeling his body sanctioned so badly never before, he closed his eyes in defeat.

-

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He heard some noise subconsciously. It sounded like a group of little boys chattering. But he did not care one bit, what he wanted to do was to lie still, and hope that the disturbing noises would leave him alone.

"Who in the right mind would be sleeping here?"

"Yeah, the sun's long up."

"Be careful, people, this man looks strong."

He began to stir, but the fuzziness persisted, forcing him to close his eyes. How he wished he could punch the daylights out of those chattering bunch!

"Hey look, this huntress looks hot."

"Damn right! Let me do a little check-up on her."

His eyes finally fluttered open after the last sentence, making out three figures standing over him, and another two kneeling over something beside him, as if it aroused their interest. Next, he heard a yell and that two figures fell back, moaning in pain.

"This man's awake!"

"Come any closer, I'll shoot!" a feminine voice snapped.

His body ached all over when he regained conscious. The three figures stepped back, muttering among themselves as he sat up groggily. He took a closer look; all these while the chattering were from these group of five novices. He did a three hundred and sixty degree scan, everywhere around him were tall trees and thick plantations. Concluding his scan, he saw the other two novices, clutching their shoulders in pain. A bolt was sticking out in each. A familiar huntress stood glaring at them.

"Where's this place?"

The huntress looked relieved to see him awake, lowering her Ballista.

"Tien! These two perverts actually had the audacity to touch me!"

Tien waved his hand in disregard, turning his attention back to the three He gathered himself onto his feet, pulling a startled novice towards him.

"Tell me, where is this place? Why do you bring us here?"

The novice looked away from the monk in fear, signalling for his friends to help, but none dared to step forward, otherwise they might just end up just like him.

"You were lying here with this huntress all these while, sir monk. We were just passing by."

"You haven't answered my first question, kid," Tien demanded, pulling him closer till he could feel the boy trembling.

"P…Payon woods," the young boy stammered his reply.

'How in the damned abyss did I end up here?' he thought. Elemire chased the group away by raising her Ballista, pretending to aim a bolt at them. The three carried away two of their injured friend and scampered into the woods, away from them. Thin rays of the afternoon sunlight filtered through the large crowns, offering sufficient light in the dark, wooded area.

Tien stopped rubbing the swelling on his head as a violent rustling of leaves made him tilt his head up.

"It's my falcon," Elemire calmed the monk.

The brown falcon glided downwards, landing on her outstretched arm. The bird let out a prolonged squawk, flapping its wings at the same time. Elemire nodded thoughtfully after she understood its indications.

"We're not too far from Payon, which lies north from here."

Tien nodded in understanding. How he ended up in the Payon woods still remained a mystery to him. What intrigued him further was the fact that he was alone with Elemire, and that there was an emptiness feeling. Where were the others who used to follow him? Why was Elemire the only familiar person around? How did he end up here in Payon woods of all places?

All these questions nagged at him tirelessly. Perhaps it was not a bad thing that he ended up there, since he was near home. He would take a proper rest, and he might recall something to answer his own questions. A used butterfly wing on the ground suddenly gave him flashbacks, picking up what he did not remember.

Before he ended up here, he led his guild to Geffen. The place where it was under siege by Lord of Death. He remembered his purpose of going there, that was to seek out Sagi. His heart began to beat furiously as the truth unveiled slowly. The whole of Geffen was filled with zombie masters, surrounding them, barring their escape. He remembered unleashing his devastating Asura Strike to control the mob, leaving him weak as a result. Doppelganger joined the fray shortly, slaying Agis and Wart, then Opium. His wizard, Von, was gone too. Only he and Elemire survived the ordeal, after he discovered a butterfly wing.

"My guild… is gone?"

Elemire turned back, seeing the monk staring in disbelieve.

"What's the matter?"

"All of them… they died? Gone just like that?" Tien asked slowly.

"Yes… we were helpless then," the huntress replied with a bitter look. The monk could see tears welling up as her eyes glittered.

Tien buried his head in his fists, trying to assimilate all these. But it was too great a blow to him. He hoped that it was just a mere nightmare.

"How did this happen!?" he screamed in frustration.

"Get a grip, Tien! No one could have stopped them! At least they died fighting!" Elemire consoled, while trying to battle her tears away.

The blow was seemingly not enough. He saw an archer running his way, tugging a little girl behind. A bandaged was wrapped hastily around his left arm, stopping the flow of blood.

"Sir monk! Please lend us aid! Demons are streaming out of the cave without stopping!"