Disciple of Madness

A whistle blew as the train suddenly jolted forward.

Adrian crossed his legs as he tried to find some means of comfort in the small seat.

At the beginning he was busy swatting away few mosquitoes which soon kept on increasing in their numbers. He felt as if just to annoy him, they were reproducing in mid flight itself and multiplying in their numbers.

"Yep! There goes one." He exclaimed in joy as he crushed the life out of one of the little shits.

However his face scrunched into disdain as the beeping song of another mosquito vibrated in his ear drums.

He jerked sideways. He slapped empty air multiple times with no success. It looked like he was in a real battle with them.

"[Mana Manipulation]" Having no other options, he activated his power and erected a thin barrier around him, successfully warding off the mosquitoes.

[Pfftt! You actually had to use mana to win. Oh! How have the strong fallen haha...]

He let out a disgruntled noise.

"We shall talk when you tackle all of them bare-handed."

Silence.

No reply came from the other side.

Satisfied, he sat on his chair and waited. He slowly drowsed off, the gentle swaying of the slow speeding train lulling him into a deep sleep.

Time passed by and at one point, the train shook a bit jarringly but then continued undeterred.

But it jolted Adrian out of his shallow sleep.

This was the signal.

Yawning like a sleep deprived person, he stood up.

Then he removed the Protean Veil and changed himself back to Adrian. From the storage of the Veil, he took out a black creepy mask that was being sold off at a discounted price at a festival the previous year and then proceeded to change his clothes into a set of complete black.

He draped the Protean Veil on the chair as he walked over to the door.

Peeking through it, he felt the strong gust of winds slam straight against his face.

He squinted his eyes and saw the landmass in front of him steeply increasing in height. Huge boulders lay on the ground, strewn everywhere the eyes could follow.

Craning his head upwards, he saw the massive range of the mountains that stood over them, its presence indomitable and mysterious as a blanket of fog covered its peak from curious stares.

The Dawn Mountains.

'It's time for what I came here for...'

The Dawn Mountains rose at his side and Adrian waited. The seconds of the mental timer ticked down in his head.

The moment it ticked to zero, a sonic boom exploded one of the compartments of the train.

A red-cloaked figure appeared ahead, the cloak hurling rapidly in the winds.

"That's the cloak the Seats wear!" A loud scream was heard from the front as the train suddenly halted.

Adrian slipped in the shadows as he climbed the rooftop and slided into the gap between his compartment and the compartment before him.

The train lurched forward and then pulled back, drawing several curses from the many compartments of the train. Meanwhile, Adrian held on to the wall of the compartment for balance.

Guards have already started filling out of their compartments to look for the intruder.

But Adrian knew that even then few guards were still in these chambers, guarding their exports.

Moving through the rooptops would be a great risk at this moment for the chances of someone catching signs of movement at the top was quite high.

He caught the edge of the wall and exerting force, he pulled himself to the side of the compartment as he held on to the window. He slipped inside when he thought he would be noticed by the guards outside and knocked out the only guard in them.

He kept on repeating this process as sounds of clashes increased with each passing minute.

Eventually he reached a compartment that looked quite longer than the others and was even freshly painted.

Adrian was finally at his destination.

He went for the handled lock but it simply stuck.

The door was locked.

Adrian looked at the glass pane windows.

They were adorned with red curtains, showing none of the interiors.

'Now how do I break through?' His lips twisted slightly at the unseen obstacle.

Breaking through the door wasn't even a complicated task. But the sound and the destruction that would be produced as a result of that would attract the guards out here.

And that was the last thing Adrian needed.

Not only that but even the guards sitting within the chambers would also get alerted.

[Want some help?]

"Huh?" Adrian flinched slightly.

Evelyn seemed to be providing assistance. But could she be trusted...?

Hesitating a bit, he agreed reluctantly.

[Okay so nothing much complicated. Just increase the temperature of the the entire compartment.]

"What? Do you want me to melt it down?" It sounded insane to him.

The thought of melting the door had crossed his mind earlier but then he relented not doing it. His control over the elements shouldn't be too precise with his low level.

But melting the entire compartment? That sounded more like a prank.

[Just do it! ]

"If anything goes wrong, you are taking accountability." Saying that, he once again activated [Mana Manipulation] as he produced heat energy through it.

Tapping his palms on the wall, the heat started seeping into it.

The walls heated.

'More...' Adrain grunted as he pressed on.

Suddenly, blaring alarm noises beeped through the entire chamber.

Adrian yanked his hand away as the doors suddenly opened and the windows slid down.

"What the hell!!" He cursed.

[Get inside and cool it down. Fast! ]

Already knowing that he had been spotted by few guards who seemed to be rushing towards him, he entered inside and locked the door behind him.

Instantly he pressed his hands back on the wall and released the excess heat into the surroundings, thus cooling down the chambers.

The beeping noises suddenly stopped.

"So what was it?" He asked in a raspy voice.

[ Those were the precautionary guidelines. In chambers as luxurious as this, I knew it would be there. ]

Adrian's lips twitched.

"So why didn't you tell me about the part where I needed to cool down the compartment?"

[Ah hehehe...]

It was a silly laugh, one that paused Adrian for a moment.