Disciple of Madness

Getting up from the floor, he glanced around the chamber he was in.

It was oddly silent and there were no guards to safekeep the place. Adrian was almost sure he would be fighting the guards the moment he entered the place all thanks to the fire alarms set in it.

But there were nobody to be found.

The door suddenly made a loud sound as somebody crashed on it. Someone was also trying to unlock the lock as it jerked up and down. But fortunately for Adrian, the door didn't budge open.

"Open the door. Who is in there?!" Someone shouted from outside the door.

Adrian didn't reply. He pressed his back to the door and analysed the insides of the space he was in.

It wasn't completely dark in here. Faint shades of sapphire lights illuminated the narrow corridor.

There were few plush seats present in here which were visible due to the faint light. The rest of the chamber was shrouded in darkness. Adrian looked around trying to detect the source of the light.

The windows had slid up the moment he cooled down the chamber.

The curtains which appeared darkish-red under the lights were also covering the glass windows.

Where was the light coming from then?

All of a sudden a plopping sound erupted from just behind the door followed by the sound of something splattering all over the door. He felt as if he could even make out the trails as the gooeys liquid slowly slipped downwards to the ground.

After that, it all became silent. The guards hammering on the door moments ago were no longer doing so. It was like the muted silence that lasted a moment before a catastrophe struck.

Just like...

"AAHHHH...!!!" Several screams broke through just outside the door, probably shocked by the sheer amount of cruelty with which few guards had just been slain.

"Seems like Luna is going overboard." Adrian sighed as he pushed himself from the door and walked the full length of the corridor.

He was currently in the compartment belonging to Duke Versicos.

Duke Versicos. One of the three Dukes under Lukas Evenstar, the king of the Evenstar Kingdom.

The mining, production and trading rights of all the Aetherites present in the Dawn Mountains belonged to House Versicos.

House Versicos didn't reside in the City of course, but rather in the capital. A distant relative of the House is said to manage these matters.

And Adrian was here for the Aetherite Crystals, the purest form of the ore. It was generally produced artificially in their workshops. The cost of doing such was quite extravagant but the almost similar mountain sized selling price made sure they earned a significant amount of profit from these.

"Now where would they be."

He checked the seats then under them. How climbed up the baggage and fumbled in the darkness, trying to feel anything solid.

But there was simply nothing.

An unsettling thought entered his mind.

What if this entire compartment was just a decoy? Something meant to fool the robbers?

Thinking about it, there were no guards present within and given that the lock was locked from inside, there should have been no guards that left this compartment.

Even there were no goods of any sorts in this place.

"This is bad..." Adrian mumbled, trying desperately to find out anything that could act as a clue for him.

But from the starting to the end of the compartment, there was nothing of value. He was almost convinced this was a decoy.

But then where would the materials be kept?

Hands on his hips, he sighed as he looked up.

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to rethink the structure of the compartment. It was just like any other compartment except for the fact that it was longer and more luxurious.

Suddenly a thought struck him. His eyes suddenly opened and bulged in realisation as he found himself staring at the ceiling above him.

The sapphire light...it needs to be coming from somewhere right? The way the seats were lightened whereas the floors weren't meant that the source of the light must be above them.

But... the ceiling was dark.

Or was it?

Adrian struck the ceiling with an ether bolt.

But instead of touching the ceiling, the bolt got absorbed in a gawking hole that had suddenly opened in the ceiling.

The bolt disappeared.

Adrian squinted his eyes as he readied himself for anything unusual.

Suddenly the 'ceiling' shook as it wisped away into smoke.

The real ceiling came into view.

It was beautiful...

The entire ceiling was made up of aetherite dust, its glistening blue rays creating a mesmerising display of beauty and lighting up the whole compartment.

However his eyes strayed to a massive darkness in the centre of the ceiling.

A slow grating sound rattled through the darkness as two trapdoors opened downwards and with a crash, an iron pillar struck the floor.

The entire train shook from its weight.

Adrian quickly held on to a seat as the train jerked sideways for a moment, before coming to its position.

"Since I don't see any aetherite ores or crystals, I can safely assume that they are within this pillar." He said aloud as he touched the pillar, feeling the coldness underneath his touch.

Then looking upward he smiled wryly.

"Though colour me surprised. They actually set up a dimensional storage portal in a moving train." He mused, "Weren't they worried of what would happen had this pillar ever crashed in the moving train? It might have derailed the train completely and many lives would have been lost as a result."

Closing his eyes, he concentrated as an influx of mana gathered around him. Then he again started transferring heat to the pillar.

The temperature increased as more heat filled in it.

Even the surrounding air became a sizzling mess.

Adrian was also sweating from all the heat around him. Finally, the pillar showed signs of melting as a drop of molten metal dripped downwards.

Suddenly a tremor ran through the pillar as a voice came right through it.

"How dare you!"