Disciple of Madness

Why am I partaking in his lunacy happened to be the biggest question I wanted to ask myself.

Sure he was the Second Seat and me, the Eighth...but it's not like he could force me to work for him.

Even when I asked myself these questions, I dodged the imbalanced, amateurish movements and the overdramatic battle cries of the guards. Seriously though, these battle cries never made any sense. It was more like the howls of a dog which stopped the moment you mimicked some threat towards them.

I sighed, draping the red hairlocks over my ears and wiped away the uninvited sweat sticking to my skin. Ugh, he made me wear these red robes right in the middle of the summer.

I wanted to question my life choices just so that I could overcome my boredom as I held in the urge to yawn in the so called battlefield. But I paused, lips twitching as his face surfaced the front of my mind.

The real first decision of my life. Him.

Overprotective at times and being a bastard for making me work, but a cute brother anyways.

I didn't have much in my life. Not that I wanted something; that wish had died years ago, back when a child was supposed to indulge in their innocence.

Unfortunately life isn't fair to all. But then again, "Whatever happens, happens for good." Atleast I would like to believe that half-baked lie my cute brother taught me right at the top of those mountains.

Anyway where was I...

"Evil people like you need be vanquished from existence. Let the judgment of my sword send you to Hell." A battle roar erupted momentarily snapping me out of my thoughts.

My eyelashes dropped in rapid motions. My eyes under the hood, I felt myself cringe visibly feeling second hand embarrassment creep up the shoulders.

Then I simply raised my index finger and a needle of compressed wind wheezed out of it, piercing the man's chest and leaving a tiny hole in his heart.

The man died as he fell on his face. Few shrieked seeing another of their comrade die.

My eyes darted towards the mountain in curiosity. What was he planning and why didn't he take me up there?

I didn't really understand his motives. As far as I knew him, he should have been grinding and leveling up rapidly. But here he was, making me stage a play and him doing things behind the scenes.

Is he hiding something?

My brain suddenly remembered the first time I saw him after the ambiguous incident that occurred two years ago. At Cum'nd Dine. Even though the name of the restaurant sounded suspicious...

But I still remembered that presence...from his body.

I met him few times after that, all in secrets. And yet, each and everytime there was this second presence on his body, clinging to him.

It worried me a little.

Adrian was no kid, unaware of the ways of the world. But currently...he was weak.

My hands clenched instinctively as I tried to shake away the sudden image that entered my mind.

Adrian as a slave.

No!! Anything but that!

I and he had already spoken our goodbyes to slavery. We have long ago broken the shackles that once bound us to share the same fate as the thousands of poor slaves.

He can't be going back to those days...

But even as I tried to calm down myself, my heart felt mushy. A deep gnawing suspicion lingered in me.

What if that presence was linked to him with a...Soul Node?

My throat dried up from the mental image of Adrian in shackles.

There aren't exactly many ways for two persons to link with each other. In fact, almost nobody does it...unless it's one sided like a Soul Node.

My hands slipped under my hood as I clenched my forehead, feeling the frustration boiling up my blood. Adrian had vanished mysteriously two years back. Since then, I lost my only crime partner among the Seats.

Finding him again was the greatest thing that happened to me in a while. No way am I letting this get ruined.

"Not again." I told myself as out of rage, I accidentally smashed two guards with a single punch, instantly killing them.

Now Adrian shall be angry at me for killing so many of them...shit.

That guy has a hidden hero complex in him. Even while he claims he is apathetic to society, he would still swoop in and save someone if he felt doing it.

Just like the First Seat... I thought with a sigh as I looked down at the red cloak covering me. A little portion of it was now covered with dark red blood stains. Not mine obviously.

Adrian made these red cloaks when the organisation had newly started. According to him, "a cult always needs an uniform to suit themselves in."

Red cloak. Red for blood. Red for all the crimes we have ever committed.

Ironic.

Since he also gave us a set of white coloured satin made cloaks to signify ourselves as members of Temple of Truth.

White for purity. For dignity. Which neither of us have.

As I said, he has a hero complex hidden within him. And he was so unwilling to let anyone know that.

Cute.

I retracted my hands after blasting another dozen of guards. Suddenly, the ground rumbled making me pause.

An earthquake?

But then my attention shifted to the looming mountains and I remembered who was on it. My lips drew into a thin line as I prepared myself for another ridiculous display from him.

And for better or worse, I didn't have to wait long. The ground suddenly rumbled even more, picking up pace and making everyone stand on an unstable ground.

The guards paused their onslaught as well as they too looked at the mountains. Few of them moved as far as they could for fear of something dangerous like the collapsing of the mountain. They didn't want to risk themselves on the face of that.

Suddenly a strange light glowed at a particular spot of the mountain. It started as a pale bluish radiance.

But soon, white light creeped on the blue light and expanded in a semi-ccrcular arc.

With a loud boom, the white light swarmed the entire place. Mountains. Lands. The slave camp. The debris of the Joint Carriage. Everything was soaked in it.

My hands covered my eyes, unable to keep them open under such an intensity of light.

"A Node..." My lips mumbled, "That guy actually made a Node. A power node."