Lowly Ascent

Anders was standing beside Rebecca at the ball, doing as Cain commanded. He stood by her side and conversed while being on high alert.

He was in the middle of talking about the food when loud explosions rang in the distance. Even the mansion shook.

After a few minutes, he saw the squad members running through the crowd and out of the mansion.

Everybody began to scramble in a panic.

"We have to go." Anders's voice trembled. 

"What what about Cain?"

Anders had an anxious look but he quickly concealed it with a look of determination.

"He is fine, but we have to leave. It's not safe!"

Rebecca saw Anders's concerned face and begrudgingly agreed to his request. The two quickly left and got in the carriage, Rebecca was bewildered when she entered as she saw four people inside.

Daniel saw Rebecca and sighed, he exited the carriage and sat up front with Anders. The group then set off quickly leaving in the chaos.

Explosions repeatedly went off. Some group members who prepared for the mission knew the checkpoints were where the explosions were going off. This made the same people realize that this was an organized attack.

None of them wanted to bet on if the people behind the explosions were their allies or not. This led to no one bringing it up.

Anders continued to drive the carriage into the city but was stopped when the checkpoint in front of them went up in flames.

The horses were spooked and didn't move an inch forward.

Suddenly, the group saw a silhouette in the distance fall from a building and land on their feet gracefully. The figure moved forward and under the illumination of the street lamps, their features could be seen.

The figure was a woman of short stature, she had fiery red hair and held a metal spear. Her eyes were light blue and reflected light in the darkness.

As she inched closer, Anders took a chance and hastily took out something from his pocket and threw it towards her.

The mysterious woman caught the token easily and looked at it.

"You guys are the other team?"

Everyone in the carriage took a sigh of relief while Rebecca was left confused.

Daniel quickly made sense of the situation a quickly blurted out what happened at the mansion to hopefully get help from the mysterious lady.

"Hey, lass! You got to help! Our leader got captured!"

"You're leader was captured?" 

Anders heard this and unconsciously responded, "Master was caught?"

Rebecca listened and like a game of telephone, spoke next. "Cain was captured?! By who?"

"Cain?" The woman got closer, she had a look of curiosity.

"Yeah my master, that's his name"

The woman went deep into thought, "Does he have black hair and pale skin, is tall, and acts indifferent most of the time?"

"Y-Yes! How did you know?"

The woman looked surprised and bit her nails out of habit "...Follow me, explain everything. We won't be able to help him now, we can only make a plan."

Cleaning up the scene, they all left.

...

The group was escorted to an abandoned building in the factory district under the cover of darkness. 

The carriage was brought into the factory. The building was filled with refugees inside.

Anders and the rest got out but the mysterious women didn't let them have time to breathe and asked them a bunch of questions to which Anders responded to every single one.

"Why do you think Cain got captured?"

Anders looked back to Daniel and answered, "He didn't escape with us."

"What was your plan?"

"Infiltrate the mansion and Master assassinates Victor."

"Where is this Cain from?"

"Free City."

"What are his-"

The questions went on and on, and Anders answered honestly to each one.

"Last question, why are you guys with the noblewoman?"

This time, before he could respond Rebecca stepped forward and talked for herself "I am Rebecca Garsh, Cain is my Fiancé"

The woman paused "What? Cain is engaged? Wait....ah, nice try, you almost fooled me. There is no way Cain would ever become engaged!" She then quickly raised her spear.

Everyone turned cautious but Anders quickly responded and rectified the situation.

"You have to believe me! I was with him during Free City's destruction, it was just me and him! I've already answered all your questions correctly! We are trying to trick you!"

The woman lowered her spear and contemplated in her head. After a few seconds, she scoffed.

"The question still stands, the Cain I know could never fall in love with another woman. So why is she his fiancé?"

Anders replied, "To my knowledge, Master needed the status of a noble family to enter the mansion, not everyone could enter the way we did, and the rest almost got caught using their entry point as well. Well, it was also for cover and a way to gain more money from what he told me."

Rebecca stared at Anders, she became angry and confused. "What! Cain used me?!"

"Well yes...but I also know Master liked you, just not....like that. When he left for the Garsh manor, I always saw him smile. He never smiles!" Anders tried to fix the situation. 

'Well, maybe he smiled because we were doing the mission.....' He contemplated in his mind.

Anders spent 10 minutes calming Rebecca down before the lady in charge interjected.

"I need to see this Cain myself. Since we still haven't killed Victor, we might as well help you find your captain. I'm Alex by the way"

Alex put out her hand and Anders shook it, "I'm Anders."

"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Becoming Cain's apprentice is no small feat."

....

For the next 2 weeks, the group recouped before Alex took Anders to Ornate Palace.

"Master took us here twice, it was for cover. Why are we here again?"

"Your master was here for more than one reason."

Alex took the lead and asked around until they found Lina. As soon as Lina saw Alex, she put on a wide smile.

"Well isn't it my favorite customer, what can I-"

Lina spotted Anders and stopped, Alex quickly picked up on this, "You sold Cain's information, didn't you?"

"Miss Alex, we do not disclose information like tha-"

Alex interjected, "Where is he now, I will pay the appropriate price."

"Hah, I didn't want to but Victor Kushen is dangerous. He threatened to kill me!"

Alex lost her patience and raised her spear, "Just. Tell. Us."

Lina didn't say anything, she left and came back with a folder labeled 'Underground Complex'.

"It's a big underground prison and the mayor owns it. It has an entrance somewhere outside the city, if he is anywhere it's there. Now please leave." 

As the two left, Lina muttered under her breath, "I hope you die trying to save him."

...

More weeks went by, Alex would ask Anders about his life with Cain and the rest joined in with her. Anders was seen to be the closest person to the mysterious Cain.

He was always barraged with questions.

To everyone's disappointment, Anders didn't know a lot either. But this didn't stop everyone from trying to get close to his apprentice, Rebecca even began to confide in him due to his relationship with Cain.

She liked how silly Anders could be but he was also becoming a leader. 

Because of her connection to the event, Alex didn't let her go home so she spent her time teaching Anders and holding the same discussions she had with Cain, with him. It took a lot of learning.

A month and a half passed and they finally found the prison's entrance. It was disguised as a big hidden outpost in the forest near the river. In the outpost was a cave that led deep into the earth.

Alex was sure this was the place due to it being close to the river and being filled with guards.

The mercenary group and Anders group then spent a few days scoping it out before making plans to attack.

.....

It was around morning, the moon's glow brightened as the fog above the sky began to look ethereal.

The guards at the outpost switched positions as per usual.

Suddenly, multiple explosions came from their surroundings.

A group of at least 50 people charged into the camp and began to kill everyone, they were rushing to the cave!

A battle ensued as people died with others filling their places. Alex wielded her spear and cut down guard after guard as she and Anders ran through the battlefield.

Anders's sword glowed white as it vanished and appeared with fresh blood covering it. He rushed toward the cave with incredible speed.

However, everything seemed to pause. Horrifying screams began to echo from the cave which caused the fighting to slow and come to a stop.

The guards strangely shifted from confidence to frightened.

A body flew out of the cave and whizzed by Anders.

A handsome, bloody figure walked out of the cave's darkness. His hair was black and covered in crimson, he wore a military uniform that was ripped to sheds, and their pale skin glowed while covered in dripping blood.

The most prominent feature was their eyes, the man's eyes were such a dark red that Anders thought they were black. Thin scarlet veins made a path around the eyeballs, glowing bright red like a crack to the underworld.

As Anders looked into their eyes, he felt fear, a primal fear like he was facing his natural predator. The man's eyes showed pain, despair, anger, hate, and most prominently, insanity, they were not the eyes of a human but a monster.

Anders could only say one word as he looked at this thing that made him tremble in place.

"M-Master?...."