4/. Chapter Four: This Is My Luck
"Yes, I said 'monster,' and I think you meant me."
"Yes, you're right. A teenager watches three people explode and doesn't even flinch, and a female on top of that. Definitely a monster."
"If you've lived as I have lived and buried those you love with your own hands, I don't think a scene like that would affect you."
"Don't say such words in the future, my dear, understood? And know that I have lived much longer than you." The City Lord spoke and calmly turned his attention back to the scene. "I don't think you care about death, but when you touch it, I promise you will reject it by all means, and the tears you lost long ago will return."
The teenager wanted to inquire further, but the City Lord paid no heed, his manner irritating her.
"Did you identify the culprit?" the City Lord asked the guard.
"No. Even after slowing the scene down to one-sixth the speed of sound, making any movement appear normal, nothing showed up," the guard answered. "There's another scene."
The second scene showed a passage similar to the one in the previous scene, but clean. After a few seconds, the wall of the passage opened and two people emerged. The guard stopped the scene when the two individuals removed their gas masks.
The teenager recognized the two people in the scene, so she quickly turned to face the City Lord's throne, to hide any reaction her body might betray.
For these two young people were none other than Blade and Nayer.
"These two young people are a married couple from the Marginal Tier, currently residing in the Middle Tier. They belong to the Void League founded by Vordon, whose members are all children of the Marginal Tier. The young man's known name is Faruq, and no one knows his real name. The young woman's known name is The Tattooing Flower, and her brother calls her Sophie, meaning 'The Stranger'; it's highly likely her real name is unknown. Additionally, they hold a special status within the Void League, and they are the only two in the League about whom we know very little. Even though we possess verified information about the young woman's brother, with evidence, and information about Vordon himself—that he has a daughter, and even a granddaughter—we don't know his current whereabouts since he disappeared."
When the guard fell silent, he looked at the City Lord, who had sat back on his throne and was offering his crystal glass to the teenager to taste the filtered worm juice, ignoring the guard. The teenager accepted the glass and tasted the juice calmly; its taste was strange but acceptable.
"Are you finished with your chirping? I asked for a joke to lighten the mood, and you fill my head with worthless things. Go and find the cause of the damage to those damned machines. As for the young couple, they've entered the prison. Do you want me to save them from their own stupidity?" the City Lord spoke strangely, wiggling his index finger up and down, and gestured to the guard: "Take the lady to her home first."
---
"What is your name?" the City Lord asked after the lady and the guard had been dismissed.
"I have no name at the moment," the teenager lied.
"Do you accept working for me?" the City Lord asked, ignoring her previous answer.
"That depends on the work," the girl replied.
"The work is escape. We are trying to escape from here. Will you help me?" The City Lord's words entered the teenager's ears, and this time she was stunned. She knew there was a trick in his recruitment, and now he was talking about escape.
But he didn't care and continued, ordering: "First, do not trust that guard; he is a traitor. He was the one who blew up those three. Secondly, inform all the guards to assemble here. Thirdly, you might know me... if I say your name is Noel."
"Ah, are you Lord Vordon?" the teenager exclaimed in surprise. She never knew that her adoptive father, the person who had cared for her for ten years and then disappeared, was the current City Lord. "But how can I inform all the guards to assemble here?"
Noel wanted to complete the tasks first and then talk to her father, or rather, the role model she aspired to become. One could say she was truly foolish for not doubting the City Lord's words, but she only needed his acknowledgment to believe him, as she already knew Vordon's face. Or so she thought at that moment, as she cared for nothing but complying with his requests quickly.
"Are you really stupid? Or will you keep pretending to be stupid? Or do you genuinely intend to search for each guard individually by yourself?" Vordon expressed his amazement. "Go to one of the gate guards outside and tell him the City Lord wants all guards to assemble here. Then rest. Why complicate things?"
When Noel went to inform the guards to assemble, Vordon closed his eyes, knowing that the fate of the city was about to change drastically.
"Faruq,you are so persistent. Even Noctis fell into my hands, but now you are trying to find the dragon to kill me. This is very amusing. The problem with you is that your movements are obvious. If you had slowed down, I wouldn't have known the dragon was a real creature, and I wouldn't have desired to reach it before you. And thus, you would have been the winner, little one."
---
In the palace of one of the eight nobles in the Upper Class District.
The personal guard of the noble Fixx ran through the palace corridors. The guard stopped before a decorated black double door and calmed himself before entering.
"Apologies for the disturbance, sir. The current City Lord has gathered all the guards and headed to the Middle Tier," the personal guard spoke, scrutinizing the study, which was ordinary for a noble's office. The main chair was empty, the desk cluttered with papers and work tools. In front of the desk was a table with two reception sofas beside it. The sofa to the guard's right was occupied by an old man with a thick beard—the noble Fixx. On the sofa to his left sat a nine-year-old boy who seemed threatening for a child. "It seems he wants to eradicate the gangs and arrest Paul as the prime suspect in the case of sabotaging the purification machines."
The guard remained standing for a short while until the boy looked at him with a deadly gaze. The guard swallowed his saliva in fear, apologized, and left the room, closing the door.
"Your guard is truly strong," the boy spoke coldly, pointing with his hand to the bottle near Fixx. Fixx handed him the bottle, paying no attention to the boy's deadly gaze, which made the boy seem as if he had lived under long torture and become lifeless. "Did you tell Vordon about the Barrier?" the boy asked.
"The Barrier, Vordon, freedom, Paul, the prisoners, you, the other nobles, and everyone in this city... I don't care about any of them except two people, Lord Noctis," Fixx spoke in a deep voice. "Faruq and his wife Sophie. I suspect that they, or at least one of them, knows everything from the past thousand years."
"It's a damned thousand years of play. Each time, we either tortured them, helped them, kept them company, or took them as pupils," the boy, Noctis, poured blood from the vial into a glass on the table before him. He sat up straight, deepening his gaze at Fixx, leaving the glass in place. "In five hundred years, we learned all the children's names except those two. The only two who haven't uttered their names yet. We kill them and restart the cycle when they are born. We kill them and restart again. And in this last year they were born, we couldn't find them; we searched everywhere. And they were living peacefully as a married couple. Apart from their knowledge of everything, it's a complete mockery, Lord Fixx, that two children are toying with us."
"I know, but we must be cautious," Fixx replied when Noctis calmed down.
"Cautious of what? We'll bring them here and torture them. They love each other, so they'll utter their names quickly..."
"Noctis," Noctis was explaining what to do when Fixx interrupted him. "In her last birth, Sophie was born as the daughter of Maurice. We mustn't..."
"Fixx," Noctis stared at Fixx for a few seconds before speaking. "I don't think Maurice cares about that girl or considers her his daughter. Also, I killed him, so don't ask about him. And finally, what are you really afraid of?"
"Paul," Fixx replied and stood up to leave the room. "I will bring the guards here."
"Wait," Noctis looked at Fixx, who had turned around before opening the door. "You didn't tell Vordon about the Barrier's energy source?"
"No," Fixx replied.
"Then he will dig the earth with the help of the guards, thinking the dragon is the foundation of the Barrier," Noctis thought aloud.
"No, I think if he's going to search for the dragon, he'll use the Void League. As for the guards, they will kill the gangs," Fixx uttered after a few seconds.
"I've told Paul to kill all the gangs. You will now send the guards back here to kill the prisoners by the river who are about to be released," Noctis spoke. "I will eradicate the Void League along with Vordon, and we will hold a direct meeting with the nobles. Paul will be present, and we will kill him together."
"What about Logan?" Fixx asked.
"The Covenant Prison is a killer; Logan didn't survive it," Noctis replied.
---
In one of the corridors, both Blade (Faruq) and Nayer (Sophie) were walking peacefully.
"What now?" Nayer asked.
"Observe," Blade answered.
"I'm talking about our current location, and where are we going? I see only the same place. Nothing changes. Are we in a maze?"
"Don't worry for now; the situation is under control," Blade spoke, reassuring Nayer, but she knew he was as clueless as she was. Nevertheless, she didn't try to do anything. After they had walked for a few more minutes, they turned into another corridor, but this one was different.
Extremely long, as if endless, yet it was filled with reflective blue doors.
Nayer spoke, sighing: "Finally, something different."
The couple headed towards the corridor. Nayer spoke elegantly; it was clear she wanted to play: "Which door shall we choose? I'd prefer we split up now, to avoid wasting time."
"Staying together is much better," Blade advised.
"I don't know why you beat around the bush when talking about staying by my side," Nayer tilted her head, watching her reflection in the doors with a smile.
Blade replied, surrendering when he saw her smile, knowing she was teasing him: "I prefer the left side. You choose the door, then."
She looked at him and said the opposite: "I like the right side, and you choose the door."
Blade dismissed her opinion jokingly: "I don't want to cause your death; I know how my luck is."
"No problem," Nayer replied with a smile, heading towards a door on the left side. "Then I'll choose the door."
They were both stunned for a moment when they opened the door. What they saw shattered all their preconceptions about the world—no, they stopped thinking altogether.
There was a young man before them. A young man with skin as black as shadow, completely silver eyes with a thin vertical golden pupil, hair gray tinged with black, and in the center of his forehead was a protrusion forming a horn about three centimeters long.
A person, or a creature, they knew nothing about—an unknown. Both felt danger in his presence, a call of death. It wasn't the first time they had faced this feeling, but it seemed strange and mysterious. And since they were completely unprepared, their weapons being in their bags, they decided to flee.
They both sprinted quickly towards the adjacent door with greater seriousness, and it was another shock, though a lighter one. Before them was a creature like the other, but an old man, his horn longer, about ten centimeters, with additional horns on each side, seven to eight centimeters long, like a crown.
Although the horns were the same color as the black skin, they gave an air of majesty to the silver-haired old man, with a touch of wisdom surrounding his face.
The other difference was that their sense of danger had vanished. They both felt a calmness that made their hearts cool and stop for a moment.
Blade spoke jokingly, sweat pouring down: "I told you, this is my luck. Don't blame me."