A hand on Elliot’s back pulled Elliot out of his thoughts. He took a deep inhale and glanced at Lance who had a concerned look. If the woman was telling the truth, then this man would not be Malice’s end.
It was Elliot.
He recomposed himself and gave the gem to Barbara. "Here, it’s all fixed."
Barbara shot him a concerned look but dismissed her thoughts. She took the gem and placed it back on the fra. "I have to clean this fra and hide this gem in my office. You should just make yourself comfortable while I do that."
When Barabara left, Dante took everyone’s attention. "Our first order of business is get inside the castle. Trick will help us but he cannot guarantee our concealed presence so you have to listen to him at all tis."
"When you’re inside the castle, do not leave my mist," Trick said. "I have allies inside the castle, but not all of us are allies. So of us will alert Malice the mont that they find us."
"Then we just have to enter the castle withouts being noticed and then head to the throne room, right?" Lance asked.
Trick shook his head. "My ally has her eyes on the queen all the ti. She doesn’t spend her ti in the throne room. She frequently visits her daughter and she’s inside her room all the ti. That’s our end goal."
"And if she’s been alerted? What will happen to us?" Elliot asked.
"Everything will be over," Trick replied. "So, you have to remain inside the mist and do not leave even just for a single mont."
"We leave at midnight when Malice is asleep," Dante ordered. "Rest up for a bit tonight. Tomorrow is going to easy or bloody."
The group headed to different rooms around the mansion. Barbara assigned them to differ rooms and each of them gets one. Elliot was close to Lance and Dante while the rest are further down the hall.
He was talking a shower when he returned to the bed and saw sothing on his sword. He took the parchnt and read it.
’Trick has the ability to manipulate the senses of other people. His true appearance is still unknown because he shows himself with different looks, depending on his mood or the people he’s with.
He could manipulate the entire senses of an almost Absolute-level being like Malice, so there’s no known limit to his illusions. It was reported that only Bruno could see the real appearance of the Vassal, but Bruno denies the claims.’
Elliot was reading through the note that was attached to the handle of his sword. It was wrapped with a wooden twine and the letters were seemingly written off through a different thod other than ink. It seed like it was burnt almost.
He scanned the note again, trying to decipher as to whom it was from. He gave up a few minutes later, and stared at the note instead. It didn’t seem like a warning, but it still seed odd. Why would anyone gave such a piece of information away?
Ti passed by and Elliot’s slumber swallowed him. When he woke up, Lance was sitting right beside his bed. He was looking away while crossing his arms and closing his eyes. He seed like he was still sleepy which was an odd sight.
"Is it ti?" Elliot sat up as he asked. This seed to woke Lance from his slumber and nodded at him. "Oh, then let’s go."
The group reunited right at the lobby of Barbara’s shop. She was talking to Dante when Elliot and Lance arrived. They seed to be disturbed.
"What happened?" Elliot asked. "Why do you look so worried?"
Before anyone could even answer him, Trick appeared. He ran towards Dante and shook his head. "Soone alerted Malice. We got betrayed even before we got to enter."
Dante clenched his fist but could not do anything more. He sighed and cupped his face with his hands in frustration. "If she’s aware of us, then she would most likely anticipated our arrival. This will get more difficult now."
"My camouflage is effective, but it’s not perfect," Trick said. "I’m not confident with it especially when she raised her guard like this. My magic could fail to reach her senses and she could spot us."
"We might not admit it, but Malice is already a Candidate to being an Absolute. Which ans she’s much stronger now than when you fought her before," Barbara said. "Her alerted senses could an danger.
Elliot was silent throughout the conversation. Instead, his eyes were fixated on the note in Lance’s hand. It looked similar to him, so he had to pat the other man’s shoulder. "Let’s talk for a bit."
Lance agreed and everyone didn’t notice them leave the room. They were too busy discussing their next plan that they barely took notice of peope leaving.
"You received a note too?" Elliot asked Lance without any hesitation.
Lance raised his hand. "It’s an information about Barbara. I don’t think it’s warning us about anything, so I didn’t bring it up."
Elliot humd and raised his hand to show Lance the note that he received. "I got this. It shows information about Trick."
"What could this an?" Lance asked. "Are either of them traitors? Soone must have alerted Malice and it should be from one of us, right?"
"The details were too precise for it not to be one of us," Elliot added. "It could either be the either of them or both of them. Either way, there’s no way to know who to trust."
"Should we tell the others?" Lance asked. "They’re our guild mates, after all."
"Alert them one by one," Elliot said. "I’ll tell Connor and Ed, you tell Hope."
"Alright," Lance agreed and the two of them left the room they talked on.
It was a slight detail for either of them to notice, but a shadow lurked in the room. The shadow bulged from the ground and popped, forming a figure of a human. It smirked, shook its head, and then subrged under the shadow again.
anwhile, Elliot and Lance returned to the group. They were now silent which prompted Elliot to ask what was going on.
"Hansel and Gretel, the two Vassals had just been kicked out," Trick said. "Now, there are just four Vassals that remain. It’s , Bruno, Strong, and Glory."
"What?" Elliot asked. "But–"
Before he could even continue, the entire building shook. Everyone raised their guards by brandishing their swords and looked around. It seed like it wasn’t an earthquake because the ground didn’t shake. Soone was purposely shaking the walls.
"What in the hell?" Barbara cursed. "It seems like an ant is watching us."
"Such a traitor," a woman leaped out of Elliot’s shadow. She stood in front of Trick and stabbed the man in the chest. No one could foresee what was going on because her movents were too quick. They were caught off guard by this woman.
Trick grunted and then flipped. The dagger on his chest was dropped to the ground, seemingly passing through his body. "You little wrench."
A mist burst from his body and a small figure was dropped to the ground. Elliot hurried towards it and gasped when he saw what it was. "A fairy?!"
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