Cain sat on the couch scratching his head, “What is going on?”
“What did she say?” Chad stared at him.
“A dragon attacked Ourals but died out of nowhere, I have a feeling that something is playing with us. And I don’t like that feeling.” Cain stared at the wall.
“Can’t you do something about it? Track them for example?” Chad sat beside him.
“I still have things to do, I should be able to call a friend when we reach the elvish kingdom,” Cain said.
“Who?” Chad looked worried, he heard the elvish kingdom was far more dangerous than the human kingdom.
“A dark elf, we were once aiming to kill the same person so we had to work together. I’m pretty sure he will help us.” Cain explained.
“From your previous life?” Chad asked, “So he won’t remember you.”
“That won’t matter, he has a creed and principle to follow. Getting him on board is easier than recruiting a soldier.” Cain smiled.
“Care to tell me how you intend on doing that? Who he is?” Chad eye brow crossed, and his face turned to a faint frown. He wasn’t sure if what Cain intend to do is safe.
“He is called Jaez, a professional assassin. His mother is trapped in an amber prison in a maze, only I know how to free her.” Cain smiled.
“You sure?” Chad asked.
“He will help us, he always does.” Cain stood up, “I need to go check on Hati and the others, please excuse me.”
“Ah fine, I will just go rest for a while. All my muscles are screaming in pain.” Chad stretched his arms, cracked his back, and stood up with a smile.
ZON! Cain disappeared.
Hati was in the changing room in the church when Cain suddenly appeared in front of her. “It would have been better had you come earlier.” She said, not even bothered that she was half naked.
“Sorry, I might have come at the wrong time.” Cain turned around to leave.
“(Stop, you know better we don’t care. Did you get attacked as well?)” Skoll suddenly called him.
“More than just attacked, they formed an attack at the capital. Father almost died, same as me, Selena and Gracie. How was it here?” Cain turned to face them.
“Wasn’t that bad, I held him off, Bela froze his acid while Reith kept kicking him again and again till he died. As he was about to explode, Bela froze him again while sister encased him in stone.” Hati sat back down.
“Where are Reith and Bela?” Cain asked.
“Don’t know about her, but Reith has returned to his family, and said he needs some time to rest. Better not bother him till tomorrow.” Hati said with a distant face.
“How are you? Got injured?” Cain asked.
“As you can see, my body is clean. (It was a pain to protect her with magic but I managed, lucky the dragon was just focusing on acid magic and lacked physical power.)” Hati and Skoll replied.
“Glad you didn’t get hurt, see you tonight in the mansion. I have more work to take care of.”
“Like what?” Hati asked with an angry face.
“Empowering Zaleria, those attacks are going to just get more violent. Better get prepared, I’m going to keep everyone close to me from now on.” Cain said with a serious face.
“I mean that Sofia, Selena, Alice, Gracie, Marina, Mary, you, Nemmoxon, Zaleria, Isbert, and even Farryn. Are going to stay close to me, especially you, Sofia, and Isbert, three of you has shards now.”
“There are more shards?” Hati’s eyes opened wide as she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“(What are the other two?)” Skoll asked.
“Isbert had the Cryo shard while Sofia has the purgatory one. I can feel them.” Cain replied with a worried face, “This can’t be coincident, someone is trying to set us up for something. Three rare and extremely powerful shards, all coming right to us without effort, even I can’t believe such a thing to be normal.”
“Have an idea, a guess as to what is happening?” Hati asked.
“As much as I hate it, we might have a traitor. I noticed that one of us is faking stats, name, race, level, and everything.” Cain growled.
“(Who?)” Skoll asked, worried at the revelation.
“Won’t say, they might have reasons. But I’m not sitting calm and allowing them to play with us.” Cain walked toward, “Tonight at home, don’t be late.”
“I won’t.”
After Cain left the room, Hati leaped in her place, this is her chance with him.
Back home, Cain approached Sofia’s room and opened it. She was sleeping in her bed like a newborn baby. He sat by her side combing her hair with his fingers.
“Rest well!” He quickly left without disturbing her and headed toward Olivia’s lab. It was there where he will create the ink and tattoo Zaleria.
As usual, he found Olivia focused on her work till her eyes had black spots around them. She didn’t even notice him walking in. “You should rest!” He put his hand on her shoulder. She leaped like a scared cat with a pitiful squeal.
“My heart fell Master Cain, you could have at least called me.” She looked back at him, sweat dripping from her forehead as she grabbed her chest.
“Rest, what are you making even?” He looked at the table.
“Healing potions, we have lost all our stock of high potions to your last order. I don’t have your blood to prepare more so I was making regular potions for the case of an emergency.” She replied.
“Just go take a nap, I will be using the lab.” Cain pointed toward the couch.
“As you say…yawn!” She yawned. The moment her head touched the couch, she drowned in her dreams.
Cain turned toward the table and started mixing the ink. It wasn’t a complex process but it needed time.
After a while, Zaleria entered the lab. “Cain, are you ready?” She asked with a smile.
“Almost, just need to let it sit for a while. In the meantime, let me take a look at your nails.” Cain turned toward her cracking his fingers.
Zaleria took a step back, “We can skip that, don’t we?” She wasn’t thrilled about that, it was painful after all.
“We can, but you want to get stronger right?” Cain glared at her.
“Ah, fine, do what you want.” She gave up. An hour of pain was worth getting stronger.
“Well then, let’s start.” Cain opened and closed his fist. [Marlin’s floating platform]
“Take all of your clothes off and get on the table, I will start working.” Cain moved the platform toward her.
“Do you really need me naked for just my nails?” She glared at him.
“I’m going to modify them to work with the tattoos, need you naked to trace the lines.” Cain replied with a passive face.
Zaleria took her clothes off and laid on the platform as he said. “Ok, I will start with inspecting what you already have. Just relax for now.” He pulled a chair and sat beside her, grabbing her right hand to start working.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢