Chapter 505: A New Mystery
The next day was more of the same, with Mercy constantly trying to get close to Laz whenever she could and Laz staying one step ahead of her but making it seem purely like coincidence. On the same note, Laz noticed that whenever Mercy was around, Vera was not. It didn’t seem like Vera was doing it on purpose, nor did it seem like Mercy was threatening or doing anything else to Vera. Instead, it was almost like something happened each and every time to make it possible. It truly would have seemed like something out of a badly written sitcom except for one fact; Laz didn’t believe in coincidence.
After searching around using his sense, Laz finally felt that something was off. He had missed it on his first day because he was still getting used to being in a place with so many emotions flying around everywhere which made it hard to focus on people. Sure, he could see what people were up to, what they were doing and focus on things that didn’t have emotions, but he couldn’t focus on people in particular.
Still though, what he felt from people was a feeling and not anything of substance. It was like a slight haze was floating in the air, effecting everyone, both prisoners and guards alike. It didn’t cause any sort of noticeable changes, but it would be foolish to think that it didn’t do anything to them.
After thinking about it for the whole day, Laz didn’t have any answers. While he could let things go, he wasn’t really a patient person in the first place, at least not when things were up in the air.
So as all these things were on his mind, Mercy came up to him again with her sweet words and innocent like gestures and tried to befriend him. While he started off with ignoring her, Laz soon had an idea.
’She might be able to help... or at least connect me to people who can help,’ Laz thought as the beginnings of a plan started showing up in his mind.
’First things first, mass jail break out which should be fun. As for that, I need to wait until the backup arrives. Second thing, find out what I can about the lab underground. I have no idea why they are torturing awakened underneath there, but I can only guess it must have some purpose. And finally, figure out what’s happening with this weird... what should I call it? Mist shit? Seriously, I only came here cause I wanted to check if the stories were true and maybe figure out if I knew someone inside. Heh... I wonder if I’m just hammering for a friendly face after being stuck behind that gate for so long. Sure the elves were nice and fucking a god was amazing... but I feel like... I don’t know... lost?’
While Laz was absorbed in his own thoughts, Mercy was trying her best to put on the innocent child like routine which had always served her so well in the past. Seeing Laz’s vacant stare though, Mercy couldn’t help but want to punch this guy who wasn’t even paying attention to her.
’FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!’ Mercy said, dropping her head to the ground so that the anger wouldn’t show on her face. She was even able to force a few tears to help with the sad image. When she raised her head again, she noticed that the fine wisps of energy had already reached his nose and he was inhaling them while thinking to himself.
’FINALLY!’ She screamed in her head. It was good to start the relationship by tempting the person and causing either their protector instincts or, in the case of perverts, their lust. Once one of those went into effect, the persons breathing and heartbeat would increase, allowing the fine cloud of her energy that she was able to release to get into their bodies and eventually enter their minds. Once that happened, their mental defenses would start to degrade at a rapid rate. After that, it was easy to interact with them and using more energy, she would be able to control their minds. She had already done so with most of the guards she came into contact with, even if they didn’t know it.
When time came, she could trigger the trap at any moment. The only thing that ever stopped her was that it would only work on one person at a time considering the restraints on her energy so she could only do these things when people were alone, something that was hard to come by in this environment.
She had been holding back ever since the two person team thing came into effect a while ago, no doubt as a means to stop what would sometimes happen to the guards. They could never pin anything on her as she wouldn’t be around anyone involved when shit went down, but it was an unspoken secret that many seemed to be in on.
Despite that, she had once again been able to get her claws into a new guard and a man at that. This would be so much more helpful than those women, especially considering the background that they had dug up and then passed around this morning.
When Mercy had finally dropped her thoughts and let her gaze focus back on Laz, she had to stop herself from crying out from what she saw. The old man with his slightly gray complexion, white hair and icy blue eyes was now staring at her directly, not even trying to hide his gaze.
It was like he was boring into her body with it, something she wasn’t used to. Normally the target’s gaze would look a little blank after the energy had taken hold, but now, the longer Mercy looked into the depths of the eyes, the more she wanted to run away, screaming for help.
But she couldn’t instead just standing frozen on the spot.
Just when she had collected her thoughts and breath enough to want to say something, she saw his eyes flash golden and she was instantly dragged out of her body into another world. It was a vast land filled with trees she had never seen before, plants that didn’t look like they came from this world and a massive castle of gold and purple, close enough that she could only look up at it and wonder how man could make anything that big.
In both this world and the other world, she ended up dropping to her ass as a man appeared before her, his ash grey skin covered with tattoos that could be seen due to his shirtless outfit. HIs hair was a long and radiant white, with highlights of red mixed in while his golden gaze stared directly at her. Behind him was a massive red ring with four points turning constantly so that she couldn’t even tell what it was. She just felt something akin to destruction buried within the depts of the ring, where walking through it would mean her entire self would blink out of existence.
For the first time in her life, ever since she had undergone her awakening and took revenge on her family that abused her daily, she felt afraid. But it wasn’t just any kind of fear that coursed through her, this was a mind numbing, spine tingling kind of fear that caused her to almost wet herself.
She felt like her mind was breaking and going blank as the world around her began to dissolve into nothingness.
The claw like hand of this deity came forward and rested on her cheek, causing her fading mind to wake up once again from the pit it was being dragged into.
"Go back and tell the others, I am here. They don’t need to know who I am, neither do you. But I need their help. There is a strange haze in this place, a dark cloud that has begun to form and will spell chaos if it gets too strong. They need to investigate it and let me know what they find. If they know anything, I want to know. Do you understand?" Laz asked, his voice both a whisper and a command.
"Yes!" Mercy responded with no other choice.
"Good. Now go. Come find me when you have something to tell me," Laz said, dropping his hand and the illusion.
True, Laz could actually bring her into his core and see the things he was showing her for real, but this was easier and took far less energy, making the risk of detection almost non-existent.
When Mercy came back to, she was still on the ground and Laz was still looking at her, but the intensity of his gaze was gone. Instead, he wore a small smile as though having just found a cute animal that he was enjoying the antics of.
"W.... what.... what are... you?" Mercy managed to stammer out while taking short, quick breaths.
"Go," Laz responded, obviously refusing to answer. He then turned and walked about, without so much as a backwards glance.
It was only once Laz was out of sight that Mercy was able to calm herself enough to stand... only to find that she had, actually, wet herself.
Even then, she couldn’t take her eyes away from the direction Laz had gone, wondering just what kind of monster she had provoked.
