Chapter 239: Aligning Paths
Rising to his feet, White walked right up to the bartender, leaning slightly forward and whispering.
"Clean these cups very well. Use water if you can."
He said, passing both cups to him before reaching behind the bartender and grabbing the same shot of Tequouise.
In the club, it was common sense that only the bartender could access the drinks and pour them into cups, yet White reached for it himself.
A vein of anger popped up on the face of the already frowning bartender as he watched White take a cup by the side, clean it with his handkerchief, and pour a shot for himself.
He returned the drink to the shelf, grabbing the cup, only for him to pause when the bartender’s hand wrapped around his, stopping him.
"You need to leave."
He spoke every word slowly and threateningly as a dangerous aura began to rise from him.
But then, a creeping darkness spread out from beneath White’s feet, stretching to the far corners of the bar.
In an instant, every single action paused as all sensed the nauseatingly dark death aura lingering in the air, with some people even shifting back to avoid it.
The one who felt it the most was none other than the bartender, whose eyes watched White’s hair slowly turning dark and lengthening.
His eyes slowly raised, revealing an empty void of darkness, and then came the whisper.
"Can you repeat that once more?"
There was no threat behind the words, yet an unexplainable chill covered the bartender as he watched his own hand wrapped around White’s begin to shake uncontrollably from fear.
He jerked his hand away at the icy coldness as White’s transformation stopped, the shadows sinking back into him while his hair slowly returned to its natural coily white.
He returned to his seat, quietly taking a sip before turning to the man in white.
"I don’t feel pain from people’s weakness."
So he had poured away a poisoned drink and had been misunderstood, yet he should feel pain?
Why?
Because they were all too weak to realize that his drink had been poisoned?
Or should he have drunk it anyway to appear like a nice guy and not hurt their little weak hearts?
"That’s quite unexpected."
The man in white said, grinning quietly.
"I expected one rumored to be the fake Emissary of Life and Soul to be more... kind and pleasing to people."
He said to White.
"And you’re what... one of the four or five Emissaries of Darkness?"
White replied.
Of course, he had been able to notice that.
When the man had raised his cup and said, "To the darkness," White had suspected that he had just met one of the so-called Emissaries of Darkness.
"One of five... You make it sound like an inconsequential thing."
The man in white noted, turning to White, who shrugged while taking a sip.
"I am curious about one thing, though."
He asked.
"What is it?"
"Are you the Darkness Emissary that caused the Apexial Doom Rift?"
White asked, looking directly at him.
At the question, he smiled, bringing his cup up and taking a sip.
"And what if I am?"
"Want to beg me to open it and send the Supernaturals all away... or maybe you would copy my soul and ability so you can send them away yourself."
"Hahahaha!"
The man’s brows creased slightly as he watched White suddenly begin to laugh instead.
It wasn’t forced laughter. If anything, it was White himself trying to suppress it.
He half succeeded, gaining control of himself before forcing out,
"You really think that after the Supernaturals slaughtered five billion of my people, I would beg you to open a space portal and send them safely back to their world? Hahahaha."
"So... what do you want then with the Apexial Doom Rift?"
He asked as White calmed himself, about a minute of silence passing before he replied.
"I’ve been thinking of a thought ever since I learned the Apexial Doom Rift was a being’s creation."
White began.
"And it is imagining me standing before the Supernaturals, all of them, dangling in their faces the key to their survival, the key to returning to their world, yet instead of giving them the key..."
"I crush it right before their faces, then slaughter every single last one of them."
He said, and the grin on the white-haired man’s face widened to his ears.
"Tell me, Emissary of Darkness, don’t you think that level of despair would at least come close to the despair they’ve forced onto us from the beginning?"
"I absolutely agree."
The man said, taking up his cup, to take a sip, but then,
RIIIIIIIIIIIIP!
The sound of something tearing through the neck caught the attention of everyone in the bar as gasps escaped the lips of some.
SPLATTTTER!
Blood and wine splattered onto the ground from the throat of the man in white.
Its source was a deep gash that had ripped apart half his neck, leaving all the wine he was drinking pouring back onto the table.
He collapsed onto the table right after, his hand clenching around his bleeding throat.
White downed the last of his drink before grabbing a handkerchief by the side and wiping away the blood from his claws.
He lowered himself to the man’s ear and whispered,
"That’s for poisoning my drink..."
A blue halo rippled out from him after, and instantly, he disappeared from the bar.
The second he was gone, the others finally snapped out of it, many rushing toward the bleeding man on the table, yet halfway before they could reach him,
FLICKER!
The right eye of the man, the triangular rune in his eye, to be exact, suddenly glowed with light, and in that moment, the world came to a screeching stop.
It was as if time itself had frozen under that single brilliant flicker of light, and quietly, the man raised his head from the table.
The blood pouring down from his throat seemed to reverse through time as it all began flowing back into his neck.
Even the blood on his garments followed the exact path it had taken while pouring down him in the first place.
The wine on his shirt also moved back into his throat before gathering back into his cup, as he himself returned to the motion of grabbing the cup before drinking.
With him sitting in the bar and everyone else frozen around him, the man quietly stirred the wine in his cup, and slowly, a smile spread across his face.
"And here I thought there could be no interesting person among such a lower life-hierarchy race."
He whispered to himself, downing his drink in one gulp before rising to his feet and stretching his body.
He looked at the people who were still frozen in motion before turning his head to the northeastern direction and whispering,
"Should I kill him now...seems like a waste?"
He asked, almost to no one in particular, but then,
RIIIIIIIIIIP!
The sound of space being ripped echoed through the bar as a line of darkness appeared from the space above his head.
Shock flashed in the man’s eyes as he turned up, witnessing the line widen until it formed the abyssal maw of an unknown creature.
"His path faintly aligns with mine. Let him live... for now, Duncan."
The mouth spoke, the words echoing like the roar of a thousand demons before it slowly disappeared, space mending itself back together.
The man remained rooted where he was, staring at the blank space before grinning.
"If that’s what you wish..."
In the next moment, he disappeared into thin air as if he had never existed in the first place, and three seconds after he was gone,
Time suddenly resumed. Those frozen in place began moving once more, only to halt abruptly as their eyes turned forward.
The man they had wanted to help was no longer there.
There was no blood, nor was there any drink, leaving all of them in a state of confusion.
"Was I hallucinating?"
"I think I did too."
______________________
"It’s almost like I knew I would find you here..."
The words echoed behind White, who sat on a high platform, one of his legs curled up while the other dangled off the ledge.
Directly beneath him was a massive arena where eight people were engaged in a brutal battle.
He turned away from it, looking to the side, and it was none other than the blue-haired man, Llumino.
"Finally finished with her?"
White asked as Llumino collapsed onto his butt beside him.
"All done. And hey, don’t get any second ideas. It’s not how it seems at all."
Llumino added as White chuckled.
"Of course."
He said, turning to look back down.
There was a quiet moment of silence as both of them watched the royal rumble happening below before Llumino finally broke the silence.
"I heard some horned guy had a skirmish with the bartender and seemed to stab someone in the throat, though some are saying that’s some hallucination of sorts, as they couldn’t find the stabbed man or blood in a moment after."
