~Long Chapter~
A room containing a bed and the most necessities for human sustainability was what Neil currently occupied from an Inn closer to the gates of Shea City. Subtle rays of moonlight permeated through the room from the square glass window, subsequently a gentle night breeze rendered a calmness that otherwise blended with the young Neil who sat on the edge of the window looking up at the glistening moon that peeked through the openings of the grey clouds.
His long, cascading hair and robe danced rhythmically to the breeze subsequently his azure eyes reflected the moonlight to reveal their inherent beauty but an abysmal darkness lurked in them. Yet in this tranquility remained the truth of The Dark Tetrad Continent which could never be ridden and that is the inherent amount of death, destruction, and malice that lingered in the air. Neil could feel and see it all, the theft, murders, the rape. Morality was nothing more than a sham, true depravity was being played out in its beauty.
Once more the young Neil was cautioned of what place he just stepped in but that didn't bother him too much so he began ruminating, summarizing the information he acquired from the clerk like this:
The Noble Evergreen was 1 of the 3 noble houses within Shea City whose influence was considered minute compared to the other 2 which were namely, CloudEye and Dawnbreak (Just trying to keep my originality). These three houses had their territories in the city and throughout the country thus compared to others of the same societal standing these 3 houses ruled them all.
Evergreen is a house that deals with artifacts and metallurgy. They own 90% percent of this market thus most artifacts ranging from swords, sabers, etc circulating in the city are made by them. Foreign artifacts are also apparent in the city considering people from all over the continent visit or decide to settle in the city.
CloudEye controls the finances in the city which also makes them the most wealthy proportionally making them a very strong noble House due to the many manuals, scriptures, and artifacts they can purchase from all over the continent. Dawnbreak is more of a military powerhouse boasting the strongest Nobel House in the City and in the top 2 in the entire country.
Louise and Ernest according to the clerk belong to a subsidiary branch of the Evergreen household which is situated within the city moreover they have a large standing and influence which allows them to do as they please as long as their actions don't break the rules of their House or the city.
But, what the clerk knew was limited and couldn’t be considered reliable. Neil knew this but it was enough, simply because the house of Evergreen was not an ENEMY or was an enemy he wished to make out of it unless the circumstances were that dire. Louise and Ernest indeed wished him dead and killing them would be as simple as breathing yet he wouldn’t be able to because killing them could lead to a problematic situation where the House would hunt him down moreover he had no confidence of winning. So, Neil thought of something rather insidious and daring…
‘And as for the little mouses tomorrow...’, Neil chuckled evilly and remained looking at the beautiful moon with a slight excitement brewing in his mind.
What would’ve been the oceanic blue skies and rays of the rising sun permeating the country to let a little love delve into the world were greyish clouds that hovered above inviting a fresh breath of death. Although the city was under rule, that couldn’t directly rid the inherent character of this continent and its natives who death was but a religion and to do evil was one step to heaven.
Within the room, Neil had mediated and awoke with his azure irises glowing menacingly, moreover, a certain mysteriousness lingered in them exerting a frightening bottomless abyss that seemingly halted the air.
He stood up and donned his garments which were in an azure-black hue and a long black robe that reached the edges of the ground revealing only his bare feet and a collar around his neck that was long and large enough to completely isolate his mouth and nose (Think of the Akatsuki Cloak from Naruto) thus highlighting his eyes even more. His cascading black hair remained untouched yet retained its shine and form and it was then Neil left the room as if he was never there in the first place directly placing his attention to the meeting area.
“Seems the last member is late”, A voice filled with a tone of ridicule sounded in the vicinity, it wasn’t deep but shallow with a slight annoyance attuned to it.
“Hphm, thinking they're all-important huh...” Another voice sounded out but this time was deep and had a commanding tone to it.
“Well, how about we intimidate and scare the newbie after all Ernest said his quite young”, A sadistic feminine voice sounded out.
The final voice didn’t sound out but remained silent. Finally, after all this …
” Hold on everyone, he’ll be here soon”, that voice, a voice Neil would immediately recognize if he was currently here. It was Ernest’s voice; he brought stability amongst the complaints with a sly smile. He looked at everyone and began speaking,” Well instead of complaining about his whereabouts how about we keep focus on the target.”
Ernest suggested as the group awaited Neil’s arrival.
“If we don’t include the pre-attainted information this Ace character is very mysterious, in fact, doesn’t it seem abnormal how ‘Ace’ disappears with every theft.”, The deep voice said.
“Well Ace does possess a [Composite] concept and it can only relate to the [Spatial] concept which has a reputation for its elusiveness and exquisite ability to move through space nearly unhindered”, the sadistic voice sounded out with intelligence, quite rare for such a character.
“Indeed, after all, a [Composite] concept is several different concepts combined to form a new concept but on the basis that the concepts acquired relate to each other very significantly then after the new concept mutates to synthesize to what we call [Composite]. While an individual may be able to gain different and related concepts, if they aren’t similar to the highest degree then the mutation has a less chance of occurring.
This term we call [Extreme Compatibility], so to summarize, the user needs to achieve [Extreme Compatibility] with his varying concepts, and only then will they have the opportunity to form a new concept that becomes [Composite].
Of course, achieving a [Composite] concept means the individual is already in the [Corporal Aspect] because a [Composite] concept is one of the requirements.
Achieving such a feat requires patience and a certain level of skill and this eventuality leads the user to exert more power and slay any [CINTH] beneath the [Corporal Aspect] and although we are all in the [Ethereal Aspect] it doesn't necessarily mean we can't win. That's why I brought all of you here because of the uniqueness of your concepts that can counter his.", Ernest briefly elaborated on the context to convey understanding to the figures amongst him.
“Hmm...”, The once silent voice made an agreeing hum, nodding in response to emphasize such truth.
“So, I’m sure you understand why we recruited you all on this task. It will not be easy”, Ernest looked at all of them with a smile on his face.
Silence reigned; nobody knew what these 4 silhouettes were thinking but in such a continent where ‘evil’ was a commodity it obviously couldn’t be good. As the discussion concluded the vicinity was occupied by a slight breeze and a male appeared, walking up to Ernest from behind. The male was clad in azure-black garments whilst a long black robe ran above the garments screening his body. A face was visible but only the eyes were observable if one gazed upon him, subsequently his feet remained exposed and most would get the impression that he didn’t wear any footwear but that didn’t matter to the male in scene, Neil Axiom.
He finally made it to the meeting area after a few twists and turns throughout the journey. He halted just a few feet from Ernest.
“You finally made it, Neil. I was beginning to think you maybe got lost or something”, Ernest turned around and relayed what was on his mind the moment he saw Neil.
“So, this is the last member huh?”, the voice filled with ridicule gazed upon Neil with a menacing look.
“The term ‘fashionably late’ definitely fits this situation quite well”, the figure with the deep voice was obviously amused by his joke and was also meant to antagonize Neil.
“Ernest was right on the money, you are very young”, the sadistic feminine voice smiled crazily.
“Hmm...”, the final member only nodded at Neil.
Neil looked at Ernest and didn’t respond to that. He looked at the four figures, closely examining each one as the information he read through from the [Thero-Cortex] came rushing past his mind.
The ridiculing voice was a middle-aged man with pale white skin, and silver hair which was tied into a ponytail that corresponded with the color of his sharp eyes. He wore plain greyish robes and open sandals, furthermore, he had a rather geometric face and blemishes that represented someone of his stature. A long sword remained sheathed and stashed on his left side waist, through all this was a mischievous smile that remained upon his lips. The classic proud swordsman he was, the name, [Lyc].
The second member Neil identified was a tall fit tanned young male who surprisingly had that deep commanding voice. He had long black braided hair, and an oval-like face, his upper body was adorned with a sleeveless chainmail and military-style leggings that all corresponded with his hair color yet what caught Neil’s attention was that he was blind. Behind his back was a slim, long javelin pole that exuded an aura of danger in Neil’s observation. He seemed able to interact with the environment and the rest without any effort. A sense of mysteriousness is all that Neil could analyze from him. [Angon] was his name.
He averted his gaze to look at a female who was smiling at him with a sadistic expression. She was not tall but was only a few centimeters shorter than Angon, she had short spiky red hair that complimented her one functioning right eye with the same color. An eyepatch screened her left eye, moreover, she had a long scar that spanned from the left side of her lip to her cheek just stretching close to the lower ear. She was the definition of a battle maniac who sought destruction and defeat of her opponents regardless of the consequences and because of this she was not a great beauty but had a unique charm about her that screamed ‘badass’. She wore a smoky red dress that was complimented by the black fittings that tightly stuck to her skin accentuating the little bit of feminine charm she could convey. Neil knew who she was from the moment he saw her, [Skyler].
The final member was just absolutely inconspicuous, nothing could be understood from this person. The member was adorned with a space black robe that beleaguered their whole figure leaving Neil unable to identify the gender of this person as they also wore a mask that was inscribed with many runic images to prevent any sensing abilities from penetrating the mask and seeing the person under it. Neil looked at this figure the longest and nodded to respond to the earlier gesture. [Yoke] was the name of this figure.
‘Lyc, Angon, Skyler and Yoke. Quite the interesting individuals once you get to meet them in person’, Neil thought then looked at Ernest,” I had some trouble finding this place.”
“Oh well, since we are all here, we can begin now. According to the reports our little rat is treading around the plains near the city of [Antea] which is only approximately 78.9 Km South East from our current location. It should only take a single day to arrive in the area and by my guess our rat is probably encountering trouble to escape from our grasp. So, we shall begin the journey immediately, ready?”, Ernest relayed to the five [CINTH].
“Hehehe, this will be quite fun”, Skyler chuckled with a wide smile plastered on her face still looking Neil dead in the eye. It was unknown whether this phrase was directed at the fun she would have hunting Ace or ‘playing’ around with Neil.
“Let’s get this over with”, Angon said as he began walking in the direction Ernest pointed in.
“Skyler is right Angon, this will be fun”, Lyc laughed out loud following Angon in his laughter thereafter Skyler followed suit but not before winking at Neil with her one eye.
Ernest looked at Neil then turned away from him to catch up with his 3 ‘colleagues’. Neil stood still, looking at them depart which then brought his attention back to Yoke who stared at him briefly before turning away to follow the group. Neil looked in the direction where the group went and slightly smiled before following.
Why he smiled? Well, that’s only for our young Neil to know.
‘Let the games commence’.
{I apologize for the information dump but it was necessary to get this out of the way. They will be a little bit more so I can finally round up the power system and continue with the story. I also decided to describe the characters as much as possible to give you my readers a more vivid impression of their appearances. Look forward to the next chapter because that's when the battle begins.}
{Quick Notice: There are four countries in the whole [Dark Tetrad Continent]. We will explore them all in this arc.
Quick recap: MC currently is in the [Dark Tetrad Continent] and in the [Rein] country. Following that, the MC is in a city
called [Shea] and the 3 Noble houses are [CloudEye], [Dawnbreak] and
[Evergreen]. They each have a subsidiary branch in the city.}
