Chapter 18: Bottom Of The Food Chain
"Awoo" The wolf emitted a short but powerful howl while slowly closing in.
Hearing the howl Aleran's face turned serious. 'I have to run before the rest of the pack arrives!' Without wasting time he turned and fled along the shore of the river.
The wolf seeing its prey escaping and guided by its instincts, gave chase. Aleran could hear the footsteps of the wolf getting closer and closer. With every breath he gave, and for every step he made the wolf strides got them closer together. 'This won't do, it's too fast!'
He abruptly turned around only to catch the wolf already in the air, jumping with his fangs going straight for his neck. Aleran almost couldn't react but, at the last moment, while seeing everything in slow motion, he managed to grab the head of the animal with his two hands. Keeping the closing jaws scarce inches away from his neck.
This feat that saved his life also made him drop to the ground with the beast on top trying to bite something, anything, out of him. The beast was so strong that every time it moved the head, it dragged Aleran through the floor. Only thanks to his enhanced strength did Aleran managed to get a firm hold of the beast.
'Tssss' "arrggg" A growl of pain came out of Aleran thanks to the acid saliva that started to drop on his neck and chest. He didn't want to open his mouth in case some of that acid dropped inside.
It was in this moment of peril that Aleran, with his two hands still holding the head of the creature, concentrated on his image. In his right hand, he created a negative pole filled with negatively charged particles. Whereas in his left hand he did the exact opposite, creating a positive pole.
With a quick movement, Aleran put his hands on the temples of the beast losing some grip. but managing to get his hands at the hight where the brain of the creature was. He opened the circuit in the spirit veins inside his fingers and the charge naturally flowed.
"Welcome to the electric chair, mother fucker!" Forgetting about the risk of getting acid in his mouth and even the Eleemes language and speaking in English, Aleran shouted. With a voice mixed with fear and rage, he unleashed the attack.
'tzzzzz' With the current passing through its body, the beast whined while convulsing, losing control of its limbs and the rest of the body. The yellow eyes of the wolf started to bleed and then they started to melt. The toxic saliva started to boil while the rest of the wolfs face contorted in an unsightly grimace. One of its hind legs, due to the strong convulsions, suffered a fracture and was bent in a wrong way. Aleran could feel the heat burning his hands but he couldn't stop now, not until the beast breathed its last.
To Aleran every second felt like an hour as he focused on the image and at the same time he dogged the convulsing limbs of the wolf.
"Ahhhhgggg" This time the growl of pain coming from Aleran was much louder. In the middle of the involuntary movement, one of the paws of the animal crossed paths with Aleran right shoulder. Luckily for Aleran, the long claws didn't reach the bone and just grazed the flesh.
The beast whole body stopped moving and with a smoking head, it dropped on top of Aleran. The dead weight of the wolf almost crushed him and with an injured shoulder it cost him double to shake the body off him.
"Haa... Haa... Haa." Gasping and trembling Aleran stood up and grabbed his shoulder. The wound was not that deep luckily the wolf was not aiming at him, it was convulsing without a target. It hurt, but to him, the pain was common currency by now.
He looked at his hands with the tip of his fingers burnt black and the rest of his hand red hot. 'I can't avoid hurting myself while I do this, although the burning looks worse than the last night, in fact, is only the flesh that got damaged. My spiritual veins seem able to handle this level of power although it still feels like I am straining them it is not hurting them. Last night I only got my whole fingers burnt but the spiritual veins were damaged.
He looked at his legs, they were wet. The wolf lost control of its sphincters. "Seriously? Every damn time I have a fight I will end up with fricking piss on me! What the hell man!" Remembering the fight in the cell when he used the waste bucket to knock out the guard and then when he first arrived at this world. Every time something like this happened. He was truly grossed out by now.
"To think that at some point in time, this method of killing was considered clean back on earth. I guess they didn't have to smell it." But to Aleran those times where almost ancient, he didn't know anything about electric chairs. In his time the executions where through nanobots that entered the prisoner body and stopped the heart from the inside. Then, they could be gathered and re-used every time. He certainly didn't expect to watch how the muscles of the wolf face contorted and much less to smell the burnt eyes and flesh. ' Probably, the wolf was so big that it was impossible to kill it instantly with my power.'
Although he said it was like an electric chair, the idea was more similar to a stun gun. But a much deadlier one and with more power. "Half of my qi...I knew the cost was going to be big, but this is too much. Not to mention that I have to be in close contact with the target." He didn't know that for someone at his level it was practically impossible to use images. Not only because of the limitation of using it only inside the spirit-veins but because at his level, the cultivator would not have that much knowledge.
This was the first way he thought off to use his image. But last time he ended up using a more drastic approach when he was surrounded by three enemies and their pet. The fact that he needed to touch the target was a huge set back for someone like him who didn't know martial arts.
Aleran raised his eyes from the corpse of the wolf and looked into the distance. From the place the wolf came, more started to appear. They were five, with four of them just as big as the first one, reaching Aleran's chest even in all fours. The one in the middle besides having the characteristic saliva also expelled some dark green smoke from its mouth. Only by the looks, Aleran knew that was the leader, and that smoke was bad news. 'Some kind of toxic gas?' Looking at the plants touched by the gas wither rapidly he guessed it was similar to the saliva but with a further reach.
Without taking the gas into account, only the five wolves together were enough for Aleran to know what to do. 'I have to run, there is no other choice! If luck is with me, the distance between us is enough for them to give up. Its a shame the attack of the other night was a one time attack. I already spent all my remnant energy in that attack, only when my level gets higher it would be an option. '
He dashed following the river downstream. With the wolf spiting smoke at the lead the beasts gave chase immediately. And, as the leader ran, the smoke left a trail that covered the other wolves that ran behind. With the only exception being the last and smaller wolf that was too slow and was barely keeping up.
They were closing in, the leader was especially fast and seemed the most eager to hunt him down. ' Shit! I thought my speed was similar to theirs. But no matter the initial distance, they are faster than me and will reach me quickly. I better climb some tree, that could be a solution...'
"Baaam!" One of the rocks in the shore suddenly shot up toward the smaller wolf at the rear. It fiercely pierced the soft stomach and took the beast down leaving it without strength to complain.
The familiar sound made Aleran turn his head while running to see what happened behind. At the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of the last wolf. He could see the antennae of the rock beast he saw before, grabbing hold of the wolf. And even from that distance, he could hear how the rock thing was mercilessly bitting through its flesh.
The other wolves seemed to be so focused on the persecution they didn't notice their decrease in numbers. Either that or they didn't care enough to stop the hunt.
Looking ahead, Aleran started to notice the small rocks that plagued the river, some were real rocks but others were certainly beasts in hiding. He couldn't tell them apart while running. 'It's like a minefield. This may be good news!' Since the wolves were much bigger targets it made sense to Aleran that the rocks would prefer to attack them instead of him. So he chose to follow the river and see what happened.
"Baam!...Baam!...Baam!" Three more rock beats attacked, but their target were not the wolves but the skinny and hard to hit human. Two were too late and the last one almost caught him with its tough antennae that looked more like tentacles now. "What the-?... Are these things really that dumb?"
For a moment Aleran was confused and afraid, the wolves were dangerously close and his plan had failed without a logical reason. But then he turned around to see how the wolves were faring and noticed the thick green smoke covering the leader that left a trail also covering the rest of the pack.
'So that's it, I should have noticed before. Change of plans then.' Changing course, he ran for the closest tree and jumped with all his might barely grabbing hold of a thick branch. He raised his legs to avoid one of the wolves that jumped going for a bite it. He climbed onto the branch with an agile movement and now standing on top he was forced to dodge to the side. The wolf leader with a single amazing jump succeeded in rising above the branch and lunching his body at Aleran. After dodging and without stopping, Aleran jumped to another close branch that was higher. As he was arriving a wolf jumped and almost bite off one of Aleran's feet.
Now out of reach, he looked down at the wolf he assumed was the leader amazed by its power. ' I almost didn't reach the first branch but that wolf jumped over it, I can't believe I killed one of these things. I'm lucky they are not made to climb trees.'
'Huh?' His sense of safety didn't last long as the bigger wolf started to produce massive amounts of toxic gas that was slowly creeping up, withering all the leaves and life in its way. "Am I really worth all this trouble? Look how skinny I am you stupid animal!" While yelling to release his frustration he quickly started to jump from tree to tree trying to get away from the wolves. Even with his strength and speed, it wasn't an easy feat. The branches were slippery with some growing moss on them.
'This tree looks big enough for the wolves to stop-' Even before he could look down a vine that was resting on the tree suddenly came to life and wrapped itself on his ankle. He was thrown off balance and fell, the branch was so wide that he didn't have a risk of falling off the tree but the wolves, nevertheless, inched closer in anticipation.
Aleran looked at his leg to see a vine filled with thorns taking a firm hold of him. He had been so focused on the wolves that he missed the mean looking vine resting on the tree.
The thing started to pull him closer to a gap that was in the bark of the tree. ' I don't know what's inside that hole but I sure as hell won't wait to find out.' With some effort, he created a small electric arc between his thumb and index finger, it looked more like a spark than an electric arc. That was enough to start a small fire on the vine that spread faster than he had thought.
From the inside of the tree, a piercing screech of pain filled the area. The vine lost strength and Aleran was finally able to retrieve his leg. After getting off the remains of the vine he was left with a leg filled with wounds and with a first-degree burn.
The rest of the vine retreated into the hole in the tree. The interior lit up for a second showing a deformed shadow and then the fire and the screech died out. Not knowing if the thing that tried to kill him was still alive he stood up. and without a second thought, Aleran jumped to the next tree. Now paying more attention to where he stepped.
It only took a while for the wolves on the ground to realize the human was now truly safe. With one last unwilling look, the massive wolves turned around at the same time as if they had one mind, and disappeared between the undergrowth.
'Maybe my inner qi is what's so appealing to them, it's not like I can prove it but that would make sense.' He looked at the place he came from with a frown. ' I can't go back those wolves are not that far. It's better to find another path and then go back to the river later. For now, I will find a place to rest. Tomorrow morning I'll try to find the river again.'
'On a closer look, the trees don't look like the best option to move.' As he paid more attention he found more and more of those vines all joined to some hole in the tree. "This forest is a deadly trap. Old man, where in hell have you sent me to?"
With a little time to rest, he made a quick session of meditation to regain his lost qi that, after the running and fighting, it was almost depleted. Soon after he finished he was startled by some rustling in the bushes. Not wanting to stay and find out what it was, he jumped carefully from tree to tree a little more.
The vines were so well hidden that he wasted too much time to make sure the next tree was safe. Tired of being in constant lookout for them, he jumped down and started to walk faster. It was starting to get darker and under the forest canopy, the light from the moons did not show itself.
Looking for an adequate place, he found a small clear and after piling a few dead branches and leaves he started a bonfire. His image resulted convenient to lit the fire just like he did with the vine.
He rested his back on a tree that he previously checked. He couldn't see very well in the darkness, but he tried to check there were no evil vines hanging low near the base. Besides some weird looking fruits hanging from the tree he could see nothing else.
For a moment he allowed himself to relax, spending so much energy two days in a row left him exhausted. Even though he had slept something when he fell unconscious, it was merely for a few hours. Without anything to eat he needed to sleep more badly than he thought. That instant was enough for him to fall soundly asleep without caring about his surroundings.
Matthew was sitting with his family again, having lunch altogether. They were eating pasta like all Sundays at noon. His mother, the most kind and loving woman he had ever met, made a habit to cook pasta every Sunday. Though his father didn't like it, he was forced by the majority of the house to compromise and join this custom. His father may have his defects, but he always put his children above everything. If they liked pasta that much, he was willing to eat it every day if it made his children happy. Maybe he spoiled his son and daughter a little too much.
Mathew was in a good mood, last night he had had a horrible nightmare. Where he was alone and lost in a forest filled with all kind of dangers. It was of those nightmares that fell so real that by the time you wake up and realize everything is normal you can't help but feel grateful for what you have.
"Matt, have you thought what do you want to eat tonight? It will be our last dinner together in who knows how long. "His mother asked while serving their food.to the family one by one.
"Mmm... I don't know, I already ate my fill of sushi yesterday." He had gone with his friends to eat his favorite food in a Japanese restaurant. As his friends heard he was going on an expedition they decided to throw him a farewell party. It was a much-needed break from studies and lab work for Matthew.
"Then, I will try to surprise you. Oh!" As she was serving some salsa was spilled on his shirt. " Don't worry I will clean it fast, is just a small spot. Today you don't have to do anything." His mother grabbed a napkin, put one hand on his shoulder and started to wipe the stain.
Matthew watched the spaghetti with some reminiscence, for some reason he felt a nostalgic sensation even though he remembered eating some last month. "Uh, Mom, What are you doing?" He felt his mothers hand on his neck."
"Mom?" The hand started to squeeze, and when he looked at her face it was still smiling. But it was a stiff smile as if she wasn't able to stop smiling no matter how she forced it to go away.
The hand started to squeeze even harder and Matthew could feel his lungs asking for air. "Mom?!" he screamed hoarsely with what was left of his air. He looked at his father seat but he wasn't there anymore, neither his baby sister. He tried to struggle but suddenly his arms turned short and his hands small.
"It's all a lie! Why didn't you tell me?! WHY DID YOU KEEP IT A SECRET?!" Her mother yelled but her smile was still plastered into her face. Matthew started to feel his vision blur, he was going to die.
With an abrupt movement, Aleran sat up but as he tried to breathe, nothing happened. His lungs were still screaming for air. He opened his eyes but darkness was all he saw. He tried to touch his face and something slimy came in contact with his hands, then he realized something was stuck to his head making suction noises. His desperation started to mount as he moved his body and hands without knowing what to do.
'There's something on my face and is suffocating me!' He tried to punch the problem away, but nothing happened. His second reaction was to electrocute the damn thing but he restrained from doing it. 'It's too dangerous to use when is so close to my face. A burned visage would be the best result while the worst could be death. What do I do?' He was starting to despair, he was feeling dizzy from the lack of air, at any moment he would fall unconscious. Aleran could also feel the thing in his face slightly tugging at his inner qi. 'Is it trying to suck my inner qi?'
"crack" 'Thats right! the bonfire!' The cracking sound of the bonfire revived Alerans hopes. Following the noise and the heat he reached the bonfire and got his head on top of it. Due to the lack of time, he couldn't worry about getting burned. At least it was less dangerous than the electric option. He only wanted the damn thing, whatever it was, to get a painful death.
"kyyaaaa." A weird screech came out of the creature. It first clutched harder and during a short second Aleran thought that he was really going to die. But it seemed that was the last dying struggle of the creature as it lost its grip and fell, screaming, into the fire.
A more than welcome mouthful of air brought Aleran back from death's door. His face was covered by a slimy substance and bubbles took form every time he exhaled. He just sat there grabbing his head and breathing roughly. For a moment his head went back to the dream he just had. ' I miss them... more than I thought I would.' It took him a while to gather his bearings and look at the culprit of this whole situation.
A giant leach that was now dead, getting cooked by the fire and expelling an awful odor. He looked at the flames that had grown smaller since he went to sleep. ' Between man-eating trees, bullet rocks, and giant wolves, this leach was the one who got closer to kill me. But where did it come from? It doesn't look like a fast animal.'
Aleran looked around, after finding nothing he looked at the tree where he had supported his back. There he caught sight of a trail of slime coming from the top of the tree. He tilted his head upwards and noticed the strange fruits. Now, with the darkness slowly receding, he could see them clearly.
They were no fruits but dozens of those leaches hanging from the branches, some directly stuck to the main trunk. This was not the only tree with those leaches, they were everywhere if you knew what you were looking for.
The top of these trees looked lifeless, filled with withered leaves and dying bark. Compared to the bottom that was filled with green they were like another tree altogether. 'Okay, lesson learned. No sleeping near the trees.'
With the light of down and after composing himself, he decided to find his way back to the river. He started walking with an injured shoulder, a scarred chest and a leg filled with holes surrounded by burned patches of skin. Not to mention the tiny cut and bite marks all over his body. Each one of those injuries was proof that he had come out alive from a deadly situation. Most people would have collapsed from the pain alone but to Aleran this was nothing compared with the pain of the soul. With that said, it hurt, and a lot, but he gritted his teeth and continued.
The next hour, he searched for the mushrooms that had guided him before without success. And after a while, Aleran was starting to believe that he was walking in circles. Every tree and every part of the forest started to look the same.
'I need a vantage point to look for the river.' With a frown, he regarded the trees around and started to search for the tallest one in the area. It didn't take long to reach a thick tree, covered in moss and so tall that Aleran could not see the end of it. 'I have bad experiences when it comes to the trees of this forest but I have to climb it.'
The climb was a long one, he was very careful not to fall prey of another weird trap but more than that he was severely injured. Though he could deal with the pain his mobility had been slightly compromised. The other main reason for his delay was the size of the tree, that was around 200 hundred meters tall.
When he reached the top, he was able to see the carpet of trees that extended everywhere. The carpet had some patches of other colors such as red, yellow, and even black. But they were small areas in comparison. There was not a single cloud in the sky, so the conditions for his search could not be better.
He had been lucky enough to find this tree, for what he could tell, there were few trees taller than this one.
Aleran changed positions many times in search of a tinge of blue in the endless green of this landscape. ' How can this be? The river is really wide yet I can't see even a glimpse of it.' After doing a 360 degrees search, he found nothing. The canopy was too thick to see anything besides a few clears showing solid ground. ' This can't be, I remember there was some space between the trees and the river. Which is normal when rivers tend to cause floods and uproot the trees. I should be able to see something.'
'The next best option is to go where the foliage is greener and more vivid. After setting the general direction I will try to look for some animal trails, the bigger the better, I'm no expert tracker after all. Eventually, it would lead me to the river since every animal needs water, well at least every animal I know off.' He had seen several of those trials while he was following the mushrooms but, for obvious reasons, he avoided those paths. ' It is risky but its the last resort.
As Aleran was focused again looking for greener areas to have a general direction to go something at the distance caught his attention. It started as a dot coming from beyond the northern mountains. And soon it transformed into a huge bird that was passing above the forest at an amazing speed. Though it was flying high, its size made him easy to spot.
'wooosh.' Every time its wings flapped, they created a gale that threatened to rip the trees from the base. Aleran had to hold with all his might to not get blown off. Squinting his eyes due to the strong winds, Aleran could clearly see the huge bird. It was of a bright orange color with black on its chest and had a crown of red feathers. While at its rear a long and wide red tail waved in the wind like the cape of an emperor.
As it was about to pass above him, Aleran felt a chill crawl up his spine. The proud black eyes of the bird made contact with his blue fearful eyes. But the bird's reaction surprised him enough to forget his awe. The moment it caught sight of him, the bird changed its course of flight deviating towards the left. Aleran looked at its eyes and noticed how the pride of the emperor vanished to be replaced by fear. ' Is it afraid of me?... No, no, that can't be, it must be something else.' Of course, Aleran could not believe that such a beast would be afraid of him. To that bird, he was as threatening as an ant could be.
It only lasted for a second, the speed of the bird allowed it to get from the northern mountain range to the southern one in an instant. But as it was passing above the southern mountains an earthquake shook the earth and the whole forest. Holding on the tree with all his might Aleran saw an unbelievable image.
A huge feathered serpent appeared out of nowhere coiled around the tallest mountain. It had been there all the time, camouflaged. Its feathers had the grey color of the mountain that made it impossible to differentiate from the other rocks.
As the bird closed in, the serpent changed its color to red with spots of green. This change happened at the same time as it stretched its body to the sky, going for the bird. Happening so fast, that it gave the impression of appearing out of nowhere. As the feathered snake reached for its prey with half of his body in the air, most of the mountain crumbled losing its spot as one of the tallest.
The bird reacted fast and dodged the bite of the snake, who after missing opened its mouth one more time, creating a vortex that sucked everything around.
'Whooooosh.' Torrents of air, dust, rocks and more importantly, source qi, started to get sucked by the feathered snake. With half of its body still in the air, the serpent looked like a pillar holding the skies. This tactic paid off as it managed to stop the bird from escaping.
But the bird was not going to stop without a fight… Aleran could swear that the world dimed and for a second it felt like a cloudy day. A brilliant ball of light gathered at the crown of the bird.
The serpent feeling threatened reversed the process of shallowing and instead, pure raw source qi came out of its mouth just in time to engage in a direct collision with a beam of light coming from the bird. From his point of view, Aleran could no longer see the bird and only saw the shadow of the serpent. The next thing he saw was pure whiteness.
"Boooom!" The resulting collision was immense. With the mountains as the center, a huge shockwave expanded outwards. The power and heat were such that the nearest trees and life forms were carbonized before they were blown out. Aleran was able to see how the shockwave expanded, uprooting trees and trowing animals in its wake.
Aleran could not see the end of the fight because the shockwave arrived before him in an instant. Even though it had lost some power when it reached him, and despite his own efforts to stay firm, Aleran was violently thrown off the tree. He was sent flying dozens of meters with the wind screaming into his ears.
Alerans heart stop for a moment, he knew the tree was so tall the fall could kill him. For a moment he gave up, this was it. 'No! Not again!' A few branches passed by him, but every time Aleran tried to grab them they were either too slippery or too weak, breaking with his weight.
The images of his previous death rushed through his mind, and more than that, the feeling of impotence he experienced at the moment. Like that time, he felt trapped, he lacked the power to survive this. He lacked control over his own destiny, he lacked freedom. His weaknesses were now his shackles.
Then, the sensation of power he felt when killing those guards took over his thoughts. He didn't like it, but it was this memory that made him feel he had some control, some chance to fight back against a sure death.
'NO! I can't die. I already decided to take control of my own destiny!' Halfway to his death, he found one of the vines with thorns, one of those he had been avoiding since their first encounter.
Aleran couldn't believe how glad he was at seeing that sinister thing. With a wave of his uninjured arm, he reached for the vine. Although Aleran couldn't grab a hold of it, a small touch was all it took for the vine to wrap around his arm thrusting its mean thorns on his flesh.
"rriiip" Although it managed to stop him for a second, the vine slowly started to rip apart. But the plant wasn't the only thing that got damaged. Besides the thorns creating new wounds, the sudden pull dislocated his arm. Eventually, the vine broke and he dropped into a much shorter fall. Apart from a blow in the head with a branch, and the pain of actually hitting the ground Aleran survived the fall.
When he stood up again he was stunned and confused from the blow in the head. And for no apparent reason, he started to walk aimlessly through the forest. Injured, he limped his way through the undergrowth but, without realizing a strange fog started to cover him and his surroundings.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
DriftingCloud123
DriftingCloud123 Long chapter. I wanted to finish the forest mini-arc here but it would be too long. Next chapter will be.
Thanks for reading.
Chapter 19: Silver Creek Asylum Incident Report
Silver Creek Asylum Incident Report.
Classification: Grade 3 (Minor leak of sensitive information).
The following report is an attempt on my part to reconstruct the events that took place the night of the incident in question. Followed by an analysis of the repercussions and my advice on how to handle the aftermath.
First, as the grade of the incident suggests, this is not an issue I dim worthy of bothering his majesty. But the complexity of this disturbance grants it enough importance to reach your capable hands, Red Moon Minister.
I arrived at the place on the 7th Ru of the eleventh day of this month, two days after the incident in question. The closest army station received an immediate support message coming from the warden in charge of the asylum. The message spoke of a mutiny and a high risk of escape. It also mentioned the man leading the scape, a well-known figure of the younger generation, Fedrin Levian. Whose situation we already know.
By the time the reinforcements arrived the situation had devolved into complete chaos. The warden had been killed and the rest of the guards were either fighting for their own survival or running away.
Fedrin Levian had previously gathered all the prisoners in the middle of the hall and destroyed their collars. Transforming them in simple scraps of metal. This, coupled with the warden's accurate decision ( according to his capabilities) of waiting for them outside, gave them the time to gather some qi. When reinforcements made it to the region the prisoners had spread everywhere. With some of them having reached the nearby Silver Creek village, sowing chaos and destruction in their wake.
With good judgment, the captain in charge of the reinforcements gave the order to kill on sight. And specifically ordered his soldiers to preserve the inside of the asylum as much as they could. This was done to avoid losing any important evidence.
According to the captains' report, the next day was spent killing and apprehending all prisoners that came in sight. Also, the forces made the effort to protect the nearby village and reorganize the scattered forces. At the moment of my arrival, they were still entangled in the search of more than 50 prisoners.
After a day of investigation at the scene, the picture of the whole incident started to become more clear. At first sight, there are two possible causes for this episode. With both causes having the common detonating factor of Fedrin Levian's escape. The first and less probable is a misplacement or an error on one of the restraints put on him. Be it for the guard's incompetence or another structural malfunction. This was what the guards believed had happened. Only that the lack of a sign of force being used on the door of his cell makes this theory flawed.
That leaves us with another more plausible theory. Fedrin Levian was aided by external forces. We all know that in recent years, the asylum and its "abnormalities" had grabbed the attention of neighboring countries. Making it a target of constant attempts of espionage.
This theory seems to be backed up by the testimony of some of the guards. They claimed that Fedrin Levian only helped to break out the prisoners of the first pavilion. While the rest of the prisoners escaped in a second wave much after Fedrin Levian left the building. Furthermore, some of the prisoners of the other pavilions that were captured alive and interrogated said to be freed by a guard. Or at least a man wearing the guard's uniform.
When questioned how the man looked, the prisoners till now had given different descriptions. We are still trying to figure out if it is a special technique used by the perpetrator to remain hidden or just the confusion of the prisoners. Be it as it may, the descriptions are unreliable and, for now, the identity of the man remains a mystery.
But is this man that gives credibility to the second theory. Although his identity is unknown, his intention of collecting information is undeniable. Some of the prisoners said they saw the man going first towards the fourth pavilion before freeing them.
The scene in the fourth pavilion is one of the most conspicuous. Some of the research specimens and prisoners there were killed by this man, with two of the dead showing clear signs of torture.
Looking further, the next thing that stands out is the hidden repository of the pavilion. The intruder took special care in destroying everything inside. And although we couldn't confirm it, I strongly believe the existence of the rainbow pill has been discovered.
The destruction of the repository made it impossible for us to know what he took and if he noticed some other sensitive documentation. Given the short time frame, it is unlikely the man could look after every subject thoroughly. But either way, we have to prepare for the possibility of him seeing through most of them and finding some of the research topics.
Normally, I would conclude this part of the report. But there was something that escaped my sight the first time. And thanks to this detail, I was able to find some other oddities. It was a small but important detail that stood out in a subtle way.
It was one of the common cells in the first pavilion, where everything began. To be precise it was not the cell per se that took my attention at first, but the door.
In its impatience, Fedrin Levian had freed the prisoners using brute force leaving all the cells without doors. All but one single cell. This one had its door opened just like Fedrin Levian's door was, without signs of force being used.
After a quick search, it was found out who lived in this cell. They were two people. The first was a nameless old man found in the Silver Creek village and thrown into the asylum for disturbing the public order. ( This was done by the guards and it is a clear violation of the protocol. But the documentation shows the old man was put through all the tests needed to asses his danger level. He was also handled correctly after assessing his threat as low and restricted accordingly. For these reasons the punishment will be postponed). The second inmate was Aleran Vistrage. He is the eldest son of Darim Vistrage and recently had suffered from a cultivation deviation. Thus he was sent here by his family, like many others. During his stay, he had recovered some of his mental faculties.
The strange thing is that neither of them should warrant the attention of the exterior force that freed them. Only one option comes to mind. The old man who didn't have a name was actually a spy in disguise. With that, it could make sense that he was released by some comrade. No matter what, in this case, the variable is the identity of this elder man. The Vistrage heir had his spirit veins crippled, making him of no value whatsoever. Only leaving the old man as the target of this favor.
Even so, I recommend keeping a watch over the Vistrage family. Although it doesn't make much sense to expose their child like this just to gather information. But the possibility of a connection with enemy intelligence agents, though low, is real.
The inside of that same cell only begs for more questions. Everything looks normal until another subtle detail shows itself. The standard waste bucket, that every cell has, its bent in a weird shape. As if someone had hit it with considerable force. The waste buckets are made of dense and heavy materials. This is to prevent the prisoners from destroying them or using them as weapons.
There are some reasons that come to mind as the why of this bucket. The most likely one is that it got used as a weapon during the chaos by one of the escapees who had regained his cultivation. But the fact that was found in the cell with the only remaining door standing, is strange.
We later discovered the dead body of a guard with a wound in the head, consistent with that same bucket, lying in the hallway. But the trauma in the head is not what killed the guard. Instead, he was killed by a necrophilic prisoner, who cut his throat with a piece of broken glass and then did unspeakable things to the corpse. When he was found, the prisoner was indulging in a sexual act dragging the corpse all over the hallway while occasionally stabbing it.
He was killed early by the reinforcements in a fit of righteous anger from the soldiers, so he could not be questioned. But the unusual thing was that the soldiers confirmed the prisoner did not have any cultivation whatsoever. Making it impossible for him to kill the guard.
Who struck the guard with the bucket? Was it the old man? Or the one who helped him escape was discovered and used the bucket as the last resource? That last one doesn't make much sense, to break in undetected one needs at least to be at the qi circulation, third phase. What use would be a metal bucket for someone at that level? To be honest we have no good theory besides that it was a real coincidence. The guard was hit in the head during the chaos with the bucket by someone else. And just so happened to be in that cell. But again it is too much of a coincidence
Then, did the old man figure a way to take off the collar and the struck with the bucket? This is extremely unlikely, the suppression of the collar was absolute. Only someone on the higher levels of cultivation could achieve that. But if he has that power then he would not have any need of creating that much chaos to escape or even showing himself. He could destroy anything on the surface totally unnoticed.
Another thing that contradicts this last theory is that there are no remains of any collar inside the cell. Suggesting that the old man's collar is lying in the pile of broken scrap metal were Fedrin Levian threw the rest of the broken collars.
Is my thinking wrong? Was an entirely different situation that took place?
Any more speculation will leave us running in circles and with baseless theories. But what is sure is that this old man and Aleran Vistrage have yet to be found and have now transformed into a priority of this investigation.
The last weird detail is the appearance of three carbonized corpses. They were found east from the asylum, in the middle of the grasslands. Together with the bodies was one of a sound seeker pierced by a sword. In this occasion, we count with the rare luxury of having two eyewitnesses.
They were originally five guards that were ordered by their warden to bring two of the domesticated sound seekers from the village to help him against Fedrin. A good plan, all things considered.
But midway, these guards came across two figures in the distance. The only thing these two witnesses could account for is the prisoners clothing these two figures were wearing. Being the weakest of the group their sight was also the worst.
In a clear sign of disobedience, the leader of their group decided to chase after them. The two eyewitnesses, being at the heaven opening second phase, were too slow to keep up with the speed of the escapees and the rest of the group. Thus, they missed the real action, something that ended up saving their lives.
But they kept running with the hopes of eventually reaching their team. As they were closing in, they saw a bright, blue light appearing in the horizon for an instant. And a few moments later, one of the sound seekers appeared before them, scared and trembling.
They first attributed the estate of the beast to the lack of proper training. If not trained well the beasts can get scared of the sounds of battle. But as they reached their comrades they found the three carbonized corpses.
We cannot confirm but is highly possible one of the two men that killed the guards, was the old man. With the other being his accomplice. And the light the witnesses saw was some kind of fire image.
The estimated power of the attacker is at the qi circulation mid or advanced phase. The three victims could not put up any kind of fight. The exact image used in this attack is still unknown. Although we believe it to be some kind of fire image we could not match the patterns with other known images. This could be because at the time we found the bodies a day had already passed. This wasted time made some evidence to be lost. But the way they died seems almost instantaneous as if they didn't know they had died till the very end. Something tells me there's more to this attack than meets the eye.
But this also brings more questions. If one of them was the old man How did he deceive us to make us believe he was in the second phase when he was clearly at a higher level? Even if he did not make the attack he had run at a speed clearly impossible by someone at the heaven opening, second phase.
Or was it not the old man one of the two figures? Also, who was his accomplice?
Another good question is if these people were working together with the man that entered the fourth pavilion?
And, where was Aleran? The other figure could not possibly be him if he was running at such high speed. Did the old man or his accomplice kill him in order to silence him? But Why would they take the trouble to hide the body?
Again I hit a wall with this line of thought. Every time one theory starts making sense I find something that contradicts or put some doubt on it. For now, we had deployed some forces in the vicinity of the Forest Of Eternal Nightmares. That is the only good hiding place going east. Of course, even at the qi circulation advance phase, the chances of surviving there, are slim. So as a hiding place is a double edge blade. Unless they have some sort of support waiting for them inside the forest. If so, it's possible the Sidrin Empire has some involvement in this incident.
But in these situations, nothing is as it seems and is better not to make any rash assumptions. In the end, to follow the suspects into the forest and give a real chase will need more specialized troops.
The reconstruction of this incident leaves us with many unanswered questions that will require further investigation. It is clear there's a key factor we are missing and will take time to figure out what it is. But this fact must not stop us from taking appropriate measures.
The first measure is to reinforce the security of the asylum. This is needed to keep the appearances, making it look like we take this incident seriously. This whole event could end up in our favor if we make the enemy spies believe we suffered a major loss.
Luckily, the underground facilities were not compromised. The Moonless special unit stationed underground were ordered to ignore everything that happened outside the facilities to keep maximum secrecy. During the whole incident, they stood on high alert in case something or someone could put in evidence the existence of the facilities.
But the credit in keeping the underground research grounds hidden goes to the deputy-head of the counterintelligence department. It was his idea to make the fourth pavilion a place similar to the underground pavilion but more exposed. Of course, most of the research material in the fourth pavilion were not truly classified material.
But to make it real enough we had to make some serious classified research in it. The deputy-head in person decided to transfer the development and test of the rainbow pill from the underground pavilion. He decided this was the less harmful secret we could give away. And in exchange, the enemy would be more likely to take the bait and stop looking for more research facilities.
This measure came in hand with the intentional leak of rumors about the fourth pavilion. All kind of real information mixed with some false stories was leaked. The stories were often exaggerations or simply lies about the fate of some prisoners. Then, the same guards would take these rumors and spread them to the general population inside and outside the Asylum.
This diversion tactic, with its costs and the leak of the rainbow pill, had finally paid off. We can now take advantage of the situation if we mount a convincing act.
The second measure, which is of less importance, is to compensate the families of the dead prisoners. The value can be calculated using the amount of blood essence they could have gotten if the prisoner was still alive and give them something of equal value. Then comes the compensation to the guard's families that should be done in gold.
Lastly, I recommend the use of the Night Eagle special unit to track down the escaped prisoners. With a special focus on those I will mention next as high priority targets:
Athias Hul: Former intelligence operative. Due to an unknown incident in his last mission he had his spirit veins partially destroyed, losing his mind in the prosses. He has important information about the legendary pill king and his death. In a twist of fate, he lost his mind before he could share the complete information. Now he only sings in an endless loop a song we believed to be some kind of hidden code but could not crack yet. Although the blood essence talisman given to him in his time as an intelligence operative has broken in the past days, informing us of his death, we still haven't retrieved his body. It is imperative to confirm beyond all doubt his death.
Rasid Erket: Personal servant of the Sidrin empress. About him and his circumstances, I know the Red Moon minister surely knows more about it than me so I won't waste time with explanations. After he became a prisoner here and under our special techniques, we managed to receive valuable information from him. But the constant torture had broken his mind. One interesting thing is that after he lost his mind some of his most repressed memories had come afloat. But sadly the memories come and go in pieces and his state of mind does not help. Either way, he has to be taken back at all cost. The Sidrin empire must not know we have him.
Luckily his cultivation was crippled long ago and he is like a mortal now. By my estimations, he should be found by the regular troops in the course of this day but if not the Night Eagles will be needed.
Aleran Vistrage: I already explained the necessity of finding the Vistrage former heir. He could be a potential key witness to clarify the whole situation. We either need to find his dead body or capture him alive if he's still breathing.
Unknown elder man: Again I had already explained his high priority in this business. Perhaps the most difficult person to find as we know nothing about him or his personality since he was possibly a spy all the time.
The man in disguise: Another one I already explained. He will also be hard to find, but with more persuasive methods of interrogation, we may be able to get something from the prisoners that saw him.
Fedrin Levian: Another potential key witness, but unlike the other kid, we are sure Fedrin has worked with the enemy. He also has to be captured alive even if it proves to be difficult. His knowledge of the kingdom underground organizations makes him a resourceful person. I also recommend to keep tabs on the enemy spies we know off. Fedrin Levian knows their existence and is a prime target for these organizations to recruit. The counterintelligence division should be useful for this. Lastly, I would like to recommend someone under my command to supervise the search for him. I will later contact you about this last issue.
There are also a few other special prisoners but not as important as the ones listed before. For the others, it is best to let the night eagles decide by themselves who to put the priority.
In conclusion, the main reason why this report is in your hands is to take advantage of this chance. To clear all doubt our enemies have on the asylum, allowing us to use the underground Silver Creek research grounds freely. Any decision that affects these research grounds has to be made by you, sir.
Always at your service.
Minister of internal affairs, Uldrav Levian.
After sealing the letter Uldrav stood up to look out the window. He was looking down at the small village with cold indifference. The whole place was mourning the loss of more than 20 men, sons, husbands, and fathers. But Uldrav didn't really care about that, even without this incident he will outlive these people. He may even outlive the whole village.
"Krag." He said softly and waited, but no one answered. " Take the letter and personally give it to The Red Moon minister. And while you are there tell my daughter I have a job for her and explain the situation. If she doesn't want to, is okay. Don't insist, you are not her match and she will make you regret to ever bother her. Just tell her to go to the right minister for instructions if she accepts. Let's hope she listens " Again, there was no answer, but the envelope on top of the desk suddenly disappeared.
Thinking about his daughter Uldrav sighed. He was proud of being her father but she had a strong personality. "She is getting stronger by the day, I will not outlive her." Then he looked at the empty desk in thought. ' I hope the right minister accepts the presence of my daughter in the search.' Her presence was not part of the protocol. The right minister, as the people called the Red Moon minister informally, was a flexible man. Nevertheless, every little concession he made came with a price.
Uldrav softly shook his head leaving the rest to his subordinate. He got closer to the window, and in an instant the room was empty.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
DriftingCloud123
DriftingCloud123
Hi again, this is a special chapter. I decided to make it in a different way to change the pace a little. But If you don't like it please tell. Either way, the next chapter will be as always.
Thanks for reading!
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