บท 41: Matters To His Own Hands
Their voices disappeared as Hope was carried down the tower, the only sound being the memory voices whispering in his ear and the man's steps echoing off of the cold stone walls down the spiraling stairs.
The conversation kept replaying like a looped record in his head from the beginning of their meeting to when he left.
Convoy. Cargo. People. Arks. Quadrant III. Ambush…
A lot of new questions resurfaced...
But Hope should not be focused on that now. Nor should he tease them.
What was important was his next course of action.
However, several footsteps echoed somewhere below them like soft stifled claps in the somber space.
'Ah. The cohort is here.'
Hope never imagined actually meeting them. Although not properly anyway. And yet here they were in the same room, no longer high up in the distant cliffs and him below, or separated by many buildings in between, but mere steps away.
A smaller aura in comparison to the Master's pulsed in the air, its presence growing closer and closer.
Until-
"What the hell..." One of them said. "What did Lady Mave do to hi-"
Punch-
"Hey!"
"Watch your mouth." A woman's voice said.
"Isn't it fucking obvious of this weird situation..? Um...carry on...Sir."
"..."
'Strange...Awakened...'
Prideful Awakened. Bashful Awakened. Stoical Awakened. Humorous Awakened.
Hope thought he'd met them all.
But he'd never met one so...frank in front of others..?
The person carrying him didn't say a word and just simply bowed before walking past them.
The two people continued their steps up the spiraling steps, but Hope faintly heard a third person shift behind him as if that person caught sight of something.
Before any doubt could cross Hope's mind, the steps continued up the staircase and disappeared with the other Awakened followed by a door clicking shut above.
After their disappearance was confirmed, he heard the man beneath him mutter:
"Stupid masks they wear...."
Ah. Right. Mave said something about them wearing masks.
But did it look ridiculous...?
Hope dismissed the thought, and after a couple of minutes down the tower, hearing the person pitifully pant breathlessly for some time now, they finally reached level ground.
"Finally fucking here..." The man groaned.
But before the man could reach the door, Hope let loose his power and felt the body collapse beneath him limb by limb like a tower of bricks.
Thud!
Hope caught himself on the ground and slightly cushioned the man's fall to lessen the noise, although the doors seemed thick enough.
When Hope opened his eyes, darkness blinded him.
The blackness in the room was absolute, and this time the door to the glass dome was sealed shut with no sneaking light to suggest any silhouetted forms around him.
But then how did the man manage to walk down these steps?
Hope felt around the floor but could feel no flashlight.
Nor did he recall any of its possible sound hitting the floor either.
That deduced the possibility of this man either being a Sleeper possessing some sort of night vision Aspect, or he was someone who had also walked up these steps many times and had each step engraved in his mind.
Either way-
'How convenient for him.' Hope thought.
Hope grabbed onto the man's collar and felt the stone steps behind them before dragging him behind the stairway in case anyone else walked through the door.
There, Hope sat him up against the wall and crouched next to him.
Hope paused and took a deep breath to smell the room, the cold air slithering past his nostrils and down his throat the longer he drew in. Strangely, there was no catch of greenery or fragrance in this part of the tower. Hope had also recalled those few seconds when he entered the room with Leda before the doors closed; no hint of vines or shrubbery either.
Hope may be overthinking it, but if there was a possibility that Mave could actually listen through her flowers, then this was a decent spot to start his interrogation.
'Best start somewhere.'
This man must have at least some information that may be of use to him. If the man could simply walk in and obey without hesitation, especially unfazed by the scene of Hope's collapse, then he was an obedient pawn of Mave's.
But tonight, he would be his.
"..."
'Now how do I wake him up?'
As Hope tapped the ground nonchalantly, he hummed in thought in the darkness.
Then a sudden thought crossed his mind.
Pain.
Maybe people woke up from nightmares, but Hope had no power to create such a supernatural thing.
But if not a nightmare inside one's mind, then an external one.
Hope placed a hand over the man's mouth.
If no one was going to help Hope, then he might as well take the initiative himself. Even by force if necessary.
Hope then grabbed the man's finger and twisted it counterclockwise, counting calmly the seconds in his mind.
It took all but four seconds before the man jerked awake from his forced slumber.
So startled was he that his whole body shuddered as if cold water had washed him, screaming against Hope's palm.
"Mmmph!?"
"Shut up."
Hope said as he summoned his shield—the white, blue light flashing for a moment in its spiral manner before disappearing away like faded starlight.
The man immediately hushed as he saw the magic reflecting in his eyes.
At least this way the man could assume that he was at the mercy of another Sleeper.
Or an Awakened.
"Answer me."
Hope said as he brought the shield to the man's neck.
"Do you know where Sector Five is?"
No cut corners. Straight to the point.
The man trembled into a nod.
'Progress.'
"Do you know which path to use if not the main road?"
The man paused.
Then slowly shook his head.
"..."
'Not progress...'
Hope sighed as he pressed the shield into the man's throat.
"...!"
The man squirmed and muffled against his palm. Hope paused before peeling his hand away.
"Gasp! I haven't reached that far! I'm not sure-"
"You're too loud."
"...!"
The sound of the man gulping clicked in the darkness.
"I-I'm sorry...But I don't know...Routes change almost every other day a-and it's not like we fucking go and make trade with them-"
Another thought crossed Hope's mind before speaking. "What do you know about an Awakened beyond the border?"
"An Awakened...That crazy man...?"
"..."
'Scaredy cat. Crazy man. The hell kind of an Awakened is this...' Hope silently thought.
Well, he supposed Awakened in this city were clearly different than those outside the city.
Mave being definitely one of them.
A Master made in this place...That would mean another gate had occurred sometime in Mirror City. And she made it her responsibility to conquer it. When and how? Hope wasn't sure. But clearly these people had endured more than he had thought.
"Sure. Him. What do you know about him?"
The familiar voice spoke again. "Leda and her people had visited him before by chance they said...I'm not too sure where he lives. Higher ground...?"
'Higher ground?'
"Tch...He's a coward all I know. Paranoid. Sets up traps but hides in his damn den. Not at all like the cohort-"
"Are there more Awakened like him out there?"
The man hesitated. "I- m-maybe? Before, some Awakened had left and hid among the cities." A nervous chuckle escaped the man. "Haha...bastards running from responsibility."
Hope frowned.
"And how would I know I reached Sector Five?"
"…what?" The man's voice said in confusion. "You can't miss it…it's practically drowned in water…"
'Drowned in water…'
An image crossed Hope's mind at that moment. It was a brief glance before, but Hope remembered crossing a freeway and the convoy passing over a street of water. But Hope of course didn't think much of it at that time. It seemed small, but clearly it may have led to a more interesting site.
Hope could say that he understood why some Awakened would run away. He supposed not all of them died then in battles. A responsibility put on their shoulders like that? If they didn't seek it, then any weakling would want to run from difficulty thrown in their path. They had the mindset of a prey, not a hunter. Their powers were probably also not offensive based. And if not that, then they were just cowards.
But how was he going to find this Awakened?
Maybe that Awakened would have a better answer in finding Sector Five.
Another person that could share that answer was either Leda or her cohort.
But Hope wasn't exactly excited of the idea in approaching any of them.
'Though she did mention that they too wanted to save the people...'
Hope supposed nobility did run in their veins after all. But with his Flaw, he didn't know how a team like that would work if he were a part of it.
"Is that it? Higher ground?"
The man gulped again, and Hope could almost imagine the panicked runs his mind was going through. "Maybe if he's still in the same spot...Maybe...it's one of the fucking leaned buildings? I-I don't know."
Hope let out a sigh.
'My odds are damn low-'
"..."
'Nevermind that...'
If Hope was going to go by himself then he supposed he would have to prepare using his own power as well, especially nearing the city's center where the gate was. Unfortunately, killing dormant beasts back at that damn labyrinth didn't benefit him in terms of soul shards.
How easy would it have been if they automatically counted to his inventory.
"..."
Hope tilted his head as a thought crossed his mind.
Whether the man could see him or not, he felt the man shiver again and his breathing tremble in the darkness.
"Are you a Sleeper?"
The man quickly nodded. "Yes..."
"How long now?"
The man paused for a few moments. "A month or so..."
"I bet you are one of the few who survived right?"
"...yes…?"
"Not many Sleepers even after that I bet. Rare for any to pass alive."
"...yes.." The unsettledness started to grow thick in the man's voice.
"So, you killed a lot of Nightmare Creatures then. Awakened Beasts even."
"Yes..."
"Memories?"
"No..."
'Ah useless then.' Hope paused as he tilted his head to the other side. 'Well not entirely yet.'
How calm was the man when he asked Mave if he should throw Hope out of the building? A little too calm. Almost as if throwing out simple trash. Then how merciless could this Sector and its people actually be?
Not that Hope was leveraging his next course of action.
Suddenly, the man tried to scramble away but Hope held him tightly on his collar and the man couldn't manage it.
"W-wait wait wait! D-don't- Please!"
Slash!
"Kueeok...!"
Slash!
"..."
Slash!
Hope waited a couple seconds until he was sure he heard no breathing from the man. Until he was sure there were no steps outside the door or above his head alarmed by such sounds. Hope aimed first at the mouth anyway.
As he dismissed his shield, catching a glimpse of the distorted dented face through the sparks, he reached down to feel through the dead man's pockets till he grabbed a familiar pocketknife he remembered he took away earlier in the day.
Hope had also felt the expectant potent feeling in his soul core, as if it were drinking a cold force into its orb like liquid. It was slightly longer and stronger than absorbing a single soul shard too, the essence merging into his own, filling the many empty slots in its space.
Although, it felt far from being half full. Not even a quarter full.
'Huh. So that's what it feels like instead of one.'
Once that settled down, the damn Spell came back to whisper in his ear:
[You have slain Dreamer Kurt]
Hope wiped his hand on his sleeve where he felt a splatter of blood landed.
Right. There was more than one way one could saturate their core.
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