Soul Sealer

Persecution

North strode on Night's back from the bright midday sun to the orange twilight sky. Oscurio could only transport him five acres away, hence he opted for riding Night instead in order to secure a steady pace without depleting his energy too fast having to conjure multiple spells. Nevertheless, there also was a limited amount of time in which he could keep a level three spell such as Night active. Around five hours was his limit. If there was something that North was borderline mediocre at, it was prolonging his enchantments.

He rode fast and without looking back. Once he penetrated the barrier that guarded Giudecca, he had nothing more than the rocky, brown lands of Hollow Vaults to sight. He rode for miles on end, avoiding cliffs with Oscurio, crossing dried rivers, and streams, nothing to eat, nothing to admire in that withering land where flowers refused to bloom, and trees seldom grew, making sure not to be followed by drones or the military under X-ecro.

Night was very fast; it could run carrying North's weight at nearly thirty miles per hour. No different than a stallion it was, the wolf. When the time limit for his spells was about to run out, Night slowed its pace little by little. At around six in the afternoon, North stopped riding, sensing that the conjure would vanish at any moment, positive that the drones were not tailing him, and that he had lost the guards a while ago. He got off the black wolf, patting its head with delicacy. "You did great today. Rest for a while, I'll need you tomorrow," he said, earning a howling from his companion. Consequently, Night faded into something undistinguished from raven fog and mist. Because of the series of high-level spells that he performed, and the extension of Night, his Grimoire went into a slumbering state. Dead night fell asleep in all sense of the word. No spells would work until it woke up at least six hours later. That was North's biggest weakness.

Despite having no way to conjure any enchantment, North continued running; he had no time to spare if he wanted to escape Hollow vaults. As he was escaping from the west, there were four different paths he could take to get out of Hollow Vaults: to the north where Styx laid. To the northwest where Cocytus was located. To the northeast, which belonged to Plegheton, and to the southwest where Lethe rested. Making up his mind, he headed to the northwest, for it was the fastest way he knew, and the least likely to be considered by X-ecro due to its high-level security.

At around midnight, he reached the fifth prison, Cocytus. Despite being an underground fort, there were guards and drones patrolling the perimeter above ground with their guns hanging by their sides, and pillars of green lights illuminating the area from the spiked fences that encircled it. The prison was constructed in such a place that he had no choice but to race across it; there was no way of surrounding it. Mountains and walls of rock covered the sides. The only way out was through the main gate. He reached out for his Grimoire, tightly secured by a special, brown belt on his waist, but soon enough, he recalled that due to using Night for such a large amount of time and with no rests in between, his enchantments were rendered useless until Dead Night awakened. The security system of Cocytus was by far the strongest one out of the five prisons meant for commoners, hence he couldn't take the situation lightly. "Darn it," he cursed. "I should have worked on increasing my stamina."

A scheme came into his mind but was he to fail, there would be hell to pay. It was worth a shot, he thought. He had no guns with him, no knives, no ropes, and nothing besides his sleeping Grimoire. I​ loathe this, but I can think of no other way of getting out of here. There are a handful of things that I can do to make it out of Hollow vaults and into Dracoseas. ​North crouched, getting on his knees and laying flat on his stomach, sullying his black clothes with the filthy soil, his face grimacing at the dirt. If there was something he greatly disliked besides Aurelios and Dyon Basaltic, it was dirt.