CORE

Chapter 24 - Masked

Inside The Carnival's city...

Hero stood atop a large building that overlooked at least most of the city clearly, stage lights, and the bulbs that shined across it grew brighter, supposedly a command set by The Jester to find him, how much of a hassle this was, Hero thought.

"I could try and escape, but right now, I simply can't..." Hero said as he looked up to the carnival's roof, taking notice in the incredibly strong magical barrier that trapped him within.

"For now all I need to do is hold off, I hope Justice is beating that clown right now," Hero said, his magic aura had turned off, he had suspected that sensing magical energy would have made him much easier to find, he then sat down, recollecting his thoughts as he could do nothing but fend as of now.

But then he had thought of an idea, or rather, remembered something that could be crucial.

"...The exit, I could try leaving from there," Hero thought, his eyes widening, he stood up as he began to think, how could he forget such a pivotal point as that, but despite remembering this, it seemed like a lost cause considering how much Masked Civilians Hero could see that were stacked up at the exit, seemingly guarding it while others were scouting the city one by one.

Hero clenched his fist, but not because he was infuriated, rather, he knew a perfect way to get past, he then raised his hand high into the air, then looked at a specific building not too far away from the one he was currently on.

"This should be a good enough distraction," Hero said, before slamming down his hand and sending a pillar of magic at that specific structure, tuned to not cause any damage, yet bright enough for the whole city to see.

Immediately, the Masked Civilians, other than the ones that mysteriously protected the exit began to turn their bodies over to where the light was beaming, like a swarm of bees they all began to approach it, to collect the 'nectar' that was waiting for them, supposedly.

Taking this opportunity, Hero jumped off the building and swiftly slid down, freezing the wall behind him as he fell, he then used all that ice, shattering it into millions of shards to combine it all into a hailstorm which he then perched down and rode on, before making his way towards the exit, which was not too far away.

"I doubt they will be able to sense me given how mindless they are, and if it were to happen there would only be few," Hero said, looking down at the disheveled, abandoned, and utterly betrayed city before him, sighing in guilt as he then turned his head over to where he thought the exit was, he thought if he could defeat The Jester... Then everything here would be freed.

"Just hold on a little longer, Justice, I'm coming," Hero said as frozen fog left his breath.

But then, he was surprised to find his mind changing as he slowly began to notice the waves of Masked Civilians had started to get bigger the further he traveled, taking note of this, he lowered his hailstorm, landing on a building successfully as it dissipated into ice shards, there was a higher chance of him being caught now, a higher chance he did not initially expect would come to occur.

This seemed unexplainable, Hero knew for sure that there could not have been this many in the city given its size, so why now is there more waves of these Masked Civilians coming?

"Now well isn't this quite the predicament?" A voice shouted out from behind, stopping Hero's thought process as they quickly ducked and turned around, narrowly avoiding a scythe attack that would have decapitated them instantly.

After dodging it, Hero dashed back, taking a look at the individual who had just tried to behead him, not that he was new to it.

They seemed to be wearing a colorful yellow and blue suit, red gloves, and a purple bow tie, finished off with a gold tophat, it was quite unfit say the least, but perhaps the most critical detail Hero noticed was the fact they wore a mask, a mask almost exactly similar to the Masked Civilians.