Crow's Blessings → Sylus

A Friendly Invitation

The Duke carried out the speech well, albeit it took longer than it was supposed to. In the end, I nearly forgot that the person standing on the podium behind me was supposed to be my enemy, focusing on the task at hand as a deepspace hunter instead. A considerable amount of people joined in on Linkon's Square, most were from the middle-upper class as they took interest in this brand new luxurious sanctuary Casimir Co was offering.

When the speech was nearly done, the hunter's watch equipped on all of the hunters nearby started beeping, interrupting the Duke's speech flow. "Is there something wrong?" I heard the Duke's voice called, but purposely didn't turn my head as I expected one of my peers to answer. Xavier nudged me, making me turn to face Matthias—whose eyes were as sharp as the edge of a cleaver as he stared at me directly.

I couldn't find the word to answer him as those eyes petrified me. "There's a fluctuation, Sir. There might be wanderers nearby," the hunter by my side answered instead, giving me a nasty side eye. The duke turned his attention to the hunter with a deadpan face.

"Should we start evacuating the audience?" he suggested, eyes boring into the other hunter's eyes instead. Before anyone could respond, a sudden rift opened behind the Duke.

The audience erupted into screams as some managed to run away from the scene. Deepspace hunters on guard sprung into action, the ones closest to the audience rushing them a safe distance away from the deepspace rift. Xavier immediately went after the Duke, pulling him away from the wanderer tearing through the open rift. Instinctively, I aimed my gun at the wanderer, cracking its neck at my direction. The wanderer resembled a basilisk; a snake-like creature nearly triple my size with spikes the size of my forearm protruding from its spine and layers of glistening red scales all over its body.

I gave a fleeting glance to Xavier, noticing that the Duke was safely rushed by his bodyguards away from the venue. Xavier turned to face me, his eyes wide as he took off running. "(Name)!"

Hot breath tickled my ear as I spun my head round, just in time to catch sight of the basilisk hovering above me with its mouth wide agape, its mouth was filled with rows of sharp teeth. I was terrified, but I had to be quick otherwise I'd be basilisk's pellet. Letting my body fell backwards as the basilisk lurched forward, a flash of light blinded my vision, the scene of Linkon Square around us warping into rays of colors as we fell into the basilisk's trap—falling into the deepspace rift it opened beneath us.

It felt like we were falling through an endless rabbit hole. The deepspace tunnel had no light illuminating through as the rift we fell in closed, leaving us in nothing but eternal darkness. But, even in the depth of the darkness, I felt Xavier's arms around my body protectively. "Are you alright?" I heard Xavier's voice from behind me.

"Just shocked. How did you—"

"Hold on," amidst the endless darkness, Xavier's right hand pressed against my back emitted a bright light. As my hands grabbed onto the front of Xavier's uniform, his left arm loosened around my body, leaving his right arm to grab ahold of my waist. Glancing back, I witnessed Xavier's trusty materializing in front of my eyes, the blade illuminating the darkness of the deepspace rift.

Our bodies lurched forward, the claymore slashing through the darkness to cut a rift open. Its force sucked us in as it became larger, fitting us through.

Falling through the rift, it immediately closed itself the moment we made contact to the concrete ground. A low groan came from underneath me as Xavier cushioned my fall with his own body. Rolling to the side, I sat there, letting Xavier regain his composure.

"Where's the basilisk?" I quipped, glancing around the deserted Linkon Square. The hunter's watch was oddly calm—which meant that we weren't trapped inside of a protofield.