Aspiration to the Heavens: Becoming the Supreme Mage Vol 2- Descent of Darkness

Episode 67: Kidnapped

*Hal*

[Few moments earlier]

"B-brother, a-are you alright?" Danmall yelled as soon as Sloane returned me to our makeshift cabin.

Sloane put me down gently and threw Ulissis to the floor. "Dan, take care of Hal and make sure that the others don't come near this guy," she said in her usual cold demeanor.

Dan stared at the unconscious Ulissis. "I-isn't he a member from one of the teams Hal was talking to?"

Sloane nodded. "Yes, we're going to exchange him for their marble. But if that fails then at the very least he makes good bait."

Dan gasped. "Y-you can't do that!"

She narrowed her eyes at him and pointed her scythe at his neck. "Why not?"

I stared at the unconscious Ulissis and remembered that this wasn't the first time he had been used like this. Kitsune tried to use him along with Wanikiya and Hikaru as bargaining chips to force us out of Nine Petal. Sloane, she was no better than that guy.

"It's wrong," I responded as I sat up. "We shouldn't be going this far!"

Sloane scoffed. "Come on Hal, have you grown soft while in Nine Petal? We are mercenaries. Our mission always comes first. In this case, it's to win no matter what."

Dan gasped again. He held his head.

"Is something the matter?" Sloane asked.

Sweat rolled down Dan's face.

"Brother, are you okay?" I asked.

"M-mission, w-why do you focus so much on it? W-why can't we be friends?"

Sloane stepped back. "Is he alright? He's acting like one of my sister's puppets."

I put a hand on Dan's shoulder. "Calm down, Dan." I sighed. "I think that he might be suffering an episode. He did this before we departed, when I brought up a certain clan in Zionia," I said, avoiding mentioning the clan's name for fear of alerting him more.

"Why... why do you treat people as bait, as pawns?" he yelled.

"Pawns? I think he's become cray-cray."

"Don't call him crazy," I said, trying to avoid sounding angry. Sloane didn't like being ordered around.

Sloane scoffed. "Anyway, I'm off to check on my sister and her puppet. Hope they're fine."

Dan crawled over to Ulissis. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

Ulissis remained unconscious.

I leaned against the wall of our wooden cabin and sighed. To think that Sloane would go to these heights in order to win an event. Did she not trust in our skills? We didn't need to do this in order to win.

My big brother placed a hand on Ulissis' head. He gasped. "Agh," he said, pulling his hand away.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked. I stared at our hostage with suspicion. Did Ulissis plan something?

Brother rubbed his forehead. "I-it's my head. As s-soon as I t-touched U-Ulissis, I had a memory."

"A memory? Of what?"

He crossed his arms. He grunted. "I- I f-forgot..."

"You forgot it again?"

He chuckled nervously. "Y-yeah, s-seems like it."