Well, that makes sense, I thought. Why would the Seven Pirate Kings even bother monitoring a slum market when they have empires to run?
"Interesting," I said aloud.
Down on the streets below, a massive commotion was brewing. Dozens of heavily armed King's authorities in pristine uniforms were swarming the alleyways, their boots marching in unison.
Are they already looking for me? I thought, my pulse quickening.
Then, this idiot beside me did something utterly unimaginable and spectacularly stupid.
"Oh, hey! Look! They're here for you!" Isaac pointed down at the street.
He didn't whisper. He didn't even use an inside voice. He practically shouted it from the rooftop.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, a massive headache instantly forming behind my eyes. Should I just shoot him right now and throw his body into the sea? Seriously, this guy...
Hearing his loud voice, the armed forces immediately snapped their heads up toward our roof.
"We found them! Up there!" a commander yelled, pointing his rifle.
"Hah? What do you mean 'them'?" Isaac yelled back down at the heavily armed force, sounding genuinely offended. "I wasn't even there, okay?!" Then, he literally pointed his finger right at my chest. "It was just him!"
What the actual fuck?! I screamed internally. Shit! I need to get out of here, right now.
Then, I had a brilliant, desperate idea. Thanks to my Shadow Weave, my Ether had regenerated just enough, and the sharp pain in my ribs had finally dulled into a manageable ache. I couldn't just fly away while being shot at by an entire platoon, but I could use Event Horizon in a completely new way.
If I could fold space to make solid platforms, why couldn't I fold the space around us to manipulate the light? I could grab the very visual concept of the sky and pull it over us like a cloaking curtain.
I raised my hand, reaching toward the empty air above us.
Isaac blinked, looking at me weirdly. "Hey, what are you trying to grab, man? You look funny." He paused as the sound of heavy boots began pounding up the building's metal fire escape. "Also, we should probably run."
Look, I know, okay! Let me focus! And it is entirely your fault that we have to run in the first place! I didn't say it out loud, but God, I wished I could just toss him off the ledge.
I focused entirely on my royal blue Ether, feeling the spatial fabric of the atmosphere. My fingers curled. Got it.
Just as the heavy roof door burst open and the authorities flooded onto the tiles with their weapons raised, I violently yanked my hand down.
Event Horizon activated. The folded space warped the light around us entirely, dragging the optical illusion of the open sky down to wrap us in a perfect, seamless dome. We were instantly rendered completely invisible, practically erased from reality.
"What... where did they go?" one of the officers gasped, lowering his rifle and looking around the completely empty roof in genuine, utter confusion.
[Sera and Arthur POV]
"So, did you find anything, Sera?" Arthur asked, looking across the table.
They were sitting in a high-end restaurant, completely insulated from the grime of the slums. Arthur was currently busy devouring his absolute favorite dessert: a rich, sweet cream pie. He shoved a massive spoonful into his mouth, the pastry practically vanishing in an instant.
"Ah, this tastes so good," Arthur groaned happily, his lazy demeanor momentarily replaced by pure culinary bliss. "I swear, I wish I could erase my memories just to experience eating this for the first time over and over again."
Sera took a delicate sip of his crimson wine, a faint, amused smile touching his flawless features. "Perhaps I could arrange that. We could always test out that Forgetful Artifact on you."
Arthur ignored the joke, his draconic eyes suddenly shifting back to business. He scraped his plate clean. "Seriously, though. Did you find anything?"
"I did find something peculiar," Sera replied, his tone lowering as he set his wine glass down on the white tablecloth. "I tracked the lingering Ether frequency of that possessed man using my Authority over Fate and Time. The threads led away from the crater... directly beneath the city. Into the underground sewers."
"Hah? The sewers?" Arthur asked, genuinely confused.
"It seems there is something vast hiding right beneath this perfect city," Sera noted, his amber eyes narrowing slightly.
"We should head down there and investigate the underground today," Arthur suggested, leaning forward. "But before we do... has there been any news from the Guild?"
"No. Nothing as of right now."
Arthur frowned, his heavy brow furrowing. "That's quite weird, don't you think? At this rate, they should have already received our emergency report and sent a messenger back. Even if physical reinforcements take a few days by ship, a supernatural message should be much faster."
"It should," Sera agreed, his expression tightening.
"Something is not adding up here," Arthur pressed. "Can you look into it? Can you see anything in the threads, even if it's tiny?"
Sera shook his head, looking deeply troubled. "No, I cannot. I think something massive is actively blocking me from reaching or looking into this particular anomaly."
"But it was fine when you were tracking that Devil guy earlier?"
"Yes, that was fine," Sera confirmed.
Arthur rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Wait... is the interference because of the Stele? The Devil said he needed it for a ritual."
"It seems so," Sera murmured, staring at the dark red wine in his glass. "Whatever ritual they are preparing, it is powerful enough to muddy the waters of Fate itself."
"Ah, my pie is gone. Sigh," Arthur grumbled, finally pushing the empty plate away. He stood up, his massive frame casting a shadow over the table. "Well, let's get started. We need to look into this underground world tonight. Let's go, Sera."
They paid their tab and stepped outside, heading back to the hotel to patiently wait for nightfall.
But what neither Sera nor Arthur knew was that Fate had a very twisted sense of humor. What they assumed was just a dark, dirty sewer was actually an entirely different world thriving beneath the pristine streets of Blackwater Roost.
And down in the dark, they were about to run into someone they knew very well.