Ray wasn't sure how long he had been asleep in the alley.
When he finally awoke, the sun was high in the sky above him. Hissing at the sudden light he squinted as he pushed to his feet.
Then when the memories of what happened last night came back to him he looked around.
"Where the fuck did the shadow assassin go?"
Ray thought as he saw nothing around him That indicated the assassin had ever been here, except for rags.
When he realized something else that was off.
"Also where the fuck is that knife?"
The frown that had appeared on his face when he had first woken.
only deepened as he observed his surroundings.
Eventually, his eyes locked back on the rags laying on The uneven stones.
Quickly ruffling through them he identified them as Chuck's clothes.
The cloak was hidden under the filthy clothes.
"At least I gained something from this shit show."
Ray grumble to himself, as he lifted, said cloak before him.
Normally anyone awakening would have been proud also.
Considering the size of his first ring, they would have been exhilarated, nearly dying with joy.
But Ray felt none of that, the only thing he felt on the matter was annoyance and a fury so deep that if Chuck had somehow survived what had happened last night.
He would have made his life living hell.
"This fucked up all of my plans. I wasn't supposed to break through for at least another six months, to allow the Kingguy to condense even more."
Ray thought to himself, clenching his fist in rage.
Raise focus quickly snapped back to the present as he heard footsteps coming in this direction. "It seems I don't have time to dwell on this right now. I need to get back to the manner and observe just how much advancing to the first ring helped me." Ray thought as he pulled his own tattered cloak off. If it could even be considered that anymore. After his fight with Chuck, it was more racks than real clothing.
Snatching up, the cloak chuck have been wearing, he wrapped around his shoulders before clasping it in the front of his throat.
Looking around for any way out, he quickly realized one into the alley was a dead end. Wall, he could hear several people coming from the other side.
"I could have sworn there was only one person moving in this direction, not half a second ago."
Ray thought, but he quickly dismissed the thought.
Bending his knees, his eyes locked on the roof of one of the buildings beside him. "This should be possible."
Ray said he wasn't entirely sure, it had been too long since he had been in the first ring and he couldn't remember the amount of strength breaking into the first ring provided.
Wasting no more time on questioning his own decisions, and instead jumped towards the nearest building.
Turns out it was possible, actually possible was an understatement.
The building itself was barely 9 feet tall.
Yet Ray had jumped with full string to ensure he didn't fail.
So he over shot his target by a small margin
.""You have to be fucking joking."
Ray roared in his mind, as his body flew over the building, and landed in a trashcan on the other side.
"while I haven't been in the first ring for a while. I am sure that shouldn't be possible."
Ray thought, as he caught the trash cans edge, pulling himself out of it with a large dose of discussed coloring his features.
He was covered from head to heal in substances he would rather not examine too closely.
"Barely a few hours after awakening, and I'm already falling into trash cans. Not a very good track record, if I say so myself."
Ray thought, as he nearly slipped on his way out of the trashcan, due to the sludge covering him.
Yet throughout the entire process, the black cloak didn't seem to even be touched by the muck around it.
Almost as if it existed in another plane.
"There's something off about this damn cloak, something no first ring should ever be able to get his hands on."
Ray thought, narrowing his eyes at the Night black fabric.
Quickly shaking his head to clear of random thoughts, Ray continued on his way, walking out of the alley. A growl caused his eyes to narrow.
"There is no way I am seriously this unlucky?"
Ray thought as he glared down at the Grey dog in front of him.
"You know what, fuck it." Ray said as the ring in his soul began to spin.
He knew no spells at the moment, but spells weren't the only way to use either.
It was just the more ether efficient way.
As soon as the ether in his soul began to circulate, Ray could feel it.
He could feel the blood pumping throughout his entire frame, he could feel the iron in inside blood, and he could even vaguely control it.
"Not now, we will save self experiments for later."
Ray thought as he directed his ether towards his Right hands fingers.
At the moment, he would just go for something more basic.
Red mist crackled around his digits before they all curled back at the third knuckle, before bending forward.
Causing each one of his fingers to be shaped similar to clause.
The crackling red mist around his fingers, made his hand look much more ominous than it should.
"When something offers itself up to me so readily. How can I do anything but except?"
Ray said as his hand shot forward.
While he had been moving his ether throughout his body, the dog has seemed to since he wasn't any ordinary child.
It had begin to back up, it's eyes tracking his every movement.
Yet it had realized too late, it had decided its own fate when it approached him.
"You should be honored. If you Didn't offer yourself up. I would have had to wait at most three days before I could test just how strong the first ring is."
Ray said to the dog, his tone seeming to imply that he was doing the dog a favor, and not the other way around.
Then his hands streak through the air faster than any mortal eye could track. IN A flash, his hand was embedded in the Dogs skull.
Lifting the dogs corpse by the fingers he still had embedded in its skull. He examined it.
"There's nothing special about it."
Ray thought to himself in disappointment. He had thoughts the dog has somehow since his ether, making it at least a common beast.
Yet now it was up close he could feel not a wisp of ether in its body.
With an ease, he wouldn't have had just a day before, Ray flicked his wrist to the side.
The dog shooting through the air before slamming into a wall with a thickening thump.
Absentmindedly wiping his fingers on his pants, he contemplated on which direction to go next to reach the manner.
"Considering the path I took yesterday, I shouldn't be that far away from the manor already."
Ray thought as his eyes scanned the alley around him.
Picking a random direction, he began to walk.
It didn't take long before he was back on the street where men installs called out where's that he was sure were fake 90% of the time.
"Come and get your knives here, I swear you will not find a sharper blade anywhere in Maradona."
"Bread rings, get your bread, rings here. I swear to you, you will find no better food in the land of Austria."
"Come, one come all to buy a lucky charm. I swear upon my life that a single one of my creations will give you prosperity for 100 years."
Seeing and hearing what the people were selling, Ray couldn't help but think.
"To speak such blatant, lies with a straight face, they are nearly as experienced as me."
Redirecting his attention back on his goal he began to maneuver his weight through the crowd.
It took a lot of Jocelyn, and much dodging, but eventually he was able to slip out of the crowd.
Finally getting out of the crowd, he let out a breath of relief.
"Damn animals. I swear someone tried to pick pocket me at at least three times in the last 30 seconds."
Ray thought an outrage as he made his way away from the crowd.
It took walking between two more alleys, jumping a gate, and running through someone's backyard, but eventually he could see the manner in the distance.
It was about four stories, high and decorated and shades of both grey and rust red.
It's walls didn't even reach up to have the height of the manner itself.
If it really came down to it, those walls wouldn't hold anything, but the weakest of Second ring beast, who couldn't jump at bay.
"It's all in illusion, the walls aren't meant to keep the people outside of them from wanting to get in. They are meant to keep the people in from wanting to get out."
with that thought he looked around the 3 m tall stone wall that wrapped around the entire manner for anywhere un defended.
"No, there won't work either, and I'm sure I just saw a guard walking in that direction. Also, there's only half a second gap between when the two guards get to that part of the wall. There is no way I'll make it to the wall and over it before they get back."
Ray thought, his anger, slowly mounting.
It wasn't just this problem that was causing him to become furious, It was also Due to everything that had happened in the last few hours along with this delay.
One he was fucking hungry, he had went out to get something to eat from the money he would gain from gambling last night, and that had somehow escalated into him killing a shadow assassin from another nation.
Two He was tired, he might have just woken up, but it felt as if he had been awake for days at a time.
In three he had a killer headache, it had first started after he threw the damnable dog into the wall, it had been too long since he used ether on such a minuscule level, that he used a bit more than needed.
Then last, but not least his fucking throat hurt. He didn't know why, but every breath felt like glass scraping against it.
The brief moment of talking he had done when speaking to the dog had been like torture.
"Fuck it if they don't have an opening in the defense,then I'll just make one."
Ray thought before shooting forward from where he sat between two houses.
Two guards were just walking away from the edge of the wall, he was racing towards, but they quickly turned around when they heard his footsteps.
"Hey what are you doing? You can't be here this Is ironblood property. Stop immediately."
The guards kept shutting things along those lines, but Ray was no longer listening it took him less than a second to reach the full speed of a first ring, which was also much more than he had first expected.
So in less than a second, he was before the wall, hastily pressing down his foot he jumped upwards.
The two guards cried out an alarm as they drew their swords and race towards him.
"You both are about two seconds too late I'm afraid." Ray thought as his lips curled in A grin.
this Time he didn't overshoot the wall completely.
his hand snapping out and catching the top of it before he could fully fly over.
Using his hold, he rolled over before dropping.
He landed in the same bushes. He had fell in when slipping out of his room.
"At least you're useful for something."
Raythought, as he scrambled through the bushes to reach the wall of the manner.
As soon as he reached it, he bent his knees before leaping directly upwards again.
"I really should have done this at night."
Ray thought, as he heard the guards gathering towards the wall, where he had been. His left hand, Gripped the bottom of his window ledge.
Pulling himself up Using that hold until he was at eye level with the window, he used the fingers of his right hand to pull the window upwards.
"Home free."
Rayrolled into the room, groaning as his back slammed into the stone floor.
"That's gonna leave bruises, I'm sure of it."
Reaching out from his spot on the floor, he tried to reach the window.
After finding nothing but air realized he was too short to do it, so he stood correctly.
"I swear being this short, makes everything more difficult."
Ray thought as he pulled off his new cloak and folded it before kicking it under his bed.
"I need to take a shower and quickly."
then looking at the stain he had made by laying on his floor.
"and get someone to clean this as well."
That was four the future, he would do that later, until then he would sleep like the dead.
With that thought as the only warning Ray collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut, barely twisting his body in time to miss the bed and lay on the floor.
Meanwhile, back in the alley Ray had woken in.
A pudgy black bearded man was staggering his way down The alley, a tinker clutched in his hand.
"Where did that bastard? Chuck go with my money. There's no way he could have spent it already right?
No, he couldn't have, I had a whole 9coppers to my name. it would take like six tankers to spend all of that."
He slurred to himself, throwing up three fingers as if to show the amount of mug.
Frowning at his fingers, he wondered at the sudden existence of two hands where there should be one, but he shrug it off.
He continued his drunken stagger and told he stood where Ray had woken up.
Suddenly, he went still, no more drunken muttering, no more unsteady staggering, but just the stillness of a predator.
he droppeddown To one knee and set his mug on the ground.
Draggingone hand to the uneven cobble stones he slid his finger through the dirt.
"Seems he was killed, what a shame he would have been a good pawn for the next steps."
He murmured to himself, all of the drunken slur he had in his voice completely gone Pushing himself to his feet, he didn't bother picking up the mug.
He had left on the ground as he turned and walked away.
"I can't believe I wasted nearly 6 months of my time on an idiot."
"It wasn't entirely a waste."
The voice came from the building that he was walking beside.
Without making a single sound a man drop down beside him.
"What do you want Roger?"
The man with the black beard asked.
"It's not what I want. It's what the Imperial wants. They say progress is too slow and you need to speed it up Brax, or should I call you Royce?"
The man wore black slacks and a white button down below a light brown vest.
That along with his wire frame, glasses and Close cropped white hair made him look more mature than he actually was, considering he was barely 22.
At the moment his lips were curved into a smug smile as he waited for the man, who was finally revealed to be Royce reaction.
There wasn't one to observe, Royce just stared at him, He's expression board.
"Is that all you came here for?"
Royce asked, his brow raised, and his tone seeming to drip disappointment.
"No I also came here to inform you that we have just learned of A kulltara spy. He is A"
"I will stop what you're saying right there, I already knew of him for nearly half a year, and he just died last night."
Royce's response caused the smirk on Rogers face to slide off.
"I just have one question, are you the one who killed him? Because he would've been very useful to the plan."
"No I didn't kill him. I just got into the city not two hours ago, those damn border guards are getting more strict. Before the year is out, they'll be performing interrogations on anyone passing through the border, I'm sure of it."
Roger grumbled, slightly rambling about how terrible his trip was.
"Yeah I don't actually care about most of the things you just said. Anyway, if you didn't kill him then who did?"
"How the fuck am I supposed to know? Again as I told you, I haven't even been in this city long enough to kill him. So how would I have been in it long enough to figure out who did?"
"The question was rhetorical dumbass."
Roger grid his teeth, holding back the urge to send out a Wind blade and cut Royce in half, and from the mocking light in Royce's eyes.
Roger knew Royce was doing it on purpose.
"I might have done it anyway, if he wasn't so much further along in the second ring, then I am."
Roger thought to himself.
He didn't bother waiting to see if Royce had anything else to say before using his wind to leave the same way he had came, without sound.
Royce rolled his eyes at Roger as he rose into the air using his wind element.
"Did the concept of simply walking like a normal person never occurred to you?" Hearing his words, Roger sent a burst of Wind ether at him, just strong enough to make his illusion ripple, but not break.
Just for a second, Royce's place stood a man that looked less like a drunker and more like a warlord.
Instead of being 5 foot six and on the edge of morbidly obese, he was 6 foot five and had a muscles that looked more like they were chiseled than true flesh.
He was no longer wearing the dirty rags of a Vagabon, but a black shirt and leather jacket that looked as if it was made from the flesh of an ether beast.
That along with the 4 feet long blade, sticking up over his shoulder, made him look much more menacing than before, but luckily the illusion only failed for a Second.
Royce glared at up at him for that, and Roger grinned in response before flying away.
"Fucking bastard."
Royce grumble to himself as Roger disappeared into the distance.
"If he didn't kill him, then I'll have to find who did, and Montier helped them when I do."
Royce now better known as Brex thought to himself, the coldness in his eyes showing even through the illusion.