"Zre-Zrelekai!" shouted Vane as he positioned himself in a defensive pose like everyone else, except for Orechin, who had his eyes stuck on Catripple.
"Sister…" said he as he fell to his knees. Catripple had her eyes full of tears, and even though she couldn't speak, soft moans were coming out of her mouth.
"What are you doing here!" shouted Syrmax angrily. Zrelekai laughed softly, and while he understood that everyone was about to rush at him, he grabbed his pistol and pointed it directly toward Catripple's head.
Everyone at the sight of that gasped in surprise. "Don't you dare take a step… or her head gets blown up," said he with a threatening tone.
"What do you want?" said Vane while gritting his teeth.
"It felt like you knew something about this person that threatened me if I didn't give him the rifle…" spoke Zrelekai as he pressed the pistol against Catripple's head harder.
"Guys, please… tell him everything," whispered Orechin as he tilted his head back. At the sight of the tears flowing down his eyes, Liro couldn't help but nod his head and take a small step forward.
'The illusion guy… not that he's a problem, he can't attack me directly.' Zrelekai decided not to press the trigger, as the one who got closer was none other than Liro, the one who couldn't damage Zrelekai at all.
"I don't know how much Darian has told you, but we're from Therya," spoke Liro. Zrelekai nodded his head.
"I know this… but I didn't think this person killed someone from Therya," answered Zrelekai.
"When Darian first arrived in Therya, he fell from the ceiling of the cave," started to tell Liro, before getting interrupted by Zrelekai.
"Oh right, that Therya was an underground city…" whispered Zrelekai. "Keep going."
Liro let out a deep breath before speaking again. "And in that exact moment Darian fell on the city, someone had shot the king… at first, we were all confused and believed that it was Darian, but after proving it was impossible because of the angle, we remained with the doubt of who it could have been all these months… but we didn't believe we would discover something here in Ardoris," finished speaking Liro.
"And you've said you remember when it happened, right?" asked Darian as he didn't take any steps forward, but simply remained still with his eyes stuck on Zrelekai's face.
Zrelekai, now understanding that he would be the one to speak, smirked. "Exactly… and it wasn't much later than when you returned to earth"
"And exactly when was it?" asked Darian. Zrelekai positioned his finger around his chin, and even though he had a thoughtful look, everyone immediately understood that Zrelekai wasn't thinking at all and he clearly remembered it.
"Mhmm… I believe it was around… 23th or 22th of January? Around that time definetly" said Zrelekai after a few seconds.
"Well, for me it was a normal day, but if I had to be honest… I didn't even realize he was there," said Zrelekai.
"Explain better," said Darian. "What are you even talking about?"
"What I'm saying… is just that he randomly appeared behind me. It felt like he simply traveled underground," answered Zrelekai.
"Appeared behind you?" asked Liro, confused.
"It sounds strange… but the moment the wall collapsed, I remember seeing the last part of his body going underground, and I came to the conclusion that he can travel underground thanks to his power," said Zrelekai. "After all, he was someone who could use earth magic…"
"Have you seen his hair? Do you remember which color it was?" said Liro, but Zrelekai shook his head.
"It was covered by a weird brown cape… I don't even remember well."
Hearing these words, Liro, Vane, and Darian exchanged a scared look. "No, no… it can't be him, right?" asked Liro. Vane was looking at the ground, trying to find an argument to defend this person.
"But he uses earth magic… there was a hand entirely made of dirt… and he travels underground," said Darian as he couldn't believe his words.
"And he had a brown cape over his head…" whispered Vane as he closed his right fist in anger.
"Hey, what are you three talking about?" asked Tyel, confused.
"Are you talking about… Allocen?" asked Lily. She hadn't seen him much, but this description of the brown cape matched exactly Allocen's.
"Who is Allocen?!" shouted Tyel, even more confused.
"Allocen… so that's his name," whispered Zrelekai. Vane in anger smashed his fist against the wall.
"No! It can't be possible, it must be someone else," shouted Vane in anger. "Allocen has been with us since even before Darian joined the Veilguard… it can't be him." Vane, after smashing his fist against the wall, closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
"Exactly… Allocen has lived in Therya for his whole life and then joined the Veilguard exactly three weeks before Darian arrived… it isn't possible for him to have gone away and reached Ardoris without anyone noticing him," said Liro in a reassuring tone as he positioned his hands over Vane's shoulder, trying to calm him down. "He wouldn't have helped us this much if he were actually a traitor, Vane. I'm sure he's not our enemy."
"You're right…" said Vane as he removed his fist and breathed heavily. "There was even the paper talking about his birth and the fact that he lost his parents in a fire when he was barely five," he added as he opened his eyes again and was able to calm himself down.
"No, no, wait a moment… he's a friend of yours, right? Then why would he even kill the king?" said Orechin, confused.
"I've met him… but he's not someone bad," said Lily as she tried to raise the mood.
"Meh, not that it is my problem… I'll leave this discussion to you," said Zrelekai as he pointed his pistol against Catripple again. "After you've killed my friend Mary… why shouldn't I kill yours?" asked Zrelekai as he spoke again with a threatening tone.
"Mary?" asked Darian, confused.
"Are you talking about the Seamstress?!!" shouted Vane in anger as he took a step forward. Zrelekai was about to press the trigger when Orechin stopped Vane. "Calm down, or we're losing Catripple too!" shouted he as he pressed his hands against Vane's chest, stopping him.
"HE SAID THAT WE KILLED HER? ARE WE ACTUALLY FOR REAL?!!" shouted Vane in anger. As he looked at the group and noticed that everyone remained silent, he soon realized that they weren't in the position to hit Zrelekai, as in a single moment he could have made Catripple's head explode.
"Do I need to remind you that you were the one who made the bomb activate by removing her from the costume?" said he with a big smirk. Vane now closed his fist and tried to remain calm, but the more he breathed heavily, the redder his face got.
"She just wanted to keep playing with her plushies… have fun normally like a child…" said Zrelekai with a provocative tone, and he smashed his pistol against Catripple's head, making her bleed. "But as always, you're the ones who always need to ruin the fun for people."
"Are you being for real?!! She could have lived her life peacefully… playing with her plushies like a normal child… YOU JUST DESTROYED HER LIFE!!" shouted Vane in anger. Now Zrelekai's look changed, and rather than a happy one, an angry one appeared.
"Ashikunz would have killed her… I WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE HER A NEW LIFE!" shouted Zrelekai. Hearing these words, everyone opened their eyes in confusion.
"You don't know anything…" Zrelekai positioned his left hand on his face and began to laugh hysterically. "It was thanks to me that the girl was able to live! Without me, she would have died multiple years ago… I'm the one who made her live this much." Zrelekai, now removing his hand from his face, looked at the group with a big smirk.
"And because of this, I'm the owner of her life… I'm the one who gave her the life she needed, and I could do everything I want with her life. If I wanted to kill her because I didn't need her anymore… she had to be grateful that I had let her live for this long," said Zrelekai. "In the end, she's just another experiment of mi—"
"How did you know what she actually wanted…" whispered Vane as he closed his fist in anger. Zrelekai positioned the pistol again in front of Catripple's head and smirked. "Speak louder, animal boy, I can barely hea—"
Zrelekai couldn't even finish his words before Vane returned to yelling again. "YOU DIDN'T KNOW HER! YOU AND THAT STUPID ZRELEKAI ARE SIMPLY THE PEOPLE THAT RUINED HER LIFE!" Vane in anger wanted to take some steps, but Darian and Martheel each grabbed one of his arms and tried to stop him.
"Calm down, Vane! We can't allow him to kill Catripple!" shouted Darian.
"Exactly… this has been your objective… to save her. You can't throw it in the bin!" added Martheel, but Vane wasn't listening to them; he tried to keep going forward.
"He needs a hostage to fight us… getting mad at him will only be worse, Vane," said Syrmax with a calm tone as he walked slowly towards Vane, who was trying to breathe heavily.
"I've told you, the only reason she died was because of you… and if you keep going like this, your friend might die because of the same reason." Zrelekai was now about to press the trigger when suddenly the voice of a girl was heard behind them.
"What are you even talking about? I'm not dead or anything." As everyone turned back, they noticed little Mary; now her body was intact and she could move freely.
'It's the illusion guy… like I would even fall for this trick,' thought Zrelekai, annoyed.
"Illusion guy… Liro, right?" asked Zrelekai as he breathed heavily, irritated. "Do you really think I would fall for such a stupid trick? How many years do you think I have?" said Zrelekai, amused.
"Since I know all of your powers, I will not fall for such a stupid trick," he added.
"Oh, but I think you will…" whispered Liro. Suddenly, a figure walked behind Zrelekai, it was Ashikunz.
"My lord? Weren't you waiting for them outside?" asked he, confused. Ashikunz shook his head.
"They weren't arriving…" answered Ashikunz. Zrelekai looked at him, confused.
'It isn't an illusion… he can only create one illusion at a time… and the girl is still there,' thought Zrelekai, as his pistol never left Catripple's head.
'But each of them is making a sound? I knew he wasn't able to create any sound with the illusions…' Zrelekai looked at Liro and noticed that Liro had covered his mouth with his hands.
"Zrelekai, why haven't you created another plushie for me??" asked Mary with her happy face. Zrelekai looked directly at Liro's mouth and realized that a movement was coming from there.
'That is clearly an illusion… but Ashikunz would never arrive here on his own…' Zrelekai remained confused, as he didn't know what to do.
"My emperor…" said Zrelekai as he spoke with a submissive tone. "In the end, it was the final part of your plan?" asked Zrelekai. Ashikunz nodded his head.
'He is moving his mouth… is he real?' thought Zrelekai as he watched Ashikunz taking some steps forward. The sound emitted by his steps was exactly like the ones the emperor makes.
"I've told you, Zrelekai… can't you remember?" Ashikunz spoke in an annoying tone as he pointed his spear toward the human group.
"I'll now kill them, you take care of the—" Ashikunz was about to rush towards the group when suddenly a gunshot was heard. Zrelekai had shot not at Catripple, but now the pistol was pointing directly toward Ashikunz.
"You're not the real one!" shouted he while the bullet flew, and it passed right through his body. Not being able to do anything, the bullet pierced Liro's left arm.
"AHHH!!" shouted Liro as he fell to the ground in pain. After that, the three illusions disappeared. Mary disappeared in front of everyone's eyes, Ashikunz disappeared right in front of Zrelekai, and the illusion applied to Liro's body disappeared too; currently, his whole body had started to bleed.
'Damn… how did he discover the illusion?' thought Liro, angry. The third illusion applied to his body was to prevent Zrelekai from understanding that his body had started to bleed more with the use of his magic.
"Liro!" shouted Darian as he kneeled down to help his friend.
"Don't worry, I'm alright… it just hurts so much…" said Liro while breathing heavily.
"How did you discover that?!" shouted Liro.
"I must say it was almost perfect… I didn't know you could apply multiple illusions at once…" Zrelekai was about to press the trigger, his fingers a few inches away from getting Catripple's head blown up.
"But Ashikunz hasn't told us about his plan. He believed that there was a traitor between us, someone who was giving information to you as none of his plans were working… so he decided to keep this plan to himself," said Zrelekai with an amused tone.