Chapter 186 A Grand Castle

I looked outside the window and saw hundreds of people shuffling away from their beds and into the streets. Their eyes were dead as they gave an amused smile to our building.

I sighed as I walked through the door, my eyes were still bleary from being woken up by that needle.

"I'm guessing that whoever is controlling them decided that stealth wasn't the best option" I say to the room, my rhetorical question answered by the humming of Darwin in affirmation.

Again I just sighed, why couldn't they have done this later. In the morning or even better in the afternoon. I needed my sleep and they just had to interrupt it.

"You find out what that liquid was?" Darwin questioned Delta who was still intently staring at the needle in her hand.

"Yeah" Delta responded while walking alongside me.

"It was a primer for some other special process. Would have set your brain in such a way that the next drug would allow whoever was controlling them to take over you with a dose of their aether."

I frowned at that, did that mean that everyone here was controlled. Even the nobility and King. If they were able to do this with a single jab and some follow up then it would be no problem to take over the entire kingdom in a matter of weeks.

I heard footsteps echoing through the building as people started to appear on the floor we were on.

Doors were opened and more and more flooded into the hallway.

I took out my knife, the edge idly cutting the air as I played with it in my hand.

"Let me have this" I mumble towards Darwin and Delta even as my armor appeared on my legs, fog obscuring the vision of the residents.

I looked back only to see that Darwin and Delta were already gone, having left me to my own devices.

I mentally thanked them as I needed something to toy with so that my frustration over being woken up in the middle of the night could go away or at least lessen.

I watched on as the people charged at me one at a time, the hallway too narrow for them to group up on me.

Though they never made it even close to me as the fig turned into spikes of ice that pierced the brains of the ones closest to me.

I could sense the surprise that the controller felt at the ease in which I had taken care of them. Though there still was no worry.

"Ah… so that's why" I muttered out loud as I felt aether gather in the air before slamming into me.

I stood my ground even as it threatened to pierce my chest, it was sort of cute. How it tried so hard to kill me but was stopped by a single thread of my own aether. The difference in quality was too much for the mastermind to overcome.

It was only now that I saw the panic appear in the souls of those around me.

"Didn't think I could resist that did you?" I ask them, knowing that it would be transmitted to the mastermind just how every other action was.

"Interesting" I thought out loud as I watched the residents start to shut down, their basic processes dying out. Their hearts seized a final look of panic before they all died.

…

ding

The bell of the hotel rang as I walked through it and met up with Darwin and Delt . They stood around a crowd of dismembered people. Their limbs were scattered everywhere and blood littered the streets.

Memoria was in Darwin's hand, blood sticking to it for only moments before it was expelled by some sort of mystic force.

It was as if the spear itself was saying that the blood was not worthy of marring its surface.

"Feeling better?" Darwin questioned as I snuggled up to him.

"Sort of" I respond as my body leaned to his chest and my eyes closed in comfort.

"Good" Darwin muttered as he stroked my hair.

"We do have to get moving though" I heard Darwin say moment s after I had finally gotten comfortable.

I grumbled a bit at being pushed from my spot by the very spot but ultimately I knew he was right. No matter how much I just wanted to cuddle I couldn't as we had things to do.

…

I tread the path to the castle, the residents staring at us as we walked further and further into the entrance.

It was elaborate, a door that seemed to be at least twenty or thirty feet tall and a drawbridge that overlooked the town.

To even get into the castle one would need to scale the wall then get through the hundreds of guards that were constantly stationed at the bridge.

Luckily for us we only had to scale the wall as the guards were seemingly ordered to ignore us. Though that didn't mean that they just let us be. No, they followed us as we got further and further in.

It was only when we had reached the door that I finally noticed how many had followed.

At the very least there was a hundred thousand or so all gathered around the bridge and wall.

Each and every one of them stared into our own souls. It was a state that seemed to be filled with cunning.

I looked to Aoif beside me and she nodded in confirmation. Aoif had used her soul sight to confirm my suspicions.

Next to me Delta walked from where she was and towards the door. A push of her hands and it was opened, the opulent castle revealing itself.

It wasn't a throne room like you would have expected but a reception room at the top of the castle with stairs and passages that lead down further into the castle.

I walked in, and gazed further and further in as I saw the supposed mastermind make his way up the stairs.