Chapter 200: Funeral

Azrun. That was the name of this particular world. A place where the luxury of freedom wasn’t a thing. The structure, system, life and choices here were enforced by the disposals. There was no law. Laws were made to protect the weak. Here, the weak are meal to the strong.

This lawless world has a country. This place was named Nectar. Nectar was one of the openly running bases of the disposal. A headquarter.

The air warped as three figures appeared at the same time. They found themselves inside a room. This room was bright, laced with several monitors and a single chair. In that single chair, was a lady. She had her back turned to them, but addressed them with a casual tone.

"The master is in this room. Report back!"

They didn’t acknowledge her words, but followed them anyway. This person was the personal assistant to the master, and her word count, whether they like it or not.

They walked out of the room, into the hallway and walked for a full minute through the dimly lit hall, before arriving at a door.

The sound coming from the room, a loud wail of a victim was enough to tell them that the master was in.

They pushed the door, and bowed right after.

"Greetings master!"

The room had zero light source, but they could sense the silhouette of two people. One, obviously disfigured on the ground. Just the master’s daily pet to pass time. The second was the master.

"We have returned."

The silhouette turned his head.

"It failed." He said even before they could speak further. His voice came calm and void of emotions.

"Forgive us, master Red. Salvador people and the disciples got in the way." The lady among them replied. "We only managed to eliminate seven out of ten."

"Hmm..." Red turned his gaze, the light in the hallway reflecting his red eyes and the symbol of two stars beneath his eyes. "Give me names."

They exchanged glances, then one of the men spoke.

"The foes were protector Richard, Disciple Haliad and Headmaster Rowen from Qld. Protector Nel was also present, along with disciple Muon and Myai who were presumed dead."

Red flinched. "Muon and Myai?"

"They are very much alive, master."

A grin slowly spread across his lip. "Such valuable information. My rank will be reevaluated with this."

"Master, I think we have a bigger problem." The lady spoke.

The grin vanished from his lips. "Speak."

"The rumored runaway from the Salvador empire, second branch, number five."

"The black eyed child with tremendous energy? Isn’t he dead?"

"He’s very much alive master, and we saw him."

Red raised a brow, eyes displaying something close to irritation. "And you couldn’t bring him back."

They flinched at his words, and exchanged glances. The lady continued speaking.

"He opened a black hole in black empire."

A long silence followed after that word. They couldn’t see this person, but they could tell that this news wasn’t a small one.

"What?" Red’s voice sounded after a full minute of trying to digest the report and failing miserably at it. "A black hole? Void user?"

"Yes." They chorused.

Red didn’t know what to make of this. When he moved they realised that he was sitting on a bed. He dropped his legs, stood up and began to pace.

"A black hole... he uses the void. How is that—" He paused.

"Who are his parents?"

"Well..." They exchanged glances. "We are not sure." One of the men answered. "But the markings on his body show that he’s from the royal family."

"The royal family. Richard’s family. We can’t rule out the possibility that he’s Richard’s son." Red snapped his finger, like putting together a puzzle. "We won’t report this yet. Find out more."

BLACK EMPIRE

The familiar bells woke them up the next morning. The island was still floating, hanging close to the clouds. The remaining students had a quick bath, and came outside. The people were gathering. This was to lay the deceased to rest.

"They don’t waste time, huh?" Tyler muttered.

They saw Kael approaching from the main palace. His pace wasn’t encouraging. It was like he couldn’t use his legs, now that his wings were gone. They watched him, till he got to them.

"..."

"You... alright?" Quil asked.

Kael blinked once, and sucked in a slow breath. "Do I look okay?"

"Hmm..." Claude gestured vaguely at him. "At least... you still have your legs right? Just like before."

"Oh." Kael muttered. He glanced behind, at where his wings are supposed to be. "Richard said they’ll grow again."

"Richard?" They chorused, eyes wide like they were about to pop out.

"Yeah, he told me that Liumin used to disturb him in the past. The solution was to rip out his wings and keep him shut for about a month."

"Yikes." Quil exclaimed.

"The question is why you’re addressing the king by his name." Lane said.

"Huh? oh..." Kael muttered. "He told me to."

"That isn’t enough reason to do it!" Anny yelled.

Kael didn’t react to those words.

"Is Elias awake?" Quil asked.

"Yes. Since yesterday actually." Kael turned. "He looks more lively than normal. Apparently, almost burying a world in black hole had hit a soft spot. They made him wear gloves. Surprisingly, no one likes the thought of being buried inside a hole that leads to endless nothing."

They grimaced at the thought of it.

"Will gloves work?" Claude asked.

"It’s something right?" He shrugged. Anyways, we should head over to the cavern." He pointed in a direction. "They would be laying all the dead people to rest."

Coco and Quil exchanged glances. Although they did not personally know Cia, they had wished she survived the invasion.

Together, they headed towards the cave. It was ridiculously large and crowded. They managed to slip into the candle lit cave and secured a spot where they could see everything. All the dead, approximately twenty five of them were laid in the heart of the cave. The cave was filled with blue lit candles. Although the crowd, only the rustling of clothes and footsteps were held. Otherwise, it was silent.

Soon, they saw Elias enter the cave. It was like Kael had said. He looked more lively than someone who was attending a funeral. A little detail stood out. He was wearing gloves.

He went and stood by his family side, Brin on the right and Jordan to his left.

Some people stepped forward and collected the sealing stone around the dead necks. They handed them over to their family members. Cia’s own was given to Ragnar. Then, the people stepped back.

The students had expected some sort of drama, but only Quil knew what was going to happen next.

All eyes went closed.

"Do not bind ash to memory, nor silence to a beating heart..."