Aimless Ascension

"This is for the A'caen!"

Gale's mind cleared with that announcement. He was about to yell at them after they called out their reasoning for attacking him, but he stopped himself, noticing the weirdness of the situation.

How could he have an overview of the assassin encircling him and watch himself squirm on the ground? No, it wasn't his soul fishing out of his body, but something more mundane and comprehensible, though that didn't mean it wasn't outrageous.

[Don't just stand there,] a voice transmitted to his head. Gale comprehended who the voice belonged to at once. Sumei. She hadn't stayed where he left her, but ran up here to help him.

Gale turned his head around as if to find her, but the only thing he got was another urging phrase from her. [Come on, they won't be fooled for much longer.]

Then he finally saw her figure in the cover of the thick mist on his back. The red demon-masked leader was still monologuing, standing tall, along with his three other companions, telling the illusion how grave of a mistake he did for killing their A'caen.

Gale crept away from there to Sumei. The rain and their fight caused enough disarray for none of them to notice the little disturbance he caused, as they were still busy with his illusion.

The red demon leader couldn't just stop himself from monologuing, huh? If only he was a little more efficient in his job, Gale wouldn't have got this chance. That reminded him. How the hell did they find out his tracks so easily and quickly? He guessed it was a contemplation of another time.

He joined Sumei, almost flying to her.

"What are you doing here?" Gale asked with a groan, reaching her.

"I think that should be obvious," the ebony-haired woman said, her voice soft and cool, "I'm saving you. Quick, we need to leave, they. . ."

Her voice trailed off as the red demon assassin clamoured in curses and indignation, finding his sword only plugged into an illusion.

"Search, scour the entire mountain range if you have to," the leader screamed at his underlings. "We have to find him at all costs."

Gale's mind was chilled. Exchanging a look with Sumei, he caught her with both arms and started running. He released his third fate look and flew up at a relatively slower speed, considering what he got through so far.

When he was busy escaping, Sumei wasn't idle, either. Somehow the woman managed to fool a group of gold rankers when they weren't alert about her presence. The second time, it wouldn't be that easy, yet she managed to do it again.

A few illusionary figures of Gale fleeing away appeared in all directions of the assassins, leading them to be confused over his real track. The Archer among them shot his arrow at the realistic illusion, but Sumei still controlled the illusions. Her masterful control made the illusionary Gale to dodge the arrow.

Gale merely noticed a glimpse of her illusions, but he was completely flabbergasted. There was no way she was a nameless iron ranker. It was literally impossible for iron rankers to have this type of control or expertise to fool gold rankers.

The surrounding mist and rain provided enough camouflage, but they made her job to make the illusion realistic even harder as well.

"Who are you really?"

"You don't think I should be the one to ask that question?" Sumei said, her voice grew hard with everything she had to do. "Why are they after you?"

"That. . ." Gale considered the right choice of words. "I might have killed their Dog Prince. Wait, calling that fucker dog is demeaning to Vale and all the other dogs."

"Did you do it or not?"

"It was an accident," Gale groaned. "Although the only remorse I had was that it was only an accident. That fucker deserved a spear to his gut and a slow death."

Sumei croaked something incomprehensible as he carried her. After a while, she pointed to him the cover of many boulders. Gale understood and carried her three to sit under the cover of the boulders.

"I need to stay closer to manipulate the illusions. This much distance was already stretching it," Sumei commented as she sat flat against the boulder. Next, she cast another spell as a veil dropped, cascading them completely. It hid them from the outside view altogether, though the rain made it difficult for her to hold on to it for longer. Or to be a perfect veil.

Still, they wouldn't be noticed just by gazes.

"Useful skills," Gale praised. He didn't bother to remove the arrow from his back, as it would need special care after that.

"It's only good at running away and hiding," Sumei said, taking the praise. Unlike Gale, who overestimated what he could endure every time he was under pressure, she had no illusions of her spirit art mastery. "Anyway, this will only provide shelter for a couple of minutes. They will eventually find us."

Gale let out a breath, finding nothing wrong with her reasoning.

Four people: one high gold, two mid gold and one low gold. Gale was pretty sure he still had reserves to deal with lower rankers. But the high gold would have been a damnable problem even if he was alone, and a real menace now that he had three others to assist him.

They wouldn't make the same mistake against him that easily now, after losing three of their numbers.

Even if he somehow managed to deal with the counterparts, he would be drained and would be at the mercy of the high gold. Well, they would have had him already if not for Sumei.

Well, she saved him, but by doing so, she got herself involved as well.

"Think quick, we don't have much time," Sumei urged him. She was shuddering against the boulder, barely keeping the veil intact at this moment.

"I do have a plan," Gale said, bringing out a couple more vials to ingest them first. They were healing potions to soothe the burning inside his channels. They gave a cool and soothing vibe to his burning channels instantly.

Gale was pretty sure the potions wouldn't be able to do the same another time. Not when he intended to repeat what he did.

"A plan," Sumei repeated, "What is it?"

"You stay here, while I'll go and kill those madafakas."

Sumei shot him a flat look. "Really?"

"Well, that was the gist of it," Gale said, "But I do intend to kill them all."

"And how are you going to do it?" Sumei asked, biting her lower lip.

Gale didn't answer, but looked upwards at the booming clouds and lightning.

"I guess I have to do the unthinkable again," Gale said, and turned to face her again. "Did you see how I killed that woman in the sky?"

Sumei stared at him, her expression incredulous.

"Of course, you haven't. It was high up in the air, in the clouds," Gale said. "The point is, I can tap into the power of the storm. . ."

"I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be a big but after that sentence," Sumei narrowed her eyes.

"You have a big butt," Gale snickered.

Sumei didn't laugh, only shot him a judgemental look.

"Too early?" Gale asked and continued, without waiting for a reply from her.

"Yes," he sighed, "the power will be just as devastating for me as it would be for my enemies and possibly to those who aren't even my enemies. It can literally melt me from the inside if I can't control it."

"And you're still saying this is a plan?" Sumei glared at him. "This sound much more like a death wish than a plan if you ask me."

"Well," Gale had no better words to offer her. He brought a golden bead out of his void lock. "It is a plan with this."

Sumei frowned at the golden bead in his hand. It had a complicated runic pattern in it, easy to notice it was something valuable.

"This is a fate lock," Gale said. "It comes from the Celestial Radiance, carved out by one of the finest artisans alive. Basically, it has tremendous healing power. I was saving this to let it become my fourth fate lock, but I guess the time has come."

Sumei just stared at him, lost for words.

"Yeah, I know it's a sketchy plan," Gale said. "You don't have to give me that look."

"Don't you have anything better?" Sumei asked, her voice pleading.

Gale shrugged as he stood up. "Leave quickly once I go to confront them. This place wouldn't get safer until I'm done with this."

Gale was ready to shoot out of her veil when she called after him, "Gale, wait."

Gale did and turned his head to meet her gaze. Sumei stood up and hugged him tightly, her face clinging to his chest.

"Don't die, please," she said with all her emotions.

"I won't." Gale embraced her, his palms stroking her back to reach her lower body. "Huh, you do have a big butt."

Without waiting for her reply, he shot out, leaving her there.

With the fate lock of the celestial in hand, he didn't proceed to bond with it. There was no time to do so. Besides, it would be more useful if he used it after calling the storm.

Gale flew, not doing anything to hide his track. The assassins easily noticed him as the red demon chased after him immediately.

Gale stopped, standing on a thick branch of ironwood. "I have a question. Mind answering me that?"

He found no emotions from the demon-masked fellow, other than the killing intent he was radiating.

"Why bother to go such length for that cunt?"