Chapter 32
---Thirty Minutes Later---
As the hustle and bustle of the capital’s heart faded behind them, Leon and Solaris entered a different world. A far cry from the spacious, manicured streets they were accustomed to, this place was a pigsty. Most alleyways were clogged with piles of garbage that reached the rooftops. The streets were little better, littered with waste and rotting food.
Once we were deep in the slums, the local hoodlums made their move. While we strode down a desolate street, dozens of thugs encircled us from the shadows. I had intended to ignore them, but now that they were closing in, I would set them straight.
“Enough of these games. Either have the balls to show yourselves, or get lost.” Leon stopped and turned his gaze toward a nearby rooftop where the largest group was hiding. “Safe to say one of you is the leader of this gang?”
For a moment, none of the pursuers dared to move. The thugs had been certain Leon was oblivious to their presence, so being called out like this made them rethink their approach. Just as he was about to open a portal to the rooftop, a familiar figure stepped into view.
“Hehe! You caught us.” A silver-haired thief smiled, thumbing her nose. “No need for things to get violent. If you drop your valuables and walk away, we will let you—”
Leon extended a hand, seizing the woman with telekinesis. The instant his grip tightened around her, she squealed in fright. She attempted to thrash, but found herself pinned in midair.
“Calm yourself, Chris. You will strain yourself if you keep this up.” Leon offered a wry smile.
“How do you know my name?!” Chris froze, horrified by the discovery.
“I am a friend of Miss Wiz and Yunyun. You know them, yes?”
Upon hearing their names, her panic subsided. With a relieved smile, she looked back at her underlings.
“Everyone, stand down! He is a friend of a friend.”
At her order, the hidden thieves and thugs emerged from hiding. Still wary, Solaris moved close to Leon’s side and released a low growl.
“It is alright, Solaris. They mean us no harm,” Leon said, patting the raptor’s head. “Just a case of misidentification.”
He brought Chris down to street level and released her. Freed from the invisible restraint, she exhaled and stretched her flexible body. Her comrades joined them soon afterward, lowering their heads in a collective apology.
“Sorry about that.” Chris lifted her head with an embarrassed look. “If I may ask, how do you know Wiz and Yunyun?”
“I am a frequent customer of Wiz,” I said. “Whenever she acquires intriguing artifacts, I purchase them at a premium. As for Yunyun, she is a member of my adventuring party.”
A mischievous grin crept across Chris’s face. She turned around and whispered to her comrades. When she finished, they lifted their heads and inspected me with closer scrutiny, quickly joining Chris in grinning like fools.
“That means you are the rumored Leon Fou Aremus,” Chris said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Lately, whenever I have a run-in with Yunyun, she talks my ear off about you and your party. Make sure you take good care of that innocent airhead, got it?”
“Hehe! Better yet, he should ask Miss Yunyun on a—” One of Chris’s men began, taking several sharp elbows to the gut from his comrades.
With a pale expression, he crumpled to the ground, clutching his stomach in agony. A few of his companions bent down to haul him away before he could say more.
“Don’t pay him any mind, Lord Aremus. He is an idiot who doesn’t know when to keep his nose out of other people’s business.” Chris delivered a powerful kick to the man’s jaw, knocking him out cold. “Anyway, what brings you to our neck of the woods? You wouldn’t be following Yunyun from the shadows, would you? Let me be straight with you, she doesn’t like men who do that creepy stuff.”
I looked at Chris and her subordinates with confusion. “I am following a lead on a ring of black market slavers working in secret out here. Why would you think I am stalking Yunyun?”
At the mention of slavers, the group’s expressions hardened. In the slums, illegal activity was commonplace, and none of the locals paid it any mind. The sole exception was the illegal slave trade that plagued the area. Most people who called the slums home saw each other as family, and no one enjoyed watching family members being kidnapped off the streets. They had been begging the city guard to act for months, but no help arrived. Now that a prominent noble was here to help, Chris and her company were ready to assist however they could.
“Yunyun wandered through here about ten minutes ago,” Chris said, stepping forward. “She is running an errand for Miss Wiz. Now, tell me more about this lead you spoke of. If we can help you root out those lowlifes, we are happy to help.”
Her subordinates nodded in agreement.
“Yesterday, the daughter of a fallen noble house reported she had escaped a group of slavers,” I said, gesturing in the general direction of the building. “In her statement to the guards, she said her captors held her in an abandoned shop near here. I believe it was called Tom’s General Store.”
Chris’s face froze. Before she could get a word out, one of her subordinates leaned forward to speak to her.
“Hey Boss. Isn’t that where Miss Yunyun is headin’?”
“Yeah…”
Chris and I stared at each other, then we turned toward the shop and took off. “All of you idiots, get moving! Our friend is in danger.”
Solaris and her subordinates chased after us. As we wove through the maze of buildings and streets, a piercing scream cut through the air.
“Get this stupid bitch inside before someone shows up!” a raspy voice said. The man grunted as he fought to get his prey under control.
“Stop it!” Yunyun said, fighting for her life. “Let go of me, please! I don’t want this!”
The visage of my late wife hauled away by Davoth flashed before my eyes. Her terrified expression squeezed my heart and caused power to swell within me. I could not protect the woman I loved in the past. No matter what, I would not let it happen again.
“Follow me! We are taking a shortcut!”
I snapped my gaze toward the voices. Before I enacted my plan, I checked the buildings between Yunyun and us for signs of life. When I saw only mice and rats in my path, I did not hesitate to ram through the structures one after another.
Chris and her people came to a sudden halt. “Are you bloody insane!? What are you doing?”
I gave no response. Instead, I focused my energy on running faster. With an exhausted sigh, Chris looked over the carved pathway with uncertainty. This area was full of decrepit buildings, one powerful gust away from toppling over. That they had not fallen after taking a hit like that surprised her.
“Boss, are we going to follow him?” One of her subordinates watched my back, hoping they did not have to run the gauntlet and could stick to the normal routes.
[Rawr!!] Solaris bulldozed past them, following the route his master had carved. Unlike the thieves, he was not in the least bit worried about the danger.
“Grr!” Chris clenched her fist. “Screw it! We are going. Everyone keep moving.”
“Yes, boss!” The others followed suit and kept a close eye on the structures overhead.
As I burst through the last wall, I saw Yunyun clinging to one of the outside posts that held up the overhanging roof. Her clothing was torn in several places, and a deep gash was cut across her cheek. When our eyes met, her face lit up with unbridled joy.
“LEON!”
“Get your filthy hands off her!” I shot out a hand.
Vivid crimson streaks of lightning shot from me, striking the men in the chest. Intense pain surged through them as their organs reduced to ash. They released Yunyun, dropping to the ground and writhing in pain. With a thought, I blasted them through the front wall and out the back.
I pulled Yunyun into my arms, my eyes fixed on the stunned grunts inside. “You have made the worst and final mistake of your pitiful lives. No one lays a hand on those I care about and lives to tell the tale. Whatever god or demon you worship, start praying to them now.”
In an instant, the surrounding area began quaking under my psychic pressure. There were many innocent people trapped inside the building, so I restrained myself.
“Yunyun!” Chris flew through the opening with her men, weapons at the ready.
Upon seeing her terrified friend clutching Leon’s chest, she wanted to tear the slavers a new one. As she went to charge in, Chris froze. For the briefest moment, Leon’s visage flickered before her eyes. In place of the handsome student she knew, a hulking man shielded Yunyun with his massive forearm. The raw rage emanating from his eyes held the petrified men in place.
“Solaris! Take Yunyun straight to the Adventurer’s Guild, and lead reinforcements here,” I said, keeping my eyes fixed forward. “Chris, go with them and tell the Guildmaster I sent you. While you are away, have your men clear the area. I don’t want innocent bystanders getting hurt.”
“Ri… Right!” Chris felt a cold chill run down her spine. “You heard him. Get to it!”
Solaris approached me as the thieves darted away. As gently as I could, I swept Yunyun onto Solaris’s back. She attempted to protest parting from me, but the raptor moved before she could. Chris followed him, every fiber of her being screaming to get far away from me.
When they were out of sight, I drew my blade and eviscerated the front wall. The men inside fell onto their backsides, crying out in fear as snot and tears ran down their faces.
As I crossed the threshold, the scent of decay and fear filled my lungs.
“Mister… Please save us…”
I turned to the source of the voice and found a young boy locked in a cage with dozens of other children. All of them were bound with heavy chains and shackles. Their skin bore the marks of countless beatings and lashings. When I looked them in the eyes, a memory surfaced in my mind.
---Flashback---
Above the desert world of Nuceria, I stood in the bowels of the Emperor’s flagship. In front of me, behind an energy barrier, sat my twelfth brother, Angron. A short time ago, he had been plucked from an active battlefield on the planet by the Emperor. Upon arriving in the cell, he had flown into a rage, destroying everything he could get his hands on. While he tore everything apart, the broken man hurled vile insults into the empty air. He had wanted to die fighting alongside his family, but the Emperor refused to allow it.
‘Why didn’t he help them? The forces he brought here could have crushed the tyrants of this world with minimal effort. He has helped several of my other brothers in the past, but he refused to do so here.’ I looked at my brother with sympathy. ‘This is just too cruel.’
As I placed a hand on one of the emitter poles, Angron lifted his head and glared at me.
“Are you here to mock me? Get it over with and leave me be.” Angron retrieved a small trinket from under his broken armor. “I want to mourn my family alone.”
I swiped my access card and stepped into the cell. Before Angron could react, I sat down beside him. He stared at me, unsure what to make of the situation.
“Only a fool would belittle or mock your heartache, Angron. I know all too well what it feels like to watch your family be butchered before your eyes.” I looked up at the ceiling. “We may not have been brothers and sisters in chains, but we fought side by side for twenty long years.”
Taken aback, he scrutinized my face for any signs of falsehood. Instead of deceit, he found raw pain and sorrow, the same emotions he was experiencing.
“What happened?” Angron leaned his head against the wall and looked up at the ceiling as well.
“The Emperor had my crewmen and sons executed before my eyes for disobeying his wishes. I set out to find hard proof to show him that his golden plan will tear the galaxy apart. When I found it and showed him, instead of understanding, he buried the truth under the blood and corpses of my people.” I gritted my teeth. “I fought so hard to save them, but I was too weak. No matter what I did, my strength could not best the Emperor.”
Angron’s face darkened. He knew from the moment he met the Emperor that the man was the same as the tyrants of Nuceria, just dressed in different clothes. What he had just heard reinforced that image in his mind.
“Why do you still follow him then?” Angron asked.
“Because someone has to stop him from plunging humanity and the galaxy into darkness. I cannot fix things from the outside. The masses cling to his honeyed words, desperate for the brighter future he promises them. All I can do is act as the voice of reason and give people a better alternative to what he peddles.”
Angron laughed. When the Emperor first told him about his brothers, he assumed all of them were identical tyrants. The realization that one actually shared his soul, willing to endure tremendous pain to protect those around him, gave him a small measure of solace.
“What is your name?” Angron asked, looking at me.
“My name is Klordius Aremus, but you can call me Aremus. I am your second eldest brother, if that means anything to you.” I glanced over at him. “We do not know each other well, so I understand if that word upsets you.”
A wave of peace fell over Angron. Something about the man beside him soothed his tormented mind.
“Would… Would you listen to my story, Aremus?” Angron asked.
“Of course.” I nodded.
“I don’t know what world you arrived on, but here on Nuceria, I was raised as a slave.” Angron began sharing his life story with me.
---Flashback End---
As memories of my time with Angron flooded back, I gripped the hilt of my blade tightly. These kids were just like my brother in his youth, before the hopelessness of his situation consumed him. They still held the spark of hope that my brother had lost. In honor of our treasured bond, I would make these hideous creatures suffer.
“Let’s take this matter elsewhere.” I dragged all the slavers into the Mirror Dimension. “Help will be here soon to free you. Forgive me for indulging myself.”
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