Chapter 563: A night to re(member/press)
Zhen Hou and the debonair bug woman proceeded to watch the former’s child self spend a lovely day out with his older brother and parents…up until the latter finally got bored.
[Hmmm. As lovely as this moment, I do believe we should move on.]
“To…another memory?”
[Close. We’re just going to be fast forwarding this day until we hit…dinner time?]
“Dinner time?,” Zhen Hou asked.
“Why would you-oh…wait a minute?”
[Did you just realize why I specified that time?]
“Maybe…I’m starting to remember some things…things that I think I tried to repress…”
[Good.]
“Good? How is that good?”
[You’re about to find out.]
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That evening, Zhen Shi and Bai Hua came to an uneasy decision.
They were going to leave Saint Sapphire behind and move deeper into the frontier.
As mercenaries and learned individuals, the two of them knew that there had been a more coordinated effort by the local kingdom as of late to try and expand its territory by establishing colonies and towns deeper and deeper into wilderness.
The type of places that would definitely need strong warriors in order to defend them from beast and bandit alike.
In fact, Saint Sapphire just so happened to be directly south of one such fledgling town called Stone Claw.
They had no idea if they were going to like living there, but in the worst case scenario, they could just leave and move to another city in the frontier, maybe move inland.
Of course, while the parents knew what they had to do and were ready to go and do it, their children on the other hand was a very different story.
Both of their sons and been born while in Saint Sapphire and had only known this city their whole lives…granted their respective lives’ had only been four to five years at this point, but the statement still stood.
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While the two of them continued their discussion on getting out of Saint Sapphire before anybody from their pasts comes knocking at their door and do something drastic, Zhen Long and Zhen Hou were currently walking towards them.
Well, trying to walk towards them anyways.
The estate was very dark at night and these two were technically slightly bigger toddlers at best, who have yet to start cultivating aether. As such, they had to walk through the many halls of this private estate in the dark, relying on the moonlight to try and navigate.
As to why these two were walking around in the dead of night towards their parents, the answer was very simple.
Zhen Hou had nightmare and asked his big brother to help him find their parents’ bedroom.
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Excited by the sight of the light, the two brothers proceeded to go as fast as their tiny legs could take them and ran towards the lit room.
In a matter of seconds, they were going to be in their parents’ room and get some well deserved cuddles after dealing with a nightmare and navigating surprisingly dark hallways.
At least…that was the original plan.
Unbeknownst to the brothers though, and even their parents, someone else was hiding in the shadows of their own home, watching them like an owl in the night, waiting to strike.
A devious smile formed on this stranger’s face as he watched the children run towards the only room illuminated by candlelight.
He couldn’t help but find this situation a bit funny, seeing how easy it was to find these children.
‘Well then, looks we’ll be able to go home earlier than anticipated,” the man thought to himself. ‘But which one should I kidnap…is what I would say if I wasn’t prepared! I knew it was a good idea to bring more than one child sized dosage of the sleeping drug. But enough dawdling, time to get to work.’
Just as the children were about to reach the halfway point towards their parents’ room, the man in the shadows began to circulate his aether in a strange manner and swoop down towards them.
[Night Strix Grapple.]
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‘You know…for someone of Second Uncle’s size, he is surprisingly light.’
‘Or that, yeah…exactly how strong am I physically anyways, I never really got a clear answer on that.’
=With or without aether enhancements?=
‘Without…?’
‘…what the fuck?’
=Pathos that statement means very little in this world since the elephants here can grow to the size of cruise ships from our lord’s old world. It’d be more accurate to say you can exert enough force to compress diamonds into shape from chunks of charcoal and coal.=
‘I…I was about to yell “what”, but I’d rather not wake up Second Uncle or anyone else that might be down here.’
=Smart move.=
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Zhen Shi and Bai Hua were in the middle of arguing about what to do with their current house when all of a sudden, the latter sensed the all to familiar circulation of aether being used to perform an assassination style aether art.
Normally, most people wouldn’t be able to sense such things, but after having to deal with assassins, bounty hunters and essentially every kind of motherfucker that made use of stealth to try and kill his ass, Zhen Shi developed a sense to pick up such things…sort of. It wasn’t strong enough to sense when someone was stalking him, but it was at least strong enough to detect when someone was using an art that broke said stealth.
Zhen Shi immediately stopped his discussion with Bai Hua and made his way to the door, circulating his aether in case someone tried to shoot him in the chest with a crossbow bolt…again.
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Only to be surprised when he saw that it was his sons running towards him with relieved looks on their faces.
For a split second, Zhen Shi’s guard lowered as he was about to get down on one knee in order to catch his two children in his arms…only to find out this was to be for naught.
[Night Strix Grapple!]
“Aaahhh!”
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Moments before his kids could run into his arms, a man wreathed in shadowy aether swooped down and grabbed Zhen Long and Zhen Hou with a pair of claws made of the same aether was wrapped in. Another moment later, the man proceeded to manipulate the aether surrounding him into a pair of wings and use them to fly backwards, Zhen Shi’s sons tucked within his arms.
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Zhen Shi tried to attack the man before he could fly away, but failed to move fast enough to do so. And then, as the man began to fly away, Zhen Shi tried to use a ranged aether art to try and blast the man from the back, only to stop when he realized that he would hit his own children in the process.
An Aether Master’s power was already fatal against Acolytes and Novices, if Zhen Shi had missed and accidentally blasted one of his kids…he’d never be able to live with himself.
This was a lose-lose situation…one that had no out.
‘If I don’t do anything, he’ll take my kids. If I do something I might kill them…what the fuck do I do?!’
