System Change

Vanessa and Derek continued to talk about various things for a little longer while waiting for the time to come to leave. Vanessa had already gotten permission from Edward to go with Derek. Though, with her new position in the kingdom, she no longer needed Edward to give her permission to do so. Still, she wanted to make sure she did everything right, so she ran everything past the king, anyway.

“I’m sure this is long enough,” Derek said. It was midday, and Braxton had said that Maven would be coming back to Cydaria on this day, so surely, they’d given him plenty of time to get back to the base and get settled. “Are you ready?” he asked Vanessa. “This is your last chance to back out.”

“I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life,” Vanessa said. “I’m not seeking justice for my father. This is revenge. An opportunity like this has never come along—one where I can take my revenge without worrying about breaking guild oaths and contracts or having to worry about the guild coming for me…. Yes… I’m ready. I’m not letting this pass me by.”

“Very well,” Derek said. “Let me check and make sure he’s in the right place.” After saying that, Derek stood up and stored his chair, then walked to the middle of his travel room and opened a portal with Void Travel. With Vanessa still outside, Derek stepped inside and pushed his Void Sense to the max.

First, Derek pinpointed Braxton. After that, he did the same for Nyx. Seeing that the two auras were practically in the same exact place, he nodded, then looked for Maven. When he found the Guild Leader of the Cydarian branch, his mouth curled up in a smile. The man was located in a different area than the other two Guild Leaders were. It was an area that seemed to be quite far away from them.

After locating Maven, Derek went on to locate a few people that he knew from each kingdom—other than Vallum, as he didn’t really know anyone who was there, unless Marrick happened to be there. Derek’s smile grew even wider when his senses found that Maven’s aura wasn’t far away from some of the others that he located that were from Cydaria. That pretty much guaranteed that the man was at or around the Cydarian branch of the guild.

Derek turned around and stepped back out of his portal.

“Well?” Vanessa asked, but upon seeing Derek’s smiled, said, “I guess he’s where we need him to be?”

“It looks that way,” Derek replied.

“Good!” Vanessa’s eyes burned with fury as she, too, stood from her chair. Derek walked over and stored it as well.

“Now, we don’t exactly know what we’re getting into,” Derek said. “So, once I bring you out of the portal, get in between me and it. But whatever you do, do not accidentally step or get pushed inside the portal. I can’t guarantee your safety if that happens, but I can pretty much guarantee your death.”

“Got it,” Vanessa said. “Using the portal to protect my back is good. Going inside the portal is bad. Is there anything else?”

“Nothing that I can think of,” Derek said. “He’s sure to expect us, so I just wanted to make sure you were prepared for any ambushes.”

“I am,” Vanessa said.

“Good,” Derek replied. “Now, come stand in front of me.”

With that, Vanessa stepped forward between Derek and the portal. Once there, Derek placed his hand on her shoulder and coated her in a thin layer of the void before gently picking her up and entering the portal. With a quick turn, he closed the portal behind them, then focused on Maven’s aura. A short walk in the void later, and Derek and Vanessa were just above where Derek saw the man’s aura.

“Here we go,” Derek said, reaching forward with his free hand. He ripped the void open and jumped out quickly.

As soon as his feet found the floor, he released Vanessa and activated Absolute Nullify. It was good that he did, because dozens, if not hundreds, of spells rained down on the area they had just emerged from. The portal from Void Travel did a great job protecting them from behind, and Absolute Nullify was perfectly absorbing any piece of magic that entered its range.

However, Absolute Nullify didn’t act like a magnet to regular physical attacks, so a few daggers and arrows got around the skill and bounced off Derek’s armor. He also intercepted a fire coated arrow that was flying directly toward his temple. He turned and saw the archer holding the bow and readying another fire arrow. With a wave of his hand, Spatial Rend activated behind the man, and moments later, Derek no longer needed to worry about the assassin.

‘Sorry about this,’ Derek sent to Vanessa telepathically.

‘What?’ she sent back. Her shadows were doing for the majority of the physical attacks what Derek’s Absolute Nullify had done to the magical ones.

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Instead of answering the shadow user, Derek took a deep breath in, then released his aura—all of it. He did his best to direct it in front and to his sides, but Vanessa was too close to not be caught up in it, and she made a grunting sound from behind him. He noticed that the shadows retreated, but didn’t completely disappear. She had gotten hit with his aura, but was strong enough to fend it off since it wasn’t directed at her.

The majority of the rest of the ambushing assassins weren’t so lucky. He did nothing to avoid hitting them with his full aura. Multiple grunts and groans rang out from around them, and the physical and magical attacks stopped in an instant.

After looking around, Derek saw that more than half of the assassins were passed out from the intensity of his aura. He rolled his eyes at the situation. A running theme that he found annoying was all the lower leveled soldiers—assassins this time—that the leaders sent to fight him, even though their best attacks wouldn’t even be able to leave a bruise on Derek’s skin.

“Stop!” Derek yelled, backed by the full intent of his aura. He didn’t really need to issue the command, as most of the attacks had already stopped.

Derek reached back and closed the portal. A glance at the assassins who hadn’t gotten hit by the full force of his aura because of their position behind Vanessa was enough to make them hesitate. Derek shook his head, then faced forward once again. With a wave of his hand, the anti-magic wall created from Absolute Nullify disappeared.

With it gone, Derek and Vanessa was finally able to see in front of them. What they saw was a trembling and raging Maven with his second-in-command kneeling beside him. Derek reined in his aura a bit, which allowed the Vice Leader, sporting a mohawk, to shakily push himself to his feet.

“Are you done?” Derek asked coldly. He looked around at the few assassins who were still able to stand, and the others who were also kneeling. “Take your companions and scram!” he ordered. The assassins hesitated and looked at Maven. “Don’t look at him!” Derek said harshly. “You have thirty seconds, or there will no longer be an Assassin’s Guild branch in Cydaria. I’m not above snapping my fingers and killing you all.”

He was, of course, just being intimidating. He wouldn’t kill those lower leveled assassins who were just following Maven’s faulty orders. Now, he wasn’t above maiming and wounding them if they didn’t listen, but he would do his best to keep them from dying. But, as the soldiers of Astrus found out, that was not a fun experience.

Seeing them still hesitate, Derek raised his hand up and placed his middle finger on his thumb. “Twenty seconds,” he said.

“Go…” Maven said, but his voice wasn’t loud. Most of the assassins were too preoccupied with Derek to hear their leader tell them to leave. However, Derek didn’t miss his command.

“What was that?” he asked the Guild Leader. “A little louder, if you would.”

“Go!” Maven finally said loudly. “Get out of here! Take the wounded and leave.”

With that command, Derek could swear he felt the wind pick up because of the amount of silent sighs released by the dozens of assassins all at once. The standing assassins each gathered multiple lower leveled, passed out ones, then left the room. Derek reined his aura in even more, so the kneeling and laying assassins who were still conscious were able to stand on their own. Finally, he lowered his hand.

Slowly, the room, which Derek was finally able to take a good look at, cleared. The room was a chamber with tiered seating. It was almost like an indoor mini coliseum.

‘This is the training room,’ Vanessa sent to him telepathically. ‘It’s where the recruits battle, and where tournaments and advancement ceremonies are held. I should have guessed this would be where they would try their ambush.’

‘I guess he knew that my traveling skill would appear close to him, so he stood in the center and waited,’ Derek sent back. ‘It’s not like it’s hard to tell I’m coming.’

‘Yes. The dreadful aura your skill gives off is hard to miss,’ Vanessa said. ‘But this was his best chance. All the assassins had high ground, and they weren’t able to do anything. Look at my uncle now. You can see the defeat in his eyes.’

Derek looked Maven in his eyes, and it was true. The man already looked defeated. Braxton was right, even unintentional, leaving the Guild Leader alone for the last few days had been torture for the man. Oh well, Derek shrugged. It was his own damn fault.

Still, Derek was surprised to see that, other than Lazrus and Maven, three other cloaked figures remained in the stands. He specifically recalled that each of the three were able to remain standing after he unleashed his aura. He’d told them all to leave, but, since it didn’t look like they were going to interfere, he decided that they could stay for the show.

“What now?” Maven said. “What are you waiting for?” the man held his arms out.

At that point, Vanessa stepped forward. She was not the forgiving type and was also a bit sadistic. Also, they had already gone over the plan, so he wasn’t surprised by what she said when she spoke. “Uncle,” she began. “You know, you do have a chance to get out of this situation with your life.”

Maven’s eyes went wide. He wasn’t expecting to hear something like that. After getting over his surprise, he narrowed his eyes once again. “And how would I go about doing that?” he asked.

“Simple,” Vanessa said. “You only have to meet two conditions.”

“Two conditions?” Maven asked. “And what would these ‘conditions’ be?” Though he asked, his eyes, after his surprise, didn’t show any hope. He seemed to have an idea that his niece might be toying with him.

“They are rather simple,” the Shadow Witch said. “For the first condition… all you have to do is admit that you betrayed my father and killed him.”

“What kind of condition is that?” Maven snorted. It seemed like it was kind of an open secret that Maven had played a part in the death of Vanessa’s father, but it’s not something he’d ever admitted, at least not to Vanessa.

“Well?” Vanessa asked with no emotion showing on her face.

“Well?” Maven snorted. “If it will make you feel better… no, I did not kill my brother,” he answered, and Vanessa slightly shook from beside Derek. Then the man continued. “But I did have him killed. It really wasn’t that hard. Would you like to know how I did it?”

“No…” Vanessa said with balled, shaking fists and gritted teeth. “That is all I needed to know,” she said.

“If you say so,” Maven said with a shrug. “Have I fulfilled the first condition?”

“Yes… you did,” Vanessa replied.

“Then, the second condition?” Maven asked.

The next moment, Vanessa’s aura exploded out and the entire chamber was covered in shadow. “The second condition… survive!”

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