Chapter 31: Preparation is key

Zomatsu left the castle disgruntled, he had emphasized his fears to Aur yet all he said was to go back and make a confirmation, every high ranking member of the Zorak family knew about his ability so it didn’t make sense for him to return back for a confirmation without any help. Although Aur had mentioned backup, who knew when and if that would come, if he was to encounter something similar to what he felt before he would be dead before any sort of backup could reach him.

Zomatsu was too tired to think clearly right now, there was still some side effects from that blast of negative energy lingering in his body, he was lucky to have just passed out, he suspected that both Hach and Evans had died already, they must’ve taken the full brunt of that attack, someone of their level would die instantly.

He boarded a private carriage and headed for an hotel near the outer district of Royal borough, Blackwing Hotel. It was a large building going almost 30 levels, the tallest building in the city. The hotel had about 250 rooms and several quality restaurants, it was the most famous hotel in the city, still because of its high charges it was only popular with the highest class merchant and nobles, so it was pretty quiet most of the time.

Zomatsu entered the large lobby which was superbly decorated and had a refined feel to it. He saw a female dark elf at the receptionist desk, she smiled and greeted him. “Hello sir, welcome to Blackwing hotel, how may I be of service?” Zomatsu didn’t say a word and just brought out a black card, the receptionist looked at it and immediately bowed. “Welcome back, Lord Zomatsu, I’ll send someone to prepare your room immediately.” He nodded and then took a seat in the lobby.

The lady then came over and offered him the choice of a beverage. “Would you like some tea while you wait, we have every tea available in the continent and even exotic ones from the various continents.”

“No it’s fine, just have them hurry up.”

“Of course.”

He was still feeling different spikes in his emotions and could only blame the residual negative energy within him. He waited for a few more minutes before the lady came to inform him that his room was ready, without waiting a second longer he hurriedly walked by her and headed straight for the elevation platform at the end of the hall, he grab his card from her hand and left.

Once he got to the platform he pushed 30th on the list of doors on the wall, he was immediately transported to the platform on the 30th floor. He walked out of the platform and headed for the room at the end of the hall, there was only five rooms on this floor and one of them was designated to him by the family. The Zorak family owned less than 10 percent of the businesses in Winged city but they were receiving taxes from the remaining 90 percent so it really didn’t matter.

The Blackwing city was one of the businesses that they owned, it was a place for the elites of elite, and was often used by their own family members for business, a black card represented a high ranking member of the family and one of the five rooms in the top floor of any Blackwing Hotel would be prepared for the holder of the card.

Zomatsu entered the massive room, said room was filled with exotic and tasteful furniture, every single piece being of excellent design and decoration. The grey carpet upon the floor was thick and soft, swallowing the footsteps of those who trod on it.

It had a large bed, an exotic desk and black leather chair, a well stocked bookshelf and even a fully equipped mini bar. He just walked straight to the bed and collapsed, having been under such an intense situation for such a long period of time, he was mentally exhausted, he had fallen asleep even without taking off his cloak.

••••••

The light in room saturated for a second before returning back to normal, a little girl around the age of 13 appeared out of the void, she wore a Black mask that covered the lower parts of her face and a similar coloured dress with white linings. She had Amber coloured eyes and green hair with a French twist, she had greenish black greaves and the same coloured gloves with metal knuckles.

She walked soundlessly towards the sleeping Zomatsu and placed her right hand a few inches over his back, a green two fold magic circle appeared on his back, the two circles turned counter to each other as they shrank inside his body, simultaneously her left eye started to glow, it slowly changed colour and turned green.

She then return her hand back to her side, walking back in reverse, almost as if she was going backwards in time all the way back to the spot she had appeared on. The lights saturated again and she disappeared from the room, the wind blew in through the open windows and Zomatsu turned, comfortably in his sleep.

••••••

Zomatsu slowly opened his eyes with great difficulty, it was already late in the afternoon and he had told Bam and Bor to wait by the gates, he also had something to do before he met up with them. He got off the bed and walked to the washroom, taking off his cloak he splashed some cold water on his face to wake himself up, he looked at the reflection in the mirror in front of him and saw his face.

The features of an almost absurdly handsome man appeared there, the type of guy that women would flock around. He also looked quite young, in human age he would be about 23 or 24, he had short blonde hair, bright golden eyes and angel like skin, he was also well built and quite tall, about 6ft, most people would kill for his appearance but he was pissed.

Everytime he saw his face he would always be reminded of the past and the rage and frustration from that time would just come storming back. *Bang! he slammed his fist into the mirror and shattered it, although it instantly started to fix itself, he left the sink and went to take a shower, he also put his clothes in the cleaner, it uses magic to instantly clean any soft or had fabric, it didn’t work on armors.

Zomatsu soon finished freshing up and got dressed, he donned his cloak and left his room, he returned back the the lobby and told the receptionist he was leaving and wouldn’t return anytime soon, the dark elf greeted him politely and waved him goodbye. He left the hotel and hired a private carriage back to the city’s gate. As soon as he alighted from the carriage he saw Bam and Bor chatting away with the guard on duty as they seemed to be having fun.

They soon spotted him and ran over to greet him, Zomatsu just nodded and asked “Have they brought our supplies?” Bor nodded in return “Yes, they even provided us with three Tier 1 horse.” he was a little excited when he said that, tier 1 horse were different from ordinary horses, these were horses that had been trained by beast tamers with their special abilities, they were once ordinary horses now closer to a Tier 2 demonic horse.

He nodded his head and stretched his arm, holding a black card, he handed it over to Bam. “Take this, go to the Rinic’s weapon shop in South borough and get yourself some upgrades on your equipment, try to be as practical as possible, don’t just pick the most expensive weapons.” The brothers eyes sparkled when they saw the card, it widened even more when they heard their boss words, taking the cards without hesitation, they both headed to the Rinic’s weapon shop.

Zomatsu seeing them leave, he walked back to the private carriage that brought him and headed North, the trip was about an hour long, he alighted off at the corner of a street in the middle district of North borough, this was Raven street, the area was a little overpopulated and everyone here looked shabby and exhausted, most people staying in North borough were of the lowest class, most of them either worked at the mine outside the city or one of the many ores refinery factories.

The houses here were old and wasn’t well built, although Raven street wasn’t as bad as some of the places in the outer district, it still reeked of urine and waste, although a working sewage system had been introduced several hundred years ago, for places like these, the city wouldn’t bother maintaining them.

Zomatsu walked through the streets, there were people vending their wares on the streets and stalls selling street foods, the road was busy and not many carriages came this way. Places like this had points where large public carriages would wait and pick up passengers, they ran a fix route and avoided the more dangerous locations.

He moved through the crowd with ease, even standing in front of someone they would hardly notice him, taking an alley to a small apartment complex he entered a room at the back of the building, the place only had a single metal bed and a bench, it looked like no one had been here in years.

Entering the room he locked the door behind him, he walked to the bed and bent down, he moved out the floorboards under the bed and a small compartment opened up, there was a small metal box there, he reached in and brought out the box, the box was dark brown and had several advance magic Runes carved on it, mostly a form of protection. Looking at the box, it was easy to tell, it had special properties, it wasn’t clear what the box was made off but it was definitely something special.

Zomatsu placed the box on the bed and crouched to look at it, he placed both hands on specific parts if the box and recited an Incantation too fast to follow, the runes on the box glowed and a clicking sound was heard, the box slowly opened up and revealed the content within. “Perhalps over the years they might have gotten a clue to your existence and maybe even figure it out, but i would’ve loved to keep them guess a while longer. Unfortunately i may not have that luxury.” He snapped the box closed and proceeded to exit the room after placing it in his storage box.

He no longer trusted Aur, to be honest it wasn’t that he had fully trusted the family to begin with. Having not been born a pure blooded noble, the family had cast him out, they had only brought him back when they found out how useful his ability was as a spy.

For noble demons, their innate abilities were hereditary, and only the pure bloods would inherit it, other mixed bloods would be lucky to developed their own unique innate ability, while most wouldn’t have any. Zomatsu hated the family and the fact that he looked like the man who abandoned his mother. He had no choice but to return to the family as a scout, although he once had a reason for doing this, that reason was now long gone.

He knew even though they had given him special privileges, the fact of the matter is, they still didn’t restore his nobility, whenever a problem too big for them to handle arises, the family wouldn’t think twice before abandoning him yet again. So he spent most of his free time, abusing the privileges given to him on finding anything that could be of help to him at a time, a time just like this.

As he turned the corner, he snapped his fingers and. *Boom!… The sound of an explosion was heard, the room he had just left had blew up, erasing any traces of him being there, he was now ready to leave winged city with the two brothers who had now gotten a massive upgrade to their equipment and might actually be of some use to him.

He would head for the Darknar forest to investigate what was going on around the king’s castle, and he was now prepared for anything, unexpected. As he left the city’s gate and mounted the horse, riding into the distance a green magic circle was blinking on his back, too dim for anyone to notice.