[MGM]: 93 - Darkness

"Stay still," she said, "and you shall live."

I didn’t move, but I did glance down to check on the blade of shadows pressing against my abdomen and cried out inwardly—not again.

The portal behind her flickered out of existence, though it wasn’t my eyes that informed me of this, but the flow of mana dispersing into the surroundings. It was difficult to accurately determine the state of my environment that had been plunged into darkness.

"I wouldn't advise doing that," I replied in an even tone.

I couldn’t see her, except for the omniprecent shroud of darkness, but I preferred to think that my statement might have evoked confusion. After my latest level-up, I was, by virtue of sheer stats, close to Amara—something that hadn’t been true in the past. Even without considering Spirit, my stats still brought me close to Elowen’s level. Not to mention, I wasn’t alone.

"Feisty. I like that," I heard Cassia say.

The next moment, a frigid cold snapped into existence, corroding the darkness with its pristine breath. I heard a hum of surprise before the darkness receded into nothingness and light welcomed my sight once more. What I saw then was something I had never encountered in my life.

My previous Summons had been diverse, but at least understandable. Amara and Tania were Vampires and Dwarves respectively—races that existed on the Continent, even if not in the Kingdom. Pyra had been alien, but her near-human appearance helped me overlook that fact. Cassia and Luna were similar to Pyra in that regard—their outward human appearance and their ability to disguise themselves made it easier to ignore their inhuman traits.

That wasn’t the case with the creature before me.

She was tall and slender, almost petite. Her hair was pure white, and her eyes glowed amber. She wore a black ensemble from head to toe and held a blade made of liquid darkness in her hand. But her most striking feature was her skin—it was black. Not just darker, but inky black. Her ears were long and pointed.

"An Elf…?" I wondered aloud, then shook my head. "I’ve never seen a black Elf in my life; never even heard of them."

"Close enough," she replied, waving her hand as the darkness melted away like snow against fire. She then turned to Cassia, who was holding a ball of void in her hand, and waved again.

I signaled to the Foxkin, and she dispersed the manifestation of Dark Rift, her deadliest weapon. Even Elowen, interpreting my signal, decided to hold off on radiating her biting cold and making everyone uncomfortable.

"You may address me as Artemis," the dark-skinned woman said. "But please, explain the situation to me clearly."

"Of course," I replied with a smile.

Name: Artemis

Race: Drow [Ascended]

Age: 244

Origin: Night Stalker [Transcendent]

Rank: ???

Attributes

• Strength: 725

• Agility: 2407

• Vitality: 490

• Intelligence: 1922

• Perception: 708

Talents

• [Shadow of Oblivion - SS]

• [Shaded Reaper - SS]

• [Phantom Blade - S]

• [Shadowstep - S]

• [Sundering Strike - A]

• [Dark Cloak - A]

Artemis, as it turned out, was a Drow—a race that preferred to live underground. They were like the Elves of the mountains or the earth. Reclusive like their fairer cousins, but generally more hostile to outsiders, which gave context to her earlier stance.

I asked her about her life, but came up empty. Unlike Amara, who remembered darkness, or Elowen, who had dreams, Artemis resembled my other summons in that regard. However, unlike them, the very idea of being summoned didn’t seem to appeal to her.

I wanted to approach that topic, but Cassia took over and led her away, leaving me surprised and confused.

"See," said Elowen. "I told you she is mean."

We spent half the night familiarizing ourselves with each other. I didn’t know what Cassia said to her, but Artemis eventually opened up, and that was what mattered. Since I didn’t like keeping things from my summons—essentially my family—I told them the whole story up to that point.

Finally, as the discussion wound down and we were about to settle into silence, Elowen spoke up.

"This Aldrin guy, he's staying in this inn, correct?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yes."

"What are you going to tell him tomorrow?"

"About what?" I asked.

"About us," she replied. "You said he doesn’t know about your Origin—that no one aside from your summons does. You can’t just tell this Aldrin guy that you pulled us out of your back pocket or something."

"We can tell him that you—our friends—had been waiting here all along and that I had asked for your assistance."

"Hmm," Cassia said. "I don’t think that’s going to work. You've already used that strategy before."

She was right—I had used the same explanation for Pyra and the others. I pondered deeply on the matter.

"I don’t understand," Artemis said suddenly. "Why must you justify something you have no need for?"

"What do you mean?" Luna asked before I could respond.

"You mentioned this guy is not that strong, so why should we care about the opinions or thoughts of someone weak? Isn’t that kind of irrelevant?"

"We can go with that," Cassia said. "We can just say we decided to bring these two along with us. We don’t need to explain ourselves to him."

I didn’t want to foster insincerity among our group—lest it bite me later—but they weren’t entirely wrong either. All this time, I had been thinking from the perspective of an E-Rank hunter. Yet, something about their words resonated with me—on a fundamental level.

I smiled and nodded.

...

"I'm sorry, you were saying?" Aldrin said, looking between me and my companions.

"That we're done and leaving," I said.

Aldrin blinked, glanced back at the inn, then at the road that led to the Sky Flower brothel. "But I thought that—"

"Right," I said. "About that, consider the matter finished. We took care of it."

"H—How?"

I frowned, and he flinched. Seeing him adopt a resolute posture immediately after told me he wasn’t willing to back down from this discussion. I smiled inwardly—having expected this outcome—and replied, "Why, with the help of these beautiful and capable ladies, of course."

Aldrin followed my gesture toward the duo, and despite the faintest twitch of his brow, he made no comment. He had probably realized that he wasn’t getting anything more out of me, or maybe he was wondering where all these women kept popping up from around me. Either way, I wasn’t obligated to answer him.

Unlike yesterday, when it had been dark and our group had gone unnoticed, the early morning light revealed that we were attracting quite a bit of attention. Though Elowen had hidden her more peculiar features, she had kept everything else. Unlike her, Artemis appeared to be pretty young girl with a slightly brown complexion and chestnut brown hair. I had to thank Cassia for the latter. Truly, an Arcane user had dozens of ways to use their talents.

Not wishing to attract more attention than necessary, I urged my group to follow as we left. We had brought more steeds for our expanded group, and as we passed by an intersection, a cry of alarm rang out in the distance.

Immediately, attention shifted from us to the distant plaza, where people were beginning to swarm.

"What's happening?" Aldrin asked. "Did something happen?"

I glanced at my companions, then turned to offer him a pleasant smile. He frowned, then, as if realizing something, looked back in the direction from which the commotion originated.

"You wouldn't... you didn’t..." he muttered in disbelief. "The Sky Flower!"

I allowed the smirk on my face to widen into a full-blown grin. Yesterday had indeed been wild.

Sky Flower Brothel.

A two-faced organization that worked for the Baron of Leroux territory, helping him spread false information about his enemies. Though that wasn’t the only thing they were good at. They collected intelligence, carried out assassinations, and even engaged in illegal trade—a very specific illegal trade in this case.

Breaking into that place had been a piece of cake for people with our skill set. The surprise came when we learned the information they held wasn’t reliable. Apparently, Sky Flower had known the Greystone County was watching them and had planned to trap and eliminate them in one sweep. Unfortunately for them, it hadn’t been the Greystone County assassins who had broken in.

From there, it had been easy to locate the leader and make him spill all the secrets. What I learned left me wondering if something more than just the Cult was at work here.

It had only been speculation before, when Baron Feylance mentioned the illegal trade. Who else would dare steal from the lands of the Kingdom without fearing its wrath? All while managing to distract them and keep them fighting among themselves? The answer was obviously the Cult.

The real question, though, was why they had suddenly grown so active in the first place.

I hoped that, with the information I had uncovered, everything would become clear once we arrived at our destination.