Chapter 183: Followers

Ishiki narrowed his eyes and through the window saw as the figure moved closer to the villa he was staying in and then opened the outer gate.

The metal door to his garden opened with a creak and he heard the faint footsteps walking through the garden.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Ishiki’s muscles suddenly tensed as he looked intently at the door.

Two seconds of silence followed.

Knock. Knock.

His shoulders relaxed fractionally. It was a special pattern of knocks that he, Filch and Yuki had agreed upon to prove their identities when they visited each other.

It was a special caution against the possibility of there being people who can change appearances. It was not an absolute caution to be honest… player with so much strength could just break through the door.

It only helped the person to become attentive and be ready for an attack.

’Thank god for small mercies.’ Ishiki heaved a sigh and picked up the candle from the table.

He crossed the room, setting half of the lamps ablaze. He then unlocked the door and pulled it open.

A tall figure stood in his garden, hood drawn up to obscure their features. The Crimson Moon painted everything in shades of blood, making the stranger look like a specter risen from recent corpses.

Then the figure raised the hood slightly, revealing a pale face with refined features and long burgundy hair that spilled out like wine.

Filch.

The man didn’t speak. He simply gestured for Ishiki to follow with a slight tilt of his head.

Ishiki studied him for a moment—noting the tension in Filch’s shoulders and then nodded once.

He stepped back inside, grabbed a jacket and locked the villa door behind him before following Filch through the garden and onto the road.

They walked in silence, footsteps barely audible on the golden cobblestone. They reached the end of the straight road and then took a sharp left to follow through an alley onto one of the four main roads that went towards the Castle.

As soon as they stepped on this road the scene became much more busy and gloomy at the same time.

Several players were walking to and from the houses that they have occupied. These were the players that had submitted to the dragon and had given up all hope of ever returning home.

They were all trying to settle with their new reality… and they had work to do as the citizens of a newly formed Empire.

Only after they had traveled several dozen meters into the road did Filch speak and still in a low and reserved voice.

“We are being followed.”

Ishiki didn’t react visibly. He kept walking, maintained his pace, let his expression remain neutral.

And then posed a question of his own. “How many?”

Filch gestured to a split road that went vertically and connected to the other main road that lead from the Castle to the Obsidian gates.

“I don’t know… maybe 2 or 3.” Filch replied flatly. “Also they have been on me from the Secondary Ring.”

Ishiki’s eyes narrowed at the information. Filch added the second part for clarification. It was not a big deal if he was being followed inside the Inner ring, since he had refused to submit to the dragon and lived in the secondary ring.

But why were they following him into the secondary ring?

They soon merged onto the main road that lead to the obsidian gates. This road was even more busier than the earlier one had been. As the dragon had allowed people to freely come in and go out of the Inner ring to the Secondary ring… it was filled with players.

The obsidian gates loomed ahead at a distance.

Ishiki activated Ghost Blade without ceremony.

His consciousness expanded outward in a sphere of perfect awareness. The world became black and white in his mind showing every detail. He saw myriad of players walking around… greeted a few and then identified two figures that moved stealthily at some distance from them.

Ishiki’s eyes narrowed.

’They’re interfering with my perception.’

He could sense their general positions and track their movement patterns. But their faces remained blurred. As if something was actively obscuring them from his supernatural senses.

“Two confirmed,” Ishiki murmured. “I can’t see their faces. They’re blocking my skill somehow.”

Filch nodded once, unsurprised.

They passed through the Obsidian gates, crossing from the pristine Inner Ring into the Secondary Ring.

The Secondary Ring showed visible destruction everywhere. Buildings with collapsed facades. Streets cratered from combat. Burn marks and bloodstains that hadn’t been cleaned because there was no one who cared enough for them to matter.

The followers came through the gates behind them.

Still maintaining distance, masked by whatever abilities they possessed. Their skills were almost inhumane and they worked in perfect synergy.

Ishiki and Filch turned down an alley between two partially collapsed structures.

The alley stretched straight ahead, walls rising high on either side, it was almost 50 meters long.

They crossed the alley and then turned to the left.

Perfect.

“They’re coming in,” Ishiki said, voice barely above a whisper.

Filch moved immediately.

He ran to the wall on the right side and placed both hands flat against the stone. His palms began to glow with bright blue luminescence that spread outward like water soaking through fabric.

On the opposite end of the alley—the entrance they’d just passed through—the stone and rubble there responded to Filch’s will.

The material glowed identical blue, then shot sideways with impossible speed. Stone, metal, wood—all of it reformed mid-motion into a solid barrier that sealed the alley entrance completely.

Trapped.

Ishiki had already summoned Aether Blade. The bladeless tachi materialized in his grip, invisible edge humming with lethal potential.

He sprinted toward the sealed entrance, Ghost Blade feeding him perfect awareness of what lay beyond.

The two followers had realized the trap. They were moving fast now, abandoning stealth for speed.

Ishiki reached the barrier just as they did.

For an instant, he saw them through the stone—two figures on the opposite side, silhouettes painted in black and white within his mind.

Then Filch released his hold on the barrier, and it crumbled away.

Ishiki burst through the collapsing stone, blade already swinging in a horizontal arc aimed at the first pursuer’s throat.

His eyes met theirs.

And he froze.

They didn’t have a face.

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