The Transcenders

Chapter 3 - Coup d'État (2)

Knowing that Zomb was faking his death, Jacob felt reassured. After all, Zomb was one of his finest assassins.

"By the way, are you sure that Zomb really is dead?" he asked, smirking.

"Huh?" For a moment, Ronald froze in place. He was confused. Was Zomb still alive? Was Jacob a traitor?

Suddenly, he felt that a box-shaped object was touching his abdomen. He looked down. It was a gun barrel. More precisely, the gun touching him was Zomb's pistol!

*BANG!* The first bullet was released.

Ronald held his hand on his wound so as to limit the bleeding. "How... how are you-"

"Hahaha! Did you ACTUALLY think I would let myself be taken by surprise again? This time, you are the one on the receiving end! I will make sure to kill you very slowly." A mischievous grin appeared on Zomb's mask. He was enjoying this.

And so, shot after shot, he made Rico's uncle bleed as much as possible. But, Zomb made a mistake. He was enjoying torturing Ronald so much that, to make him feel even more hopeless, he revealed his illusion powers to him.

"Earlier, I set up many illusions! The blood trail, the other me... They were all my CREATIONS! Although, Rico is very much real." Rico was standing in the farthest corner on the right side of the window next to his brother's bed.

The whole time, Aaron had taken the posture of a toppled statue. He was pretending to sleep in his sleeping capsule. While normally this would not be the best way to react to danger, this gave him an advantage. Zomb completely forgot about him! And so, after he mustered the courage, Aaron picked up the knife he kept in his left pocket that night as a defence mechanism, got out of his bed, and slowly moved towards his prey.

"If this is really my uncle, then this guy must not be an illusion since he can hurt him," guessed Aaron. "If I sneak up on him, I could do something!"

After a few more seconds, he got behind Zomb. Scared, Rico shouted toward him, "Aaron!"

Zomb was now aware of the situation, but Aaron acted quickly. Before the man with a mask could turn around, Aaron did not stab his back once but 4 times. To the illusionist, what was merely a few seconds felt like a very long minute.

He finally reacted to what was happening and jumped away while quivering without realizing he had left his gun on the ground. "Argh! Fuck... this! Where did he... come from?!" he cried. Zomb left the room through the broken door.

"I couldn't bear hiding any longer!" Ronald's older nephew explained. "Ronald, uncle, you'll be fine... Right?!" he questioned, grasping his uncle's two shoulders and kneeling in front of him.

Of course, Ronald stated the obvious. "Ha... I don't think so! More are coming and they will make sure to finish me!" He paused for a few seconds and then said firmly, "You both need to run. The one behind all of this is our very own vice master. JACOB RAIDER!" The more he spoke, the more dead his tone seemed.

Seeing that his big brother was at a loss for words, Rico arrived at the scene. "Where should we go then?"

"If you manage to get out of this building, take the 'High Road' to the north all the way to the 'Tremblay Guild.'"

The High Road was a very big road that went across the whole of the Amon Guild from the north to the south. It was elevated higher than any skyscraper, hence its name. It offered magnificent views of the territory from the sky.

While the Amon guild was the most prosperous guild on the Western Continent, the Tremblay guild was safer and more stable. It was a democracy. The guild covered the entire northern section and had always been regarded as the most promising place to reside on this continent. Most tourists coming from outside of the continent would prefer the Tremblay guild as a vacation spot.

Seeing as the two brothers had finished accepting that they would have to leave their home, he continued, "Once you get there, find 'Henri Tremblay.' He isn't exactly of high ranking in the Tremblay Guild, but still has some authority and was a close friend of your father.

"Oh! Also, Aaron, take this... Zomb dropped it." Ronald was starting to feel very exhausted. His blood was running out. "It is one of those multi-use intelligent guns that take... mana to operate... I am sure Zomb had... installed a few special things in it."

After taking a look at the different uses, Aaron found that most were for combat. There was an explosive mode, a light bullet mode, a heavy bullet mode, etc. Each consumed mana. But, he then found something quite good for their situation.

"Thank you, uncle. This pistol is indeed useful. Now, I might just have a way to get to the high road undetected."

"Oh? How?"

"With this!" Aaron aimed the multi-use pistol and fired a shot. The mod he found was "Sticky Grappling" and consumed 0.15 mana per meter.

It was a grappling hook operating via mana. After a while, the hook anchored on the road in the clouds, the High Road.

The screen integrated into the side of the pistol specified that the action consumed 92.03 mana and that Aaron had only 4.33 mana left. He wouldn't be able to use magic for a while.

"It worked! Rico, hold on to me, this will be dangerous!" He paused and looked at his dying uncle.

"Farewell, uncle Ron." As soon as Rico did as told, he pressed the "Go to the hook" option. *Beep!*

*WOOOOOOSH!*

And so, the two brothers escaped, soaring through the sky. Rico had his eyes open at first, but after taking a glimpse under his feet, he quickly shut them and muttered to himself, "don't look down, don't look down, don't look down!"

Meanwhile, Aaron looked back and took a final glance at the beautiful city he'd be leaving behind, Blue City, his hometown.

End of chapter 3

Author's note: Author's note: Thank you for reading from chapter 1 to chapter 3! (Don't hesitate to bookmark this web novel and share it with others if you like it.) Also, I'm sorry about the length of these chapters. They are very short, but it is what it is. I don't plan to make them longer at the moment because I don't have much time to write these.