Will of the Apprentice

Chapter 13: After effects

The two met Joule outside the gate. As soon as she has sight on them, she quickly rushes out of the truck like someone who has just reunite with a lost love ones.

“What the hell happened? I was sitting peacefully when something suddenly blew up behind me, and….”
Like Glaive and Samuel, she notices the absence of the fourth member.

“….guys, where's Celeste?”

“Some stuffs happen, it's a long story. But right now, she's in a really bad place” – Samuel replied without looking at Joule's eyes.

“H…how bad? Can we save her?”

“I'm…not sure, there's just too much at stake. In the worst case scenario, we'll lose her and become the enemy of both sides”

“That's….not good at all. But there's still a chance that we can save her, right? That's good enough for me”

“But…even if you said so, I can't….” – He suddenly stuttered.

“Samuel?”

“Hey” – Glaive puts his hand on Samuel's shoulder. “You're not in your usual mind, are you?”

It's true, he has been spacing out frequently since the moment they left that camp. Even up until now, Samuel gives no respond. With a sigh let out, Glaive brings both of them onto the truck. The driver’s seat still saved for Joule.

“So….where do we go now?” – Joule asked.

“There's only one place to go now”

As if there were telepathy, Joule immediately starts the engine and heads straight towards the resistance’s base. Samuel who is sitting at the back shows no emotion to his surroundings, his eye blank-stared like an empty sheet. He sits with his arm wraps around his knees and face that never looks up for even a second. This is the complete opposite reaction that would be expected when he confidently walked out off the Stormguard's camp. Perhaps he didn't overheard Joule and Glaive's conversation either.

Halfway through the course, Glaive felt the need to snap Samuel out of his delusions and got to the back.

“So this is the person that surpassed all ten levels of the mage trial and even nearly killed one of the top war mages afterwards, you're just a child that only knows how to cry after all, pathetic”

“….what do you want?” – Samuel finally spoke.

“What is this all-moody act? Where's the confident and somewhat arrogant mage that I saw when you recruited me, when you single-handedly operated an infiltration plan into the Stormqueen's fortress? Because i don't see that person...tell me, who are you right now ?”

“….someone that still can't overcome his wounds in the past…”

Glaive sits down facing Samuel. “I don't care about your tragic backstory, each of us has their own pain, their own suffering….to exclude yours is just an act of biasing. But I once in your place so I understand, therefore, I only have one thing to tell you…”

Samuel looks up.

“….pain is something that's unavoidable in life, if you keep hiding it'll only strike you harder. You may trip, you may bleed, you may desperate,…it's normal. It doesn't matter if you get hurt, what matters is whether you can STAND UP afterwards. If you can't stand up on your own, let others to pull you up…”

Glaive said while reaching his hand to Samuel. It took him a few seconds to look down again, but in the end, he actually stands up and puts Glaive's hand away.

“Your hand is all filthy holding that axe” – Samuel said with a smirk on his face.

“Hmph, arrogant little brat…” – Glaive also stood up with a rare smile of a beast.

“Joule, where’re we going?”

“Finally….and I thought you're going to stay like that forever” – Joule let out a relieving sigh.

“We’re heading to base, sorry to discuss this without you…”

“It’s okay, that was my intention in the first place”

“Why?”

“There's something that I need to do, it won't be pretty…”

During the rest of the journey, Samuel's extraordinary power was the main topic.

“I never knew that you had that kind of trump card” – Glaive said.

“What? What did he do?”

“I wouldn't consider it as a trump card, even I was not aware of it until its first activation when I was facing a bear in the Grangor's jungle....that was also the first time i took down a bear on my own. I've studied it carefully since then and even tried to control it, didn't work out as I planned, though. What i khow is that each time I use it, part of my soul enters the Nether realm, therefore attracting some unwanted attentions. That's probably the reason for my outbreaks in the past”

“Wait, tell me. What did he do?” – Joule insisted.

“I feel like every time I use that power, no matter how hard I try to contain it, someone is bound to get hurt. That's why I don't want to use it unless it's truly necessary. When I found Celeste's staff on the ground, for a moment….i actually thought that I had repeated my mistake....”

“So that's the reason for that melancholy earlier, and I thought you were just afraid that you couldn't do anything without that child”

“Hey, are you two ignoring me!?”

“We're here…”

The truck stops before the cave entrance. As usual, no one is guarding it from the front in order to make it look as solitary as possible. But through that invisible cloaking barrier has dozen of soldiers prepare to attack at any moment, among them is the second in command Vox – who was apparently expecting Samuel's team return.

“You've been waiting for us?”

“I can sense your engine sound from miles away. It's not like I need to watch this entrance all day to know your presence”

But then, he only sees three people here. Vox pokes his head out to have a clearer vision, but despite how much he looks, his sister is nowhere to be found.

“H…how come there's only three of you? Where's sis?”

“Vox, I need you to listen carefully. There has been an incident at the camp….”

A sonic wave blasts through Samuel, sending him airborne before colliding with the truck outside the cave.

“I know I couldn't entrust her to you!” – Vox walks out furiously.

“Wait, listen to me”

In a blink of an eye, he dashes towards Samuel, with his hand literally inches away from Samuel's face.

“Only when you showed up, everything went downhill. You're not meant to be here…”

Air compressed inside of Vox's palm, along with the heavy pressure felt at the back of his head, Samuel knows that if he takes the full impact of this hit then the most fortunate case will only result in deafness. But somehow, his body couldn't move at all during that point.

“Samuel!!” – Joule screamed.

Vox grinds his teeth. Just when he was about to fire, a sharp edge touched his neck.

“I know that this is too much for you, but at least hear what he have to say. Unlike him, I don't care if this organization goes to hell. So don't say that I didn't warn you if you still want to continue” - Glaive's axe was able to stop Vox.

“No, we don't want any more blood shed” – Samuel stood up. “Please, you can do whatever you want with me after this”.

If he continues, surely it will draw some outsider's attention, therefore threatens the entire resistance. On the other hand, Samuel doesn't look like he is able to fight due to his sluggish reaction earlier so it won't make any differences if he spilled out a few words. Those were Vox's thought on this situation. After a few seconds of silence, he manages to calm down.

“Make this quick”

“…my sister is in the hand of a Stormguard's captain!?”

“I know how it sounds, but a solution is still possible. We only need you to prepare for the worst”

“You still have the guts to say that after what you did?”

“Yes, i've made a grave mistake. That's why it's my responsibility to correct it, but even if we have your power's support, we still can't guarantee a success. So we need you to stay….only you can lead this if all things break out, i'm sure she’d think so as well”

“Don't speak on behalf of my sister”

Vox stops for a moment to think.

“I have no reason to listen to you.... but i've made a promise with sis. And until she comes back here, i'll keep that promise. But that doesn't mean that I’d let you run free this time….”

He gives signals to a group of mercenaries inside.

“These men will come and aid you, if they notice something out of the blue, they have my permission to end all of you”

“Fair enough”

Just like that, Samuel's team and the additional members depart on another task. Unlike the previous one, this mission decides all of their fates. Knowing that, just when they enter the forest, Samuel snaps his finger. In an instant, all mercenaries collapse to the ground.

“Sending a group that have absolute no magic resistance with me. Huh, so that fool trusted me after all…”

“What are you doing?” – Glaive asked.

“Making sure that my outbreak stays quiet this time. The two of you guard those guy for me in case they wake up any time soon”

He travels deeper into the endless wood, leaving behind Glaive and Joule while making them look at each other with a confused face. When he gets far enough where nothing can interrupt him, he calls out.

“I know you're somewhere out there, you've been watching me this whole time, haven't you? Show yourself!”

There was no respond at first, Samuel actually thinks that he has gone mad. But that thought soon vanishes as the familiar fog comes into sight. And in the distance, the red man appears with an unusual happy atmosphere.

*chuckle* “I told you that you'd come find me sooner or later didn't i?”

“And i thought i have to perform some sort of ritual for you to show up. I'll get straight to the point, you demons never like chit chat either, right?”

Baptiste leans his head as he is surprised by the lack of desperation in Samuel's words.

“Somehow you can stop my symptoms when we first met, and i remember that we also discussed about taking my soul at that time. So, i'm here to make a deal”

“Keep going…”

“I need you to make sure that my outbreak stays still in the next three days. Do that and my soul is in your possession, just to be clear, I don't have to like….follow you around the underworld, right?”

*laugh out loud* “And I thought you're going to demand something else, but that's too simple on my part. To your question, no, there won't be any fun if I do so. You'll still roam this realm afterwards, but you'll come to me whenever I feel like it”

“Reasonable. So….a deal?”

Baptiste grins as he reaches out his hand, Samuel also reaches out and the two of them shakes in agreement. Without even knowing, Samuel returns to reality, but this time, he feels a certain change in his body, seems like a demon can cooperate after all.

Three days is the limit. What he can accomplish in those three days will define his entire journey as deep in his mind, Samuel knows this could be the last three days of his life.