Asher appeared at the top of a high-rise building, the city sprawled before his eyes. The wind howled in his ears and weaved through his purple, silky hair. Still with his hands tucked in his pockets, he focused his gaze into the distance.
Through his spatial senses, he observed as the two criminals warped across several random points to throw him off. Asher found the scene quite funny, but continued to observe.
He moved along with them the further they moved away from the range of his spatial senses, which was a little bit over five kilometres. Several minutes into the hide-and-seek game, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
Pulling the device out, he answered without hesitation.
[Asher, what do you think you’re doing?]
"I’m doing my job, Principal," Asher replied smoothly, his attention still on the two criminals. "One of our own was abducted right in the heart of our city. I can’t just sit around."
[That’s unlike you, Asher. The only reason you’re making a move personally is because you took the boy as your disciple.]
"Then why call me?"
[...]
The line went silent for a moment before the Principal replied, his tone matter-of-fact.
[Return to the academy, Asher. We both know you’ll go overboard with your retaliation. The city has just suffered a major disaster. We can’t have an even greater one befall it, more so from a man of your standing. Let the appropriate bodies handle the matter.]
"Tell me something, Principal," Asher spoke as he changed locations once more. "Would you sit back and watch your disciple or child get taken?"
[...]
The Principal went silent yet again.
"I’ll only return after I’ve found the boy. So if you have nothing else to add, I’ll end the call now." He cut the line before the Principal could say anything else.
He wasn’t a child who needed his actions monitored and managed. Had it been any other student, perhaps, he would have left it to the appropriate bodies as the Principal mentioned.
But this was his disciple they were talking about.
It would be an insult to his face if he lost his disciple before he even began. He can’t have everyone thinking he was some helpless fool who was powerless to protect his own disciple.
Then again, the Principal was right about one thing. He had every intention of reducing the gang responsible for abducting his disciple to dust. For now, however, Adam’s rescue came first.
Asher continued to play the cat-and-mouse game with his targets, silently watching them through his spatial awareness as they continued warping a couple more times before stopping in some abandoned warehouse at the edge of town.
The two then settled and stood on the lookout, seemingly on watch for a possible tail. Atop a building several blocks from their position, Asher observed them as they patiently waited.
’They won’t be moving any time soon.’
With that observation, he decided to look around to see if there were any other suspicious figures around. But as his poor luck would have it, Adam was nowhere to be found.
His targets patiently waited till night-time before stepping out, their masks removed and clothes changed. Asher did not know who they were, nor did he care. He ignored the space user and focused on the skull-masked man.
The man stepped out in a well-tailored black suit paired with an equally black shirt, its first two buttons left hanging. He looked to his left as a convoy of black SUVs pulled up before him.
Asher stood at his vantage point, watching as the two men jumped into the same vehicle. The convoy took to the road within minutes. When they drove into town, the convoy split into individual drives. None of that mattered, however, as Asher focused on the vehicle with his marked targets.
The SUV with his main target spent another hour driving through the city with no apparent destination in mind. After some time, the vehicle headed towards the academy’s district.
Asher found it strange, but still followed at a distance. He had initially thought they would return to the Twilight District, but that did not seem to be the case. Perhaps the drive to that part of the city had all been a ruse.
Just then, the two men disappeared once more, making Asher flash a small smile. They were still cautious after spending the entire day on the lookout for a tail. That level of dedication and cautiousness was rare to see.
Asher turned his gaze towards the entertainment district and vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he stood at another high vantage point, observing a bustling street.
’A club, huh. So typical.’
People were lined up in a queue as they waited for their turn to enter. Asher momentarily closed his eyes and exhaled. He had lost his student for hours now. A lot could have been done to him in that short time.
With no time to waste, Asher free-fell from the vantage point he stood at. He bent space around his body in such a way that all the surrounding lights bent around his body to achieve invisibility.
The moment he touched down, he vanished in a burst of silent speed, disappearing into the noisy club. In the span of a second, he scanned the entire place from top to bottom.
Asher saw no one worthy enough of being called the boss of the place. Only the fourth realm skull-masked man could be deemed as such. He momentarily paused when he noticed a familiar face from the video he watched earlier in the day.
It was one of the kids in the first explosion on the flyover, sitting in the midst of scantily dressed girls exchanging drinks and whatever it was that took them to cloud nine. He barely wasted a millisecond on the kid before moving on.
And seeing academy students here did not surprise him. Some were even from elite backgrounds. Whether they had a hand in Adam’s abduction did not matter at the moment.
He finally came to a stop at a seemingly dead end in a narrow corridor. Behind the wall was a staircase that led underground. Through his spatial perception and awareness, he counted thirty-four guys spread across various rooms, sharing drinks or playing cards.
In one of the rooms down there was one singular person sitting in a chair. From what his perception picked up, the person seemed to be in a weakened state.
’Adam.’
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter