SHATTERED REALM: FORGOTTEN ECHOES
Chapter 82: Unexpected Reunion.

Chapter 82: Unexpected Reunion.

"I don’t think he’ll come back," Lia whispered to Mozrael. Mozrael could feel the tremor in her voice.

"I’m sure he’ll come-"

Lia shook her head. "I felt- saw it," she lied. She could feel the resolution in the way he moved. He didn’t walk like someone who wanted to go do something and come back.

"Maybe I should go and check," Mozrael suggested, but one of the two remaining guards heard her.

They were also suspecting Aramith because he’d taken so long.

"Hey, let’s go," he nodded to the other soldier.

"One of us needs to stay back and keep an eye on these as well."

"We don’t need to worry about these two. They’re safe here." He frowned, "I don’t know about you, but my instincts are telling me to go check on the prince. I feel something might have happened for them to take so long."

The other soldier hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed on what was more important.

Deadlock Five had managed to hide the dead body in a spatial compartment, cleaned the blood, and alerted Deadlock One. He was about to go join the other Deadlocks in searching for Aramith when he sensed the soldiers approaching. He hid in the shadows and took one hard look at the room. Nothing seemed off or wrong. They would probably believe they went to a different place.

He was about to leave when he remembered the door was left open-suspicious.

He cursed under his breath as the two soldiers entered. The first soldier looked around the room, then frowned. "They were here, but why haven’t they returned?"

"It seems rather odd that they haven’t returned," the other soldier observed.

"Let’s go, they should be near. I knew that boy would try to run away, but how would he escape?"

Deadlock Five would have left, but these soldiers couldn’t be left searching for Aramith when the boy was in that state. Besides, they didn’t even know Aramith’s true attribute. Only a few maids and guards were aware of the true attributes of the kids, and that was because those people never left the walls of the imperial grounds. For any others who find out, their memories are reset to forget.

Within a split second of thinking, Daedlock Five had decided on what to do. He struck like lightning, hitting several points on their body. Before they could feel any pain, they fell to the ground paralyzed. He dragged them inside, knocked their heads so bruises were marked there, then broke a piece of the ceiling. He laid it beside them so it looked like it had fallen on their heads, and they passed out. After that, he disappeared.

Deadlock one divided the group into two. One group was to find Aramith, and anyone who sees him so they can reset the person’s memories later. The rest were to go with him and meet Zero. And to make sure there were no interruptions, he made Deadlock Six disguise himself as Zero so the soldiers wouldn’t attempt to confront the real Zero.

When they found Zero, she was inconspicuously making her way towards the meeting room.

They followed her in secret, but Zero wasn’t that easy to tail.

"If you’re here to play hide and seek, go find someone else." She waved them off and continued without pausing a second.

"Zero," Daedlock One appeared ahead of her with two others flanking at his sides.

Zero stopped. "What do you want? Hurry it up so I can leave." She sounded impatient.

"You agreed to be banished a long time ago, so why are you going against your word?" Deadlock One sounded intimidating, but Zero was nothing like that.

"Hah! Agreed? You forced the whole thing down my throat. I only left because I wanted to keep someone safe. Besides, I expected you to come meet me for a lovely reunion, but look at you, being the absolute dogs of Henndar."

"Watch your tongue."

"You’re funny, you know that?"

Deadlock One gave a signal, and once again, chains shot out from the shadows. Theree were so many of them, all moving faster than the eye could follow. Zero didn’t move at all as they wrapped around her-Or so they thought.

"You’re only here to waste my time, so I’ll be leaving," her voice echoed from all directions, but Deadlock One could feel her presence behind him..

"When did she-"

The chains wrapped around her slipped down, settling on the ground. It was true that she was once part of their group, but even they never knew how exactly she fought. This was the first time they’d had to ’fight her’.

"Stop!" The chains shot at her once again, but this time she didn’t even get touched. She just walked right through the chains, they observed.

But she was doing something way more complicated than just walking through chains. She vibrated the air to create an afterimage of herself the first time, while she dodged and moved faster than they could notice. TO keep the illusion more life-like, she had to keep the air vibrating. For the second time, she just vibrated the air to prevent the chains from touching her.

"You’re making things-"

"You’re noisy, you know that?!" She was getting impatient. "I’m not here to do anything with you, so why don’t you behave properly and sit somewhere like the dogs you are?"

She kept walking, but they weren’t going to allow her to go on as she willed. And Zero wasn’t about to let them stop her at all. Before they could make a move on her, she suddenly split into multiples, appearing in front of each Deadlock, even the hidden ones. She didn’t touch them, but they felt immense pressure from her duplicates, almost as if a mountain was pressed against their chest.

This was the moment they understood the difference between them. They were all at the Dark Gate, and anyone who was recruited to join the Deadlocks was also at the Dark Gate. This made them have the misconception that she was also at the same level as them. But this show of power made them know their place. She was at least at the Dragon’s Gate if she could do that. But that didn’t make any sense. Even the powerful Gebreth was at the same level. Deadlock, one couldn’t make sense of it. But he didn’t worry too much.

Even Zero wouldn’t be a match for those two.

He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t right either. Gebreth was about to break through to Heaven’s Gate, and Zero had just broken through to the Dragon’s Gate. That was a huge difference in power.

"You’re no match for me, and you will never be. And keep in mind that no matter how good you are at assassinating people, you’re never going to be able to do anything if the target is stronger than you, and worse of all, aware of everything you can do. You’re weak, so go train somewhere when you get the time."

Before walking off, she vibrated the air around their arms and legs so it felt like arms were grabbing them. This was bad. She was going to get to the meeting, and it was going to seem like she hadn’t met any resistance at all.

Khaizen couldn’t fully accept the proposal Henndar had made. "This plan of yours...it’s going to sacrifice some soldiers."

"Yes, that is the point of it," Henndar replied smoothly.

"Isn’t there any better alternative?" He asked. There was no way he was going to let some of his men be sacrificed that simply.

"I don’t know if any other person here has a better suggestion, but for now, this is what we can do to deal with this. And hopefully we could find out who among us is leading this."

"I have another question," Khaizen raised his hand.

"Go on, we’re listening."

"Since we-"

BAM!

The doors swung open, and she walked in.

So she arrived, Henndar thought.t

"Henndar! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? If not for the situation n that time, I would have been by your side by now."

"Who is this woman? _{f r\eew,eb novel.c(o)(m)}

"By his side?"

"Is she a lover?"

"No wonder his wife is away."

"No, she looks dangerous."

"But what is she talking about?"

"IS she supposed to interrupt like that?"

The room was divided, but Henndar remained calm.

"This is a nice reunion, but too bad we have an audience," she spoke again, smiling.

WHat?!

"Zero...what do you want here? You were banished." Henndar stood up, frowning slightly. HE snapped his fingers, and two figures appeared out of thin air. One grabbed her arms, and another stood before henndar, a small crossbow in his arm.Theyy were cloaked and masked.

"What is the meaning of this?!" One delegate suddenly shouted. "You were able to allow an assassin to sneak in?"

Henndar didn’t reply. He merely turned his eyes on the delegate, and that was enough. The man faltered, his face paling as he slowly sat back down.

"Apologies, all of you. I will deal with this threat, so allow me," he gave a small laugh, then looked back at Zero, frowning.

Zero tried to get out of the grip, but there was nothing she could do. This person was too powerful.

Khaizen and a few others couldn’t hide the fear they felt. That woman was at the Dragon’s Gate, and those two who just appeared out of thin air...they were both at the mid-stage of Heaven’s Gate. Which means HEnndar was above Heaven’s Gate?

Anyone who could reach Heaven’s gate either lived in isolation and did as they willed or served their Kingdom as part of their army. But to use them as personal guards...did that mean he had more? Khaizen himself was at the Dragon’s Gate, and there were only three people in his Kingdom who were at Heaven’s Gate. They couldn’t be told to do anything either.

So he wasn’t kidding when he said he could easily defeat them. He secretly glanced at Kesha, who remained calm. So, how powerful was the Glacial Empire?

WHile they were all lost in thought, another boom suddenly sounded above them.

Like a falling meteor, something landed in the room before Zero. A dark smoke spread out in all directions. Henndar waved, and the darkness all came together to a single point and disappeared.

His frown deepened, Kesha stood up quickly, and every other face was one of surprise.

What was Aramith doing there?.