After waking up, Zak ended up confessing everything in the smallest details.
At first, he tried to resist. Playing tough, acting like the pressure was bearable. It might have had a chance against anyone other than Nox.
Faced with the latter’s revolutionary torture ideas, Zak’s mouth seed to speak faster than his brain could think. It was both quite amusing and sad to watch. Loyalty? How many people truly possess this quality and how far can it go?
Thanks to him, the group now knew where to head. Tenebris was vast. Imnse even. Searching blindly would have been a waste of ti and energy. Above all, they might have a decent level, but who knows what absurdities they were going to encounter there.
"According to Zak, Norah is being held in one of Rosalinda’s bases in Tenebris," Julian began as he returned to the common room. He adjusted his sleeves with a neat gesture.
"... He gave us a vague description of the path to follow... before passing out again thanks to the other sadistic idiot."
"Are those pieces of information really that reliable?" Jasper asked, arms crossed. "What guarantees us this isn’t a trap to lure us all in?"
Julian remained silent for a few seconds, then sighed.
"You can trust his words."
He cast a discreet glance toward Nox.
The latter was calmly unwrapping another lollipop. His face looked relaxed, almost proud of his work.
Judging by Zak’s state after Nox’s last session, the chances that he was lying were close to zero. The poor guy had ended up trembling like an old man with Parkinson’s, vacant stare, unable to string two sentences together without stuttering.
"Alright... In that case we can go," Kaiser declared.
A sociopath, a psychopath, a Machiavellian and a sadist were gathered... The Dark Tetrad was therefore going to save Norah.
***
The ground beneath their feet was dry and cracked. The soil split in long irregular lines. The wind blew without stopping, raising clouds of fine dust. There were almost no trees, only a few dead and twisted trunks.
The sky was pale with a red sun.
As far as the eye could see, a desert expanse stretched before them. A few low hills could be made out in the distance, blurred by the heat.
"So which direction now, dear compass?" Kaiser asked, squinting.
Silence fell.
A tumbleweed rolled across the ground as all eyes turned toward Julian.
"What... Why are you all looking at ?" he protested.
"Aren’t you supposed to be the one guiding us?" Jasper replied calmly, pointing at him.
"Tch... You think I’m your compass or what?"
He sighed, annoyed.
"We should head north. That’s what that bastard said."
"North? Which north? How the hell are we supposed to know where north is in this place?" Kaiser retorted, spinning around. "Everything looks the sa here."
"And how the fuck would I know, asshole?" Julian shot back, unable to hold himself.
Tension rose a notch, but just before it exploded, a monotone voice intervened, drawing their attention.
"Follow ."
Jasper’s senses were sharper than the others’. Even in a place where everything seed identical, he could detect subtle variations. The direction of the wind, the density of the sand, and the distant sll of a slightly more humid area.
"This way," he said, pointing in a direction.
Nox walked past Kaiser without a word and followed Jasper.
"Tch... About ti," Julian muttered before joining them.
Kaiser sighed, then followed suit. They walked like that for about fifteen minutes. The ground sotis beca softer, sotis harder. The wind kept blowing.
Then sothing made them stop abruptly. They had all sensed it... a presence. Like a predator watching its prey.
"Look," Nox said, raising his eyes.
He pointed at a silhouette about a hundred ters away.
"A desert dog."
This monster had nothing ordinary about a dog.
It stood on four legs, but its body was disproportionate. Its back was hunched. Its skin seed partially torn, revealing dark muscles. Black blood slowly dripped along its dirty fur.
It growled and four others appeared at its side.
"A little warm-up can only do good," Kaiser declared with a carnivorous smile.
He drew both swords. The blades glead under the sun and without waiting he charged forward.
The first dog leaped at the sa mont.
Kaiser slid lightly on the dry ground, adjusted his stance and struck with a precise horizontal motion.
The blade passed through the creature’s neck. "I think I don’t need to waste energy uselessly," he said as black blood splashed the ground. The body fell heavily.
Seeing its companion fall, the second growled, perhaps expressing anger, before attacking Kaiser from the right.
Kaiser spun, parried the claw swipe with the first sword, then drove the second straight into the beast’s chest.
He pulled the blade out with a sharp motion. "Tch... why is this so easy."
But as he complained, two of the creatures leaped at the sa ti, realizing it was difficult to kill their enemy alone.
"They’re not as stupid as I imagined but well..." Kaiser observed, stepping back, lowering his center of gravity, then chaining two rapid cross strikes.
The first opened the flank of one beast, its entrails spilling out, staining the desert floor as a putrid sll rose at the sa mont.
The second severed the jaw of the other, which collapsed instantly.
As Kaiser looked at the grotesque remains of the dying animal on the ground, other silhouettes appeared on the horizon.
This confird one thing: individually they weren’t that strong. Their power lay mainly in their large numbers. It vaguely reminded him of hyenas’ hunting thod.
"There are more," Julian murmured.
Indeed, several shapes were running toward them. Kaiser, for his part, kept the sa smile. The more guests there were, the more guaranteed the fun.
Without a hint of hesitation he charged again.
One beast tried to take him from behind. He felt the displacent of air, ducked just in ti and perford a circular sweep with both blades.
The creature’s legs were severed.
It howled before being finished with a clean vertical strike.
Another jumped from the front.
Kaiser crossed his swords in an X to block the fangs, pushed the jaw away, then drove his blade into the beast’s eye. It scread in agony as blood spurted from the wound.
The fight grew more intense as desert dogs arrived in greater numbers.
Kaiser moved without stopping. And he seed to be enjoying it; in that mont he even forgot the main reason he had co here. He unleashed himself freely under the others’ gaze.
He dodged attacks with minimal movent to conserve as much strength as possible while striking vital points.
The ground beca increasingly covered in black blood while the wind scattered the tallic sll.
But suddenly a much more massive beast burst out on his left. It was larger than the others. Its maw was far wider.
It attacked with surprising speed.
Kaiser parried at the last second. The force of the impact pushed him back two steps.
"Oh... interesting. What are you?" he asked, genuinely curious.
The animal simply howled before charging again. This ti it aid for Kaiser’s right arm. He spun, letting the jaws pass a few centiters from his shoulder, then slashed deeply into the animal’s flank.
"Co on, you can do better, don’t disappoint !" he shouted, deliberately avoiding killing it too quickly.
The beast howled but kept attacking.
"Yes, that’s it, give everything you’ve got!"
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