Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 42: (Zack) Summoner

"Why the hell is it so dark? Doesn’t the tyrant actually live here?" Zack grumbled as he stumbled for the fifth time going through the narrow hallway.

Pende didn’t respond, his senses strained to the extreme, trying to figure out the location of his quarry, and growing more frustrated when he couldn’t sense anything.

"Where is that blasted General?" He muttered to himself.

The only sound in that hallway was the screech of Pende’s blades as they moved along the hallway. Zack wondered what was even the purpose of trying to figure out the General’s location. With the amount of noise they were making, Brunaulf was probably aware at all times where they were.

And so the journey into the dark hallway continued. Zack and Pende passed through a number of locked doors, seemingly abandoned.

"It’s like a maze in here." Zack wondered out loud as they checked another locked door in vain.

"It’s meant to be." Pende responded grimly. He was looking ahead towards the darkness.

"Inner regions of palaces are the final barrier which protects the Mayor or the King from invading forces," he continued, "and thus it is essential that only people who live here know their way perfectly through it."

"Then shouldn’t we have asked Isadora to accompany us?"

Pende shrugged. "We need her more where she is - holding off the garrision soldiers."

Suddenly Pende became alert, standing straight up and looking in front of him. With a soft curse he rolled backwards at such a speed that Zack had to run to avoid being impaled by his blades.

Not a moment too soon however, as the place where he was standing was immediately smashed by a water hammer. Zack looked up to see Brunaulf standing at the end of the corridor looking at them with what appeared to be a grin on his face.

"Enjoying our hospitalality?" He asked, raising his other hand.

"Very!" Pende responded back cheerfully. "Just waiting for the Master of the house to come and greet us." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Brunaulf didn’t respond. Another water hammer grew out of his outstretched hand, and he threw the same as easily as throwing an orange. Pende cursed and jumped up above the hammer. Zack hugged the wall as closely as he could and the hammer zinged past them both and exploded behind them.

"We need to get closer to him. We are walking targets here." Zack shouted.

Pende grunted his agreement, and immediately started running, or rather rolling, towards Brunaulf. Instead of preparing for a counterattack however, Brunaulf simply started running himself, disappearing in the shadows behind him.

"He’s leading us somewhere." Zack shouted, struggling to catch up with Pende.

"We have no choice but to follow. Even if it’s a trap." Pende said grimly from in front, not slowing down at all.

That doesn’t sound like a good idea

Zack didn’t say it out loud though. He had to conserve his strength, just running to catch up with Pende was leaving him out of breath.

They went through another series of twisting corridors, lined with locked doors. So many doors in fact that Zack wondered how many damn rooms the inner region of this palace had.

He didn’t know whether Pende could still follow the trail of the General. He certainly couldn’t, but since the Chianti Hunter never stopped or slowed down, Zack assumed that he must be picking up on some signs that were telling him where Brunaulf had gone.

Why is he running though?

The thought crept into Zack’s mind multiple times. It’s not like Brunaulf wasn’t capable of taking on both of them together. He had in fact shown himself to be more than able to defend himself against Zack and Pende together. Was he worried that Isadora or Enea would join in and then he would be at a disadvantage? Certainly if Isadora and Enea managed to kill all the reinforcement soldiers, then it would be hard odds for Brunaulf indeed. But that would require them to kill so many soldiers that Zack wasn’t sure they would have the endurance to then take on the General with them.

He was so lost in in thoughts that he didn’t realize when Pende had stopped running forwards, and almost crashed into him.

"What happened?" He asked, and Pende immediately put a finger on his mouth as if to shush him. He then pointed forward. Zack leaned over, careful to avoid the blades potruding from Pende’s body, to see what he was looking at.

In front of them, there was a single large hall. It seemed the never-ending mess of corridors had finally ended, and Zack almost breathed a sigh of relief until he saw General Brunaulf.

The General was sitting in a chair on the middle of the hall, almost nonchalantly, as if he were waiting for a guest to come in. He had two large double hammers in each of his hands as usual, and he was swinging them about almost as a child would swing a yoyo. Without any fear or worry.

But almost immediately Zack’s eyes were directed to someone else.

The General wasn’t alone.

Beside him was what looked like a throne. It was resplendent with gold, diamonds and several smaller gems. It was also much much larger than the chair Brunaulf was sitting on. As was the man seated on the throne.

At first Zack didn’t notice there was anyone there. He thought there were shadows cast by the huge chandeliers on the ceiling of the wall. However the shadow moved, and Zack realized that it was no shadow but a man.

And only one man would sit on the throne in Odania.

Fermi Ja was tall. Abnormally so. And thin. Or maybe he looked much thinner than usual because of his unusual height. He towered over the General, and Zack estimated that he was almost twice his own height. He had a gaunt look on his face, which was still mostly covered in darkness. And he wore a crown. It was a black crown, and Zack couldn’t see any gems or gold on it, but it was a crown nonetheless.

"Welcome. I heard you were looking for the Master of this house?" Fermi Ja’s voice was raspy but clear.

Pende had a grim look on his face as he was surveying the two in the hall, but now he burst back into his grin.

"Why yes! What a reception you have welcomed us with!" He continued, his face almost beaming. He didn’t step forward into the corridor though, and Zack could feel the muscles in the organic part of his body tense in anticipation.

"And what about you? You don’t look like an usual red cloak."

Zack took a while to realize that the tyrant was speaking to him.

"Uh yes." He stumbled out loud, not sure what else to say.

Fermi Ja seemed to accept that. He nodded and then stood up.

"Well then. Let me present you with my final gift."

Magik swirled around him. He didn’t incant anything, and Zack wasn’t sure what type of magik he was using. He looked once at Pende to see if he knew, but the latter’s face had become much darker.

"This became more complicated." He muttered.

Meanwhile in the middle of the hall the magik swirled almost like a tornado. General Brunaulf kept sitting nonchalantly beside the tornado, as if he were sitting in his own garden, unbothered by the veritable storm raging right beside him.

The storm slowly died down, the winds slowing down, revealing the tyrant in the middle.

He was still standing, but now he was adorned with black armor. And now he wasn’t alone.

Right beside him there was a beast. A beast the likes of which Zack had never seen. It looked like a deformed lion with wings. The body definitely was that of a lion, complete with the mane. And there were huge black wings potruding out from the back. But the face! The face was something out of a horror movie. Zack wasn’t able to even comprehend what it was at first, and then he slowly realized that was because the face wasn’t constant. It was a gooey ball of slime that changed every second, once forming a deformed face of a lion and then instantly changing to a lizard and then to a dragon and then to a human and so on. The slime face kept changing every second, and Zack realized the more he looked at it, the more he was drawn to it. Almost as if nothing else in the world mattered as long as he could stare into that ever changing face.

"Don’t look there." Pende said, blocking his view with a blade.

"W...what is that?"

"A Sciadorm. A magikal beast said to be found in the far north of Anasuril. It’s face is the source of its magik. It hypnotizes and paralyzes it’s victims while it uses its claws to kill them." Pende continued, his eyes quickly moving between all three threats, assessing and planning.

"The Mayor has one of those?" Zack managed to croak out. It seemed even his voice had been paralyzed during that moment.

Pende shook his head.

"We have an outlier on our hands."

"An outlier?"

"Yes a special sub category. This is why I hate animal magik users."

"But I thought animal magik users could use the magik of the animal only through their bodies?"

"Generally yes. But they have a special sub category that ignores those rules."

"Sub category."

Pende nodded gravely. "A Summoner."