Chapter 42

Soon, there was something else aside from himself.

A soft whisper and a click of a shotgun. He carefully followed it and saw Muren at a dark, narrow pavement along the house rears.

Muren was talking to someone else – it was Sorell, a companion and a high official member of the secret organization. Toren happened to hear once during his training with Coen back then that Sorell had been one of the pioneers of the group, who had been a great aid for their reconnaissance.

Toren heard the both of them talking about a preparation for an ambush at a grand royal party happening in the middle block of the largest village.

The party seemed to be occurring at the grand villa located at that place.

After eavesdropping and gaining knowledge of what was going on, he was on his way to the villa when a heavy hand rested on his right shoulder.

He broke out cold sweats and slowly turned around, only to find out that it was Captain Brochille.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with a booming voice. "All the villagers, including the elders and children were invited to the grand party in celebration of the leader's birthday."

Toren thought that his family must have concluded that no one would find him since he had been staying down in the underground room for quite some time, so he would not think of going out.

Toren lied that he got lost while fetching his mother's raiment, so he managed to convince the captain to lead the way towards the villa where the party was occurring.

It took a while before they arrived since the soldier had a few detours to check on post soldiers in charge of distant checkpoints.

When they arrived at the villa, they abruptly heard loud sounds coming from inside.

It sounded like chaos.

There were gunshots and screams.

The captain had been alarmed with the mayhem, so he immediately rushed inside to check.

Meanwhile, Toren went around from behind and peeked from the windows to see what was happening.

Everyone was running and panicking.

The stage performers had taken refuge backstage, while the high-ranked soldiers gathered around the leader and the others cluttered across the golden floors. The lights had blew off and the visibility weakened. A lot of people were falling to the ground, dying by the artillery and swords.

Toren saw his father with Sorell who were coming out of the entrance gate, fleeing the battle.

Toren had never been so confused in his life until now. He was not sure what was going on, but it seemed like the organization had planned the surprise attack as they had been evacuating the villagers.

Colonizers were trapped by the advanced weaponries as they had not been prepared. They have been complacent and lenient throughout the recent years, so it was the perfect timing to retaliate with their weakened defenses.

Toren decided to run away far back into the deep forest where no one was paying attention.

He knew that he would not survive the shootout if he had involved himself within.

He could still hear the ongoing screams and sounds of dying men, but it all suddenly felt so distant when he dived at the farthest depths of the forest.

The battle was only miles away, but he felt like it was worlds away.

Soon, he could only see deep green trees and dark skies.

When his feet had finally failed him, he fell down and crashed to the branches and dried leaves.

He was planning to think of what to do ahead, but his mind was spinning over something else. There were other entities that had joined him there – something incomprehensible and invisible.

Most likely spirits from eons ago, awaiting for a mortal to get stuck in with them.

He struggled to stand up, but as soon as he saw his secret companions, he had never felt as shocked until then because he was so sure that the spirits knew him and he knew them.

They were all too familiar, as if he had created them himself.

Of course, those were his paintings.