Chapter 212: The Plan

Fors could not believe her eyes. 

Adryan Kenway was supposed to have died in the night from a gas leak in his house that caused an explosion and blew up his house in the middle of the night!

Or so the newspapers said...

"How come you're alive?" Xio finally spoke. Her eyes looked strangely at the man as if she still didn't believe what was in front of her.

Rolling his shoulders, the red-haired man smiled and looked to the side.

"I was attacked in the middle of the night by a couple of wretches. I had no choice but to have my house blown up." 

Looking at the man in front of her, Xio was silent for about 5 seconds.

"All this time it was you?" 

"Do you see anyone else here? It's always been me." Adryan replied with a raised eyebrow. 

Her gaze lowered to the ground, letting out a heavy and very long sigh, she lifted her gaze back up and nodded.

"I'm in."

"But-" Fors tried to say something but a look from her friend shut her up...

She let out a shaky sigh and swallowed the urge to want to run. Fors looked straight ahead and nodded slightly.

"Count me in... but I'm only doing it for her eh? I still haven't forgiven you for last time!" She added feeling braver, but the second she saw the redhead raise an eyebrow she ducked behind Xio.

'I don't remember him looking so good! I'd almost rather he wore that tetric mask than look at that face!' Fors thought biting the inside of her cheek hard.

"From what I can see you're still a bit of a weirdo Miss Writer." The man said amused and Fors blushed.

'Why is this happening to me?!' Fors cried internally feeling very complicated.

No one could blame her for feeling embarrassed! And whoever judged her she would just say that if a supermodel of the opposite sex talked to you you'd blush too!

Watching the exchange between Fors and the dead man, Xio swallowed the urge to roll her eyes.

"What's the plan Mr. Kenway, or would you prefer I use Holmes?" The sheriff asked and Adryan returned his attention to her.

"Call me whatever you are comfortable with, but once we are with Qilangos I would greatly appreciate it if you would call me Holmes." He calmly answered the second question before leaning back against the machinery.

"Umm... excuse me Mr. Kenway?" Fors raised her hand, and the aforementioned's face went flat.

"Yes?" 

"Ummm..... Your teammates won't take off their masks either?" 

At the question, Sasha snorted while Hazel shook her head, Charlotte for his part just looked away without saying anything.

Raising an eyebrow at the writer. Adryan spoke up.

"You've suddenly become more talkative miss. I remember before you were just quiet and still, like a dead fish drying in the sun." 

Fors felt her brow twitch as a slight blush fell on her cheeks.

Realizing this, Fors paled and her blush grew a little deeper.

'Don't tell me I like bad boys! Bad Fors! Bad!' Fors thought discreetly poking her leg and reprimanding herself for her tastes.

"The deal was only with the miss and it was only my face." Adryan continued as he pointed at Xio." My companions have no obligation or need to reveal their identities."

Fors just nodded in embarrassment and lowered her head.

"Mr. Kenway?" making her presence known again, Xio spoke up.

Adryan laughed at this and nodded calmly.

"I haven't forgotten about your question miss. I was just about to answer it. You might want to sit down, it's kind of a long explanation."

Xio nodded calmly and was followed closely by Fors who every now and then looked up at the Fire mage, they both took a seat on top of old machinery.

"..." Xio looked seriously at the man waiting for him to speak.

"The plan is as follows. Starting today, the 6 of us will be watching at all times for your informant. We have no idea what time Qilangos may attack so we must be ready. Once Qilangos makes an appearance. You" Adryan said pointing to Fors. " You're going to get the informant out of there and I'll take on Qilangos alone."

Fors bit her lips and inwardly grunted and nodded.

Xio blinked in confusion.

"And what are we supposed to do?" She said referring to her and the three people surrounding the redhead.

A smile grew showing his white teeth.

"Your job will be the simplest but it may also be the most complicated. Keep Qilangos from escaping and keep people from getting hurt while I fight him."

...

It took a few seconds for Xio to understand what the man was referring to, but when she did her eyes widened in disbelief.

"You plan on fighting Qilangos in the middle of the day?! Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea what that means?!"

Smiling, Adryan nodded.

"It means either I end the fight fast or I'll have the 3 churches all over me along with their elite teams ready to seize me to never see the light of day."

"You're crazy." Fors said with her mouth hanging open staring at the man in front of her.

Xio on her side was furious.

"Is this your plan? Do you really think you can take down Qilangos so fast!"

The man's smile remained.

"Think about it for a moment miss. This is the best plan."

Xio looked at the man as if he had grown 5 heads and 5 tails.

"Do you even hear what you're saying?" she asked incredulously. 

This was suicide!

She looked at Adryan's team.

"Do you guys agree with what he's saying? Do you want to see him die so badly?" 

"I trust the boss's abilities." Sasha replied calmly and Hazel nodded. But both inwardly agreed with the short woman.

"If someone is crazy enough to think of such a plan then they must have several aces up their sleeve don't you think?" Charlotte added.

Xio stared incredulously at this, were they out of their minds too?

Turning her attention back to the man she grunted and crossed her arms.

"And how do you think we stop Qilangos from escaping? If I stand before him there's no doubt he'll kill me with one blow." 

As much as it pained her to admit it that was the truth. She was sure that a mere jab from that man could take her head off.

"Who said you guys would fight him?" Adryan asked with a smile.

At the woman's dubious look, he reached into his pocket pulled out something, and tossed it to the sheriff who caught it with narrowed eyes.

Looking at what the man had thrown at her, the woman's eyes filled with doubt.

It was a matte black pocket watch with silver accents on the front. 

"You'll do it with that." 

Looking up from the watch, Xio looked questioningly at the man.

"That's a sealed artifact. It's called Hangover Time and to make it simple, it distorts things by turning the crown. You will use that so that every time Qilangos wants to escape, you will distort that to make him stay."

The woman's eyes widened in understanding. 

'This is a sealed artifact? And with such an ability?' Xio looked curiously at the artifact in her hands. To her eyes, it looked like a somewhat expensive pocket watch that a lesser noble would display to show off his position.

She licked her lips, suddenly wishing she had some wine....

She froze and tossed the watch back towards the man and the desire to drink wine left her.

"You seem to have realized one of the negative effects. Which is wanting to drink too much wine, don't worry it's just psychological and you can resist it and nothing will happen." Adryan explained calmly grabbing Hangover Time.

Xio who had been alarmed for a moment let out a small relieved sigh.

"Please don't do that again Mr. Kenway." 

Adryan laughed softly and nodded.

"Sorry about that."

"Back to the topic. You all will be using Hangover Time to not only prevent Qilangos from escaping but to prevent his attacks from hitting me."

"This watch has 2 negative effects. When you use the watch to distort something, something about you will be distorted for 3 hours and each use stakes so if you use it 2 times it will take 6 hours for the negative effect to wear off."

"That's why each of you will only use the watch 2 times. And also all of you will have to keep a low profile by avoiding being seen, we can't let Qilangos find out that there is someone else besides me." 

"If he thinks it's only me first he will try to kill me and when he fails he will try to run away every chance he gets, which you guys will take care of."

Having said that, Adryan's expression became serious.

"And if 3 minutes pass and I don't kill Qilangos when that. You all leave. I'll stay behind and try to finish the job alone."

"I'll at least still have a good chance of escaping if the church teams arrive."

"Remember. This is a fight against the clock, not against Qilangos. We waste a lot of time and we lost."

Looking at all the people in the factory. Adryan spoke seriously.

"If I don't kill Qilangos in 3 minutes you guys are gone. Don't wait for the 3 minutes to come, leave as soon as 2:30 comes or when everyone has used the watch twice, whichever comes first."

Adryan turned to look at Fors.

"You're a little different. You're a Trickmaster now, aren't you? Then I want you to use those tricks to annoy Qilangos as much as you can, but I repeat, do not be discovered."

Fors who was listening to everything with absolute seriousness, froze a little when she heard her role. 

"I'll what?"

"Don't worry you won't be alone, he also has the mission to annoy Qilangos." The redhead commented calmly as he pointed to Charlotte who nodded somewhat tensely.