The Assassin's Enemy Lover

Zi Han asked, “Are you okay?”

The two siblings nodded their heads and the mother dropped the knife with a dull thud. “That’s good,” he said before turning away. “We need to go out now. We can’t stay here any longer,” he said before staring at the gate.

The three of them found the hovercraft Zi Han fixed and Nayeli became the pilot while Zi Han handed the child to the sibling’s mother. He had no experience whatsoever in taking care of children.

The child was reluctant at first but the woman’s soothing voice coaxed him so much so that he crept into her arms willingly.

After a couple of hours, they reached a small town north of the ravager’s compound which was their home. The village had somewhat recovered from the previous attack which was good.

The three family members were very excited to finally get home. They begged for him to stay with them but Zi Han politely refused. He had a future husband to find thus he had to leave. He entrusted the child to the three and left them with some fruits and valuable things.

Since Igneous was fully operational he didn’t need them to guide him to the coordinates. They waved at him until the hovercraft disappeared on the horizon.

“Why didn’t you keep him here? He would make a great husband,” signed their mother to her daughter but Nayeli almost rolled her eyes.

.....

She signed back, “His face invited trouble plus I suspect he came here looking for someone special.”

Nathan couldn’t help but interject and add spice to the story. “She hit his face until it was swollen and she pointed a laser gun at him threatening to kill him,” signed Nathan.

“You snitch,” yelled Nayeli and Nathan ran away from his sister. While these two were fighting, the young boy sank deep into the woman’s embrace feeling very happy. At least he now had a lovely family that would nurture him regardless of the lack of blood affection.

Meanwhile, Zi Han traveled two and a half days across the thin, almost bald forest. He met a couple of people on the way but like everybody else, they minded their own business.

He finally reached Kengston city by dusk on the third day. When he reached this humongous city the gates were closed and there were plenty of traders waiting outside for the gates to open.

Zi Han parked the hovercraft in an inconspicuous corner and waited patiently. Meanwhile, a mech that would have been familiar to Zi Han if he had been there arrived at the ravager’s compound followed by eight other hovercrafts ten times larger than the hovercraft Zi Han was commuting in.

The half-open gate were kicked open and a man with long legs and a tall stature emerged from the mech. His steps slow and heavy he entered the now abandoned compound and began to command his man to search every nook and cranny.

All the devices meant to detect energy fluctuations had only a slight change in pattern in the past few days but there was a sudden sharp spike that couldn’t be explained. Though fleeting it left him with sleepless nights.

When it came to energy the law of conservation of energy was his daily bread, that is energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be converted from one form of energy to another. Thus any new form of energy was foreign and had to be investigated.

The energy fluctuation he felt was in the desert thus he travelled overnight to one of the stations in skull desert but when he got there, there was nothing except the signs of hunters using the station.

Just when he thought the trail had grown cold, another energy fluctuation though small was felt nearby but when they got there there was no one. The place was empty like it had long become a ghost town. There were dead bodies strewn everywhere and from the looks of it, things were left as is. It was as though the occupants vanished into thin air and didn’t even have time to pack up their belongings.

With a stern unapproachable face, he walked towards the main building where the leader was meant to stay. The place had been turned upside down and short of broken furniture and corpses, there was nothing left of value.

“Everybody head out and send out a wanted notice for anyone strange in appearance or behaviour,” he said and the man clad in priestly robes behind him lowered his head while responding,

“Yes my Lord.”

“Oh and mention that if anyone is found to have harboured the fugitives they would be sacrificed to the gods.”

“Yes, my lord,” replied the servant before leaving the hall.

This wasn’t the first time there had been these energy fluctuations. More than a week ago there was another surge in energy but after searching for days he couldn’t find anything. Now that it had happened again he couldn’t help but wonder what the Federation was up to.

He had made sure that he had the last of the royal family members that could perform space jumps so he knew that the federation couldn’t initiate an offensive attack.

After the last time he opened portals, Yeoh Jun completely shut down and couldn’t open anymore. That’s because he had compromised the capsule. He wanted to kill the person on the spot but knowing fully well that he was the last person who could perform space jumps and open portals of another world, he could only swallow his anger.

While he was searching the abandoned city, Zi Han was entering the city following the crowd. His heart which had been lovelorn was now pounding hard in anticipation and the deeper he walked into the city the more his heart palpitated.