The Hidden World

With a wave of her hand, Yuki dispelled the domain she erected. The trees faded away and the endless river subsided. The barrier dropped and time resumed its normal pace. 

Outside, the battle seemed to have begun to draw to a close. Guards littered the ground with only a few of them left standing. Yuki’s team looked fine for the most part to her eyes. There were a few scratches and cuts here and there and bruises that most likely won’t show themselves until the next day. 

“You did it, huh,” Kilik said as he walked over to her. “That bit of magic you did was quite nice. Very fast.”

“Thank you,” Yuki replied. “Did you see what happened?”

“Of course not. But I felt it,” he said. “You buried them?”

“Yes. Quickest way to dispose of their bodies while making them suffer,” she shrugged. 

“Hmm. Enjoyed it?”

“Briefly. Satisfied is the better word for how I currently feel. They’re gone now and the Shikaku should follow after. What do you want to do about these leftover guards?” Yuki asked, gesturing towards the guards that were being rounded up by the others.

“You can do whatever you like with them. Release them, kill them, doesn’t really matter to me,” Kilik said. “My recommendation would be to wipe them using Erica and let them go. Creates less attention.”

“That’s what I was thinking as well,” Yuki nodded. “I noticed that you didn’t really fight.”

“There was no need. If the time came and you weren’t able to handle those two on your own, then I would have helped,” he said. “Obviously, you didn’t need it. Those two were quite strong for elves.”

“Where’s the woman?” Yuki asked. She looked around but couldn’t spot her among the people being rounded up.

“Dead,” Kilik replied. “She proved very stubborn in not giving up, so I had to neutralize her quickly before she hurt anyone. The point of the mission was to eliminate the leadership though, so I take it you don’t have any problems with that?”

“I don’t,” Yuki said with a shake of her head. “Let’s regroup. We need to do some discussion.”

She looked over to where Akira and the others were standing together with the captured guards and gestured to them to join her and Kilik. 

“What’s up?” Akira asked.

“Is everyone accounted for?” Yuki said.

“Yes,” she nodded. “We got all the stragglers. No one escaped from the area.”

“Good. We need to have a quick meeting now. The window we have is short if we want to clean up as much of the Shikaku as we can. Erica.”

“Yeah?” she said.

“Are you able to make these guards forget they were ever part of the Shikaku?”

“Probably,” she replied, “but it would take some time to do them all. Do you want me to do that?”

“If you can, then yes. If you get too tired, then we’ll just handle the rest of the guards the normal way,” Yuki said. “Hold off on that for now though. Let’s plan. Uriel?”

She tapped on her watch, calling on the AI.

“Yeah, boss?” Uriel said, her voice coming out from the watch.

“Do you have access to the database of the Shikaku?” 

“Some of it,” she said. “There’s a lot of holes in the data. I think other information is stuck in separate systems that I don’t have access to yet.”

“Alright. I’ll see what I can do to fix that, but for now, let me know something. Would you be able to locate where individual members are?”

“Yes. Right now, I have the low profile members. We might be able to get more important members later once I get more data. However, I do expect that the second in command won’t be on any digital records.”

“We’ll handle that once we get to it,” Yuki said. “I’m going to need you to compile an organized list of those people. Also. Start the clean up. Have you identified the people we are going to push forward?”

“I have a list of them for you.”

“Good. Alright, get to it. The rest of you,” she said, “we’re going to meet up with the council. Right, Kilik?”

“Yes. That is the plan,” he nodded. “We’ll notify them of our success and then start to discuss and observe the waves that our actions did.”

“Ember, will you be going with us?”

“Yeah,” Ember nodded. “I’m head of the guard. It’s my job. Plus, I get to stick with you.”

“Alright. While we do that, Akira.”

“Yes?” she said.

“You know what you need to do for the clean up, right?”

“Yes. By the way, I think we should check the news right now to see if there is any chatter about what has happened here,” Akira suggested. “I don’t think there is anyone nearby since the barrier is still up, but it wouldn’t hurt to check that either.”

“Good idea. Mathali, can you check the area?”

“Of course, my lady. If I find someone, what do you want me to do with them?”

“Find what they know and if they know anything about what happened here, bring them to us,” Yuki replied.

“As you wish, my lady. I’ll be on my way then.”

He disappeared from view when his sentence ended. 

“Yuna, can you ask Uriel to scour the channels and the internet?” Yuki asked.

“I can,” she said. “Want me to do that right now?”

“Yes. Erica, get started on the guards. We’ll wait here and help you if you need it,” Yuki continued as Yuna stepped away to talk with Uriel. “When Erica is finished, I’ll leave with Kilik and Ember. Aki will go ahead and start the operation. Yuna will go with her. Is everyone good with that?”

“Unless the council sees something wrong, I don’t have anything to say,” Kilik said. 

“Sounds good to me too,” Akira nodded. 

“I’ll get to work,” Erica said.

“Yuna, how is the search coming along?” Yuki asked, glancing over at her.

“I can’t find anything right now,” she replied. “Nothing on the news. The government might have noticed spikes of magical activity though, but aren’t reporting it yet until they’ve investigated.”

“Good. Then we have time. Let’s get this going then,” Yuki nodded.

---

 

Eight Months Later

 

Verif Swain stepped into his dark office with a tired sigh. He had a busy day, but everyday was busy for the king of Libra. In recent months though, the workload seemed to have increased. 

‘Why have so many people resigned recently?’ he thought as he took off his formal jacket. ‘Out of nowhere. I can’t even get in touch with them anymore.’

He flicked the lights on and took a seat at his desk, sinking into the black leather. The clock on his desk told him it was 20:00. His wife would be expecting him to return home soon.

“Let me see one more time,” he muttered. “I’m starting to think that they’ve abandoned me.”

He took out a communicator from a drawer. It was a special communicator with only one line coded into it. He placed it on his desk and pressed a button, the communicator going out to contact the one line it was connected to.

Then he heard a ring behind him. 

Spinning around on his seat, he located the source of the ringing. There was a woman standing there. How she got in, Verif didn’t know. The door was closed and he saw no one when he walked in. 

“Isn’t it annoying when you call someone and they don’t pick up?” the woman asked in a soft melodic voice. She gazed at Verif with striking grey eyes that almost seemed to shimmer in the light. 

“How did you get in here?” Verif asked, slowly getting up on his feet. He put his hands into the air. “What do you want?”

“To answer the first question, I was already in here,” she said. “Your First Advisor let me in. Quite the nice person.”

“Why would he let you in?” Verif frowned. He tried to remember if he had met anyone like this woman before. “Have we met before?”

“No. But this is getting into your second question. Why I’m here. Well, Verif. I’m here for you,” she said. 

‘Assassination,’ he thought. He shuffled back, aiming for the door. 

“The door is locked, Verif. It’s so we can talk for a bit. So you can understand.”

“Understand what?” he asked. He still tried the door, but like the woman said, it was locked. “Why are you to kill me?”

“I know who you work for,” the woman said. “Shikaku. Does the name ring a bell?”

Verif’s jaw tightened. 

“It does, doesn’t it? You’ve been wondering what has happened to them as well. Why all contact with them has been cut and why your allies here have slowly gone away. What do you think happened to them?”

“What do you mean?” he said. “I work for no one.”

The woman sighed.

“There’s no point in lying, Verif. I’ll just tell you. Your friends are gone,” she said. “You won’t be hearing from them any time soon. I’m here to finish this off. You are the last person remaining here.”

“So what are you going to do? Hang me? Stab me?” Verif asked, throwing out any attempts of persuasion. 

“No. You’re not dying, elf,” the woman said with an amused smile. “I’m just telling you why you’re being replaced. You won’t remember anything of this conversation though. I’m just doing this out of courtesy.”

“You’re...not killing me?”

“Of course not. You’re king. That would be a bad idea.”

“Then how are you going to get me to leave? Torture?”

“You certainly have an active imagination,” the woman said. “But no. Not torture. Don’t worry about the method. All you need to do is sleep.”

A wave of exhaustion washed over Verif, dimming the world around him. His natural tiredness from the day was amplified as his knees buckled and he fell to the floor. Then his eyes rolled up and he went unconscious.

“There we go,” Yuki nodded. “Erica. Do your thing.”

She appeared from a corner of the room, her invisibility going away and went over to the unconscious king.

“Is this really the last one?” she asked.

“It is,” Yuki nodded. “Once he’s out, we’re done.”

“Then we’ve done it,” Erica smiled. “I’m glad this day came. I honestly thought we would spend years running around cleaning up.”

“No. We’re just getting rid of the main roots,” Yuki said. “Now with the king gone, we can relax.”

She went next to Erica and gave her a small kiss and smile.

“I know you’re tired. So let’s get this guy fixed up and then we can go home to the others. Maybe have some fun,” she winked. Erica laughed.

“You know how to motivate a girl, don’t you?”