The Deceitful One



Thursday, 28th August 1582.

The sun set casting a gloomy orange hue across the sea of white tombstones. People died every day and their loved ones visited the cemetery to bid them farewell. Nothing was permanent in life.

In the grand scheme of things, even the brightest of stars is destined to one day burn out and perish, much less something as fragile as humans. All things in the universe were temporary in nature.

At one corner of the cemetery stood a lone man before a tombstone. He stared at the headstone in front of him in a daze, his whole being emanating a desolate aura. His back was slouched and his gaze was empty.

Apart from him, no other person could be seen by the tombstone of the deceased person. He was the only one. And why wouldn't he be? He had no friends or family to speak of. And the friends that he did make in his life, had been all betrayed by him.

Ron was alone. The only person that ever meant anything to him—his fiancée, Celine—was now dead. She had died by his very hands, something that he would have to live with till the day he died.

As he stood in front of the grave of his beloved, tears began to stream down his eyes. However, his expression was deadpan. It was more accurate to say he was expressionless. And that's how he had been since the past week.

Even though he had been tricked into killing Celine, the fact that he had indeed killed her weighed heavy on his heart. Over the past week, he had been wallowing in grief and misery. Forget meditating, he hadn't even bothered eating or drinking.

On many occasions he had thought of killing himself and joining Celine in the afterlife, however, every time he had this thought, he was reminded of the old man who had brought this all on him.

He didn't know the identity of this tramp before, but after fighting him that day in his apartment, he had an idea about who he could possibly be.

Ron snapped out of his daze as he remembered how that old tramp had mentioned that he was once his friend and how the price of betrayal was insidious. And that damned smile…. When Ron saw that smile on the tramp's face, everything began to make sense.

"Bryan…" Ron muttered under his breath, "so you're alive." He was under the impression that Bryan had died after that incident in Damascus. After all, there hadn't been any news of him since then.

But after what happened to him, he was beginning to think that Bryan might not be dead after all. And that he was coming after everyone who betrayed him and the Silver Owls.

Ron gritted his teeth in anger as he looked at Celine's tombstone. His eyes shone with resolve as he muttered, "My love, I'll avenge you. Even if it means the death of me."

He looked at the headstone one more time and then turned around and left. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he began to plan ahead for his revenge. However, he had to first make sure that all of this was indeed Bryan's doing.

Just as he was exiting the cemetery, he caught sight of one of his subordinates who was pacing back and forth at the entrance of the cemetery. This young man seemed to be having a conflicting expression on his face as he fidgeted with his fingers incessantly.

Ron approached him and flatly asked, "What're you doing here, Rick?"

Rick, a blond-haired and blue-eyed Rank 1 Blood Path Transcendent, was suddenly taken aback when his name was called out. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even realize that someone had approached him.

When he saw that it was Ron, he respectfully bowed. "Master Ron, I've come to pay my condolences."

Ron stared at him for a few moments and then nodded. "If that's all, you can leave."

Rick hesitated for a long time and finally mustered up the courage to speak. "M-Master Ron, I think y-you might want to hear this."

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"Uhm… you see," Rick averted Ron's eyes and spoke, "When I was cleaning Master Alfredo's office back in the base, I happened to see a few letters—"

"Get to the point. I don't have time to waste," Ron's eyes narrowed and he released a bit of his aura.

Rick's body trembled in fear and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. He nervously spoke, "T-The letters m-mentioned Celine—"

However, before he could finish speaking, Ron rushed towards him and viciously grabbed his neck, pressing him against the wall. His eyes turned bloodshot as he spat through gritted teeth, "What the fuck did you just say!?"

Rick's eyes trembled in absolute horror, he gulped involuntarily. "I-In the letters, M-Master Alfredo commissioned an I-Illusion Path T-Transcendent to kill Celine. I-I'm not lying!"

Unprecedented anger filled Ron's being as he inquired, "What else?"

"M-Master… Alfredo asked him to m-meet in the…slums many times…. I swear, I've seen all this… in the l-letters." Rick struggled to speak as he gasped for air.

Ron's eyebrows furrowed as he thought about the homeless tramp. It made sense for Alfredo to meet him in the slums. But he still couldn't understand one thing. 'Why would Alfredo do this? Is Bryan not the one behind this? Or are they working together? No, that's impossible….'

He glared at Rick. "Where's the letter? Show me."

Rick's eyes reddened as he struggled to breathe. "The security… at the base… is t-tight. I didn't d-dare to… bring anything… o-outside. You must… believe me, master!"

Ron stared into Rick's eyes for a long time, trying to figure out if he was lying. A few moments later, he loosened the grip on his neck, causing Rick to limply fall to the ground and cough violently.

"If I find out that you're lying then I'll slaughter you and your whole fucking family," Ron spoke coldly.

Rick looked at him with a pitiful expression. "But what if Master Alfredo has already disposed off those letters?"

"Then you better pray he hasn't," Ron replied. With that, he turned around and left.

Rick stretched out his arm in Ron's direction and yelled, "Master, you must believe me! I'm not lying!" However, he received no reply.

The next moment, Rick lowered his head, the pitiful expression on his face completely vanishing. His lips then curled up into a mischievous smile as he thought to himself, 'The seed of distrust has been sown. Now, what will you do… my friend?'

…

Over the past week, Donald's life had taken a drastic turn. The things that he thought to be nothing but fantasy, had in fact become his reality. After being introduced to the world of Transcendents by Bryan, he had now already become a Rank 1 Apprentice.

Now that he had stepped into the supernatural world, he began to view the world differently, both ideologically as well as literally.

For one, ever since becoming an Apprentice, he could now view the energy particles in the air that would have otherwise remained hidden in the eyes of regular humans. And he liked this experience very much.

Bryan had also told him about the various Paths that one could embark upon. When he learned about it, he was filled with disbelief. Personally, he wanted to embark on the Wisdom Path, however, Bryan had strictly refused.

One reason was that this Path was strictly guarded by the Church of Wisdom and was only made available to those associated with it. The second and most important reason was that if he embarked on this Path, he would be hunted down by the Church.

That was another thing that shocked him to the core; it was the fact that most of the Transcendents belonged to the Church and the royalties. He would have never even imagined such a thing.

Other than that, he had also made some speculations about his master, Bryan. The fact that his master possessed the meditation technique and the potion formula of the Wisdom Path, led him to believe that he must be someone associated with the Church.

However, he didn't bring up this topic. After all, this was only his mere speculation and he didn't want to infringe upon his master's private life.

He had also gotten to know that his master was an Illusion Path Transcendent. But, this was not the Path that he wished to embark upon. Hence, Bryan had given him time to decide.

Currently, he was sitting in the gazebo in the garden and reading a book about mysticism. Ever since he became Bryan's assistant, his workload had surprisingly decreased. He found more time to work on himself. Of course, another reason was that Bryan hadn't yet given him much work yet.

He shut the book he was reading and mumbled, "Master said he would return in a few hours, I should inform the butler to prepare his meal."

Suddenly, his gaze fell on Benny who was taking a nap on the table. He decided to show off a little in front of the little fellow. "Little Benny, look. I'm going to show you a magic trick."

Benny opened his eyes slightly and looked with a bored expression. The next moment, Donald created a small fireball on his palm which only lasted for a few moments before vanishing.

He looked at Benny with a smug smile. "Pretty neat, right?"

Benny rolled his eyes at him and mentally replied, 'No.'

Donald's eyes widened to the extremes as he shot up to his feet. He looked at Benny incredulously and yelled in surprise, "WHAT THE FUCK!!"

Benny looked at him with a smug smile and asked, 'Pretty neat, right?'