They Vanished

Arrogant words were said in my mind as a demonic aura stuck fear into Guil.

Even if he is incredibly strong he had never fought someone who could manifest essence.

The now finger and toeless man could only shudder as he knew his death was coming.

Although he knew in his mind that he was ready to give up his life he couldn't help but feel terrified.

The soldier was completely unable to move a muscle and he could only resort to staring at the incoming attack.

I didn't bother to use mana any more since I had already spent some time dodging. Besides, it's not like I needed it. The essence was far more than enough to end his life.

Walking towards the man paralyzed in fear I whispered, "I wonder just how much experience I will get from killing your king?'

Now standing in front of the man I mockingly raised my pointer finger and touched his forehead.

That single and simple touch was all it took to end the life of the warrior.

Death essence forced its way through the soldier's mana stream killing everything in its path.

Painful screams were heard but by then I had already retracted my finger and risen to the sky.

I didn't even bother looking down at the man before taking off in the direction of the concentration camp that I was previously moving towards.

The screams disappeared from my senses as I appeared in front of the building.

Anger filled my mind when I realized that the building was empty.

'Did they already evacuate everyone?' I thought about the reason behind the orphan's disappearance.

Disregarding that the camp was empty I quickly moved on to the next camp as I turned direction.

However, the same scene took place. The building was devoid of life and it looked like everyone had left in a hurry.

'This doesn't make any sense! I know I made my presence known before the king but this kind of pace in which they were able to evacuate is impossible,' I nearly shouted aloud due to the stupidity of the situation. 'Even if the exact second after I removed my presence from the throne room they started to inform the building managers to escape they wouldn't be done yet.'

Hundred of thoughts clouded my mind, 'Did Willow get captured and reveal the plan? No, even if she did that still doesn't explain the timing, but that would explain how the army knew about me. Maybe they have hidden soldiers who surpassed level 100 and were able to make it in time to get everyone out? But that wouldn't make any sense because the king isn't even level 100 himself.'

Annoyed that there seemed to be no answer I could only continue on to the last building.

Dashing in another direction I came to a stop above the final camp to also find it abandoned.

'What the fuck?' Furious I decided to spend way too much mana to improve my senses and check MAP only to discover that there were no presences.

'WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!' I screamed to myself. 'It's already a miracle that they all managed to flee but it's straight-up impossible that there are no signatures. The only explanation would be that they already made it back to their HQ.'

I began to worry about this possibility, not even I would have been able to transport all the soldiers one by one to the HQ for all three camps.

With no feasible explanation, I could only turn back and head towards the rendezvous Willow and I agreed upon.

Speeding by I quickly arrived at the outskirts of the forest which overlooked a huge fortress.

Immediately a second person entered my senses as I closed in on their position.

Drenched in blood from head to toe the woman I had spent days with appeared in my vision.

"Hi," Willow began to welcome me but stopped after noticing my aggregated expression. "Did something happen?"

"No nothing happened," I said angrily.

"Then why are you so-"

"The problem IS that nothing happened. The buildings were evacuated before I even reached them. It was like a fucking ghost town!"

"Oh," Willow said quietly.

I let out a deep sigh to calm myself, "It won't matter too much they are just prolonging their deaths but what really bothers me is how they escaped."

"Well, which camps were the ones that were empty, you obviously found some people," She said as she pointed to my clothes which were dyed red and still had chunks of flesh sticking to them.

Ignoring my appearance I answered, "The camps were soulless but all the training centers were still full. In fact, it seemed like they had no idea what was going on. How is it so black and white between the two?"

Willow thought for a while before a look of realization spread across her face which was quickly followed by humiliation, "Umm, did you happen to check if there was anyone nearby?"

Curious I responded, "Yeah, I expanded my senses to fill the entire jungle only for it to come up empty."

"Ah," Willow said. "I think I know what happened to them."

"Well, spit it out then," I said impatiently.

"The camps have transmitters which connect to the HQ. The officials probably alerted the people in command of the camps so that they could gather everyone and teleport them to safety…" Willow answered sheepishly.

'Are you fucking kidding me?! Why didn't you tell me that sooner!' I complained in my head.

Yet, when I saw how sad Willow was I blocked the anger that wanted to scream at her.

Letting out an even deeper sigh, I closed the distance between us and grabbed Willow's hand.

Instinctively, Willow tried to retreat but when she realized that I wasn't going to harm her she squeezed my hand tightly as if it might disappear.

"Let's get this done and over with," I said with a smile as I returned the squeeze to reassure her.

'That way I can finally kill you,' I thought, devoid of emotion.