“Ooh god, my soul almost flew from my body,” the guard sighed, putting back his sword into its sheet, then walked away. “Wow.. That was close, if he had moved his head just a bit, there was no doubt he would have noticed me,” Jordan murmured, exhaling in relief. And just as he was fully sure the guard had gone far, Jordan resumed his stealthy trek across the roofs until he reached the castle's main exit gate.At the gate, there was a bribed guard waiting. And upon seeing Jordan, the guard silently opened the door. And Jordan pulled out a bag filled with coins, then handed them to the guards, as a bribe for allowing him to pass through the gate. After successfully passing through the gate without being sighted, Jordan made his way through the dimly lit streets of Sinclair Town, his gaze darted around, as he stared, though it was night, so people were not much outside. Jordan walked for some minutes before he finally came to a stop, standing at the front of a building which he had vi

It was them—the same men he had seen before. He watched as they offloaded a box from a nearby house and loaded it into a chariot.“Are these men the ones you have suspected?” Thomas asked.Jordan nodded. “They’re the ones I told you about.”Thomas chuckled. “Okay then, let’s take them down, it’s been long I have broken some bones.”“No,” Jordan replied sharply, shifting his gaze to Thomas who was beside him. “Let’s wait and see where they’re taking the goods.”Thomas gave a small nod. “Alright, we do it your way.”They crouched in silence, observing as the three men finished loading the chariot.“What could be inside those boxes?” Jordan wandered in thoughts, watching intently.The men climbed onto the chariot and rode off. Jordan and Thomas quietly tailed them, staying hidden in the shadows. Eventually, the chariot came to a stop in a more secluded area, the area was around a rocky location, and at the front some distance away, there’s a bridge that led to a more dense forest. The me

The man said no word to Jordan question, and just in an instant, he vaulted into the air and bolted toward the forest.All this time, Jordan had been holding back, trying not to harm the man too severely—he needed him alive, so he could answer questions, and now that the man was getting away, he had no option than to attack to his fullest. “Damn it. If I keep slacking, I’ll lose my chance,” Jordan muttered to himself.He raised his hands, and a magnificent flame burst forth, shaping into the roaring head of a lion with bared teeth, glittering sharp. With a forceful thrust, Jordan launched the flaming lion toward the fleeing man.The man froze in horror as he realized he couldn’t escape the attack, he was still yet to enter the tick forest, and if he allowed the attack to meet him, he had no chance of survival. His fear when seeing the attack was still unclear, the man sensed something very powerful and familiar from Jordan attacks. Using the last of his strength, the man conjured a

Thomas walked over to the man Jordan still held by the neck, pressing against the tree. “There’s no doubt about it—they’re possessed by shadow demons, lord Ryan, what you have suspected earlier was actually true,” Thomas said, shifting his gaze to Jordan, then he continued, “Those creatures can inhabit a human body for over ten years before moving on. When they switch vessels, the previous host dies, and sometimes the reason for them staying in one host for a long time is because they can’t move out of the host body, sometimes, this mostly happens when the exact shadowing monster is weak.”Thomas stretched his body with a yawn, then cracked his knuckles. “I think I know a way to force the demon out… or at least hurt it, so we could have a chance for it to talk, because I think the demon was the one in control when the deal and everything was done.”Thomas wasn’t entirely certain of his theory. But if the men genuinely had no idea how they ended up here, there was only one explanatio

“Yeah definitely, we will strike tomorrow," Jordan nodded firmly.Later that night, Jordan returned home unseen. He lay on his bed, but his mind refused to rest. His thoughts circled back to the tattoo—the strange symbol he’d seen on the chest of the man who he had fourth that ended up escaping. “That tattoo… it’s royal. Only The royal family are allowed with that specific tattoo, could this mean that there's an insider,” Jordan thought to himself.Something wasn’t right. This meant more was at play. But Jordan couldn’t pin down who the tattoo belonged to, or the actual person was. He knew all the royal bloodlines around Sinclair bore the same crest, but without seeing the man’s face, there was no way to accuse anyone.Jordan sighed in frustration. The trail felt cold. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the stone—the same one he’d retrieved from the box before burning it.“What is this stone really about? If it's really made of magic, then there's more danger ahead that we ain