Chapter 90 – Captured.

“( ●︿● )”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“( ●︿● ) …”

“How was I supposed to know those humans would take him with them? In the demon world, no one cares about leaving a body in an alley! They’d even insist on leaving evidence to show strength!”

“( ⇀ ‸ ↼ )”

“I know, calm down, little lady. I’ll help you get Rusty back, don’t worry. We just need to follow them. They’ll never expect an escaped monster to be tracking them while they search for you.”

Atop a building, an ant hid behind some bricks. She wasn’t entirely alone as a ball of black light hovered just in front of her head. Aburdon’s plan had partially succeeded: Rusty was being hauled away by their enemies. Ideally, they would have left his helmet behind so he could reform himself, but that hadn’t happened. It seemed these people didn’t want to leave any evidence of their crime, which complicated things.

“Well, we’re lucky my hunch paid off, at least.”

“( ╹ -╹)?”

“A hunch? Did I say hunch? No, of course, I knew it would work from the start, my little ant friend!”

“( •̀ – • )”

“Stop looking at me like that and let’s focus on the task at hand, shall we?”

Aburdon tried to change the subject as Gleam stared at him with her unblinking ant eyes. His idea had come to him in a flash while they were enveloped in Rusty’s mist. With little time to think, he took a gamble. Since Gleam shared a bonding contract with Rusty and his guides were connected to his soul in some way, Aburdon had figured he could work with that connection. A deep bonding contract involved a degree of soul sharing and imprinting, magic Aburdon had researched extensively in the past. So, he took a chance and attached himself to Gleam instead of Rusty. And it worked. As long as he stayed close to the ant, he would not fade away. To make things even better, his demonic heritage even allowed him to communicate with her.

Gleam stared at Aburdon’s spectral form, her antennae twitching with frustration and worry. Rusty was being taken away, and although she trusted her partner, the odds seemed stacked against them more than ever. Gleam shifted on her legs, glancing from the alleyway below to the narrow street where the soldiers and mage were now carrying Rusty’s body down. She was small and agile enough to follow, but she’d need Aburdon’s guidance – and a touch of luck.

“Fret not, my little friend. I have this city’s plans memorized. Coupled with your tracking skills, this should be rather easy. Just remain quiet, and they will never notice! However, watch your step, if they hear us then this will be quite a short rescue attempt.”

“ ( • ̀ω•́ )✧ “

“Oh? Have you learned something that could help us? What is it?”

Gleam wiggled with her antennae and then began casting. Her aura flickered, and a hush fell over the air. The soft sounds of the night grew faint, muffled as if blanketed by an unseen veil. Aburdon blinked in astonishment before praising Gleam’s new achievement.

“Ah, I see. You’ve mastered a silencing spell! Clever ant. Your levels didn’t rise, where did you learn it?”

“ (•̀ᴗ•́ )و “

“Oh? It was like that? You must have a knack for magic if you can copy spells in such a fashion, bravo. ”

Gleam nodded, her small eyes glinting with pride. She knew how to maintain silence now, a spell she’d picked up during her captivity. She’d watched her captors silence rowdy creatures one by one until their cells fell into utter quiet. Over time, she’d deciphered the patterns, feeling the currents of the spell’s binding energy as they pulsed through the air. It had taken patience, but with each use, she’d come closer to grasping its essence.

“Marvelous. Use it well now, and we can get far closer to them than they’d ever suspect.”

Aburdon glanced ahead. The soldiers and the mage were nearing a carriage hidden under a tarp at the end of the alley, likely their escape vehicle.

“We’ll need to stay in close range to hear where they plan to take him. Use your skill to cover our movements.”

Without a sound, Gleam moved across the rooftop, scurrying over ledges and gaps, keeping her tiny form low and tucked into the shadows. With Aburdon as her guide, she tailed the group, her silence spell reducing even the creak of a rooftop tile underfoot to a mere whisper. Aburdon monitored the soldiers, listening carefully, his attention divided between watching Rusty’s abductors and guiding Gleam. They were almost to the carriage when one of the soldiers spoke.

“Take him away, let them dispose of the body…”

By now, the mage had taken his leave, his lofty status apparently too high for him to bother chasing after a runaway monster ant. In his place, a group of shady figures in hooded cloaks arrived at the scene. Rusty was tossed into a darkened carriage, which began moving down the dimly lit streets. Gleam followed close behind, with Aburdon’s shadowy form blending seamlessly into the darkness.

“If I’m not mistaken, they’re heading toward the city slums. Has their nobility always handled things like this?”

Aburdon was surprised by how blatantly they operated in the open, even in the dead of night. It seemed the mage and his guards were confident that their influence or connections in the city could cover for them. Gleam and Aburdon, however, had a clear advantage in stealth, especially with her newly acquired silencing spell. They crept silently along the rooftops, shadows among shadows, as the carriage rumbled down toward the slums. Gleam’s tiny form and agility allowed her to keep up, darting from rooftop to rooftop with Aburdon guiding her like a seasoned scout.

As they neared the slums, the carriage turned down a hidden alleyway before stopping in front of a small, dimly lit warehouse. It was a rundown building, with ivy crawling up the stone walls and patches of crumbling mortar. Gleam paused on the ledge of a nearby rooftop, watching as the hooded figures pulled Rusty’s body out of the carriage and dragged him inside. She held her breath as the warehouse doors creaked shut.

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“This seems like the end of the line, but why a warehouse? Why not just throw him into the sewers or the moat?”

Aburdon pondered the scene as it didn’t make much sense. The mage could have probably melted Rusty’s whole body to hide it or they could have disposed of it in many other ways. What was the point of bringing it into such a secluded location? It was as if they needed that body for something or had some kind of use for it.

“Could it be some kind of forbidden spell? Necromancy perhaps?”