Volume 3 Chapter 15 Cheum City

Chapter 15 Cheum City

I

Floria’s plan worked well. One of the passers-by who could speak Desertish gave them a map, on which the position of Fungruus’ palace was marked. They set out on the journey towards the east where Fungruus’ palace lay.

It was a clear day when they set out. The rain had just stopped and the air was moisture but comfortable. The trees were casting slim shadow over the vast grassland dominated by purplish weeds.

They had also robbed a wagon so that they could travel faster. The wagon was comfortable. When the horse was tired, Floria would feed it with weeds.

After two weeks, they had already gotten halfway to Fungruus’ palace. They didn’t pass by large cities along the way. There were only some small villages. Since they had gotten enough foods after robbing the cargo wagon, they didn’t need to go to the villages to get more.

Since they became criminals after defeating the Grey Factory, laws had become nothing to them. They knew that robbing was immoral, but they had no other way to get foods easily.

“Have you seen that? Is that a city?” exclaimed Yanni.

“Yeah, I see,” Floria nodded.

“Shall we go into the city and spend a night there?” asked Yanni.

“Good idea,” consented Floria.

“Isn’t it too dangerous? We may be wanted criminals too,” argued Stasha.

“Look at the sky. A thunderstorm was coming, we shall find a building to hide in. Travelling in thunderstorm is not a wise choice. Since we may be wanted there, I think we can spend the night in a public building which will be locked after the evening rather,” explained Floria.

“Floria is right. There will be a thunderstorm tonight,” consented Aisling. She was looking up to the sky and zoning out.

“According to the guy who gave us the map, this city must be Cheum, the second richest city of Reauneia,” speculated Stasha.

Black thunderclouds had gathered in the sky. It was like an end of the world. Some raindrops began to fall and they were the prelude of the thunders tonight.

When they arrived in front of the gate of Cheum, they saw two guardsman guarding there. Aisling released a cloud of poisonous gas and knocked out the guardsmen.

The four entered Cheum. It was really a big city crowded with pedestrians. There were so many people walking on the street and every individual looked as weak and small as a drop of water in an immense sea.

Every pedestrian in Cheum held an purple sphere in their hand. They were always looking at the purple spheres and their eyes were always fixed on the them.

“What are those purple spheres?” asked Aisling curiously.

“I have no idea. Stasha and I have seen those spheres in the City where Cheius’ academy lay too,” replied Yanni.

“Anyway, what’s our plan?” queried Aisling.

“Since there will be a thunderstorm tonight, let’s find a building that we can hide in at night,” answered Floria.

The instant her voice broke off, a group of constables surrounded them, all of whom were burning with elementalical fire.

They were discovered.

II

Thanks to Tudius, the commissioner-general of Reauneia, Cheum had become the second richest city in Reauneia.

About one year ago, Cheius invented elementalical spheres which enabled people to communicate with each other remotely. People could use elementalical spheres to call their friends or families in the distance.

On the basis of those elementalical spheres, Tudius, the commissioner-general of Reauneia, built a prison called the Internection in Cheum. When one did a thing that obeyed mainstream social value, he would be arrested by Tudius’ fellow constables and put into that Internection.

The cells of the Internection were made of earth elementium, and thus everyone could use elementalical spheres to communicate remotely with the prisoners in the Internection. Therefore, everyone could insult and reproach the prisoners with their elementium spheres.

Anyway, because of the Internection, the citizens of Cheum had become the happiest people in this world. When a citizen was unhappy, he just needed to open his elementalical sphere to say some dirty words to a prisoner and torture him or her mentally.

They could also see the painful expressions of the prisoners inside the spheres. The sentence of Internection had thus because one of the harshest sentences in Reauneia, because many prisoners in Internection had become mental patients after serving their sentences.

After all, no one could stay rational after he was insulted by the citizens of a whole city. Even the toughest one would go mad after such suffering.

Because of the sale of the elementalical spheres, the economy of Cheum had grown miraculously rapidly, and Cheum had become the second richest city in Reauneia.

Now, Tudius was working in his office inside Internection. He was a mutant human with a pair of goat horns and a bushy goatee. Besides, he was remarkably strong. Though he was not as muscular as Hoemuo, he had some stronger abilities given by the earth elementium ray.

All Reauneian constables had been radiated by earth elementium rays, and as the commissioner-general of Reauneia, Tudius had been radiated by the strongest form of earth elementium ray in this world. Therefore, he was now the most powerful constable in this world.

While he was working, four barbarian-like adolescents, three girls and one boy, stormed inside his office, and following them were some constables who were chasing and trying to arrest them.

Clearly, the constables had taken the four to this prison, but the four broke free from their handkerchiefs and now they were trying to run away.

“That man with purple goatee must be an important person! Let’s hijack him!” shouted a red-haired barbarian girl in Normanish.

As fast as a flash of lightning, another barbarian girl with violet hair charged to the front of Tudius and put a dagger to his throat.

Those constables stopped.

Tudius wanted to fight back, but with a dagger to his throat, he didn’t dare to move.

“Relex, girl …” whispered Tudius in Normanish.

“You can speak Normanish?” the girl who abducted him was surprised.

“For sure, I love languages and I can speak every known language in this world. By the way, my name is Tudius,” Tudius introduced himself.

“I am Stasha. Those three are my friends, Floria, Yanni and Aisling. Now, if you want to be alive, follow us!” commanded Stasha.

With Tudius as hostage, the four ran into a door to leave the office.

Since the four had taken Tudius as hostage, those constables didn’t dare to continue chasing them because they were afraid that the four might kill him, because constables didn’t know that the four didn’t harm innocent ones. In their mind, the four were dangerous outlaws.

Behind the door that the four entered was the dungeons with hundreds of cells.

In the cells, the prisoners were crying hysterically. Although there was only one prisoner in each cell, there were whispers that belonged to various persons. Those whispers seemed to come from the purple stones embedded on the walls of the cells.

Obviously, those whispers were excruciating to the prisoners. When they heard the whispers, they would roar in despair and madness.

“What are those purple stones? Why can they whisper to the prisoners?” inquired Yanni curiously.

“They are earth elementium which enabled remote communication. Through elementalical sphere, the commons could say cursing words to reproach the prisoners. It has been proved that every citizen in Cheum loved to torture the prisoners mentally with their elementium sphere. I don’t need to hire any torturer after the invention of this grandiose Internection, because every citizen is my torturer,” answered Tudius proudly.

They were shocked by those twisted expressions of the prisoners and those whispers. This dungeon must be filled with whispers of dirty words. It was lucky that the four couldn’t understand Reauneish.

Stasha was absorbed in those whispers, and catching Stasha off guard, Tudius kicked on her belly and broke free from her.

“Now, it’s my time to fight back, Normanians!” announced Tudius, dark purple particles of lights beginning to dancing among his fingers.

Those particles merged with each other and gathered into some black slimy monsters.

Brandishing their tentacles, the monsters moved towards the four.

Aisling summoned a rain of spores which blasted all the monsters into smithereens.

Tudius dashed towards her and kicked her to the ground. Aisling was weak after conjuring those spores.

Stasha dashed up to Tudius, wielding her daggers. Smirking scornfully, the fists of Tudius began to grow with whacky purple lights. Tudius was really a master of martial arts. His moves were unpredictable. With several punches, Stasha was knocked to the ground too.

Yanni threw his stellarite shield towards Tudius, but with his two hands, Tudius seized the flying shield easily.

“You suck!” sneezed Tudius.

Catching Tudius off guard, Floria shot an arrow towards his chest. She didn’t miss. The arrow pierced into Tudius’ chest.

“That hurts …” moaned Tudius, pulling the arrow out of his chest. His chest began to recover slowly due to his mutation.

“You’re powerful, but there’re four of us. You’re outnumbered and you won’t win,” Floria pointed out.

“Outnumbered? Really?” scoffed Tudius.

The instant his deep voice broke off, his fellow constables had arrived at the scene. Tudius snapped his finger and a surge of energetic wave burst out from his body.

Touching the energy, all the constables began to transform with their skin darkening and their body lengthening dramatically.

“Beware my shadow monsters! You will not run from me!” Tudius smirked.

“Leave here!” commanded Floria. They had lost their hostage now, and the constables would soon catch up with them. They broke one of the windows of this dungeon, through which they jumped back to the street.

There were constables everywhere on the street. Upon spotting the four, they began to chase them like mad.

Though they were confident that those constables were no match for them, avoiding combat was always a wise choice.

After running for about three minutes, they ran into a small alley. Running into an alley wasn’t a good choice, but they really had nowhere else to run. Soon they arrived in front of a wall that blocked the end of the alley.

Soon all the constables would come here and surround them. A fight would be inevitable then.

Suddenly, a door on the sidewall of the alley opened, behind which was a middle-aged man with a pair of small eyes. He had a pair of goat horns and a goatee too, just like Tudius.

“Come in! You can hide inside my house!” said that goat-like man in Normanish.

Though the four didn’t trust him since he looked similar to Tudius, they had no choice. With hesitation, they went into the house of that man.

“Go to the second floor and wait for me there,” commanded that man, pointing at a stair that led upwards. The four nodded and went upstairs to the second floor.

III

The four were waiting anxiously on the second floor. The inner decoration of this house was simple. The wall was white while the ceiling was purple like the roof. There were three bookcases filled with books as well as badges in the house. Clearly, that man was successful in Reauneian society.

“That man looks suspicious,” muttered Yanni.

“Yeah. A mutant man who is willing to save us. That’s suspicious. He may have some sort of conspiracy. Anyhow, let’s wait and see,” consented Floria.

After five minutes, the man went upstairs too.

“Welcome to my house! Those constables are wondering how you disappear at the end of this alley. You have gotten rid of them! Congratulations! You four are Aisling, Floria, Stasha and Yanni, right?” greeted that man.

“How do you know our names?” asked Floria in astonishment.

“Well. Reading funny stories and collecting folk legends worldwide is one of my hobbies. I have researched the story of you four in fact. Three years ago, you defeated Master Mortis and destroyed the Grey Factory, right?” queried the man.

“Yes, that’s true,” Aisling nodded.

“I guess that the destruction of Macchina Gloriosa also has something to do with you four. You four have created chaos in Normania and Desertia while overthrowing the order in those two kingdoms. Now you have come to Reauneia and I’m wondering what are you up to,” drawled the man.

“Look. We’re grateful that you’ve helped us but what we’re doing is …” Floria smiled embarrassedly.

“A secret? I understand. Wow! I am really the fan of you four! You’re bringers of chaos! That’s cool! By the way, my name is Tschimuo. Nice to meet you, agents of disorder!” exclaimed the man.

“Agents of disorder? That’s a title. Seemingly we’re famous. So … May I ask you what we can do for you? Since you help us to get rid of those constables, we can do something for you in return,” offered Floria.

“Well, I just want to know more about your stories. You’re all my role models! I want to know more about you! Wow! I am so excited. I have saved you all! I can be your part of your legendary epic story! Wow!” answered Tschimuo, the man.

“So you just want to talk to us? That’s cool. Before I told your our stories, could you tell us who are you exactly? Are you mutant like Tudius?” pursued Floria.

“Yeah. In fact, I am the ex-commissioner-general in Reauneia. However, I retired one year ago and was replaced by Tudius. I’ve never liked him. That Internection he builds is a disaster. People buys those elementalical spheres to help the government torture the prisoners. Though prisoners were criminals, they were humans too! My son and my wife used to be kind and lovely, but they have become violent and cruel since they began to buy those spheres,” narrated Tschimuo.

“Where are your families anyway? What if they discover us?” inquired Floria worriedly.

“Yes, my wife is working in her guild, and my son is studying in a school. Soon they will come back. Don’t worry, I’ll hide you in the attic and they won’t discover you because they have become addicted to elementalical spheres and those spheres have corrupted their brain and senses,” responded Tschimuo.