Double Chapter Todayyyyyyy!

Happy four week anniversary Azalon :D.

Hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 35: Change of Heart

She couldn't find him.

When Sharon reappeared inside Azalon she was back inside her 'Boss Room' but Makoto was nowhere to be found.

Opening up her menu and going through a few tabs she finally found what she was looking for.

Lover Makoto: Online

Most players were unaware of this option but at the same time there only was a few people that currently had the 'Lovers' relationship so it was not surprising.

There was also an option to message him but she decided against it, for now he had no idea that she was a player and maybe that was for the best.

First of all it had only been a one night stand to begin with and she practically knew nothing about him so how could there ever come anything good of a relationship like this.

And on top of all of that she was an employee of Ouroboros, bound by contract to not tell a single soul that she was a player which made it pretty clear what to do next.

Do you really want to end your 'Lovers' relationship with the player 'Makoto'?

Sharon's finger was about to select 'YES' when something let her hesitate, a string inside her heart resonated, making her rethink her choice and she decided to click 'NO' while closing the Interface.

Well aware that it would be foolish and stupid to pursue this but deciding to follow her heart instead of her head this once, Sharon left her room and entered the actual Labyrinth.

Right now there was only a slight interest for the boy inside her but that was more than she had felt for another human being in a long time, if that was not a sign then what else would be?

After leaving the hidden area her body gradually changed to a normal human appearance even though she was still naked.

Putting on her leather equipment and checking Makoto's status again, Sharon decided to go and find her lover.

As a 'Huntress' she naturally had a tracking Skill in her repertoire, a very useful tool in situations like this where you had to track down your one night stand.

The Skill she was using was a bit unique as it was called 'Ancient Tracking' and it worked just like the description to it said.

Ancient Tracking:The ancient method to instinctively track down your prey.

Unlike normal tracking that uses clues in the surrounding area as waypoints to guide you to your target, Ancient Tracking is based on the use of intuition and magic, allowing for rough tracking no matter the distance.Skill Type:activeSkill Level6 (34%)Skill Effect:Will give you instinctive knowledge of your targets location.Uses:8.5 Mana per second.

As there was no limit to the range of the Ability, the only thing leveling it up did was to lower the mana cost as it shredded through her Mana Pool like it was nothing.

Sharon was only able to use it for a few seconds at a time to get a glimpse on rough directions like 'above' 'forwards' and the like.

As the Skill was pointing her to go above, it was very clear that Makoto had indeed left the Labyrinth which made the entire search even harder considering that Elisante itself was even more complicated than the actual maze inside the Dungeon.

Asking herself for the 10th time already why she was even bothering with this, she left the Labyrinth and immediately her bright red hair color together with her stunning beauty attracted quite a bit of attention.

Before she could be swarmed by players, Sharon used her Skill again and knew which way she had to go.

Attracting so much attention was both annoying and scary in a way but she continued to evade most of her pursuers by climbing up and down many layers while going in the general direction of where Makoto was.

She had not been inside the Capital since the launch of the game so there was no one to prepare her to the absolute masses that flooded the streets.

Hastening her steps and pulling a cloak from her Inventory to hide her appearance as best as she could, Sharon zigzagged through the entire City until she found him, just as her mana pool was about to run dry.

Wearing the usual equipment, Makoto entered a pretty tall building that looked like a mix between a Cathedral and a Palace.

Unsure of what to do, she stayed near an Inn and kept the entrance in view to wait until he was back outside.

…..

Bound in chains and no matter how much he struggled, Makoto was stuck inside this cell.

One could imagine his anger for Rhobos and the world for doing this to him.

The system message that appeared before him shortly after arriving in this stinking hole only helped to infuriate him more.

You are in jail!

For the next 24 hours (real time) you are unable to leave this cell on your own accord without being freed!

"Fucking bullshit! Let me out of here! I swear I will come back and hunt you down, all of you!"

Raging on like that for a good while, Makoto screamed his anger and frustration out for the world to hear an bear witness to.

After about half an hour, 4 guards went into his cell and started beating him until he finally went quiet, just to make sure, one of them decided to put a dirty old rag into his bleeding mouth to prevent any further attempts of raising a racket.

Still fuming, Makoto realized that if he could not talk he could also not open his menu and log out, panic quickly filled him at this new thought but thankfully there was no need to worry.

Even if he could not speak the command, the menu still opened up before him if he concentrated hard enough and repeated the words inside his own head.

In a way it was quite creepy how the game could practically monitor his thoughts but it had a good side, this way he would not be stuck inside the cell for the entire 24 hours.

One other thing that entered his mind was to message one of his friends so after a bit of concentrating he saw his friends-list hovering before him but to his dismay, all of them were offline.

Slowly he lost all hope of leaving this cell before the 24 hours were over as many hours had passed inside the game already at this point.

Seeing no other way, Makoto was about to log out when he heard the tapping sound of approaching foot steps.

Lifting his head he was able to see a familiar figure looking back at him from behind the bars, how could he ever forget those blue eyes or her fire red hair together with that incredible body?

Saracesse showed him a lascivious smile after staring into his eyes.

"Did you miss me my love?"

.....

Sharon was starting to get worried.

After waiting for such a long time she naturally inquired about the nature of the building she was staring at.

According to an Innkeeper, the Magic Institute was the place you went to for putting Bounty requests on people and even the students that attended the different lectures that were held there daily, did not stay the night so the answer to the question as to why her lover was still inside it remained a mystery.

Makoto had been in that building for hours now and her 'Ancient Tracking' was still guiding her towards it, even after circling around and above the entire thing it still pointed her towards the Magic Institute.

Feeling that the entire situation deserved her actions, Sharon used another Skill of hers while examining the structure.

As a 'Huntress' that normally hunted in the deep and dark woods, the Skill 'Shadow Stalking' was a natural asset.

It allowed her to blend better into the surrounding darkness and shadows which also helped a great deal inside a city when doing something highly illegal like breaking and entering.

Finding a sturdy wall with a few gaps in the stone to climb, Sharon activated her Skill and ascended the outside of the building, an open window above her always in sight.

Slowly putting her fingers around the window frame she listened for any noises and then lifted herself up, only enough to look inside the room.

Finding no one else in here except the cold night wind that had entered through the open window, she quietly followed behind.

Surprised herself about actually making it this far she carefully placed one step before the other and always kept her eyes and ears peeled for any signs of someone else approaching.

Most NPCs in the building were soundly asleep in their beds and only a few guards in the entrance area were awake and on duty.

Well, somewhat on duty as they killed time by drinking on the job and playing cards.

"I got two pairs, pay up boys."

One of them said while the others groaned and a pile of silver coins was shoved around...

"So let me get this straight again, why exactly are we keeping this foreigner in the cells below instead of bringing him to the actual Prison that exists?"

It was clearly audible that the one who had spoken had one or two glasses of wine too much as he slurred every word and had trouble pronouncing a few others.

"I told you already Rob, for the fucking 20th time now, its because the Headmaster said so and now pay up!"

Smacking the drunk guard over the head once, the others broke out into loud laughter while Sharon disappeared back into the shadows.

She now had a rough idea as to what happened and soon enough found stairs that lead below.

It was quite interesting how many people made the mistake of locking front and back doors but not bothering at all to lock any other doors inside the building, so once inside, she was able to even go down below to the prison cells without any lock ever stopping her path.

Seeing Makoto gagged and chained in one of the many otherwise empty cells pulled on the same heartstrings she had felt before and a sorrowful smile appeared on her face.

Before he looked up to her she changed it to a dirty one and tried to cheer him up with it a bit, even though the next line that escaped her mouth completely caught her off guard.

"Did you miss me my love?"

Surprised about the way she had instinctively addressed Makoto, she needed a good moment to sort her mind but thankfully Sharon was not alone with that.

Struggling to spit the piece of rag out of his mouth, it took him a while to actually be able to respond to that.

"But... is that really you Saracesse?

How can that be... I mean you are a... you are a..."

Seeing him clearly struggling with the situation, she couldn't help the real smile that appeared on her face.

"I am a what exactly?"

"...Nevermind... how did you find me anyways?"

"I followed you with an Ability of mine that allowed me to track you down and after not leaving the Magic Institute for quite some time I started getting worried that you had ended up in the bed of another woman so I went to pay you a visit, thankfully they only imprisoned and gagged you, what a relief."

Clearly stunned about her explanation, Makoto needed another moment before letting out a sigh.

"Well I can't really blame you for thinking something along those lines after what happened last night..."

"Oh you mean how you entered my domain and decided to just take me right then and there? I have to say I quite enjoyed that my love, why don't you show me some more of that after I get you out of this cell?"

Sharon purred, some of these words were surprisingly heartfelt as it was true that she had enjoyed their time together and that she would very much enjoy another taste of...that.

Today really was a day full of surprises about herself as more and more interesting thoughts about Makoto entered her mind, pulling on a few heartstrings on the way and creating a funny feeling inside her stomach, a weird kind of flutter.

Maybe there was really more to this one night stand and about her feelings than she had expected.

.....

Makoto was in a daze.

Seeing Saracesse appear before him as if he was in a dream and in a human form on top of that was something else for sure, the word 'stunning' was not even able to scratch the surface of this current situation.

It seemed like the system window informing him of their 'Lovers' status was no joke as she behaved exactly as if she was crazy in love with him which was complete nonsense considering he practically forced himself on her the night before, even if she enjoyed it.

Unable to think of anything else to say he watched her disappear out of sight, only to return with a bundle of keys 1 minute later.

Throwing key after key to the ground and only getting the right one after many failed attempts, she immediately freed him from his chains and helped him up.

You have been freed!

Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

Finally able to move around again, Makoto followed Saracesse to a different room were his equipment had been stored.

While he was busy making sure he had indeed gotten everything together again, Saracesse was putting key after key back to where she found them.

After asking her what the point about that was, she only showed a little smile before explaining.

"If I put them back exactly like they were before, no one is going to think that someone helped you escape even if they can't explain how you were able to flee. It at least buys us some time."

"There is no need to do that, not a single soul inside this building will survive the night anyways."

Makoto said, not forgotten was his rage and anger, quite the opposite actually.

The time inside the cell had taught him very well how hatred could keep someone's spirit quite high.

Saracesse looked at him with big eyes after hearing his words.

"You are kidding right?"

Giving her a long look and feeling his anger slowly starting to overflow, he shook his head while the crimson light in his eyes increased.

She stared at him for a few seconds before putting both hands against Makoto's face and not breaking eye contact with him.

"You will kill no one here, not before you explain how you got into this mess."

Annoyed at the tone she was giving him, he was about to lash out but constrained his anger and slowly but surely spilled the beans about the Blood Moon Church and what happened with Rhobos Grandel.

After he finished with his short story, Saracesse seemed even more resolved to stopping him.

"If that is the case I really can not allow you to kill anyone here.

Most of the people inside this building are innocent, I am willing to bet that no one except this Rhobos person was involved, so why kill them?"

Giving off an enormous amount of killing intent he could feel how his face distorted a great deal, his desire to take revenge on the humiliation of being unable to do anything against his captors was overwhelming.

"Because they stood in my way and helped him..."

"So just because they are paid by him you want to kill them?

And what is with me, I am standing in your way right now, are you going to kill me too?

I don't want you to do something that you will blame yourself for later, Makoto..."

Seeing the saddened look on her beautiful face made the rage inside of him simmer down, ever so slowly.

Looking into those sapphire blue eyes so close to his own face calmed the beast inside of him, for the first time in years.

After his anger disappeared he noticed that he had been close to doing something that he would have truly regretted.

Naturally he hated Rhobos and what he stood for with his brother, that he did absolutely nothing to stop the murder and pure genocide that his 'beloved' brother invoked.

But would he really honor the dead by slaughtering innocents on the way to extinguishing evil?

Would Boran and so many others really want that?

In this one moment together with Saracesse he was able to calm himself to the point were rational thinking had an effect on him again and he abandoned the idea of killing anyone.

For now that is.

Noticing the change in his attitude, a relived smile was visible on her face and he couldn't help but respond the same way.

"Sorry for nearly going on a killing spree there but being imprisoned by a scumbag like that just made me..."

"Angry? Yeah I noticed that.

If it ever happens again I will make sure to knock some sense into you.

You don't need to worry about Rhobos, we can take care of him in another way and now come on, let's get out of here before one of the drunk guards above gets the great idea of actually doing his job."

Dragging Makoto behind herself and holding his hand, he could feel a certain warmth fill his entire being while looking at her long red hair trailing behind her.

Even if she was only an AI, she had managed what years of taking medication had not.

This was the first time he was able to calm down after the 'beast' inside of him awakened, it was also the first time he actually felt loved...

Grasping her hand tightly, Makoto ran beside her with hurried steps.

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Holy shit, I just realised that I wrote like 35 Chapters in only 28 days XD.

Wow...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed