Chapter 3/4 for this week. So it would seem that i forgot to show you the link to donate. My paypal link is available on my profile page. I can't post it here since the website doesnt allow me to, so sorry for the inconvenience. And also, sorry for the cliffie last chapter. I assure you the next one chapter will leave a satisfying conclusion.

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The docks were bustling with activity in the late morning. Ships of various sizes were docked at the harbour as teams of labourer hauled crate after crate of merchandise off the boats onto horse drawn carts. Merchants were busy selling their wares, some in the middle of heated bargaining sessions. The city imported most of its goods, be it farm produce, meats or even labour. While it had its own farmland, that was not nearly enough to sustain the ever growing population of the city.

Kiefer and Isana were strolling down the main transport route along the coast, weaving past the ever crowded mess of adventurers, apprentices and merchants. Their first target was located at the far end of the road, where it was more secluded. It could be considered the uglier side of the city, where the slums were. There were brothels instead of hotels, and underground markets instead of bazaars.

As their mana pulse kept enveloping the entire city one pulse after another, they closed in on the unique mana signature. There were quite a few of them, but they seemed to be congregated within a small location. They followed the response from their mana pulse like a gps map, making turns here and there until finally they stood in front of a sleazy looking building.

There was a single old man with greying hair squatting by the door, smoking a cigarette of sorts. He had a blanked look in his eyes, enjoying his time like nothing else in the world mattered. Loud laughter could be heard from within, while embarrassed shrieks rang out every once in a while.

Kiefer and Isana stood outside for a long time, contemplating if they should go in. A man stumbled out of the building, clearly drunk beyond recognition. His arms were wrapped around a scantily dressed lady on each side. He gave each of them a deep sloppy kiss before letting go, struggling to keep his footing as he left the place. The ladies waved him off, before a look of disgust grew on their faces. Wiping his saliva off their lips, they quickly turned around and returned to the building.

The rancid smell raped their noses as Kiefer and Isana took their first steps into the brothel. Right when they entered the lobby, a curvaceous woman stopped them where they stood. Her dress was cut in specific place so as to reveal plenty of skin, but none of the good. A long slit up the thighs, another down the front revealing the deep valleys on her chest as well as her slim waist and belly button. The dress hugged her body to accentuate her womanly charms. Her help in her hand a long thin pipe which was still smoking on the end.

“I’m not sure you are in the correct place love. Unless you are here to apply for a job, this is hardly a place for a child and his mother to be,” she said, taking a whiff from her pipe.

Then, an unshaven man crept up next to Isana from behind, suddenly grasping her well-sized bottom in his hand and giving it a tight squeeze from over her dress. He smiled creepily at the lady, before opening his mouth to assault their noses with his horrid breath. “Eyy. How much for this one luv?”

Isana’s face instantly turned into a frown, and then, anger welled up inside her. With a single thought, the hand that was on her bottom froze over instantly, encased in a layer of ice. Then she heard the man scream, which was cut short abruptly and followed by a gurgling noise.

She turned around and realised that what she had frozen was but a hand, stopping at the wrist. The man was bleeding profusely from a stump on his right arm, while his left hand clutched his throat where blood was spurting out like a fountain. Looking next to her, Kiefer had a cold look in his eyes, and in his hand, the pure silver mithril sword.

Choking on his own blood after being stabbed through the neck, the man crumbled onto the floor in a pool of his own blood, writhing in pain and struggling futilely before passing away in excruciating pain. Kiefer kept his sword inside his PD, the lady watching as the silver sword disappear into thin air. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth agape. She too was in shock as everything happened too fast.

Screams rang out from around the lobby as the girls shut their eyes and turned their heads. The men however, were rudely awakened from their bliss, quickly drawing their weapons and pointing it at Kiefer. The doors to the private rooms swung open as people poked their heads out to check what the commotion was about. Several burly well equipped men even barged out from behind the counter, ready to engage in battle.

“I believe you know that we are not here to mess around,” Kiefer warned loudly as his solemn voice penetrated everyone’s ears. “We are here looking for a certain group of people. Once we find them, we will be on our way. Until then, stay out of our path.”

Having said that, Kiefer made his way forward. Isana shot one more disgusted look at the dead man before following her beloved, with not one single person blocking their way. With just his killing intent and titan’s aura alone, Kiefer was able to keep the customers and the brothel guards rooted where they stood. Naturally, everyone present knew not to mess with them. One could cast instantaneous magic without chanting, while the other was ruthless enough to murder a stranger with the slightest provocation.

The mana signatures came from behind a specially locked door. There were 2 guards at the door, but neither of them dared to block Isana or Kiefer. With a sickening crunch, the large steel door warped and bent under Kiefer’s mana threads, ending up as a mangled piece of scrap metal, torn from the hinges of the door frame. What greeted them was a whole new world.

There was a corridor that was cleaned spotless. A lavish carpet hugged the floor while a bright decorative chandelier hung from the ceiling. The corridor had doors on both sides, leading to 6 different rooms. At this moment, it was evident that the commotion they had caused had not reached the ears of whoever was in the rooms, since loud moans echoed from each door. This was clearly a VIP only area.

Busting one of the locked doors down with ease, Kiefer and Isana walked into the room to see an angry dwarf and one of the prostitutes who was rushing to cover herself with the bedsheets. The short dwarf was butt naked and already reaching for his short sword that was leaning against the wall. Brandishing it and waving wildly at Kiefer and Isana, he seemed to be yelling something but was being completely ignored.

“It’s her isn’t it? The mana signature,” Kiefer muttered disappointedly.

“Seems like it. Looks like it’s a bust. On to the next target then,” Isana replied. The mana signature came from the prostitute. She was a rare half-breed of elf and human. Elves were prideful creatures and hence seldom mated with other races, hence half-breeds were hard to come by. And yet, this brothel had managed to procure 6 such half-breeds as slaves to work for them.

As they turned around to leave, the sword that was originally in the dwarf’s hands was thrown and stuck into the wooden wall, swaying as it caught Kiefer’s attention.

“Oi! Who the hell are you!? Ignoring me like that! Don’t you know who I am? I’m Mason! Part of the city council and the wealthiest person in the city! You think you can just barge in here and ruin my mood!? Guards! Apprehend these 2!” He screamed furiously.

Kiefer turned around to look at the dwarf who was about his height, and shook his head in pity. Pulling the sword out from the wall, Kiefer flicked his hand, sending the blade back towards the dwarf. The sword nicked his cheek, before embedding itself in the other side of the room. A trickle of blood flowed down Mason’s face as he quickly turned to look at the sword. However, by the time he turned back around, the 2 intruders had vanished.

Kiefer and Isana had teleported outside onto a secluded street where they began making their way towards the next target. This one was located inside the city wall not far from where they were. Leaving behind a mess at the brothel, the couple quickly arrived at the city wall when they stopped abruptly.

“Such a powerful mana storm…” Isana muttered as she looked towards the wall, her eyes out of focus as if looking right through the wall at a faraway place.

“Mmhmm,” Kiefer nodded his head in agreement. “Must be a great magic battle. You think that’s Kina wreaking havoc?”

“Most likely. It’s been almost 5 hours since she left. I’d say now is about time she found something to go bonkers over,” Isana replied, smiling sweetly at the thought of her daughter having fun blasting away with magic.

“Anyways, let’s keep going on our end. It’s going to be a long tedious task for us,” Kiefer interrupted her thoughts as he let out another mana pulse to confirm the target’s location. “Hmm?” he paused as he looked at the gate in the wall. Frowning, he quickened his pace as he approached the gate.

“What’s wrong?” Isana asked, seeing Kiefer act so weird.

Then she saw Kiefer stop and stare into space, before stretching his hand out and grabbing thin air. With a quick tug, as if performing a magic trick, Kiefer pulled a Kina out of thin air. There she was, standing with an awkward smile on her face, the blood sword still on her back.

“Uuhh… Hi mum, hi dad,” Kina greeted with a sheepish smile on her face.

“Did you really think you could sneak past me with just optical illusion?” Kiefer interrogated her.

“Kina sweety, what are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be out there decimating the demon army?” Isana asked with a concerned voice.

“And where are Rose and Kronos?” Kiefer asked, continuing to bombard her with questions without giving her time to answer.

“Uhh… well you see…” Kina stammered, as if trying to remember something. “Rose.. well Rose is… oh right! He’s back at the mansion training the recruits. And Kronos.. uhh… He’s out there spying on the army for me!” Kina stuttered, avoiding her mother’s gaze as her nostrils flared.

“Kina,” Isana retorted sternly. “Do you really think I won’t know if you are lying? Tell me what you are doing here now. I want the truth!”

“Um… you see… it’s kinda hard to explain with all that’s happened. I don’t really know where to start. I swear I will explain everything once it’s over. For now, I really need to hurry to make preparations done for my plan. Mum, Dad, just trust me ok. I’ve figured everything out. You were right about there being spies within the city. I know one of them for sure, but I’m just not too sure about the others. If you want, maybe you can use your mind control thing to get information out of him. His name is Mempheus, and he is the head of the alchemist association. But you will have to get into the central district to find him. Anyways, I need to hurry back to the mansion for now, bye mum!” Kina hurriedly explained, before teleporting away.

Watching their daughter disappear, Kiefer looked at Isana quizzically.

“Well? What should we do?” Kiefer asked, waiting for Isana’s input. She knew their daughter better than him, so he wanted her opinion on what their daughter had just said.

“She seems to be onto something. At least it’s better than chasing nobodies all across the city. We have a name now, and we know where to find him, so why not try that first. If it does end up being nothing, it’s not like we lost out on anything,” Isana answered confidently.

With a nod, Kiefer and Isana both teleported high up into the air, before descending within the central district. After asking around a few shops, they quickly found the headquarters for the Alchemists Association. Quickly, they were greeted by a courteous attendant who was eager to make some sales. The couple cut to the chase immediately, putting up the pretense that they needed to request something from Mempheus. Seeing that they were not going to buy anything from the association, the attendant’s attitude dropped slights, but she quickly made her way to the room behind the counter nonetheless.

“I’m sorry Sir and Madam, The president is away on a mission currently. He will back in 4 days the earliest. If you’d like, you could leave your address with me and I’ll send someone over to inform you once he’s returned, or you can check back in a few days’ time,” She answered, appearing from the back room several minutes after she left.

“I see, then we will return in 4 days.” Isana thanked the girl, before leaving the establishment. “This gives us 4 days to continue our investigation. Do you want to keep going with the investigation, or have some lunch first?”

“Let’s have lunch then,” Kiefer replied. Little did he know, right at this moment, his daughter was having her arm ripped out and was on the verge of death.