16: The Outlander's Boredom

The Outlander's Boredom

Esther watched as the aircraft landed on the street in front of Club Ecstasy before the backside opened up, a few soldiers and medics quickly exiting and making their way towards the unconscious man. Once the medics got ahold of him, they returned to the ship unlike the soldiers who stayed behind and began to communicate with the police.1

A news reporter tried sneaking past in order to get a word from one of them but ultimately failed in doing so, instead getting pushed back to the van that he arrived in. The man had a frustrated look on his face as he stood in place, crossing his arms as if he was about to throw a temper tantrum.

Esther smiled at that, considering it was one of the few amusing things about watching this. She wasn't a fan of the violence or gossip that the news channels thrived off of. Her thoughts were more focused on a young man, which brought an even larger smile to her face at the thought of him.

"Come home soon, honey... I miss your touch already." She whispered to herself, placing a hand on her racing heart. Just the thought of him put butterflies in her stomach.

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~Dante's POV~

The muscles in my legs tensed for just a moment before my body was thrown into the air, violently crashing through the one-way glass in the VIP lounge. Two women jumped back in alarm as I landed inside of the room, their eyes widening at my abrupt entrance.

In any other situation, I probably would've given a bit more attention to their mature bodies, but my concern for Darren counteracted that. "What did you do to him?!" I demanded, my hands clenched into fists.

They seemed to connect the dots about who I was talking about, raising their arms up into the air as a sign of peace. The one with black hair spoke first, her voice quiet and somewhat calming. "If you mean the one with some kind of shadow ability... Well, he was sort of kidnapped by another person."

My eyes narrowed, partly in confusion because of what she said. "Another person...? So, you're with the one that we just beat downstairs." I deduced, already prepared for a fight.

She slowly nodded, taking another cautious step back. The one with white hair kept close to her friend, seemingly protective of her as she spoke up in defense. "Hey! We were never much of a team, alright? Just a ragtag group of misfits that had different reasons for joining. Out of everyone in the bunch, her and I were the ones who didn't really like the idea in the first place. I joined and made Lena come along with me because there weren't any other girls..."

'Lena', as she was called, quickly interjected with her own point of view. "I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to join, but I never wanted anything bad to happen. Most of the things that Isamaki did with Warp went under my radar, considering he constantly hid his business away from everybody else in the group and was the one with all the power over the drug."

I stood in silence for a few seconds, thinking it over. This could either be a trap or they really weren't too fond of the group. I wasn't sure what to make of it. However, they would still be taken in for questioning.

If they were willing to give us intel about associates, locations, and everything else...

It was game over for the rest of them. I'd make sure of it.

With that out of the way, it was about time I got down to the bottom of another problem. "Where was my partner taken?" I asked, looking around the room for some kind of clue.

They glanced at one another before looking back at me, an unsure expression on their faces. "Um... Tamaya and I aren't sure, but we think it was to another dimension."

My mind blanked.

"Excuse me?" I murmured, staring at them in disconcertment.

'Tamaya', the white haired one, waved her hand over to where it supposedly happened. "Cyrus Inkwell, one of the weird ones in the group, grabbed the man by the throat and dragged him into some kind of distorted rift. After that, it just automatically closed once they both went through it."

I frowned in thought, my brain trying to come up with ideas as to how I could get through to him.

That's when the air in front of us seemed to shift before our very eyes, a spatial tear cutting a small rift open into a place that most definitely didn't belong on Earth.

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~Darren's POV~

I became extra cautious when my eyes landed on the Outlander, who didn't appear to be human-like at all. For some reason, I felt like my powers were slowly being weakened as I continued to be in the presence of this dark entity.

The Outlander's voice was quiet yet it carried through the air as if it was right next to my ear, a tone of imminent death laced within. "So... this is who you've brought along with you, Cyrus?" The entity's voice echoed throughout the alternate dimension, the power behind his voice loud and clear.

Cyrus quickly nodded, bowing down towards his 'master'. I stood still and didn't even attempt to mimic his movements, instead trying to come up with a different plan on how to escape while slightly freaked out on the outside.

"Interesting. For a human, anyways." The Outlander said, his body releasing a feeling of arrogance. "You people may be pathetically weak but you do serve as good entertainment from time to time. My life has been so boring for the last couple of centuries..."

There was a pause of silence for a moment before he seemed to come up with a random idea.

"Hmm... yes, that'll do nicely! If you want to leave this place, puny human, you will fight for your freedom by going against three creations of my choosing! If you cannot survive what I decide to throw at you until the timer runs out, you will stay here forever as my slave!"

The ground under all three of us violently shook before expanding outwards to a monstrous degree, along with a massive colosseum that looked fit for gladiators literally rising out of the dirt beneath our feet. Above all of it, floating in the middle of the dark sky was an enormous hourglass that used blood instead of sand to show the amount of time Darren would have left.

I couldn't help but feel nervous as I was forcefully pushed towards the colosseum, two pairs of eyes staring a hole into the back of my head.

'This... Outlander was basically the ruler of his own dark world, capable of manipulating it down to his every whim, which meant that he was the key to breaking me out of here. His behavior seemed like that of a child who only cared for entertainment, but that still didn't make me lower my guard around him. However, this could prove to be beneficial for me if I played my cards right.' I thought within my mind as I moved towards the colosseum.

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