It was like everything else in the world disappeared. Only Aldrich and Keld remained, so far away and yet so close.

Even this massive crowd was as if it did not exist anymore. Time slowed down to a crawl.

Aldrich could hardly believe his eyes, a coincidence is better than a hundred plans. No. Something was not right his vision was actually not steady, the world was distorted.

Suddenly without being able to do or understand anything he was hit in the back of the head. Hard. He crashed down and heard the crowd around him breaking into a commotion.

His last thought before everything went black was of Keld turning around the corner.

****

He was aware of himself in the nightmare realm. He stared blankly at nothing. And then he was shaking, it wouldn't be wrong to say convulsing. He dashed out of the base and slammed into the outer fence breaking it in the process.

Aldrich didn't care he dashed through the place and after running without a care for a moment he saw a group of Malformed husks blocking the way. He used [Light step Lv.2].

The corpses of the husks flew into the air bent and broken in a horrific storm. Aldrich didn't care about the superficial wounds he sustained, rather he welcome that pain.

The blood and gore gave him a sense of.. life. He laughed and took out his sword and a flurry that the remaining husks couldn't even respond to he massacred them. The battle drew in more husks from all around.

After the dust was settled, he staggered into a nearby building and leaned on his back feeling exhausted. How long has it been? He didn't know? How many did he kill? No idea.

He just knew that he felt better. Aldrich slapped himself and evened out his breathing, he almost lost it back then. This time he brought himself back to earth.

Did he really see Keld? Was that real? He believed that there was no mistake, he had indeed seen him in the flesh. But then he experienced that.. thing, he didn't know what happened.

Logically, he must have been attacked. Was it Keld and his goons? No, even under the worst circumstances Keld did not see his face that day, nor did anyone know that he was a survivor. Right?

But try as he would he could not dismiss that possibility, because someone else also knew. The banshee. To him this proved—regardless of how it was done—that it was not impossible.

However, for now the biggest suspect was not them but the Night Scales whom he was tailing. They must've noticed that they were being followed and when he was distracted they struck.

In that moment his attention was completely focused on Keld and that lead to him lowering his guard if only so briefly.

So assuming that he was not dead yet he had to do something and fast, but first he had to make sure that he was still alive.

Aldrich decided to return to the base and on the way he noticed the hill of husk bodies burning into oblivion leaving behind a stone. He approached it and picked it up.

This was the first time that killing husks gave him anything but essence. He thought that it might be a Deadman's Remnant but it was not, for starters it was not a smooth stone at all, it had a sharp metallic texture.

[Durtunite shard] : crafting material used to enhance items under +4.

Sweet, a good catch. While feeling pleasantly surprised Aldrich did dally, he made a swift return to the base and used the seal of Tindalor to feel the connection he had to the real world.. it was there.

Aldrich breathed out in relief, he was on edge, but at least he was alive for now. He thought he might have become a permanent resident of the nightmare realm. A horrific prospect.

But he was not in a good position out there. Considering he was knocked out, he must have been taken away by whoever did that, he might get tortured for information very soon.

At any rate the worst case scenario- his death- did not come to pass yet, he sure as hell wasn't going to let this slide. Whoever did this took away the first chance of revenge that he got since that night.

That was unacceptable. It was unforgivable. He was not going to spare anyone, they all had to die without exception.

But he must be in the hands of the enemy now, and with a very bad head wound. He was knocked out with one hit which means a Crestmaster did it.

Aldrich decided to act with assumption that he was surrounded by multiple Crestmasters. That was a hard challenge. However he had his ways to get out of this situation quickly to pursue Keld..

No, there was a high chance that Keld already got away. This thought brought that anger to him once again but he suppressed it. He was going to unleash it soon, he used the seal and went to the Underbridge area.

"Oh, you're back.. you don't look like you're in the best shape, some trouble out there?" Uldin asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah, you dine with the potions?" Aldrich asked hurriedly, he wasn't in the mood to chit chat.

"I see someone stepped on your tail. Sheesh," Uldin took out there green and slightly glowing potions out of his magical bag. "Here, don't use it just for any injury, these potions can heal even fatal injuries. It's a very effective potion."

"Do I have to inject it with the beetle every time?" Aldrich asked since the beetle had only one slot.

"No, just drinking it is fine. The beetle is for when you need to use a potion in midst of a heated battle. Which I did tell you about before."

"Alright I got it. Thank you. I will be seeing you soon." Aldrich left immediately after saying that and returned to the base.

He organized his thoughts and decided to take all three potions with him, using one here would be useless for his real world body. The potion flasks were the size and length of his index finger.

He thought about what he might face out there and after planing out how he might respond he steeled his nerves and used the seal of Tindalor to return.

****

"What did you say?!"

Aldrich got back but he didn't open his eyes nor did he change his breathing. The first thing he heard was a disbelieving voice, an older man.

"W-we found guild badges on the two of them.."

Another man answered, hesitant and clearly lower in position than the first speaker.

".. which guild?"

"T-the Knights of last—"

Before the answer could be completed he was interrupted.

"Are you sure that they were following you? Think about your answer, are you certain?"

"K-Kevin said.. I thought.. I mean there many people on the street but—"

"Do you want a war on our hands?" The older man seethed, "eh?! Answer me, you kidnapped two guild members without thinking? How the fuck do you figure I can explain this to the boss you fucking dimwit!"

"I-I didn't, we didn't know.. we thought we should be careful rather than sorry. They won't wake up any time soon we can throw them out and pretend this whole thing never happened."

historical

"No, it's already too late for you or me to do that we have to kill them. I will ask permission from the boss." The older man was barely keeping himself in check, "if you're not sure about something, that's what you DO! You ask someone who does!"

"I.. understand."

Aldrich wasn't just listening to their chatter, while they were bussing themselves, he checked on his body. He found that it was in a terrible condition.

Both of his legs were broken, and not light they were hit multiple time with a blunt object to shatter the bones in several areas, his hands were cuffed and tied with a chain over his head to the bars of the cell he was kept in.

He was naked and the mind protection necklace along with Cazmer's ring were gone. Which was not good, he estimated that not much time had passed.

He focused his senses all around him before he opened a sliver of his eyes and looked around. He was in a dark, damp room. Likely underground.

There were several cages in the room and since his was on the right beside the wall to his left the cages all had many people who all looked malnourished and knocked out just like he was. And he couldn't see Cole.

There was one man who was on watch, he was sitting on a reclining chair by the window. And he wasn't exactly vigilant but he wasn't drinking or smoking.

Well, that wasn't convenient but this is life.

Aldrich looked at his right hand and in his grasp were the three health potions. With a thought the chain holding his hand was cut. He used [invisible sword].

With a quick movement, he chugged down a potion quickly and put the other two behind him.