CHAPTER 37: CHANGE OF PLANS

"What now?" Truston’s grating voice reverberated through the whole cellar.

Eyes on that bloody face, Hadrian went down to one knee with the bearded man vessel, grabbing a metal rod of the cellar with his left arm.

"I don’t have enough time." He said. "But, this is an opportunity for both you and me. Liberation and justice."

Truston remained quiet. He looked tired, tired of everything to care about the blabbering of this new random stranger.

Bearded man’s face got closer to the metal rods. "In Calos district, your fight with Haldon caused the death of innocents."

Truston’s head slightly tilted to the left. He let out a chuckle, "What is this? The magloire mob now cares for innocent lives?"

Truston swallowed and it looked to be painful. "Is that what’s happened to Haldon? Have you also given him your justice?"

"No. And he’ll be back soon."

"He doesn’t know of this?" Truston asked.

Bearded man shook his head.

"Well, I doubt you can break me free of here."

"I’m not here to break you free.... "

Truston’s head leaned back against the cold concrete wall. "What is it you hope to achieve, then?"

"Like I said, Justice."

Bearded man’s eyes narrowed as Hadrian peered into the essence sea of Truston.

"I need you to not fight back.... Let go." he called at the essence tendrils.

Truston, like everyone else, sensed this intrusion.

Just like when he was clasped himself, Hadrian’s authority bypassed the magic suppressors.

"What are you doing?" Truston asked, his tired eyes now wide.

"Like I said. Liberating you. Do you want to keep living like this? In torture and without your dignity?"

Truston now breathed heavily, sensing something wrong with the man kneeling at his gate.

"Gurov will.... "

"Gurov would have by now." Hadrian cut him off. "Look, Haldon can leave when he wants, why? He’s confident there’s nothing Gurov or your other comrades can achieve."

Though bearded man and the groper mage vessels were trying to keep straight faces, the essence tendrils he’d called were having the effect of scorching heat on him.

It was like when he’d grabbed the essence of the spawn but twice as worse.

Sweat trickled down their foreheads as his entire body felt like he was grabbing hot iron.

"Who - who are you?"

"If you work with me, perhaps I’ll let you know."

Truston’s eyes went to the floor. His right hand then rose to his chest.

"What kind of magic is this?"

"Let go, and I’ll show you."

His eyes getting watery, a tear rolled down truston’s cheek.

"I, I don’t want to die."

Hearing this, Hadrian’s emotions flared. "You

don’t want to die?" Bearded man said, his voice tight and harsh.

"After you ignorantly killed others."

Truston looked up to him, his lips quivering.

"An accident I’ll live with everyday."

"You get to live with it, at least."

"I know who you speak of. And I tried to lead that fight away from people, but Haldon.... He’s reckless. He doesn’t care. What was I supposed to do? What would you have done fighting someone like him?"

Hadrian didn’t answer.

Truston let out a sarcastic chuckle. "You must understand. Don’t you? Been through something similar?"

Truston got off the wall and ground and crawled closer to the gate, closer to the light allowing Hadrian to see the details of his face better.

Even when bloody like this, you could see through his eyes that he was a beautiful man.

"The world is like that sometimes." Truston said. "Look at me here, being punished for the death of those innocents while Haldon, who I’d say holds even greater responsibility is let to walk freely."

"Someday, maybe you too will truly understand. You wish to punish me? I feel punished everyday here. But I do not wish to die."

"You let me free, and I promise to work to right my wrongs, you must be friends or family of the deceased? I’ll do whatever is needed. Even help you capture Haldon."

Hadrian took control of his emotions. "You can right your wrongs right now, and let go."

Truston’s face twitched.

"Do you refuse? So it’s all a lie? You won’t do what’s needed?"

"There has to be another way, I could.... I could.... "

"There is no other way." Hadrian cut him off. "Can you bring back the ones you killed, and if you did what is it you think they would want?"

Truston’s eyes darted, scanning bearded man’s sweating face.

"I do not know. If it was me, dead and back to life, I imagine I’d learn to appreciate life more."

It made Hadrian pause, then after a moment of their eyes staring into each other, he shook his head with a chuckle.

"You mean to appreciate your own life. Did you not just propose to help us capture Haldon?"

"I did not say kill him, did I? Is that not how the law works, or is supposed to? Imprisonment.... Fines. If we all resort to punishing those we think wronged us, how will such a society work."

Hadrian didn’t answer.

Truston’s gaze went down to the floor. "I do refuse to let go. But I swear by the fate empress I will do as you please. Look.... " he showed his wrists clasped with magic suppressors.

"All I ask is you get me away from this sadistic man."

Outside, even though the cool night air blew at them, the main and Alia vessels had sweat running down their faces.

Truston’s essence tendrils, as expected of a rank two, were having a strong effect on him. Not to mention, in all that time, he’d barely achieved a fraction of control over the essence as the two cores in Truston fought back.

From what Hadrian could see, magic suppressors blocked the flow of the essence to the channels. This meant they didn’t affect the potency of the essence, nor its replenishment.

Though Truston could not use his magic right now, his essence potency had replenished to the full.

In those magic suppressor cuffs, if Hadrian were to deal him a fatal blow in an attempt to recreate the situation with Alia’s essence, Truston would most certainly die before Hadrian could grasp control of the essence.

The matter here is time. I don’t know how long it would take, but if I get an unbreakable amount of contact with the essence, even if it takes days. I can eventually turn him into my vessel.

In those magic suppressor cuffs and in such a state, he is like a regular human.

The problem now is getting him out of there. I doubt the guards will just let me walk away with Haldon’s prisoner.

Bearded man looked at Truston then back up the other end of the basement cellars.

To me it would be a problem, but together?