CHAPTER 60: TASTE

She’s here! Why is she still here?

As Hadrian thought this, the carriage had moved for a short distance before coming to a stop. One by one, Bagdona and the others got off of it.

They had made it to the Baron’s Keep. As the carriage rolled off behind him, Baruch’s gaze was fixed on the Baron’s Keep.

It had a utilitarian brutal design of rectangular towers, the near- ebony bricks accentuating its oppressive aura.

For a moment, Hadrian was captivated by it too, but his thoughts quickly returned to the fact that if he wanted to, he could take over Baruch’s body. Patiently, he waited, planning in his mind.

That mystical artifact is somewhere in that castle, and so are my vessels.

Why it was still there, was a matter he would consider later, what he needed was to focus on how he could find it.

They were on the Keep’s well kept large field. Other mages had arrived too, even some regular people.

Baruch, not knowing the existence was plotting in his mind, walked as he took in the pristine field and environment that contrasted the dominating fortress.

Actually, their cohort was made up of twenty individuals, five were regular humans who would be squires to the cohort. However, they came separately.

For Bagdona, it would have been faster for him to come without the carriage. It was simply a formality.

Ja walked up closer to Baruch, "A mage probably rose that." He said. He was shorter than Baruch, his skin a shade darker.

Baruch looked to where Ja gestured. It was a well cut stone dais that did look out of place. "Yes," he said to Ja, nodding.

At that moment, his lips slowly parted and his eyes began to widen. He could feel that ecstatic feeling rush him, reaching from his centre and spreading to his mind and all his channels, like water through a broken dam.

His heart pounded faster, partly out of excitement and partly out of fear, afraid of the doubts he had been having earlier.

Slowly, though he could still perceive the world, he felt his mind being pushed into a cage as another took over control.

A smile formed on Baruch’s face, not his.

Hadrian was a little bit surprised by his own reaction, it went beyond the joy of him simply being able to actually do something other than float in that dark expanse, Something slightly sinister.

Whether it was because controlling Baruch wasn’t like controlling his other vessels, or a petty victory over Baruch’s doubts and suspicions that Hadrian was not as powerful as he thought, he smiled.

This type of power and control....

He would have licked his lips.

You can only truly appreciate what you have when you don’t have it anymore.

He rubbed Baruch’s left hand index finger and thumb together, finally able to feel

something.

After that momentary excitement, his eyes narrowed in focus, but the smile did not disappear.

Back when he was testing the control of his rat vessels, when they would approach the limit of his range of control, he would feel them get lethargic, his vision blurry and shaky at the edges.

He was going to use this to try and locate the mystical artifact, using the main Hadrian vessel as the centre point of his range.

Of course, the other way around, it would be difficult to tell the difference as the vessel got back closer within the range.

But if he focused, especially with Baruch who was of the flesh path, he imagined he could. He had to.

"How long until it starts?" Baruch Hadrian asked.

"We got here the same as you.... " Haldon said.

"It’s a simple enough question." Baruch said and Haldon chuckled.

"At most an hour." Bagdona said. They had not stopped walking nor turned to each other.

"I think I’ll go explore." Baruch said.

Bagdona came to a sudden stop and turned on his heel. There wasn’t much of an expression on his face. "Not too much, or you’ll wish you hadn’t."

"I’ll go with him." Shey said. At first, Hadrian turned to her with slight annoyance wanting to refuse, but he thought about it.

Locating myself is only the first part.

Hehe. Whatever waits for me, if I do manage to break out of the artifact,I could turn her into my vessel.

If the soul path reacts the same way the flesh path did, she will probably not offer any resistance.

Baruch pressed his lips tightly and gave a nervous nod to Bagdona, turning and walking in a different direction, ignoring the curiously smiling Haldon.

Shey followed.

As Hadrian walked, he twitched Baruch’s left eye muscles, focusing on his level of control.

With every step he took closer to the Keep’s fortresses, he could acutely tell his control was getting better.

Shey, surprisingly, was much of a talker. Hadrian only imagined it might be because she viewed both herself and Baruch as subordinates, and now, without Bagdona’s authority pressure over them, she spoke freely.

She described her rank one soul path abilities and Hadrian explained Baruch’s rank one path abilities to her.

Hm. I can already see through multiple vessels, seeing through my own shadow should not be any different.

They followed other small groups of mages who also seemed to be going on a little tour of the property.

Hadrian was pondering whether to act now or wait for the ceremony to start.

...

Inside one of the Keep’s chambers.

The tall pale skinned woman with voluminous black hair stood next to a man of similar height and olive skin.

The man wore dark coloured uniform, pants, jackets and heavy boots, looking like a military general. His face was gaunt and had a masculine beauty to it.

Together, they looked down at a small metal box with engravings that was on top of a small pile of shimmering essence fragments.

"It’s not slowing down." The man said in a low voice. "three days at most, and we don’t have any more essence fragments."

The pale skinned woman chuckled. "That’s okay. I couldn’t resist taking the risk, but if it comes to it, we can resort to the simplest solution for now, and let him handle it when word gets to him."