64 There Were Only Two

After getting more used to the scenery, the group picked up their pace, gradually closing in on the larger group up ahead.

"Look! There are puppies!" Rykar exclaimed while running over to a group of three black and brown puppies hidden together in the grass. While one of them stayed, slowly approaching Rykar out of curiosity, the rest of them disappeared into the bushes without missing a beat.

"Hmm, compared to Bolt, they look like rats." Loki dint spare them a second glance as they began to cause bitter memories to resurface. Unlike Rykar, the rest of the group held no interest in the pups, while Marcel was only really intending to go wherever Loki went, so they quickly opened up a distance between them as they continued in the direction of the other group.

"Hey there, are you lost? Are you hungry?" Looking around, Rykar made sure there was no one else in the vicinity before pulling out a small piece of dried meat from his fragment. Smelling it for a moment, the puppy made no further advances on the snack, simply looking up at the masked figure with round eyes and tilting its head questioningly.

Mimicking its movement, Rykar's head began to slant to the side as his eyes slightly lost focus while sinking into deliberation. After a moment, he lifted his mask slightly before throwing the piece of meat into his mouth. With his now empty hand, he began slowly reaching out towards the puppy at a rate that he hoped wouldn't startle it.

"Why are you guys walking so fast?' Rykar called out as he jogged over to the other four.

"If you want to waste time playing with rats, that's up to you." Loki brushed him off without even looking back.

"Wait!" A high-pitched voice came from behind before Rykar even managed to rejoin the others.

Running up along with a middle-aged maid was a young girl with blonde hair and a white dress which was splattered with traces of mud and greenery all over. Struggling for dear life were two puppies which were dangling within her grasp. Each step she took caused them to bounce heavily, throwing them off balance while being rocked in her arms.

Rykar, along with the others, paused as she approached.

"Can we help you?" Chance stepped forward and asked. The question was more directed to the girl's attendant than it was towards her, yet she didn't give the woman a chance to speak before spewing incoherent phrases while still panting for breath.

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"Kevin! You, puppies. He wasn't two, three."

After seeing the group up close, the girl had definitely lost the courage that had brought her this far. Saving her from herself, her attendant stepped forwards after taking a deep breath to similarly steady her breathing after chasing the young girl the entire way.

"Sorry to disturb you all. The young Miss has lost one of her puppies, Kevin. While looking for them, the other two came from your direction so we were hoping you may have seen him." Despite being slightly flustered, the attendant was able to speak flawlessly while patting the young girl on the back to calm her down.

The child surely wasn't any older than seven years old and this was only more pronounced due to the way she seemed about to break into tears for only missing a puppy for a few minutes.

"I saw the puppies a little while ago, but there were only two… I wanted to stroke them, but they ran into the bushes." Rykar answered for Chance, coming forward to stand alongside him while scratching the back of his head through his hood.

Looking at him from the back, Loki narrowed his eyes while staring suspiciously into the back of his brother's head. Without saying anything, he waited for them to finish up their discussion before walking away after promising to inform someone if they caught sight of Kevin before they departed the castle.

Unknowing whether the others also noticed something wrong or not, the group continued walking in silence. Under his cloak, Rykar's shirt was already so slick with sweat that it was sticking to his torso like a second skin.

Using the silence as an opportunity, Loki finally found the time to examine the strange feeling that had occurred back in the auction house when he had established the contract with James.

The process was very similar to that of the other contracts he had formed in the past, but this one felt drastically different.

It didn't matter to who or what he made a contract with in the past, whether with another person or with Bolt, the wolf, he would be able to feel the presence of the contract via a sort of tether or link which connected them. This link would be as fine as a thread of silk, only really demonstrating the existence of the contract and nothing else.

The change which had occurred this time, was that the silk thread that had been expected to form, was actually much thicker than any of those he had formed previously. Due to this increased thickness, it was like the functions of the thread had been magnified, allowing him to sense the subtle changes which he hadn't been able to before.

Instead of just function as a tether, he was able to feel a one-way flow of energy entering him through the thread. The amount of energy was miniscule in comparison to his own, barely even noticeable had he not been a stranger to the feeling, but it was there non the less.

In the grand scheme of things, this meant nothing. However, it honestly served as a base mark as a way for Loki to increase his rate of storing energy outside of simply meditating! Thinking of Rykar's cheat-like ability to eat and gain both strength and mass, it felt like he had been given a method of once again leveling the playing field.

Now, he just needed to find a way of amassing more contracts while also understanding why he was gaining more energy from this contract than from the others he had established in the past.

Woken up from his dreams of glory and destroying his brother, Loki found that they were once again with the main group and standing on the outside of a side circular platform which had colourful symbols literally dancing across its surface, similarly to how the tattoos had moved across his and his brothers arms previously.

Without being fixed in place, the symbols swam, not only across the base of the platform, but also up the pillars which indicated the border of the array. In the fashion of a wall-less and roofless temple, the structure stood there majestically like a jewel in a sea of green.

"The array is all set up and ready for immediate use, please make your way onto the platform." The attendant which lead them all this way ushered them onto the platform with a wave of his arm and a smile.

Entranced by the symbols, aside from Marcel, the group kept staring at the dancing shapes even while making their way up the shallow steps and onto the platform. It was an extremely weird feeling but no matter how much they focused and tried to ingrain one of the symbols into their memory, as soon as they looked away, they would forget it immediately.

This caused the colours and featured of each of the runes to become indistinct. When recalling the platform, it was simply a circular piece of stone with a few decorations. Nothing like the majestic platform which was glimmering in the morning sunlight with a variety of colours and shades reflecting off the surroundings.

Although they were entranced by what they were seeing, they didn't have much time to enjoy it before they felt a similar feeling to what they felt upon their previous exit to the fragment. The space around them twisted and rippled as though water within a storm before they felt themselves being stretched and bend out of shape.

Before, it felt as though they had stepped through a liquid screen, but aside from the initial moment, this began to feel completely different. It was more like they were being stretched and thrown at great speeds, like an arrow being loosed from a bow.

This feeling didn't even feel like it lasted for a second before they came to. Lights surrounded them as though they were covered in a vibrant fog. All around them were buildings which climbed towards the sky while objects hung in the sky like balloons, decorating a ceiling like stars.

Unfortunately, they didn't have the liberty to enjoy the view before they were assaulted by the feeling that the world was crushing down on them to the extreme.

The best way for them to compare what they were going through, was like an empty wrapper being squashed in on itself, deflating it while crushing the original contents. Rob was the first person to fall to the ground with his eyes rolling into the back of his head and blood streaming from his nose and ears.

Next was Loki and Chance, but they were in much better condition than the former.

Rykar lasted a few seconds longer, just enough to see marcel charging over to them from the side. For the first time since they met, his trademark smile wasn't anywhere to be seen.