"Your passport sir."
The soldier at the kingdom border gate told a random civilian entering Altchare that typically the line would be long, but because it was late at night, there were only one or two cars at the main entrance of Altchare border every hour.
The security was severe even at night, with hundreds of kingdom soldiers patrolling the entire kingdom borders, but even this quantity could not prepare them for what was to come, even if they realized what was to come.
Because the world abruptly came to a halt, almost as if the universe had been put on pause. For a brief moment, reality came to a halt, or better yet, the world went black and white, with Pleiades being the only object with color.
Meanwhile, the man took his time crossing the border of Altchare, going unnoticed by anyone; one might think he stopped time, but that wasn't the case; Pleiades cannot stop time without Beatrice by his side; no, this was the Authority of Sloth's second ability dubbed "Imaginary Movement."
It wasn't much; at best, he could use it to move outside the impact of world perception; in other words, he was moving in an imaginary three-dimensional realm that was a perfect reproduction of the universe itself. And as he entered this duplicate, he became invisible to the rest of the world around him.
Although he was unable to attack or interact with anyone in this realm, this also meant that no one could interact with him. And when he moved in here, others mistook his movements for teleportation, while they were entirely fictitious. He continues to move, but the fictitious movement is registered as genuine as soon as he moves and deactivates it.
As a result, the sage walks within his imagery universe for a while without bothering anyone around him. In this shape, he dwells in a state of uncertainty; nothing he does has an influence, and yet it does; he is, and yet he isn't; in one realm, he is still moving, and in the other, he isn't.
And the lost sage arrived at the kingdom of Altchare practically unnoticed, as if he were nothing more than a passing phenomenon. The night sky shrouded him in darkness, the streets were deserted, and no one was around.
Pleiades look about, but nothing evokes a sense of deja vu; everything is different, even the architectural style of the buildings. To the street architecture; bloat flies in the sky, and factories contaminate the sky with smoke, eroding away at the ozone layer; even the once fantasy-filled environment was now nonexistent.
Despite this, Pleiades cannot feel a feeling of loss or attachment to anything; this may be considered an isekai within an isekai at this point; nevertheless, he was never one to bemoan the past. It's not like he'd feel the anguish he so desperately craves anyway. As a result, he merely kept walking; boredom and expectation of the unexpected was the only thing that kept him going.
There was so many build board powered by technology and magic, and one in particular presented a variety of different services as it turned around in an anti-clockwise fashion, looking about; the three marked Hoshin Automata LTD, Hoshin Car Rentals, and Hoshin Trade Center. Many believed that the Hoshin family held a great quantity of riches because they were a mercantile family that dated back all the way to the first sword saint. They had no idea Anastasia had adopted the name Hoshin for herself.
The name Hoshin was the first thing that made Pleiades feel a sense of familiarity; it wasn't grand, but the modest recollection would live on in his thoughts forever as a part of him; and hear likewise. Thinking back, Julius was the one who managed to bed the greedy gal; it was no surprise, given Anastasia's crush on Ricardo the pirate. Of course, Ricardo has only ever seen his lady as a daughter, and nothing else; and Julius capitalizes on that.
Even so, Pleiades didn't dwell on the sensation for long; life, like everything else, moves on. The recollection was lovely and treasured, and now it was time to add more frozen memories to his collection.
But, as he was enjoying an enthusiastic walk through the gloomy streets, he heard a faint scream.
"HELLLP! "I NEED A MAN.... A GUARD!"
Pleiades looked in the direction of the call; normally, one would rush to help out of good-willed, but Pleiades saw this as an opportunity to add some memories and experience to his collection. Perhaps he could relish the new experience, the new knowledge; his greed to feel anything meaningful would not be denied; as such his gaze is drawn to an Ally to which he heard a call.
And then he vanished from where he was; nonetheless, within the imaginary universe, Pleiades began to walk in the realm where he could not be reached. And it didn't take him long to notice what was going on in the dark lane, yes! There were four persons in total: three enormous men dressed in black tuxedos, each wielding a Tommy gun, and a teenage boy with red hair and blue eyes but dark skin. He had a sword in his hand, but he was backed up in a corner.
The ball head man in the middle began to speak as he said to the boy.
"Oi... Oi... let's smoke the little shit, we lost big time because of him."
"Be cautious, boys; the little fucker is still a member of the swordmaster's household." But to believe that the noble psychopath house would have someone this young to be one of their mad dogs vigilantes."
The one on the right mentioned; meanwhile the one on the left spoke up he said.
"Now, now gentlemen, we have specific orders, and we were specifically told to bring him back alive." As a result, let's just knock him out; after all, he's weak after being injected with YJ-65, and even the kingdom's super soldiers have difficulty moving after being injected with a modest amount."
"But still Patio; we can break a limb or two right?, hell I lost one of my fingers because of this brat, at least let me get a lick or two in; before we hand him over to the boss comrade, a finger for finger man."
The huge man in the center made a remark to the guy on the left as he exhibited his right index finger being amputated by what appeared to be a flawless cut caused by a sharp blade.
However, a man named Patio answered in this manner.
"Oren, if we disobey the boss, we will be gutted, and our bowels will be served on a platter for us to eat." Do you really want to get on Maddam Purple's bad side, shit, it's just a lousy finger; drop it already, mate?"
"But Patioooo....
"I said drop it Oren; im not dying because you got your finger cut off, and even so, it's your fault for underestimating him."
"He is right you know Oren, you cause that wound upon yourself."
"Not you two Santel... dammit, find I will drop it, but im going to break his legs at the very least, and I aint taking no for answer."
"Fine, you can break his legs, but only that, anything else beyond that, then you are on your own."
Patio was clearly annoyed with Oren; once he's angry, he's difficult to bargain with, but if it meant breaking the little shit's leg to make him shut up, it was a little price to pay for silence.
The diminutive redhead, on the other hand, could hardly stand; at this point, he had no alternative but to blow himself up with these three guys, as a noble bloodhound of the Astrea family his death would not be unjustified. Because after he's dead, the Pride syndicate will undoubtedly be on his cousin's murder list, he remarked with a smirk to the three men, Oren in particular.
"Alright nine finger, why don't you break my legs and see how I make you into a Quadriplegic person, come on, come on, I like when people fuck around so they can find out."
Oren, of course, was enraged by this display of arrogance, and as a response, he began pulling an iron bat from his kit bag, as he stated.
"You little shit, you have no idea how much I am going to enjoy this."
"Ha well co...
However, before the child could respond to Oren, he was startled to feel liquid land on his face. Only for him to say, while his palm touched the spot where the liquid had fallen.
"Is this... is this..... Blood!?"
However, he was taken aback when he heard Patio say in a panicked tone.
"What the hell is this, get them off mee! AGHUUUAAA ITS HURTS.... IT HURTS."
The man screamed in fear and pain; as the sound of something biting away at his flesh could be seen.
As he looked up, he was horrified to see a dead Oren being consumed at an unfathomable rate by an army of horn rabbits, who were eating away at him savagely, even finding their way inside the corpse to devour him from within. The same could be said for Patio and Santel, who were screaming as the rabbit army emerged from the depths of a horrific hell and began chewing on the three men.
"What the hell is this, no way are those things rabbits."
In terror, the child added, "Blowing up is one thing, but being eaten alive is something I don't want to experience under any circumstances." Worst of all, he couldn't even move if he wanted to.
In a matter of seconds, the dark ally was painted in deep crimson, as these small creatures didn't want to leave a single bone; their eyes shone red as if in an uncontrollable state, and they were even eating away at themselves; it was a horrible sight to watch.
When there was nothing left to eat, their attention was drawn to the unnamed redhead, and their perverse esoteric hunger began to shift towards him, as he was plainly next on the menu, the child shrieked in terror, tears streaming down his blue eyes.
"UGHEEEK~~ Stay away from me!!!"
However, the rabbits did not listen, and as a result, they began to jump toward him, but a quiet voice emerged from behind them, it was chilly, scary, and silent, and yet it held a lot of commanding power behind it.
"Leave that one as is; you little one had your fill, now come back to the garden, my children."
The nameless redhead was taken aback by the abrupt appearance of the person who referred to these beasts as his children. What surprised him the most was that these carnivorous bunnies' eyes returned to normal and they continued to walk toward the guy, but what was weird was that they began to sink into the man's shadow almost as if it were a deep ocean of pure darkness.
It was apparent as day that this man was far more terrible than even those rabbits who would forever haunt his dreams, the man said nothing; no, it was clear to him that he had no interest in the boy's existence whatsoever, and disappeared almost as if he teleported.