A moment ago, Quinn could see the cloudy skies, and the diamond-like surface above. He was staring at the others walking towards him, but in seconds, not being able to fight back, he felt like his body was being consumed by a strange force. Soon after, he found himself in a pitch black space.
He first checked his body to see if there was any harm done, and to see if everything was okay.
'Where am I?'
Looking around the dark room, Quinn was able to see, but there was nothing to look at. There was no one else inside and if he walked forward it looked like the dark space was endless. The ground beneath him was solid, but that too was dark in colour.
When looking at his feet and taking a step, he could see the black substance slightly shift, and it reminded him of his own shadows. Just when Quinn thought he might have had an idea of where he was, he saw Arthur appear in the black space as well.
He seemingly came out of nowhere, and he had the demon tier crystal held in his hand. Seeing that Arthur had no injuries on his body, Quinn was relieved. The fact that the whole group was returning must have meant they were able to deal with Hilston somehow.
"Just how strong are you?" Quinn said.
"I was about to say the same thing to you. Before you needed my help to protect you against those grumpy council members, but I think you will be able to hold your own against a few of them now." Arthur replied.
"I'm sorry for calling you out like that." Quinn said. "It was a desperate situation."
"I can see that," Arthur replied. "Don't worry, you are a punisher and I will naturally protect you whenever I can. It is my job…." Saying these words, Arthur began to speak quieter towards the end. "At least, it was my job.
"You would have never won against such a person anyway. Honestly it looked like he had even more to give than that. If he had time to prepare and knew what type of opponent he was facing, he would have been a troublesome person to deal with."
"Where are we?" Quinn said as he stomped his foot on the ground and small ripples of shadow could be seen rising up like smoke before quickly fading away into the black room.
Before Quinn had asked this question, Arthur was all smiles, but his expression had changed as if Quinn's question had reminded him just why he had brought him here.
"This is where living beings are sent to when we use the skill shadow lock. As you can see, the skill can also be used on ourselves as well. Think of it as an empty space. In the past from time to time, when I wanted to get away from everything, I would lock myself away in the shadow lock space.
"Quinn, I wanted to talk to you about the first king, about Eno. Did you manage to find out any information on him?"
Quinn didn't see any reason to hide what he knew about Eno so far. After all, they were both looking for the same person in a way hoping to find some answers.
"I see, so you think that Eno has disguised himself as a scientist named Richard Eno? That should help me with my search."
Judging by his words, it looked like Arthur didn't get very far with finding anything about Eno either.
"Did you find out what happened to the punishers?" Quinn asked, knowing that this was another goal of Arthurs – to find the First king and find out what happened to his people.
Asking this question had led to a few moments of silence, which Quinn didn't understand as before this, Arthur was very forthcoming. Even if he did find out some things, was it really information that Arthur wasn't allowed or willing to share with him?
A strange feeling was coming from Arthur, and Quinn didn't know why but he wasn't liking the position he was in at the moment. The conversation they were having was a private one sure, but was there a need to be placed in the shadow lock, couldn't they have simply gone to another place?
"I have." Arthur finally replied. "Quinn, I saw myself as the protector of humans. The peace bringer between the vampires and the humans. I don't know whether or not the punisher's existence was necessary for vampires to stop attacking humans, but it seemed like Eno felt it was.
"You are like me, having experienced what life is like as a human, and as a vampire. Me and you both stand in the middle. However, I'm unsure if my decision was the right one. I left both of those worlds behind thinking they wouldn't get involved, yet they still did. You were able to ignore the vampires for a while now but you are too involved and soon you must decide what you will do.
"We are all too weak for what is about to come. I am too weak, the vampires are too weak, and the humans are too weak."
Quinn had hardly ever heard Arthur speak like this before, with a serious tone and he was trying to make sense of what Arthur was saying. He was too weak? Compared to what, was Arthur talking about the Dalki? Or was he just simply talking in riddles and metaphors. Was he blaming himself for all the punisher's deaths?
Quinn often did this himself, when those in the Cursed faction died.
"Let me leave you with some advice that I want you to remember forever." Arthur continued. " You are too kind hearted. I can see that and I understand why. You are young and even though you have experienced a lot for your age, it is still small in comparison to me. Whoever attempts to take your life, you must not hesitate to take back theirs. Otherwise you will live to regret your decisions.
"Finally, let me ask you a question, do you want to save the lives of the humans?"
An answer wasn't given immediately, but Quinn did know the answer straight away as he thought about his friends and those that were part of the Cursed faction.
"I do."
"Then do you want to save the lives of the vampires as well? I'm not talking about those that you turned, but the others."
Thinking about this, Quinn was wondering if he did. Most of the vampires hated him and were against him, but then he started to think about those in the Tenth family, Edward and others. The past memories of living his life as Vincent were strong in him. Quinn remembered the scene of when he stood in the castle looking at all those down below. Were the vampires that different from humans? For some reason he felt like if he said no, he would be abandoning them and his heart ached thinking about this.
"Judging by how long you have been silent for I can guess your answer. I don't think it's possible for you to save them both Quinn. At least not the way you are now. If you want to save them both then you need to get stronger. Even stronger than me." Saying these last words, Arthur lifted the crystal up, and then it started to become surrounded by shadows until it eventually disappeared.
"What are you going to do with that crystal!?" Quinn said slightly panicked, he didn't expect Arthur to take it and even though Arthur had saved his life, he suddenly couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed after killing the demon tier crab for his reward to be taken away.
"Do you remember my words of advice, anyone who tries to kill you Quinn, you need to kill them before they can kill you."
The next second, Arthur was directly in front of Quinn and a heavy blow was felt in his stomach. His insides screamed and felt like they wanted to all spill out on the floor. Immediately, it had caused him to cough out blood from his mouth. The strength of the punch would have caused Quinn to go flying, but instead he had been grabbed before he could and was being held around the throat by Arthur, his grip tight making it hard for him to breathe.
"You want to save them Quinn, as weak as you are. Even I couldn't save them, stop being an idiot!" Arthur shouted as he threw Quinn to the dark black floor. His body had sunk through and he felt himself suddenly falling through the air.
'Is Arthur trying to kill me, what is he doing? Didn't he just save my life, if he wanted to kill me then why did he give me the Dalki blood? This doesn't make any sense.'
But Quinn could tell that Arthur was quite serious, it wasn't like they were training. For some reason Arthur was filled with anger and it was being directed at Quinn.
"You need to stop hesitating!" Arthur said as he kicked Quinn by the side.
This time, Quinn was able to cover himself with the second form of Qi but the blow had still crushed the bones in his forearm. Thanks to the evolution his body was now stronger, but against someone like Arthur it didn't seem like much help.
'Am I really going to die!?'
Outside of the shadow, the others were standing where Quinn once stood, trying to figure out just what had happened. Oscar would have thought that Quinn was planning to run away, but according to Owen that wasn't the fact, and Fex didn't seem to know anything either.
Just as they were planning their next move, a shadow in the shape of a portal opened up, and as it closed, what looked like a young adult was thrown out of the portal and landed on his face, lying on the floor.. He was covered in blood, his bones broken and piercing through his skin.
Shallow breathing could be seen by his chest moving in and out, broken as if it was hard for him to breathe. As Oscar went to turn the person over, he almost didn't recognise who it was as the face was so badly beaten.
"Quinn!" Fex shouted. He rushed over along with Sil and Logan following behind.
"What happened to you, who did this?" Fex asked. He didn't even want to touch Quinn as he was afraid just moving him slightly would greatly hurt his body.
"A..r..thu…" Quinn managed to mouth out.
Fex wasn't sure if he had heard the right words, but it was clear that Quinn was trying to say Arthur.
'Why, why would Arthur do this?'
Lying on the floor and close to passing out, Quinn remembered the last words Arthur spoke.
"If you plan on protecting the vampires Quinn, then I will tell you know. We are not on the same side."
End of Ark 4
******
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