Turning halfway back, Nemo gave a wave to Raiya. "I'll do my best." He called back. He wasn't sure if he should feel good or bad about what she said, but figured it was a start.
Nemo trekked through the redwood forest while whistling a tune for himself. Nemo traveled further and further away from the cabin and back towards civilization. It was the first time he had been truly alone since being freed from his imprisonment, and Nemo was surprised he was allowed to go alone, unrestrained.
He eventually came upon a small unoccupied ranger outpost, fitted with just what he was looking for, a small off-road vehicle. It was some sort of vintage jeep from the looks of it. With the sun going down Nemo sadly didn't have the time to waste to see all of the forest on foot. He jimmied the door to the outpost open, still whistling a tune as he shuffled through drawers and cabinets till he found the keys to the vehicle. "Bingo" He muttered.
Nemo walked back out, closing the door behind him and entered the jeep. He started the car and began to drive off on a dirt path. Why Nemo didn't just use his magic to start the car was a mystery. He seemed to purposely refuse to use the conveniences of magic to his benefit most of the time, instead opting to go for a more "authentic" route. Maybe the enjoyment Nemo drew from it came from the sense of normality it gave him.
The forest let up soon enough, reaching the limits of the Redwoods and crossing back to the city. Nemo left the jeep once he reached Cescent City and continued on foot. He spawned a black umbrella and unfolded it as he strolled along. While it only blocked a slight drizzle of what was coming down, the main purpose of the umbrella was to hide his appearance. He didn't seemed to be in much of a hurry, Nemo stayed away from large groups of people but always stopped every so often to admire scenery that caught his eye.
Despite the hold ups, Nemo arrived at his destination soon enough. A medium sized stone building stood before him with neon letters that spelled out "Cyrus' Cellar" coupled with a neon martini. After stepping inside the doorway Nemo folded his umbrella up. The entrance way had a similar layout Raiya's club had, the first door only led to a isolated hallway with a guard on the other side, standing by another door.
This time Nemo met the doorman in a more cordial fashion than the last time by passing him a stack of three silver coins once they met. The shades wearing brute responded by taking the currency and then touching the area to the side of the door with his palm. A feint magic glow enveloped the rims of the door. And once he opened it it led to the main room of the club. The guard seemed skeptical of Nemo, however likely didn't care enough to do anything about it.
The purpose of the guards spell was simple, should a normal person try to enter, they go through the door to a normal bar. However should someone provide evidence of having magic affinity, after activating the spell the door would lead to a totally different room, revealing the true purpose of the building. Cyrus' Cellar served as a magical safehaven.
After stepping inside Nemo freely despawned his umbrella. Few people resided in the club, it was what most people would describe as "quaint" or "old fashioned" with many wooden furnishings and various knick-knacks decorating the walls. Jazz music permeated the room from a jukebox off in the corner. Nemo stayed away from the residents and instead made his way up a spiral stairwell right off the bat, taking him to a small hallway of rooms. He walked over to the room all the way at the end and knocked on the door. For a area he clearly shouldn't be in there wasn't very much security to stop him.
"What is it Barry? I told you to not bother me unle-" A man called out from inside the room, and was cut short after he opened the door and saw Nemo. The man looked to be about forty-five, had combed back brown hair, a stubble, a blue sport shirt with the sleeves rolled up, worn light blue jeans, and some various jewelry. "Nemo... this is unexpected. You should still be in Mamertine." The man spoke, his tone quieting down to a near whisper.
"Indefinite imprisonment is a very lukewarm fate, Cyrus. Especially for somebody like me." Nemo commented as he stepped inside the room, letting Cyrus close the door behind him. "I'd love to tell you all about it, but I'm afraid I'm here on buisness today. That and I'm just dying for a drink."
Cyrus seemed to be humored by Nemo's words, but worried by what exactly he meant by 'buisness'. He walked behind his desk and pulled out a bottle of Tsipouro along with two shot glasses. He poured liquor into the two glasses and slid one over to the other side of his desk, where Nemo now sat. Cyrus immediately downed the shot before speaking. "So what is it you're after?" He asked.
"Simple, I need to use your warp portal. You're the only person I know around here who has one." Nemo explained, drinking his own shot of Tsipouro.
"My portal hasn't been in use since the Academia banned their students from using a third party to get to their campuses. Wasn't worth the mana-cost to keep it up. But then again, whole place took a hit from them cracking down on places like this. They were a pretty big portion of my customers and clientele." Cyrus replied with a sigh.
"But you still have it?" Nemo asked, using his pointer finger to slide a gold coin over to Cyrus' side of the table
Cyrus hesitated for a bit, clearly reluctant to answer. "...yeah, I've still got it."
"Splendid, let's get going then, I don't want to take too much of your time." He stated as he rose from his seat. "And the Tsipouro was lovely, Cyrus. Really takes me back to a night I spent in Crete."
Cyrus pocketed the gold coin and got up from his desk, he led Nemo out of his office and down the hallway to another room. He unlocked the door with a key he grabbed from his desk earlier and swung the door open. For the most part the room had been cleared out, visible dust could be seen on some parts of it. However some things still remained, one doorway in the middle of the room, clearly not leading anywhere, various runic markings etched into the walls and floor, and one dull mana crystal sitting atop a stand.
"Where do you need to be?" Cyrus walked up to the mana crystal and touched it with his finger. As he was in contact with it the dull crystal slowly began to light up, as well as all the runic markings around the room.
"Chicago, I'm a bit of a sightseer so I don't really mind where. As long as it's discreet." Nemo replied.
By the time Nemo had answered him, the runic markings had seemed to fully power up, the mana crystal was now buzzing with energy. Suddenly a holographic map of the world was projected by the crystal. Allowing Cyrus to navigate to where Nemo wanted to be. "Found one. At this time of the night, this portal should be unguarded, with a little elbow grease I should be able to access it." Cyrus stated.
After a couple moments of Cyrus fiddling with the display. He placed his hand on the crystal once more, sending more power to it and causing the edges of the doorway to glow with magic energy. "There, I can only keep this up for so long though. So I suggest you hurry your ass out of my bar before I change my mind halfway through. I'll have my portal be available through the night should you want to return. But you're gonna have to find a way to power your own station to get back." Cyrus explained.
Nemo gave a grin in response to Cyrus' words. He walked up to the door and opened it, despite being in the middle of the room the door led to a completely different dark building now. "You're a lifesaver, Cyrus." Nemo commented as he walked through.
"I have a feeling by doing this I've become the opposite." Cyrus stated.
Nemo let out an audible chuckle. "Don't be so dramatic." He finished, soon after the connection between the two shut off. Causing the portal to shrink into nothing. Nemo only stared through an empty doorway now.
Close to two hours had passed. It was pitch black out in the city of Chicago. The only thing that matched the darkness was the heavy rain which poured down. Nemo approached a poorly lit metal building not far off from the bay. There was a blue metal sign in the shape of a fish above it entitled "Ulysses Canning Co." in yellow. The whole area smelled of saltwater and fish.
Nemo held his umbrella above him to keep his clothes dry. The only major change in his wardrobe is that he switched jackets to a three-fourths length belted black trench coat. The coat was unbuttoned, with the belt hanging loose, likely so he could access his weapons concealed underneath the outer layer. After reaching the building Nemo was sheltered from the rainfall, so he de-spawned his umbrella.
The faint light radiating off the building's few light fixtures revealed another thing Nemo had with him; a heavily engraved Winchester Model 1897 16 gauge shotgun. All of the metal parts of the gun had been plated with silver with various floral engravings. The stock and pump had been entirely replaced with custom white ivory. This left the most peculiar part of the firearm. Attached to the barrel from the point where the magazine tube ended there was a engraved cylindrical silver suppressor. The suppressor extended to the point where the barrel would usually end, so it didn't extend the length. For someone like Nemo this accessory was likely invaluable.
Nemo held pump of the shotgun with his left hand and extended his right out towards the lock of the front door. He blasted it with a medium strength spell to break it and kicked the door open. The inside was just as dark as the outside, save for a 'secure' glass enclosed lit guard room across from the door. The guard inside was startled, but didn't know how to react. However as soon as he saw Nemo's not-so-inconspicuous firearm he hurriedly tried to get up from his seat.
That's when Nemo fired off the first shot, followed by two more rapidly slam fired into the room. The laminated glass had been ripped to shreds, but still remained in it's fixture. This didn't stop Nemo's attack however, a faint spatter of red could been seen coating the deeply mangled barrier. Nemo never stopped his stride while shooting, still walking towards the post and reloading his shotgun.
Nemo held out his right hand once more, pushing the shattered sheet of glass from the window inward with one powerful magically generated force. The guard was most certainly dead. He leaned into the window, analyzing the control panel stationed at the desk before pressing one of the buttons. Suddenly a fair sized section of the wall off to the right began to raise up.
Before the wall could fully raise up, another guard came into view. Rushing down the passageway with a spell already ready. Nemo was quick to react however. He shouldered his weapon and fired another shot at the guard. He was hit in the upper chest and neck, causing him to release the spell early. It veered off and ricocheted violently off the ground before colliding into the ceiling and dissipating. The guard stumbled and fell to the ground heavily, emitting a few gurgles from his neck-wound before succumbing to his demise.
Nemo began to walk down the passageway. He got a better look at the guard as he passed by. They wore mostly casual to upper class clothes and coats. No official uniforms, things definitely not expected of a fish canning office. But this wasn't any surprise to Nemo. The secret route he was taking was furnished and decorated nothing like the room before. It was neat, tidy, with warm dim lights. Some paintings even found themselves on the walls of this space. Something more reminiscent of a upper class hotel. The only thing off about it was that it was completely devoid of any windows.
More resistance quickly met Nemo during his warpath through the compound. After turning a corner he was nearly struck by a slim magic energy bolt, but dodged it by craning his neck to the side. Three mages had setup at the other side of the corridor. Two firing off spells with the third generating a wide magical barrier as a protective blockade.
Nemo retreated back behind the corner to escape the oncoming hail of magic spells. For most people this might mean the end of the road, but due to the magic nature of their defense, it was an easy fix for Nemo. He held up his gloved hand to his mouth and whispered an incantation into it. The X rune on his glove now glowed white. Nemo warped out from the cover of the corner and pitched his spell at the defenders like a baseball, laughing as he did so. Halfway to the barricade the small orb of white energy expanded into a large glowing X. It soared at the force-field with a distractingly high pitched whistling noise. It collided into the barrier with devastating effect, puncturing the shield effortlessly and exploding inwards directly at the guard generating it, killing him instantly.
The shield generator was blown to bits, but the other two remained. Nemo quickly warped close to them while they still reeled from the massive explosion. He knocked one of them to the floor with the silver butt-stock of his shotgun and fired into the other. Helpless to defend himself, the guard was hit in the chest. Blood spattered to the wall behind him before he fell back into it and limply slid to the ground, dead.
Nemo turned to the last guard, slam firing the remaining shells at him. The guard tried to block it with a small barrier, but after three hits the magic shield broke, he perished to the remaining shots. Finished with the gun, Nemo let go of it and caused it to de-spawn back to his inventory.
Before he could continue, another combatant appeared. He sent a small magic attack Nemo's way, which Nemo easily absorbed with his gloved hand. This was only a diversion, as the man had dashed to Nemo's side with a spell, and tried to stab him with a glowing runic dagger. Just before the blade came to puncture Nemo's coat and flesh, he grabbed the man's hand to divert the attack off to the side. Still holding the man's hand with a rock solid grip, Nemo pulled him into a viscous headbutt to daze him. He then swung him around and crashing into the wall, knocking the guard to the ground afterwards with a roundhouse kick from his boot.
Once the suited guard made his way back to his feet and tried to attack him with a ranged spell, Nemo drew his revolver and hammer fired four rounds off to gun him down before he finished the attack. After he felled his opponent Nemo spun the revolver back into it's holster and continued on.
Half a minute of travel brought Nemo to where he wanted to be. A more open area with a grand set of carved wooden doors leading to the final room. There was only one problem, a man was leaning up against the doors with his arms crossed. He was bald, and wore expensive dressy clothes. "I can't let you go any further." The man stated simply.
"Is that so?" Nemo replied in a monotone voice. He held his hand up to his mouth and whispered another incantation.
The man leaned off the doorway and took a few steps forward. "Let's get this over with." The bald man said, abruptly firing off three spinning discs of green energy.
"That's not fair, I was gonna say the same thing." Nemo replied, his face twisting into a sickening grin. He deflected the first disk with the back of his gloved hand, sending it into the wall to explode, then absorbing the following two. Something that surprised the bald guard. Nemo then spun around before releasing his own spell he prepared earlier.
It was the same summoning spell he had tried on Thadeus back at the cave. A black gooey energy mass expelled from his palm and at the ground, forming into a hideous misshapen manabeast. It quickly scurried along the ground towards the man with it's maw open.
Baldy attempted to deftly put a stop to the amalgamation by firing off two more of his discs. They exploded after hitting Nemo's creation, but didn't halt it's approach at all. The only difference is that it had puffed up a bit, it's core glowing a faint white. Despite the monster nearly reaching him, the man seemed unfazed. He clapped his together, causing two generated green barriers to collide together, forming one.
The bald man's reliance on energy based spells would be his undoing. As soon as the creature reached the barrier, it ate it's way through with it's maw like butter, only powering it further. The man stumbled back, "Impossible!" he yelled. Nemo's creature let out a ear piercing screech before reaching the man and detonating into a devastating explosion.
Dust, paper, furniture, and debris were thrown all about the room, spilling over into the hallway. Nemo himself was standing safely behind his own barrier. The white energy shield allowed him to see the gory details of his work unimpeded. Once the dust settled Nemo dropped his shield, finally reaching the end of his rampage.
Even through one of the doors had been blown completely off it's hinges from the explosion, Nemo chose to use the one still barely intact. He opened it, stepped inside the office, and even went through the trouble to close it behind him. It was a large luxurious office he found himself in, whoever ran it clearly had a taste for finer things. Even Nemo was impressed by some of the paintings he noticed in the room. There was one especially striking painting of a woman riding a tiger he saw.
Directly across from the doorway, behind a ornate wooden desk sat a man, probably about thirty years old, styled brown hair, wearing thick black rimmed spectacles, a buisness shirt, tie, and suspenders. He wasn't currently facing Nemo, instead he was looking back, eyeing multiple monitors of a security system. It showed the carnage Nemo caused in full. The man slowly swiveled his chair back to face Nemo, not saying a word.
Nemo approached the desk and sat down, he had the posture and body language of someone who knew nothing about what had transpired over the last twenty minutes. As if nothing had happened. He sat down and adjusted his coat. "...hi." Nemo started.
"I'm terribly sorry about the door," He added, looking back to it. "that was lovely craftsmanship, what a shame." Nemo said. "You must be Ulysses."
The man was hesitant to answer, but eventually gave in. "Y-...yes that's me. Ulysses Fahl." He confessed.
"And do you know who I am?" Nemo asked, rolling his nails on the tabletop.
Ulysses nodded. "Yes, y-you're Nemo Smiley."
"Wonderful. Tell me did you enjoy the show?" He continued, pointing to the security system. Nemo knew it was a rhetorical question, and after a few moments of Ulysses being too scared to answer he dropped his pleasant demeanor. "Do you know why I'm here?" He asked more sternly.
"...You're here to kill me"
"No!" Nemo snapped back. "If I wanted to kill you I would of done it by now, so that must mean I'm here cause I want to-?" He paused, letting Ulysses finish his sentence.
"You want something from me?" Ulysses guessed.
"I want to ask you something. And when you reply you're going to tell the truth. Don't lie... I'll know if you do. And if you do I'll hang you by those suspenders." Nemo explained.
"O-of course."
Nemo spun his swivel chair around in a circle as he talked. "I have it under good authority you've been meeting with two members of the church. I want to know allll about it."
"I'm a b-broker... a middleman. They approached me with an offer, a lot of fuckin' crystals, artifacts, all kinds of stuff worth a fortune on the market, all they wanted was the services of one of my associates. Seidon, Paul Seidon. When he heard what they wanted, he went for it right away. D-didn't even really care about payment."
"Captain Seidon, huh?" Nemo noted, suddenly stopping his chair from spinning with his foot. "And what is it they were planning?"
"I-I-I don't know. I just help with the money, you know? Paulie made it sound like they were trying to find something, some artifact. That's it, that's all I know I swear." Ulysses said, rather panicked.
"Oh I believe you Ulysses, you're doing well so far. Tell me, do you expect to be in contact with Mr. Seidon or any of those churchgoers anytime soon?" Nemo asked.
"J-just Seidon, I was expecting a call any minute actually. He was gonna check to see if the Churchies delivered on their end of the bargain. They paid upfront what they said they would, so I was gonna give him the go ahead. They planned to leave tomorrow in fact, about 4 PM on Seidon's ship." Ulysses explained.
"And where is their 'payment'?" Nemo asked.
"It's... it's right here, you can," Ulysses started as he leaned to the side of the desk. He suddenly jerked back up, holding a ornate gold plated sawed-off double barrel. "FUCKING TAKE IT!" He yelled, immediately discharging both barrels directly at Nemo from across the wooden desk.
Papers flew everywhere from atop Ulysses desk, his gun had quite the kick. Enough to push his rolling chair back a few feet. But what Ulysses now saw horrified him, Nemo still calmly sat in his chair, holding his gloved hand up. A white circle of energy, with runic symbols lining the outside, and one big X in the middle had completely stopped the pellets from hitting him. They were still safely lodged within the plasma. Nemo now wore a wicked grin on his face and let out a small giggle from behind his shield.
When Nemo dropped his hand, the shield immediately faded, causing the small pellets to harmlessly fall to the floor, some bouncing off the edge of Ulysses desk.
"That was very rude of you, Ulysses." Nemo only said before getting up from his chair.
"Shit!" He said, rapidly standing up and moving back. With his shotgun already expended he tossed it off to the side. Terribly panicked, Ulysses pulled his right pant leg up to reveal a small pistol holstered at his ankle. He stumbled while trying to fish it out, but didn't fall over. "Fuck!" Once he looked back up with his pistol at the ready, Nemo had already made it past his desk, right in front of him likely via his speed warp.
With fear in his eyes, he pulled the trigger, but as he did so Nemo pushed the gun away with his left hand, causing the gun to shoot off to the side, shattering some vase instead. He then punched him straight in the gut, causing Ulysses to bend forward and drop his gun from the force of the hit. Nemo followed up with a knee straight to Ulysses nose, sending him falling backwards harshly.
Ulysses rolled to his side on the floor, his nose now bleeding heavily. "Smarts, doesn't it? Getting slammed in the nose like that can really gentle you down some." Nemo commented. Ulysses slowly stumbled to his feet. "Wait! ...just wait a minute!" He pleaded with his hand out. "You can't fuckin' kill me... you need me to take that call. Otherwise Paulie is gonna know what's up, and the whole fuckin' thing is gonna get called off. Then what? Then you're FUCKED that's what!" Ulysses reasoned.
"Oh? Is that what you think?" Nemo asked with smile. He put his hand on his throat and massaged it with his three fingers, his eyes closed for a moment while it looked like he was trying to work out a kink in his neck. Though soon enough he opened them once more, staring at Ulysses. "I don't know about you, but I don't think Paulie is gonna be able to tell the difference." Nemo said, his voice now perfectly mimicking Ulysses. Nemo began to laugh afterwards, his voice cascading back to his own during the bout.
Terrified and knowing he was at a loss, Ulysses threw one last hail Mary attack at Nemo. "Potentia!" His fist glowed bright red as he swung at Nemo. But Nemo blocked the attack with his left palm, causing the red energy to fade without harm immediately. Nemo slowly rolled his fingers closed to tightly grip Ulysses' fist, and then roughly grabbed him by the face with his gloved hand. Nemo began to use his unique ability to siphon Ulysses' mana from him. Nemo ignored Ulysses' muffled pleading and forced him to his knees as he began to weaken from the drain.
Ulysses began to use his only free arm to blindly bat at Nemo as hard as he could, which seemed to have zero effect on him when it connected. He let out one last scream which soon weakened to a groan, and then his body abruptly went limp. Nemo let go of him, allowing his lifeless and now certainly mana-less body fall over with a thud.
Judging by the manawaves, no living thing was left in the compound besides Nemo himself. He adjusted his coat once more. Contorting his back and neck to the side until they let out a crack of relief. Nemo held his eyes shut during this and merely relaxed. However his zen mood was cut short when a faint buzzing noise emitted from Ulysses' body; his manadial was getting a call.
Nemo leaned over and pulled his sleeve up, letting him see the flashy piece he wore on his wrist. Nemo removed it and walked back to his desk. He pulled up Ulysses' personal chair back and sat down. Nemo placed the dial down the table and adjusted his throat again before pressing the crystal down to answer the call.
After a couple moments of silence, a gruff voice answered on the other line. "Ulysses, did Stockton bring the goods?" The voice sounded like a grizzly male, probably in his fifties.
"Oh yeah, those Churchies delivered. You've got the green light from my end Paulie." Nemo responded, using some of Ulysses' rhetoric from earlier.
"Good... that's good. If Stockton isn't blowing smoke, this trip could result in one of the most valuable finds we've ever encountered. I've waited my whole life for this chance. And now it's finally come." Captain Seidon spoke, seemingly not suspecting a thing from Nemo's impression.
"Come on Paulie, stop teasing me. What is it, what are you going all that way for? What's got you so eager?" Nemo asked, kicking his legs up on Ulysses' desk.
"A Paragon, Ulysses, the Paragon of Fantasia." Paul stated.
"A Paragon? ...but aren't those things just supposed to be legend? Even for us that stuff is sketchy." Nemo feigned ignorance.
"Yes, but I've always been a believer, legends have to start somewhere. And if anybody is going to find the Paragon Lost at Sea, it's going to be Captain Paul Seidon. It's the find of all finds, if Stockton says he can help me to it, then I'll humor him. Though if he wastes my time, I'll personally throw him off my ship and into the sea fer chum. 'Ole Bess is getting hungry after all." Seidon explained.
'Ole Bess? Nemo thought. "Sounds riveting, Paulie, really. You knock yourself out with that, I'll be back here counting all the doubloons they gave me. Even if they're crazy, they're at least crazy enough to fork over all this dough, and that's good enough for me any day of the week." Nemo finished.
"You never change, Ulysses... I have a lot of preparations to do. I wont speak with you again until I return. But by then end you'll either hear about my great triumph, or how the church lads met their watery end." Seidon finished, ending the call afterwards.
Things worked out quite swimmingly for Nemo. Even after such a long time off during his imprisonment, he proved he clearly hadn't grown rusty. Nemo removed his fingers from his throat and rose from his seat. He had a blank expression on his face, not even a hint of emotion crossed him as he made his way back out from the building. It was dead quiet as well, the only sound that was being emitted was Nemo's boots hitting the floor as he walked, and the tune he was humming to himself.
