From Another World (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 33: Behind the illusion.

Everything was dark. Even if it was 11 in the evening, there should be some light from the stars and the moon. But currently, we were surrounded by darkness. All I could feel was someone holding me. That someone was Spade Echo.

Yeah. Westa's most notorious thief was holding me. When I fell off the tower, she jumped off and saved me. She then activated her wings and started flying away.

Unfortunately, the bandaged man shot a ball of darkness which she failed to avoid. That was why we were surrounded by darkness since the ball swallowed us.

It took some time until the darkness faded away. We used to be flying over Pavolian but now we were above a sea of trees.

Spade Echo's wings started glowing and we slowly descended. We landed on a forest clearing.

"What's going on? We were just flying over Pavolian and now we're in a forest?" I asked.

"That ball probably had a teleportation spell embedded on it. When it swallowed us up, it transported us to another place", Spade Echo answered.

"So that means we're in a place where the Unkindness wants me to?" I became alert and looked around.

"If all went well, then we could be in a place they want us to be in. But I foiled them", she said.

"What do you mean?"

"My wings are an ancient artifact. Aside from letting me fly using little mana, it also prevents me from getting forcefully teleported. It would use up its power to teleport me a few kilometers in a set direction from the place I was forcefully teleported from. This time, I set it so that I would get teleported a few kilometers east."

"So we only need to travel west. Why do you have that precaution anyway?"

"There are some rooms that have a teleportation trap. They would send the intruder to a prison or another room. That's why I have a precaution to avoid that. A thief can never be too careful."

She took out a compass and began walking.

"Come on now. We need to go back to Pavolian", she said.

"Are you sure you want to return there? This is a good chance to escape", I asked her.

"And what? Leave you here to die? It's true that I could just fly away but having you try to travel alone would leave a bad taste in my conscience. Besides, you don't look like you have a compass so you might get lost", she grinned.

We began walking west. I never thought that I would be walking with a famous thief. She was really short and in the darkness, her white clothes was really eye-catching.

"So... Why is your name Spade Echo?" I asked her.

"Are you that curious about me?"

"Just trying to start a conversation. Is it about an echo of a shovel?"

"No! The "Spade" part of my name clearly talks about the spade suit in a deck of playing cards! It's NOT a shovel. Sheesh."

"What about the "Echo" part?"

"The "Echo" meant "Trace" and "Vestige." Sounds cool right?"

"I thought "Echo" meant the echo of sounds."

"That's what most people think."

She stopped on her tracks. A large beast was in front of us. It sniffed the air and then found us. The beast let out a deep growl.

"Ah great. A monster", she said.

The beast charged at her and I made my shadow form a wall between the two of them. It crashed into the shadow wall. I turned my shadow into a spike and it lunged at the beast. My shadow stabbed it and it howled in pain.