Master of Myths

Tap...Tap....

The echo of fingers sounded across empty ruins, the only occupant looking at the mess with boredom about him

Crack!

At last the armrest of which he tapped on broke under the pressure of his strength, but he did not spare it a look and just held his chin with the hand and continued to stare out

Time passed slowly for the creature, it wasn't until the flutter of wings came above did he finally get up with an annoyed sigh

"What took you so long"

"It's those darned illusions, they keep disorienting my senses"

The feathered one answered with a melodic voice, much too different from the jarring one of this hunk of armor below it

"If you can't find your way what's the use of scouting out the way? A useless mission this was"

The big guy turned and started walking away, one heavy step at a time

"I would love to agree, sadly I happened to fund something"

"Hm? Better not be some ancient runes, I'm sick of studying those things"

"Oh its much more interesting than that, you see I spotted with my very eyes"

The creature smiled with a face not far from human yet closer to a bird's structure

"A new race for use to conquer"

With a smile the winged one watched as the armor hunk took hold of its giant glaive and marched forward into the illusion grounds of the enemy

"Go fetch reinforcements, I'll give it new friends a proper welcome"

.....

"Does Father like tattoos?"

Meanwhile, blissfully unaware of the approaching threat, YuJu was having his back washed by Zero after another day of training her

"Not exactly, why?"

"It's just that there are many tattoos over Father's body"

Her hand ran across his back, tracing the shapes it held,

"Those are a sign of my contracts, each representing one of my closest servants"

"Servants..."

She looked at the circle of vines held up by four mighty arms, among of which lay a bunch of weird symbols she couldn't make the meaning of, wondering whether she would be carved on his skin one day too

YuJu was reminded of this weird characteristic of his skill, especially since the tattoos on his back represented more than one creature, unlike the open maw on his stomach and the other two tattoos very likely representing Ellis and Anput, with the last being an eye held within a set of teeth at the back of his neck

'If I fill every one of my servant slots will I become riddled with black ink?'

He found himself wondering, it certainly did not look good in his head

As he idly thought about useless aesthetics the door to the bathing room opened and Subrina walked in with a towel in hand

"Apologies for the interruption Master but a visitor came knocking on Ephai's abode"

"I see"

Getting up he gave himself a quick rinse and allowed her to help him into his clothes, haste must be made lest the visitors arrive and find the place empty, he had to make them think Ephai was capable of appearing anywhere if not preoccupied 

"Hmm"

As Subrina dressed him however a thought came to mind, born by the earlier comment from Zero

"Subrina"

"Yes Master"

"Do you happen to have a tattoo on your body?"

He asked casually, after all if the master had one then the servant should as well correct?

'No, I saw Ellis's bare body before, there was not a trace of any tattoo on it, must be just mine'

"Yes, would Master like to see it?"

Just when he was dismissing the thought Subrina surprised him by acknowledging the matter

"Indeed I would"

Subrina nodded meekly for some reason, undoing the two button of her top to expose the cleavage in between her modest breasts

"....?"

What was she doing? He asked for a tattoo, did she hear something else

"It's invisible"

She explained, only promoting a twitch of his eyelid, was she so bold to play tricks nowadays?!

"Only Master can expose it, I believe with a little bit of energy?"

Her desire was getting out of hand if she so badly wanted attention like this...

'Perhaps I true though?'

He entertained the idea but felt like it was somewhat unreasonable, why should his servants know of this yet he did not?

'I should give it a try'

It wouldn't hurt, well, wouldn't hurt him

Deciding to go along with it he pressed his finger above the cleavage, running his energy with the intent of getting this supposed tattoo to show itself

Wnnnng!

An intense ringing sound followed his attempt and YuJu felt himself get sucked in, it took him a good shake and his head to get the dizziness out

"Where...is this?"

Having a look around the blurred place he noted most of it was dark, only the light beat of a heart could be heard from a distant flashing light

Frowning at the unfamiliar environment he tried to cloak himself and enter stealth only to realize there was no energy in this place

"...I have a bad feeling about this place"

Muttering to himself YuJu started walking toward the light with no other option

Closer and closer he got to the beating of what he thought to be a heart, yet upon getting past the glaring rays of whatever this was he saw not an organ, not a body either, but a simple sphere, floating in the plan of darkness and shining light around with every beat

"Why do I feel familiar with this thing"

It felt like the light was a piece of him, a piece he had forgotten about, one that was no longer within his grasp

"No, it is under my control, it's just...that I gave it away"

A piece of his soul is what the light represents, the one inside Subrina

Walking close to the core of this light he extended his hand to touch it, only the light flashed no more upon coming into contact with his hand, darkness overtaking the place for many a moment, as if never to be seen once more 

....

....

....

A sudden blinding light illuminated the place once more after the brief darkness, this time no longer the flashing sphere it was, instead, an eye, forced to almost close by chains upon chains, struggling to keep itself peeking onto the world with that jade green chilling pupil

As for YuJu, he was nowhere to be found in this vast expanse of darkness, instead, he was back in his body, eyes staring down under his finger

"Master?"

Subrina asked seeing his momentary lapse of attention, prompting him to take the finger off the now visible tattoo of that very same chained eye

"Is there anything wrong Master?"

"No, let's continue on"

Changing the subject he walked away to escape her questioning eyes, thoughts focused on one thing only

'So that's the power of my Master class? If I knew earlier that I had to shape my tattoo to activate it then things could have gone much easier'

Nobody could blame him for this lack of knowledge, it wasn't like it was a common class or even a rare one, it was so unique that barely anyone knew what it could do, perhaps even the other holders of said class knew not this trick yet

'I wonder what else I have yet to uncover about it, perhaps I'm merely scratching the surface of its ability'

As much as he would have liked to try and learn everything about it he knew this wasn't possible any time soon, his attention was required elsewhere, for example the new visitors coming to seek a trade, or perhaps something else

'Whoever they are I should give them a little gift for their nice interruption, without it I wouldn't have realized this new gimmick'

Deciding he would play nicer YuJu sped to meet said group, one that was treading the darkness in curiosity under their guide, a woman from Paradise Palace

"How much longer?"

One of them asked yet an answer never came back, it seems their guide was adamant on not speaking a word from start to finish

This did not bother them, they knew these women from that mysterious guild were always so silent, perhaps that is why they got along with that mysterious trader

"Do you think Ephai is here now or someone in his steed?"

"Who knows, it doesn't matter who it is that we negotiate with, in fact I would love it if someone else was present, at least they wouldn't drive a hard bargain, or creep us out"

Since their guide wasn't chatty the group spoke among themselves, their interaction feeling a little stiff and unfamiliar, it beat staying silent the entire walk in this dark creepy place however

With chattering to pass the time the group finally saw another woman dressed the same as their guide, next to which was an amazing cloud of smoke, no need to guess who that was

"Welcome, guest's of the human race, how may I be of assistance"

Indeed it was that traveling trader, only he seemed much more jovial than any other time they met, perhaps their talk would go well?