"Why is the ending of this story so sad?" asked a young Marline Hermes.
Her eyes radiated pure innocence and angelic aura as her mother caressed her soft slightly tanned cheeks with a smile while ruffling her red hair.
"Sometimes the ending of a story might be sad for us, but it might be the ending that this story needs," explained her mother.
"What do you mean?" asked Marline.
"Read this story again and again and then maybe you would understand the viewpoints of the other characters. A story only ends when the reader stops reading it," said her mother.
Marline's mother slowly started to fade into the background of the house. Her wrinkled face, soft reddish white hair and a mature, hardened face all started to turn grey. Just as Marline blinked, the whole house turned grey. Every happy, vibrant color started to disappear and wither away.
"What's the point of reading this story over and over again?" thought Marline.
Marline had stopped listening to the opening of the Black Market's speech a long time back. She had come to an illegal place even though she was a mayor. The mayor of one of the most destroyed places in the country or even the continent of Laxasis's history, Northguard City.
She wandered for thirty minutes, receiving her calls when they came and silencing calls from unimportant people she did not like.
She checked her phone and realised it was her mother's death anniversary. She stared at her wallpaper for another minute. The wallpaper was her and her mother happily playing in a sunflower plains somewhere in a small village near to Northguard City. The village was her hometown, her haven.
She had a moment of silence as she remembered what happened to the village. Her mother was an author. A children's author while she did encourage Marline to read more mature books from the age of ten itself.
She came here for a very simple reason. She wanted a Soul Energy ring that could act as an emergency weapon whenever she needed. Even though her ability was immensely powerful her soul energy amount was average for a human. So as a backup in important situations where her life was on the line then she needed something powerful and dark that only the Black Market could offer.
Tap, tap.
Her bodyguard, who was skinny yet not too skinny, dark brown, and had black deep eyes tapped her on her shoulder.
"Ma'am this is important after your work here, we have to go back," said the bodyguard.
"Why? What is going on Julian?" asked Marline Hermes.
"The First Ninjaro Raid already weakened the country of Lukia. This basically made the whole continent of Laxasis on guard at all times," responded Julian.
"Ninjaro is to the north and west of us, the Snow Kingdom is to the south of us, the Endless Sea borders us to the east, and we have two rivers that connect to the Holy Spring don't we?" asked Marline.
"Yes, your geography is on point! Why are you asking?" asked Julian.
"Incase anything happens I intend to use the rivers to escape and go to the Holy Spring and if even that is not safe then to the Darmian Mountains to the far west of the continent," explained Marline.
"Of course, you told me about this already," said Julian.
"I know, I just want you to be ready," said Marline.
Marline and Julian walked around the Black Market and found the ring that she was looking for. After a quick negotiation to drop the price of the ring by a couple silver, she wore the ring and seemed pleased with herself, but she still had the same stoic look on her face. She was about to leave but she saw the drama that occurred when two people made a ruckus and apparently came to the Black Market in place of the Terror Trinity.
A blade suddenly stabbed Marline's left side of her waist as she coughed blood. Julian instantly got shocked before keeping the knife on the waist to make sure the wound does not open and quickly dealt with the criminal by defeating him with his barefists reinforced with soul energy.
The man who attacked Marline looked like a thirty-year old man with glasses and was very thin. Just by looking at the way he held the knife could tell anyone that he was not meant to be in this place nor was he fully aware of what was going on. He was just scared and sometimes fear can be a human's doom. Unfortunately he met Marline Hermes of all people.
Marline quickly healed herself up while she looked at Julian and told him, gesturing to the man who was shaking, very clearly scared, as an example of something that could happen as a bad thing. Julian was about to finish the man off but Marline lifted her hand up and told him to halt. She walked closer and closer and closed her eyes for a second.
The man started to float mid-air as he even closed his eyes. Tears started to fall from his eyes.
Inside the man's brain, Marline wandered almost intruding and trespassing into the details and memories of his life. The man's consciousness or soul watched Marline as she read the words like books inside the man's brain. It was a dark greyish place with the brain filled with bookshelves.
Once the man fell down to the ground she started pointing another knife to her and in fear ran to stab her. Marline, this time lifted her hand up and threw him across the chamber into the sewer outside the Black Market. Marline walked towards the man.
"Oh you poor thing," said Marline with a cold voice, her expression never-changing.
The man who was drenched in green water, still was in fear and Marline knew if he escaped that the news could get leaked very quickly. She knew this was the same for everyone but for everyone else that arrived, these people were trustworthy and also criminals so it would be a bad decision for them to expose Marline's location.
"Just because you are going to die right now I will give you a thorough explanation of what my ability is," said Marline with a napkin over her mouth while whispering to his ear.
The man tried screaming but Marline placed her finger over his mouth and told him to be silent.
"My ability is called "Book" it lets me read everything I need to know. For example I read your fate, name, and past. So I know your present and future now," explained Marline.
Meanwhile Danso and Xeno, who was still disguising as Anon, were walking casually, through the Black Market. Danso was looking for the Anti-Sorcery Key that could free Chiro from the Alkanium Cage while Anon kept on receiving questions from other criminals about the Terror Trinity's well-being, health, plans, and more.
It was quite annoying at the beginning but the more they got used to it, the more fun they had with it. They once told a criminal the reason why Baltrax did not come is because he drank a serum that gave him explosive diarrhoea. The men in suits just nodded their heads sideways and left in disappointment.
"I wonder what would happen if they saw this scene right now?" asked Danso to Xeno.
"The Terror Trinity would kill us," laughed Xeno.
"For real but when will the Anti-Sorcery Key be on sale?" responded Danso.
"You really think you could buy it?" asked Xeno.
"Of course not I will steal it or beat some people up and take it forcefully," said Danso.
"For a samurai with honor and pride you sure do a lot of petty things," provoked Xeno for fun.
Danso clenched his hand yet put a smile on his face.
"It's called adapting those oldies don't know anything about it,"
"That's one thing we can agree on," laughed Xeno.
"So when will it be on sale?" asked Danso.
"It will be sold at the Dark Auction," said Xeno with an annoying smile.
"The Dark Auction?! That's two hours from now! What will we do?" asked Danso
"Early birds are the best birds aren't they? We will prepare!" responded Xeno.
In the distance, Danso caught a glimpse of a woman attacking a man and he rushed towards the man. The woman was talking to a man who was drenched in the sewer water. Xeno, wondering what was going on, followed Danso and found the woman and the man.
A knife was stabbed into the woman's left waist yet it did not seem as if she was in any sort of danger. As the woman was done talking and lifted her hand, the man also started to float and vibrate uncontrollably.
Danso threw a small spark bullet at the woman's finger causing her to cancel the sorcery she was doing. Marline looked at Danso and tried to read his 'book'. She started to sweat. She tried again. And again. Nothing would pop up. She tried reading Xeno's book and she got a huge headache. Inside Xeno's mind was filled with red and black pen marks that would not make sense. There were too many personalities in a single consciousness.
"Who are you?" asked Marline trying to keep calm.
"I am Limian Mare, representative of the Terror Trinity," said Danso.