The bus flew for a while before reaching the outer perimeter of the slums. Achilles got off the bus with his hands in his pockets and walked with leisure steps.
He followed the same route and soon arrived at his destination. The place looked nothing different from the last time Achilles came here. He stood before the doorstep and began spamming on the doorbell like crazy. This went on for 5 seconds before an old, irritated voice sounded out from inside the house:
"WHO IS IT THIS TIME!!!??"
Achilles took a step back and the door burst open, revealing an old man with a long scar on his face. Just as the man was about to scream at the individual standing in front of him, he froze and muttered:
"You..."
"Hey Frank, how's your wife?" Achilles spoke the secret password with an amiable voice.
The old man's face winced up slightly before returning to normal as if nothing had happened. Even though the person standing in front of him wore different clothing, that aura, and his voice were unmistakable. The old man only saw Achilles once but he had already implanted a deep fear in the old man.
"She's feeling better now, but still need to keep an eye on her. What are you standing there for? Come on in."
Achilles ignored whatever the old man had said and stepped in when he received consent. His eyes were still glued on the old man when he walked in out of caution of course.
The old man slammed the door behind him then turned to Achilles and said, the trace of friendliness in his voice disappeared completely:
"I've done with what you asked for, give me my money and get out of here."
"Show me the thing." Achilles ordered coldly.
The old man went to a room inside his house with quick footsteps. He soon returned with two documents in his hand. One was the small ID card and the other was the hunting license.
Achilles took the two from the old man and carefully checked every single detail to ensure the old man didn't mess with him. Although there was the soul contract but he still had to make sure to get rid of any problem before they come up.
"Done? Where's my payment?" The old man asked impatiently.
'So cranky..'
He checked all his documents for one last time before looking at the old man and said:
"Well done, here's your money."
He took his credit card from the ring and let the old man scanned it with the latter's digital watch. Even though the old man was not too rich, he had strong ties with a mafia which earned him the watch. This made Achilles feel a little down as he thought to himself:
'I want to have that thing someday...'
Of course, he could still buy a phone since it had some features similar to the watch, but the latter was far more superior in every aspect than the former.
Achilles soon chased away the thought and scanned the two items with his ring to safely store them.
With everything settled, he walked to the door while still keeping his caution. The old man didn't mind his action since he wanted the brat before him to scram as soon as possible, he always had this uneasy feeling whenever Achilles was present.
Achilles left the house and dashed with hurried footsteps to get to the slum's outer perimeter, he waved a cab to quickly get back to Hilbert Hotel. Tomorrow would be an important day to him so he would set off early before dawn, he wanted to rest for the day and prepare himself for the dangers that were awaiting for him beyond the walls.
Achilles soon arrived at his destination and got off the car, he went to his room and sat down in the meditating position on his bed.
He felt like he should check on his Mindscape.
He closed his eyes and began concentrating, after a whole minute or so, he opened his eyes again and found himself on the desert land that seemed to stretch infinitely to the horizon. The familiar starless sky along with the ebony castle that hid within the night.
Achilles stopped admiring the view in front of him and walked to the castle gate which was beginning to lower itself upon his arrival. He came inside the castle and passed through each section with familiarity, it was as if he had lived here for all his life.
His calm footsteps stopped at some point in front of a large door, it was the door to the throne room, where his soul resided. Achilles pushed the door slightly with his left hand and it moved slowly until completely opened.
The torches on both sides began lighting up consecutively, revealing the interior of the place. Everything was similar to what Achilles had seen the last time he came here, however there was something different...
'..Where did that come from?'
Near the top of one of the walls of the room, two skeletons, one black one white that was impaled on the torsors next to each other so that they stayed glued on the wall. They remained unmoving for a while but suddenly, they turned their heads to look intently at the human at the entrance.
Their eyes sockets were hollow and empty, but Achilles could feel an intense emotion of hatred swirling underneath them...