The response to that question came far too soon to Ludwig as he finally realized something important. The person who taught them the game, had been given a seat at the former emperor’s table. So that means, that at most that would be about what, like fifty maybe years ago?
If that’s so, then this world, though they know this game, are extremely novice at it, and have yet to develop their own playstyles and methods.
He grinned inwardly, then that just means that he can bully them all. Because no one here would ever know how to deal with a Sicilian defense, or an Evans Gambit. There is no Bobby Fischer, or Kasparov here, they’re all just newbies and from what he could see, the highest rating of any of these guys would be at the six hundred, while he already touched the three thousand once before earning him the title of Grandmaster. Though it was only a brief period.
While Ludwig was thinking about how he’ll bully these unaware players, something once again caught his vision, turning to see the source. Another soul was strapped and wrapped in ethereal chains, then yanked across the street far deep into the venue of the Mage Masquerade.
Then more chains began spreading from the deeper part of the masquerade, some bore through holes into buildings and pulled souls out from the walls themselves without damaging any of the structures, and some grabbed souls from the crowds and took them away.
The event was terrifying, something was happening in this ‘parade’ and it seemed like no one was aware of such a thing.
And just as Ludwig was wondering what was going on, a bundle of chains flew right past him and landed onto the kid he just played against, the boy with the crow mast.
The chains wrapped around his body and yanked his soul out, pulling it with them while the boy struggled and cried out in agonized misery.
The boy shouted and cried out for no ears to listen, but Ludwig’s who watched with attention as the soul was removed from the arena and then taken away across the ground in a heap of struggle and desperate grabbing on things that his hands simply phased through.
Ludwig moved back toward crow-mask, “Are you okay?” he asked.
The later looked up at him, a feeling of hollowness left his mouth as he said, “I’m fine… I feel a bit tiered I should go back…” he said and stood up, almost like a zombie.
Ludwig inspected him.
Character Screen:
Name: Rudolph Astra
Race: Human
Title: N/A
Level: 23
Currently under the Status Effect: Cursed [Soul Effigy]
[Soul Effigy] a hollowed body that had their soul taken away from it, it has no essence of its own, and cannot be called alive nor can it be called dead. The body is only functioning by sheer memory and the body’s will to survive. If the soul isn’t returned in three days to the body, the body will realize the missing soul and will perish.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ Ludwig wondered as he himself had no idea what was going on.
Just as he was about to speak, a man wearing a bunny mask showed up, he looked quite similar to the same person at the gate.
“Is something wrong dear guest?” the man asked.
Ludwig turned to see the man, noticing the uncanny resemblance of the build between this person and the same guy from earlier that was guarding the entry to the parade.
Besides the difference of the skin tone, you’d think they were the same person.
“Nothing really, my friend here is still shocked that he lost that badly,” Ludwig said.
“Ah, I see, that tend to happen a lot, I’ll guide this guest of ours to a place where he can have some refreshments. Please continue playing and may fortune be with you,” the man said and gestured to crow mask who meekly followed after him.
While the man was moving away, Ludwig used [Inspect] on him. This caused the man to startle up and turned to look around, failing to realize who used what on him, the man simply ignored it and continued guiding crow mask to a separate bar area where he could have a drink.
Ludwig on the other hand was fully focused on what was in front of him.
‘Huh, this explains a lot…’
Name: Sham-Har-Roush
Race: Lesser Djinn
Title: Slave
Level: 25
HP: 2500
Status Effect: [Enslaved]
Abilities:
[Fire Infusion] Whenever there is a flame a Djinn will manifest. As long as there is a source of fire nearby a Djinn cannot perish.
[Faster Than a Blink] Djinns are unnaturally fast if they’re in their [Fire Infusion] form, and are almost unnoticeable to the normal human eye.
[Twisted Manifestation] Once successfully applied, the user will have an almost exact reproduction of the entity’s stats and appearance but will have half their power and health. Once used [Fire Infusion] becomes disabled.
Addendum:
Djinns are creatures of fire. They have been thought to have existed far longer than the human civilization, though they’re rarely if ever meet humans, if they do, they usually do it under the guise of polymorph. Djinns by nature are curious, yet at the same time will hold great hostility towards those who offend them. Old scriptures speak of powerful sorcerers using them to do their bidding and enslaving them, but without knowing the True Name of a Djinn they cannot be compelled or enslaved.
‘So… that’s not human. No wonder his physical build is pretty massive. But what is the relationship with what’s going on right now in the event and these guys.’
Ludwig began thinking about the implications of all that was going on, and none of the results were good. Something terrible was going on right now, and he had no idea how to solve it. If only he could contact Van Dijk, but the latter would probably not even care. Not that Ludwig needed to talk to him regarding this anyway.