Chapter 143 - It's time
After the incident with the shadow man, knights around the city were looking around every little corner to see if they could find anyone suspicious but they had come up with nothing. This meant that the shadow man was most likely long gone by now.
Once the search party was called off, Wilfred had come back to Ray's room and interviewed each of the students individually to see if there was anything he could find out from them. After speaking to each of the students they all said the same thing. They could see a man wrapped around in shadows but nothing else.
This confirmed Wilfred's fear. Wilfred perhaps thought that he might have been seeing things when he saw the man but the students confirmed his thoughts, it was a true infected human. Unlike the Dark Guild members who drank the purple liquid, a true infected had been possessed first hand by the Shadow plague.
The purple liquid was more of an artificial product and no one knew of its effects apart from high ranking members in the Alure kingdom Army and Ray. The Knights at Avrion were still clueless and just thought they had been attacked by the regular Dark guild members.
A true infected was someone who had been infected by the Shadow plague itself.
Most of the time the Shadow plague would choose to outright kill it's host once it gained control but those that were strong like Ray's father had a chance to become a true infected.
Ray also knew about this and it had only confirmed what his mother had told him when she visited him last year.
The city continued acting like normal. The students and knights continued their daily training while behind the scenes the elders and master knights were panicking about what to do.
Once training had finished, Ray had decided to stay at the martial arts hall for the day. The old man Von was no longer there since he was too busy helping out Slyvia with her Elder duties. Ray had also invited every member of the Red wings and told them to meet him at the martial arts hall.
Before they arrived, Ray used the transform skill to disguise himself as Nes. One by one the members of Red wing arrived and as they did, they bowed down to Nes.
Badger, Sloth, Jack and Harry were currently the only members of the Red wings group and they were all sat down opposite Ray.
Only Harry didn't know the true identity of Nes and Ray wanted to keep it that way.
"Could everyone please show their marking?" Ray asked.
Each member then lifted up the sleeve on their shirt to reveal the mark of a red dragon head on their shoulder. Ray wanted to make this routine for in the future, for when their group expanded there would be many members. Even those that might try to infiltrate the group. The marking was something that should be kept secret and only been known between members.
"I've called you here today to let you all know that Avrion is in trouble, more than I originally thought."
Slyvia had been informing the others of the situation between the elders and master knights as much as she could. She had told the others that after the attack on Ray, the elders and master knights went into a panic. Saying that they needed to prepare for war.
"Avrion is split, we don't know who to trust, the only people I trust right now and the only people you should trust right now, are those with the Red wings marking. Anyone can be after your life." Ray thought about Jasmine as he said this.
"I grant you all permission to invite whoever you wish into this group; invite your close friends you want to protect but more importantly invite those you trust. You may all leave now apart from Jack."
The three others bowed down before quickly leaving again while Jack had stayed behind. Now that Harry had left Ray no longer had to keep up his disguise and changed back to himself.
"It amazes me every time I see that?" Jack said. "what do you need boss?"
"I want you to ask my roommates to join Red wings for me, offer them a contract. Right now is the best time. I can see that each and every one of them is frightened after the attack. If they believe this Nes character that was able to fend off the Dark Guild leader offered them protection and power, they're most likely to accept. The most important person we need right now though is Slyvia."
Ray knew that Slyvia was important right now. If she was part of his organisation technically Ray would have a seat at the top of Avrion but Slyvia was cautious and the contract had too many restrictions. Would Slyvia really be able to put her life in the hands of a stranger?
Jack nodded and before he headed off, Ray said one last thing.
"One more thing, don't invite Gary. I need to do that myself."
Ray sat down patiently as he waited for the results of the others. This whole time Ray had been taking it easy at the academy slowly getting 8stronger. After all, he was in no rush to achieve things, he had his goals but he could complete them at any time but Ray now knew he was being naive.
Twice now the Shadow plague had gone after his life and Ray couldn't let this go on any longer. When he fought against his father who was a true infected, Ray felt powerless. Although Ray wasn't sure if all true infected whereas powerful as his father it came to a shock that he wasn't able to lift a finger.
....
Suddenly notification screens started to pop up in front of Ray, as he went to take a look at them, he could see that all of his roommates so far had agreed to join Red wings which was the expected outcome. Now there were only two left Gary and Slyvia.
It would be a while before Jack would be able to invite Slyvia as she was busier than ever these days, which meant now Ray was left to invite Gary.
But before that, there was something else that was more urgent for Ray to do. Something that was on top of his list.
It was time for him to evolve.