After Alex fell unconscious.
As Emperor Nishi rolled off the servant who he had fallen on, he tried to get up, unfortunately, physical traits made it difficult to get back on his feet, so he used his telekinetic powers to lift himself off the ground, allowing the man he had crushed to breathe.
"Hmph! Well, I suppose it was getting rather old! Have someone order me a new palanquin! Also, take this man to the dungeon, and make sure he does not perish, he might be useful later!"
*Cough* *Cough*
"Your majesty! *Bleurgh*"
"HOW DARE YOU VOMIT IN MY PRESENCE, HAN!? JUST BECAU-!"
*Bleurgh*
"*Cough* Apologies your majesty! I mean no *Cough**Cough* disrespect! I was poisoned by that *Bleurgh* elf over there!"
"Poison? I have never heard of a poison that could affect an immortal such as yourself?"
"Unfortunately, *Cough* it seems it is a poison that effects the soul *Cough* which can even effect *Bleurgh* immortals such as me! *Thud*" Han spoke as he kept stumbling around, coughing and vomiting all the while.
"Hm? Interesting! It could prove rather useful! Mayhap I shall use it on that woman that dared bully my little Kiko after we get the Dark Empire!"
Just then, a soldier was pushed out in front of the emperor by his peers, who had come to report some unfortunate news.
"Hm? What is it? Speak!"
"…!"
"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME! I SAID SPEAK OR DO YOU HAVE NO MORE USE OF YOUR TONGUE!"
*Gulp*
"Re-reporting to his majesty! The prisoners of the royal dungeon have escaped confinement!"
*Boom*
"HAN! EXPLAIN YOURSELF! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN WHILE YOU WERE HERE?!" The emperor screamed after blowing up the reporting soldiers head out of anger.
"*Cough* *Cough* It was the mad *Bleurgh*! The mad mage interfered!"
"Mad mage! Oh, you mean that miscreant without his legs! Hmph! Well, no matter! She is likely still within range, correct! Use this to track her down, then drag that ingrate before me!" The emperor said, as he threw a blood-soaked talisman at the plague-ridden immortal.
*Cough*
As Han lifted up the blood-soaked talisman, a light green symbol lit up on the piece of paper. It had the shape of an eye, and periodically, drops of green would come out of the pupil, then slowly fade into red as it ran down the talisman, before an arrow symbol pointing in a specific direction would light up.
…
Meanwhile, Aiko, Shinji, and Kenji had made it out of the inner court and was struggling to lose the pursuing soldiers. When they first parted ways with Alex, most of the soldiers had fled the area in fear of getting caught in the crossfire between the mad mage and immortal Han. Hence, they had initially planned to sneak their way out after escaping the scene, and it had all gone well, until they got to the wall separating the inner and outer court. They were going to sneak past the guards, by using Kenji's 6th sense to find an unguarded part of the wall they could climb over. Unfortunately, Shinji had accidentally fallen on to Aiko while dropping down to the ground, causing her to drop the signal beacon she had wrapped in several layers of cloth they had robbed from the buildings on their way out, to try and hide the incredibly bright ball of light, that would instantly give away their position. Of course, they had wrapped it in so many layers to hide it, that just dropping it wouldn't unravel it completely, so this might have been fine, if the place they had dropped down in didn't have such a slanted terrane. The ball of glowing fabric ended up rolling away, losing more and more fabric as it went. Kenji had fortunately managed to grab it before all the cloth came off, but he ended up getting spotted by some guards, who then demanded to know who he was, and one thing led to another, and now they are being chased around the outer court.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST GRAB IT WITH TELEKINESIS!" Shinji shouted at Kenji, while casting mudslide on the ground behind him, to make it harder for the soldiers chasing on foot.
"I FORGOT I COULD DO THAT OKAY!" Kenji shouted back.
"WHOA!"
*Crash*
"MEATHEAD!!!" Aiko said, as a fire cultivator who had boosted his running speed just slipped on Shinji's mud, and came tumbling past her.
"HEY, IT HASN'T BEEN THAT LONG SINCE I ASCENDED! I'M STILL NOT USED TO BEING A NASCENT SOUL YET! AND BESIDES, IF SHINJI WASN'T TOO BUSY FANBOYING OVER THE DEMON KING, MAYBE HE COULD HAVE LEARNED TELEKINESIS AND GRABBED IT HIMSELF!" Kenji shouted before using his qi to throw a fireball at the wind cultivators coming at them from above, which exploded prematurely creating a smokescreen.
*Crackle*
*Cough**Cough*
*Boom*
"IT'S IMPORTANT RESEARCH, NOT FANBOYING!" Shinji shouted back, after casting chain lightning at the group of metal wearing men in the sky.
"YOUR BOTH IDIOTS!" Aiko said, as she dropped a few make-shift golems she had made using some pebbles and some of the fabric from the beacon, which would tie themselves around the soldiers' legs to make them trip.
"LOOK, IT'S THE WALL OF THE OUTER COURT! KENJI, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!" Shinji shouted.
Soon after, Kenji activated his 3rd stage aura, and bolted forwards at incredible speeds as he smashed straight through the wall.
"I STILL WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO THAT!" Aiko said as she ran through the hole in the wall.
"I TOLD YOU! IT'S UNIQUE TO KENJI!" Shinji shouted as he followed after.
*Huff**Wheeze*
"Ugh! HEY, WAIT UP!" Kenji shouted, as the two ran past him while he was catching his breath.
After they got into the city, the three found a busy street, and blended into the crowd, before sneaking into an alley way while the soldiers pursuing them were busy searching through the populace.
*Huff**Puff**Wheeze*
"Oh, man! *Huff* How long has it been since we were this winded!"
"Probably, *wheeze* Shiro academy!"
"Nah, man! *Huff* Protecting you from the magical beasts was such a pain in the ass!"
"If it was such a pain than why did you-?"
"Hey, Aiko! How's the beacon doing! Any good news?" Shinji said, interrupting Kenji.
*Bleurgh*
Aiko, the one in the worst physical condition, hurled up whatever was in her stomach.
"Is that a no?"
"*Huff* Yeah! Someone is answering, so we just have to hide and wait until they show up!"
"And how long will that take?" Kenji asked.
"Well, its pretty far, so it could be a couple of days."
"A COUPLE O-!"
"Hush!" Aiko said, while Shinji hurried to cover Kenji's mouth.
"Look! We can talk normally here since I doubt anyone can hear us over the bustling crowd over there, but if you start shouting, someone might notice!"
"Sorry! But isn't it too long! Senior Alex might already be dead by that time!"
"We don't need to worry about senior! Unlike us, he is an important figure in the Dark Empire, so they won't kill him! Instead, they'll probably just take him hostage or demand a ransom from the Dark Empire! Who knows, maybe he'll escape on his own!"
"Oh! So, should we just leave then?"
"Unfortu-! *Cough**Cough*"
Interrupting their conversation came a wobbling man with an eye-patch, being supported by a group of pale soldiers. He was clutching a piece of paper while coughing and vomiting profusely.
"Hm? Is he drunk or something?" Kenji asked.
"Ugh! I sa-!*bleurgh*"
"Pst!"
While the soldiers were distracted by the ill immortal, Shinji, opened a nearby window of the rundown building to their left, and gestured for the others to follow along. Unfortunately, Aiko had frozen stiff at the sight of Han, and by the time the two noticed and went to grab her.
"NO GET OFF ME YOU *COUGH* THEIR GETTING AWAY! Ugh!" Han ordered as he saw what they were doing.
"Shit! Come on! Let's go!" Kenji said, as he threw Aiko through the window and jumped in after her.
Once they were through, Shinji covered the window in his aura fire, killing the first two guards who jumped through while Kenji dragged a shivering Aiko through another window.
*Boom*
Just then Han had had enough and broke down the wall of the building while releasing his qi pressure, pinning Shinji, Aiko, and Kenji to the ground along with the rest of the soldiers.
"Ugh! Damn that mage! *Cough**Cough*! Ugh! Now *bleurgh*"
A few hours later, a group of coughing and vomiting soldiers came limping their way back into the imperial court while dragging three chained prisoners along.
Also, a new plague suspected to have originated within the Nishi Empire swept across the land in a matter of days, only to suddenly disappear a month later. For some reason, it seemed to only spread within the borders of the Nishi Empire and went down in the history books as the great Nishi Curse, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives in its wake.