And with that, Rhodes finally understood why her mana had been so depleted. "You used a spell of that level? It must have been a difficult situation."
"It wasn't just difficult," she said, placing the empty potion vial on the table. "It was... preditated."
"What do you an?"
He and Serie had not been seen in the world for nearly a thousand years. It should have been impossible to find them.
"The monsters, and the demons... they were all specialized in fighting mages. So I suspect... soone was behind it all."
She turned to get a grimoire and stumbled slightly. He quickly caught her and saw that there was a small tear in the sleeve of her robe, and under it, on her fair skin, was a shallow wound, from which a faint, dark aura was emanating.
"You're injured?" his voice dropped, a new, hard edge to it.
He had thought she had just been exhausted, but she was hurt. And though it was just a small wound, he felt a rage he had never felt before.
He gently touched the wound, intending to heal it with his holy magic. But the dark aura, as if activated, began to creep up his finger. He imdiately purged it with his own magic, and the wound, along with the dark aura, vanished.
"This is not a normal magical corrosion," he said, his voice now a low growl. "It's mixed with so kind of destructive power, specifically designed to counter a mage."
"And that's why it was able to pierce my shield," she said, her expression now grim. "But what's even more troubleso is what I found when I was trying to suppress it..."
"What?"
"This power... it's too specific. It's as if it was designed to counter elven mages."
He was silent. Had their whereabouts been discovered? Or had the demons just been after her? Either way, he had to find out.
He and Serie exchanged a look, and in that mont, a thousand years of unspoken understanding passed between them.
"Ela!" he called out.
The door opened, and the young elven girl hurried in. "My lady? Lord Rhodes?"
"Prepare yourself," Serie said calmly. "We're going on a trip."
"Where to?"
"Here," he said, and pointed to a cave on the map. In the thousand years he had lived in this forest, he had co to know its every corner. And if the demons were hiding anywhere, it would be there. And even if they were wrong, it didn't matter. They would just keep searching.
Ela looked at the mysterious region on the map and nodded. "Yes, my lord. At once." And she turned and hurried out, her movents now with the crisp efficiency that Serie had taught her.
"Your new body..." Serie said, a note of worry in her voice. He had just been reincarnated. She thought they could afford to wait.
"The spell worked better than I expected. Don't worry about ," he said, and clenched his fist. "But you... are you alright?"
"I am fine," she said. "The potion was very effective. And if soone is really after , we can't give them any more ti to plot."
He nodded, and after a few quick preparations, they set off.
"The mana here is extrely chaotic. My senses are being severely disrupted," she said, her eyes closed as she stood at the top of the cave.
"It seems we're in the right place," he said, also sensing the faint, dark aura in the air.
The three of them suppressed their own auras and silently approached the cave's entrance, where they found a series of warding spells. If they were to be triggered, every demon inside would be alerted. Serie just huffed, and with a wave of her hand, she broke the wards. The magic circle flickered a few tis and then vanished.
The deeper they went, the stronger the dark aura beca. They ca to a massive underground cavern, but in the center, there was no demon army, just a single figure.
He was floating in mid-air, a tall and slender being in a black robe that covered half of his face, his skin a sickly pale white, his eyes a pure, inky black, and on his head, two massive, demonic horns.
The mont she appeared at the entrance, his gaze fell upon her.
"Serie..."
He knew her. The demons who had attacked the town must have been his underlings. "You've finally found ." His voice was a calm, indifferent sound, as if he had been expecting her.
But when his gaze moved to the man beside her, a flicker of sothing, a change, appeared in his otherwise emotionless, black eyes. "But you..."
His gaze was fixed on Rhodes, his cold voice now tinged with a hint of a slight confusion. "Why is your existence so... blurry? So dangerous?"
"Tell your na," Rhodes said, calmly eting his gaze, Org held loosely in his hand, its light now secretly gathering. "I do not kill the naless."
This was, of course, a lie. He had killed countless naless demons. But he had to know... was this one of the great demons he had read about in the histories? If so... then he was about to steal the hero's party's kill.
The floating figure, Shurahat, was silent for a mont. In his black eyes, a thousand futures flashed, his own precognitive power now fully unleashed. And with it ca a strong, intuitive warning from his own, innate magic: Do not speak. To speak your true na will bring an irreversible end.
And so, he did not. He just slowly raised a hand, and with a flick of his wrist, several spears of darkness shot towards them, their angles so precise that they blocked off all avenues of escape.
"Watch out!"
Their voices cried out in unison. A defensive barrier of elven magic, and a wall of ice, appeared in front of them. The dark spears, as she had expected, pierced through her magic barrier as if it were water, but they were stopped by the wall of ice.
~~~
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