The Ylfaen Empire was composed of four large cities and several hundreds of small and medium-sized cities. Some small and medium-sized cities was surrounded by lush forests scaling from five hectares to 20 hectares. In these forests, small to medium-sized beasts reside. In comparison, the scale of the forest that surrounded each of the four large cities ranges from 60 to 100 hectares. These forests had far more dangerous small to giant-sized beasts.
Some medium and small cities were connected with only a giant wall to separate each other. Those surrounded by forests were connected by a main road.
Aeren Town was part of Meliora and was located close to the border. The next town, Yuhl, was at least 30 miles away and was close to Valin Fort, a medium-sized city where on of its train was directly connected to Starhorn.
If a person went to Yuhl, it would take him less than half a day to reach by foot, and three hours by the local train. At least this was true if there were no accidents along the way. Because medium-sized forest beasts sometimes appear near the roadside as well as the train tracks.
For those going by foot, there was a shortcut going to Yuhl from Aeren. The journey would only take about six to seven hours. However, this path was dangerous for normal humans. In this path, large-sized forest beasts sometimes appear. Only those who had the ability to fight these beasts were the ones brave enough to venture this path.
Gage, as a mercenary and a combat mage, was one of those with that ability.
Since he did not want to delay going back to Starhorn, he chose this path.
Fortunately, he did not encounter many forest beasts. And those he did, were only small-size.
He rested only for an hour before resuming his journey, because he still felt like someone was spying on him.
After a couple more hours, he finally saw from a distance the entrance to Yuhl Town.
As he showed his identification to the sentry by the entrance, he noticed that most of the buildings he could see were already closed. It just occurred to him that it was the wee hours of the night.
“Is there still a train to Valin Fort, running?” He asked the sentry while putting away his identification.
The sentry was a man in dark brown leather armor matched with a metal headgear, holding a pike.
“The last train going to Valin Fort left around twenty minutes ago,” he answered.
Gage frowned as soon as he heard that he just missed the last train going to Valin Fort. He belatedly regretted resting at all.
“Better stay the night,” the sentry added. “Forest beast sitings have gotten frequent after the commotion in the forest last night.”
“Commotion in the forest last night?”
“Yes, we heard some explosions. It didn’t last that long but we were on alert the whole night. Then the town lord ordered the local enforcers to check first thing in the morning. They found some remnant of battle but no traces of forest beasts, so it’s most likely done by people fighting.”
Gage’s frown deepened. Yuhl’s forest was connected to Aeren which was also connected to the forest around the Regis Estate.
‘If our target was still on the run, he would probably be somewhere near here last night.’ He thought.
“Valin Fort is just an hour and a half away from here, anyway. Thanks for the advice, though,” Gage replied.
“Suit yourself,” the sentry responded with a shrug.
Gage entered the town and immediately went to the opposite side. He didn’t want to delay. His instinct was telling him, if he stayed the night, he would be in big trouble.
He would rather face the forest beasts than ponder why he felt like this.
Gage instinctively touched his robe pocket where he hid the ice orb. Could this strange feeling be related to the ice orb?
Shaking his head, Gage tried to clear his head. He hated thinking. Thinking dull his senses.
‘Forget it. Just focus on getting to Starhorn,’ he finally decided and left Yuhl.
Contrary to his expectation based on the sentry’s warning, Gage did not encounter nor see a forest beast shadow.
However, he was not sure whether it was good or not.
‘Don’t overthink. Just know that once you reach Valin Fort, there will be trains available to Starhorn.’ He told himself.
Since Valin Fort was a medium-sized city and it was located between two big cities, most of its businesses and transportation were running 24/7.
However, just as he was thinking of not overthinking, a fog-like shadow appeared and surrounded him.
“What in the-!” Gage immediately grabbed his twin axes. Dark red arrays formed and circulated the blades. The blades burst into flames as he spun around to counter the fog around him.
To his dismay, the fog did not vanish and instead grew thicker.
“Annoying bastard!” Gage roared and slammed his twin axes on the ground he was standing on.
The ground broke at once and bits and pieces of earth protruded. He swung his axes and cut off these pieces of earth and immediately expanded his magic sense.
Up ahead he felt an ominous presence and knew it was where his attacker was hiding.
Dark red arrays formed and circled around the pieces of earth Gage cut off and it burst into flames. Using his axe like a bat, he struck the now blazing pieces and aimed at the spot where he felt the ominous presence.
“Hm. Interesting.”
Gage heard a deep male voice speak and suddenly the blazing earth pieces hit an invisible barrier and were extinguished before it turned to dust.
“How did you find my location?” The voice asked.
From the spot where Gage targeted, the darkness converged and soon a man wearing an oversized black robe appeared. On his right hand, a long scythe made of silver and diamond glowed menacingly in the darkness of the forest.
Gage scowled. When he saw the shadows, he thought his attacker was the punk he met at the Mercenary Guild. However, this guy’s face may be hidden under his robe but Gage was sure he was not the same person.
“Humph!” Gage grunted in reply and run towards the man.
The flames on both his axes blazed even brighter as a three-foot-wide dark array appeared in front of him. Using his left foot, Gage made an abrupt stop and hit the array simultaneously with both his axes. The huge angry dark red ball of flames emerged at the opposite side of the array where his axes hit. These ball of flames flew and attacked the black-robed man.
But.
The robed man waved his hand, and an invisible force erupted from him and the ball of flames was immediately extinguished.
Gage’s array was also destroyed at once.
“Wha-guh!”
The moment the invisible force touched his body, Gage felt like he was hit by a rapidly moving solid huge ball. He coughed out blood and was thrown back a few meters hitting three trees in the process.
He fell down on his side and coughed out more blood.
‘W-What just h-happened-!’ he thought, his mind was racing.
Just now, the robed man did not use any arrays. Did that mean that he only used his own magic pressure to destroy his magic and attack him?
Or.
‘T-This man. Is not an ordinary mage!’ He realized and got up at once.
As a combat mage, Gage’s physical body was tougher compared to a pure mage. And although he was injured, he knew he could still escape.
Yes, escape. He was usually hard-headed and would love a good fight. But this robed man was not someone he should fight and risk his life. No. He could not afford to put his life on the line, especially with an important task he needed to accomplish.
Gage took out a teleportation token from under his robes and was about to crush it when the shadows around him came to life and wrapped his body.
“Ngh!” He struggled to break free.
“A combat mage with a powerful body. Now, where did I hear that?” The robed man appeared amidst the darkness a few meters in front of Gage.
He noticed the teleportation token in Gage’s hand and chuckled, “Are you planning on leaving without even saying goodbye?”
“What do you want?” Gage growled at him.
“Hm. Good. A man who doesn’t beat around the bush,” the robed man said and nodded. “You are the man who went and made a scene at the Regis Estate yesterday morning. Why did you do that?”
Gage’s brow furrowed and he broke out in cold a sweat. He was not expecting the robed man’s question.
More importantly, the man’s words before his question already made it clear that he knew Gage was the person he was talking about.
‘This man… is an army dog?’ Gage wondered and gritted his teeth in anger.
He knew he was in trouble but the hatred he felt for the army was something he could stop.
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to answer?” The robed man asked.
“Why do you care?” Gage almost spat out his reply.
“You don’t need to know. Now answer me.” The robed man said and waved his hand.
Gage was immediately lifted off the ground and drew close to the man.
“I don’t have the obligation to answer you!” Gage spat and urged his magic.
Unfortunately, the robed man’s magic seemed to prevent him from summoning his magic.
The robed man sighed, “And here I thought you’re a sensible man. Doesn’t matter.”
Suddenly, the shadows binding Gage moved and forced their way inside his mouth.
“W-What are y-you-nnghgrhg!” He closed his mouth and tried to fight off the shadows.
But.
“NGARGH!!” Gage howled as the shadows also entered his ears and nose. His eyes bulged as the shadows invaded his body.
The shadows around Gage seemed to form another layer and suddenly…
BAM!
“Argh!” The robed man suddenly exclaimed in pain as these shadows solidified and pierced him in different directions.
The attack was too sudden that the robed man was not able to defend against it.
A fog-like shadow appeared behind Gage. It spread out and swallowed him whole.
“Phew. Ain’t that a close call. Funny, I had the impression that baldie would put up a good fight. Or did I arrive too early?”
A fog-like shadow appeared behind the robed man.
“You dare!” The robed man bellowed and swung his scythe behind.
It sliced through the shadow but hit nothing.
“Ahahaha! Just because I summoned my magic behind you doesn’t mean I’m there. Such a moron.”
A flash of red glinted from under the robe where the man’s eyes would be and the shadow burst out from him. It spread out at an alarming speed, filling the whole area with darkness.
“Oh, summoning your domain right off the bat?”
“Humph. You may use the same magic, but to me, yours is just an inferior kind!” The robed man shouted.
“Oh shit. We have an idiotic moron.”
Before the robed man’s shadow filled the whole area, the ground beneath him shook and black spikes shot out directly at him.
“Tsk.” The robed man jumped to avoid the spikes and his domain summoning was interrupted.
“Just because my magic looks like mist or shadow doesn’t mean it is, moron.”
A fog-like shadow appeared behind the robed man once again.
This time, however, a hand appeared within and reached out to grab the man from behind.
