Some while later, Red knew it was finally time to move. He grabbed the purple crystal in his hand and squeezed it with some force.

There was a crackling sound, and the item shattered into pieces. A moment later, some trace amounts of a purple mist started to slip between the cracks in his finger and dissipating as soon as they made contact with his skin and clothes. Red opened his hand, and the small amount of smoke turned into a strong current that expanded and covered his entire body in a matter of seconds, blocking his vision entirely.

Before the youth could even react, though, the smoke disappeared. He looked down at his extended hand, and just as expected, it became invisible. He examined the rest of his body, and sure enough, there was no part of him that was visible, including the items he was carrying on himself.

Red couldn’t smell his own odor, and even the sound his foot made against the ground seemed muffled. It was truly a concealing spell, and in more ways than one.

‘I need to move.’

Although the charm would last him hours, the youth still felt a sense of urgency to get going. After all, the long this went on, the higher the chances something could go wrong.

He climbed on top of a desk and opened the small window that let the only bit of light into his room throughout the day. The passage was narrow, but Red had the bit of flexibility needed to squeeze through it without much issue.

He landed on the ground of the courtyard and examined his surroundings. A cursory inspection with his crimson sense revealed nothing out of the ordinary, but even still Red remained alert.

He started to move towards Allen’s room first, and with every step he took, he found himself examining his own body to see if the invisibility was still there. He couldn’t help himself, considering that if the magic disappeared, then all of their plans would be disrupted.

No such thing happened yet, though, and soon enough, Red stood by Allen’s room. He approached it from the windows side, and using some force knocked a few times against the wooden wall.

The fluctuation inside shifted, and the youth felt it moving towards the window. He saw the window flap moving, though he couldn’t hear any noise coming from it, until, a few seconds later, a very soft thud echoed by his side.

Red promptly reached towards the invisible Allen before he could say anything and grabbed at his shoulder. The young master immediately tensed, but after the youth applied a bit more force in his grasp, he seemed to relax.

Red then whispered to him. “To Rimold’s room.”

He didn’t hear any sound of acknowledgment, and if he knew Allen well, the young master was probably nodding. It was good enough for him, though.

He moved towards Rimold’s room, with Allen following behind him - or at least trying to. The youth repeated the same knocking sound against the window, and soon enough, the rogue was also outside.

“Where to now?” Rimold asked with undisguised eagerness as soon as he stepped foot outside.

Red examined his surroundings. “You probably won’t be able to see or hear where I’m going, and I don’t want us to be too close together in case someone ambushes us, so just follow my instructions. I will tell you where we are moving, and once everyone understands the exact place that is, we move.”

“Alright.” The rogue didn’t seem the least bit hesitant to follow the youth’s orders.

As no questions seemed to be forthcoming, they began to move.

They sneaked through the town, with Red leading the way and reining them in when they seemed to wander too far apart. It was slow going, much more with the youth having to plan each of their steps ahead of time, but it was the kind of menial work none of them complained about doing.

At first, both Allen and Rimold seemed anxious and bewildered. They kept asking Red specific questions about the spot they were supposed to move to, afraid that even the slightest bit of deviation would be enough for the enemy to stop them. However, under the youth’s impatient prompting, they stopped speaking so much and started to move faster.

Unsurprisingly, sneaking through the town was an easy task. Even with the increased patrols, Red was a specialist on the matter, and with invisibility added on top of it, they didn’t seem to be under any danger of being spotted. That being said, he also used this opportunity to scout around with his crimson sense.

Who knew if he would maybe stumble on Rickard while wandering around?”

It seemed, however, that he was too optimistic. He didn’t find any Lesser Ring Realm fluctuations during this trip. In fact, he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, and he didn’t have that powerful of a mind to memorize every fluctuation of the townspeople to discern who among them were foreigners.

It was a disappointing result, but not surprising. The last bit of hope Red clung to of helping Hector and the others was extinguished. Now, he could only focus on escaping.

Even with their slow movement, it didn’t take them more than half an hour to arrive at the town’s edge and into the farmland surrounding the hill. Only when they felt like they were out of the sea of buildings did Allen and Rimold seem to relax, even if only a little.

“Where are we supposed to meet her?” Allen asked with a tone of undisguised nervousness.

Although they weren’t there when Frida came to visit, they were informed about her by Hector. After all, the last thing they wanted was for the duo to panic when they met someone familiar during their escape mission.

Red looked around out of instinct, before realizing she was probably invisible, too. “She said she would be around the cornfield at the very edge of town.”

“The cornfield is too big. How are you going to- Oh wait…” Rimold trailed off.

The youth shook his head to himself. “Just keep following my lead. Once I sense her, I will tell you.”

Thankfully, no matter how large this cornfield was, Red’s crimson sense allowed him to scout it many times over from every direction. It took him just a few minutes to sense Frida’s fluctuation.

“She’s there?” Allen asked. “How are you going to be able to tell her we’re here?”

The youth could feel their gazes boring into his general direction even through the invisibility.

Red didn’t respond, though, and instead used the signal they had agreed upon. He cupped his hand around his mouth and, with practiced ease, simulated a bird’s call.

“Wha- What are you doing?” Allen sounded alarmed.

“Be quiet.” Red shushed him and focused on the woman’s fluctuation.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he would need to repeat his call. She approached their location with measured steps, and once she was within thirty meters of them, she stopped.

Red looked at the area she was supposed to be in, behind a toppled stone wall. Like the youth previously thought, though, she was also invisible.

He wondered why she was waiting for so long, but a few seconds later, a voice reached them.

“Are you here?” Frida’s voice said.

“Frida!” Allen seemed to jump for joy.

“Be silent!” The woman silence the young master, though in a much angrier manner than Red had used.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I-”

“This is not the time.” She cut him off. “We can talk later once we reach safety.”

Red imagined Allen was nodding profusely at this moment.

“Are the others also here?” Frida asked.

“I’m here.” Rimold said.

“I’m also here.” Red made his presence known.

The woman seemed relieved. “Good. Red, you said you have a way to follow me, right?”

“I do.”

“Then make sure to bring up the rear. The other two can stay in the middle and you can redirect them in case they start to wander another way.” she said. “It’s important that you stay at least within 30 meters of me at all times. Do you understand?”

Red hesitated. “… I understand.”

He didn’t know why the woman said that, but it must have been important to request at such a conjecture. The others also expressed their understanding, and without further delay, Frida set off.

From the farm fields to the forest line was a walk of less than a kilometer, and soon enough, they were amidst the trees. Even with the cover of foliage, Red felt he was more naked here than in town.

There, they still had the protection of the formation and Hector, but here, no one would be able to save them, even if they wanted to. This was not to mention the sounds of breaking twigs under their feet - something that not even the concealing crystal could help them with.

Frida, however, seemed entirely unbothered by the environment, her fluctuation not wavering for even a moment. In some ways, Red felt she was even more composed than people like Domeron, which left him perplexed.

Despite the general tense atmosphere around the group, they continued their journey undisturbed. Red made sure his companions were always within thirty meters of the woman, and they didn’t come across any monsters or imperials over the next couple of hours.

It was around that point, though, that Frida spoke up.

“The crystal’s effect is about to end. Do not panic.”

Allen seemed surprised. “How do you know when-”

Before the young master could even finish his sentence, a soft purple light envelop their surroundings. Sure enough, as this light diminished, the silhouettes of all of them were revealed at the same time.

Rimold eyes widened as he examined his visible figure. “W-What happened? Why did they suddenly end?”

Frida, who was wearing similar dark clothing to the one from yesterday, looked back at them with a calm expression. “We are near our destination. They have already served their purpose.”

Allen also seemed troubled. “What about the imperials? Can’t they track us now?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” She shook her head. “We are under the protection of another concealment.”

Red frowned at this. “Another concealment?”

“Yes.” Frida nodded. “We are close.”

She turned around and started to walk again. Red and the others were hesitant about her enigmatic words, but they still decided to follow her lead.

A few minutes later, a fluctuation entered his detection range, and Red finally understood why she was so confident.

‘Greater Ring Realm Cultivator…’

The fluctuation flared like a burning pyre in his senses, immediately dimming everything else he felt in his surroundings. It caused him to pause, and the others, who were walking by his side, also stopped walking.

Rimold looked at him with an alarmed expression. “What is it? Did you sense something?”

Red didn’t respond and just stared at Frida’s back.

The woman seemed to notice this and turned around to look at him with a serene expression. “That is your escort. You have no reason to fear them.”

The youth was still hesitant, but he just nodded and started to walk forward again. His companions were confused, but they took Red’s silent approval to mean it was safe.

Just a few steps later, the youth felt another fluctuation that almost caused him to stumble again. It was also another Greater Ring Realm fluctuation, but this time it didn’t belong to a human, but rather a monster.

‘Could it be…?’

Thankfully, he wasn’t going to be kept in suspense for much longer. They continued to walk forward until the trees started to become more sparse, and a clearing opened up in front of them.

There stood a man of average height, wearing a dark purple martial robe, similar to the one the youth saw that female cultivator from long ago wear. It was impossible to discern this individual’s figures, though, as he was wearing a wooden mask that hid his expression. The mask itself was also purple, and carved on its surface was the drawing of a seven-pointed star.

The man just stood there, with his arms crossed and staring at them as they approached. The cultivator himself, however, wasn’t what caught their attention.

Rather, it was the six-meter tall, eagle-like monster standing right behind him. Its feathers were almost inky black, its tail extending at its rear like human-sized fans, and its talons dug into the earth below where it hid talons that could pierce into solid rock. In its head, two twisting dark horns grew from each side, like the branches of a tree, a fine but still giant gray-beak stood, and in the place where its pupils should be, there were only two empty white eyes similar to that of a blind person.

Despite all that, Red could feel as if the bird was staring right at them, its head turning slightly in their direction. Upon setting eyes on the creature, all of them paused, and Allen and Rimold couldn’t help but shiver at the sight.

Suddenly, a voice broke the tense silence.

“You should get used to its appearance.” the purple-clad cultivator said. “You will be flying on it to our mountain.”