Saints had limited amount of people available and they were being killed one by one by either Sacronan or beasts.

Kaden cared very little about their lives as he tried to retreat. The crazy boar only knew roughly where he was. It also seemed to like to kill humans. Kaden watched it stomp and crush a few random people as if it was some kind of a game to it. It required Formation stage experts to even fight against it and they had better things to do.

Then in all the chaos Sacronan decided to attack the boar. Perhaps it was causing them more problems than help. The boar merely snorted and unleashed some kind of water wave attack down the volcano side. This formed into a flow of mud and dragged along a lot of debris. This attack caused havoc on the approaching humans with very little effort on the boar’s part. It was clearly very intelligent.

Yet, it may have been more of by accident than by its intent. Soon after the boar started to release more water and create more mud flows at every direction once it noticed it was effective.

Kaden was yet again speechless as he watched it all happen. The boar was using huge amounts of water type mana to unleash more and more water waves. The waves also triggered land slides so it was not all because of the boar, but it still was something clearly very taxing. Just how close was it to becoming Lower Cari? Perhaps it was already at a limit?

The mud flows started to become a problem to him too.

“Shit! I’m going to die at this rate!” Kaden cursed as he got separated from the front line towards the escape gliders. He barely avoided a wave which dragged a long a few weaker people. “If it wants me, its doing really good job getting me killed!”

Then the volcano errupted once more.

*GRONNKKHHH*

The boar finally looked a bit shocked, but then released huge wave of water to counter the fire as it started to retreat.

“I find later! I take care of you!” The boar shouted again. “Love you!”

This wave that came along with a fire storm caused Kaden to feel some terror and he didn’t have time to think of what the boar said. A huge wave hit him too and he was dragged along. He put all available power to protect himself. Only thing Kaden could feel or see whas swirling mud and debris around him as he was washed along.

Kaden was already injured so it didn’t help when he was slammed against things he could not even begin to say what they were. Rocks? Trees? Eventually he was hit on his head and he lost consciousness.

---

*Cough*Cough*!

Kaden woke up. He was covered in mud. Despite the even greater pain than he had before, he was still alive. It was night time.

He lied there for a while before he truly woke up and regained his senses.

“Urghh… crap!” Kaden cursed. “That damn boar!”

He got up, but fell on his knees in the still wet mud. Kaden immediately realized he was in trouble. Too much time must have passed. He was stranded in Sacronan! He could see Sacronan’s soldiers searching through the mud for valuable things. A lot of people had died and they were there strewn across the volcano or in the mud.

“I cannot be found!” Kaden realized and looked for an escape route. Luckily he was covered in the dark mud and it was night. He could see well, but anyone else, at least without use of mana, could not. “I am injured and I must recover. Still, even if I do recover, I still cannot fight alone against everyone in Sacronan.”

Still, it was quite a distance to return to Saint Empire. Kaden was still not done with them anyway. He had also found Erral who must die and has no right to live. With that, he could not just pretend he was dead.

“Well, I might as well kill some people along the way”, Kaden though to himself as he was sneaking away, trying not to make too much noise in the mud. “That is, if I get the chance, but recovery comes first.”

Kaden still had Ronnald’s corpse in his bag. He wondered, if that was going to be enough. Last time he had been this wounded must have been before his rebirth. The entire assault into the remnant had been a complete mess. Kaden felt he was lucky to be alive.

“I wonder, what happens when I get back”, Kaden wondered for a moment. “I have stepped into some nobility plot landmine along the way. Olren is dead and so is Dorin. Oh well, I’ll just have to grow stronger before I go back.”

Kaden knew he had quite a few Fire Stones in his bag and some ores, but those had to be refined into metals first. The Fire Stones would likely be very useful. He had touched them and felt almost need to absorb the mana inside. He would do that once he had Devoured Ronnald.

In the distance Kaden could see some structures. There had apparently been a town near the volcano some distance away. It had been hit by some of the ash rain and the mud. There was some damage and people in it were more concerned with repairing than anything else. Whatever local military presence Sacronan had, was stationed there.

Kaden decided to go around it. There was nothing in there that he would risk going in for.

His plans right then was to escape and avoid detection. Once closer to front lines he could decide where to go. Stay in Sacronan and cause havoc or if situation was bad, find a way past frontlines and return to Saint Empire. It sounded far better to stay with saints, but problem was that he wasn’t sure if that was possible.

Kaden wasn’t really aware of terrain or any roads or if there were any towns or cities along the way, but he did know the way in general. His path was towards north. Once he reaches the shore, he would continue along it.

----

Town of Naipel next to mount Vesu.

“Sir, we have found tracks we don’t believe belong to any of our people”, said a soldier of Sacronan to his commanding officer. “They came from an area we had not yet checked.”

“Hmmm, a search party must be sent to check it”, replied the officer. “It must be one of the heretics from Saint Empire that survived. We don’t need any heretics spying us in our own territory!”

“Uhm… I wish to add that the tracks are strange”, continued the soldiers sounding a bit unsure. “The footprints were not normal. They look like footprints and clearly from boots, but there are are some sharp marks around each step. Some said that perhaps it is a beast after all.”

“Whether it is a beast or something else, something escaped from the area and if possible we must stop it. Whether it is a saint or a beast, they must be killed. We are not taking prisoners this time. Continue search for anything”

“Understood!” Said the soldier and left.

The officer quickly gave some orders and a small team was formed. Kaden obviously was unaware of this.

----

Kaden observed the surrounding terrain. There were well kept roads, probably due to the proximity of the town. Still, he knew he could not use them. Instead he would have to pass through mountainous area with thick forest.

He wasn’t afraid of any beasts in them as he was merely passing through. Sacronan would keep beast strength down so near to any larger population centers. At most he would run into a few dire beasts.

It was actually rather good place to finally stop to rest and heal. No one seemed to be after him, so he might as well take the time to restore his strength.

Kaden spent some time looking around the area for a good place to stop. He eventually ended up at a small opening between some trees with a stream nearby.

“This is a fine spot”, Kaden thought to himself.

Then he took out Ronnald’s corpse from his bag.

“This guy was probably a weakling too”, Kaden muttered to himself. “I hope his flesh heals me enough for this to be worth it.”

Kaden started to Devour the corpse. It was charred enough that Kaden didn’t even have to burn it this time.

There was an obvious effect. Kaden could feel the pain in his body lessen as it was being repaired. Yet, it was not as quick as he had hoped. The corpse would restore him to an acceptable state, but not fully. Not that he could even Devour all of it in one go. Kaden knew he healing process would take some more time, but he didn’t consider it a problem. As long as anyone didn’t prevent him from taking a few stops, he would have more than enough time.

As soon as he felt full again, he placed rest of the corpse back into his bag. Then he pulled out a Fire Stone. It was time to check their effect.

Kaden followed the desires of what his instincts told him. If not for them, he was not even sure, if it was safe to just simply absorb them just like, say, a beast core. Yet, that is what he did. A sudden burst of heat entered his body. He could sense the dense fire type mana move around his body. Some of it was even ejected out of his control and caused area around him burn slightly, but quite a bit of it was absorbed by his high beast core!

Finally after absorbing chaotic mana ever since his evolution, there was a change with his core! The opaque core suddenly seemed to glow just a slight bit with fiery color. It then concentrated in the middle and a remained there instead of seemingly disapearing into its depths like all the mana before.

“As expected”, Kaden thought to himself after he inspected himself carefully. “This is not surprising.”

For humans Formation stage is basically about enriching your mana with your desired mana types and gaining more control. Internal formation that humans had was just a natural method of doing this.

It would make sense that for high beasts to enrich their core with their mana type would be the right way. For Kaden this should be mostly fire, but if possible he wanted to test wind mana too. Phoenixes had natural life type mana too, but that was higher grade mana and he wasn’t sure, if he could get any until at higher stages.

This was good thing to confirm!

As for the absorption of Fire Stones. That seemed inefficient. A lot of it leaked out due to being too dense to keep fully in control.

Kaden absorbed another, but this time he cycled his mana system. This was far more succesfull method! Much smaller part of the mana leaked out as it was captured into the cycle around Kaden’s core. Also, seeing how the mana leaked out made him think of ways to upgrade his mana system again. With some adjustments more mana could be gathered in one go and not leak out even if large amount was absorbed, like Fire Stones.

Kaden’s core took only slightly larger part, but quite a bit was refined and sent into Kaden’s mana channel! Due to the dense mana injected in, it too finally showed effects of reaching some limit!

“Perhaps I can reach Formation stage!” Kaden rejoiced as he noticed it. “I would not have to suppress myself in front of people anymore!”

He had been very close to advancing for some time, but due to the size and structure of his unusual mana channel it had not happened. Now he had resources in hand that would be expensive to acquire otherwise.

“Yes!” Kaden decided. “I will attempt to reach Formation stage now!”

Failure would likely cause him injuries, possibly grievous ones, but he had resources available! His body full from Devouring! He might not be completely healed, but advancing could increase his chances of surviving so waiting for perfect state was not something he fully desired.

It was time to advance!