Adrius was on guard the whole way up, it was dark inside the tunnel, but nothing much for someone who cultivates the element of Darkness. The tunnel was designed to house a lot of people, at first when you enter it first it is only designed to house one person. But the more you go up the more spacious the tunnel becomes.

Adrius has been walking for some time now, he can’t remember how much exactly, but he reckons it is between 10 and 15 minutes. He wasn’t tired, his body was trained and he was a magus apprentice so his stamina is more than any normal human.

The only thing on his mind right now was how to escape and where to escape to? It was not a secret that he doesn’t have any other place than the Raven academy, and now that it is basically doomed, he is kinda homeless. He could go to Firebird city, but it is too risky, and he just has the intuition that Firebird city will not exist in the near future. Mainly because of him, the City Lady is married to him and is pregnant with his child. So, this makes her the perfect target for the alliance to kidnap or to kill to flare his ire.

‘They think I would compromise my life for a mere mortal and a child who isn’t born yet? Who do they see me as, a knight on a white horse?’ He thought darkly, he will not lie he will become a little angry if they killed his child. But not because he is his child, but because a part of his plan to increase his power was based on him.

“Oh, what can I do, maybe I should hide for now till the world calms down and then go for the inheritance.” He murmured under his breath. It was really hard to think about survival where merely hours ago he was thinking about how he will raise his son and then kill him to take his blood.

“Life is really mysterious; the Universe works in a mysterious way.” It was a sentence Croft liked to repeat a lot, he said he heard it from his former mentor.

Adrius doesn't believe in any God or deity, because from his understanding when someone is strong enough then everything is possible. But he believes in something that is not God nor a deity. But something that created all, something that watches silently over the worlds it built without interfering. He believes in the Universe.

‘To think about it, isn’t the definition of the Universe according to the Magi similar to the definition of the Heavens in the east of my former world. That it is something that just exists and is all powerful but just and doesn’t discriminate. It seems that my former world was influenced by something a long time ago.’ He pondered, he started to realize a lot of similarities between his former world and the Magus World, he suspected that a magus visited his former world a long time ago, but he isn’t sure.

While he was thinking the tunnel started getting smaller again, indicating that Adrius almost reached the exit. Adrius prepared himself, he was sure that he would meet enemies outside.

He could faintly see the shape of the door of the exit, he walked toward it, took a deep breath and opened it. He was hit with the smell of the forest and the smell of fresh air. He walked out and looked around him, he was inside the forest that covered the mountain the Raven academy made its base.

He saw some birds on trees, the birds were watching him in a very unbirdy way. Adrius had a bad feeling about them, so with a wave of his hand dark arrows made out of darkness manifested and were shot at the birds. The birds let out a shriek as they were pierced by the arrows.

At that moment Adrius felt 3 strong auras coming toward him, and they were fast. What shocked him was that the auras were at the same level as him, they were also peak rank 3 magus apprentices.

Adrius felt himself starting to panic, this was not good. One he can take it, two he can escape, but three, they will kill him. He can’t fight three peak rank 3.

He only had one option, so he turned and ran. Call him a coward, but a live coward is better than a dead one.

He sped through the forest, jumping over branches on the ground and evading trees. But he could still feel the auras behind him, they were closer to him now, he reckoned 100 meters. He tried to move faster but he was already moving as fast as possible for him. He was using shadow steps but even then, he couldn’t move faster than them.

He felt them close to him, 70 meters, 50, 40, 30, 20. It was then he heard the voice of a man calling to him. “Hey look, it is the Dark Eyed Weasel. Who thought that the feared magus apprentice was this cowardly?” He laughed at his joke, and his company also joined him.

Adrius didn’t respond, he only focused on running away, but then he felt immense pain from his left shoulder, he looked and saw an arrow made out of fire was embedded in him and was burning his skin. Adrius gritted his teeth and mobilized his magic to eliminate the arrow. It didn’t take a lot for the arrow to disappear.

The man behind him was still taunting him but Adrius only moved forward, this was not the time for his pride to get into his way. This was a life and death situation, if he had to accept the insults so he could live then he would. But that doesn’t mean he will forget them; he will return them tenfold in the future.

He continued running, but to his despair, he was met with a dead end, he was met with a cliff. “Why the fuck is there a cliff here?” He said in a loud voice. This was a dead end, he can’t turn and he can’t jump, both are guaranteed death.

“Ah, look what we got here!” The same obnoxious voice sounded behind him, Adrius turned to face them and saw them. The man who was taunting him was tall, like too tall, he was at least 2,7 meters and his body was made out of pure muscle. But the most captivating thing about him was the silver hair that was cut short. Adrius studied the man and to his surprise the man didn’t have pointy ears like Elves, but they looked like human ears. His pale complexion was too pale, almost sickly.

Adrius immediately understood what he was. “Filthy blooded hybrid!” Adrius spat on the ground. “How dare such a lowly being like you speak to a pure-blooded human like me?!” Adrius was shouting and his magic was acting up. Of course, it was only a show, he doesn’t give a shit about such things, but for the sake of his plan that he just came up with it is necessary to act like this.

The man’s face turned red from anger; it seems that Adrius hit a sensitive spot with his statement. “How dare you?! You piece of shit!” The man was shaking from anger.

He then attacked alone, the two people with him shouted at the same time. “No, this is his plan to lure you alone.” But he didn’t listen and still attacked Adrius.

Adrius grinned inside his mask, his plan worked, this was all he needed. The moment the man was inside his perimeter Adrius used [Creeping Darkness] a dark circle appeared around him, it covered everything and made it impossible for anyone to see inside it.

“Hahaha, you are in my kingdom now!” Adrius laughed as he attacked the puzzled hybrid. The dark fireball he created was going to hit the man, but then the man showed a predatory smile and attacked the fireball, making it disappear.

He then looked at Adrius and smiled like a hunter seeing its prey. “Do you think this could defeat me, too bad for you I’m a light cultivator. So, your natural enemy. Prepare to die, punk!” He then shot white light from his hands that blinded the shocked Adrius, Adrius didn’t have enough time to react when the light pierced him in his stomach, the pain came first and it was bad. Adrius shouted because of the pain, he got a grip on himself, but before he could react the man was on him and kicked him in his stomach, where the wound was. Adrius passed out because of the pain, the last image he saw was the sky, which was getting farther and farther than him.