“Master. The Enforcers are at the eighth level. It’s only a matter of time before they breached the ninth.”

“Already?”

Fremin turned to his apprentice in surprise.

“What about the sixth and seventh level?”

“Unknown… but we believe that it’s compromised as well.”

“How?! I thought there’s a giant Arthropod colony there? What about the golems?!”

The apprentice could only shake his head due to the uncertainty.

“Speed up the procedure! Start outlining the Procona powder on the critical spots! I want that ritual circle to be complete within the next five minutes!!!”

“Relax Fremin, it’s not like the Enforcers will be here yet.”

“Shut up Viper! I don’t want to hear that from someone as laid back as you! Wait… is that a piece of meat sandwiched between two pieces of bread? Why are you eating so leisurely when everybody else is so busy?!!!!!”

“Like I said Fremin, relax. It’s not the end of everything. Besides, did you know that this special arrangement of meat and bread was referred to as a burger? I hear it’s quite a delicate cuisine people from the other world enjoy. Apparently they pan fry the bread, deep fry the meat, top it up with seasoning sauces and place sesame seeds on the top.”

“I DON’T CARE!!! Well… maybe I’m a little interested but that’s not the point!!!! Can’t you sense the severity of the situation?!”

Viper leisurely munched off a piece of meat from his burger.

“The Enforcers are always short on manpower especially when the department is filled with Dark Mages. If the Enforcers have reached the eighth level, they must have skipped the sixth and seventh.”

“They can’t have skipped levels! Even if they have the means to teleport themselves there, the timing is too soon! Besides, won’t they be busy with the chimeras and the golems?”

“Golems? There are golems here?”

“Of course? They are sentries assigned to prevent the Chimeras from roaming to the wrong places. They may fall under the category of the standard models but they still can be a major threat if a mage is not careful. I tweaked some of those who are in key locations to be irresponsive to anyone and attack.”

“Is there some sort of password to negate the tweaked golems?”

“There is, but only me and my close friends know!”

“Close friends? Ah… the four other Masters that will come to help you with the ritual. Speaking of which, when will they be arriving?”

“Soon, very soon. By the time they arrive we will be ready to start the ritual procession. Which is why it is so odd that the Enforcers would breach the eight level so quickly!”

“Hm… I’m not familiar with the landscape of the catacombs. But what if there are warp gates stationed throughout the various points of the labyrinth?”

Fremin shook his head.

“There’s no such thing.”

“Ah… I see…”

“We need to improve our defences! Hey you! Get a team back up the levels and manually seal the corridors! I want the corridors collapsed! Collapsed! You hear me?!”

While watching Fremin yell instructions at an unfortunate Apprentice, Viper could only take another bite.

Since Fremin was too stressed to listen, Viper soon lost interest talking to him.

While busy munching and savouring the taste of the burger, Viper soon thought of something.

“What if they got outside help?”

“What?”

“What if the Enforcers had somehow acquired the help of Pure Blooded Dark Mages? It should not be strange for Pure Bloods to easily clear the levels with the help of their Blood Gifts, nor would it be that strange for one or two Pure Bloods to work within the Enforcers. Plus, the environmental energies of this place is full of Dark Magic. Won’t the presence of Dark Pure Bloods be extremely beneficial for the Enforcers?”

“… Impossible. We are talking about the extremely rare Pure Blooded Dark Mages. Even if it’s one of them, how could the Enforcers gather the help of Pure Bloods in such a short time?”

“Well… if I remember my intelligence correctly, there are quite a few students enrolling that are members of the Greater Noble Houses. There ought to be a couple of Dark Pure Bloods… Oh… there are also two Progenitor kids here as well.”

“Impossible.”

Fremin shook his head.

“As powerful as those kids can be, they are still children. I doubt that the Enforcers would risk brining them into such a dangerous place.”

“Ah… that might be true, but you see. As nobles, those children are entitled to help the Enforcers should the situation call for it. They might have been forced to help them out.”

“And what? Risk getting the ire of the most powerful families in this society? If anything were to happen to those children, I bet that even the High Council will abstain themselves to cover for the Enforcers. Not to mention the fact that the bulk of the High Councilors are made up of the Greater Noble Families!”

“Hm… well, there’s no point wasting energy pondering about all this. Besides, didn’t we set up twelve barriers in the ninth level in case the Enforcers break through? We already have the means to stall them. Besides, we are speeding up the ritual after all. The sooner we are done with this ritual, the faster we can explore the eleventh level.”

Fremin looked behind Viper’s shoulder.

“Your subordinates look tough. Could you send them to deal with the Enforcers?”

“I could, and I can. However, that’s not part of my instructions.”

“Do you want to see this ritual succeed or not?”

“Oh I do. Believe me, I do. But my boss told me to strictly keep a low profile. Trust me, I did bring this up to the boss on numerous occasions, but my boss is still affirmed that we should not stick out.”

“Does your boss not care about this ritual?”

“I think my boss should. But unfortunately, what the boss exactly had in mind is not for me to divulge. I’m merely following instructions.”

“Tch!”

Frustrated that Viper would not be of any help, Fremin turned and redirected his attention to the ritual circle.

“Speed up the ritual outline!”

Even with his back turned, Viper kept his smile. But once Viper turned and started walking away, the smile disappeared from his face completely.

“Do we want to see this ritual succeed? Well… not exactly.”

Viper signaled for one of the masked characters.

“Patch us to the boss. We need to report about this unexpected development.”

The masked character moved up closely to give his report.

“Already done sir. The boss said not to worry. The increase in the Enforcers movements was part of the plan.”

“Part of the plan? That’s strange… I was not told about this. Was there some strange development back at base?”

“We don’t know sir.”

Viper scratched his hair.

The fact that the Enforcers could easily clear two levels this quickly was already an unusual feat. Even if they had the help of Pure Bloods, it was still unusual for them to be able to move this quickly.

It was too unusual to the point of being unnatural. Viper suspected something else might have a hand in this, and for some reason, his suspicions were soon directed to his boss.

If it was within the boss’s calculations to speed up the Enforcers, the situation was just too convenient. The boss must have somehow provided the enforcers some tips here and there on how to move quickly within the catacombs.

“Has the boss somehow gotten impatient? Or is this one of the cases where cleaning up must be absolutely perfect?”

In any case, it was not in Viper’s position to know the entity of the boss’s plan.

“Ah well… whatever. We already got what we came here for anyway.”

One of Fremin’s apprentices came running to Viper.

“Excuse me sir?”

“Ya?”

“We finished drawing the outline of the ritual circle. Our master wants your White Mages to draw in the protective seals.”

“Oh… ok. Yes, yes. Don’t worry. We know where to draw up the protective seals, the ritual circumference and the center. We’ll be along soon.”

The apprentice nodded and soon returned to the ritual circle.

“I almost completely forgot about that.” Viper added.

“So what now?”

The masked character stood there waiting for further instructions.

“Hm… let’s prepare to leave. Oh, tell our White friends to ‘change’ their protective seals. I want them to converse their Cast Limit in case things don’t go as planned.”

There was never such a thing as a safe plan when it comes to Corruption Research.

Even if the protective seals were to work, the highly destructive energies of Dark Magic would overrun the weak White Magic.

All these alchemists were doomed from the start anyway, and that was precisely what Viper wanted.

TOA

When she came to, Claire was at a loss.

Everything was dark, and she was lying down on her back.

At first she thought she was in her dormitory room. However, the unnatural hardness of the material she was lying on suggested otherwise.

As she soon got up, the first thing that came to her mind was the fight with the Arthropod queen.

“Oh right… we fell. Damn you and your muscle brain Acriscius.”

Checking her body, Claire found that she was not hurt. After pondering for a few more seconds, she then remembered that she covered herself with a protective layer of [Repulsive Act] as they fell.

Putting her attention away to her surroundings, Claire soon sensed the presences of her nearby crystallized chimeras. They were all still intact, and they were just standing still waiting for further instructions.

“Light… I need some light…”

Wanting some light, Claire casted three [Fire Balls] with her left hand and she left them hovering around her.

Claire soon found herself in a large quiet hall different from the chambers in the upper levels. There was a huge vastness of space, which suggested that this level of the labyrinth might be larger than the one above.

Looking up above, Claire could not see the ceiling. But she was confident that there would be a hole somewhere up there.

The general colour of this hall was a lot darker and the air was more humid. Even the temperature was gotten considerably colder.

With a thought in mind, Claire took a deep breath in and out.

When she sucked in the air, she felt elated and rejuvenated with an overpowering energy.

When she breathed out, white misty vapours exited her mouth.

“I see… so the deeper we go, the more concentrated Dark Magic is in the environment.”

That counts as good news.

Since she’s a Dark Pure Blood, drawing the concentrated energy from the environment should not be a problem.

Looking at her side, Claire saw the Arthropod Queen.

She became startled, but when she saw that the queen was not moving, she realized that it’s dead.

“Now how did this thing die? I thought this thing had quite the endurance?”

Moving up to the chimera queen, Claire saw a concentrated spot of translucent fluids and tissues near the head.

“Did she squash her head?”

A closer examination suggested otherwise.

Snapping her fingers, her three crystal birds soon grabbed the queen’s head and tilted it up only to reveal a fine cut across the queen’s throat.

“Ah… that imposter was underneath that queen’s head earlier. I guess this was what he did back then. Speaking of the imposter…”

It then occurred to Claire that she, Acriscius and the imposter fell together.

If they all landed in this area, they ought to be somewhere nearby.

“Now where exactly could they be?”

Snapping her fingers again, the three [Fire Balls] hovering around her expanded their size and they moved further up into the ceiling. Claire also shrunk her crystallized chimeras into their figurine forms so that they would not block her view.

With the area fully illuminated, the Arthropod queen’s carcass came into full view.

Claire saw no sign of Acriscius. In fact, when she observed the Arthropod queen a little closer, a part of her thorax was incinerated. Although it was rather easy to deduce that Acriscius was the culprit, Claire certainly did not remember this inflicted damage before they fell.

“That muscle brain must have done this to vent his anger when he regained conscious. From the look of things, I guess he must have moved on without even considering the fact that I am close by… what a jerk.”

The next time Acricius owes her, Claire would definitely maximize the debt.

With a wave of her hand, Claire brought the small chimera figurines to her hand and kept them into her sling bag,

Circling to the side, Claire finally saw Cadeus lying at the side of the dead Arthropod queen.

“There he is… Hey, get up. Huh?”

Claire saw that Cadeus was unconscious, and his head was bleeding at the side.

“What?”

Did he suffer a concussion from a blow to the head? Was he dead?

“Oh no… you still owe me. You are not going to die.”

Bending down at his side, Claire pressed her hand against his head to arrest the hemorrhage. While she did so, she checked his vitals. His pulse was stable, and he’s breathing.

When she saw that his condition was stable, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Cadeus’s life was not in a critical condition, but that might change if he did not get medical attention.

Using her free hand, Claire reached for her sling bag behind her. She took out a set of packed sterilized bandages. Tearing the plastic with her teeth, she began wrapping the bandage around his head.

With that, Claire was successful in giving first aid treatment. The rest would have to wait for the Apothecary.

Resting his head on his own sling bag, Claire spent a moment to look at her blood stained hand.

When she saw how red and wet her hand became, she finally realized something.

Blood was a natural resource of magic, and the blood of Pure Bloods were said to possess powerful magic.

Cadeus was a Pure Blood.

Since he was here lying unconscious, Claire thought about doing a blood test.

Now in case you start off wondering, this was not the typical blood tests the hospitals on Earth conduct to check on drug allergies and the other degrading whatnots.

Blood tests on Zeffernon were conducted differently. These tests were primary used to determine the strength of magic within a person’s blood in accordance to the mage’s colour concentrations.

A mage could be a Pure Blood or a Mixed Blood, and inheriting one or two colours of magic could greatly affect their performance as a mage. In order to assess the strengths of the varying colours of magic within the person’s blood, blood tests were conducted to determine the blood potency of each colour of magic.

The proper term for this colour potency was called Blood Strength.

There were four categories to determine the Blood Strength of a person’s blood. They were diluted, filled, concentrated and highly concentrated.

Obviously with a more concentrated Blood Strength, the presence of the colour of magic is stronger and the easier it was for the mage to be able to cast spells belonging to said colour of magic.

This was a great opportunity for Claire to figure out how strong Cadeus could be as a Pure Blood.

Even though it was obvious that Cadeus only possess one colour of magic, the Blood Strengths of Pure Bloods would be either concentrated or highly concentrated. What Claire wanted to find out was how Cadeus would be as a Pure Blood. The reason was because ever since the day she knew him, Claire had always failed to discern his potential as a Mage.

When she first met him, she was applauded to see him rescue Susan from the Armugorus. When she found out that he was a Pure Blood, Claire had high expectations from him to perform greatly as a Mage of the highest caliber. But the more she observed, the more Claire felt that Cadeus was a mage that falls amongst the category of the least impressive.

His constant failure to grasp lessons and his ignorance of magical knowledge only served to irritate her. He was slow, messy, and on top of all that, extremely rude. He could not even take the effort to learn the basic manners required to address someone of her social status. On top of everything, there’s the issue of the family name, but that’s a separate issue.

The only thing that caught her attention was the remarkable improvement rate he had achieved these past three months.

When he first started the curriculum, Cadeus failed to grasp even the most fundamental modules in the curriculum. However, once he was able to fully understand the lesson, he was able to pick up the learning and master the spells required of him to learn in a short period of time. He might have started out poorly but in the end, Cadeus managed to attain the standard level required to qualify as a mage. Sometimes, he even surpasses that expectation.

Such vast gap of improvement was rarely heard of, and that resulted in numerous haters accusing the imposter of cheating using special artifacts.

But Claire knew better. She knew that the imposter had no knowledge of such artifacts. Instead, what she saw was the accumulative result of hard work and effort. By her own estimates, Cadeus would be on the right track to make it for the trials.

But how did this imposter accomplish this?

This had greatly aroused her curiosity, and the answer should lie in his blood.

Claire may not have the necessary equipment to get an accurate reading. However, there was an off-handed method. It’s not entirely accurate, but it could provide a general assessment. That is, by tasting the blood sample in question.

From what Claire knew, blood tasting would trigger a spontaneous influx of energy due to the sensitivity mages had towards magic. The more concentrated the Blood Strength, the higher the influx of energy. Since magic begins from the blood, any direct contacts with blood itself could sometimes trigger sensitive reactions.

This was not the first time she had attempted such a thing.

As a noble of her standing, Claire had been educated to differentiate Blood Strengths prior to her enrollment. Differentiating Blood Strengths was important due to the benefits of blood tasting. In times of emergency, magic within the blood could be used to replenish lost energy. If one was experienced enough to manipulate the energy within the blood, he could even draw the magical energies out from foreign blood and reuse them to his needs. Blood tasting was one such method to replenish lost energy, and the stronger the Blood Strength, the more the energy was recovered.

Claire was given some training for that purpose. As such, blood tasting was not a strange thing to her.

Claire brought her blood stained hand close to her face. After staring at the blood for a few seconds, she opened her mouth slowly brought it to her tongue.

“…”

Cadeus’s blood had a murky texture with a strong taste of iron. However, with that high concentration of Dark Magic, it had a very sweet energetic flavour. Looking forward to the influx of energy, Claire gulped down the blood and waited for the effects.

The wait only lasted for several seconds before Claire experienced a slight seizure.

It felt like a bang.

Her entire body became hot.

The magical energies within her began bubbling crazily like a corrosive solution. Grasping her throat, Claire thought that she was going to suffocate. However, this intensive exchange of sensations was only temporary. Once the worst had past, all sense of fatigue and physical stress was wiped out from her body.

Her mind became clear, and she felt greatly rejuvenated. But what was more surprising was the fact that her Cast Limit was thoroughly reset to a fresh start.

This was unprecedented.

None of her previous blood tastings had an effect of this standing, not even when she tasted her own blood. Cadeus’s Blood Strength was highly concentrated. Perhaps even more concentrated as compared to hers.

This mere thought of the imposter having a much stronger Blood Strength than hers was more than enough to make her feel uncomfortable.

“How…?”

Claire had inherited a strong Blood Strength due to her blood lineage since she belonged to one of the fifteen Greater Noble families. If the blood she inherited was weaker than that of the imposter, this meant that Cadeus somehow had a superior lineage.

But by what lineage did this imposter came from?

The only lineage Claire could think of that could be superior to hers would be that of the Progenitor family Pride ve Lu. However, everybody knows that the line had long died out.

“Just… who in the world are you?”

That was the very question Cadeus asked himself countless time. It’s just that Claire didn’t know.

TOA

Cadeus opened his eyes.

After looking at the ceiling for a couple of seconds, he turned his head to the left and saw Claire right next to him.

“…”

“…”

“…Claire?!”

Cadeus instantly shot up his back.

“What are you – Ouch!”

Cadeus instantly brought his back down and raised his right hand to the side of his head.

“Relax. There’s a laceration on the side of your head. I already wrapped a bandage over it. You should be fine, as long as you don’t move around too often.”

“Argh…”

Cadeus sat up straight. When his thoughts gathered together, he soon recalled the most recent events.

“We fell…”

“Yes, thanks to that muscle head.”

“Acriscius?”

Come to think of it, he fell together with them right?

“Where’s Acriscius?”

“Gone. He was not present when I regained conscious.”

Now that was a surprise.

“You mean to say that he just left without checking on you?”

“You think?”

The venom in her voice confirmed Cadeus’s suspicions.

Cadeus turned his gaze upwards. He could not see the ceiling, and this hall appears to be considerably larger compared to the chambers on the upper level. This level might be much more spacious as compared to the previous one.

“Well… given the fact that we fell considerably long, there might be a chance that Acriscius might have winded up in a distant part of this hall.”

“That’s still no excuse to not explore every inch of this hall before you leave. That muscle head is so going to get it once I see him again.”

“I see…”

Although he did not care what plans Claire had in stall Acriscius, Cadeus really hoped that she punch it in. Screw Acriscius. In fact, Cadeus wished Claire did her worst. Cadeus would give anything to see that red headed noble suffer.

With his fingers feeling the bandage over the wound site… Wait… what?

Cadeus instantly shot Claire a dubious look.

“What?”

Cadeus pointed to the bandage on his head

“You did this?”

“Do you see any other person around?”

“You can actually use a bandage?”

“I find that question to be very insulting.”

“Shit… now you are going to make me owe you more than what I can handle.”

When she heard that, Claire twitched her left eyebrow.

“Now hold on a minute. I cannot ignore what you just said. What is with that self imposed image of me being some vile vixen that never lacks ulterior motives?”

“Whenever you do something for me, you make me owe you. How is that not an ulterior motive?”

Anger was soon reflected on Claire’s face.

“After all I did to make sure that you’re not dead, this is the thanks I get?”

“What thanks? Everyone knows that the reason why you would bother saving someone, is because that someone owes you and you want to make sure that that someone repays all his debts before that someone is allowed to die. Am I wrong?”

“You should just die. Just die!”

“Not happening. I prefer to live.”

Turning his gaze to his arm, Cadeus checked the enchantments on his arm.

The rune ‘Nilth’ was still glowing brightly in full effect. [Heroic Might] and [Glyph of Precision] were a little weak, but it should still be manageable. [Aura Shift] however, was in a sorry state. Cadeus suspected that the fall from the previous level must have taken the most out of it. In fact, he was surprised that the enchantment was still in effect after all of that.

Knowing Sing, Cadeus was confident that she would rejuvenate her own enchantments from time to time. When that happens, Cadeus’s enchantments would also rejuvenate themselves through the link they shared via ‘Nilth’.

However, should his enchantments wear out first, Sing’s rejuvenation effects would fail to have any effect.

As Cadeus was thinking more on this subject, Claire stomped off in anger.

“Hey, are you going to proceed further all by yourself?”

“Silence. I refuse to work further with the likes of you.”

Cadeus got up and followed her from behind regardless.

“You know that is impossible given our current situation.”

“I have familiars to do all the fighting for me.”

“Even if you rely on your Blood Gift, you still have a Cast Limit.”

Claire stopped short before turning around with her short sword in her hand.

Before he could react further, Claire placed the sword’s cutting edge at the tip of his Adam’s apple.

“Another word form you, and I’ll cut your throat.”

Her reaction totally confirmed that Cadeus had nailed the harsh truth. But if he said anything more than he should, Cadeus was confident that Claire would not forgive him for it. As such, Cadeus responded by keeping silent and by raising his arms in a gesture of surrender.

Knowing that her message got through, Claire brought her blade away and resumed walking to the nearest exit.

“…”

Cadeus could only sigh inwardly and resume following her. He also made a mental note to keep a fixed distance of at least seven feet away from her.

TOA

They never spoke to each other for the next couple of minutes. Claire was entirely focused on what’s in front of her without sparing a thought to look behind. It seems as though she refuses to acknowledge Cadeus’s presence for the moment.

With her crystal bird scouting ahead along with that palm-sized crystal in her hand, navigating through this level was not difficult at all.

As they walked, Cadeus also noted that one of Claire’s crystal birds was continuously staring at him while resting its legs on its master’s shoulders.

It’s as if the bird was saying ‘try anything stupid and I’ll inform my master’.

Seriously… was Claire that angry with him for stating the obvious?

As he was having these thoughts, Claire stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?”

“…”

Claire was continuously staring at her crystal.

Curious as to what kind of development would stop Claire in her tracks, Cadeus brought his attention to the crystal. Looking within the crystal, Cadeus soon saw that the crystal bird up ahead was staring at an all too familiar artificial construct.

“A Golem? I guess there are still artificial constructs in here.”

“Hm… for this thing to be in good condition, the catacomb’s security must still be functioning well.”

Golems were amongst the most common artificial constructs in the world of the magi. They vary in sizes and functions, and their simplicity in construction and mind programming made them popular servants. If you think about the saying ‘dogs are man’s best friend’ on Earth, then ‘golems are mage’s best companion’ on Zeffernon. After all, a golem only exists to serve its master in the most conventional way possible.

Looking at this golem, it’s a towering structure made out of rock and steel. Other than that, it did not appear to have any special features. Despite it’s simplicity, a golem of that size could still be a major threat to any mage should it turn hostile.

Based on the Golem’s glowing white eyes, it’s probably still functional. But the question of how much it’s thoroughly maintained was a different thing altogether. As he continued observing the golem, Cadeus noticed it was looking straight at them.

“If it’s staring at us, does that mean that it’s staring at your crystal bird?”

“Yes. That’s why I’m wondering what to do next.”

“Could your bird fly over it?”

“It could. But it does that, the golem’s programming might treat the next visitor as an enemy.”

In this scenario, the golem was acting as a sentry guard against the chimeras. Taking that into account, it must have the programming to recognize and differentiate threats.

“Claire, what are the chances of that thing not recognizing us as a target?”

“If you want me to guess, I’d say we have a fifty-fifty chance of being safe. If that golem just has the basic programming, it should not attack any human. But if the golem has the advanced programming to attack unauthorized personal, then we got a problem on our hands.”

“Is there a chance to reason with it?”

“Only if our reasoning falls within it’s programming.”

“I see. Remind me again. When this becomes a violent encounter, what’s the strategy to deal with a golem?”

“That would be to break its armour and destroy the Essence of Magic within.”

“…That sounds pretty straight forward enough, but it actually sounds like something that’s easier said than done.”

And thus, the two Pure Bloods entered the hall where the golem awaits them. As soon as they entered the room, the crystal bird that Claire sent ahead soon rested its claws onto her shoulder.

When the golem registered their presence, it simply stared at them with its cold white eyes without moving an inch.

“Hey… if this thing is not going to move, is there a chance where we can just encircle around it?”

“You idiot. That thing already has its eyes on us. Are you so quick to instigate him to attack?”

Once they were a few feet away from the golem, it finally reacted. There was no mouth on the golem’s face. However, a metallic hollow voice soon resonated across the room.

“|Mage identified. Not amongst registered list. Identify self.|”

“Ok… this thing does not even have a mouth and yet it’s speaking fluently. Nice…”

“Imposter, we must do this very carefully. Artificial constructs are only as smart as they are programmed to be. Sometimes common sense will not apply to them. They will only act just as they are programmed to.”

“But they can think can they?”

“They could.”

“Can we trick it?”

“You are not the first with that line of thought. If this is one of the general constructs, you only have three chances to confuse it.”

“Only three chances? What happens if I failed three times?”

“Then the golem will go berserk and kill everything movable within a fixed period of time. Unless of course, we say the right words.”

“Right, then let’s save that as a last option. Now then… how should we start this?”

Saying ‘we are students, please let us through’, was definitely out of the question. If this was a golem stationed in the Academy then yes, it just might work. However, dealing with a golem stationed within the catacombs demands a different approach.

“Ask it if it will attack us.” Claire said.

“All right. But if you think the conversation is going the wrong way, you better stop me.”

Cadeus projected his voice.

“Will you attack us?”

“|Mage not amongst registered list. Identify self.|”

Cadeus tilted his head towards Claire.

“I think this golem will not react until we tell it who we are.”

“Then you better, before it registers us as a threat.”

Cadeus resumed his dialogue.

“We are not on the list, but we are guests.”

“|Correspondence. Mage identify self as a guest. Identify guide.|”

“Guide?” Cadeus uttered.

Claire brought her hand to her chin.

“I see… that golem must have a protocol installed that demands guests to have a staff escort.”

“Shit… we do not know anyone now do we? What now? Do we try to ask it which staff personal he’s referring to?”

“Hm…”

Claire spent the next few minutes in deep thought.

“Tell it that we are lost and that we do not know which staff to look out for.”

Cadeus continued.

“We are guests, but we were separated from the main group. We are unsure of who to look for now.”

“|Recalculating. Mage has not announced guide. Identify guide.|”

“I guess that does not work. We need to mention someone.” Cadeus uttered.

“All right. Before we start shooting out names on a whim let’s think about this closely. Who do you think does this golem answers too?”

“Let’s see… it has a registered list of staff members, which means that it probably had a list of names belong to the Dark Mutators who used this place. Do we know any Dark Mutators that could be of use to us?”

Claire shook her head.

“I may know some names and faces, but from as far as what I could recall, they are not Academy staff. I doubt that using their names might work.”

“For a moment there I thought you would have some useful names given your influence as a Greater Noble.”

“Is that meant to be an insult?”

“No. I’m just curious because I always have the impression that knowing names is an important commodity amongst the nobility.”

“It is, and that will never change.”

Cadeus waved his hands to the side to make the gesture of ‘so what?’.

“And it never cease to trouble you that you do not know any Dark Mutators that are part of the Academy staff?”

Claire placed her hands on her hips in an elegant manner and gave him a glare full of annoyance.

“According to the rules of Tenebris Vacuum, no one is allowed to approach the Dark Mutators nor interfere with their work unless it’s about lessons or about their apprenticeship. Given the fact that we are students, we will not start learning about the basics of Dark Mutation until we become Acolytes, and since we are not yet acolytes, we have no right to start thinking about apprenticeship. In addition, the Dark Mutators always seclude themselves within the Dark Laboratory, which is somewhere in an isolated section within the Academia building. Their identities are mostly ambiguous guesses until we get to meet them. So what makes you think that I can get the right names?”

“I see…”

It took every muscle in Cadeus’s face to help him not to make a smirk.

“Come to think of it, before you met me, you mentioned that you came across a research room.” Claire mentioned.

“Don’t expect any names out of me. The research notes were all scattered and filled with various terminologies that I could not understand. The last thing that I will pay attention to is names.”

“How wasted. Who are you then to criticize me for having the lack of names?”

Cadeus chose to ignore her.

Whilst thinking about names and list, Cadeus soon came up with an idea.

“Wait… I got it.”

“You have a name?”

“No. But I know someone who can provide us with a name list.”

“?”

Cadeus reached for his sling bag and took out the Caller.

“Oh… you are referring to the Enforcers. That’s not entirely a bad idea. But that Caller directly links us to that woman right?”

“Yes. Miss Allis can either give us a name or maybe she could even help us convince this golem.”

“Of all people, you want to ask that woman? I wouldn’t want to count on the likes of her.”

“I agree that Miss Allis may not be entirely reliable, but it’s not like we have a choice. Do you remember? This thing only connects us to Miss Allis. If I can call someone else, I would be doing just that.”

“…”

Cadeus held the caller in his hand and activated the call. He sincerely hoped that he would not regret this.

After a few seconds of waiting, Miss Alli’s small 3d figure materialized.

“Hello~ Need something?”

Her carefree personality totally did not fit with the background noises of spell castings and the violent cries of commands.

Cadeus did not know exactly what was going at the other side, but he knew that this might not be the best moment to interrupt an Enforcer at work.

“Um… should we call again at another time?” Cadeus said.

Her first few words were said without paying any attention to the caller’s identity. That was why when Miss Allis finally registered Cadeus’s face, her expression soon brightened and her tone changed for the better.

“Cadeus! My cute little brother~!”

“I am going to say this again. Please throw out that self imposed image of an older sister.”

“Oh my! What am I seeing? You are currently with Lady Rrogust ve Chroma? My dear lady, pardon the lack of proper manners. As you can see, I’m not in a situation where I can bow.”

“Yes, I can see that.”

“So what brings you two to give this caring big sister a call?”

“We ran into a golem sentry. It’s demanding us to provide a name belonging to a registered staff member in order to let us pass.”

“A golem? Oh right! Just try to confuse it’s programming, or just go ahead and kick it’s rocky ass.”

“Um… are we so quick to resort to violence?”

“Don’t worry!! In such an emergency, we can turn a blind eye towards destruction of property!”

“That’s definitely not an answer an Enforcer of the law ought to be saying.”

Seriously, is Miss Allis on steroids? Does she really watch her words whenever she speaks to someone? Cadeus thought.

“Isn’t there a better way? Look, the golem has a registered list of names. If we can provide one, it’ll let us pass. Do you know any Dark Mutators that have been using the catacombs from two months ago?”

“Sorry! Can't help! Things are getting very rowdy on my end.”

“Is there at least someone you can patch us through to go through the list?”

“No can do! If it’s paper work you want, you are asking the wrong person!”

“You are not very helpful at all, do you know that?”

Miss Allis chose to ignore him.

At that very instance, a call from the other side demanded Miss Allis’s attention.

“Miss Allis! What are you doing?!”

“Oh dear. That’s the cue that I need to go. All right! This big sister needs to go now. Feel free to call me back if you are still alive~.”

Miss Allis closed the call the very instance she finished that sentence.

“Feel free to call her back if we are still alive? I can’t believe she said that when it’s her job to make sure that does not happen to us.” Cadeus said.

Cold silence followed for the next couple of seconds. Although Cadeus did not see it, he could strongly tell that Claire’s shoulders were shaking in anger.

“Hey… don’t get mad over this. It’s Miss Allis. She always has a loose screw in her head.”

“Does she know her place? It’s not like we owe her anything. That woman requested the help of us nobles! Who is she to scrub off her responsibility when we are in need of some aid?! How could the Enforcers employ someone so irresponsible when they are an organization of professional distinctions?!”

Ouch…

Claire soon took in a deep breath before venting all her anger in one loud breath. In an attempt to help her calm down, Cadeus quickly pocketed the useless Caller. It did not take that long for Claire to return her attention to the matter at hand. But when she opened her mouth, it was clear that she was getting impatient with the stalling situation.

“Let’s put aside the matter of Dark Mutators and think about the other possible people this golem would answer to.”

Cadeus could only comply. He did not want to get in the way of an angry lady.

“All right, what about the Educators?”

“No good. Those that we are familiar with have nothing to do with the Catacombs. Educator Garth is a conjurer, Educator Norex is an Intellectual who specializes in Magical Theory, and Educator Cecilia is a Dark Apothecary. None of these names will be of any use to us.”

“What about the Archmage and Master Morgan?”

“I don’t think the Archmage frequents himself down here. As for Master Morgan, well… it’s worth a try. Since Master Morgan is in charge of Tenebris Vacuum, she’s typically in charge of the catacomb security. If this golem was part of security detail it should recognize Master Morgan’s name. Besides, it should also be part of the norm for Master Morgan to deal with the various Dark Mutators who wished to use the catacomb levels as an observation platform for their chimera experiments.”

“Speaking of Master Morgan, why is she not here? Is she away for something?”

“…”

Cadeus brought up a question that suddenly caught Claire off guard. Now that he mentioned it, Claire thought that it was extremely unusual for her to not see the Master who’s in charge of Tenebris Vacuum.

Bringing this to mind, Claire could already guess a few possible reasons. But now was not the time for such thoughts. They had a much more pressing issue at hand.

“Let’s think about this later. For now, the golem.”

“All right. Master Morgan it is.”

Cadeus returned his attention to the golem.

“Our guide is the Master in charge of Tenebris Vacuum. Morgan ve Fortzen.”

“|Analyzing. Name: Morgan ve Fortzen. Rank: Master.|”

The golem took a few moments to process the name.

“This golem is not that smart now isn’t it?” Cadeus said.

Well, that’s the basic programming for you. This golem’s function is to act as a sentry after all. It’s not expected to have a quick mind when it comes to dealing with strangers.

On the other hand, Claire’s growing impatience was becoming more evident. With her arms folded her right fingers were consistently tapping against her left elbow, while her left feet began tapping consistently on the ground at the same frequency.

Cadeus could not help but quietly hope that the golem would quickly let them pass.

The golem soon responded.

“|Guide mentioned identified. Name matches registered list. Master Morgan of the Academy.|”

Cadeus silently breathed a sigh of relief.

That’s good. It looks like using Master Morgan’s name worked.

“Can you let us pass?”

“|Error. Identified name failed to match specific parameters. Any further attempts to intrude will result in fatality.|”

“………………What?”

It did not work?

Cadeus raised his eyebrow. In all circumstances, using Master Morgan’s name would work. Since she’s the Master of this Colour Sector, every security detail within the sector falls under her jurisdiction.

So how could her name fail to trigger any effect?

With her growing impatience, Claire took a step forward.

“We are students of the Academy under the guidance of Master Morgan. Let us pass this very instance.”

Was that an order?

Cadeus quickly shot her a warning glare.

I know you are impatient, but are you so quick to provoke a sentry who may instantly register you as a threat? He thought but dare not say out loud.

“|Warning. Error in identification. Any further attempts to intrude will result in fatality.|”

“Error again?”

Cadeus raised his eyebrow.

The golem managed to register Master Morgan’s name, but it somehow failed to discern the meaning of it. This should not be so. If they had missed something essential like a pass code of the sort, the golem would have demanded for it upon recognizing Master Morgan’s name. Instead, it was as if the golem’s programming automatically resets itself whenever it was trying to process information.

This could not be good, and Cadeus was not referring to the fact that Master Morgan’s name failed to work. Even if Master Morgan’s name did not work, they could just resolve into tricking the golem. But if they were to trick this thing, how could this thing be tricked if its thought processes continuously resets itself?

Wait… resets itself?

Cadeus soon had a brainwave.

What if Fremin had tampered with the golem’s programming on his way down?

According to Miss Allis’s words previously, she stated that Fremin was currently at the tenth level. If he managed to penetrate this deep into the catacombs, what were the odds of him tampering with the golem’s programming on his way down?

Despite his current notoriety, Fremin was a capable Master. It should not be strange for him to be familiar with the workings of a golem. Even though he’s a specialized Alchemist, it should be in the norm for Fremin to have advanced knowledge of a different field.

Wait… but this did not make any sense. Even if it’s just one golem, reprogramming it’s mind would take a lot of time and effort. Unless Fremin had planned his ritual for years, in which Cadeus highly doubt, he couldn’t have reprogrammed every golem sentry in here especially when someone as strong as Master Morgan would be around.

Cadeus shook his head.

This line of thoughts fell under Enforcers work. It was not in his place to think about this.

But if it was true that Fremin had somehow hacked the golem’s programming, it looks like they would have to have to fight with all the golems in this level.

Thinking about this possibility, Cadeus turned to share his thoughts with Claire.

“Claire. Is it simple for a Master like Fremin to reprogram a golem’s mind?”

At that very instance, Cadeus could not tell how he knew, but he knew. Something within Claire snapped.

With one loud stomp with the heel of her boot, she soon unfolded her arms and passed her sling bag to Cadeus. Once Cadeus got her sling bag, Claire proceeded to walk towards the golem. With those quick heavy steps, only an idiot would fail to see that her intentions were clearly hostile.

“Hey… what exactly are you – ”

“Imposter. I’m warning you. Do not get in my way.”

“…”

Experience taught Cadeus that nothing would be achieved by debating or arguing with Claire. Sighing, Cadeus resigned himself and watched as Claire proceeded to walk towards the golem.

“|Warning. Identification unverified. Any further attempts to intrude will result in fatality.|”

Claire continuously walked forward without having a care, as if she intends to dare the golem into attacking her.

“Please don’t tell me… Is she seriously going to walk straight up to it in order to engage it?” Cadeus said.

Knowing Claire, she’s definitely the type who was more comfortable fighting from a distance. What did she hope to gain by being so up close? Did she intent to crystallize that golem?

From the moment Claire was just several feet away, the golem stomped it’s feet and took a stance showing hostility.

But Claire did not care.

A few more seconds, and the golem soon acted.

The golem slowly raised one of its clenched fists and made an attempt to swing a punch. In the face of this new threat, Claire just merely waved an arm full of purple mist and corrupted the golem’s arm before it could swing an arc. With the golem’s arm crystallized, manipulating it was not an issue. The golem soon found itself struggling to take a swing.

Registering the error in its functions, the golem raised the other arm and made an attempt to replicate the process. But Cadeus knew that it was already too late.

By the time the golem registered its next course of actions, Claire was already a few inches away from the golem’s body. She raised a hand near the hard armour and activated her Blood Gift.

From the moment the purple mist came into contact with the golem’s exterior, the golem’s exterior around her hand started crystallizing. But like a budding flower, the crystallization spread all around the golem’s structure at an extremely fast rate. Once the corruption extended throughout the lower half of the golem’s structure, all Claire ever needed was to clench her hand.

With sounds resembling glass shatter, the entity of the golem’s crystallized exterior shattered. With the numerous crystal fragments flying in all directions, Claire merely stood tall and firm while her hair fluttered around her.

Needless to say, the golem soon lost its balance and it’s upper body collapsed onto the floor with a huge bang.

From what Cadeus had seen, there was no need for Claire to use any powerful spells or advanced procedures. All she ever needed was just her Blood Gift, quick, simple and extremely deadly. It was extremely one sided to the point where it’s very convincing that Claire was just merely venting her frustration.

Due to its limited programming, the golem failed to register its current dilemma and it could only struggle to get up.

With the golem lying against the floor, the crystal fragments of the armour slowly chipped away until Cadeus saw an interesting sight. At the very center within the layers of rock and steel, there was a small oval object glowing in green. With those paranormal green mists surrounding it, it was rather obvious that that oval object was the essence of magic.

Taking three steps forward, Claire bent her waist and reached out for the Essence before tearing it out.

If it weren’t for the paranormal presence of magic, Cadeus would have thought that she was tearing out a piece of hardware away from multiple wires.

Without it’s essence, the golem could no longer function. The waving arms soon collapsed, and the golem ceased to move.

Now that the battle was over, Cadeus moved up to the defeated golem. Looking at the way Claire was gripping the Essence, it did not look like she planned to destroy it.

That’s rather odd.

Claire soon gestured for her sling bag and Cadeus passed it back to her.

In seeing the curiosity in his face, Claire opened her mouth.

“What is it?”

“…Are you not going to destroy the essence?”

“Why should I?”

“I thought you mentioned that destroying the Essence was a necessity to defeat the golem?”

“That’s a strategy best suited for you. In case you haven’t noticed.”

“Ah…”

Of course, how could he have not seen that?

Claire brought up about destroying the Essence because she initially assumed that Cadeus would be doing all the fighting.

Since she personally saw to the golem’s defeat, there was no need for her to conform to that strategy.

“So what are you planning to do with that Essence? Use it’s magical reserves to cast spells?”

“?”

Claire gave a look that told Cadeus she was confused. After she rewinds the conversation in her head, she understood what he was referring to.

“Ah… you thought that Essences are sources of magical energy. You idiot. Essences are not energy sources, they are magical regulators meant to aid magical processes and install paranormal procedures. You could say that they are the things that are behind the golem’s programming.”

What? Did you mean that it’s like a computer processor? Cadeus thought.

“So… they do not provide magic?”

“They don’t. If you are talking about energy sources, that would refer to this.”

With a snap of her fingers, her crystal birds flew straight into the gap within the golem and tore out what seemed to be a large crystal shard the size of an oval American football. Flapping their wings, the crystal birds clasped the crystal shard and brought it to their master’s hand.

Claire then brought up the crystal shard to Cadeus’s face.

“Can you sense the magic within?” Claire asked.

Althought it was faint, Cadeus felt it.

“Yes. It’s weak.”

“Very weak.”

Claire tossed the crystal shard to the side.

“If this shard is not replaced, the golem would soon run out of power.”

“I see…”

Claire played around the essence by continuously tossing it up and catching it.

“If that Essence is not a energy source, then what exactly do you need it for?”

“This thing can fetch a price of at least 90 Duches at the forest entrance.”

“Of all things it’s for the money?”

Cadeus sighed.

Rather than selling it, won’t a tampered Essence help the Enforcers in their investigations?

Cadeus gave a thought about asking Claire to let him have the Essence.

She might not agree to it, but it’s worth asking.

“May I have the Essence?”

Claire gave him a calculating look.

“Why?”

“When this golem was still functioning a minute ago it recognizes Master Morgan’s name but failed to register the meaning of it. I have a thought that perhaps, Fremin might have tampered with it’s programming when he was on his way down. I’m thinking of giving it to the Enforcers so that they could analyze it.”

Cadeus almost said the word ‘hacked’, but he refrained himself and replaced the word with tampered because he knew that Claire would not understand him.

Claire continued to play around with the Essence by tossing it up and catching it.

“Save yourself the trouble imposter. If an imposter like yourself could think of that possibility, the Enforcers would have long gotten the wind of it. This is not the only golem in this level, nor should this level be the only one to station them. The Enforcers will have plenty of opportunities to analyze all the essences that they need. If you are still insistent on getting this Essence, I’ll charge you 90 Duches to take this off my hands.”

“Then forget it.”

Claire made one final catch with the Essence before she made an announcement.

“I’m done. I’m heading back up to the surface.”

“…What?”

For a second there Cadeus thought he misheard her.

“You’re done? What is that? Are you saying that you can just quit in the middle of a crisis?”

“I can, and I will.”

“Are you just pulling my leg?”

“I’m not.”

Claire pocketed the Essence within one of her waist pockets.

“The Enforcers are currently in the eight level, or perhaps they have even penetrated the ninth. Fremin is at the tenth level. It will not take that long for the Enforcers to immobilize him.”

“Fremin is a Master with powerful connections. I would not be surprised if there were multiple Masters backing him up from the shadows. What if they are down there helping Fremin?”

“Unlikely. No one will ever get in the way of the Enforcers in the middle of the crime scene. Even if Fremin had powerful friends it’s not like they are going to intervene. If his ‘powerful connections’ are smart enough, they will do all they can to erase any traces linking them to Fremin to avoid getting arrested. Besides, do you honestly think the Enforcers need us to apprehend Fremin?”

“…”

There’s some element of logic in Claire’s words.

As if willing to discuss this topic, Claire pushed the conversation further.

“Why do you think the Enforcers called us in?”

“It’s not because of your Blood Gifts, am I correct?”

Claire’s disapproving gaze confirmed his suspicions, so Cadeus gave his best answer.

“Politics.”

“Correct.”

Claire brushed her hair to the side.

“If the situation is that urgent, and if the Enforcers truly needed us to arrest Fremin in the first place, then they would have included us in their party when they invaded the lower levels. Instead, Miss Allis told us to help them clear the sixth and seventh level. On the outside, this may seem to be strategy; help the Enforcers cover their backs while they storm the front. But underneath that façade, the Enforcers are indirectly pushing us to keep to the side lines.”

“…I think I can see where you are getting at. But I still don’t understand. Can you please elaborate?”

Claire sighed.

“Firstly, do you honestly think that the chimeras from our level is capable of attacking the Enforcers from behind? You saw the state of the golem. Given the surviving integrity of the security within this catacomb, do you believe that the chimeras could overcome the various restrictions and cross between levels?”

“Not entirely.”

“Good. Now secondly, if the Enforcers could penetrate the eight level so easily, what makes you think that the sixth and seventh levels are a concern?”

“…If they managed to apprehend Fremin, what use would it be if they could not get out?”

“Point taken, but if the Enforcers could instantly transport themselves from the fifth level to the eighth, what could prevent them from achieving the opposite? Or rather, transport the entire party directly back to the surface?”

“…True.”

“Thirdly, clearing the entity of the levels from the sixth to the ninth is something that’s easily doable for Mages of their caliber. Given the fact that the Enforcers teleported themselves directly to the eighth level, the sixth and the seventh level were already condemned as irrelevant obstacles that was avoided at first opportunity. So my question is this, why are we assigned to deal with unrelated areas when time is of the essence?”

“…”

“To be an Enforcer is to declare that you are a Mage of the highest caliber. For a noble of my standing I already bore witness to plenty of situations similar to this current crisis, and in nine out of ten cases the Enforcers never fail.”

“All right, I understand. The Enforcers just need you and Acriscius because you guys are Greater Nobles. So if you and Acriscius are here just for the sake of providing political support, then why did they bother to drag you all the way down here to help them out? If political backing is all that’s needed, couldn't they have just simply asked you to sign an agreeing statement?”

“It’s not that simple as you think.”

Claire sighed again.

“We don’t sign an agreeing statement saying that we support the Enforcers. It’s not right, for such a document can be easily used against us when accountability becomes an issue.”

“What do you mean?”

“In times of crisis such as this particular case, things can get very chaotic. In order to ensure that the criminals are all apprehended, the Enforcers might be pushed to use drastic measures. In the case where it does happen, some of their actions might cause more damage than resolution. When that happens, the Enforcers must have something to fall back on to justify their actions. That’s where we nobles come in. As nobles, we have a similar responsibility with the Enforcers to ensure that the laws established by the High Council are properly obeyed. But unlike the Enforcers, we follow a different set of rules. Our duty as nobles is to manage the land and protect the people that lived under the High Council’s jurisdiction. Sometimes the actions of the Enforcers might compromise that responsibility. That is why, like what Miss Allis said earlier, nobles are obliged to help the Enforcers in times of crisis to ensure that they don’t overstep their boundaries. As such, we must be present at the scenes of the crime to make sure that the Enforcers do not go too far in their pursuit for justice. We may not like to be involved at times, but our sense of responsibility prevents us from pulling out.”

“But you are clearly pulling out now…”

“Don’t get smart imposter. I’m pulling out now because there’s nothing left for me to do. So coming back at where we left off, since we are obliged to help them regardless of how we feel, the Enforcers always end up hiring the free hands instead. After all, having a Pure Blooded Greater Noble with a Blood Gift is a big boon to the combat frontier.”

“I see… and how does that lead to something about keeping to the side lines?”

Claire brushed the back of her hair to the side again.

“Whatever the Enforcers deal with, not everything is for us to see. There are often cases where the Enforcers stumbled upon an extremely sensitive issue that had political links. Although they could get the support from us Greater Nobles, some things could get out of hand when the wrong people see it. In order to avoid this problem, we are usually assigned to unrelated areas. If you want a real time example, look at where we are right now. Are the sixth and seventh level of any significance to the current case?”

“So… the Enforcers pulled you in for political support and then just throw you guys at the sidelines so you don't see anything that’s case class sensitive?”

“Yes, and the most annoying thing is that we don’t even get paid for going through this crap.”

Cadeus decided to keep quiet about the fact that Miss Allis agreed to pay him 1200 Duches for his assistance.

“Even if what you say is true, what valid cause would still allow you to leave in the middle of their work? Wouldn’t that affect poorly for your relationship with the Enforcers?”

“Our relationship with the Enforcers is already bad enough. I don't even trust them.”

“You don't trust them?”

“After all that I told you, why do you sound so surprised?”

“…”

“To make things even more questioning, I have not heard anything from Master Morgan.”

“Master Morgan?”

“Yes. All registered Dark Mage students of the nobility have a direct Caller to Master Morgan in case situations like these pop up. It’s a way for Master Morgan to keep trace of our safety and if needed be, interfere with our activities to make sure we don't do anything stupid. The funny thing, is that I have not heard anything from her from the very start. Now that’s unusual.

“I see… Now that you mention it, where is Master Morgan?”

“I can think of two possibilities. It’s either Master Morgan is currently not reachable, or the Enforcers started all this without letting her in the know.”

“Without letting her in the know? I understand that this is an emergency but is this possible? This is Tenebris Vacuum. It’s right in the middle of her turf.”

“Which is probably the reason why the Enforcers bypassed the normal procedures. Given the severity of the situation, time is an extremely decisive factor. Once the whole situation is cleared up, the Enforcers will come back to the paper work.”

“I see… does that mean that Master Morgan could join us in the middle of all this?”

“Who knows? That’s something for you to find out.”

It looks like Claire was seriously going to leave. As much as he hated her, Cadeus found it difficult to accept that she would just leave like that so easily.

“Do you even care about the corruption ritual at all?”

“I have the confidence that the Enforcers are well trained enough to deal with the situation.”

“What if Fremin were to succeed?”

“Then all the more reason for me to leave. As one of the very few Pure Blooded nobles, I have a responsibility to protect myself.”

“…Even though I sort of know your character, I am finding it extremely hard to believe that you’ll leave just like that.”

“Imposter, don’t forget your place. You don’t know me. I’d prefer things are kept that way between us.”

“…”

“But don’t worry. Knowing you, you’ll definitely continue your way down to give a Fremin the punch he so deserves. Since it’s unlikely that you’ll survive on your own, I’ll grant you one token of generousity.”

“Hell no.”

Cadeus could instantly smell more favours coming his way. He already owed Claire this much. He refused to owe her more.

“Don’t be an idiot. You’ll never survive here in your current state.”

“On the contrary, I have a high confidence in my capability to survive.”

“If you were to die here, you’ll never repay the favours you owe me. Do you honestly think I will let that off?”

“Does it matter? You’ll probably make me owe you another one for this.”

“You’ll owe me only when I say so. This is different.”

“…”

Under normal circumstances, Cadeus still would have refused Claire even though such favours come for free. This was highly due to his negative opinion of her and the fact that he’d prefer to have less contact with her.

“Sigh… so what’s going to happen? Are you going to loan me one of your crystal birds?”

“Let me see your enchantments.”

Ok… that was rather unexpected.

“…Why?”

“Just show it to me.”

“…”

Although he was reluctant, Cadeus folded up his sleeve.

Staring at the enchantments growing weary, Claire helped herself with a smirk.

“Ha! Look at the state of your enchantments. Do you seriously think you can survive the catacombs with your enchantments in this state?”

“Not that I could do anything about it. I don’t know any enchantments.”

“I see… Then as a token of my generousity, I shall grant you a new set of enchantments.”

“…”

“What? What’s with that look?”

“You are not going to cast something weird on me are you?”

“How rude.”

Claire brushed the back of her hair to the side.

“Remember, you have a debt to owe me. If you were to die by some lucky chance, I would have wasted my favours. As much as I wished you would just conveniently die someday, now is not the time.”

“Do you know that you sound so unlady-like when you keep using the word ‘die’?”

Claire chose to ignore him.

Reaching for her own sling bag, Claire took out a blood vial and a syringe pack.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

“Your White friend used her blood to cast enchantments am I right?”

“Yes that’s true, but using your own blood? I thought there are other methods to enchant something.”

“There are, but using blood was by far the most long lasting medium.”

“…”

“What exactly is on your mind?”

“Well… I was considering that a noble of such high stature wouldn’t bother to use her blood for someone easily labeled as an imposter.”

“That’s right. You are very accurate. Now get on your hands and knees and bow your head to show your gratitude.”

“If I were to do that, I will be the dumbest person to exist on both worlds. Why don’t you use my blood?”

“Do you honestly think that I want to touch the blood of an imposter?”

“Ah… true.”

Before she began her procedure, Claire placed the tip of her index and middle finger on the ‘Nilth’ rune on Cadeus’s arm.

“Un!”

Cadeus sensed Claire swelling her magic within her fingertips before unleashing them with a bang. In that very instance, Sing’s ‘Nilth’ rune was banished from his arm, along with all the other enchantments.

“Hey… those enchantments still could be of use regardless of their durability.”

“I got rid of them because they’ll be in the way. White Enchantments have a tendency to interfere with Dark Enchantments when they are applied within close proximity.”

“Is that so?”

Due to his own ignorance, Cadeus was unsure of the credibility of such a claim. Perhaps he could ask Sing later when he sees her again.

“Just to be clear, what is your combat preference?”

“Combat preference?”

“Be it Arcane Warfare or the usual fights, I noticed that you always love to move up close to hit your enemies. Are you just practicing close combat? Or are you in actuality more comfortable firing spells from the back?”

“Hm… well if I am allowed to be greedy I’d prefer to be at the back. But if you want honesty, I prefer my opponent to be right in front of me.”

“Then close combat it is.”

Claire used the syringe to make a blood withdrawal and deposited the amount to her fingertips. She then placed her two fingers just below Cadeus’s wrist and swapped her blood downwards. Applying her magic, the blood below Cadeus’s wrist solidified and latched itself onto Cadeus’s skin, molding itself into a different mark that looked like a general ‘Q’. Like Sing’s rune ‘Nilth’, it glowed in a bright deep red.

“So what is with this rune?”

“The base rune I used on you is called ‘Quith’. Unlike ‘Nilth’ that allows the caster to share enchantments with multiple parties, ‘Quith’ focuses more on the self.”

That sounds rather self-centered, but Cadeus chose to ignore it. The enchantments were meant for him alone anyway.

“What are the benefits and trade offs?”

“Incantation effects will be magnified to enhance the enchanted. The trade off is that the Incantations supplied will only be tied to the enchanted. Any attempts to link the incantations to other parties will result in the base rune’s utter termination.”

“I see…”

“I’ll give you two enchantments. Let’s see… Let’s go with [Environmental Leech], [Consumption] and a hex would be good.”

As she said that, the glowing blood mark below his wrist soon extended and formed three different incantation marks that glowed in a dark gloomy colour. As the incantations were thoroughly established, Cadeus soon felt his body being covered in an aura of Dark Magic.

Whilst hearing all the dubious terms, Cadeus could not help but open his mouth for clarification.

“…Just what exactly are you giving me?”

“[Environmental Leech] and [Consumption] are a passive combination that will help you stabilize your energy expenditure. [Environmental Leech] is an enchanted aura that slowly corrupts the environment to produce Dark magical energies before absorbing it in passively to help the body replace lost energy. This effect increases or decreases in accordance to the density of Dark Magic present in the environment. Since the environmental energies of the catacombs are naturally Dark Magic, this should help you draw in the environmental energies by a significant degree. One good thing about this aura is that you don’t have to be consciously active to use this ability, as your body will automatically leech on the environment whenever it’s in need of energy replenishment. [Consumption] on the other hand, passively taxes the body’s magical reserves to produce a stronger input into spell casting. Whether you like it or not, your body will now automatically use more magical energies to cast stronger spells. This means that you might probably hit your Cast Limit faster. But with [Environmental Leech], that will soon be an unnecessary worry since your body will automatically recuperate and replenish the magical energies needed to avoid hitting your Cast Limit. Think of it as a continuous cycle between exhaustion and replenishment.”

“Hm… I can see the difference between your set of enchantments as compared to my White friend’s. But what’s the theory involved?”

“Typical of White Magic, the enchantments your White friend uses fall more under the category of [Shared Charms] due to its equal distribution of passive effects. Obviously my enchantments differ because Dark Magic is never about equal distribution.”

“Right… I heard you mentioning a hex.”

“Are you familiar with Hexes?”

“Yes. If I remember my lessons correctly, hexes are a form of phenomenal curses that are inflicted through the usage of invocations or incantations. Since enchantments are a form of incantations, hexing can also be achieved by enchanting the victim.”

“Good. Now, have you casted a hex before?”

“If you are asking if I had cursed anyone, the answer is a no.”

“I see. Then I’ll explain it to you. [Nerve Hex] is a Dark Enchantment that targets the victim’s nervous system to magnify the sensation of pain. The hex can only be activated manually. Once you succeed in establishing a hex, the target that got hexed will develop a hex mark. Once the target has the hex mark, the hex will be consistently active until the caster frees the target, or until the hex mark was removed.”

“How do you remove a hex mark?”

“The same treatment anyone would do with curses. If you are a Grey or White, you expel the mark. Of you are a Dark, you curb it.”

“I see. Are there any guarding techniques against hexes?”

“The most common methods I know are Enchantment Auras.”

Cadeus took a good look at the glowing symbol that represents the hex.

“You mentioned that the hex has to be activated manually, so how do I use it?”

“Do you feel the magic within the hex symbol?”

“Yes.”

“Draw that magic into your bloodstream and unleash it upon your target.”

“…That sounds simple enough.”

“It sounds simple because this is the simplified technique using prepared hexes. Proper hexes are often casted directly from the mind just like any [Point Spells]. It just takes advanced training to pull something like that off.”

“I see… wait a minute, [Nerve Hex] only works on biological organisms that have the capability to feel pain. How exactly is [Nerve Hex] going to help me against an artificial construct that can never feel?”

“Who ever said that [Nerve Hex] is for the golems?”

“Oh…”

The golems were not the only threat in this catacomb. There were far more vicious chimeras, and then there’s Fremin and his subordinates. Besides, [Environmental Leech] and [Consumption] should more than enough to help him stand his ground against the golems.

Thinking about the fact that enchantments can get exhausted over time, Cadeus soon noticed that Claire was not going to create her own set of enchantments.

“Let me confirm something. If I happen to exhaust these enchantments on my arm, can I supplement them on my own?”

“The answer should be obvious.”

“I see… thank you.”

And that confirms the fact that as long as the Enchantments are Dark Magic, Cadeus should be able to rejuvenate them on his own.

That’s good news. At least Cadeus did not have to rely on another party to maintain his enchantments.

“But what happens if the enchantments were casted by a Mixed Blood?”

“As long as the overall nature of the enchantment aligns to Dark Magic, there should not be a problem.”

Claire flipped her wrist upwards and looked at the part of her bracelet that was directly over her pulse. Magic circles and paranormal lines soon manifested in the shape of a clock, revealing the current time.

“It’s coming to 7:42 pm. I’m leaving. Sigh…I want to be back by 8:15 pm. I really need a shower.”

“How exactly are you going to get back up?”

“I have my ways.”

“Please don’t tell me… you know some spells related to flight magic?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination. The enchantments I give you should be sufficient enough to help you on the way down. As a Pure Blood, you should not face any difficulty. Make sure you survive imposter. You still owe me.”

Claire turned her back and started walking back towards the place they landed earlier.

TOA

With Claire’s unexpected departure, Cadeus was at a loss in regards to how he ought to respond to this sudden change. One part of him felt grateful that Claire was no longer around. If he had stuck with her for the remainder of this event, he would somehow owe her more favours. However, another part of him felt that it was a shame for her to go. Without her crystal abilities, Cadeus could only navigate blindly.

He could still use the classic method of writing directions on paper. However, paper was currently an extremely limited recourse. If he were to keep relying on it, Cadeus would be out of paper at a very fast rate.

“Sigh… what should I do now?”

Searching within his bag for a possible answer, Cadeus soon stumbled upon the Black Book that Claire returned him earlier; The Book of Spirits, written by the long deceased Zelnarius Pride ve Lu.

“…”

Using the collapsed golem as a chair, Cadeus sat down and flipped to the page depicting the table of contents hoping to find some alternatives.

As his eyes fell upon the page, the coded symbols and letters soon glowed in bright silver.

Dismissing the top few lines, Cadeus slowly glanced downwards until he saw a particular section that caught his attention.

Chapter 2 – A Magi’s Spirit and his surroundings

Spirit and Paranormal Association Spirit traces and spirit tracing

“Spirit Tracing? What is this? For this to exist within a Black Book, is this a clairvoyance spell I can use?”

Flipping through, Cadeus arrived at the indicated page and read the first sentence.

'As it is commonly recognized, the theory of Paranormal Association defines the irreversible effect of magical influences between the mage and the environment. By drawing the immaterial into manifestation, the mage will leave behind a paranormal impression around the area of effect that will persist until the magical energies expire. However, in creating a lingering impression, the mage is tied to the environment momentarily due to the fact that he was the caster.

If we follow this theory of Paranormal Association, the term ‘Spirit’ can also be interpreted as a series of paranormal links between a person and his surroundings. This is only achieved through the establishment of spirit traces. Spirit traces are fragments of spiritual presences a person leaves behind upon making an impact upon the area around him. Any form of contact either through the physical or paranormal would indirectly leave spirit traces. The more frequent the contact established, the stronger the trace, especially when the paranormal link is established by magic.

Magical spells are the manifestation of the immaterial, whereby such manifestations are influenced by a person’s thoughts. Since a person’s mental strength and imaginary capability are vital in creating a successive manifestation, one can conclude that spells contain strong fragments of a person’s thoughts. Thoughts are link to a person’s character, which is thoroughly defined by his spirit. As such, spells contain fragments of a person’s spirit and they will leave behind spirit traces once resolved.

The establishment of spirit traces is involuntarily passive, as it is a mark of evidence that confirms the presence of the ‘Spirit’. Hence, once the paranormal link is identified, the ‘Spirit’ of the person involved may also be identified.'

Understanding the basic concept, Cadeus skipped the rest of the theories and moved to the part about spirit tracing.

'If a mage were sensitive and experienced enough to understand the paranormal links between the mage and the environment, he or she would soon gain the capacity to identify spirit traces. Spirit Tracing is the act of identifying a spirit trace and using that trace to identify the source of the phenomena. It can be seen as a form of clairvoyance. But unlike White Clairvoyance spells, this can be done universally by any mage. Thus, there’s no need to be concerned about colour alignment.

Learning this skill may take time and patience for the strength to identify spirit traces is dependant on the mage’s sensitivity to paranormal activities, which can be improved over time.

There are only three steps to trace a spirit fragment back to its source; Spirit scan, Spirit identification, and Spirit links.

Spirit scanning is the act of browsing through the spell in order to isolate the human factor. Since spells always contain fragments of the caster’s ‘Spirit’, every spell contain a certain human factor that ties the caster to the spell. It is important to identify the part of the spell that feels human, for it is the most critical part of the procedure. Once the human factor is isolated, identifying the spirit fragment should be easy.

Identifying the spirit fragment allows the seeker to recognize the caster’s spirit link. Spirit links are connective bonds that continuously tie the caster paranormally to the environment. As per the theory of paranormal association, the more frequent the mage tempers the environment with his magic, the more spirit links he leaves behind. Once the link is identified, what remains would be to search for the other links that shared the same spirit fragments. The convenient part about this is that each individual mage has his/her own human factor within their spells. As such, even though there are multiple spirit fragments within a specific location, it won’t be easy to misplace the target caster’s spirit link.'

The rest of the chapter involved advanced techniques on how to use spirit links to trace the caster directly in addition to several examples of multiple case scenarios. Wow… whoever this Zelnarius fellow was, he sure was someone thorough. Unfortunately, the part about using spirit links to trace the caster directly had to be ignored. The reason was because Cadeus had doubts in his current capability to absorb such in-depth information.

Now then… what could be an item his friends have that would contain their spirit traces?

The answer soon revealed itself when Cadeus recalled that Sing had an imprinted rune on her hairclip.

Turning his sling bag over, he soon saw the spot where Sing had marked her rune on his sling bag.

Sensing the presence of White Magic… no, Sing’s magic, Cadeus saw that the rune she imprinted on his bag could help lead him to her.

Sitting in a meditation stance, Cadeus took a deep breath and tried to peer into her rune.

Spirit scan, spirit identification, and then search for spirit links.

Cadeus continuously repeated this sequence in his head as he made an attempt to analyze Sing’s magic.

All he felt was white. The rune was giving out the obvious nature of White Magic, but he had to go even further.

Following the instructions in the Black Book, Cadeus had go beyond the veil of White Magic and find the part of the rune that belonged specifically to Sing.

Now then, which part of this rune feels like Sing?

Cadeus spent the next few minutes trying to feel sense Sing’s spirit fragment.

It was not easy. Sing’s rune was a small mark of magic meant to fulfill a small function. There was not much Cadeus could make of it.

But in just a few more seconds, he finally felt a glimpse of it.

At the upper right section of the rune, there was a small part that felt like Sing.

Wait… let him correct that.

There was a small fragment of Sing’s presence, a small part of it that felt just like her. On first hand, it felt like a nostalgic memory. But beyond that, Cadeus felt her reason for casting the rune that founded the basis of the rune’s purpose.

That was the spirit fragment.

Following the book’s instructions, Cadeus then made an attempt to search for other sources that had the same spirit trace.

In conclusion, this was the sequence that happened.

Spirit scan: Spirit trace identified

Spirit identification: Sirena Delnarius

Spirit link: Three links present

“Three links?”

Two of the three links came from the same source, while the last was separated at a short distance. Cadeus was a little lost in thought when he soon remembered that Sing casted four runes in total; three for each of their sling bags, and the last on her hairclip. Not counting his, there was indeed three other spirit links, one from Nadav, and two from Sing.

Focusing his attention to the three links, Cadeus sensed that they were currently together. Now that he knows where the links roughly were, Cadeus soon got up and started moving towards them.

TOA

“|Mage identified. Not amongst registered list. Identify self.|”

“Ah… crap.”

Another golem.

Now in normal circumstances Cadeus would bother spending time to talk his way out of any confrontation. But time was of the essence. Cadeus was not going to waste any time to wait for Fremin to discharge his ritual.

As such, he decided to go straight to the offensive.

Moving fast, he felt his blood pumping as he gathered Dark Magic within his palm.

Once he was ready, Cadeus stopped his feet and shot out a [Fire Ball] from his open palm.

At this distance, he could not miss. With [Consumption], the effects of the [Fireball] was amplified. Once the [Fire Ball] landed on the golem’s torso, it spread out and seared though the entire surface area.

As he watched, Cadeus had the confidence that the golem’s outer layers would be melted down. Once the flames had cleared, he should be able to see the Essence.

However, his confidence was soon unfounded for the golem took a few steps forward with it’s armour still fully intact.

With the lingering flames burning away, Cadeus was left clueless as to what could have protected the golem’s exterior.

As the golem slowly walked forward, Cadeus saw a bright red rune shining at the top of the golem’s torso. With that rune in effect, the flames from his [Fire Ball] gradually extinguished.

“Oh come on. This guy has protection from fire?”

The golem soon bent its knees before starting a dash. As it ran, the floor pounded with every step.

“What the… it suddenly took up speed?”

Realizing that he would soon get caught in the stampede, Cadeus quickly jumped to the side.

Landing on his stomach, he immediately got up to see the Golem still dashing forward until it stopped to turn.

Since it was just dashing blindly in a straight line, it must have been a one off ability of limited use.

“How cliché… it’s totally like some RPG game from Earth. If Nadav were here he would definitely shout ‘copycat’ and quote Witcher 2 or some other game that has the exact copyrights. Now then… how should I – ”

The golem bent its knees and started another brainless charge.

“Oh no… you got to be kidding me.”

The next time he got up, Cadeus stopped thinking of strategies and immediately ran towards the nearest exit.

TOA

From start of Prologue to the end of Prologue.

TOA

After turning in a few more turns, the two childhood friends came across one long corridor. Once they had hit beyond the halfway mark the two could not run any further. In an attempt to deceive the Conmetarus, Nadav bit in the growing pain within his abdomen and raised his arms up.

At that very instance where it seemed as if he was carrying a huge weight, Nadav uttered two spells.

“[Boulder Erect], [Cement].”

A part of the ground before them rose up in the shape of a huge cuboid. In accordance to the spell, the chunk of earth automatically positioned itself with perfect proportion against the walls on either side. After the cuboid successfully placed itself straight up at a perfect 90 degrees, [Cement] was used to alter the earth into wet sticky clay. When there was enough clay, Nadav used his magic to manipulate the clay into sealing the edges of the cuboid with the walls. By the end of all the procedures, there was an artificially created wall that’s easily passable as a random dead end.

Once he was finished, Nadav’s legs gave way and he collapsed on his buttocks.

Feeling the painful stitches within their abdomen, the two took a moment to catch their breaths.

Bending his knees, Cadeus rested his hands against his tights and took in deep breaths.

Running crazily like that caused the much hated anaerobic respirations.

Despite the few adrenaline rushes, the rapid build up of lactic acids was more than enough to prevent him from continuing.

Nadav had it slightly better, for Cadeus could see [Heroic Might] still glowing on his forearm. That White enchantment would help Nadav to recover his stamina at a quicker rate. After a few more minutes, Nadav was on his legs again.

Once Cadeus had recovered, they soon moved on, hoping that they would not encounter the Conmetarus again.

“Hey Cadeus, does that Conme-thing has an acute sense of smell?”

“I don’t know. Don’t ask me. I don’t even know what the heck that thing was made from.”

“So what happened to you? The last time I saw you, you took quite a long fall. What happened to the red head gang boss and that noble chick?”

“When I came to, Acriscius is no longer there, and Claire was right next to me. Apparently, she’s the one who gave me this before I woke.”

Cadeus pointed to the bandage on his head.

Nadav suddenly paused.

“What?”

“You were unconscious, she helped you with a bandage, and when you woke up she happens to be right next to you?”

Oh no… not again?

This idiot’s couple relationship switch flipped for all the wrong reasons.

“Before you say anything about me and Claire being an item, you better stop because if you do, I swear that in the next instance, my fist will bury itself into your face.”

Nadav opened his mouth before closing it again.

“All right, all right. I won’t try to implement anything, but just let me ask you one question.”

“Knowing you, you’ll just fire away even though I said stop asking.”

“Did she give you a lap pillow?”

Cadeus nearly fell on his face when he heard that. He knew Nadav would say something that’s entirely unfounded, but this?

“Lap pillow? How in the f***ing f*** did you arrive to that sort of conclusion?”

“I don’t know. The two of you strike me as… I don’t know, an item?”

Cadeus turned and swung a fist to Nadav’s nose.

“Oof!”

Since it’s his own fault for failing to see that coming, Nadav took the blunt of the force and collapsed to the floor.

Seriously, just how nonsensical could this childhood friend get?

Putting aside the matter about Claire, Nadav went to the more important details.

“So what happened next? Since that noble chick is not here with you, did something happened?”

“The hacked golems were what happened. The first golem we came across was hacked so it refused to let us pass. We called Miss Allis for some names or passwords, but she did not help at all. Claire got sick of the entire situation and she just singlehandedly trashed the golem. She left for the surface afterwards.”

“She just left? Can she do that?”

“I don’t know, and don’t start thinking that we can as well. Unlike Claire, we are not nobles.”

“Shit… you just have to say it do you?”

How easily predictable, Cadeus was glad that he managed to shut that idea out before it was developed beyond control.

“But enough about me, what about you? What happened on your end after I fell?”

“Well after you fell down, Sing used another Clairvoyance spell and found a stairway leading down to this level.”

“Sing casted another Clairvoyance spell? After all that fighting with the Arthropod Queen? [Carving Sight] is equivalent to three [Point Spells]. How’s her Cast Limit holding up?”

“I asked the same question myself. Apparently she had only a couple of [Point Spells] left before she hits her limit.”

“How exactly is that good?”

“It isn’t, but hey. If she hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t know how the heck to get to this lower level to find you.”

“Ah… true.”

“So, coming back to where we left off. Once we descended to this level, the guy with the tattoo on his cheek left with his friends.”

“Vanderburg?”

“Yes that’s the one. He said something along the lines of ‘Thank you, but you guys are now on your own’ and left to look for his boss.”

“I see. What happened next?”

“We ran into two golems.”

“Did they attack you?”

“No. They both registered us as Humans and just simply let us pass.”

“They let you pass? The ones I came across had their programming hacked. They refused to let me through, so violence is the only answer.”

“I know, I saw.”

“So, did the Conmaterus come after that?”

“Of course it did. Sing and I were taking a few turns here and there until we came across an artificially created habitat meant to support the various chimera life forms.”

“What? Do you mean a forest?”

“Nah… it’s more like a zoo. The problem is, there’s no bloody security to make sure that the beasts keep to their pens. When we arrived, there’s evidence of predatory activities. There’s a ton of carcasses and rotting bones. That’s when we encountered the Conma-whatever-shit-it-is. We were just walking through when we saw it chasing a smaller chimera probably from a similar experiment. It jumped on it and sank its jaws into the poor thing’s throat.”

“What?”

Cadeus raised an eyebrow.

Calling an extremely dangerous chimera a ‘poor thing’ did sound wrong to his ears, regardless of the predatory circumstances.

“The poor thing? Seriously?”

“That’s what Sing said.”

“I guess she’s not happy to see such a sight.”

“Oh she’s pissed. You know her. But before she could make a fuss out of it, the Conma-I-don’t-give-a-shit saw us and started attacking us. That’s where we split up.”

“Why did the two of you even split up in the first place? This can’t be Sing’s idea. Is it yours?”

“Um… yes…”

“I thought so, and in doing so you forsake Sing to be lost in this dangerous catacomb. Brilliant.”

“It… it was just a spur of the moment.”

“If something happens to Sing, don’t come running to me if she becomes a wraith and haunts you.”

“…She won’t, right?”

Cadeus was about to leave him hanging there when he recalled something unusual.

“How did being chased by that Conmaterus ended up with you hanging onto the edge of an extremely narrow cliff?”

“Trust me, if you are being chased consistently by that Conma-shit, hanging onto the edge of a cliff might not be a bad idea.”

“I see…”

Deciding that he did not want to know anything further, Cadeus returned to the matter at hand. He was reunited with Nadav. That was a good start. Now what they need was to find Sing and help Miss Allis in the Eighth level.

Ignoring the idiot, Cadeus turned his attention to the rune on his sling bag and resumed his spirit tracing.

Closing his eyes, Cadeus meditated and sensed that the two remaining spirit links to Sing were still active. Sing was still somewhere in this level. Noticing that Cadeus was meditating, Nadav waited until he opened his eyes before asking.

“You done?”

“Yes. I know where Sing is.”

Nadav noticed a strange sense of confidence within his friend.

“You do? How?”

“Just so it happens, I recalled I had a Clairvoyance spell up my sleeve.”

“A Dark Clairvoyance spell?”

Nadav gave Cadeus eyes full of doubt.

“You don’t have to give me that look. No, this spell is not Dark, nor did I use any suspicious means to acquire Sing’s location. What I just used is universal. You could use it if you know how to do it.”

“Is it? All right, once we are done with this incident, give me a crash course.”

“Are you sure? There’s going to be a lot of theory involved.”

“…You know what, never mind…”

As they moved on, Nadav soon caught wind of a change he did not sense until now.

Whenever Sing casted her enchantments on them, there would always be a faint presence of White Magic around the three of them. Even now, Nadav could sense a small fragment of White Magic around him due to Sing’s enchantments. However, Nadav could not feel said presence around Cadeus.

“Cadeus, what happened to your enchantments?”

TOA

At another part of the eighth level, Sirena was looking back at the path leading back to the artificially created habitat.

After waiting for several more minutes, Sirena could only voice out a conclusive statement.

“… I knew it. He’s not coming back.”

Ever since Nadav successfully ‘led’ the chimera away, things took a different turn. For one, she was now alone. Just as she had expected, Nadav did not return. He must have gotten lost after loosing the chimera.

Well that’s not something surprising. Knowing Nadav, he would loose the pursuer, get lost in the process and somehow miraculously survive to see another day. Even in the midst of this dangerous catacomb, Sirena was not even worried for her clownish friend.

But that was not the main problem.

Turning back to the path before her, Sing let out a concerning thought.

“Now then… how exactly do I proceed from now?”

Given the situation, remaining in the artificially created habitat was not an option since there’s the possibility that other deadly chimeras might show up. That was why she left the enlarged chamber for good. But how she should proceed beyond this point was extremely important.

“…It’s not like I am out of any options.”

She had a few clairvoyance spells, but those had a limited range. Having experienced how insanely large this catacomb labyrinth could be, Sirena doubted that her current list of clairvoyance spells could be of any use other than wasting her Cast Limit.

Sing soon turned her attention to the enchantments on her arm. They were all still glowing strongly. She won’t be rejuvenating them for a while.

Current Cast Limit estimation – about fifteen [Point Spells]

Endar’s Light was still passively active, but that was not enough to help her navigate this whole place without running into trouble.

Thinking about how she should proceed, Sirena concluded that her best option would be to try to find Cadeus in order to contact the Enforcers. If she recalled, Cadeus had a Caller. If she could find him in this level, they could link up with Miss Allis and hopefully they could send someone working off scene to help trace Nadav’s location.

Setting her sights on this newfound goal, Sirena had spent the next few minutes moving on her own.

With [Endar’s Light] in her hand, Sirena was fully aware that she was making herself a wide target for the possible chimeras who were nocturnal. However, it was a risk she was willing to take.

Before long, Sirena soon encountered what looks like another experimental laboratory filled with various mutative experimentations. Only this time, it was a little different. There were a large number of shelves that displayed glass jars of various sizes that were either empty or broken. Those that were still filled contained various sorts of twisted small chimeras. Given the glossy state of the liquid within, the chimeras inside were long dead. In fact, it would be right to say that everything here was dead.

Staring at all these dead animals used for the horrendous experiments, Sirena could not help but feel an emotion growing within her.

And yes, that emotion was anger.

But that anger was soon short lived as Sirena felt a familiar presence within this dead room.

“White Magic?”

Feeling a small shred of White Magic, Sirena focused her attention on the lingering presence of magic.

“This feeling… something’s alive!”

Retaining her focus on that lingering presence, Sing quickly searched around and tried tracing that sensation to its source. With such a small presence, it was hard to pin point the exact location of the source. But once she reached the source, what Sirena ended up stumbling upon was a small jar that had a bit of light.

Grabbing that small jar, Sirena saw a small glowing creature within the glass.

It was a creature she knew all too well.

“A fairy?”

Fairies are a species of tiny magical creatures strongly associate with various folklores and myths. They were originally native to Earth, but the bulk of their population had migrated to Zeffernon sometime prior to the Great Pilgrimage. Controversial to popular belief, fairies are creatures incapable of speech. However, they were strongly reputed to be able to convey thoughts and ideas through a unique form of magical telegraphy that’s unknown even to humans.

As she looked into the jar, the fairy remained unresponsive. It just resumed being cuddled up without being aware of what’s transpiring around her.

“Strange… if I can feel her presence, she should be able to feel mine. For a magical being to be unresponsive to its surroundings, its mind must be mentally isolated from the world outside.”

It’s no surprise that the fairy’s mind would be targeted. Since fairies can convey thoughts, they can sometimes influence the human mind to do their bidding. The Dark Mutators who captured it must have isolated its mental capacity as a form of safety measure.

“But how did they do it… oh, it’s the jar.”

On closer observation, the jar tip that envelop into the jar’s cover was encoded with glowing yellow runic inscriptions. The inscriptions were arranged like a ring around the jar tip before extending downwards like cage bars. With such a representation of a trapped bird, it’s no wonder why this fairy would be in such a predicament.

Prying off the jar’s cover, the runic inscriptions dispersed and voided the isolation effects.

Tilting the jar downwards, Sirena allowed the fairy to drop gently onto her hand.

Now that the fairy was directly before her, Sirena could sense that its magical presence was weak, very weak. In fact, it was so weak that the fairy’s glow was extremely dim. It soon became rather obvious to Sirena that this fairy was on the verge of dying.

Caressing the small being in her hand, Sirena slowly fed it with a portion of her own White Magic. Based on her own knowledge, Sirena knew that fairies were magical creatures that lived on magic. Without a feeding source of magic that shared its colours, the fairy will die.

As she fed it, the fairy resumed its glow. Soon, the fairy regained its energy and it started fluttering its small wings.

Moving her hand forward, Sirena gave the fairy the room it needs and waited as it soon took off.

It flew around the room until it hovered in front of her in mid air.

With its wings glittering with graceful light, Sirena felt it conveying it’s thanks to her telegraphically.

“Oh no worries. It’s my pleasure. How did you end up in such a place?”

Sirena sensed sadness within the fairy. It soon conveyed thoughts of fear and suppression, fear for its companions and suppression from the bad people in black.

Wait… fear for its companions?

“There are other fairies here?”

The fairy nodded.

Sirena could instantly guess what might have happened to them.

“Did the bad people in black turn them?”

The fairy shrunk in sadness and nodded, as if it knew what became of its comrades long before it was mentally isolated.

As if to confirm its own fears, the fairy glided into the air until it arrived at a shelf that displayed lifeless small jars filled with twisted mutated chimeras with wings. Staring at her twisted friends that would no longer take into the air, the fairy could only turn and sit on the edge of a nearby table. Although Sirena could not see it, it was obvious that the fairy was moaning in grief.

Staring at this sad scene, Sirena could not help but feel sorry for the fairy. She did not know why the Dark Mutators would do something so terrible, but she refused to let this fairy remain in this twisted place.

“Do you have anywhere to go?”

The fairy shook its head.

“I see… if that’s the case, would you like to come with me?”

The fairy gazed at her with confusion and uncertainty.

“I’ll be leaving this place soon. But before that, I need to find my friends. Would you like to come with me?”

The fairy considered.

After several minutes, it nodded.

TOA

“Untouched?”

“Not entirely… one of them is casting spells.”

“What colour?”

“He’s using the element Earth, so I guess he’s a Grey.”

“How far are they?”

“Hm… not that far. I’d say they are at least… twenty two meters away?”

“What kind of estimation is that?”

Whilst tracing Sing with his Spirit Tracing, Cadeus and Nadav overheard sounds of moving rubbles from a distance. Following the direction of the noise, they soon encountered the base of a short chasm. In seeing light above one side of the cliffs, Nadav offered using one of his Earth elemental spells to level up the earth to bring them up. However, Cadeus disagreed due to his uncertainty as to whether they will bump into foes. In the end, the two decided on the old classic way of a human ladder, which resulted in Cadeus standing on Nadav’s shoulders to get a clear view of things.

“Seven Untouched, one mage. I saw his robe slash. He’s an Apprentice.”

“An Apprentice? Crap… that’s two ranks up.”

“He’s also carrying a staff.”

“A staff? I guess he’s not the athletic type then. Did he sense us?”

“I don’t think so. With such density of Dark Magic in the air, I doubt he will be able to notice us at this distance.”

“What were they doing?”

“They were trying to seal off a catacomb passageway.”

“What? No wonder they are so loud. But why would they do such a thing? Are they sealing the passageway because there’s a dangerous chimera close by?”

“If that were the case, that mage would have acted with haste. But instead, he is taking his own time. It must be for another reason.”

“Then it must be for a strange reason. I mean, why are they bothering to do something so tedious when the chimeras they unleash could scare the Enforcers away?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the chimeras failed to scare the Enforcers away.”

“I hope that’s the case. If it is, I’m sure Fremin must be getting panicked to place an Apprentice this far from the ritual circle.”

After seeing all he needed to, Cadeus pressed his left hand on a lower rocky edge before hopping off Nadav’s shoulders.

“Or maybe, this group just happened to be lost.”

GGRROOOWWWLLLLL!!!!

The two could only pause in response to that powerful roar.

“…Please don’t tell me that’s the Conma-bloody-thing.”

“…I think so.”

Nadav started looking around frantically.

“Is it us? Is it us?”

A human cry soon resonated, and the two soon heard swords unsheathing.

“I think the Conmaterus found them instead.”

Cadeus felt magic casting and he soon heard war cries.

“Nadav. Give me a lift.”

“Again?”

“Just help me.”

Nadav bent a knee and allowed Cadeus to place his feet onto his shoulders.

As he watched, Cadeus saw that the Untouched had surrounded the Conmaterus. The Apprentice was busy casting enchantment effects. The Untouched swords soon glowed in bright blue, but Cadeus doubted that it would make any difference.

“What’s happening?” Nadav asked.

“The Untouched had surrounded the Conmaterus and they are now charging in without any plan. The Apprentice is cursing at them for breaking formation.”

“I guess he’s not happy. He probably assumes that the Untouched will listen to him.”

“I guess not. Ok, the Untouched landed several blows onto the Conmaterus.”

“Did they get him?”

“Um… no.”

In fact, it probably made things worst, for the Conmaterus snarled with its sharp teeth and leaped onto a nearby Untouched. With one snap of the jaw, the Conmaterus jumped away and faced the others. By the time his friends got to him, the fallen Untouched was long dead with his throat torn out.

“Ouch…”

“What?”

“One of the Untouched went down.”

“I thought so… what about the Apprentice?”

As the Apprentice waved his arms around, Cadeus could feel him gathering magic to cast a spell. Typical of all staff wielders, the Apprentice casted his spell by placing the focus point at the base of the staff and activated his magic by slamming the staff’s bottom tip down onto the floor.

A red circle soon materialized around the Conmaterus and it started inflicting burning pain around it. But that only served to aggravate the chimera, for the Apprentice soon became its new target.

Ignoring the other Untouched, the chimera went straight for the Apprentice.

“Anything new?” Nadav asked.

“The Apprentice casted something, and now the Conmaterus is after him. Either it’s smart, or it just tackles whoever is the immediate threat.”

In response to this sudden development, the Apprentice brought his staff before him and casted a spherical barrier of eletricity. When the Conmaterus charged into the barrier, there was a blast of energy. The Conmaterus fell back to the ground just as Cadeus had expected, but when he saw the barrier disappear and the Apprentice knocked back due to the impact, he could not restraint his surprise.

“…He’s surprisingly not that strong.”

“Who?”

“The Apprentice.”

“How so?”

As the Apprentice struggled to get up, the Conmaterus was about to jump at him when four Untouched sank their blades into it’s back.

Snarling in pain, the Conmaterus turned and lashed out one of its paws.

Claws came into contact with steel. With such unchallenged strength, the chimera’s claws tore through the numerous blades. Some of the Untouched lost their grip, while those who still had swords in their hands soon lost half of their blade length.

“Wow… those blades either had some lousy enchantments, or their quality sucks.”

“Say what?”

“Nothing.”

Loosing their only means of defense was the cue the Untouched need to forsake the fight. Four of them soon turned and ran for the first available path they could find. The remaining three were still hesitating and that was their downfall. Seizing an opening, the Conmaterus jumped at two more Untouched and crushed their ribs with its claws. The last one tried to flee, but the Conmaterus soon leaped at it and sank its teeth into his throat, and while the beast had its teeth in that poor man’s throat it –

“It sure does sound very rowdy up there. What’s the development?”

“The Untouched are down.”

“All of them?”

“Four of them ran for it. The other three are dead.”

“Shit.”

Yes, and let’s leave it as that. Cadeus did not want to explain the following gruesome details further.

Cursing their incompetence and cowardice, the Apprentice who got up threw out a large [Fire Ball].

“Wait… seriously?”

“What happened?”

Of all things the Apprentice could use, he used a [Fire Ball]? Well… there was nothing wrong with it. The size of the [Fire Ball] was much larger than what Cadeus could manage, and the range of the spell was considerably longer. But as a student of the tertiary curriculum, that Apprentice should have access to a larger list of spell types. He could have used a proper hex, a runic sequence, or maybe even something related conjuration. If he had casted any of those, it would have been an interesting learning experience.

But of all the mentioned possibilities, he casted a [Fire Ball]?

How disappointing…

“Wow… a basic [Fire Ball] at your level? I seriously expected more.”

“The Apprentice casted a [Fire Ball]?”

“Yes, and…”

Cadeus stopped short when the Conmaterus ignored the [Fire Ball].

It simply ran into the fire and triggered a huge explosion.

“What? What? What’s happening?” Nadav asked.

Ignoring Nadav for now, Cadeus focused on the ongoing events.

The Conmaterus burst from the wall of flames and resumed its charge towards the Apprentice. Since there was any lack of burn marks on the chimera’s skin, it must have a natural resistance to the Element Fire.

If this Apprentice only knew fire spells, he’s toast.

“Nadav, help me keep a note.”

“What?”

“The Conma-you-don’t-give-a-shit is immune to fire.”

“Eh? Is it? Well I use Earth more often, so I’m not too concern about it.”

In order to get away from the chimera, the Apprentice jabbed the bottom tip of his staff onto the Earth, and his entire body spirited away to another location.

What the… he warped?

Warping, an advanced teleportation spell that could instantly transport the mage in any short distance without the need of any teleportation circle or incantation. This was the first time Cadeus had seen the real deal.

While taking advantage of the chimera’s confusion and disorientation, the Apprentice attempted to cast another spell.

“Dude… shouldn’t you be running?”

“Come again?”

“Nothing…”

As a junior, he probably had not right to comment. However, even though Cadeus did not know the full extent of that Apprentice’s capability as a mage, it was rather obvious that the chimera was out of his league. If Cadeus was in his position, he would have retreated rather than staying to fight.

“This guy might not be very smart…”

Waving his arms around, the Apprentice enveloped his entire body with a spiraling circumference of fire before adding the finishing touch. An elemental construct, or something akin to it, manifested in front of the Apprentice.

“So he’s using conjuration now, now that’s something. Wait… fire again?”

The elemental construct was made entirely out of flames. Although it had a head and a set of arms, the bulk of its body resembled a flaming cyclone.

“Are you kidding me? Your [Fire Ball] earlier did not make a scratch on the Conmaterus. Why the heck are you using fire again?”

Given the chimera’s resistance to the earlier [Fire Ball], fire was definitely not a smart choice.

What is this guy doing? Does he have some kind of plan?

As Cadeus watched, the flaming cyclone burned through the air as it proceeds to engage the chimera. As it threw its flaming fists at the chimera, Cadeus doubt that it was dealing much damage. In response to this new threat, the Conmaterus merely snarled at the Elemental Construct and smacked it with its claws. But such physical attacks would prove to be useless, as the best way to deal with Elemental Constructs would be to utilize its opposing element, or take out the caster behind it.

While the chimeras was busying itself with the flaming cyclone, the Apprentice was casting something new.

Waving his arms around again, the Apprentice casted a spell that generated a green eerie aura. Sensing the magic within the spell, Cadeus felt that it was directed towards the corpses of the fallen Untouched.

The spell encased the corpses with the same eerie aura before the lumps of flesh slowly rose up one by one.

“Necromancy?”

Now that’s one advanced specialization that Cadeus wanted to see in action.

“Oi… what’s going on up there? I’m getting a very weird feeling?” Nadav voiced out his concerns.

“Nothing happened. Just ignore it.”

“Why do I get the feeling that something very Dark was casted?”

Cadeus chose not to answer him.

The undead Untouched went first for whatever swords that were available and mindlessly charged at the chimera.

With a swipe of its paw, the Conmaterus tore through the flesh of the nearest undead and knocked several bodies backwards. Now before anyone could say weak, the Conmaterus had a ridiculous amount of muscle, and using undead had its own disadvantages. Undead had a very low vitality being corpses, and since they are dead they could not think, thus they require directional instructions from the caster. The more undead the caster used, the more micro-management was involved to ensure that all undead follow the same set of instructions. It takes a lot of skill to learn Necromancy and utilize it to efficiency. Obviously this Apprentice was not as skilled as it was normally required since the undead’s actions were limited to being meat fodders whilst charging blindly against the chimera.

Ignoring all the annoying obstructions, the Comnaterus ran straight for the Apprentice.

“ *Whistle* Damn this chimera is smart.”

Realizing that his minions would not help, the Apprentice then quickly swapped his fingers in the air and drew three separate magic runes. But before the runic effects could be put into place, it was already too late.

Before the Apprentice could finish resolving the runic spell, the Conamterus plunged its paws against his arms and restrained them onto the ground. It sank it’s jaws into the Apprentice’s neck, and…

“Ok, that’s it. The Apprentice is down.”

“Did he get the chimera?”

“No.”

“Aw… shame.”

With the Apprentice dead, the flaming cyclone disintegrated and the remaining Undead collapsed.

Then, as if it was picking up a familiar scent, the Conmaterus sniffed around in the air.

As Cadeus observed it, the more it felt as if the Conmaterus was searching for something.

“Wait… please don’t tell me that he’s sniffing out for us?”

If the Apprentice couldn’t even sense them, what made this beast capable of–

Cadeus held that thought.

Oh… right. It’s a beast. It must have an acute sense of smell.

Cadeus made the crucial mistake of not getting out of sight quickly.

When the Conmaterus successfully established eye contact with him, Cadeus soon realized his mistake.

“Oh f*** this shit.”

Screw this shit. There’s no way Cadeus’s going fight this thing.

Cadeus immediately dropped from Nadav’s shoulder.

“RUN!”

“EEEEHHHHH? YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT THE BEAST FOUND US???”

Without even bothering to reply, Cadeus quickly turned and ran with Nadav right behind him. The two of them just barely got back into the smaller passageways when the Conmaterus descended onto them. With its huge size, it could not fit into the tight space. While it watched as its prey got away again, the Conmaterus roared in anger.

TOA

“Ha… Ha… I hope we never see that thing again.”

“My thoughts exactly… Ha…”

The two spent a moment to recollect their stamina before moving out again.

“So… where to now?”

“Hm…”

Cadeus brought his attention to Sing’s rune again and resumed his spirit tracing.

When he felt Sing’s spirit link, the link’s new location caught him off guard.

“Sing’s at the ninth level?”

“Huh? What?”

Cadeus stared below his feet.

“Sing’s somewhere below us. I don't know in which direction.”

“Hey, hey… you’ve got to be kidding me. I was with Sing not long ago. How could she be at the ninth level so quickly?”

Just when Cadeus was about to open his mouth, he felt something vibrating rigorously within his pocket.

Taking out the shaking Caller, Cadeus was slightly hesitant to answer the call.

He got an obnoxious feeling, knowing that Miss Allis would most likely throw something out of the blue

Nevertheless, Cadeus reluctantly pressed the centre button all the while hoping that he’ll not regret answering.

It was one of those situations where he would regret doing something he knew he would regret, but the image that came into view totally surprised him.

What he saw was a small 3D image of Sing, not Miss Allis.

“Sing?”

TOA

Sitting on one of the high debris and resting comfortably against a smooth collapsed pillar, Viper was about to fall asleep when he was interrupted by one of his masked henchman.

“Sir, the Enforcers have breached the third barrier.”

“Ha?”

When he first heard it, questions flashed inside his brain.

What barrier?

Which one?

Which number?

Where is the barrier stationed?

As he struggled to process the information, Viper felt that he was loosing his focus.

Perhaps he was just feeling tired, or his mind just automatically shut it’s processers since there was nothing much to do.

Regardless, it only took Viper an additional minute before he recalled that twelve barriers were set up within the ninth level to stall the Enforcers.

“Third barrier? That’s still quite far.”

Getting up, Viper swapped the dust of the back of his pants before stretching his shoulders.

“So, how are our Alchemy friends doing?”

“They are already done with the circle. The four Masters that Fremin was waiting for had arrived.”

“Oh… that means that they are starting soon.”

Viper leaped off the high debris and landed in front of his henchman.

“Any news from the boss?”

“No sir. Nothing from HQ.”

“Good. Then that means we can continue proceeding without any fear of last minute changes, great!”

Humming a joyous melody that was definitely inappropriate for their current location, Viper casually moved only to see that the number of mages in this level had increased. There were more Apprentices and some Mages. No doubt they belong to the other Masters Fremin invited to partake in this ritual, but Viper saw little sense in bringing them.

His thoughts about their presences were soon interrupted when he got a full view of the completed ritual circle.

It was all Grey.

Of course it was, it was made entirely out of that powder.

Two huge circles were laid out at the very center of the platform, the larger surrounding the smaller. Within each circle, four intersections were displaced with the White protective circles Viper’s team added.

Why did it take so long for this circle to be prepared?

The answer lied within the gaps between the circles and the ritual center.

There were multiple layers of symbols and runic inscriptions stacked above one another, all intertwined with multiple patterns of inner lines and circles. Viper did not know the exact details of this ritual circle, but he did know that the complexity of the symbols and patterns involved emblematized the corruptive nature of Dark Magic. Such convoluted figuration taxes preciseness, especially when the entire circle was made of powder. With powder, one must be very careful with regards to the measurement and precision regardless of form and property.

Removing his sights from the ritual circle, Viper turned his attention to a group of mages who were standing near the ‘cart’ filled with the banned ingredients. Given their robes and demeanour, it was rather obvious that they were the various Masters Fremin was expecting to help him carry out the ritual. Fremin was amongst them, and it appears that they were enjoying themselves with the various banned ingredients. No doubt Fremin had promised his colleagues a portion of the banned ingredients once this entire event was over.

Noticing Viper approaching, Fremin turned and greeted him with a smile.

“Ah Viper, there you are.”

He then made a gesture to his colleagues.

“Everyone, this is Viper. Viper, meet Master, Master, Master and Master.”

The only reason why the various names aren’t heard was because Viper dismissed them the very instance he heard them.

He merely put up a smile, feigned interest, and briefly ended the introductions without caring who was what and all. They all looked the same to him anyway, old and grim. Even if they were all powerful Dark Mages, Viper did not care.

“So, since everyone is here, when will the ritual start?” Viper said.

Fremin smiled.

“The circle is ready. We will be starting in a minute.”

“All right, good. Did you know that the Enforcers have breached the third barrier?”

When Fremin heard that, he and the other Masters expressed some shock. Perhaps they were not expecting the Enforcers to breach the ninth level this quickly.

“I guess not.” Viper added.

The outburst followed.

“That’s too fast!”

“How could we finish the ritual on time?!”

“If the Enforcers catch up to us while we are still in the midst of the ritual, we’re done for!”

Fremin clapped his hands to calm down his friends.

“Now, now. All is not lost. Even if the Enforcers could break past the barriers, we should be done by then. All we need to do is to finish the ritual, and we can then leave through the teleportation circles we set up many hours prior. As long as we leave before the Enforcers show up, there should not be a problem.”

The other masters muttered in slight agreement.

“We just need finish the ritual, as per our agreement. Is that not right Viper?”

“That’s right. Nothing wrong so far.”

“All right. Let’s start the ritual now.”

His colleagues nodded and started moving towards the ritual circle calling their assistances to get ready.

While his colleagues busy themselves, Fremin turned his attention to Viper.

“What about you?”

“Hm… well since time is now of the essence. You guys just do what you have to do. I’ll bring my guys up and settle with the Enforcers before they could interfere.”

Fremin was surprised to hear that, happily too.

“I thought your boss told you to keep a low profile?”

“When my boss mentioned keeping a low profile, it refers to the refraining of any direct confrontations. What we are going to do is simply to distract the Enforcers and lure them away from the tenth level. I’m sure we are still keeping the low profile part in tact. Besides, my boss wanted to see this ritual succeed, so I’m sure my boss won’t mind if we step up a little bit to see to the ritual’s succession.”

“Ah… I see…”

“But be warned. Once we are forced into direct engagement, I have orders to withdraw. But I suppose you guys will be done by then.”

“I understand.”

Without any more time to waste, Fremin started walking to the ritual circle. He moved to the very center of the ritual circle and watched as his four colleagues and their assistances stood at their respective places within the protective circles. Four Mages stood at the inner circle while the four Master stood at the outer circle.

“All right. Let’s begin.”

All nine Mages started concentrating magic. As Viper watched, he soon felt a gathering reservoir of Dark Magic. One by one, the casters sank into a meditative trance. As the Mages went in deeper into the ritual, the grey powder glowed with a pale white light. Before long, the air within the ritual circle began resonating in a spiral of Dark Magic, adding to the already strenuous environmental energies of Dark Magic, creating a spiraling vortex of corruption.

That was the all the cue Viper needed to signal his henchmen to leave. Using their own separate teleportation circle, Viper continued watching the ritual as his subordinates left in groups of three. As his henchmen left one by one, Viper waited until the white protective circles they had installed activate their magic. Satisfied, he turned and stepped into the teleportation circle.

TOA

With the fairy sitting on her shoulder, the illumination around her surroundings was much stronger. Well, it naturally should be so, for fairies had their own natural glow.

Sirena’s decision to take the fairy with her was a good one. The fairy had a strange Clairvoyance skill to determine which path would best help lead Sirena back to her friends. Whenever the two of them would encountered a crossroad, the fairy would spent several seconds flying around the paths before it helped Sirena make a decision.

After traveling for a few more minutes, there was a new encounter.

The fairy sensed a presence. It belonged to a person

“A person? All alone?”

The fairy nodded its head.

“Who would be alone in this catacomb?”

Well… it’s not like Sirena could say much since she was alone just now for a brief moment in time.

“Do you think it’s my friend?”

The fairy conveyed thoughts of uncertainty. It also informed her telepathically that the presence it sensed was heading their way.

“All right… is it hostile?”

The fairy shook its head.

Staring at the empty path before her, Sirena could only wait with the fairy right next to her.

A few more seconds, Sirena heard footsteps. Then, a massive silhouette of a man soon appeared from the other side. With his tall height and fiery red hair, his identity was an easy guess.

“… Lord Acriscius?”

Did she add a Lord? Yes she did.

When Acriscius registered whom she was, his soon disregarded any interest in her.

“Oh… it’s you.”

When she heard that Sirena knew that in his eyes, Acriscius probably viewed her as ‘a friend of that loathsome guy’. Obviously, he’s not happy with her presence.

While she contemplates on how to treat this unfamiliar character, the fairy’s wings fluttered strongly as it watched vigilantly against Acriscius.

Sirena could sense the fairy’s extreme dislike for Acriscius, which is something understandable since Acriscius was a Dark Mage. Since Acriscius was of the same colour alignment as the Dark Mutators, Sirena figured that the fairy must have picked up a similar semblance between the Greater Noble and her captors.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s not like the bad people in black. I can vouch for him.”

Sirena sensed hesitation within the fairy, but it soon nodded its head.

Staring at this unusually exchange, Acriscius opened his mouth.

“Where did you get it the fairy?”

“I freed it from one of the experimental laboratories. It decided to follow me for the time being.”

“That sounds handy.”

Sirena did not like his tone and implication.

“The fairy is my friend. Not a familiar.”

“Not my concern.”

Acriscius then expressed irritation. But Sirena doubted that their conversation was the cause of it. The Greater Noble was paying attention to his left arm. Although she could not see it, she could tell that Acriscius was experiencing some sensations of pain.

“Are you wounded my lord?”

“Not your concern.”

All right, since he was not going to bother showing her, Sirena decided to risk one [Point Spell] worth of Cast Limit.

“[Var’s Sight].”

With her pupils turning bright yellow, Sirena could momentarily scan through Acriscius’s biological anatomy to see if there was anything strange. Her sight fell onto the part of the arm he was hiding, and she soon saw an abnormally. Acriscius had a fractured Ulna and a skin avulsion around the fractured forearm. The cause for such an injury was a sever blunt trauma, which Sing suspected Acriscius received from the fall between the two levels.

Sirena may not be a qualify doctor, but she knew well enough that if such an injury was left untreated, it will deteriorate and the only option for treatment left would be amputation. All the more she needs to heal it now, especially when she knows that Acriscius had been enduring the pain all this while.

Since Acriscius was highly reluctant to show her the wound site, Sirena gathered her magical reserves for a [Distance Spell].

“[Restoration – Mark].”

A golden magical circle soon materialized above Acriscius’s fractured forearm. With [Var’s Sight] still in effect, healing it was a piece of cake.

Acriscius could not help but widen his eyes in surprise as he felt a tingling sensation around the wound site. There was no pain, but it felt as if splintered bone, exposed muscle and torn skin were molding back into proper place. After several more seconds, the arm was as good as it was before it received the blunt trauma.

With the lack of any further pain, Acriscius folded his bloodied sleeves up and spent a few moments looking at his former wound site.

“…Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

Well that seemed to calm him down a little.

“Oh… by the way. I was with Vanderburg previously when we were at the previous level.”

Acriscius shot his head towards her, now that caught his attention.

“You were with Vanderburg?”

“Momentarily. We split up after reaching this level. He said that he was looking for you with the others.”

“Good man. The others are fine?”

“The last time I saw them they were all doing well. Vanderburg seems to be taking charge for the time being.”

“That’s good.”

Slowly and steadily, Acriscius’s opinion of Sirena had improved for the better.

“If that’s the case, then it’ll be best to look for the Enforcers. The Enforcers are skilled at finding people after all.”

Sirena nodded. Even though a noble of Acriscius’s standing could easily establish a Caller network with his subordinates, Callers will not be issued to students until their initial trials. There were other methods to contact people, but such methods required advanced techniques that would only be taught once they had progressed to Acolytes. That was why Acriscius currently did not have any methods to contact Vanderburg. Sirena could sympathize with this frustration.

“Then that should be simple. Miss Allis gave you a Caller didn’t she?”

The mere mention of Miss Allis was more than enough to turn Acriscius off.

“…The mere thought of talking to that woman infuriates me.”

“If it is comfortable with you, I can talk to her on your behalf. The faster we meet up with the Enforcers, the faster you can find Vanderburg and the others… my lord.”

“…”

Acriscius took out the Caller and gave it to her.

A few more minutes, and Miss Allis’s small figure soon materialized above the disk.

“Hello~! Need something? Oh! It’s you!”

Upon registering Sirena’s identiy, Miss Allis’s mood brightened enthusiastically to the point where Sirena could guess what she might be after.

“You can cast healing spells, am I right? We got some wounded guys at our side. Do you mind if I teleport you over so that you can heal them quickly? If it is also comfortable with you, will you mind if you stick with us all the way until the operation is over? We could really use a healer on our side especially when things get hot. Is the Cast Limit a concern? No need to worry. We are pretty good in avoiding damage. It’s just that sometimes we still take some hits, so you won’t be casting healing spells all the time. Would you rather we pay you instead? Not to worry, we can even arrange the right price if you want to receive compensation.”

“Um… well…”

Wow…

She’s not even afraid to hide her demands. This lady really had no sense of shame.

Wait… how did she even know that I could cast healing spells? Sirena thought.

Sirena did not recall ever mentioning that she could cast healing spells. Well at least, not in front of an Enforcer. Was it a stereotypical assumption that all White Mages could cast healing spells?

That should not be so. It should be common knowledge that not all White Mages had the concentration of White Magic required to cast healing spells.

Did Cadeus tell her?

Sirena doubted he did. Knowing him, he definitely disliked someone as unreliable as Miss Allis.

Was it the Academia registry then?

Did Miss Allis learn about this when she did research on the three of them?

It should be in the norm for the Enforcers to investigate the background information of their witnesses in order to determine their credibility. Perhaps that was how she knew.

Before Sirena could say anything further, Acriscius took the Caller from her hand. It did not take long for him to show his antipathy towards the person on the 3D screen.

“Enough of this nonsense. Just teleport us over to your side already.”

Miss Allis was not even baffled by his sudden appearance.

“Ah! If it isn’t Lord Acriscius! That’s very good! We also need your firepower! All right, hold on! I’ll prepare the circle in just a second.”

And with that, Miss Allis terminated the call from her side.

“Tch! This annoying woman.”

Although Sirena fully agree with Acriscius, she did not voice out her thoughts.

In any case, Miss Allis should soon teleport them over.

Just when Sirena was thinking about this, a teleportation circle soon materialized around the two of them.

All it took was a flash of light, and the teleportation was completed.

TOA

When Sirena and Acriscius reached the other side, things weren’t looking good. The two of them teleported into what seemed to be a huge chamber filled with dismembered chimera corpses. The scent of blood and magic was strong in the air, and there was not one space free of blood and severed lumps of flesh. Even the ground they were stepping on was sticky with blood and various biological fluids.

Now Sirena was not a stranger to blood. She saw various traumas, and she healed wounds. But the level of biological devastation present was more than enough to make her feel extremely uncomfortable.

In witnessing such a scene, Sirena almost threw up. She clasped her hand on her mouth and she was experiencing trouble breathing.

“[Doth’s End].”

With a wave of his hand, Acriscius casted [Doth’s End], a simple spell that temporary alter any form of psychological trauma and converts the mind into its pre trauma state. After the spell was fully resolved, the nausea feeling was soon gone and Sirena soon felt comfortable again.

“Um… Thanks… my lord.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Looking at Acriscius, it’s a whole marvel how he could last this long without throwing up. By the look on his eyes, Sirena could tell that he was used to such a sight.

Bringing her attention to the room, the Enforcers were in a rough state. Their numbers were around thirty, which was about the same as what Sirena remembered back at the fifth level. They were not particularly demoralized, but they appear to be recuperating. Whatever fight they just had, it was consuming, but not something they couldn’t handle. Long story short, the Enforcers were in good shape despite all that they went through. In fact, it would be safe to say that they could handle this crisis just fine on their own.

Sirena could already guess why Acriscius and Claire were rather annoyed when the Enforcers dragged them into such a situation; they were clearly not needed.

Moving towards their location, Miss Allis finally welcomed them… or more accurately Sirena, by throwing her hands onto her shoulders.

“Welcome~! We’re so glad you could join us!”

Hold on… am I hallucinating? Sirena thought.

If it weren’t for the intensive corruptive presence of Dark Magic in the air, Sirena would have thought that she was hallucinating. There were tears literally flowing from Miss Allis’s eyes.

They must be that desperately in need of a healer.

“We got one extremely bad case! If you weren’t here, we thought this could be the end of him!”

Ok… they seriously need a healer for things to sound that bad.

For some reason, Acriscius’s presence was utterly forgotten and Miss Allis strangely failed to notice the fairy when it’s presence stood out clearly.

Grabbing her shoulders, Miss Allis immediately brought Sirena to a set up tentage where all the wounded Enforcers were lying with their wounds covered with first aid bandages.

“Guys! Your angel in heaven is here to see you~!” Miss Allis announced.

When the wounded Enforcers looked at her way, they all expressed relief at the sight of the only White student they saw previously back at the fifth level.

Taking a general glance, Sirena saw up to ten Enforcers with multiple traumas. The worst case she had seen was a man with a deep slash across his lower abdomen. It looked like he had lost quite a lot of blood, and a part of his intestines was edged out.

Under normal circumstances, this man would have died long ago. However, the bandages the Enforcers were using were specially enchanted to halt any progressive trauma and place any wound site into a stagnate state. Meaning to say, although this man looked like he had lost a lot of blood, the paranormal reality prevents him from being so.

Other than this particular bad case, the rest did not seem that urgent.

Finishing her triage, Sirena moved to the man with the abdominal wound.

She quickly took out a pair of surgical gloves and gently pushed back the intestine that edged out. Clasping the opening with one hand, she quickly casted one of her healing spells.

“Conditions set, [Heal].”

With a flash of gold, the deep cut was gone, and the intestine was no longer visible.

Feeling the change, the wounded Enforcer quickly brought his hands and felt the former wound site.

“Wow… thanks. You are amazing.”

“That should deal with the issue of bleeding for now, but I would still advise avoiding any further strenuous activities. Also, please visit the Apothecary to check your internals once this whole operation is done.”

“Of course, thank you. Little lady.”

After repeating the same healing procedures for the other Enforcers, Sirena’s Cast Limit was considerably spent. Feeling the strain in the over usage of magic, Sirena sat and rested at the tentage.

“Good work~!”

Pleased with her work, Miss Allis passed a sports drink to her.

“Oh… thanks.”

“You are really good at what you do. Do you want to consider part timing with the Enforcers?”

“…Unfortunately I have to decline. As you can see I am still a student.”

“Students work part time in multiple jobs here and then. Just Join the Enforcers~! There’s not much of a difference anyway. You’ll be working off field.”

“Um… well…”

The more she hear, the more Sirena was convinced that there was a screw loose somewhere in Miss Allis’s brain.

Just what exactly would make her think that a student like her would be suitable to work with the Enforcers? Even if it were to be part time, Enforcers work was something of a whole different level. The sort of work Enforcers usually get themselves involved with should not be compared to the usual small part timing jobs students take up to earn extra pocket money. In the first place, it’s unthinkable for a student to work part time with the Enforcers.

Just when Miss Allis was going to be persistent in recruiting Sirena, Acriscius dropped himself in to the rescue.

“Hey. When are you going to remember that I exist?”

“Oh my! Excuse me my lord. The anticipation of the little girl’s success triggered a huge adrenaline rush. I totally overlooked your presence. Please do forgive this humble commoner~!”

“Tch! You may have used the right words, but that does not mean that I’ll overlook this.”

“Eh? That’s strange. I seem to remember that you have some friends with you. Have your numbers suddenly depleted that badly?”

Pop!

Sirena could have sworn that one of Acriscius’s veins popped loudly.

Oh no… not good. She thought.

Sirena did recall Cadeus mentioning something about Acriscius being quick to anger. With Miss Allis’s character it was hard to tell if she was teasing him deliberately or unknowingly. In any case, any outburst from a man like Acriscius was a scene much to be avoided.

In an attempt to calm the situation, Sirena voiced out a question regarding the reason why she sought out for the Enforcers in the first place.

“Miss Allis, may I borrow your Caller? I need it to reach Cadeus.”

Acriscius raised an eyebrow when he heard the name, but Sirena paid him no heed.

“Oh sure! Of course! We could use the extra hand as well.”

Miss Allis passed Sirena her own Caller.

“When you want to teleport him over, let me know~.”

“Miss Allis! We need you over here!”

“On my way!”

Raising up a hand in response, Miss Allis slyly left the scene.

Staring at her departing silhouette, Acriscius clicked his tongue out of disgust.

Well… ignoring the hostility, Sirena brought her focus onto the Caller.

Asking Miss Allis for help was as useless as undesirable. Besides, she already knew how to use one, and she also knew how to teleport the person from the other side.

“Hey.”

Acriscius called out to her.

“Yes my lord?”

“Are you seriously going to bring in that imposter?”

“Well… he’s my friend. I definitely want to know if he’s safe.”

“Tch… how is it possible for an imposter like that to have a friend like you?”

Sirena had a guess about what he’s trying to imply, but she chose to take it as a compliment.

“He’s my childhood friend.”

“Ah… I see…”

Well, it turns out Acriscius could be someone understandable.

“I hope that he did not cause you that much trouble my lord.”

“No need to feel concern. My business with him is something personal. You don’t have to get yourself involved with this.”

“I see…”

Wow… Acriscius was surprisingly cooperative. Despite what she heard from Cadeus, this current experience was more than enough for Sirena to see him as a different person.

I wonder if that will change the moment Cadeus shows up… Sirena thought.

With this thought in her head, Sirena activated the Caller and sent Cadeus a call.

A few seconds, and Cadeus’s 3D image materialized.

“Sing?”

He sounded surprised, nothing unexpected.

“Hi Cadeus.”

“Oh shit! It’s seriously Sing!”

To Sirena’s surprise, Nadav’s figure popped up right next to Cadeus. When she saw that they were both safe, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hi guys. I’m at the lower level with the Enforcers. Are things fine on your side? I can teleport you two over using the Caller I am using.”

“That’s good. There’s nothing much for us to do on our current level anyway.” Cadeus said.

“Ok guys. Hold on.”

Sirena started the necessary procedure, and activated the teleportation circles.

TOA

When the teleportation was over, Cadeus and Nadav soon found themselves in a room unlike their previous location.

“Aw… shit! The smell!”

Nadav instantly covered his nose.

When his gaze turned to the multiple lumps of flesh and blood, it did not take him long to start puking.

Cadeus on the other hand, had no reaction. Since he had stared at the face of death multiple times, he had grown rather used to it.

Waiting for them were two individuals. One of them was obviously Sing. However, her arm-folding companion was someone entirely unexpected.

“…Acriscius?”

“It’s Lord Acriscius. Imposter.”

Cadeus instantly frowned. Why was this asshole with Sing? Did he harm her? If he did, Cadeus would make sure that he’s regret it.

They both shot each other hostile glares until Acriscius went off with an unacknowledged grunt. Staring at his back, he went to the nearby Enforcers.

With Acriscius out of the way, Cadeus walked to Sing. Of course, he did not fail to notice that glowing fairy sitting on her shoulder.

“What the… is that what I think it is?”

While recovering from his puking, Nadav saw the fairy as well.

“Eh? A fairy? Sing, since when did you have a fairy?” he said.

“Guys. The fairy is not a familiar.”

While Nadav failed to register her words due to his puking, Cadeus expressed confusion. It took him a couple seconds more to catch her meaning.

“Ah… a new partner, I see.”

Cadeus turned his attention to the fairy.

“Hello. I’m…”

The fairy fluttered its wings strongly as it watched vigilantly against him.

“Opps… I guess it does not like you.” Sing said.

“Hm… well. I can guess a reason.”

Sing gave him a smile.

“It’s not what you think. This fairy was used in one of the experiments the Dark Mutators set up. It’s become very wary of other Dark Mages.”

“So in normal circumstances it won’t dislike me? That’s refreshing.”

The fairy retaliated by sticking out its tongue.

Well… it’s not like Cadeus really cared.

When Nadav threw up another round of puke, the fairy expressed concern before flying towards him. As if patting him on the back, the fairy hovered over him and radiated elements of White Magic towards him.

While looking at it, Cadeus raised a question.

“Can that fairy heal? If it could, it could really help us.”

“I don’t know… I don't really want to involve that poor thing further with what's about to come.” Sing replied.

“But at the moment, she’s stuck with you am I right?”

“Yes…”

As Sing turned her gaze towards him, she instantly felt that something was slightly off about Cadeus. Searching for the source of the abnormity, she soon noticed something wrong with his elbow.

“Cadeus, what happened to your enchantments?”

“Um… well… let’s just say that a lot of things happened and…”

In realizing that Cadeus’s dodging the question, Sing moved closer and sized his elbow. Pulling up his sleeve, she instantly saw the various incantations Claire gave him.

Sing looked up at Cadeus.

“Pure Dark Magic, and on top of that, I sense that the magic does not belong to you.”

With a piercing gaze, Sing pulled back down his sleeve.

“Who gave you this?”

“Wait… I can answer that… The one who gave him that set of enchantments is that noble chick who – BLEEEEEEHHHHH ”

Perhaps thanks to good fortune, Nadav puked up more vomit before he could finish his sentence.

However, the mere mention of ‘that noble chick’ was more than enough for Sing to register a certain Greater Noble.

“Cadeus, care to explain?”

Cadeus sighed and told her about what had transpired between him and Claire.

TOA

“I see… so she gave you that set of enchantments to help you survive as a matter of insurance eh?”

“Yes.”

“…Are you sure she hates you?”

“Are you kidding me?”

Cadeus sighed.

Turning to the side, Cadeus could see the no-good Miss Allis with her colleagues.

“Tch… that annoying woman.”

Sing chose to keep quiet about the fact that Acriscius said the exact same words just a couple of seconds earlier.

“What have they been up to?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long have they been discussing?”

“For quite a while.”

Cadeus turned his face to her.

“So… Care to explain what happened between you and Acriscius?”

“He did not touch me. If that’s what’s on your mind.”

Cadeus raised an eyebrow.

“Really? That’s rather surprising.”

“Yes. He’s surprisingly cooperative.”

“…What did you do?”

“Nothing much. I just healed him and told him what I know of Vanderburg.”

“You healed him? For what?”

“Forearm Fracture and skin avulsion.”

“Ouch… he must have gotten that from the fall.”

“I thought so too.”

“Fracture and skin avulsion… that’s bloody painful. I can see why he’ll see you in a new light for healing him.”

“And telling him about Vanderburg.”

“That as well… As much as I hate to admit it, Acriscius does take good care of his lackeys… so what happened next?”

“I borrowed Acriscius’s Caller and called Miss Allis.”

“You what?”

Keeping a safe distance from Acriscius was one thing. But to gain his cooperation to the level of borrowing items… just what?

Sing smiled at the apparent shock reflecting on Cadeus’s face.

“If you can get along and talk with him, asking for the Caller is a possible thing.”

“Right… what happened next?”

“…Let’s just say that Miss Allis teleported me over to heal her injured comrades.”

Cadeus could half-guess what had happened.

“So she just teleported you over on a whim?”

“Yes…”

Cadeus clicked his tongue.

Damn Miss Allis and her unreliability.

When it came to him and Claire, they were both utterly ignored. But when it came to Sing and Acriscius, she teleported them over just because she needed Sing’s healing abilities?

What kind of bullshit is this? Cadeus thought.

Speaking of which, the woman in question finished her conversation with her colleagues. When she saw Cadeus, she went back to him.

“Hi Cadeus~! So glad you could join us!”

““…””

Miss Allis chose to ignore the hesitation that was reflected on Cadeus’s and Sing’s faces.

“…What’s the news?” Cadeus opened his mouth.

“Ah… not good. From the magical energies radiating from the lower levels, Fremin has started the ritual.”

“Shit… that’s not good.”

“Oh but there’s more. We got news from an external source that Fremin got some help. We confirmed four more Masters on site.”

“““…What?”””

Four more Masters?

Cadeus felt a large headache developing within his forehead, and it looks like he was not the only one. Sing was also giving out the exact same expression.

“…If that’s the case, then what kind of plan do the Enforcers have in mind?”

“Well, we fought chimeras, apprehended a couple of Apprentices, and we busted seven barriers so far. As for a plan well… Nothing’s change. We breach the barriers until we reach the tenth level~! And when that happens, we kick the criminal butts and rough up the day~!”

““…””

Her unimpressive presentation did little to provide them a good image of the Enforcers.

Just what have the Enforcers been doing all these while?

Oh right… fighting dangerous chimeras.

Wait… barriers?

“Miss Allis, did I hear you mentioned barriers?”

“Hm? Oh yes. When we first arrived on this level, we did a paranormal scan to check if there are any funny traps ahead. Aside from some funny traps here and there, we found twelve barriers blocking our advances to the tenth level. We already breached three, so there’s only nine left.”

“I see… and since you guys are tearing barrier by barrier, I guess there’s no way to skim past the barrier through some alternate means… It’s either that, or the barriers were intentionally set up along the most convenient routes.”

“That’s correct~! You never ask stupid questions! This big sister of yours is very impressed!”

“…”

Cadeus gave up on reprimanding her on the image of a self-imposed older sister.

Just when Miss Allis was about to continue her nonsense, Enforcer Kutsurov came over and clasped his hand on her shoulder with Enforcer Gezath right next to him.

“Miss Allis, enough with the children. We got to move.” Enforcer Kutsurov said.

Oh?

Just as Enforcer Kutsurov said, the rest of the Enforcers began to move to new areas.

Oh finally… things are progressing. He thought.

But before he could ask anything, Sing raised her hand.

“Um… excuse me… what about those that I just healed?”

“Don't worry. I already sent them back to the surface. They won’t be partaking any further than this.” Enforcer Gezath replied.

They were sent back? Since when?

Cadeus looked around.

When did they have a teleportation circle?

If they were teleported back to the surface, shouldn’t there be a flash of light somewhere?

Oh well… not like it matters anyway. Cadeus thought.

Enforcer Kutsurov stared at Cadeus and Sing before turning his attention to Miss Allis.

“While I agree that we could use the help of the Pure Blood, I still don’t think that involving the White girl here would be a wise course of action.”

“What are you saying Kutsurov? The White girl could heal!”

“We already have a team of Apothecaries standing by on the surface.”

“Those guys are a mile away! We already have a healer now! Didn’t you see how she helped our colleagues?”

“True, her abilities are admirable. But she’s still a child, and the inner sanctum is not a place for an inexperienced mage. In fact, I would feel better if all the children return to the surface.”

“Then blame the administration for not providing us a White Enforcer!”

Kutsurov sighed.

A few more Enforcers joined them.

“Hey Kutsurov, is your division done? We are about to move… a Pure Blood? Is that the one you guys were telling us? The one who helped you guys break into Fremin’s mansion?”

“Yup. He’s the one. Cadeus, meet Enforcer Cliffrai, Enforcer Navia and Enforcer Lagrez. They are the other division leaders.” Enforcer Gazeth said.

“Oh… hello.”

Cadeus doubted that he would remember the names, but he quickly registered their faces nonetheless.

“You guys can go ahead. We just need to settle one last issue before we – ”

“Navia! Lagrez! Help~! Kutsurov wants to send the kids back! Kids! Don’t listen to him! Listen to your older sister! Stay!”

With a quick motion, Enforcer Kutsurov gave Miss Allis a quick non-lethal chop to the neck. As Miss Allis fell into a puddle of flesh and blood, Enforcer Gezath sighed.

Staring at Miss Allis’s back, the other Enforcers sent Enforcer Kutsurov questioning gazes.

“…Just forget whatever she said and go. We are running out of time.”

“Don’t fall behind.”

The other Enforcers soon left.

Ignoring Miss Allis for now, he turned his attention to the three of them.

“The Enforcers appreciate the help you have given us, but there is no longer any need for you students to be continuously involved. If you wish to leave, I can teleport all of you back to the surface.”

“Um… Kutsurov, Miss Allis’s neck is in a strange position. If you do not help her soon then…”

“Sigh…”

While Enforcer Kutsurov helped Miss Allis shift into a more comfortable position, Enforcer Gezath turned his attention to the children.

“I apologies for my eccentric colleague. As you can see, she can be difficult to deal with.”

“…You must have had it rough.”

“Tell me about it.”

Enforcer Gezath gave a wry smile.

“Since you are students, we won’t force you to stay, but I just would like to add that we really could use the help of a Pure Blood. Of course, if the healer could choose to stay, it’ll be an additional bonus for us.”

“Oi. What are you saying?”

Enforcer Gazeth ignored Enforcer Kutsurov.

Ho?

Unlike Enforcer Kutsurov who really did feel guilty about involving underage students, Enforcer Gezath had a different approach in mind.

“Not feeling as guilty as Enforcer Kutsurov are you?”

“Well… let’s just say that the bulk of us present will feel better if you two were to tag along. Of course, we won't force you. We will respect your decisions to stay or go.”

“Gazeth, I’m warning you.”

“What? I understand your concerns when the White girl’s involved, but we defintiely need a Pure Blood for this one.”

“He’s just a kid.”

“It’s not like we are going to push him to the front now are we?”

“…”

Enforcer Kutsurov merely shook his head.

“Hm…”

This was a big decision to make. Cadeus needed to understand every aspect of what’s to come if he chooses to stay. There’s definitely no problem if he chooses to leave. But what if he chose to stay?

Cadeus folded his arms.

Despite the moral implications, it was not wrong of the Enforcers to ask students like Cadeus for help in dangerous work like this current event. It’s unacceptable on Earth, but not on Zeffernon.

In Zeffernon, once a mage starts studying in a magic Academy, he or she is already considered an adult. Although the legal age of an Adult is still 21 on paper, it had little significance to Mages who were constantly exposed to the dangers of magic. Studying magic, using magic, and reacting to events involving magic were all extraordinary events that can save or destroy other people’s lives. As such, the very act of using magic comes with a great responsibility.

Thanks to this responsibility, young students like Cadeus had the freedom to choose to be involved in various events involving magic when approached. If Cadeus choose to stay and help the Enforcers despite knowing the possible danger of death, his choice will be respected and like an adult there’s no going back. That was why there was no such thing as a parent’s consent in Zeffernon.

If Cadeus chooses to stay, he must consider the possibility that he might die.

If he dies, the most that could happen would be that compensating money would be given to his mother. But the loss of a son was not something Cadeus would like his mother to experience.

But deep down within, Cadeus had a bad feeling in what’s about to come. It was not the kind of ‘bad’ feeling where the danger must be avoided. It’s the kind of ‘bad’ that tells Cadeus he must do something to prevent the danger.

Cadeus was fully aware that he would be dealing with a corruption ritual, and standing very close to it during its discharging was a guaranteed 300% death sentence. But there was something else. Perhaps it was due to his sensitivity to the current environment, but Cadeus felt something more sinister behind the ritual. It’s all the more unnerving when Cadeus did not know what it was.

But would staying behind and facing such an unknown factor something that’s within his interest?

Cadeus knew that currently he did not have it in him to stay. He was not some kind of hero who would just charge into the unknown for the sake of justice, greater good, or whatever baseless reasons you can name them. True, the Enforcers need a Pure Blood, but they already had Acriscius. Since Acriscius still had his lackeys stranded somewhere, he would obviously stay. The Enforcers would have their Pure Blood and things will still progress to their advantage. There must be enough reason and gains to convince him to stay. It’s either that, or Cadeus would obviously choose to walk away. Yup, that’s the kind of man Cadeus is.

There must be something more to convince him to stay. Perhaps Enforcer Gazeth could help him with that.

“What happens specifically if we stay?”

“It’s fine if you don't really want to fight. In fact, for the lady you don’t even have to fight.”

Enforcer Gezath turned his gaze to Sing.

“You can just standby behind and help only when we really need it. But as for you…”

Enforcer Gezath returned his gaze to Cadeus.

“I know. I’m a Pure Blood. There’s a high chance that I will be dragged into the center of events.”

“Thank you for your understanding.”

Enforcer Gezath bowed his head in appreciation.

So if Cadeus continued to stay, he would be draw to the center of the fighting.

Risk of death was high.

Ah… screw it.

Cadeus made his decision not to stay.

As if hearing his thoughts, Enforcer Gazeth used one last card to persuade him over.

“Of course, this off handed employment may be unofficial, but the Enforcers will still compensate you thoroughly.”

Compensate?

Did Cadeus hear that right?

Does that mean…

“Do you mean money?”

“Definitely.”

“By how much?” Cadeus added.

Sing gave him a look but he ignored her.

“Hm… I don’t know the exact number, but I can give you a few figures. Um… for normal students it’ll amount to 2500 Duches. If the student dies, there will be a separate compensation payment made to the parents But if we are talking about a Pure Blood like yourself, I reckon it’ll be around 9000 Duches?”

Cadeus started counting the money in his head. 9000 Duches, in addition to 1200 that Miss Allis promised him would round up to 10200 Duches. That’s indeed a lot of money.

Cadeus nodded in his head. 10200 Duches should be sufficient to make him stay and confront this unknown thing behind the ritual.

“Fine. I’ll stay. But I can't speak the same for my friends.”

“Thank you!”

Enforcer Gezath put up a bright smile before returning his gaze to Sing.

“What about the young lady?”

Sing gave Cadeus a wary look.

“Do you really have to ask about the money?” Sing asked.

“What did you expect? I’m risking my life for people I just barely met. Enforcer or not, there must be a form of compensation. Don’t feel bad about this.”

“I fully agree. There’s nothing wrong with that mindset.” Enforcer Gazeth interjected.

Sing was about to open her mouth to provide some sort of counter argument. But since this was not the time and place for such talk she gave up.

“Well… If you are going to fight and get hurt, I’ll definitely know how to heal you better when I’m there to see what caused it.”

“Do I take that as a yes?”

Sing nodded her head.

“All right, what about your Grey friend over there?”

As Cadeus and Sing turned their attention to Nadav, he had fully recovered from his puking.

“Huh? Did something happen?”

“Sing and I are going further down to help the Enforcers. What about you?”

“Me? I don’t know… I kinda want to leave…”

“You’ll get paid 2500 Duches.”

At that very instance, Nadav’s eyes sparkled with the idea of getting a considerable amount.

“2500? Count me in!”

“Sigh… this problematic clown.”

Sing gave herself a face palm, and Cadeus needn’t mention the happy smile on Enforcer Gazeth’s face.

As for Enforcer Kutsurov, well…

“Sigh… if they are going to stay, don’t expect me to be active. I’ll watch other them.”

“You sure? Oh well. Anyways, thank you three for agreeing to stay~!”

“If you are done courting the kids, please help me carry Miss Allis until she regains conscious.”

“Ok~!”

As Enforcer Gazeth left with Miss Allis on his shoulder, Cadeus wondered of the implications in regards to the Enforcers employing such contradictory characters.

“Cadeus…” Sing opened her mouth.

“What?”

“Cadeus, that was your chance to walk away from all this. True, Fremin did some injustice to us, but the Enforcers won’t let him get away with it. You know this so don’t try to hide it. Why did you decide to stay?”

Cadeus gave her a blank stare.

“Isn’t it obvious? I did it for the money.”

“Liar. I know you are better than that.”

“Fine. I want to kick Fremin in the butt.”

“Now you are just joking.”

Sing sighed.

The fairy hovered and sat on Sing’s shoulders giving her a concerned look.

“Please be serious. Why?”

“Well, I was honest about the money and about kicking Fremin’s butt, but those are just leverage means to convince me to stay.”

“And the main reason?”

“I got a hunch… no, call it a very bad feeling. It’s a feeling I can’t seem to shake off. I think there’s something wrong about the corruption ritual Fremin’s undertaking.”

In Zeffernon, whenever Cadeus said that he had a bad feeling regarding something paranormal it’s something Sing would always take note off. As a Pure Blood, Cadeus was more sensitive to the paranormal events around him. There were things he could perceive where Sing would not. Although Cadeus lacked the academic knowledge to identify the uneasiness, in nine out of ten cases, the cause of his bad feelings would always reveal themselves later.

“…Please specify.”

“Well… it’s not exactly the ritual. It’s what comes after the ritual. I have a strange feeling that if the ritual discharges successfully, it’ll trigger something bad.”

“Are you referring to the massive explosion of corruptive energies that will distort the environment?”

“No. The environment of the Catacombs is already distorted to the point where I doubt the ritual would make any difference. Something worst will come after that. As to what kind of worst… I don’t really know.”

“Hm… well, we’ll find out since we are staying anyway.”

“True…”

“Hey, imposter.”

“Tch!”

Cadeus clicked his tongue and turned to the red headed Greater Noble.

“What?”

“You asshole. Where’s Claire?”

You are asking me this even though you, Claire and I all landed in the same area prior? Cadeus thought.

Cadeus thought it funny to see that Acriscius was thinking about Claire when previously he just left without bothering to search the entire hall for her.

Hm… maybe I’ll tell him to piss off. Cadeus thought.

But wait… if someone like Acriscius was coming to him for help, isn't this an opportunity to exploit him?

With this in mind, Cadeus adopted a business mindset and used a few familiar words.

“Hm… let’s see… I’ll tell you what you what you want to know, for a price.”

“Tch! Only Claire would say something like that. You sure pick up some irritating habits.”

“Come on now. Some information doesn’t come for free. I think I’ll charge you 50 Duches for telling you about Claire.”

“Whelp! Do you think you can get away by intimidating a Greater Noble!”

One second was all it took, and they both viewed each other with upmost hatred.

In seeing this unproductive scene, Sing could only sigh.

Before the two could engage in a fist fight, Sing stepped in between the two of them and placed her fingers on both their uniform robes.

“You two… stop fighting when the actual fight is about to come upon us. Cadeus, just because you don’t like someone it does not mean that you have to be openly hostile the instance you see them. You are being extremely rude, not to mention of the fact that you are addressing a Greater Noble. Lord Acriscius is at fault to. I understand that you may not like Cadeus, but as a Noble you should not let anger override the etiquettes and manners you are raised with. It pays well to ask people nicely, and it also reflects positively on your house, education and status.”

““…””

‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!’ was what Cadeus wanted to screamed in his head.

Why would she intervene? Not to mention reprimand a Greater Noble for his actions? That’s something that very few people could get away with!

Well… it’s not like Cadeus had much to talk since he’s practically going up against every Noble in Tenebris Vacuum… but still!

While struggling to comprehend what she just did, Cadeus immediately feared for her safety due to a certain noble’s possible retaliations. Given his quick anger, would Acriscius strike out against Sing? Turning his attention to the noble in question, Cadeus was surprised to see that Acriscius was not angry. Instead, Acriscius gave a look of deep thought as if he’s considering Sing’s words.

“…Understood.”

Wait… He actually relented?!

Cadeus nearly dropped his jaw when he saw Acriscius cooperating.

Cadeus was surprised that he did.

Acriscius turned to Cadeus. He looked like he was struggling to swallow all the disgust he had for him but he eventually opened his mouth.

“Imposter. I would like to know about Claire’s whereabouts. Could you please share with me all the details you know.”

Oh no… what Acriscius just said was something entirely out of his character.

Could he be dreaming? A part of Cadeus feared that his sense of reality was slowly drifting apart.

“…What do I get out of this?”

“I’ll tell my guys to leave you alone for a month.”

“Deal.”

Wanting to end this awkward experience as soon as possible, Cadeus told Acriscius what had happened between him and Claire.

“Tch… so she left after all knowing that it’s wrong for her to do so. How irresponsible of her.”

“My thoughts exactly. I can understand that she hates being here, but to leave before the entire operation finishes just…”

The two Pure Blooded Dark Mages sighed.

“If that’s the case. Then I have no choice but to stay here. As a Greater Noble I have a responsibility to help the Enforcers see this through to the end and make sure that they do not resort to extreme methods. Not when we are in Academy grounds.”

“…If you stay, what about Vanderburg and the others?” Sing asked.

“No need to worry about them. I have already spoken with the Enforcers. They have sent some personal to recover them. Besides, this current crisis would be too much for them to handle anyway. Even if they are currently with me, I would still have asked them to leave at this stage.”

“I see…”

“Hm? What about you? Why are you still here?”

“The Enforcers need a healer.”

“They can use a healer when they return to the surface later. Why are you still down here? Things are going to get very rough from now on, especially when we are at the brink of entering the catacomb’s inner sanctum. I may not have been there before, but the environmental concentration of Dark Magic down there is ten times more potent as compared to what you have experienced up to now. I’ll say this as a Dark Mage. As a White, you will not have much room to cast any spells.”

“I am fully aware of that, but as an underage student, I will not be expected to participate physically. My only purpose is to heal the injured, and I intend to keep my involvement to just that.”

“Even when it comes to risking your life by standing near the ritual that could discharge at any minute?”

“Even when it comes to risking my life.”

Acriscius glared at Cadeus.

“And you? You’ll just stand there and encourage your friend into risking her life?”

“I did not make that decision for her. Sirena is free to choose whether to stay or go. Her decision is not something for you to interfere with. I’m sure you should know that far better than anyone.”

“Tch!”

Unable to stomach the imposter’s presence any further, Acriscius stomped off in anger.

TOA

In the tenth level of the Catacomb inner sanctum, the air was slowly turned into a swirling vortex of energy. The Untouched stationed at the edge of the platform all rubbed their elbows with extreme discomfort.

At the very centre of the ritual circle, Fremin felt that they had gathered enough magic to initiate the corruption circle. All that’s left would be to start the ritual with a purest medium of magic. Since they had enough manpower for this ritual, the approximate time taken to discharge the ritual would be an estimation of thirty minutes. Even if the Enforcers were to breach the barriers in the ninth level, Fremin had already prepared a team for the last defense. If the Enforcers were to breach the tenth before the discharge, all would be lost. But Fremin had the confidence that they could hold out long enough, especially since Viper offered to help him distract the Enforcers.

As he struggled to move within the swirling vortex of energy, he slowly brought his hands to his pockets and took out a syringe along with the blood vial. The blood of the Pure Blood was a medium of magic that had achieved legendary status. It was the perfect medium for this ritual, and many other alchemical processes.

“Fu fu… that Viper. Two blood vials was more than what he could ever bargain for. But never mind. I’ll make sure to bleed that Pure Blood dry once this is all over.”

Fremin smiled in delight with that thought.

While the other Masters helped to maintain the massive magical energy, Fremin inserted the syringe tip into the blood vial and withdrew a few drops of blood.

Dropping the few drops onto the ritual circle, magic soon flickered and illuminated the grey powder with bright white light. The light raced throughout the lines and curves, igniting a sudden surge in magical presence. Soon, the entire level flickered with the extreme volatile energy of Dark Magic.

Even as he stood in the center, Fremin felt as if his skin was tearing. The sudden influx of corruption energy was more than enough to distort his sense of control. Fremin instantly knew that if he had not prepared enough manpower for this ritual, he would instantly loose control of the ritual, and the entire process will backfire with disastrous consequences. But in the midst of all of this danger, Fremin could not help but open his mouth in awe. The magical power within the blood was more than what he expected.

“Wo… WWWWWOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

His ignited enthusiasm was soon reflected by the large grin on his face.

“AMAZING! THAT BOY’S BLOOD IS THIS STRONG!!!! WWWOOOO!!! I CAN FEEL THE POOWWEER!!!!!”

TOA

Since Enforcer Kutsurov took it upon himself to watch over the trio, there was really nothing much for them to do.

Following the Enforcers, they met few resistances aside from several golems running amok and some minor chimeras. Whenever they would encounter a threat, the Enforcers took care of them before the trio could even do anything. In addition, there was Acriscius. With Acriscius, the time taken to demolish the enemy barriers was reduced significantly. After all, Acriscius’s destructive Blood Gift was plentiful when it comes to dealing with defenses.

After twenty minutes, the group came to the last barrier. There were four golems guarding the barrier, but the Enforcers engaged them with relative ease. Once the combat started, Cadeus deviated his gaze from the various actions the Enforcers undertook. After seeing so many unfamiliar spells, Cadeus gave up on the possibility of learning anything new. Even if Enforcer Kutsurov were to explain the spell details, Cadeus would only get more confused due to his own the lack of fundamental understanding.

While all the action was going on around them, Nadav closed his eyes and folded his arms.

“Hm…”

“What's the matter Nadav?” Sing asked.

Nadav appeared to be in deep thought. “I just find it very strange.”

“What is strange?”

“We have broken through quite a number of enemy barriers, but we encountered little resistance. True, we had to fight some chimeras and golems here and there, but the enemy defenses are a little disappointing. If the enemy really wants to keep us out, they should have done a better job at this. I mean… the barriers are all that’s keeping us from Fremin. For something this crucial, they ought to prepare a boss fight for every barrier right?”

Cadeus was about to reprimand Nadav for thinking about games at this stage, but what he said actually made sense. Speaking in game mechanics was just one of Nadav’s main ways to communicate. When he put in extra thought, Cadeus realized what Nadav said actually made sense.

It’s rather strange that the barriers were left unattended.

It feels that someone had deliberately removed the advanced settings for the defenses and allowed the Enforcers to progress this quickly.

“…Or maybe they did not have enough resources to protect the barriers. Perhaps they were spread thin.” Nadav continued.

“Hm… that actually sounds more convincing.”

“It does, because that makes more sense.” Enforcer Kutsurov interjected.

“Fremin may have attained the rank of Master, but even a Master like him had limited resources to pull off an operation this big. Even if he had backing from other Masters, their support is still insufficient unless we are dealing with a major group compromising of several dozen Masters. It’s not entirely out of the norm for such groups to exist, but in regards to Fremin’s background I hardly see that sort of scenario. Besides, the bulk of the enemy is on the tenth level. We’ll be facing the whole lot of them once we head down anyway.”

As Acriscius started to demolish the barrier with his Blood Gift, Cadeus asked Enforcer Kutsurov about the golem’s odd functioning capacities.

“Enforcer Kutsurov.”

“Hm?”

“Is there a possibility that Fremin might have hacked the essences of the golems that were initially stationed as sentries?”

“Hack? Ah… we already noted of such deviations on the golem’s performance. It is possible. Any ways, we already extracted some of the essences for further study later. Once we apprehended Fremin and his accomplices, we’ll figure it all out.”

Good thing that Kutsurov was originally from Earth. It saved Cadeus the trouble of feeling awkward when people failed to understand what hacking means.

Once Acriscius tore down the last barrier. Kutsurov immediately sent his owl familiar into the lower level to help scout out the area. As Cadeus’s gaze followed the owl down the stairs leading to the lower level, he felt it.

A sudden surge of corruptive energy flowed past his face, followed by a slight paranormal tremor beneath his feet. Cadeus knew instantly that the cause of such a phenomenon was the corruption ritual.

Uh oh… Cadeus thought.

It appears that he was not the only one who had felt it. Sing shot him a worrisome gaze, while Nadav could only frown. Looking at the Enforcers, they all showed a grim face.

“We need to get down there now!” Enforcer Gazeth said.

“Wait… Incoming!” Enforcer Kutsurov declared.

A war cry echoed and several dozen Untouched poured from beyond the other side with their swords drawn. Several Mages followed and started firing hostile spells of various colours. When he saw the Mages, the first thing Cadeus did was to look at their robe slashes to see their rank. He did not manage to get a clear view, but he did saw a couple of Apprentices, and a smaller number of legitimate Mages.

After registering the enemy formations, the Enforcers instantly went on the move. Several warped themselves behind the enemy and started apprehended the more dangerous threat. Before the enemy Mages could cast any more spells, the Enforcers behind ensnared them with several binding spells such as [Lightning Pulse], [Enwrap Bind] and other unidentified spells. Those that were experience enough casted defensive barriers to avoid getting caught, while the others who were not so lucky were immediately immobilized.

With a part of their forces facing the mages, the others moved to the front to deal with the Untouched. With such movements, it’s as if they already engraved a textbook formation and strategy into their heads and habitually carried out knowing that it’ll succeed.

In terms of numbers, the enemy definitely outnumbered the Enforcers. But Enforcers were combat mages of the highest caliber, and they had two Pure Bloods with them.

As Cadeus comprehended the odds in his head, one of the Untouched came at him with a sword in his hand.

“Tch! You just have to interrupt me do you?”

Current Cast Limit estimation – about 18 [Point Spells]

With [Environmental Leech], Cadeus did not have to be overly conscious about his Cast Limit. As such, he instantly fired a concentrated [Lighting Caste] against the Untouched. The spell caught him and threw him back to the other side. Cadeus did not have to look again to confirm that he’s knocked out.

Moving on to his surroundings, Cadeus saw that the battle was almost over the instance it begun. The surrounding Untouched were either casted into sleeping, or were apprehended with binding spells. It all happened too quickly that Cadeus failed to follow up on what exactly happened.

“For some reason… this fight feels too one sided.”

The remaining combatants still in action were the Mages under Fremin’s employment, but they could not hold their own ground against the Enforcers. After all, they were alchemists. Combat was not their forte. Aside from a few common offensive spells, they really were not much of a threat.

It only took the Enforcers five more minutes to wrap up the battle. Before long, all of Fremin’s subordinates were tied up and left to sit at the side. Leaving behind a team or two to handle the prisoners, the rest waited for Enforcer Kutsurov to provide enemy positions before storming down to the tenth level.

TOA

The Enforcer went ahead and stormed into the tenth level. Since Kutsurov’s familiar verified the number of enemies and their various positions, charging straight in was no longer considered a foolish move. As they went in, each went to his/her own designated targets. When Cadeus finished the steps and entered the tenth level, he saw nothing but a huge flat platform.

In response to this quick intrusion, all the Mages uninvolved with the ritual stopped whatever they were doing and dashed straight to the entrance to engage the Enforcers.

Oddly enough, there were with no other exits. In fact, the platform looks as if it's the very end of the Catacomb depths. As expected, the presence of Dark Magic in this level was much more concentrated compared to the previous levels.

Turning his attention to his friends, Cadeus could see their faces turning pale. The nausea build up must be immense. Cadeus knew that those two won’t be using magic for a while.

At the very center of the ritual, Cadeus could see the transpiring ritual. As he looked upwards, Cadeus could feel the massive build up of dark corruption energy. It felt like facing a hurricane. Although there was not a physical hurricane, the paranormal waves of corruptive magical energies were volatile enough to present that effect.

Turning his attention to the fight before him, Cadeus could see the Enforcers doing what they do best. Acriscius was also making himself busy at the thick of it.

Hm?

Compared to the previous engagement, there appears to be more Mages present under Fremin’s side.

“How odd… in fact… why would there be so many Mages under Fremin’s side? There are five masters in total right? They should not have so many surboridnates…”

In fact, on a closer look, there were more Mages than Apprentices fighting the Enforcers.

“If they are all Alchemists… ah…”

Cadeus soon understood. These Mages were probably discontented alchemists who strongly disapprove of the High Council’s recent ban on a new list of ingredients.

“Wow… if they can all ban together easily like this, they must be part of some major Alchemist rights association party thing.”

Wait… a political party full of egoistic Alchemists?

Cadeus dreaded the possible reality.

Regardless, Acriscius and the Enforcers could take care of themselves. Knowing this, Cadeus dismissed all the action and focused his attention to the ritual circle. From the looks of it, all the mages within were in some sort of trance. Their arms were outstretched to the sides and their eyes appeared lost and distant. The only one appearing to be still conscious was Fremin.

Well… of course he’s conscious, he’s the one who needs to be mentally active to direct the ritual’s progress.

But as Cadeus paid more attention to the state of the ritual, he soon developed a feeling that the ritual was ready enough to be fired at anytime.

“With that amount of corruptive energy… it’ll be too late to stop them.” He uttered.

Cadeus wanted to call out to Enforcer Kutsurov, but he was busy engaging two adult Mages at the moment.

“Ah shit. If I distract him now it’ll probably cost him his life.”

Thinking back on the implications, Cadeus educed that the Enforcers probably knew the impending danger all too well. But these Alchemical fanatics were keeping them too busy at the moment. Even though the Enforcers were good at their profession at apprehending mages, they would not make it in time to stop the ritual.

Cadeus also further doubted that Acriscius paid enough attention to notice this fact, given how busy he was currently at the moment.

What if he did something? Would it make any difference?

Cadeus turned to his friends with this thought in mind.

Nadav had more or less regained his composure, but Sing was still leaning forward in nausea.

Since Sing and Nadav could not move or cast magic efficiently, Cadeus knew that they would not be entirely involved with the combat front.

Cadeus was a Dark Pure Blood. The environmental afflictions did not affect him. Currently, he was in a position where he could act where others couldn’t. Perhaps it’s time for him to extort that advantage.

But before he could do anything, he must check on his friends first.

“How are you feeling Nadav?”

“I feel like I’m in hell.”

“Of course you will. This is obviously not a place for non-Darks.”

Cadeus turned his eyes to Sing.

“Could you look after her?”

“Oh dear… Are you going to do something stupid?”

“Hm… it may seem stupid to you, but I’m just doing what must be done.”

“Oi… Don’t say that cliché line off the hero script.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll still leave the best phrases for you.”

All right… let’s do this. Cadeus thought.

With no one paying any attention to him, Cadeus casted a stealth related spell using the element Darkness to hide his presence.

“[Fading Presence].”

Snapping his fingers, Cadeus enveloped his entire body with a thin layer of Dark Magic.

When he was confident, he ran. Ignoring all the flashes of lights and spell casts, Cadeus made a straight dash for the ritual center. With his spell in effect, no one really noticed him. Even if they would, Fremin’s men would be more concerned with the Enforcers. Whenever anyone from either side would bump into him, he would shove them off and never stop running.

Ritual centers were the key. If he can knock Fremin out of the ritual center, the ritual will loose the central focus and fail.

He must stop the ritual.

He must!

When he was just around five meters away from the ritual circumference, Cadeus threw a [Lighting Caste] across the platform.

Thanks to his sense of urgency Cadeus gained a moment of adrenaline rush, which only served to amplify the effects of [Consumption]. As a result, the spell’s range and power increased threefold. The five forks of electricity raced through the platform straight like a buzz of plasma.

Noticing the danger, Fremin clicked his tongue and threw up a barrier compromised of three layers of circular enactment. Despite the fact that the bulk of his magical reserves were directed towards the ritual center, Fremin was confident that the three circular barriers could repel such a futile attempt to keep him out of the ritual circle.

It did not.

All five shots stabbed past the three barriers and they did not miss. Before he knew it, Fremin was hit directly in the chest and the force was more than enough to knock him off from the ritual center. Fremin was soon sent flying a few meters away from the ritual exterior. His collaborators seemed to have caught the wind of it, but they were forced to stay put within the ritual circle order to control the ritual form.

Cadeus thought that he had dealt significant damage. But when Fremin managed to sit up, there was not a shred of damage or electrical burn marks anywhere. At first Fremin expressed surprise. But when he saw Cadeus’s face, his eyes widened in shock and anger.

“You… YOU BBBRRRAAATTTTT!!!!!”

Fremin stood up straight.

“…No damage?”

“Of course it did not work! Who do you think I am?! I am a Master of the Magi! Rendering a simple [Point Spell] useless is nothing to me!”

“I see…”

Well… Cadeus never expected to deal that much damage anyway. The point of it all was to pin Fremin away from the ritual center, which was what he successfully did.

Without Fremin to hold the center, the ritual began to crumble. The vortex of energy within the ritual center began to loose its form. Even though the other Masters were still sustaining the ritual from the circle exterior, there was no center to hold it all together. It was only a matter of time before such a vast amount of swirling magical energy result in a massive discharge.

In the midst of the deteriorating situation, white circles began glowing around the four masters and the other assistances.

Eight white barriers enacted, surrounding the mages within the circle. Sensing the White Magic within, Cadeus guessed that it must have been some sort of protective barrier. But what about Fremin?

Since Fremin was no longer in his initial position, the conditions were not met, and his circle was not activated.

“No… no, no, no, NO! The ritual!”

Taking a few hard steps forward, Fremin struggled to get back to the ritual center for the white circle’s protection. However, the volatile vortex of energy was pushing him away.

So he has to be in that ritual center to activate a protective circle? For a Mage of his caliber, Can’t he just activate a circle on his own? Does he need to be at a specific spot to activate a special kind of circle? Wait… why am I not even worrying about myself? Cadeus thought.

With the ritual gradually going out of control, mages from both sides all sensed the bad atmosphere. The remaining mages that were under Fremin’s employment eventually figured that they would feel better elsewhere, they soon broke like a disorganized mob and fled for the nearest teleportation circle that they installed hours prior to the start of ritual. The same could be said of the remaining Untouched, they threw down their weapons and abandoned their posts. But since they could not use magic, they ran for the nearest physical exit available, the stairs leading up to the ninth level.

As for the other mages that were still within the circle, they seem to express confidence that the white circles will protect them. But as they felt the full blunt of the deteriorating situation, their faces began to pale, and they began to doubt that they would be safe.

At the very last minute, they attempted to flee, but the white barriers refused to let them out.

With the air around the ritual circle disintegrating, Cadeus took a step back, and another, before turning his back to the ritual circle.

“Shit!”

There was no time to debate whether he did the right thing, or if he had actually made things worst, what Cadeus needed right now was to find some sort of cover.

As he ran back, he saw that the Enforcers already barricaded themselves within some kind of green spherical barrier that was projected by some kind of seal stone. Since every Enforcer was using the same seal stone, it must be an artifact of standard issue. Whatever the case, it should be effective to guard against what was about to come.

“Cadeus!”

Turning to the source of the voice, Cadeus saw Nadav helping Sing up with her left arm over his left shoulder.

Sing looked pale, extremely pale, but she grasped the severity of the situation.

Moving her hands, Cadeus could see Sing creating a glowing blue barrier around them. Running back to her, Cadeus managed to enter her barrier in the nick of time. However, just as the ritual was about to break, an unexpected person joined them.

“Excuse me!!!!”

Miss Allis ran into their barrier and activated her own green barrier.

“Miss Allis?” Sing asked.

“Sorry! But [Erador’s Light] is not going to be an effective barrier against corruption magic of that scale! We’ll be better off with this~!”

Miss Allis’s green barrier soon enveloped the group. The timing was just right before the entire ritual exploded.

TOA

Once that entire mass of energy discharged, the blast covered the entire platform. The mass of volatile energy surged throughout the entire floor and engulfed the entire level. Dust, powder and ash flew in every direction. When Cadeus saw the incoming wall of dust, he quickly brought his head down with his hands behind his back.

As the surge of corruption energy flew past their green spherical barrier, the ground shook in resonance. Cadeus had expected to hear numerous cracks to be formed around the green barrier. Fortunately, the barrier was holding itself pretty well.

When it was all over, Miss Allis waited for Kutsurov to provide the ok before letting down her green barrier. Once all the Enforcers released their respective barriers, Cadeus looked up to see the ritual circle in ruins.

Red scorches and ash filled the entire area, and for some reason, the eight mages who were standing within the ritual circle prior were no longer there. The various contents of lines and runic inscriptions Fremin set up earlier were all gone.

Speaking of Fremin…

Cadeus scanned the area and saw Fremin to his right. The man in question was on his butt with his arms behind him to support his weight. With the dispersing grey barrier around him, it was rather clear that Fremin saved himself with a superior barrier spell.

Since he had difficulty in supporting his own weight, he must have overstretched his Cast Limit.

From the Fifth Absolute Rule of Magic, over usage of magic always comes with a price.

Fremin must be suffering from the mental and physical penalties from the over usage of magic.

“Miss Allis.”

In seeing this opportunity, Cadeus called to Miss Allis and pointed to Fremin.

When Miss Allis caught Fremin in her eyes, she soon got his meaning.

“[Toruk’s Bind], [Reaver’s Cage], [Twark’s barrier]!”

Wait what?

Did Cadeus just hear Reaver’s Cage?

Snapping her fingers three times, Miss Allis casted three spells unfamiliar to Cadeus’s ears. In that very instance, Fremin’s limbs were binded in green paranormal cuffs and he was soon encased in two different barriers.

“Eh? AHHHHHH!”

From that reaction, those binding spells were clearly not so comfortable.

“…Just what exactly did you just use on him?”

“Fu fu fu~ it’s a secret~!”

“…”

Cadeus decided not to pry any further.

“Release me! Hey! I demand that you release me!”

Oh wow…

For a Mage who overshot his Cast Limit, Fremin was rather energetic.

“Does this guy not even realize his own current position?”

“Nah, don’t worry. You’ll come along those high and mighty types. Usually we’ll just gag him. Just like that.”

As Miss Allis pointed out, several Enforcers went to secure Fremin. As they stood guard, one of them moved into the barrier and forced a gag of cloth into Fremin’s mouth.

Well, that took care of an annoying mouth.

“Well then. I’ll go see if there’s anything worth of note.” Miss Allis said.

And with that, Miss Allis left for the ritual circle.

Cadeus turned to see Nadav helping Sing to sit down. She’s still looking pale, but at least she’s not vomiting.

“How’s Sing holding up?”

“Oh she’s good. She just needs to be careful not to move so much.”

“What about you?”

“I’m… good too. I can cast a spell or two but…”

“Don’t. The last thing you’ll want is to get knocked out by the environment.”

Enforcer Kutsurov soon came over.

“Is everything all right?”

Cadeus and Nadav nodded, but the lack of response from Sing gave Kutsurov concern.

“Don’t worry about her. She just needs more time.” Cadeus said.

“I told her she shouldn’t come along. Well, as long as it’s nothing serious.”

Enforcer Kutsurov then gave Cadeus a frown.

“I understand that you are a Pure Blood, but don’t do something stupid like that again.”

Cadeus instantly knew that he was referring to his charge to the ritual circle.

“Oh… you saw.”

“Of course I did. This time the end justified the means, but don’t expect this recknessless to work everytime.”

“Noted.”

Arguing with Enforcer Kutsurov would achieve nothing. Besides, Cadeus knew that his action counts under the foolish category. As such, he just took in the lecture with a pinch of salt.

Perhaps surprised by his quietness, Enforcer Kutsurov looked like he wanted to add a few words. But he soon gave up on it.

Whilst looking at Miss Allis studying the ritual circle, Cadeus soon recalled about the missing Mages that were standing within the ritual circle just a few seconds ago.

“Enforcer Kutsurov, I seem to recall Miss Allis mentioning that there were four other Masters. Could they have been the ones that were standing in the ritual circle earlier?” Cadeus asked.

“Yes. They were. It’s not an easy feat to carry out a corruption ritual. The Masters must have taken it upon themselves to direct the ritual.” Enforcer Kutsurov said.

“Just a second ago they were safe with those White protective barriers, but now… Do you have any idea what happened to them?”

“Well, if they had died, there would have been obvious evidences such as bloodstains or dismembered limbs. But I don’t see anything of that sort.”

“It was either they were completely disintegrated, or their were just spirited away.”

“Enforcer Kutsurov, my money’s on the disintegration.”

“I appreciate the bet, but enough.”

And then…

Something happened.

Cadeus got an obnoxious feeling. It’s coming from the ritual circle.

Turning his gaze to the ritual circle, Cadeus saw an unbelievable sight.

At the very center of the ritual circle, a black mist began to form.