The people of the lower magic realm hardly knew of the powerful entities of the upper realms. Only a handful of the mages and wizards of the lower realms had ever had the honor to visit the upper realms and come back with their lives intact. But the trauma inflicted by the beings of the upper realm left them mentally crippled for a lifetime.

And Eganius Cline was a living example of that horrifying trauma of the upper realms. So how could they not be going crazy now that the said demon was awake and roaming the magical realms unrestrained. Among the people alive in this world, there was probably no one except the hero of this world who could rival Eganius Cline.

“I have also heard that Eganius Cline had re-entered the city of Leonial yesterday evening while on his way to Velrone, and the head of Cronos Tower was said to have tragically died by his hands. Seeing that our Draíocht tower is about to suffer from the same fate, I heard from a senior disciple that the head elder is going to the battlefield to vanquish that demon himself.”

“The current magical base of the head elder seems to be in the mid-fifth tier level, plus all our other elders are all fourth-tier mages… but we are still not sure if we can defeat Eganius Cline. It’s unfathomable to imagine his strength.” The girls shuddered at the thought of such a powerful entity.

‘Wow! Incredible.’ Tania thought. ‘That dark wizard King’s magic must be extremely powerful for the elders to be in such a pickle. If he comes to the Draíocht tower, he only needs to move his finger and the whole mountain would collapse, right?’

Tania was taken aback at the thought. It felt like while she was on her way to buy vegies in the afternoon and was still thinking about what delicious dish she should make for lunch, all of a sudden, she heard people say that tonight is the end of the world, which was too disturbing.

When the disciples had had their share of gossip, they got up to leave the place but Tania had something else planned in mind. She had not forgotten what they had done to her yesterday. Granted, she could not fight them head on as she was only one against so many others, but she could still attack from the shadows, right?

The female disciple at the very front was the ringleader of this crew. So, Tania decided to aim for her. The girl suddenly felt someone push her hard from the back and consequently, fell headfast onto the rock-hard floor. She angrily turned around to accuse the ones in the back but the others did not admit to her accusations. Just like that, several people started quarreling amongst themselves and when they were not paying attention, Tania casted a spell to make all of them fall headfast onto the ground.

Only then did they realize that something was very wrong. Then when they took a closer look at themselves, it turned out that everyone had black marks on their shoulders. The mark was a cursed symbol and instantly, their expressions turned pale, looking as if they had seen a ghost in the broad daylight.

Tania watched them screaming and fleeing in fright, and couldn’t help but smirk gleefully. She cursed in her heart and thought, ‘The trick Egan taught yesterday is really useful for punishing evildoers like these scums. Hmph! If they mess with me next time, I don’t mind killing them off in their sleep.’

Tania, then suddenly thought about the rumors that she had just heard, and also thought about Egan. Didn’t he say that he had been very busy these past few days? Could it be that he was one of the many disciple mages who were sent over to fight against the army of the re-awakened Eganius Cline?

And then, she was reminded of what he had said to her last night. He said that he would take her away…

Wait!.... If that is the case, could he have thought that she was one of the witches the came to Velrone? Now anticipating that there would be a battle between the mages and the wizards, he thought that they might not be able to be together any longer, and so, he decided to take her far away?

Is that why when he said the he would come to get her, he did not ask for her address? If that was the case, then she must quickly call Egan and tell him the truth.

Tania, ‘Damn it. The more I think about it, the more I feel crushed.’ She clicked her tongue and never felt more frustrated for lying in her life.

She grabbed the communicational key and rubbed it twice with her fingers and called in a desperate tone,

“Egan! Egan!!” But there was no reply from the other side.

She rubbed the communication key once more and called for him a few more times but still, no one responded. It meant that he was not online. Her expression almost collapsed in dismay as she thought of all the horrid scenarios that her lover might be facing because of her careless lie.

She could no longer eat when she thought about Egan’s safety. She bit her lips and declared, ‘No! This wont do. I have to find him no matter what. I have to go to him and then tell him the truth before something unforeseeable happens to him.’

Seeing that the time to meet up with Egan was already approaching, she summoned her spirit beast and got ready to mount it and be off to the battlefield of Velrone.

Titania’s spirit beast was an Eldricorn, a large equine horse-like creature made of living Eldria. Eldria were magic azure crystals that existed naturally as an unrefined crystal lattice structure composed primarily of magic leeched from the surrounding area.

An Eldricorn had its mane composed of small clusters of eldria which ran down it’s neck. A pure huge spire of Eldria sprouts from the eldricorn’s head in a fashion similar to that of a unicorn’s horn. Eldricorns were generally harmless by nature but as they were made of pure unrefined , anyone other than their master would be poisoned to death if they tried to ride them.

Clever mages had found ways to store deadly spells and incantations within the horn of an Eldricorn as it is made of Eldria, a crystal that could store magic if refined well. So, it was a known fact that one should never attempt to harm an eldricorn or steal it from its master, lest they be blasted with a prepared fireball erupting outwards from an eldricorn’s horn.

Eldricorns also choose their own masters, and unexpectedly so, Tania was chosen by Belly, her exclusive eldricorn. At that time, everyone was jealous of Tania’s spirit beast, and many evil-minded ones even tried to steal it from her, but were in turn severely poisoned by Belly in a fit of rage. Since then, both Belly and Titania had become even more unpopular in the mage tower.

Tania mounted Belly and was just about to take off when she suddenly heard a familiar voice calling for her.

“Titania, where are you going?”

Tania, ‘Damn it. It’s over.’

TO BE CONTINUED………..