444. Lightning

Helena Warshade stared into the screen flashing before her. The Great Tempest Archmage of Mavos Academy watched the silver-haired girl flying over the clouds. Salvos hummed to herself— the melody audible through the scrying spell.

“Where are you going?”

The question was simple. Helena Warshade had been observing Salvos and knew that the silver-haired girl was going to supposedly store the Treasures of Alexander at a secret safe location. While the Archmage wasn’t interested in stealing back the Mythical Grade artifacts, she very much wasn’t going to fully trust Salvos to keep them safe. Not just because the silver-haired girl wasn’t fully Human— but also because Salvos was quite clearly not the most reliable of individuals.

Regardless, Helena watched on unbeknownst to the silver-haired girl. After all, she was an Archmage. Her spells were too advanced for that naive girl to notice.

Helena Warshade was watching me. Or, at least, I was pretty sure it was her. I had felt an odd tingling sensation trailing after me for quite a while now, and I finally realized it was a scrying spell after six-or-so hours. It was probably due to a mixture of [Wisdom of the Old Gods] and [A Hunter’s Sense] taking effect— maybe even my spatial magic coming to play too.

Either way, I had known I was being scried on for quite a bit now. I just hadn’t known who’d been doing it… until a day ago. When there was a rip in space. When every competent [Space Mage] and [Summoner] in the Human lands sensed the planes shifting. An emergency meeting had been called as soon as everyone confirmed what it was— that the Netherworld and the Mortal Realm were forcefully being merged. And the center of the merger? The Inoria Empire.

It was clear now what the Demons were planning. The ritual wasn’t designed to summon Demons over to the Mortal Realm just like any other summoning ritual. Rather, it was summoning over… the entirety of the Netherworld? Honestly, I was pretty sure I already knew about this beforehand. Like, I was almost entirely certain that Belzu had told me about this before. Maybe he did— maybe he didn’t.

I didn’t actually care enough to remember what Belzu told me about the Demon King. After all, I wasn’t one of Regnorex’s minions. I was just going to return to the Netherworld to grab Haec and leave. Simple as that.

Sure, I wanted to deal with Levithus and this whole situation about a Demon invasion for the sake of my companions. But it wasn’t because I actually care about what happened to the Mortal Realm. It was because I knew that Daniel, Edithe, Saffron, and… maybe Willy would get involved in this whole mess, so I’d have to help them somehow. Which was why I made a deal with Belzu.

It was a simple agreement— he’d work with me to defeat Levithus, and I’d spare his life. Also, I’d give him three of the Treasures of Alexander he was looking for, while he’d steal the Sword of Alexander from Levithus for me. He upheld his end of the deal now it was time to uphold mine.

I carried the Crown of Alexander, the Greaves of Alexander, and the Boots of Alexander with me. I had hoped I could figure out how to tap into their full potential, but sadly, I couldn’t. So they were mostly worthless. Maybe the Boots of Alexander would be most useful— but just moving faster than I already was wasn’t something I was too interested in.

So I was completely fine with giving it all away for the Sword of Alexander. Especially now since Daniel had managed to attune himself to the Mythical Grade artifact. He managed to achieve its full power— the power that could only be unlocked with the full set of the Treasures of Alexander.

I was impressed. More than that, I was certain he could put it to better use than I could. It also helped that I got it for him in the first place— so he could protect himself and my other companions when I was gone. He was a [Hero], after all.

Anyway, that was all besides the point. I was flying to Belzu— to hand over the other Treasures of Alexander to him. But I was being scried on. And I was pretty sure it was Helena Warshade who was the one doing the scrying on me.

I noticed the way she looked my way during the emergency meeting. The way her suspicious gaze darted towards me more often than not. She’d peer at me curiously, rapidly casting spells which she thought I wouldn’t notice to figure out whether I was telling the truth or not. I tried my best to abstain from joining the discussion when I realized that. I didn’t want to be trapped by her. I had a feeling that she might have found out something about me. Whether it was that I was a Demon or that I was working with Belzu… I didn’t know.

None of that mattered much, of course, as long as she didn’t catch me outside of my mortal form or talking to Belzu. So what that meant was I somehow had to escape the prying magical gaze of the Great Tempest Archmage of Mavos Academy, leader of the Rising Veterans Company, Elite Ranked adventurer, and the second highest-leveled [Mage] in the world.

That… wasn’t going to be too hard, right? I mean, she wasn’t a [Scrying Mage] or a [Diviner]. So this was going to be easy!

I sighed as I continued sailing over the cloudy sky. I was already far away from Alyras and I could still sense the scrying spell hanging over me. I thought that once I got a far-enough-away radius, I’d have lost her. Sadly, I was mistaken.

And it wasn’t something that could be obfuscated by visual obstructions either. I dove straight into a large cluster of clouds, and while it was white and foggy and I couldn’t see where I was going, when I came out the other side, the scrying spell was still directly on me.

Huh, this is going to be tough. I faced the pale blue sky as I rubbed my chin, flying with my back towards the ground. I know— I snapped my fingers as an idea crossed my mind. Instantly, half a dozen clones appeared at my side. I grinned at her and they nodded back at me.

“I’ll see you guys in a bit!”

They flew off in every direction. One descended into a thicket of trees, another went straight into a thunderstorm, a mountain, a river… and more. They spread out far and wide as I continued heading in a straight line with a smile. For a moment, I could sense the scrying spell losing focus on me. But it refocused, staying fixed on my being.

I could tell that there was some confusion on the other side. This scrying spell— it wasn’t tracking my physical presence. It was somehow locked into my essence. And since my clones were an extension of me and had my essence, the scrying spell almost mixed us up.

Good, I thought with a grin. So it’s not actually anything to do with my location, huh?

I looked up and faced directly into the scrying spell. I stared at the person on the other side of the magic and smirked.

“Bye!”

I brought a hand up and cast a single spell.

[Greater Teleportation].

And I winked out of existence.

“What?”

Helena Warshade got to her feet, wide-eyed. Somehow, the scrying spell lost track of the silver-haired girl. But that wasn’t right. The Archmage tried to lock onto Salvos’ essence— but nothing.

Only the clones showed up. Helena Warshade furrowed her brows as all she saw were trees. The open sky. A thunderstorm. A mountain range. But not Salvos. Somehow, the silver-haired girl disappeared from existence. Only the five clones remained.

“That’s…”

Wait… five?

And Helena Warshade realized what happened. She gritted her teeth as she began starting forward, calling her nimbus cloud to her.

“I see.”

That was all she said.

I high-fived my clone as she laughed silently.

“We did it!”

I had sent all my clones out dispersing in different directions far and wide, but sent one of them close by to hide herself inside my [Fragmented Pocket Dimension]. Then I teleported to her, and Helena Warshade couldn’t track either of us.

All she’d find were my other five clones. And they were heading off in random directions. To random places that didn’t actually matter. I looked around the forest clearing where my clone had landed. It was dense enough that you couldn’t really make out anything beneath the canopy from above. I wasn’t going to fly the rest of the way— not if that somehow gave Helena Warshade a chance to find me again.

I took a step forward as the [Fragmented Pocket Dimension] moved after me.

“Come on, the destination is nearby.”

I spoke simply to my clone as I took off running. She followed after me, and we eventually reached there by foot.

—--

It took a while. Longer than it would take by flying. Also, because I wasn’t trying to attract any attention. But we finally arrived at the meetup location. It was the place where I’d raised Novis, Bellum, and Oriur. A valley between two large hills… that was now covered in rubble after I caused a small landslide. I looked around, searching for Belzu, and he flickered into existence out of thin air.

“You’re late.”

The Primeval Demon spoke in a rumbling voice. I looked up at the giant insect. He dwarfed me in height, and he stared down at me with two bulbous eyes. Suspicious. Like he was ready to crush me if I made any sudden movements.

[Hellprince - Lvl. 167]

“You leveled up since I last saw you. I take it you’ve been busy?”

“Why were you late?”

He spoke over me, uncaring of my small talk. I shrugged.

“I was being followed by Helena Warshade. I lost her, though. Probably.”

I waved a hand dismissively, but the Primeval Demon frowned. He only reacted to the Archmage’s name.

“If this is a trap—”

He started, and I scoffed.

“It’s not a trap, alright? I got what you wanted.”

I removed the Crown of Alexander from my head and swiveled it with my index finger. He paused. Belzu leaned closer, inspecting the Mythical Grade artifact. My clone tensed, ready for anything he might try to do. Her attention was fixed on him.

But I wasn’t worried. I had the Boots of Alexander on me so I could just dash off quickly. Fortunately, the Primeval Demon didn’t dare to try anything so stupid.

“It’s real.”

He whispered, and I nodded.

“Yep! I have the Boots and Greaves of Alexander too!”

I clicked my legs together as his eyes snapped down to them. They made themselves visible to him, and he slowly nodded.

“I see. So you have not betrayed me.”

“Of course not!”

I smiled at him.

“I always keep my promises. Just like how I promised I’ll kill you! But don’t worry— I’ll do that once we both take care of Levithus.”

“...”

Belzu didn’t visibly react. He still looked incredibly wary of me. I rolled my eyes and stepped forward, holding out the Crown of Alexander. He reached out to take it as I spoke casually.

“Look, you can have it—”

And my eyes flickered. I sensed the spatial walls of the [Fragmented Pocket Dimension] breaking above me. I saw a flash of light. I leapt back, carried by the Boots of Alexander as my clone could only flinch. A blast of lightning struck where I stood, bursting out and engulfing Belzu in his entirety.

He screamed in pain as the electricity continued to crackle. His body burning quickly until he collapsed. A loud voice bellowed above me.

“TRAITOR!”

From the sky, Helena Warshade herself descended as she stood atop her nimbus cloud. She had her crystal staff raised and aimed towards me. I blinked a few times, looking between the Great Tempest Archmage of Mavos Academy and the burning corpse of Belzu.

“Huh. I guess I didn’t actually lose her.”

I scratched the back of my head.

“Oops.”

“DIE!”

And she sent another lightning bolt down at me.