Tide shook his head resolutely. "I will stand here until you return."
Douglas paused, taken aback. "What if we're gone for ten days, two weeks, or never come back at all?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Tide repeated, "I will stand here until you return."
Douglas was speechless.
He felt like he was talking to a brick wall, yet he understood Tide's meaning, or rather, sensed the man's unwavering belief.
It was a belief as solid as bedrock—an unbreakable commitment to keeping his promise and guarding this place, no matter what.
In that instant, Douglas recalled his first journey from the All Nations Alliance to Chaos City. As he passed through a canyon, he had seen a giant standing guard. He now realized that Tide was likely that very giant.
To hold back the Allied Forces single-handedly for days...? Douglas marveled. And the legends say that even in death, the giant might still rise and attack passersby. I always dismissed them as exaggeration, but now I wonder... could they be true?
When a person's beliefs are deeply ingrained in both soul and flesh, such a phenomenon might not be impossible.
After a brief exchange, Aria and her companions prepared to depart. Tribios retrieved four exquisitely crafted wooden tokens imbued with her divine power and handed one to each of them. "If you encounter any danger, break this token. I will sense it and open the Century Gate to pull you back."
"Mm-hmm!" Aria accepted the token, her eyes curving into adorable crescent moons. "I'll take good care of it!"
No, no, this isn't a gift! Tribios silently chided herself. She shouldn't use the phrase "take good care of it"!
With that, Aria and her companions formally set out. However, how to locate this so-called mastermind remained a daunting challenge. And even if they found him, whether they could defeat him was another question entirely.
Feidric pondered for a moment before casting a Divination School spell. He refrained from directly asking, "Where is the Child of Flesh?" as prophecies concerning god-level beings rarely yield accurate answers and often result in severe backlash against the caster.
At this point, setting the Divination School magic's objective as "How to efficiently leave this place" might yield better results. After all, escaping would require defeating the Mastermind, so the magic would likely lead them directly to the Mastermind's location.
As Feidric completed the incantation, the magic took effect. A small, adorable blue bird materialized before him, formed entirely from magic power. Normally, this bird would fly in a specific direction, guiding the group forward.
But strangely, the bird began circling in the air, flying round and round with its head cocked to the side, wearing a bewildered expression.
Seeing this, Feidric mirrored the bird's puzzled look. "The magic's malfunctioning again? But that can't be right. If it were malfunctioning, the bird wouldn't have appeared at all."
"And this is a Seventh-Level spell! It should be able to handle a simple objective like this, shouldn't it?"
Olivia, hearing this, exclaimed, "Seventh-Level Magic?! Amazing! This is the first time I've ever seen magic of such a high level!"
Feidric frowned. "Hmm? What about Jay? He's supposed to be really powerful, right? Hasn't he ever used Seventh-Level Magic in front of you?"
Olivia immediately froze, stammering, "Um... uh... well, this..."
But Feidric didn't press the issue. Instead, he continued studying his magic to understand why it was behaving strangely. Evernight, standing nearby, instantly grasped the reason. Feidric had set the target as "how to efficiently leave this place," so the magic would inevitably point to her!
However, the bird couldn't locate her, causing it to freeze in place. Realizing this, Evernight quickened her pace forward. When she was a safe distance from Aria and the others, she deactivated her Memory Invisibility.
At that moment, the Guiding Bird Feidric had summoned stopped circling, as if it had found its target, and began flying in a specific direction.
Feidric's confusion deepened. "Huh? Why is it working now?"
Olivia suggested, "Maybe it was just stuck earlier? Like it hadn't loaded properly?"
Feidric sighed in exasperation. "How can magic just... get stuck?"
Though they didn't understand the reason, since the bird was flying off, the group naturally followed. As they walked, Feidric continued, "About the... the specialized research on the Children of Flesh, I also participated in it for a while."
This was the invention Dr. Ding Lang had developed: "Spikes." When hammered into the ground and arranged in a specific formation, they could suppress the power of the Children of Flesh. As Melly's student, Feidric had assisted with the research for some time.
Therefore, Feidric understood the principles behind the device. However, the materials required to create it were extremely rare, making a makeshift version impossible to construct on the spot.
Still, knowing the underlying principles, Feidric suggested, "I might be able to design a weakened version of the Magic Circle specifically targeting the Children of Flesh. It would only be about twenty percent as effective as the original and would only work if we lure the target into its range."
Though it sounded rather underwhelming, this was the only thing Feidric could manage right now. Any advantage, no matter how small, could prove crucial in the upcoming battle.
"Once we locate the target," Feidric said, "give me some time to prepare the Magic Circle. Then, we'll lure the enemy into it to engage."
After Feidric explained his plan, Olivia and Aria nodded in unison, exclaiming, "Sounds great~!"
Olivia then turned to Feidric, her eyes sparkling like tiny stars, and said, "You're so amazing! You know so much and can cast so many spells! You can even come up with targeted solutions in situations like this!"
Feidric humbly replied, "No, no, it's just normal for a wizard."
Olivia couldn't help but recall a certain wizard who only knew one spell. "Really?" she asked.
"Of course," Feidric answered. "Take Wizard Jay, for example. He must know even more spells than I do."
After all, Jay was the 'Greatest Wizard' whose name was etched in Okhema's history books.
Olivia: "..."
The four continued chatting as they moved forward, their camaraderie palpable. In stark contrast, Evernight, forced to 'lead the way' at a distance, wore a sullen expression, her eyes like those of a dead fish, muttering to herself, "Ugh... if I'd known it would be this far to the boss fight..."