At night, In the village of Arrow, inside the marigold inn.
"Captain Ryker, there's nothing he has left here." One of the Soul Sorcerers said
After losing the Awakened Sorcerer they were chasing, they went back to the village to gather information.
They found out the name of the Soul Sorcerer was Ciel, and that he had recently arrived at this village.
'That bastard almost killed me. If it wasn't for my B2 Artifact, I would be dead.' Ryker thought inwardly
He didn't care much for revenge, but an Awakened Sorcerer shouldn't have been able to accomplish such a destructive feat.
'Maybe he has a powerful artifact with him. I'll report my findings to the king before searching for him again.'
'I'll also ask for a tracking artifact. We'll never be able to find someone in that forest.' Ryker thought
Artifacts were a rare luxury that only the wealthiest Soul Sorcerers could afford. Artifacts came in different levels, most made artificially from Forsaken Cores.
They ranged from a B1 Artifact, which was the weakest, to a B4 Artifact, which was the strongest artifact type known to humans.
Before leaving the inn, Ryker looked towards the manager standing nearby.
"Sir, he did seem quite strange, but there was nothing too abnormal about him." The manager said
"Thanks for your time." Ryker said before leaving
After leaving the inn, another one of his colleagues appeared.
"Captain, the girl that went missing doesn't seem to have any connection with Ciel. She had been planning on running away to her family for a while." he said
"It could be a deception. Keep her on a list of suspected accomplices."
.
.
In the Emerald Forest, on a tree branch
Ciel and Rein had both rested, and were preparing to leave.
It was nearly afternoon, and the sun was overhead.
"Hey, so what are we going to do now? It's not like we can go back in a few days." Rein asked
"Our goal is to survive right now. We need to get a source of food and water before we run out."
"For the latter, we can use the water from Pearl River. We shouldn't be too far away from it."
"For the former, we may need to hunt Forsakened. We have enough Feral Ant meat for now though." Ciel answered
Rein nodded.
She entered Ciel's shadow and he descended the tree and started moving.
After an hour of walking, she noticed movement close by.
[ It sounds like the Feral Ants again. ] Rein said
Ciel nodded and went forward. After a minute, they could see a colony of Feral Ants. They were all carrying pieces of food away from a nearby anthill.
[ Should we fight them like we did last time? ] Rein asked
[ No… something feels wrong... Let's watch for a while. ]
He climbed up a tree branch nearby and kept watch while waiting. He didn't gaze directly, in case they could sense it.
After a few minutes, a large ant had come out from the anthill. It was at least five times larger than the other ants, and had spikes protruding from its dark red shell.
It was the queen of this colony, a Twisted Ant.
'Why would the queen come out? It's at Soul Tier 2, so it should be slightly stronger than me.' Ciel thought
Forsakened didn't have abilities like humans, but had much higher physical strength and resistance.
Without proper planning, a Twisted Forsakened would easily kill an Awakened Sorcerer in a direct fight.
[ Let's wait and see what it does. ] Rein said
They watched as the Feral Ants acted strangely. After close observation, Rein made a guess.
[ I think they're relocating the colony. Ants often did that when major destruction was inevitable back on Earth. ]
[ The question is… what is threatening them that they are willing to relocate? ]
[ No idea. We should also probably leave this area if that's the case. ] Ciel said uneasily
[ Maybe. But if we can't go forward, we'll be moving back towards the Royal knights. ]
[ What if we try to make the ants fight whatever is threatening them, and we quickly kill the winner of the fight? ] Rein suggested
[ Both ways require luck. In a fight against the Royal knights, we might be able to cut their numbers and escape again. ] He said
[ if we cut their numbers, they're more likely to request back up rather than continuing to fight and chase us]
[ We would have to kill them in one fell swoop. ] Rein added
[ We'll see how it goes- ] Ciel was cut off
A thunderous roar was heard in the distance.
'Is it already here? The creature that is making the ants relocate? ' He thought
The Feral Ants were momentarily stunned. The second they regained their senses, they started taking on a defensive formation to protect the queen.
Some of the Feral Ants were also climbing the tree they were on.
'Shit… we need to move quickly'
[ Rein, exit my shadow on the ground and start running. ] Ciel said
She did as told, and as soon as she exited his shadow, Ciel entered hers, making them instantly reach the ground without wasting time.
She started running in the opposite direction from the roar.
Ciel looked back and saw hundreds of massive ants along with their queen that were also running away.
They didn't even bother chasing the humans.
'Looks like we underestimated whatever that thing is… we can't keep surviving by luck, we need to prepare more.' He thought
Since they were faster than the ants, the distance between them grew bigger and bigger.
After a few minutes, Ciel sensed something approaching them quickly.
'How did they find us so fast?'
[ Rein, switch with me. The Royal Guards found us. ]
They switched their bodies, with Rein now being in his shadow.
A few seconds later, multiple arrows pierced the air towards Ciel.
A moment later, three figures formed a triangle around him.
[ The Radiant Sorcerer is on a branch with his bow. ] Rein informed
'Not good. He's keeping his distance this time… we won't be able to escape easily.'
Ciel summoned a katana from his Soul World and got ready to fight.
"Why don't you just give up? All you have to do is meet with the king." One of the Awakened Sorcerers said
"No thanks. I like my freedom." Ciel replied
'I need to buy time until those ants reach us... We'll have a chance to escape from there.
He went forward to engage in a melee fight with one of the Awakened Sorcerers.
He exchanged a few blows and noticed something awry.
'This guy is way stronger than me physically. It must be a physical enhancement ability, the most common ability for Soul Sorcerers.'
The moment he thought that, a few flaming daggers flew towards him at a high speed.
'An elemental ability. The second most common ability type.' He thought
'They don't seem to have special attributes like ours.'
He dodged most of them, but a few grazed his body, creating a few scratches.
The third unknown Awakened Sorcerer started manifesting a blade made of wind.
At the same time, Ryker was raining arrows from above.
[ You won't be able to handle them all. Should I come out? ] Rein worriedly asked
[ Not yet. Only come out if you see a good opening. ] He replied calmly
The damage kept accumulating, and Ciel was losing a lot of blood.
At that moment, the Awakened Sorcerer with throwing daggers had missed all his shots, and was out of daggers. An opening had appeared.
Rein instantly exited Ciel's shadow and jumped towards him.
She punched him with full force with a Void element infused fist, killing him instantly.
Her fist received instant backlash, turning limp.
The moment she appeared, Ryker immediately jumped down from the tree.
"I thought you had a powerful artifact… What a strange ability. I'm Ryker, and I've been sent here by the king's command." He said towards them
Ciel was panting and badly injured, but his opponents weren't doing much better.
'Artifact huh. I'm not rich enough for something like that.' He thought inwardly
"I'm not interested in that kind of stuff. Can't you leave and find someone else interesting?" Ciel said
"Honestly, you're more troublesome than I expected. But I won't disobey the king." Ryker replied
Ciel and Rein only had enough Spirit Essence for one more Void element attack.
They were running out of options.
[ I'll distract Ryker. You deal with those two. ] Ciel said as he passed her a new katana
Rein nodded inwardly. She had never killed anyone before. But right now, her life was more important.
If she wanted to live, she had to kill. If she wanted to learn the truth about Earth's destruction, she would have to become stronger.
She charged forward, cutting the arm of the Soul Sorcerer with the wind blade.
She wasn't a swordsman, but knew the basics thanks to watching Ciel.
They were weakened and not in the best mental state since one of them had just died. She took advantage of that and dealt devastating damage to them.
Meanwhile, the opposite was happening to Ciel. It seemed like Ryker was just playing around.
He was using a shortsword, but his technique was slightly lacking.
'This is the difference between a Soul Tier 2 and Soul Tier 3 huh.' He thought as he got slashed
Even though he was losing, Ciel observed Ryker's movements, trying to figure out his abilities.
Soon, he figured out his abilities. His first ability was related to stealth, so it was nearly useless currently.
His second one was having enhanced senses.
Ciel figured that out because Ryker was somehow keeping up with his swordsmanship, even though he was lacking in skill.
Ciel confirmed that he didn't have any unknown trump cards.
After a slash that grazed his abdomen, Ciel jumped back and threw a few metal scraps towards Ryker.
They wouldn't explode, but Ryker didn't know that. He had almost been killed by this attack the last time.
Ryker activated the B2 Artifact he was carrying, making a small forcefield around him.
Rein had seen the force field for a split second before and warned him, so he knew he had that ability.
That was also the reason he knew that Ryker survived the previous explosion.
Ryker couldn't move much when the artifact was activated, leaving him vulnerable to heavy attacks.
Of course, Ciel had no way of knowing the negative effects of the artifact.
But it didn't matter.
He used all his strength to deal a blow to the barrier. A small crack had appeared.
Before Ryker could understand what was going on, Rein arrived and destroyed the cracked barrier with a single punch infused with Void element.
She had already killed both of the Awakened Sorcerers facing her with minimum damage.
Her arms were now both maimed, forcing her to step back.
She had completed her task. Now, all Ciel had to do was finish the job.