Chapter 413 – The Hunt
Mistress Mirax watched her quarry carefully. Humans were such unusual creatures. Frail by the standards of the Alfar and Iblis, yet they were still more capable than the goblins. Despite her sense of superiority, even she had to admit that humans were better off than a race that was little more than evolved frogs.
In her search for the newly arrived human, Mirax had come across a tribe of goblins. They had turned a small area outside of the ruins of Atlantis into their home. She supposed the lower mana density here allowed them greater ease to raise their young.
Goblins, being the weakest of the races, had young that could not survive in high density mana. Even here, in mana that was in the realm of A Rank, these goblins had to take extra precautions to make sure their young were able to develop naturally. And this batch of little ones would be all the leverage she needed to force their cooperation.
Stepping out of the hidden place she used to observe, Mirax released her S Rank aura instantly catching the attention of all the goblins present, causing them all to tremble in fear.
“Good. You know to bow before your superiors,” Mirax smirked when she saw all the goblins dropping their weapons and prostrating themselves.
The goblins knew that since the Alfar had not immediately slaughtered them, it was an indication that she wanted something. Their best hope, and the best chance for their little ones, was to cooperate fully and hope the Alfar left them in peace.
What confused them was that the Alfar was female. The Alfar population was overwhelmingly male, with only one female birthed to every hundred or so males. All female Alfar were revered in their society. Each having a high status and they seldom ventured outside of their lands and if they did it was with a heavy escort. Which made this female even more unusual, since she traveled alone.
“Tell me, have you encountered a human in these parts?” Mirax asked, increasing the pressure she extruded through her mana.
“There was one, weeks ago. We did not wish for him to disturb our nest, so we did not permit him to approach,” the goblin chief said quickly.
“Understandable. Humans are brutish creatures and if we allow them to return and gain a foothold on the Mother World there is no telling how much damage they may cause.”
The goblin chief remained silent. He did not want to risk upsetting the Alfar. One wrong word and she could slaughter them all.
“Since you did not let the human approach your home, to where did you direct it?”
“Back the way it came.”
Mirax could tell the goblin was leaving information out, but the sniveling creature was at least honest regarding the direction. She considered for a moment taking action against the goblins for holding back, whatever it might have been, but decided not to waste more time with these pathetic creatures. Withdrawing her aura, Mirax moved off in the direction of the ruined city of Atlantis.
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Everything sent to the Mother World from Nerotath, or any of the other seed worlds, ended up in the same place, the center of the ancient ruin. Mirax would have kicked herself for simply not going there first, but at least the goblins had confirmed it was a human mage that arrived.
When she finally reached the center of the ruins, the Alfar mistress was astounded by what she found. The mage that arrived had left markers. First, heading towards the goblins. Then another one heading in the opposite direction. Unfortunately for her, in that direction lay the territory of the Iblis. If she traveled too far into their land she was sure to be discovered. However, she had to obey Matron Jysella. Returning in failure would be worse than capture or death in combat with the Iblis.
Mirax, believing her quarry would likely be foolish enough to travel in a straight line, headed in the direction the arrow pointed. She may not have been able to read the message written there, but she was able to discern its meaning.
After traveling along the same trajectory as Damion had, Mirax naturally came across the remains of dozens of Demonic Beasts. These beasts had all been killed by Willem Straus, but to her the site was confusing. The beasts had been dead roughly the right amount of time for the human she was searching for to have passed this way, but the way they had been killed, a sword and Lightning affinity magic, confused her. Not to mention the trail of carcasses crossed her path but did not begin here, which would indicate the person who did this was traveling on a different route.
The question Mirax was now asking herself was, did her human do this? Was it an Iblis clearing out a dangerous group of beasts? Did her human and the Iblis responsible for this meet? Could she still intercept her human before he reached the Iblis? Or was she too late?
The Alfar mistress hung in the air debating the questions for quite a while. She had four choices before her, follow the trail in one of two directions, carry on the way she was going, or head back in failure.
For now, Mirax decided to follow the trail of the carcasses. It was possible her human did the same. Which way was obvious, the direction with the stronger lingering mana in the remains. It was not exact, as the amount of mana used could cause the linger effects to last longer, but she found the mana from the attacks was slightly stronger in most of the beasts in one direction, so she decided to go that direction.
After a bit of time, the Alfar came across a large cluster of dead Demonic Beasts and signs that a Realm Breach had been collapsed.
“The Iblis would not have done this,” Mirax said to herself. “This many creatures… even for a city the size of Ardnet is not insubstantial. There is no way an Iblis would not collect all of it, but for a human, that doesn’t know the city is there…”
Mirax rushed down and examined one of the carcasses more closely. “Yes, all the beast’s cores have been harvested. This mage has limited storage space, but those cores will be enough to increase his magic further. I must find him quickly before the Iblis do.”
Looking around, Mirax found signs of a trail. Tracks, whose footprints were much too small for an Iblis and the stride was much too close together as well. Her human continued on, now she must hurry to catch up.
After following the tracks and finding various signs of campsites, Mirax continued to be hopeful that she would find her prey. Finally, after another day of searching, the Alfar mistress spotted a human fighting a Demonic Beast.
The human used a sword infused with Lightning mana and made quick work of the Demonic Beast that was close to him in magic power. What confused Mirax, was that this human was not a mage, but some human with a deformed core. This could not be the human she was searching for.
However, just because this was not the human true mage, that did not mean he did not have answers. Mirax rushed forward before the knight could realize he was being watched and formulated a defense.