Chapter 5: Searching For His Trace

Gael entered a long corridor at the basement level of the Royal Army Headquarters.

The only source of light came from the old-fashioned wall lamps along the corridor.

There was a big floor-to-ceiling gate at the end and two infantry soldiers in full metal armor, holding a glaive, stood on opposite sides of the gate.

As Gael neared the gates, the two soldiers saluted.

"Grand Marshal," they both greeted.

Gael nodded and asked, "Are all of them inside?"

"Yes, sire."

"Good. Open the gates."

"Yes, sire."

The two soldiers went to each side of the gate. They stood in front of a round panel on the wall. The one on the right side placed his right hand at the center of the panel, while the other side used his left hand.

Yellow magic array appeared from their wrist and circulated until it reached the intricate magic writings at the outer edge of the round panel.

The panel lit up, and the writings on the panel seemed to have come to life and crawled, spreading like vines toward the center top of the gate.

Slowly, the gate started to move and opened inwardly.

Inside the gate was a big dark room.

Once Gael entered inside, and the soldiers could no longer see his silhouette, they released their hand on the panel.

The gold lights on the gate slowly retreated to the panel, and the gates closed once again.

====================

After the cloaked man left the Mercenary Guild, he went to the outskirts of the town.

From the information written on the poster, the last known location of his target was in the forest outside the Regis estate. There was even a small map at the bottom right of the poster. It was a map of Aeren Town, where the Regis estate was located.

The cloaked man looked up at the sky and sighed.

"Why the forest of all places," he complained. He looked at the poster in his hands and glared at the map.

Apart from being poor at memorizing people's faces, he was also particularly bad at finding his way around forests.

Not to mention, he was bad at reading maps. The lines, dots, landmarks, and all those other symbols looked like a kid's doodle to him.

Just think about it. How did you expect a person to understand a peanut-shaped symbol on a piece of paper was supposed to be a lake? Then after a few spaces from the lake, there were inverted v's to its left, and it was supposed to be mountains.

Such a high hurdle right off the bat. No wonder the reward was worth one million.

The cloaked man sighed again and went on his way.

====================

Even when the Royal Army issued a bounty to the Mercenary Guild, they did not stop looking for Kyran's trace.

Together with three more teams, Dior and his men returned to the place where Kyran escaped from them.

Luka did not go with them because he had to recuperate. Although he was unwilling, Jax convinced him to rest because he would not be of help to them with his current condition.

"He did this?"

A woman in her mid-twenties with lush reddish-brown hair and emerald green eyes stood beside Dior while surveying the whole place. Like Luka's, she wore a green uniform and had a bronze badge pinned on her vest.

"Yes," Dior answered despondently. Even now, he still felt resentful of letting Kyran escape.

The woman frowned. "I've read your report. Even if your speculations are correct, he used his magic for the first time simply because he was particularly good at understanding theories. After seeing this place, it is hard to believe he is a novice. No, he is not even registered as a mage. It is simply impossible."

"I know what you want to say, Vera. I also can't honestly believe it, but what we see here is real."

"No. There could be something else," Vera contemplated.

"Do you have any ideas then? If you think he has a magic item to help control his magic, then I'm telling you now that he doesn't have one."

Vera looked at Dior with a raised eyebrow, "I know that much. I want to meet the person who can create a magic item that is compatible with void magic."

In this world, Void Magic was categorized as the rarest and most dangerous. Not because it's omnipotent but because information about this magic was close to nil.

At first, they believed that void magic could be an advanced type of space magic. Thus, many mages did experiments.

Space magic was also forbidden, but unlike void magic, it was categorized as low risk. Thus mages who had space magic were not detained by the Royal Army but were closely monitored.

In the Royal Army's Research Division, they also had mages specializing in space magic, and they had been researching its connection to void magic. But after comparing the use of space magic to the record they collected from studying the Dark Sage, they realized that space and void were different.

When one utilizes space's magic, they control the space by shortening or lengthening the distance in its targeted area. The shortened distance was a result of compression. While the lengthened space, a result of the expansion. If you cast slow status magic to the person using space magic, you would see the targeted space compressing or expanding from one point to another in slow motion.

Void magic, on the other hand, since there was no available mage who could use it, they compared it to one of the recorded battles of the Dark Sage. It was when he summoned the void and warped his armies at such a long distance. There was no sign of space being compressed. For short, the distance between one point to another was 'removed'.

Apart from that, there was a limit in the distance space magic could be utilized. Void magic, at least based on their research, appeared limitless. And that made this magic extremely dangerous.

Imagine if the leader of a large army had void magic, and he could warp his army inside any territory at will. And he could do it as many times as he could. He would be an ultimate Overlord.

And that was only one of the terrors the Dark Sage left from the era known as the Chaos Reign.

Vera shook her head and sighed. She only knew about the Dark Sage from history books and stories. Now a mage with similar magic was born, and he had just started using it but could already use it to this extent. Vera feared the time when he could master his magic.

'His existence cannot be allowed,' she thought.

"This is where he warped and escaped," Dior's voice brought Vera's thoughts back to the present.

She looked at him standing in the middle of the huge crater. She approached his side and asked, "Tell me what you remembered about his actions and positioning that night."

Dior crunched his brows and answered, "At first he was facing this direction…" he pointed up north, "but then he countered Luka's sneak attack and turned here," he pointed up east.

Vera looked to her right and surveyed the area.

Dior watched her in silence.

In the Royal Army, Vera was the best tracking mage. Her ability to discern what the enemy thought while on the run was exceptional. If she had been recruited early in the army, she might already be a major class mage. Apart from that, her innate magic was feared by many.

"When you attacked him, what was his expression? Did he get flustered? Was he anxiously looking around?" Vera asked without looking at Dior.

Dior scowled a little. Now that she asked these questions, he found Kyran's attitude odd for his age.

Normally, a cornered person would show fear and resistance, but Kyran did the opposite.

Shaking his head, Dior answered. "No. He was calm. He simply stood here and endured my attacks."

Vera's eyes squinted, "He was able to endure your attacks?"

Dior replied with a scowl.

Vera thought for a moment and surveyed the area up east. "Why did he not follow up on his counter to Luka? Why would he risk taking hits?"

"Well, after he countered Luka, he started to cast his magic. Clearly, he endured our attacks so he would not be interrupted."

"Did he not look at the two of you when you were attacking him? Normally, a person will feel angry and glare at his attackers."

"No, he did not."

"Then where was he looking at?"

"Well… he didn't look like he was looking at anything in particular."

"But he was facing this direction."

"Yes."

"Then, he was probably focusing all his attention to a point on one of those mountains."

"Why?"

"To warp there, of course."

"But those mountains are at least a hundred miles away."

Vera smiled wryly, "He's using void magic, not space."

Dior frowned and fell silent.

"But up east is already outside the jurisdiction of Meliora," Dior finally said, feeling an incoming headache.

Vera also sighed. She understood Dior's worries.

Meliora was the capital city of the Ylfaen Empire. It was located at the center, and both the Royal Palace and the Royal Army Headquarters were situated here.

The forest near the Regis estate where they were was near the borders of Meliora, and the city up east was called Starhorn.

Dior was not worried that their movements would be restricted at Starhorn since it was under a different jurisdiction. What he was worried about was what was in Starhorn.

In Ylfaen Empire, three factions could rival the Royal Army. And one of those was in Starhorn.

And it was The Conclave of the East.