Chapter 252 The Magician



Marcus stared intently at the hill where Edvin, Kota, Toruf, Karin, and Fride were. He knew each of them, as they had prevented Order from executing his plans many times, and absolutely every single one of them had killed Fate Knights.

"Commander... It's them, right?" Sara muttered with a slight shiver.

"Yeah... Honestly, I didn't expect there to be so many of them here. One, Edvin is more than enough to completely change the situations on the battlefield." Marcus said with a dark face.

"Hmm? What are you talking about?" Fosca asked in a confusion.

"Moons... members of the Shattered Moon Order. Normally seeing one of them would mean disaster is imminent, but there are three of them here... I don't remember ever seeing such a thing..." Marcus replied, staring intently in their direction.

Fosca touched her lips, "Don't they just want to watch Chaos Trial?"

Marcus nodded, "That's possible, but those two came together as if Edvin had called them. Maybe I'm wrong and I hope I am, since we don't stand a chance against them."

Fosca gulped. She knew that Moon was even stronger than Crusader most of the time, or at least their powers were equal. Fosca had a long way to go to get to that level.

'Damn... I definitely ended up where I shouldn't be... It seems to me that almost everyone here is significantly stronger than me...' Fosca internally muttered as she received a slight shiver.

The monsters watched as Zayne went through the Chaos Trial, but sometimes they looked around, especially those who were above Terror Grade.

Every time Fosca felt their gazes on her, she got goosebumps. The only thing that saved her was that Marcus was beside her, and fighting was forbidden right now.

However, if she was going to advance in her career and become a Crusader someday, she had to be prepared to one day have to fight such monsters.

...

"That girl over there is looking at us intently. First Rank Fate Knight... What is she even doing here?" Karin tilted her head, with a puzzled look.

"Well, Fride can help me with that." Edvin shrugged, not even turning around.

"Hmm?" Karin raised an eyebrow.

"What...? I can be useful to you?" Fride exclaimed in excitement with shining eyes, "I'll do my best!"

"Sure." Edvin nodded, "But we'll get to that a little later. First, we need Zayne to pass the Chaos Trial. Then, we'll need to get Zayne out of trouble from the Fate Knights."

...

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

Zayne ran amongst the forest, occasionally breaking branches in his path and small, fragile rocks. If someone was near him, they would definitely hear his movements, but the group of knights and the mage were too far away.

The group of knights had already gotten close enough to the village, the distance was no more than one kilometer, and then the mage decided to stop.

The man looked around as if he had noticed something. Zayne became wary and sank deeper into the shadows. He didn't believe that the mage could have noticed him somehow, but he couldn't act carelessly and had to remain attentive.

'Hmm... Apparently, they're human... but that doesn't mean I can trust them, especially considering this is the Dark Lands.' Zayne pondered, 'Since I got here, I've encountered a huge bull, a cat-girl, and one of the Moon Shattered Order... Roughly speaking, they're the first people on my path...'

The man looked around for a long time as if he couldn't understand what was happening, then the man frowned and struck the ground with his staff.

At the same moment, the orb on his staff shone brightly with purple light, spreading light energy waves around.

As the waves passed through the knights, a sheath remained on their armor, clearly visible in the darkness.

Zayne's eyes went wide when he realized that if this wave reached him, he would be exposed and the shadows would not help him hide.

'Shit! I've got to do something! But what?!

Zayne didn't have the skills or spells that could protect him from something like this, so he just decided to run deeper into the forest.

Lightning Beast could attack him again, but Zayne decided that was too unlikely, especially after what had happened a few minutes ago.

Zayne quickly moved away from the riverbank, however, the wave was much faster than him, so soon the wave passed over him.

Running away from the wave was impossible and Zayne realized that his goal was to hide behind so many objects that the mage simply couldn't see him.

"Mr. Clort, is something wrong?" Asked one of the knights who was the commander of their squad. He was wearing heavy armor and holding a massive two-handed sword.

Clort frowned, "Something's not right... I feel like my spell found someone in the forest and it's definitely not a beast or monster..."

"Hmm... That's really strange. There are hardly any humans in these parts, or rather those who can pass through here unnoticed by your barrier." Knight Commander uttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Clort nodded, "I'm thinking the same thing. If it's a human and he somehow snuck in here unnoticed, I'll have to find out. Looks like I'm going to have to expend a little more energy. Step aside."

The Knight Commander nodded and gestured for the others to stand back. The knights quickly complied with the command, taking a few steps back.

Then, purple energy streams appeared around Clort, enveloping his body, trailing his eyes flashing and glowing brightly.

The world in front of him changed as now, he saw only living things, including the Knights beside him, fish in the river, and even insects. Nothing could hide before his gaze and of course, Zayne was no exception.

This time, Chaos didn't interfere, though there was definitely the possibility.

"I see... Just as I thought I was right." Clort muttered, pointing his staff towards Zayne.

Whoooooooooooooosh.

Energy streams swirled rapidly, completely hiding Clort's body. The next moment, he disappeared and appeared right in front of Zayne. Everything happened so fast that Zayne didn't have time to react and Clort managed to touch Zayne's forehead.

"Freeze!" Clort said majestically as a magic circle appeared beneath Zayne from which many chains emerged.

The chains quickly bound Zayne's arms and legs, preventing him from moving.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here? How were you able to stealthily enter this area?" Clort asked calmly, staring intently at Zayne.

Zayne was puzzled, but he soon came to his senses and began to think logically. He had to answer something, but he didn't want Clort to find out about the Chaos Trial.

'Hmm... Though he immobilized me, but he doesn't seem to consider me an enemy... At least it seems that way to me...' Zayne pondered, trying to figure out what Clort was thinking, 'He seems more puzzled than angry...'

'You don't want to answer? Well, I can make you do it." Clort said menacingly as his staff shone brightly.

"Wait!" Zayne exclaimed, and Clort immediately stopped.

"You shouldn't have noticed me, but it wasn't because I was following you, I was just injured and couldn't maintain my stealth anymore. It takes concentration, you know..." Zayne replied, glancing over his shoulder.

Clort looked at Zayne's bleeding wound and turned around, "I see... Lightning Beast attacked you, but it looks like you were able to escape or he let you go... Well, it doesn't matter. You still haven't told me what you're doing here?"

Clort realized that Zayne probably had some special skill with which he was able to hide from his detection spell, but that was only part of the problem.

Zayne sighed, "I found out that there were a lot of poisonous monsters in this area and I headed here, not knowing exactly where to go. I followed the scent of one of the spiders that I killed far from here and eventually came to this forest and came to a river."

Zayne continued, "Yeah, you're right. Lightning Beast let me go, he probably realized I wasn't supposed to be here and decided not to take my life. Let's be honest, he would have had no trouble tearing me apart."

Clort nodded, even though he wasn't sure he could have handled Lightning Beast.

Zayne shrugged, "However when I found a huge spider and wanted to attack it from the shadows, it came to this river and drank the water. Then, something strange happened to him, and after a few seconds, he died... Is that normal?"

Clort gets complicated expression. Zayne's story had many weak and strange parts, but the situation itself was also strange, and what Zayne was saying could very well be true in their situation.

He realized that just as he realized that there were many strange people in the Dark Lands, sometimes doing the most illogical things.

Whoooooosh.

Clort waved his hand, with a slight sigh, and said, "It's a common occurrence in this territory, but it looks like these fucking Lizards thought they could fool us this time!"

Clort's face contorted in anger, as his aura intensified considerably.