Chapter 404 A failed attempt

Chapter 404 A failed attempt

As Sofia kept pushing the bugbears into the forest, she got surrounded by hordes of goblins and kobolds. "Where is the big one?" Sofia could sense a strong presence around, that thing was probably the monster causing all of this mess.

After a few minutes of mowing the monsters, she finally spotted a big moving thing in the distance. Using [Burning feet] she rushed in for a quick kill.

As soon as she got close she notice it was a giant bear, she became disappointed. 'Those monsters don't have the needed intelligence to cause this, this isn't him." Sofia immediately froze the bear in place and destroyed his corpse with a fireball.

Thud! Standing to have a closer look, she noticed that the corpse didn't freeze all the way inside, the bear organs were still steaming. The monster was too big for her to freeze him whole instantly.

'I should push deeper.' She thought following the presence she sensed before.

…

Ariel flew toward the forest, and flew, and flew…' It's been a few minutes…' She noticed that she wasn't getting any closer to the forest no matter how fast she flew.

"What is going on?" Ariel mumbled feeling that she was flying in place. Something was preventing her from approaching the forest.

…

Chad rushed on his horse across the city, the moment the guards at the gate saw him approaching they opened the gate. Riding his horse toward the forest he felt something familiar, it resembled a feeling he got when fighting Bela in the snow. It also resembled the feeling he got while getting into Zaleria's hut.

He pulled the reins and looked around, 'A witch domain? Is it trying to prevent us from going in?' Chad dismounted his horse and started walking toward the forest. The domain kept forcing him back where he started without him even realizing it at first.

"This proves it, a witch is responsible for all of this!" Chad growled lifting his palm up and feeling the domain. Now that he was close he could tell, it resembled Zaleria's domain a lot and used the same area illusion to keep people out.

'The only way into the forest is to break it' Chad thought lifting his fist up and charging a [Banishing smite] BAM! He punched the air but nothing happened, not a single disruption in the barrier.

…

Inside the forest, "OH!" The old lady felt a sting in her side as if a bee stung her.

'Is this Chad, his holy magic is as powerful as ever.' She thought rubbing her side. She then reinforced the barrier further so he won't break in, out of all people present in the city, Chad was the most dangerous being a paladin to that being.

"Now, let's get to her before someone decides to bring Cain." The old lady stood, she has chosen this day, especially so Cain won't interfere.

…

Sofia was still killing monster one after the other, carefully trying to keep her MP usage low. She didn't want to get Cain in trouble again.

BAM! She smashed one of them into a tree with a powerful kick and froze another with a flick of her hand.

"You seem a bit worked up, can't you calm a bit?" Sofia heard a strange voice from behind her. She immediately turned with a powerful blazing kick.

Thwack! The kick got stopped immediately. "I said to calm a bit, this temper will get you nowhere. You already expanded more magic than you normally do and you're still going only thanks to his buffs. Hehe." The old lady spoke to Sofia with her usual smile.

Sofia immediately pulled away as she saw the family face in the flame flash. "How are you here old lady?" She recognized her face but still had her doubts. There is no chance the frail bath owner could stop such a kick.

"I came to talk to you, is that bad?" The old lady smiled.

"Where did you go? You suddenly disappeared after the undead attack…" As Sofia spoke, she was trying to send Cain a call through the link but she failed. Something was interfering with the signal.

Sofia knew something was off, what she was talking about and the air around her. The old lady seemed unnatural, Sofia's draconic instinct was going hard screaming to run away.

"I had some work to take care of, but now that's done, I came here to talk." The old lady replied as she found a rock to sit on. "You're quite naïve, reliant on Cain." The old lady said with a sad voice.

"What did you say?" The flames started erupting around Sofia.

"At this rate, you will get him killed eventually. I'm here to make you understand your place well." The old lady glared at Sofia with her emerald green eyes. At that moment it was clear, Sofia knew that the old lady wasn't normal.

A sense of oppression, power, and domination. As if she was glaring into a mirror, she got a weird sense of familiarity.

"That is none of your business. My relation with Cain is our alone." Sofia growled.

"That's why I'm here. He is too gentle, lenient, and forgiving. Even if you made a mistake that could threaten his life, he will just laugh it off and find a solution for you." The old lady smiled. Her face quickly turned into a frown.

Sofia was getting sick of listening to her, this was clearly not the old lady she remembers from the bath. BAM! She immediately unleashed a fast kick.

The old lady took the kick in the face without moving an inch, even though Sofia put all her strength behind it.

"Cain needs to whip you into shape quickly, even if it meant hammering the skills into your body. Otherwise, you will only eat your own flesh on it later." With a gentle swing of her hand, she pushed Sofia's foot away.

Sofia immediately realized she can't win so she instantly blasted away, VROOM! But the moment she took to the sky, she appeared back on the ground.

"Where do you think you're going? We still haven't finished talking." The lady smiled as she stood up.

"I don't want to talk anymore, I'm leaving!" Sofia growled as her flames erupted.

"If that's what you want, I will beat you into shape if Cain won't do it." The old lady opened her palm and a skull-shaped ember emerged, "Sadly I'm forced to leave soon, it's either you get in shape or everything was in vain. I will give you this if you survived."

The object in the old lady's hand emitted a presence that resembled the Hell Gate but it also resembled that of Hati's sword.

"What is that?" Sofia asked with a worried face.

"This is the pur…" BAM! The domain suddenly shattered and the only lady felt a heavy punch in the guts.

'Am I this weak now? Merely taking the shard out of my body for a moment allowed them to break in. No, they are different, the two of them.' She could sense Both Cain and Chad approaching at a lightning-fast speed. 'Who did Call Cain, he should be busy with Alice now…'

The old lady absorbed the object back into her and took a stack of papers from her pocket. "This is now yours I don't need it. See you in the first layer of hell when the time comes."

The old lady threw the papers on the ground as she opened a hell gate and jumped in.

The Hell Gate immediately closed after the old lady leaped in and before Cain and Chad could arrive.

Once they arrived, they found Sofia holding the papers in her hand with a confused look.

"What did happen? Ariel said it's an emergency." Ariel was the one to call Cain, if something stopped an angel it was probably a good enough reason to drag Cain out.

Sofia quickly told them what happened. Being a bit confused, Cain took a look at the paper the old lady left just to find something strange.

"How could this be? It's the bath's papers but…" The owner's name was already registered as Sofia Lawrence and behind them was a rough draft of some magic spells.

The questions in Cain's head didn't end, he could tell that the papers were old but the name writing seemed new and shiny in a weird way.

"Let me have a moment to think about it, I still can't quite understand what just happened." Cain sat on a log to think about everything that just happened.