After successfully eliminating their enemies on the ground, the group stood together to catch their breath and assess the situation. They gazed up at the night sky, now pitch black and devoid of any visible celestial bodies.
Suddenly, A purple bolt of lightning flashed above them, revealing the hidden monstrosities in the clouds. They saw a ghostly figure of a serpent head trying to swallow a man releasing purple thunderbolts from his body. It twisted and launched its giant mouth, trying to bite him and pull him back.
But the man easily disrupted the attack by lighting the sky with millions of volts of electricity.
This was the moment observed by Alex and the group below. And as soon as he saw that, Alex knew that he would die in an instant if he got caught in their crossfire.
In the time it took him to blink, like a mirage, the shadows disappeared from the sky. It once again turned pitch black.
Despite the lack of visibility, the group below could hear the relentless sound of impacts and explosions growing louder by the minute. As thunderclouds rolled in from the horizon, the cacophony of destruction only intensified, leaving the group feeling both uneasy and helpless in the face of such overwhelming force.
Alex looked at the people near him and observed their expressions. Just like him, their eyeballs popped looking at the scene above them.
'As expected, this was not normal. This is a peak tier 5 battle. No wonder they are bewildered by it.' Alex thought.
"Do you have any idea what's happening in the sky? Is the purple lightning man the enemy or the giant snake? Laya, you might know it, right?" Alex asked trying to find a baseline to reason with.
Alex's question roused the interest of the group. Kalina, Prince Ethan, Taka and Laya suddenly turned towards him in amazement.
"You don't intend to fight them, do you?" Kalina asked as if she had heard the most absurd thing in her life.
"No, No way. I do not have a death wish. I was just curious. After all, we are right below the most chaotic part of the city. If we have to run away, I would at least need to know who the enemy is." Alex said while shaking his head.
Hearing him, they finally relaxed their muscles. For a second they almost thought the crazy guy was trying to fight against a tier 5 entity. But it was a false alarm.
"The warrior releasing the purple lighting is our enemy. I saw him hand over the Blue gem to the first elder. I am sure that he is the mastermind." Laya said weakly.
And this resolved Alex's confusion. He made an appropriate plan to escape. He had no interest in participating in a losing fight. Especially when the loser would have to forfeit his life.
Just after Laya, Ethan, the prince from the west, suddenly interrupted with a shocking statement that left everyone speechless.
"Let me correct you there Princess Laya, he is not a warrior. He is a mage. And what you know would not encompass even one per cent of the entire story." Ethan Solarion declared.
His eyes scanned the surroundings before focusing on Kalina.
"Once I came to the ice phoenix tribe to warn them of this danger. But you and your tribe members humiliated me and chased me away. They called me weak and pathetic. I still remember those insults."
"But didn't they chase you away for asking Kalina's hand in marriage?" Alex was excited to know the existence of mages, but before that, he had to clear some doubts.
Ethan sighed after hearing that. It was not the first time someone asked the exact question and he was tired of answering it again and again.
"No, never. Someone in their tribe created this misunderstanding. I would have loved to explain that, but they were so busy chasing me, a royalty from another continent away that they forgot to even ask me what I want. To sum it up, I could call the leaders of the ice phoenix tribe naive and stupid. A combination that is equally dangerous to the people inside and outside of their tribe."
Ethan mocked the ice phoenix tribe while explaining to Alex. But even then, Laya nor Kalina could not say anything to refute his claims. They knew after hearing his side that there was something fishy.
"Ha… That makes sense. But what were you trying to warn? And how did you know about the black-robed people?" Alex was not satisfied with the answer, so he inquired directly to Ethan. It seems like Ethan was the most knowledgeable about the incidents that happened here. So, it was in his interest to understand everything that Ethan knows.
"Before I say it, you need to pay me. I do not plan to make a loss anymore. If you are comfortable with it, pay me 400,000 gold coins combined and I will sell you the information you want." Ethan said while smiling at the group.
Alex was thrilled to see this. Finally someone reasonable. Even though 400,000 gold was a lot of money. It was not an absurd amount that he would reject at a single glance. So, Alex wanted to know why he needs the money.
"What 400,000!" Kalina exclaimed.
Laya looked in disbelief while Taka and Alex pondered for a moment.
"Why do you need 400,000 gold coins?" Alex asked.
"To buy food, A large amount at that."
"So, you need food, grains, meat and vegetables I presume. It probably means that your territory is encountering a famine. Which means you are desperate. So, how about we send you the grains you need immediately and later procure more and send them in batches? There is no way you will want 400,000 gold worth of food items immediately, right? If you are worried about transportation. Sir Taka can help, isn't it right?"
"Yes, I can handle the transportation. But procuring that much food would not be easy." Taka said slightly worried.
"Don't worry about the food. I recently came across some places that cultivate corn. I can help you with that." Alex said calming down everyone.
"So, do you agree to trade with us?"
"Yes!" Ethan said astonished by the fact that he resolved his problems this quickly. Initially, he thought he would have to bargain a lot to procure the food items. He was planning to even trade metals to Laya for food. It was the reason he came with Taka to meet Laya. And that's when the whole mess happened.
Ethan was finally relieved to know almost all his immediate problems are solved. He was even thankful to Alex who made a quick decision on the matter.
"Now, let me explain in detail…" Like that, Ethan began explaining in detail about the things that happened in his life. And the reason he came across the black-robed men.
Ethan, the thirteenth prince of the Empire of Solarion was a neglected prince. His mother died early and he couldn't even meet his own father. It has been too long since he saw him. His father was always in secluded meditation.
And like that, he was living the life of a nobody. Other than the occasional bullying by his siblings, no one cared about his life or living conditions. Until his tenth birthday. When he awakened the Solarion bloodline and caused a shock among the royals.
Those people who considered him an untalented waste now began to view him as a possible threat.
It was at that moment he finally came across the black-robed men. The evil organisation belonging to them tried to capture him and make him their slave. They injected something inside his body to control him and do their bidding. The thing in his blood also increased his talent to an unprecedented level, making him stand out even more.
And all he could do was to let them do so. After all, someone who could infiltrate the palace of the emperor and do cruel experiments on his son would not be a weakling.
While he was resigned to his fate, the emperor came out of seclusion. With just a glance he identified the problem with Ethan's body. He was enraged by what he saw.
He thought Ethan worked together with evil organisations to quickly gain power. So, in his anger, he destroyed Ethan's mana core. The central part of a mage that holds all his power. Making him a disabled weakling for all eternity.
Then his presence was quickly erased from the political scene of the royal family. He was silently allocated the southern swamps as his fief and was banished from the imperial city.
All of that was due to the black-robed men and their interference.
After being chased away from the imperial city. He secretly investigated and found a lot more about them than anyone in the whole world. While doing so, he almost died multiple times. But he was not yet ready to give up.
And this was one of the reasons he came to the central continent, and to the ice phoenix tribe. He was supposed to warn them of the encroaching danger.
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