Eluard walked out of the smoke with a pale face. A smear of blood could be seen on his mouth, worrying Haera and his students.
"Kai!"
"Senior brother!"
Solordo dashed and caught Eluard by the arm, supporting his frail body lest his senior brother passes out.
'Curse that Mahiista! If I knew he had a trump card, I wouldn't have let my guard down…'
Eluard was ambushed by that demonic creature while he was on his way to meet with Elder Flock. The latter spouted a lot of things that lowered his guard.
Mahiista then stabbed him with its devil fork in the middle of their conversation, set up a spatial isolation technique, and left him to die.
Fortunately, Eluard had some healing items stashed away in his inventory. Coupled with the divinity stored in his fire essence, he burned up all the demonic essence that seeped inside his body and in addition, healed his wounds.
Despite his recovery, however, the stress induced by the demonic essence put him in a bad spot.
Jinmu knelt in front of him and asked, "Senior brother, you look injured. Did someone attack you earlier?"
"Yeah… that demonic creature almost got me but now is not the time to worry about my safety…", he said while coughing out blood.
"We need to treat your wounds right now, Mr. Kai!", Haera interjected. Seeing the man who saved her life hanging around on the edge hurt her deeply.
"That big elf sister is right, senior brother.", Olivia and the rest agreed.
Emilia simply stood on the sidelines and observed, feeling her chin after confirming her thoughts.
Eluard caught aware of her presence.
"You must be… the person that undid the thing, huh?"
"Yes I am, and you are?", Emilia raised her eyebrows.
"Call me Kai...", Eluard was cut short after coughing out blood. Haera went over and used her handkerchief to wipe the blood.
"Thanks..."
"Do not thank me. I'm just worried about you, that is all.", she blushed while replying.
Realizing their mistake, Jinmu introduced Emilia to Eluard.
"Ah, senior brother. I almost forgot. She's academy master Emilia. She's here to help us with the problem against the demonic creatures…"
"I know.", Eluard stood up, "It's about time I meet the person whom Elder Flock has invited."
Confused, Emilia saw blood trickling out of his mouth again, "You… don't look really good. How about we leave here first and talk once you get yourself healed up?"
"My current condition does not matter. Mahiista…"
The space shook as the rift above their heads shone with extreme darkness and a loud horrifying dragon roar echoed from the other side.
A few moments later, a huge column of dark beam struck from the rift and landed far away in the east.
"That location is Arsolo Stronghold!", Olivia covered her mouth, "Don't tell me the Otherworld just…"
A dark thought grew on her mind. The others were equally terrified as well. They could sense a tremendous despairing aura flowing from that black beam, and they had a feeling that something powerful would soon arrive in this realm.
"He has started it…", Eluard lowly cursed, "Get us out of here, now!"
Emilia was bothered by how this young brat addressed and ordered her, though she knew that he was right. Nevertheless, she gathered her mana and prepared to teleport them out of the place.
"Gather round!", clasping her hands together, 6 transparent magic circles appeared, "Spatial Translocation!"
…
"Hah!"
High King Garron lunged forward, slashing at the twin-headed hellhound who roared at his face.
The sharp frostal ice blade cleanly cut the two heads, spurting a fountain of blood to the ground.
"When is this gonna end?!"
Watching the group of demon beasts from afar made him worry.
He had been fighting for minutes and killed endless demon beasts yet their numbers do not seem to dwindle at all. Rather, they continued rampaging in the area without a care for their lives.
Although he was a radiant knight with a huge reserve of strength, it didn't mean that he could recklessly battle as he wished.
There was still the Siegfried Clan who had betrayed their cause and sooner or later would fight against him, and the leader of the demonic creatures who orchestrated this large-scale attack.
Amidst his frustration, he noticed several behemoth figures charging in the distance.
"Are they… the king-level beasts of the Otherworld?", he pondered.
"No, High King.", a magical beast beside him corrected, "They are our big bosses!"
"Hmm?"
High King Garron observed again and saw that some demon beasts were flung into the air before a strong gust of wind swept past them and killed them.
"So fast!", the high king was surprised. Even his eyes couldn't keep up with the movement of this king-level magical beast.
It halted in the air and displayed its huge majestic wings.
"Oh, big boss Velgraehs!", the magical beast was astonished.
"Velgraehs? Is that the name of the king-level dire swirl eagle?", High King Garron muttered, "But why are they here?"
He remembered that these king-level beasts who were under the direct orders of the frost dragon were supposed to reinforce the nearby stronghold and villages and defend it against the assault of the demon beasts.
'Don't tell me that my villagers died before they could respond?'
'Or they didn't listen to that damn frost dragon's orders at all?!'
The thought angered the high king. Furious, he charged at the demon beasts as well to meet up with the reinforcements.
"Velgraehs!", High King Garron shouted, "What are you doing here of all the times?!"
The monstrous dire swirl eagle heard his shout and paused mid-air, "High King Garron, I thought you wanted our help?"
"And I thought you were going to help us as well! Shouldn't you be someplace else right now?", questioning Velgraehs's presence.
Velgraehs let out a gasp, "Oh, as much as I hate it, though we were ordered by our lord, unfortunately, there are no sightings of anyone inside the nearby villages and strongholds.", replying coldly.
"What?! What did you just say?"
"Your people are missing and we don't know where have they gone to or what happened to them. So instead of wasting time in those deserted places, we chose to head back here instead."
Velgraehs was in fact, shocked about their findings. How could a large population of northerners suddenly vanish from their homes without gathering too much attention?
"Don't lie to me!", High King Garron remained doubtful.
Before Velgraehs could reply, a roar from the heavens shook the entire realm. She shivered uncontrollably and fell to the ground, dazed by the phenomenon that just happened.
"This is-!"
High King Garron raised his head and could see the entire sky further darken.
"Everyone, retreat to the inner mountains!", Elder Flock ordered through telepathy, "King-level beasts, maintain the defense! We will discuss something for a moment!"
High King Garron and the rest followed. They then saw the dark expression on each other and knew that things had gone out of hand.
"Harrtugg Naaw, I thought you ordered your men to help the northerners. Why have they returned quickly like a terrified dog?", Arahon accused the frost dragon.
He, just like High King Garron, also met with the king-level magical beasts.
"I thought that they had explained it to you clearly, that the people inside the strongholds or villages are missing for no reason."
"The people are missing?", the other three simultaneously gasped.
"He's right.", a familiar weak voice interjected.
The four ascended beings looked over the source of this voice and saw Emilia's group walking out of the cover of the snow-deprived trees.
Arahon recognized Eluard among them and wanted to hurry over but Elder Flock overshadowed him, "Uh-! Mr. Kai!"
"Elder Flock.", Eluard replied weakly.
Emilia saw how her master treated this young brat like a golden treasure, afraid that he would die at any moment.
'Tsk, what's so special about him? I guess he's just a third-party nobody that was assigned to meet with me and my master. How dare he act haughtily like that? I'm going to punish him later!'
She was the respected academy master of the second-best magical academy in Aludia. For Eluard to order her as if she was working directly under him irked her to the core.
"Who is this young man?!", Harrtugg Naaw questioned, piquing the interest of everyone unaware of Eluard's identity.
"Oh, him… uh…", Elder Flock hesitated, leaning over Eluard's ears and whispered, "Should I… Mr. Kai?"
Although Heavenly Magic Academy was a well-known 'factual' existence in the upper ranks of the League, he still had to respect the other party's wishes if they wanted their privacy from everybody else.
"It doesn't matter now, Elder Flock. Just tell them. It's better this way anyway. And my master won't bother too much about it."
Eluard made up his mind after his short yet deathly encounter with Mahiista.
Elder Flock nodded, "Then…", clearing his throat and straightening his back, "Everyone and particularly you, Emilia, this is Mr. Kai, someone from the Heavenly Magic Academy."
"He was sent here, alongside his...", the old man glanced at the five youngsters, "...juniors to monitor and respond to the threat of the demonic creatures in the northern glacial continent."
"He-heavenly Magic Academy?!"
Emilia was in utter disbelief.
"So-"
"Shut it.", Eluard coughed out blood again, 'Damn it! Can't you stabilize yourself for one moment?!'
"Now is not the time to be surprised about who I am. I want everyone to listen to my words first."
He, with Elder Flock's support, walked near the ground map at the center. Behind him were Emilia, Haera, and his curious five students.
"The missing villagers… they were kidnapped by the demonic creatures and are held at the Arsolo Stronghold."
"The reason is… they're going to prepare a sacrificial ritual and use the bodies as a sacrifice… to summon a powerful demonic dragon entity from the Otherworld… into this place."
Eluard panted heavily.
"A sacrificial ritual? Summon a powerful demonic dragon from the Otherworld?!", Harrtugg Naaw lost his composure.
"My friend, your stolen dragon eggs…", Arahon caught up with the frost dragon's thoughts.
"What stolen dragon eggs?!", High King Garron became impatient, "What has happened now, huh?!"
Everyone was running wild in his backyard, and he, the high king, couldn't do anything to stop it. As more information was revealed, he felt like an inept ruler who was unaware of everything.
"Some bastard stole my dragon eggs a while back. I didn't think it they would…!"
A strong cold current brewed beneath Harrtugg Naaw's feet.
"Stop it.", Elder Flock narrowed his eyes and restrained the frost dragon's anger, "As dreading as it may be, being angry about it won't solve a thing."
"I won't ask every one of this again. Shut your mouth let Mr. Kai finish first and we'll choose what to do after hearing his words."
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