Chapter 223: Darkness
"You bastards from Kallarnos University. To think that you would stoop so low to remove a student!" Mathias glared at the teachers of Kallarnos University. His killing intent erupted to the point where the students were knocked out.
"Stop it!" The principal raised his hand. "Are you going to kill even more students, Mathias?"
"Then give me an explanation! It’s clearly the work of an insider. That means you are responsible. Can’t you even conduct a background check on your own teachers?"
"I will give you an explanation. However, rather than wasting our time here, it’s better for us to start searching for them!" The principal never thought that inviting Auric would actually cause this much headache.
If he had known about this, he wouldn’t have brought him here, no matter how talented he was.
"Mark my words. If something happens to that kid, I’m going to use the freedom of killing I possess. Even if I can’t kill the teachers in this university, I’m going to kill their families, their children, so that no one ever wants to go to this university anymore!" Mathias shouted.
"Kh..." The principal gritted his teeth. Mathias was truly a madman. Killing a teacher would be severe, and a few teachers would cause Mathias to be imprisoned. However, it would be different if he were coming for their families, who didn’t have that protection.
With Mathias’ ability, he could definitely cause a killing that didn’t leave a single trace. At that time, no one would ever want to go to Kallarnos University anymore.
This was the madness that exterminated 247 family members of the Sventein family. In the past, no one ever questioned Mathias’s ability.
After all, he was one of the three founding warriors of this country. The other two became the first president, while the other was the hero who led the country to safety. It was Mathias who took care of all opposition, making the creation of this country possible.
The principal had to solve this problem. This was the first time he saw Mathias unleashing everything he had for the sake of a single student. He didn’t know what was going on, but it looked like there was something else that Auric possessed.
Nevertheless, the situation was already severe. Rather than thinking about useless things, it’d be better to find Auric.
This was a kidnapping, so Auric had a high chance of being alive.
The problem was the culprit. Judging from the evidence alone, there was a high probability that the culprit was Professor Schad.
For what reason? Professor Schad received Auric’s help for his research. Why would Professor Schad kidnap Auric?
Was it because he was greedy of Auric’s achievement? If that were the case, there was no reason for him to help Auric in the conference.
There were a lot of questions in his mind, but he just couldn’t figure out anything that would lead to the kidnapping. There was a chance that Professor Schad had also been kidnapped, but the chance was quite low.
The principal immediately shouted, "Seal the academy immediately. Pull out all the security video and find anything that might be useful."
The principal also started calling a few people, trying to get some help.
Meanwhile, the butler looked at Mathias before asking in a low voice. "Master, isn’t that rather excessive for a threat?"
"No, it’s not. If Auric dies, the loss will be much greater than a mere university." Mathias shook his head. "Even though my heart is raging, I’m still keeping a cool head. Don’t worry about it."
The butler still couldn’t figure out the situation, but he determined it was fine to follow Mathias’s will. "Please give us your order, Master."
He realized that this matter might not be as simple as it seemed from the relationship between Auric and Maya. Unfortunately, there was no way he could get this kind of secret from him. It would be better to follow his lead, just as they had done all this time.
"I need all the shadow guards to begin searching."
"Understood." The butler nodded before disappearing.
Mathias let out a long sigh, trying to calm down. "Is there a motive for this? I’m not exactly sure right now, but if this is truly a kidnapping, we should find a way to track them."
Mathias fell into deep thought, trying to figure out any clues that could lead them to the kidnapper.
...
"Kh." Auric gradually opened his eyes. "Where is this?"
Auric looked left and right, but he couldn’t find a single thing. It was complete darkness.
’Lindwurm!’ Auric tried to call the most reliable helper he had.
"I’m here." Lindwurm suddenly appeared in front of him, this time turning white so that it would create a contrast in the darkness. It was surprising that he could see Lindwurm clearly even though he was in complete darkness.
It seemed that Lindwurm’s existence was etched directly into his mind. Well, it didn’t matter for the time being.
After all, Auric’s top priority was to find out his current situation.
’Where is Ellia?’ Auric asked while trying to move his body. He realized he couldn’t move a single muscle.
"Don’t fight. The damage to your body is quite severe. In addition, they’ve used the muscle relaxant to make your body unable to move."
Auric closed his eyes, trying to use his own power to see if he could fix his body.
"Use the light element from your mother to fix your body. Then, use the chaos energy to expel the muscle relaxant. However, this will be the first time you’ve used that power to expel something that doesn’t have energy, so you need to do it carefully. Then, you will use the Void Step to teleport only your body and clothes one meter in front of you."
Lindwurm gave him instructions on how to free himself.
’Where is Ellia?’ Auric asked again. Lindwurm hadn’t given him that answer.
"I will tell you once you free yourself. That’s the highest chance for you to escape from here."
Auric took a deep breath. It didn’t seem like he had any choice.
Auric closed his eyes, concentrating on his body. He first activated the light element to repair his body.
At the same time, he was also sensing everything in his surroundings. Judging from his posture, he was currently lying on a cold floor. However, he didn’t dare to release all his energy in case the fluctuation would be so strong that it could be felt outside.
Lindwurm must have judged that this was the best way to escape.
After two minutes, he could feel that some cracked bones had been healed. Then, he channeled his chaos energy. This was indeed the first time he tried to break down something unrelated to energy.
Still, it wasn’t that hard for him. After all, what he needed to do was cover all his muscles with the chaos energy. Then, he created a barrier to sweep everything away.
After he completed this step, he could finally move his body slightly. Still, it looked like he had been cuffed. It wasn’t just a normal cuff. It was much heavier, making him feel as if there were a few centimeters-thick cuff locking his wrists. Chains were also used to tie the rest of his body.
Auric focused on his space element, enveloping only himself and his clothes before teleporting himself forward.
Auric clenched his hands and started moving his body. ’I can move now. Tell me about Ellia.’
"Ellia is in the same condition as yours. She is in front of you, but you can’t see her in this darkness. Also, don’t produce any light right now."
’But how about the energy I released earlier?’
"It’s fine. Just don’t say anything. There is a camera here with a microphone. As long as you don’t produce too much sound, you are free to move. If you want to talk to Ellia, you will need to whisper very quietly. Right now, she is unconscious, so try crawling forward diagonally to your right. Ehm... your 2 o’clock?"
Auric crawled carefully, gently rubbing the area in front to make sure he didn’t hit Ellia.
Just like Lindwurm said, he found her.
There was one thing that Auric was quite confused about. Even in the darkness, his eyes should have worked, allowing him to see the energy in Ellia’s body.
So, how could he not see anything? He didn’t really want to think about this, but the only reason he could think of was that Ellia didn’t have any more energy in her body. In other words, she had died.
’Is Ellia alright? She is not dead, right?’ Auric asked. His heart sank. In his heart, he hoped that it didn’t reach this point.
"Not yet. However, she’s extremely weak right now. That guy hit her quite hard."
’In that case, why can’t I sense her?’ Auric asked, feeling slightly relieved. ’Am I blind or something?’
"This room’s darkness comes from the dark element. A very powerful one. I will tell you why later."
’Won’t my action alert that person?’
"I have used my authority to turn this room into a store. My authority takes priority, so you are currently safe. However, my authority, as you know, doesn’t protect you from the sound.
"If you make a loud scene, the other party will notice. If you use too much power, my authority might be disrupted. So, do it in such a subtle way. I have to establish the store with minimal power output to avoid detection."
’Understood.’ Auric nodded. He finally touched something soft.
When he rubbed a few more spots, he could sense the contour of a human. So, Auric first searched for her head, carefully sliding his hand to her cheek so that he could find her nose.
After making sure that she was still breathing, Auric activated his healing ability again, aiding her recovery.
"Don’t use the chaos energy on her yet. Instead, wake her up gently and try to do it as quietly as possible."
Auric followed his instructions. While channeling his energy, Auric came closer to her ears and whispered slowly, "Ellia, wake up. This is Auric. Don’t make a sound. Don’t move."
Auric repeated his words again and again.
"Mhmm—" Ellia suddenly opened her eyes and tried to move but couldn’t because of the muscle relaxant. She wanted to say something, but she heard the same thing over and over again. "Mmm?"
As soon as Auric noticed her awakening, he continued, "Don’t make a sound. It will alert the enemy. Relax, let me explain the situation."
Ellia took a deep breath before calming down.
"Okay. I will first help you move your body. Then, use your Void Step on yourself and your clothes to free yourself from the restraints." Auric first channeled his chaos energy into her before stepping back. "One meter is fine. Don’t move. I will try to locate you."
Ellia did what he wanted and freed herself. Then Lindwurm guided him to her until he could finally touch her again.
Auric couldn’t see her, so he came closer and whispered, "Don’t make a sound, use too much energy, or create any light... We will be found out. Understood? Whisper as quietly as possible."
"In that case..." Ellia suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck so that their bodies got as close as possible while she located Auric’s head.
"What are..." Auric closed his mouth mid-sentence, realizing her intention.
"This is the best way to communicate."
He couldn’t help but agree and said, "All right. It looks like we have been kidnapped by Professor Schad. This darkness is used by someone extremely strong to detect our movement, but for now, I can fool it. Just heed my warning, and we should be able to talk like this."
"Understood. So, what is the situation? Looking at the situation, should we try to break out? We can use the Void Step alternately, so we can get away quite fast."
"Considering our enemies, we will have to be careful." Auric fell silent as he asked Lindwurm in his mind, ’Lindwurm, have you scouted the entire area? You can pass the wall, so where are we? You should be able to see the entire process... Tell me everything from after I got knocked out.’
