Hill Above Krun Forest’s Entrance
“They are finally here.”
Temas narrowed his eyes, looking at the carriage and Zieghart swordsmen entering the forest.
His gaze wasn't focused on the Heavenly Blade division leader or vice-division leader, but the blonde swordsman who was moving right next to the carriage instead.
“Raon Zieghart…”
Temas was blurting out Raon's name, as if he wanted to chew him up alive. Since it was his first time being so humiliated by a kid even younger than his son's generation, he was still boiling with anger.
“I'll kill you no matter what, even if it's just you.”
If only he could kill Raon, he didn't even care what happened to the others.
'You were so good at running your mouth. Let me see what you are going to say when you die.”
He couldn't even sleep because he kept remembering how he toyed with him with words. He was looking forward to finally having a sound sleep by using his scream as his lullaby.
“Encia Yonaan…”
Temas ground his teeth, looking at Encia opening the carriage's window and looking around the forest.
'She said it was his face!'
It was so humiliating that he lost because of his face, rather than his ability or fame as a doctor. His hand started to tremble in anger at the memory of that scene.
'I won't kill you right here, but you won't live for a long time, either.'
He'd decided to let her barely survive and make her feel a hellish pain when he devoured House Yonaan before eventually killing her.
“Yufen.”
“Yes.”
Temas bobbed his hand, and his disciple Yufen came to him and knelt.
“How are the preparations?”
“Formation, silencing bombs, poisons, and poisonous insects. Everything has been confirmed three times over. The assassins are also waiting in their respective positions.”
Yufen continued with a cold smile.
“That insect bastard who humiliated master is going to be erased from the world without even leaving a bone behind.”
“Good job.”
“However, I'm worried about one thing.”
Yufen's eyes were trembling slightly in anxiety.
“Worried?”
“I thought the Heavenly Blade division leader might discover our location…”
“Even a Grandmaster isn't a god. Since we are using two formations to conceal our presence on top of watching them from afar, she wouldn't be able to find us unless she was Glenn Zieghart himself.”
Temas snorted and shook his head.
“That's a relief.”
Yufen breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled.
“Stop worrying about unnecessary things and get ready to send the signal.”
Temas turned his gaze towards Encia's carriage once again. The carriage was entering the area where the forest was getting gradually darker.
'It's over once they get trapped inside the formation.'
The formation installed in that place was the Bloody Mountain Formation, capable of disturbing the senses and crushing the body with intense pressure. Since experts were more sensitive to the change in their senses, it should've also worked against the Heavenly Blade and their division leader.
'After that, I'll block their vision and spread poison.'
The silencing bombs and poisons would be spread right after the formation's activation in order to block their vision and disturb their aura flow before the assassins charged at them.
'However, that's not the real danger.'
Temas looked at the ground, which was covered with gray soil. Dozens of poisonous insects that were more than capable of killing a Master were buried under that place.
The plan was to use the poisonous insects to assassinate Raon while the Heavenly Blade leader was busy protecting the carriage from the poison powders and assassins.
“They are almost there. Get them ready.”
Temas gestured with his hand, looking at the carriage entering the inner part of the forest.
“Yes.”
Yufen brought the silver flute to his mouth while staying right next to Temas. The moment the carriage entered the center of the formation, he blew the flute vigorously.
Tchng!
As soon as the tiny sound—similar to a grass bug—resounded from the flute, the silver energy narrowed down like a trap to lock up the carriage and the swordsmen.
“It's activated.”
Temas rolled the corners of his mouth up into a vicious smile.
“I'll kill you without even leaving bones behind!”
Thud!
The resounding noise was like the sky was collapsing. The forest rotated in a spiral to create a scene that they'd never viewed before. They were at the top of a mountain, so high that they couldn't even see the land below because of the fog, without many places to set foot on.
“Wh-What is this place?!”
“Why are we suddenly on a mountain?”
“Woaagh!”
“Be careful! You are going to fall.”
The Light Wind swordsmen were surprised by the sudden change of terrain and started screaming.
“It's a formation!”
“Don't move from your position!”
“Stay on high alert!”
The Heavenly Blade swordsmen were also surprised, but they immediately changed their stance to prepare for the assault.
'This is nostalgic.'
Raon smiled while looking at the ground without the slightest panic.
‘Bloody Mountain Formation.’
That strange phenomenon wasn't teleportation magic, but a formation intended to kill people used by Robert's shadows, the Bloody Mountain Formation.
The Bloody Mountain Formation had the ability to dull people's senses, create heavy pressure to limit movement and breathing, and even gave the impression that they were transported to another location. That was how the cold wind was currently storming at them as if they were at the peak of a mountain.
'The biggest advantage of Bloody Mountain Formation is its durability.'
A fair amount of power wasn’t enough to break through the Bloody Mountain Formation. Sheryl could probably do it if she went all-out, but it was impossible for Ekan or himself to pierce through it. That was how high its durability was.
Boom!
As soon as the formation was completed, black smoke appeared from all directions to cover his vision. It was the silencing bomb, a special smokescreen capable of disturbing an aura's flow.
'It's exactly the same as before.'
Their method of attacking after causing failure to the five senses and aura by combining the Bloody Mountain Formation and silencing bomb hadn't changed at all. It was about time the assassins started attacking.
“You don't need to be scared, as it's not a real mountain! Stay in formation!”
“Mhm.”
“I'll smack your head if you move, so shut up and draw your swords!”
Burren, Runaan, and Martha enhanced their guards without panicking, despite the situation.
“Yep!”
“U-Understood!”
Dorian and Krein also fixed their stance, encouraged by their spirit. Their reaction made Raon proud for having constantly trained them.
'However…'
Raon looked in front of the carriage. The Heavenly Blade, including Sheryl and Ekan, were strangely silent.
[Are you not moving?]
As Raon was about to talk to her, an aura message could be heard.
[Since they are attacking us as you said, I guess you are also prepared.]
'Of course.'
[I'll protect the carriage no matter what. You can play to your heart's content.]
As soon as she finished saying that, the silencing bomb's smoke was easily pierced through, and Sheryl's unwavering eyes could be seen. Her expression was telling him to show her what he had prepared.
'In that case, I shouldn't disappoint her.’
However, it wasn't time for him to move yet. He needed to wait a little bit longer in order to push the one who had caused that situation into despair.
Whir!
Along with the tiny sound of sand flying in the wind, something started spreading in the black smoke.
'Poison, and three kinds!'
Three kinds of poisons with different particles were spreading between the silencing bombs.
'It's really him.'
He could ascertain it now. Judging from the poison's types, the one behind the assassins must've been Temas.
As expected, he was too proud to put up with the humiliation and followed them all the way to try assassinating them.
It was a given that he must've been watching them from afar.
'Welcome.'
* * *
* * *
Raon smiled coldly. He must've thought that they were in a tight box, but instead it was Temas who was inside the box.
Swoosh!
As the poison spread around, he could hear the sound of a raging wind. However, it wasn't real wind. It was a phenomenon caused by the Bloody Mountain Formation, covering the assassins' sound of movement.
Whoosh!
The assassins were currently dashing towards them like crazy with antidotes in their mouths.
“Haa…”
Raon checked from which direction the fastest and largest number of assassins were coming from, then turned around.
“Burren! Martha! Runaan! Towards the north and west!”
“Alright!”
“Bring it on!”
“Mhm!”
Burren, Martha, and Runaan tightened the green bracelets in their arms and slashed.
Swaa!
The blue light bursting from the bracelets seeped into their swords, creating a huge storm. The wind soared like a waterspout to spread out in an instant, dispersing all of the vision-blocking smoke—from the silencing bombs to the poison powders—away.
Whir!
Once the fake darkness dissipated, the green world returned. The vision control, poison, and surprise attack—that single strike had managed to foil three of the enemy's plans.
'As expected of the ventilator.'
That bracelet was an artifact called the ventilator, which was capable of creating a huge swirl of wind. With the combination of three people's aura, the effect was strong enough to send away all the silencing bombs and poison powders with a single move.
'And the evade poison artifact is more than enough to defend against the remaining poison.'
Since most of the poison was gone, the evade poison could easily block the remaining poison.
“This is…”
“Hmm!”
The approaching assassins stopped in their tracks, surprised by the poison and the smoke's sudden disappearance. They apparently didn't expect their plan to be foiled so easily, since their astonishment could be felt straight through their masks.
“Move. They've already inhaled the silencing bomb, and we still have the Bloody Mountain Formation!”
The one that looked like their leader ordered them to move, and the assassins resumed their movements.
“I'm sorry, but nothing's going to work.”
Raon tapped his necklace and smiled. Since the silencing bomb's ability to limit aura usage was also using poison, it was completely blocked by the evade poison artifact. No one in that place had any problem using their aura.
“The Bloody Mountain Formation is also no problem.”
Raon took a round bead from his inner pocket and threw it on the ground.
Ting!
Blue light spread out from the bead and completely covered the Bloody Mountain Formation.
“Wh-What?”
“My body became lighter!”
“Is this also an artifact?”
The Light Wind swordsmen's eyes became round open upon feeling the reduction of the formation's effect.
“It's the radiating stone.”
Despite its simple name, it was an artifact of the highest grade that had the ability to hinder formations' effects by using the light coming from the stone.
“Huh…”
“D-Did you even prepare something like this?”
“You are crazy…”
The Light Wind dropped their jaws, looking at the way Raon shattered the enemy's plans one by one.
“Woaah!”
And despite the situation, Dorian sent him a round of applause to compliment his supplying ability.
“You are really well prepared.”
Sheryl chuckled, swinging her sword at the group of dozens of assassins charging at her.
The harmony between powerful sword and heavy sword distorted the space in front of her like a heat haze in the summer.
Slaam!
The single strike was enough to make dozens of assassins collapse, blood flying.
Her gaze turned towards him. She gestured at him with her chin to try the same thing.
'She really likes teaching.'
Raon smiled faintly, then drew Heavenly Drive. Using the principles of the heavy sword he'd been accumulating, he unleashed the strike towards the dashing assassins.
The principle of heavy sword was incorporated on the aura streams spreading out from the blade to pressure the space itself.
Swaa!
The assassins that were running towards them like rays of light were wiped out like sand particles, without even properly thrusting the swords in their hands.
“Did you learn that again in that short time period?”
Sheryl furrowed her brows upon seeing that scene.
“You really aren’t fun.”
She sighed faintly, then turned her head. Raon could only see her from behind, but it looked like her corners of lips were slightly raised.
“Open formation!”
“Open formation!”
The Light Wind was also slashing the assassins that were charging at the carriage from behind.
Unable to pierce through the Light Wind, who were tightly weaved together, they ended up dying.
However, they kept ignoring their deaths like fireflies to thrust their sword and spread their poison. It almost looked like they were waiting for something.
'I knew there was more to it.'
Considering Temas' personality, there was no way that was all he had prepared. He must've planned something in order to make sure to kill him.
'It should be underground.'
Temas' main weapons were poison, medicine, and bugs. Since spreading poison from afar had a high chance of failure, it was obvious that he must've buried the poisonous insects underground.
Slash!
He even cut off the assassins that managed to approach during the downtime, and the assassins started to step back as if they were terrified.
'What an obvious performance.'
Raon chased the assassins and parted from the carriage, pretending he didn't notice anything, and he could feel a tiny flow from the ground.
It was small enough that he wouldn't have noticed if he weren't ready because he was inside the formation, or if the radiating stone weren’t there.
He slashed the assassin in front of him, and when he took another step forward, the energy under him exploded in an instant. Dozens of poisonous insects were charging at him with their fangs inside the cloud of dust.
“I knew it!”
Raon smiled coldly and gathered the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation to the extreme. The energy of raging fire spread out to his mana circuits in an instant, and the flower petals of fire blooming from the sword's extremity were released to the wind.
Whir!
The pieces of Flame Spirit spread out like the vestige of sunlight to melt down all the poisonous insects coming out of the ground.
Rumble!
The poisonous insects that had been waiting for the opportunity for a long time underground turned into ash and disappeared, without even using their sharp poison fangs.
“Aah…”
“H-How could this be?!”
“Just how…?”
The assassins that weren't even screaming upon their deaths, widened their eyes upon seeing Raon melting down all the poisonous insects. Surprise didn't seem to be enough to describe their astonishment at all their plans being shattered.
However, it was too early to be surprised.
Slash!
Raon sliced the assassins that stopped moving in one fell swoop, then opened the ocean of perception from Ring of Fire and Glacier at the same time.
'I found it.'
He looked for the formation cores to maintain the Bloody Mountain Formation and destroyed them one by one.
Thud!
Along with a huge noise similar to when the formation was first activated, the mountain returned to the original forest. Once the formation disappeared, the radiating stone also exhausted its power and lost its light.
“You really managed everything on your own.”
Sheryl laughed bitterly after cutting down the last assassin. She also seemed surprised at the way he managed to destroy everything, including the smoke, poison, poisonous insects, and the formation.
“It's not over yet.”
“What?”
“We need to catch the perpetrators behind this.”
He didn't make all the preparations in order to defeat small fries like them. It was necessary to kill Temas to inflict a huge damage to Derus.
'And I also have my personal grudges.'
Temas was the one who performed a living experiment on the assassins. He had also tortured Raon by tearing off his flesh under the pretext of education.
He had been forcing himself to not think about it, because the murderous intent would've slipped out of him if he did during his encounter in House Yonaan.
“Unfortunately, even I am unable to find their location.”
Sheryl calmly shook her head.
“I still want to try finding them.”
“You must've obtained a hint of some sort.”
She shook her hand, gesturing to him to do whatever he wanted.
“Thank you.”
Raon smiled faintly and bowed.
'Wrath.'
He tapped on the ice flower bracelet and called for Wrath.
What's up? Is it already time for food?
Wrath stretched himself while yawning. Apparently, he didn't even care when Raon was fighting.
'You remember the man who called himself a doctor when we met Encia for the first time, don't you?'
Of course, I do. He was fun to look at when he was looked down on because of his ugly face.
Wrath giggled, remembering that funny moment.
'That doctor should be around here right now. Find him for me.'
Wrath's perception was on a different level, although he usually didn't say anything about it. Raon could guess that he should've been able to locate Temas, who even Sheryl wasn't capable of finding.
Why should the King of Essence do that? It's a mere human's business…
'You promised when I bought you an ice cream recently, didn't you? You said you would grant me one request.'
Uuh…
His mouth widened, finally remembering that.
'Do your job, Wrath.'
Raon smiled, then placed Heavenly Drive on his shoulder.
* * *
“Wh-What?”
Temas clattered his teeth while looking below them.
“What's going on?!”
He slammed the ground while screaming.
“I-I didn't expect this situation either…”
Yufen swallowed nervously while sitting on his knees. He looked completely terrified.
“H-How could this happen…?”
Temas bit his lips so hard they could bleed.
'How could he even stop all of my plans?!'
The silencing bomb and three types of poison were sent away through the wind coming from the sword, and the formation's effect was minimized by the radiating stone.
Because of that, the assassins' attack wasn't a surprise attack on the panicking enemies anymore, and they were simply massacred like a bunch of flies by the perfectly prepared swordsmen.
'And he even reacted to the poisonous insects in that situation…'
He maintained his focus until the end to control the poisonous insects, but Raon reacted in that instant and burned all the poisonous insects. He couldn't close his mouth because of how unbelievable it was that not a single plan actually worked out.
Thud!
He looked below them once again, hearing the huge sound of something splitting the ground. It was the sound of Bloody Mountain Formation shattering and returning the land to how it used to be.
“Huh…”
Judging from the situation, that bastard Raon must've shattered the formation as well. He was completely speechless. He couldn't understand what the hell was wrong with that guy.
“God damn it! God freaking dammit!”
Temas' clenched fist was trembling violently. He was so angry that he felt like his head was going to burst, but he couldn't do anything. It would've been suicide to personally attack when the Heavenly Blade division leader was over there.
'This is going to be a huge problem when I return.'
Since he failed after planning everything without notifying Derus, a simple scolding wasn't all he was going to get.
“M-Master.”
Yufen swallowed nervously and pointed below them.
“I can't see that monster bastard.”
“What?”
“That Raon guy has disappeared!”
His shoulders were trembling in panic.
“I-Isn't he coming here? If he comes…”
Yufen's eyes were trembling, afraid of Raon, who easily shattered all their plans.
“Stop speaking nonsense.”
“Uha!”
Temas frowned, slapping Yufen's cheek.
“Not only are we far enough away, but this formation is also installed with a double layer. Do you really believe someone like him can find us when even the Heavenly Blade leader is unable to feel our presence?”
“But he managed to shatter everything we've prepared. H-He's even more ominous than the Heavenly Blade leader!”
Yufen violently shook his head, despite what Temas said.
“Stop spouting dogshit and prepare to leave.”
“A-Already?”
“We don't need to stay here, since we've already failed.”
“Alright!”
Yufen's face brightened when he said they were leaving. He looked like he wanted to run away from the impossible situation as fast as possible.
“Haa, let's go.”
Temas glared at Encia's carriage for a last time before turning around.
“Yes.”
Yufen nodded, leaving the formation first.
“Ah, Master. The remaining shadows shall be used as bait…”
Just as he was about to turn around once again, a crimson light sparked, and Yufen's head fell to the ground.
“Y-Yufen!”
When Temas screamed, the double layer formation shattered like a thin glass window, and the appearance of a swordsman wearing a uniform soaked in blood was revealed.
“R-Raon Zieghart…”
“You've been hiding here like rats all along.”
Crimson tidal waves emerged from Raon's eyes.
“I wanted to see you.”
For a very long time.
