443 Fall and Rise - XIV
"Hey, I am finally here, where are you Amelia?" Damian asked with a smile on his face.
From his ID Bracelet a voice replied.
"I will send you the location," Amelia spoke,
"Hmm, it's a bit far, I will get there soon," Damian replied.
He disconnected the call, as he went around the place as he searched the location Amelia gave on the map.
It was far from this place but it wouldn't take Damian too long to reach there so decided to check out the things that were being sold here.
"I should get something as a small gift," Damian thought in his head.
Because he was late, he hadn't thought of anything and just rushed here. But thinking about it, going empty handed seemed wrong to him.
He kept glancing around as he looked around and kept stopping at multiple vendors.
"What are you looking for young man, you look troubled," The old woman maintaining the flowers in front of her shop asked.
"Huh? I am not troubled," Damian shook his head as he scratched his head.
"Oh, you were frowning a lot, it seems this old lady was mistaken," The old lady laughed lightly.
"Aah, I am just bit confused, nothing much," Damian said.
He didn't know what facial expressions he was making so he looked at the reflection on the window glasses and fixed his gaze.
"Are you looking for something?" She asked.
"I was looking for a small gift for someone," Damian replied.
"I was thinking what flowers to buy," Damian asked,
He knew that Amelia liked the gardens that were present at the Greville estate so he was thinking of taking some of them for her.
"Hmm, why not take these ones," The lady pointed at a bunch of blue flowers.
"These small ones are known for their fragrance and beautiful looks, and just looking at them makes you feel calm and loved," She added.
"Hmm, is that so, I don't know much about these things, but if you suggest I will take them with me," Damian said as he agreed.
He was in a hurry and the old lady seemed nice to Damian so he decided to trust her recommendation.
The old lady took out the flowers and used wind magic to wrap the flowers.
Damian was surprised by the old lady's trick but it was quite common in Halcyon for old hunters to retire and become small vendors.
Taking the gift, Damian hurried to meet Amelia.
"Hurry Damian, let's not mess this," He told himself as he rushed over the streets of the Royal Capital.
Twenty minutes earlier,
"Step aside, I am going in," Kevin said and no one could stop him.
Elena clenched her fist as she knew that once Kevin decided something he would not listen to anyone.
And knowing the situation it was impossible to convince him to not enter this Red Gate.
"I will follow you," Elena said,
"Huh, no it's dangerous Elena," Kevin replied as he turned around.
"No, if you are going in then I am going with you," Elena said with a serious look in her eyes.
"Argh, Eva can you-," Kevin looked at Eva.
"No, I am with Elena, if you are going I am also coming with you," Eva said.
"I will go with you guys as well," Ria added.
Seeing them all, Lishia stepped up as well.
'I can't stay behind, as the Princess of Halcyon I can't ignore this Red Gate,' She thought in her head.
"I will go as well," Lishia said.
Kevin looked a bit apprehended but knowing their strength he was sure they were the best C Rank Hunters he could count on right now.
"Then let's go," Kevin said with a smile.
"Wait you guys can't enter," One of the hunter present there tried to step in.
But he was stopped by a invisible barrier.
"Well, we will fix the situation inside and come back soon," Kevin said as everyone followed him inside the Red Gate.
As soon as they entered, Kevin took out his spear as he was in the air and below him was swarm of crawling spider that opened their mouths toward Kevin and others.
"Channel Flame," Elena muttered.
Eva raised her hand as she put a barrier under them and made a fence to guide Elena's fire.
"Shackle," Lishia chanted a black element spell chaining the monsters down.
In an instant the monsters below them were burnt to nothing as Kevin finished the one away from Eva's barrier as he used the foothold Eva created to propel himself toward the monsters.
"Let's be careful but we need to hurry up," Kevin said looking back as he removed his spear killing the last monster.
In an instant, 25 monsters that could trouble a group of low C Rank Hunters were dead.
They moved deeper into the dungeon, while encountering monsters but something seemed a bit strange.
"The number of monsters doesn't make sense," Elena muttered to herself.
Till now, they were sprinting ahead deeper into the dungeon while also being careful as a Red Gate wasn't like a normal dungeon.
It would be more difficult than a normal dungeon, that's why people were so hesitant on entering Red Gates as most of the times it would result in heavy casualties.
But Elena was doubting it while observing as they only saw low C Rank monsters till now.
***
While on the other end, Alan's group was making its way to the center and surprisingly there weren't many monsters in their path.
This was the same path that Alyssa took but she also made sure not to leave any corpses behind as per the plan that Gavin told her.
Although the rest of the students found this weird, Alan who knew about the truth of this dungeon that was artificially created, wasn't surprised at all.
Deep within the dungeon in the massive altar room, Alyssa was sitting on the staircase with three empty vials that were lying around her.
Her eyes were tired, as she slowly glanced at the ring in her hand.
Another vial appeared as she used gravity magic to remove the seal and floated that vial above her mouth.
She wasn't wearing her mask, so her face was visible as the altar room was lit by the mana rocks that were engraved around the room randomly, that lit up the entire room by using the mana that was present in the dungeon.
Apart from lightning up the whole place they were nothing but useless rocks that were present in almost all dungeons.
The vial shined as the light penetrated and refracted through it falling in Alyssa's eyes and face that was half burned and had scars.
The liquid in the last vial was pitch black as it started boiling as it was exposed to the air, but not bothered by it, Alyssa turned the vial with her gravity magic and poured the liquid into her mouth.
Tinkle!
The vial fell on the staircase and shattered into many pieces as few drops that were left in the vial started sizzling as they evaporated into black fumes.
"ARGH!" Alyssa clenched her teeths as she grabbed her head.
The mana inside her body started becoming dormant as it started accumulating towards her mana heart.
She felt pain all over her body, but the one that was hurting her most was the headache she was feeling. It was like her head was getting split into pieces.
"This is the enhancer, this will help finish off Alan Astaria,"
The voice of Gavin when he met Alyssa in the medical ward started repeating in her head.
"Isn't this what you want? To kill the person that kept insulting and tormenting you all this time?"
"The son of the man who abandoned your mother?"
"The one who kept using his mana to torment you before the whole class?"
"Wasn't he the one who made each day hell for you?"
The pain kept increasing as the killing intent around Alyssa started increasing.
"Every day, when your head would be slammed against the desk and the whole class would ignore it, even the professor,"
"Isn't this your only chance to take revenge on him, before you lose everything?"
The words that Gavin Neville spoke, but it was Leonard Tarvian who orchestrated everything.
Gavin was nothing but a medium, who was used by Leonard and without knowing everyone was moving exactly as he wanted.
As the few minutes passed Alyssa wore the mask as her mana started increasing and her strength started increasing.
Alyssa had only reached C- Rank in the Third Year but she was weaker than other C- Rank Hunters, but right now she could feel the large amount of mana that was revolving around her mana heart.
Enhancer, a simple name for the drug that Leonard and Reece Williams were releasing, but the one that Alyssa injected was different from the highly diluted version that was available in the market.
Her body started burning with all the excess mana that kept increasing as Alyssa started floating in the air.
Suddenly the closed doors of the Altar that she entered opened as she saw multiple people enter and some of the faces she remembered very well.
