A person rushed through the halls of the Magic Academy, Fria. He moved through the passages with ease, showing his familiarity.
In no time, the person reached the principal's office. Without even knocking, he opened the door and rushed inside, surprising the two guards who were supposed to be on the lookout. Immediately, the guards also went in and subdued the person. The person fell to the ground. His hands were cuffed and the two guards pointed a sword at his face.
"Principal! A fight broke out in Mt. Eirene!" the person said.
Toran Fiore, who was looking outside the window, immediately turned around, his face filled with confusion. What reason was there for a fight to occur? Were there any intruders?
Fiore dismissed the guards with a wave of a hand. They complied and let go of the person. However, they did not leave the room. They stood at the back as they observed the person who appeared to be a messenger.
"Tell me the details," Fiore said.
"Sir!" the messenger acknowledged and pulled out a scroll from his back pocket. He read through the contents without stopping for a full minute. After he finished reading, he breathed heavily. He looked at the principal who had a face full of shock.
Fiore sat down and gestured for the messenger to leave. The latter bowed and immediately left. The guards exited the room along with the messenger.
....
Crow Mayers, a C-rank Seran who was also part of the research team, suddenly died. Cause of death: heart attack. The word about the matter immediately spread because he died out in the open, in front of many people, while he was being taken into the headquarters.
Soon after, a fight in the Eclipse Platform's cave suddenly broke out. The culprits were two C-ranked Earth Serans. Even after being subdued, the two continued struggling and casting spells, forcing B-ranked Seran Ferin Veretti to kill the two.
Not long afterward, two more C-ranked Serans died of heart attack as well.
Five died in total.
What they all had in common was that all five of them were Earth Serans.
The report contained no details about what happened prior to that. According to the messenger, the info came from a researcher who witnessed the series of events himself, but he never really knew the reason behind all of it. He headed towards headquarters and reported everything verbally.
More details were supposed to be reported, but Dr. Hugh ordered a lockdown. He had only identified Crow Mayers. He did not have time to check on the other four's identities. No one was allowed to enter or exit from the mountain, and sending messages outside was temporarily banned for the strict reason of confidential information leakage. Only one messenger was able to get out in time, the one who just reported to him.
Not many really wanted to acknowledge Dr. Hugh's authority at that point, but there was one factor that deterred everyone in the mountain: Dr. Hugh had a large group of Serans working for him.
This was not really something to be shocked about because most researchers were high-ranked mages themselves. However, the case was different when all of them couldn't use their magic.
Right after the death of the two Serans, the Eclipse spread all over the mountain, even inside the Eclipse Platform's cave.
And even until now, two hours later, it had yet to stop.
….
"Are you sure this would work?" Samuel asked as he opened one eye to peek on everyone else. The rest of the team had their eyes closed and were sitting in a cross-legged position. It appeared that they were doing their best to concentrate.
"Shut up! I'm trying to confirm it myself too!" Aeon yelled.
"Why don't you two shut up!" Korona said in a hushed tone.
"Ah fuck this," Aeon said.
Suddenly, all of them started hearing footsteps. Everyone opened their eyes and looked at Aeon as he left the cave.
"Where is he going?" Levi asked Samuel.
"Beats me," Samuel said before closing his eyes again.
"Could meditating really help improve our constitutions?" Selena could not resist asking.
"We've seen proof. Might as well try," Levi said. Once more, he closed his eyes and started meditating.
Selena followed suit, then Korona.
….
Aeon took a stroll as he patrolled the area. Since Suri hadn't woken up, yet, they couldn't push forward. None of them could really carry him with ease. The only choice they had for the meantime was to rest and hope he wakes up the next day.
Aeon pulled out the twin swords from his back. They were still deep into the forest so it was not good to take the place lightly. Moreover, several Lake Beasts lurked around the area. For some reason, they didn't have their meeting today. This is what bothered Aeon the most. He was unconscious earlier, so when he was briefed about the situation, he was really shocked. Just like the others, he couldn't help worrying about the camp.
Seeing that the area was safe, Aeon decided to climb a tall tree. The trees around them didn't have puffy roofs so he might be able to see something from above. When he was about to do so, he suddenly heard the sound of rapid footsteps. Based on the sound and interval, it probably came from a human being. Aeon cocked an eyebrow and faced towards the direction of the sound.
In that direction, a shadow was rapidly moving forward. It appeared to be running straight towards the cave where the others were currently staying. Aeon had excellent vision, so he immediately identified the person.
Surprisingly, it was Dan. Unlike their previous encounter, he was now carrying a large blade.
Aeon was relieved, but he didn't show himself. He slowly moved behind the tree as he observed Dan.
Dan went right past through him and continued moving towards the cave. Indeed, it was his goal.
Having confirmed Dan's intentions, Aeon had no more reason to hide. He slowly stepped forward.
"Yo!"
Hearing a voice come out of nowhere, Dan was startled. He immediately turned around and gripped his weapon, ready to swing it at any time. When Dan recognized Aeon though, he smiled crookedly. The scene was quite awkward
Dan was about to scramble for an excuse when he remembered that there were more pressing matters. He immediately recovered. He loosened the grip on his weapon and said, "Morgan! It's time to head back."
Dan appeared to be in a hurry and was quite agitated, but something bothered him even more.
How did Dan track them?
Aeon continued moving towards dan and asked, "You know we were here?"
Hearing this, Dan's left eye twitched. Actually, he didn't know where Aeon was. Only Aeon, specifically. When the latter almost died during the exam, the stone used for tracking him became useless and was discarded. Dan couldn't tell him this though!
"Yeah," Dan scratched his head, "I'll tell you what you want to hear after we get the others. Let's go!"
Aeon was confused but he immediately complied. It seemed like Dan was in a hurry. For some reason, the person was quite respectful to him. Aeon nodded and rushed towards the others.
When they reached the entrance of the cave, Aeon yelled, "Yo, guys! Dan's here!"
The voices of the people inside the cave overlapped with each other, making it inaudible. Aeon didn't bother going in anymore though. So did Dan.
After a few moments, the rest of the group exited the cave. Suri was still unconscious, and he was being carried by Samuel. The rest had surprised expressions. What were the odds of encountering a single person in that part of the forest? In their past experiences, they rarely bumped into a group.
"Long time no see, Dan," Levi greeted the Assistant Supervisor without any formalities. Dan didn't seem to mind, though. "Have you been avoiding us?"
Dan harrumphed. "Save the talk and let's start moving. There's an urgent report from the capital."
"The capital?" everyone asked.
Dan nodded "Let's talk on the way. Merell is responsible for getting the others back to camp. You were quite far, so I went alone."
Dan started running back towards the direction of the camp. Immediately, the others followed.
"What's the report about?" Aeon finally asked. When he suddenly remembered something, he got agitated and asked, "And how do you know where we were?"
"To answer your second question," Dan took out something from his pocket, "I have this."
Everyone looked at the item Dan was holding. It looked like a Magic Detecting Stone, the one they used when they applied for a test in the academy. They all cocked an eyebrow at Dan.
"This isn't really a Magic Detecting Stone. It just looks like one," Dan said as he pocketed the stone, "simply put it as one, but with additional features."
"Like tracking?" Levi asked.
Dan nodded in response. Immediately after, he waved his hand in front of him, indicating that they should move on and not discuss further. He assumed a rather serious demeanor.
"Magical Beasts, larger and stronger ones, in particular, are demonstrating a weird behavior. Numerous sightings of them outside their territories have been reported," Dan said, his voice grave.
"Outside their territories? Like outside forests or caves or something?" Aeon asked.
"Yes. Exactly that," Dan responded.
Subconsciously, they started looking at each other. Without even speaking, they knew what the others were thinking or what they were wondering about.
So the Lake Beasts are not the only ones demonstrating a weird behavior. This other group of beasts was quite different, though.
Before anyone else could speak, Dan continued, "Also, they think that the beasts who live here are about to leave the forest soon."
"WHAT?!" Aeon and Selena exclaimed at the same time, their expressions dark.
Only the two of them knew the urgency of the matter. They could not help recalling the scene they saw on the lake. For cities like Sera, wiping those beasts out would probably be trivial. But not every city was as big as Sera. Moreover, there were several towns along the way. What about them?
"What's wrong?" Dan asked with his eyebrows furrowed. It seemed like he was missing something, or the group was not telling him about something.
Instead of answering Dan's question, Aeon asked a question of his own, "how large is the group of beasts wandering outside their territories?"
Dan thought that his question was quite odd, but he still thought about it. After a moment, he responded, "The largest group consists of about 300 large beasts. Probably ten of them are colossal ones. There are multiple groups this big, though."
"And this is already a threat?" Aeon asked with ridicule.
Dan heard Aeon's tone and he felt disrespected, but when he looked at the latter, he saw that Aeon was spacing out. Instead of getting angry about it, Dan asked with curiosity, "There are several more of this group. Is it not?"
Aeon shook his head.
"Probably, the other groups are much smaller because they are not united," Aeon said as he ran.
The other groups are small? Dan noted what Aeon said, but just that number was enough to devastate small towns.
"But the group in this forest is much, much larger," Aeon continued, catching Dan's attention. "The Lake Beasts have at least 50 colossal beasts and 2000 large ones. This is just a rough estimation, but it was already a humble one."
"A group with that size? Impossible!" Dan replied with his eyebrows furrowed. "We purged this place including about 30 colossal beasts for an entire month before we sent you here. There can't be that many!"
Then he looked at each member of the group expecting any of them to say that Aeon was mistaken. Instead, he saw the helplessness in their eyes.
Is it true?
The group never really worried much about the Lake Beasts. Despite their large number, they didn't think that they were a threat because it had already been a few centuries since a large scale attack from magical beasts was reported.
It seems like the numbers are about to reset.
Unless no one stops the Lake Beasts before they reach human territories, a massacre is sure to unfold. Especially because larger cities are distant from Grey Forest.
No one talked anymore. Everybody focused on moving.
After four hours of running and fighting magical beasts, the group reached the camp.
….