Two days have passed after the attack on Athens. I acquired all the information on all of the dangerous monsters across the Greek World as well as some of the adjacent countries.
That info included habitats of a Manticore, Chimaera and a Sea Serpent. So, with all that information I started my slaugh-... I mean hunting spree.
Of course, there were other promising monsters amongst the ones described in the acquired information, but I was short on time I could spend on hunting for new traits. The Order was after me and I could feel that they are getting close.
However, with all the problems I made in Greece, it will be hard for them to get any support. Plus, they will be looking for a dead man at that point. At least, thats how it goes in my mind. Moreover, after sacking Athens's magical commune, Greeks will look after a scapegoat for their problems for sure. So, these idiots from Order will be walking into a bunch of angry robbed wizards.
In these two days, I was able to hunt down a manticore and a chimaera, but getting to a Sea Serpent was impossible due to time constraints. After all, searching through and in the Mediterranean Sea is no fast job.
Anyway, I still should have around a day or so. Looking at how the Order's dogs used Hermione to get my location, it is obvious that they are incapable of tracking my magical signature across the world. Thus, they need to find me with old fashioned deduction.
Time to escape Greece.
*One day later, somewhere near Athens*
"Aaargh!!"
Sound of an angry roar was heard in the mountains of Greece.
Two men were seen sitting. One of them was furiously pacing back and forth, while another was patiently waiting for his companion to calm down.
"How? How did he make us the bad guys? Now the half of the wizarding world considers us to be the bad guys. First in Britain and now here, that fucking progeny fucks us up every time. And you are a freaking God, where are your Godly powers!? Do some mumbo jumbo and divine us the location of that boy!"
"I am God of a world that died," calmy replied Dark to raging Markus, "But even in my world I couldn't just divine somebody's location. This was and is not my divine domain. I am a God of Darkness."
"Long explanation for one word, useless."
"Well, indeed I am useless. I am a battle machine with a few abilities to gather information. But wizards of Athens are not your average weaklings. I can't transfer hundreds of wizards inside my domain. I will lose too much divinity and I don't have a lot of it, to begin with."
"Well, I tried hacking humans' system and get access to them, but they are too damn old. Their satellites can't even recognize people. Moreover, all their satellites are barely good enough to map the planet. In my world..."
"Oh, don't start with that, please. We all know that Ceasar is great and your empire magnificent, and bla, bla, bla."
*Sigh*
"We are back to square one. We don't know where is he or where he goes. Moreover, he didn't leave any magical signatures to trace back. And mages here don't want to help us, thinking that we are the ones who attacked them."
"I told you. You can't outplay Athena. And me hoping to outsmart her was indeed a waste of time..." Dark ruefully smiled, accepting the fact that he lost to her intellect again.
"But he is not Athena... He is but a progeny." Markus couldn't accept it.
"Athena needs just a word to start a chain of actions that will turn the world upside down. Plus, you shouldn't forget that just by mere presence, Athena affects the Universe and slowly changes the fabric of reality."
"I thought that was a myth. Even if she is an AI, she shouldn't be capable of rewiring the Universe."
"When your IQ passes six digits, you become pretty overpowered."
Markus was opening and closing his mouth, hoping to say something, but he couldn't. After ten minutes of silence, he finally sighed and tiredly sat near Dark.
"What's the plan, Dark?"
"Well, if we catch him, he is dead. But catching him is a problem. In this Universe, he won't be able to reach godhood and looking at his current power level, even you can defeat him with proper preparation. So, we need to come up with something that will help us in tracking him down."
"You mean building an intelligence unit here?"
Dark looked at him and slowly smiled.
*In the meantime, somewhere in Turkey*
I, Bucky, and Blacky were quickly moving towards China, stopping only to buy maps in the biggest cities.
During the day, I leveled up my "Riding Expertise" which gave me that last bit of experience to cross over level 28. And although it was a relatively fast level up, to me it felt like an eternity passed, thanks to all the running from Order, fighting and robbing the cities.
As for why China? Well, that country is the greatest mystery in wizarding circles due to how closed off their magical commune is. So, I thought, escaping there might be a good idea.
Based on the research I did prior to my decision of traveling there:
"China is the only country that houses 3 magical schools.
The first ones are Sword Riders of the east, also known as prodigies in terms of magical craft. They were also known as cultivators, but that was misinterpreted as becoming stronger by collecting energy inside their bodies. What they cultivated were their swords.
In a sense, their swords were similar to an energy core to which many other artifacts could be attached. And throughout their life they were enchanting and improving their swords with different modules, making them faster, stronger and etc.
The second group is Martial Artists who spend their life learning self-transfiguration but compared to African shamans who walk the path of Animagi, they forged their own path. That path was to forge their body into a true definition of a weapon. Iron Fist wasn't just a metaphorical move in their commune.
And the last group is Monks. They were a peaceful bunch and in all honesty, they were just typical Asian wizards, with one quirk. They were people propagating peace to the whole magical community of China.
You might have noticed how fight oriented the first two schools, right? Well, that's because they were in the state of war for more than 5 centuries and the war was finally stopped by combined efforts of the Chinese Magical Ministry and the Monks.
Thanks to that China entered a relatively peaceful era, with all 3 schools in balance. However, that peace was achieved only recently, which explains why their community started opening up to the rest of the world only now."
What I recited was basically the only information known about China, cited from the notes of the famous Italian explorer(obviously a wizard). I was quite shocked when I found these notes in the book store in Florence. I instantly bought it together with a bunch of other books.
These notes contained a lot of useful information about dozen of countries across the world including entering points, big magical gatherings and description of famous magicians. Overall, this was a treasure for a guy like me who wished to travel across the world.
But enough of that. Back to traveling to China!
All that sword riding and whatnot can be interesting to learn, so I might enter one of the schools, but my prior reason is how isolated the community is. There I can safely train for the next 3 or 4 years, without worrying about my pursuers.
Finally, some peace.