"What!" Gerald pretended to be frightened, "Please, I didn't know this belonged to the Northendark family! I just came here following those Mana lines, I swear!"
"You were following the Ley Lines? How?! Can you see them too?!" Aster questioned him sternly, she even pointed her sword at where his throat should be.
"Eh… Sort of? I can more like...feel them…" he stammered. 'Ley Lines? I feel like I heard this before…' Gerald racked his brain trying to remember.
"That's even more of a reason for me to arrest you! I know you are hiding something, but we will find out soon enough! Now get up!"
Gerald's expression stiffened for a moment and then he started laughing.
"What's so funny?! Do you think I won't cut you just because you are in a weakened state?!" Aster shouted at him in fury. 'This guy is really pissing me off!'
Suddenly Gerald stood up and grabbed her sword with his bare hand. Try as she might, she couldn't move it.
"Do you even know who I am, little girl?" he asked in a low, menacing whisper, his eyes staring right at her, making her feel uncomfortable.
She unknowingly took a step back. This guy was honestly frighteningly strong and her head hurt from overusing magic already. She didn't want to engage in another fight or she might suffer permanent damage.
She shook her head vigorously and answered, "No, I don't. Who are you?!"
Gerald laughed again and released her sword, "Hehe, well, since you don't know...why the hell should I tell you?! Haha!"
He started rising in the air slowly and said, "You seem like an interesting girl, maybe if you grow a little I'll consider talking with you again… Until then…" He waved his hand and flew towards the opening in the ceiling of the cave.
Aster Northendark became red in the face and shouted, "Get back you bastard! I wasn't finished with you! You are lower than a cockroach! Coward! Fight me!"
Gerald's silhouette suddenly stopped in the air and turned around, Mana suddenly surging like a torrent. A fireball was then formed in the air and was then compressed, before expanding again. Each cycle lasted only a second, and after five seconds a fireball came flying towards Aster.
BOOOOOM!
"Augh!"
Although the fireball flew past her and hit a wall, just the shockwave was enough to throw her to the ground, while hundreds of small cuts started bleeding across her body due to small stones and shrapnel hitting her.
"Just because I decided to let you live, doesn't mean you can insult me!" he coldly said. "Remember it well, Aster Northendark! Next time you won't get a warning!" Leaving these menacing words behind, Gerald completely disappeared from her view. She fainted not long after.
***
Righ after Gerald left, many hasty footsteps reverberated through the cavern and at least twenty soldiers came running in.
"There was an explosion, quickly!"
An older man, dressed in luxurious attire, was the first to arrive at the young lady.
"Lady Aster? Lady Aster! What happened?! Please Lady Aster, wake up!" He shook her by the shoulders and shouted in panic.
One of the soldiers came to see what was wrong and when he saw the young daughter of their general bleeding over her entire body, with her life or death unknown, he roared, "Who dared to do something like this to the Young Miss?! Search the cave! Don't let even a mouse escape!"
***
After leaving the underground lake behind and flying away from the hill, Gerald finally noticed a hidden dirt path that led to a tunnel underground.
"Oh, is that the entrance? But there's nobody there…" He could see a small campfire and a few wooden benches around the entrance, so it was clear someone was there just recently. But that didn't concern him anymore. He left for quite a while already and it was time to return to civilization!
On his hunting expedition, he went way further south than he thought and even somewhat to the east, so when he flew back to Auralba, he instead ended up near Geldern.
"Damn, I actually flew one hundred kilometers the wrong way?! I must be getting tired…" Although he ended up at the wrong place, it was not all that bad. He could check up on the place and chat with his acquaintances here to see what's new.
The guards at the gates seemed much gloomier than usual, even worse than when they heard of the Serrell family. When Gerald entered they only gave him a few short glances and allowed him in. They already knew him, after all.
The entire city seemed like it was in mourning, and although there were way more people than he remembered, there were no happy sounds to be heard. With the exception of children, of course. They had no idea what was going on.
After looking around in confusion for a while, he decided to get himself a drink at an Inn. The place was quite full, but he could still see a few seats free. Just as he was about to sit down, he noticed a few familiar faces.
It was the Silver Phantom.
"Why the gloomy faces?" he asked after stepping close. Just like the rest of the citizens, they too had distraught faces and seemed to be trying to drown their sorrow in alcohol.
"Gerald!" Derrick jumped up when he noticed Gerald, but then his countenance dimmed and he sat back down with a sigh.
He took a sip from his mug and then said in a hoarse voice, "Owyn is dead."
"What?!" Gerald blinked rapidly a few times, unsure if he heard correctly.
"Owyn is dead and Nina is missing! It's all my fault!" he shouted with tears running down his face and hit his head until his scalp started to bleed.
Gerald immediately overpowered him to stop him from hurting himself and tried to calm him down, "Slow down, what exactly happened?!"
"It was the Goblins…" his brother Doven quietly said, but then he also choked on his words. Eventually, Gerald managed to get an understanding of what happened from the bits and pieces they told him.
It turns out that the two young mages decided to get married after the final fight with the Minecrawlers. They gathered enough gold to buy a sizable farm and live the rest of their life comfortably, so they decided to retire young and raise a family.
Although that would weaken the Silver Phantom, Derrick encouraged his friends to do it since it was currently a relatively safe period with little action from wild beasts. He even wished them luck, but who knew it would turn out to be a disaster.
Not even a week after they moved to the farm outside the city walls, the Goblin horde swept through the land, killing and destroying anything in their path. The Silver Phantom only heard the news a few days after it happened, today, and were absolutely devastated after learning of their friends' fate.
"A Goblin horde? I had no idea!" Gerald was stupefied after hearing the news.
That was also the reason why more people stayed in the city, they were scared. Travelers refused to camp in the wild, and many victims of the attack were seeking refuge in Geldern. Since it mostly happened in the north, Gerald hadn't come across any broken-down villages or towns because he was hunting on the opposite side of the kingdom.
He didn't really know what to say after hearing the tragic news. Losing two good friends just like that must have been extremely painful for the members of the Silver Phantom. And indeed it was a bit too much for one of them.
Gelen the archer decided to leave the group after getting the news of the attack and decided to spend more time with his parents. They were also victims of the attack, but they luckily survived with minor injuries. The guy blamed himself for not being there and helping them in their time of need, so he decided to abandon his adventuring warrior gig.
"I can't really blame him… If I wasn't the leader I would probably do the same," Derrick said after explaining the situation. Now only three members remained. It was only him, his brother Doven and Kara.