Without a single person seeing it coming, the first bubble fell on a mage's head. When it burst, an ungodly amount of acid spilled out melting him and 2 of his comrades. Sadly for the troops, this ball was just the first of a few hundred. Mages melted all over the field without even seeing their enemy.
"Everyone, after me!" Nolan rallied his servants and ran towards the forest. Thanks to his sixth sense, he could detect the melting balls when they got near allowing him to barely avoid death on several occasions.
However, the more he closed in on the forest, the more he began feeling something else. Behind the first line of trees, a row of beast people was waiting to greet him.
'Crap.' "Enemies up ahead! Prepare for combat!"
He shouted as if to an army, but less than 50 people were still following him. Realizing he'd have to clear the way on his own, he began concentrating mana into his palm.
"Magnolia, stick close to me." he got no reply.
"I'm afraid your woman's a little busy." An unknown female voice was heard from behind. Upon turning his head, a giant semi-transparent bird was chewing on his wife's twitching body.
"You b**ch!" Nolan shot Burst Nova at the bird putting everything he had into the attack. The hawk was pushed back several feet and even dropped the corpse in its beak. A few of its feathers were burned which royally pissed it off.
"I wanted to take you as a hostage." shrugged Amelia. "Guess I'll have to settle for one of your soldiers."
These were the last words Nolan Wilson would ever hear. Before the enemies from the forest could charge at his allies and the enemies from below could join the fray, the one from above started ripping him apart, limb from bloody limb.
Back in Last Heaven…
In the afternoon of the next day, Ethan was finally ready to get rid of Agatha's corpse. He forcefully extracted information out her brain, studied every nook and cranny of her body, and even dissected parts of her just in case.
He was slightly sad to see her go. Even so, after covering the mage up in a blanked, he asked Ana to dig a hole in the yard.
"Finally…" the girl breathed a sigh of relief. By now, the stench had filled up the entire house. She quickly created a rectangular pit and covered it as soon as the corpse was thrown in. For good measure, Ethan slipped in some poison which dissolved it soon after.
'One can never be too careful.' He muttered. 'Anyway, this was a great harvest.' Not only did he learn a ton about formations, but he even obtained a trace of the old woman's soul. Unsure of what to do with it, he pulled it out of his dimensional pocket and began contemplating the possibilities.
"What's that?" he ignored Ana who was watching the blue flame closely. In essence, the human soul was highly concentrated mana held together by consciousness. It was no wonder why so many mages messed with the dead. Ethan was never fond of necromancy, but he wasn't one to kick opportunity when it literally fell into his lap.
"How beautiful…" With a curious look, Ana stretched out a finger towards the blue flame. With a poof, the remnants of Agatha's soul disappeared from Ethan's hand and entered her body.
"The f**k?" yelped Ethan.
The remnants rapidly powered up Ana's mana circuit, and a month of progress was achieved in a day.
"Shit, shit, shit." The boy cursed in frustration. Not only did he lose the soul, but he would need at least 2 weeks of nonstop cultivation to catch up to Ana.
If that wasn't enough, the much more worrying matter was the absorption itself. The fact that it happened so easily combined with the horns on Ana's mana pools could only mean one thing.
'Demons…' With his face now pale, Ethan stared into Ana's black pupils. The color didn't go past the iris, but there was definitely something eerie about it.
'So, it wasn't another group that took on the name. That prick's still active, and here of all places.'
While Ana was curiously feeling her mana circuit, the boy's mind was running on crazy mode. The more he remembered the past, the weaker he felt.
'F**k the Wilsons.' He couldn't waste any more time on this issue. 'This planet is a ticking time bomb.' His brain focused up as the first step towards potential salvation could be done immediately.
"Ana, stop running your circuit before you advance even further." After getting her attention, he grabbed both her shoulders and eyed the girl seriously. "We're friends, right?"
"Yes…" the girl answered confused. "Of course." The second time she was firm.
"Good. Then, to celebrate our friendship, let's get some tattoos."
Thinking he wanted a butterfly or something similar, the girl nodded awkwardly. Unbeknownst to her, Ethan's plans were on a far larger scale.