Since coming to this world, I thought that I had gotten used to strange events but this proved that I was wrong. When I saw the assassin roll into the tree and disappear, I was stunned. Of course I considered that he had turned invisible, but my faith in the forest told me otherwise.
He was no longer here, of that I was sure.
'... Should I leave?'
With my enemy gone, it made sense to hurry up and get out of the forest. But before I made my decision there was something I had to check first.
With a snap of my fingers I summoned two skeletons and sent them towards the tree, but both were repelled. Repelled as in when they tried to touch it their hands were shattered by the recoil.
'There's something there.'
After releasing my summons I approached the tree and hesitantly stretched my hand towards it. I was worried, but unlike with the skeletons my hand went through it and only now was I able to sense a distortion in space.
I immediately removed my hand but I kept staring at the tree. Right now I had two choices, I could either enter or I could leave. Though my telepathy was being blocked, I was still sure that I could teleport out of this forest, but that would mean letting that man go.
Exactly because he was so strong, I wanted to deal with him here. I was able to handle him this time but I couldn't be sure if I would be strong enough to beat him next time.
'Hmm... Tch, I can't leave my business unfinished.'
Once I chose to enter the tree, I first clad myself in an armour of condensed earth in case he tried to attack me the moment I appeared. I then carefully stepped into the tree.
With almost no disruption it felt like I had merely entered a different room rather than another space. The moment I was in this new area I had to squint my eyes because of the bright object in the sky that I hadn't seen for so long.
'Is that really the sun?'
From the memories I obtained, I knew that this world wasn't without such an essential star, but due to an ancient curse the sun no longer shone on the Demon Lands. I had no idea how that was even possible but there was much in this world that I couldn't apply logic to.
In any case, even though the slight tingle on my skin seemed familiar I wasn't sure if it was truly the sun in the sky or just an illusion. However, I knew this was not the time to contemplate. As I looked down I noticed a handsome blonde who turned his gaze to me at the same time.
We stood on a grassy plain with ruined tribal huts in the background along with a giant double door in the distance. The plain seemed to extend towards infinity but once I was here I could roughly sense that this was a confined space.
'To create a space this stable, could this have something to do with the origin of the forest's curse?'
While watching the pale-faced young man, I allowed my thoughts to wander to an extent, but when a certain sword appeared in his hand my full attention was drawn to it.
Thinking that he had an storage artifact similar to mine, I carefully examined the beautifully carved art on the hilt and pummel of the sword. It didn't look like a weapon made for war, but the aura that came from it sent chills down my spine.
When I saw his hands glow in holy light and sensed the scent of burning flesh, my fears were confirmed.
'It was bad enough that you mastered Light Magic, but you have a freaking holy sword too?!'
I wasn't sure if it was the same as the ones wielded by famed heroes of history, but I was sure that his weapon was a holy sword. I wondered why his master didn't take it from him, but since he could still use it despite being close to the line of undead it was likely a sword that could choose its wielder.
'It stayed with him even in this state... I need my best weapon.'
Unfortunately, not a single one of the weapons I had in storage could match his for more than a single clash so I had make it with magic. At this time I wished I had taken the weapons Lia said she would offer me, but I would have put myself in her debt later.
While I opened my hand and began condensing the ground under me to its absolute limit, I tried to buy time.
"You're being awfully nice letting me prepare like this. Are you really an assassin?"
I wasn't sure if he would answer me, but thankfully he did. I didn't think he fell my trick, rather he was willing to give me all the time I needed.
"This is just a job for me. I have no grudge against you."
"A job, huh? Then why would you go out of your way to accommodate me and make your job harder?"
"If it was any other demon then I wouldn't. But you're different, you're not evil."
Evil? It wasn't a term I expected to hear from an assassin but I stopped myself from cringing and continued.
"I'm not evil? Weren't you watching what I did to your comrades?"
"Those weren't comrades, more like competitors. Besides, even though you killed them without mercy there was no malice either. You're not evil or good, you're just, normal."
"Normal... I don't think I've ever been called that before."
With a small chuckle I grasped a shiny black spear. This time, the blade was also slim and sharpened for practical use. It was a weapon that I had to constantly pour my mana into for it to keep its shape, but it would do for this fight.
Once I had my spear in hand, he took a standard forward stance with his sword in both hands as lightning cackled around his body. But he wasn't using the ultimate spell of Lightning Magic so I was more wary of his blade than the lightning. I had heard about the chasm that existed between level 6 weapon skills and level 7, but this would be the first time I experienced it. Furthermore, my Spearmanship was only level 5.
'I'll probably lose in pure skill so I need to overpower him.'
Unlike in the forest, though my terrain advantage was gone, there were no curses or restrictions to bind us, so I cast the ultimate spell of Fire Magic, Hellfire.
In an instant the grass around us ignited and crumbled, before being replaced by blue fiery flowers. The wildfire stopped twenty metres away, leaving us in a infernal prison of blue flames. The temperature must have skyrocketed to several hundred degrees Celsius, but neither of us moved an inch.
With 999 Defence, the temperature could only make us feel hot, but he should have been burnt by the blue flames. However, to no surprise of mine, his pale yellow mana that clad his body like a skintight suit protected him. But that was fine, this was only the beginning after all.
I tightened my grip around my spear and put one foot forward. Next, I entrusted my body's weight to my back leg and once my body was as taut as a fully drawn bow's string, I pounced with my fastest speed.
"..."
"..."
The time it took for me to reach him, swing and pass by him was less than millisecond, but there was a mark that proved that something happened in that extremely brief moment.
When I slowly brushed my finger across my chest, I felt a warm liquid peeking out. I had been injured as an undead but since becoming Aura's kin, this was the first time that I spilt blood in the real world.