Kritana struggled to move in her mother's arms, but her whole body felt like cement. In a desperate attempt to catch her mother's attention, she started screaming.
Kritana instinctively knew that it wasn't a coincidence that her father was able to coerce her mother into giving up the teleportation scroll, or that he stopped sending food a few weeks prior to her awakening.
The duke of Artino was cold and calculating; he knew that her mother couldn't leave an innocent child to die and that her mother would ultimately sacrifice herself to let her dying daughter survive in her place. He probably had the whole manor under constant surveillance and would soon be informed of her awakening. Once he finds out that his little experiment awakened after barely five days of breathing, a feat only accomplished every hundred years, not only would he come for her sooner, but he would also kill her mother sooner as well.
The mother sensed her daughter's anxiety and stroked her head. "Don't worry, he won't get to us." After saying the words that both she and her daughter needed to hear, she placed Kritana on the bed and rummaged in her skirts in search of the scroll. She grasped at a sheet of paper and creased her eyebrows in worry. 'She's barely a few days old. Will she survive the journey?' Anxiety and fear crept into her being, but at the sight of her daughter's reassuring face she sighed and strengthened her resolve. 'If she was an ordinary baby, she would have died on the way, but her blessing awakened.' The mother picked up Kritana and held her against her chest.
Only the sounds of their beating hearts could be heard as the mother tore the scroll and the two of them disappeared.
***
A man walked up the hallway to the mother's room and opened the door, only to find an empty room. A trace of anger passed through his cold eyes at the sight of a torn-up teleportation scroll. He held out his hand and flames slowly ran along his fingers. The embers fell onto the floor and flames engulfed the room. The fire along his hand receded and he coldly ordered his attendant to his side. "The duchess and her daughter perished in a fire."
The attendant trembled at the monotone voice and bowed his head in fear. "Yes, your grace, but what if the duchess comes back?
At the attendant's question, the duke coldly smiled and began to laugh mockingly at himself. His laughs reverberated and echoed within the hall, which added to the attendant's fear of the coldhearted man. As his laughs slowly faded, he clicked his tongue and slowly said, "She's a strong elemental mage but revenge is beyond her. I'm more worried about that daughter of mine, but there's no way she survived the trip." The attendant shivered at the duke's indifferent attitude towards a daughter he never met and sighed. 'I'm glad he's not my father,' the attendant thought while he followed the duke back to the main estate.
***
Naked black trees stretched into an eerie pitch-black sky. They could be seen hundreds of miles in each direction but seemed to surround a clearing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Strangely, the clearing had lush green grass and contained signs of life. This greatly contrasted to the rest of the Forbidden Forest, which only reeked of death.
In the center of the clearing, was a woman and her child. The woman had black hair and wore a plain white dress that stopped near a shackle on her ankle. She was clutching onto the blanket that held her child, even when unconscious.
Minutes soon turned into hours, and finally the woman opened her eyes. In a panic, she hurriedly unwrapped the blanket around her baby and sighed when she heard shallow breaths. The woman had successfully escaped the clutches of the duke alongside Kritana. In relief, she caressed Kritana's face, however, she soon heard a stir from the trees and felt an ominous presence.
Her eyes visibly narrowed as she clutched onto Kritana even tighter than before. There was only one thing that lived inside that vast expanse of darkened trees. "Monsters, Kritana's awakened magic must have alerted them."
The woman knew better than anyone else that the monsters fed on magic. They were especially drawn to the magic of her clan, the angelan clan. One of the mysterious clans that never made contact with the other clans. Their mana was pure and vast, it was untainted by opposing energies and to the monsters, it was a delectable meal.
The woman held Kritana even tighter to her chest and ripped away at the insides of her skirts. Fabric fell to the ground, and the pounds that restricted her movements lessened. The monsters hadn't sensed the woman's presence due to the mana obstructing chain, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.
The woman reluctantly hid Kritana among the tall blades of grass and stretched out her limbs.
There was a reason why the monsters fled the Forbidden Forrest. The angelan clan routinely hunted them down mercilessly. Although a barrier surrounded the clearing, the monsters had inhumane strength and would gradually create cracks in their defense; this was how they remedied the problem.
The woman gradually regained her sharp senses and closed her eyes. She had spent so much time confined to that manor that her senses had dulled, and her reflexes had slowed down. Now that she was free, the beast that rested inside of her soon awoke. Her crimson eyes shone, and her bloodlust overwhelmed her surroundings. "I've been looking for a meal," she whispered with a grin.