ON THE other side of Mirasaen, Nahil quickly maneuvered to follow Ahldrin on air. Both of them chased the Alundra. She couldn't help but smile while staring up at the serious face of his companion.
Ahldrin was tracking the scent of the beast. It was not new since they considered him as the best tracker in Erganiv. He was also the General of the Land and Aerial Army of Noyuh. This fae was a skillful warrior, both on land and air.
"Hurry!" Ahldrin shouted.
"All right," Nahil said softly.
They magically created Erganiv over ten thousand years ago, using ancient spells that caused a continental drift. They established this domain intentionally to protect their peace from the threat posed by the neighboring realm; they separated the Erganiv from the continent of Alegerio. The royal faeries made this decision. And using creation magic, with the help of their deities, they built this place because Alegerio suffered heavy damages during the war.
Before the historical battle, faeries and humans had a very strong bind. They freely interact with each other without prejudice. But the neighboring empire became greedy and wanted to colonize and seize every faerie territory—the small continent of Muhler, the home of the giants and faeries using dark magic. Humans and faeries unite for the common goal, to destroy the atrocious Emperor. The war broke, and thousands of humans and faeries died. That was the Great Fae War, and after that, they built the wall barrier and formed the treaty.
The human king asked to cut the ties between their world and the faerie realm. It was for the best for the mortals to live in peace. The primary reason until at this present time, humans could not see Erganiv, Alegerio, Muhler, and other places related to magic.
All of them lived in peace until now. There was no trace in history about this legend in the human world. But there was a theory about Muhler—the lost continent in the Pacific, and other theories regarding continental drift.
"Focus!" Ahldrin yelled.
Nahil grinned and raised her eyebrows. But she turned serious when Ahldrin paused and clenched his fists.
"I found the beast!" Ahldrin pulled out his sword from the scabbard resting on his back.
"Let me handle it on foot. If it escapes, then it's your turn." Nahil winked.
Ahldrin nodded, and he let her flew down to the ground. The General knew about her skills in fighting that a lowly Alundra was no match for her.
Nahil smirked. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes to concentrate. She studied the motion of the Alundra using its energy. She could sense a small fragment of mana coming from its core.
When she finally located it, she detected its slight movement through the wild vines around. They were in the mossy forest, the towering trees around bathed in thick mosses. The Alundra took advantage of it. But she sensed its stinking scent when it finally perceived her potent presence.
Alundra was a beast in a human torso except for its scorpion tail loaded with poison. Its fangs were murderous like a tiger; it had a deer's antler and deathly claws like an eagle. This resulted from the forbidden magic experiment of the Muhler's dark mages to destroy the residents of Erganiv.
They usually imprisoned these beasts inside the Sand Castle—an underground prison for criminals and fugitives. Now that one of them escaped, something was wrong. The prison was heavily warded, and maybe someone let them go on the loose. High chance this Alundra was not alone. Because it had been more than a hundred years when the last of them was contained, she wanted to think that this could be just an isolated case of a breakout.
"There you are," Nahil grinned. Thanks to her magic that she didn't let her guard down because, in just a blink of her eye, the Alundra launched an assault. Its red eyes glared in anger, and she knew it was ready for slaughter.
"Good thing that I lacked in practice these days. Shall we play?" Her lips twitched into a mocking smile.
The Alundra was fast. It spun around her, seemed running in the wind.
Nahil concentrated on her planned attack. Slowly, she pulled the dagger from her hip and waited for the Alundra to strike her. When it happened, she disappeared from its sight and came to view behind it. She never hesitated to plunge the dagger to its neck and sliced it fast. It howled loud as if asking for help. Of course, she knew the only weakness of an Alundra—its neck.
She grew impatient when its scorpion tail targeted her. Nahil blew a certain amount of wind to its rear, and it was suddenly ablaze. Its loud cried echoed until it faded.
"That was quick," she removed the dagger from the beast. Black blood pooled over the place, and her clothes were filthy.
Ahldrin materialized in front of her.
"What took you so long?" He looked bored as usual. He watched her from a safe distance.
"I tried not to use magic, but I cheated." She rolled her eyes. She was a forest faerie, and she could wield magic using the four elements of nature—fire, wind, water, and earth. Thanks to her deceased mother, who patiently taught her to master the four elements.
Nahil originally came from Croea, the Spring Region of Noyuh. Usually, every faerie in Erganiv could use specific magic, depending upon the place of birth. Magic was just a normal thing, but royal bloods would be powerful than the ordinary. Then comes the commoner who couldn't wield magic at all. But still, commoners were considered stronger than humans in terms of strength.
Noyuh was divided into four regions with varying weather. The Mirasaen—Summer Region from the North, Velidia—Winter Region from the East, Aderawiel — Autumn Region from the West, and Croea — Spring Region from the South.
There were two other territories beside Noyuh — the Alsache, tasked to govern the sea, and the Gwiazda, assigned to control the night and stars. These domains circled the capital city of Erganiv—the Argia, which was in charge of light and day. Everything in Erganiv was in order, from day and night as well as the different seasons of the weather because of magic.
If an Erganivian fae was born in the Winter Region of Noyuh, there would be a high chance they could wield ice magic. Depending on the amount of mana circulating in the body. Mana was the core of their magical power. It was bestowed to them as a gift coming from their deities.
In Nahil's case, she was thankful that even though she was born out of wedlock— she was an illegitimate offspring of royal blood. She was blessed with enough mana because of her lineage. Her father was the General of the Argian army. Her half-brothers and sisters lived in the Palace of Lights. While she was considered an outcast, they even tried to kill her once because they simply despise her existence.
"Hey! Are you even listening? Did the Alundra cast some spell on you?" Ahldrin seriously questioned her. He looked bothered while studying her expression. Nahil stared blankly at the dead beast, which was slowly disintegrating.
"Oh, of course not!" She blinked hard and paused, "That beast brought some bad memories from the past." She voiced out the truth.
When she was younger and still studying basic magic, a beast as lethal as the Alundra chased her. Her half-siblings bullied her and tried to make fun of her in the forest. She was helpless that time, and she begged them to save her, but instead of lending their hand, they just laughed at her even after she was bitten on her shoulder. But her mother came to the rescue. She brought her to the Great Healer to recover.
Ahldrin breathed out heavily, "What a waste of time. We don't have the leisure to play games. You know the threats across the borders."
He was pertaining about the brewing tension between the Capital City, Argia, versus the three territories. The High Leader of Argia passed away, and his son took the responsibility of ruling.
"You think I am not aware? I don't wish to have another war. We are living in peace here. But it seems shady that a prisoner from Sand Castle escaped." She hardly shook her head and exhaled.
"We'll ask Winzi about that." Nahil lightly jolted her shoulders.
Winzi was a seer. She could see some fragments of the future. But these last few days, it was rare for Winzi to see things like her visions were out of nowhere.
"Let's go back to the Golden Palace," she said when the beast finally degenerated from sight.
Ahldrin nodded in response. His body was covered by a dark mist, and suddenly, his attire changed. He was wearing his black warrior suit this time, made of black diamonds and onyx-like scales. His wings were tucked in place. Ahldrin never faced their Lady looking messy.
They vanished simultaneously from the forest.