Before he left Alen had grabbed the equipment Lucy had brought, he had also handed her enough gold coins to take care of herself and any family she might have. Lucy had also insisted that her master copy one of her skills, Alen never really understood why these maids had such combat-based skills, but he didn't have time.
He copied the Permeation skill from Lucy, the same skill he used during his sparing match with Alice He put on one of the cloaks and left the room running.
The skill to path through everything was a useful one and Alen could path through everything as long as he had sufficient mana, and his skill to replicate any other skill could hold only one skill at a time for twenty-four hours only. He could either overwrite or replace the current skill he had at hand, or he could stay with it.
As Alen hit the outside of the mansion he could feel the wind on his skin, it was moving fast, and it blow with tenacity both signs of a storm.
'Only seven hours till dawn, it's 9 pm right now I must be outside the kingdom before dawn' Alen thought as he left running to the woods behind the mansion to avoid being detected by the holy knights and also avoid the lights in the shopping areas.
He ran through the woods trying to make his way from the noble section of the kingdom to the royal palace, while also trying his best not to be seen. it was a long way, but it was the only option he had right now.
Suddenly he could hear footsteps rapidly approaching from behind him, turning around he could see two knights in blue and white armor they had a pair of glowing orbs.
The holy knights were behind him and were catching up quickly, he wasn't that fast nor was he strong enough to take both of them in a fight, besides their magic made them more of a challenge for him.
His best option now was to try and hide in the trees and try to evade them as much as possible. Doing just that Alen hid behind one of the trees and used the cloak to blend in with the darkness.
"Where did he go?" One of the Holy Knights asked.
"Illuminating light" The other cast and the small ball of light that floated a few heights from him suddenly grew in size and floated slightly higher than it was, high enough to illuminate the whole surrounding yet still low enough to not go over the trees.
The blinding light was hell for Alen he was surprised no one had seen a sudden glow of light in the woods but this also worried him a bit. But the Holy Knights spotted a figure behind the trees before he could focus.
"Hey, you, stop right there!" They commanded.
Alen made a run for it but this time the knights weren't going to let him get away, one had drawn his sword and with a slight movement of his leg he was already standing in front of a shadowy figure. While the other had cast binding magic, suddenly vines from the trees around him grew a gentle green light and charged at him all at once.
Alen knew he needed to escape but these guys were stronger than him, and since they possessed magic, he was at an even greater disadvantage than he was before. Seeing as he had no choice Alen charged at the knight holding the sword by his side evading vines left from right.
But once he was out of places to run Alen used the skill he had copied from Lucy and passed through some of the vines, the knight surprised. Swung his sword at the incoming enemy only for the same thing to happen again, Alen had passed through the attack as well and now had managed to place his hand on the knight's face.
Quickly using the momentum and the weight of his body against his opponent Alen had managed to slam the head of the knight into the ground. The surrounding dead leaves that had fallen from the trees flew up from the pressure, he then took this chance to run deeper into the woods.
His plan was already at risk and as dawn approached rapidly time was also working against him, he still needs to get the princess and escape from the kingdom.
This time the knights gave chase after Alen intending to capture him, they had gone to the forest to investigate a shadowy figure moving about but after their attempt to capture him the first time failed.
They were more inclined to apprehend the suspect this time. giving chase to the shadowy figure one of the knights had blood running down his nose from the impact when he was slammed to the ground. His magic attribute would destroy the whole forest if he used it hence leaving all the long-range magical attacks to his partner.
Attack after attack, Alen kept using the skill he copied to permeate through them, but this was draining as he was running out of both mana and stamina. He needed to lose them fast, reaching into his pocket Alen pulled out three smoke bombs he lit the fuses before turning around and throwing them.
The bombs exploded once the flash of light was gone a cloud of smoke took its place trapping the two knights in it.
Knowing the smoke wouldn't hold the knight for long Alen took the chance to run deeper into the forest and hide under a small cavern created by the roots of a big tree nearby. The cavern looked like it extended deeper but the entry to access the deeper areas was a little narrow even for Alen.
A few minutes later and the knights could be held searching outside and from the sounds of it, they had called backup and organized a unit to search the forests.
The hero Alice and Adam were rumored to arrive in two days, given the fact that they had covered way more ground than the other heroes, since they lacked a mage strong enough to use teleportation magic at that distance, they had to make the trio back to the kingdom on foot.
Right now, Alen was hiding in the cave as he watched the team of holy knights search the forest.
'I can't take on this many, but if I try to run, I won't get far. I'm almost out of mana and my stamina is suffering already.' Suddenly a small blue light appeared by the ear of the commander of the unit, he placed two fingers on it and orders were given to him directly. Another thing that worked like modern-world items is a magic call to certain individuals. As long as the intended target had mana the call would go through.
The leader waved his hands a bit and the whole team rushed to his side, standing right beside the tree with the cave Alen could hear everything they were saying. But right now, he needed to stay as still as possible.
"Orders from Zelda, the council has been summoned by the three princesses, and something about the new ruler has been decided." The knight said.
As the knights have been briefed on the new situation Alen felt an overwhelming pressure coming from behind him, his skin turned pale as sweat ran down the side of his face. Something was behind him, something dangerous he didn't want to turn around in fear, but he also didn't want to be captured by the knights.
Silence engulfed the area as the knights also sensed that something was wrong.
"Captain, do you feel that?" One of the knights asked.
"Yes, this forest has always given me a bad vibe, we have our orders men were leaving. Let the forest have whoever is in here" The captain said as he cast a short-distance teleportation skill and soon the others did as well.
The moment the knights left, Alen jumped in terror out of the cave as he could feel something crawling on his neck, he turned around and he could see a black liquid substance with a starry night pattern oozing from the narrow passageway of the cave. A lizard had walked close to it and the substance had attached itself to the lizard, parts of it turned into claws that dug deep into the lizard.
Like a parasite, the black substance attached itself to the lizard. While also corrupting the insides of the creature. Slowly the exterior of the lizard started to change as its eyes turned yellow and vicious while its skin pilled from its body leaving something that resembled the substance itself.
The creature's claws turned bright red as it bared its teeth at the next living creature near it. Alen not wanting to be the next victim had gathered enough strength to run. After running through the forest for a while Alen rested to think of his next action, he knew the meeting to choose the next ruler was called which meant the summons extended to the heroes as well.
With that Alen had a clear goal, go back to the mansion and then head to the meeting.