Ervin was left secluded with pools of blood all around him, Harvey passed out at his feet, in a dimly dark cave.
He thought about his next moves in an instant. Since there were no bodies left behind for the other five, coming up with a fake case to cover everything that happened here will be more than simple.
Even better was the fact that Cyan was so generous enough to leave behind the valuables of the killed group members. A higher realm Mage would be able to easily destroy a person's physical body without destroying the items on them.
Ervin collected the spatial pouches, took Harvey's body, and swiftly left the cave.
They soon made it back out to the twilight dreariness of the woods.
Not wanting to be made as a target to any wandering demonic beasts, Ervin took a repellant spray to cover his area, sat Harvey up against some tree, and waited for his awakening.
Ervin didn't see any noticeable injury on Harvey nor was his breathing dissratic. Cyan evidently just made Harvey faint to make Ervin's plans easier.
With several minutes of resting up, Ervin soon noticed movement from Harvey.
His eyes slowly blinked, his hands continually twitched as his body trembled. There was a strange heaviness weighing down on Harvey's mind and body. He felt as if had just woken up from exhausting all of his magical energy which was even worse than passing out from physical exhaustion.
What first greeted Harvey's vision was the calm face of Ervin.
"What?" Harvey gurgled, his eyes flickering everywhere. Instead of being in that dim cave, they were now back in the dreary twilight of the woods.
As he kept looking around, Harvey started to notice something that caused a heavy weight on his heart.
Nobody else was around them. Something that was both good and horrifying to think about it.
"Er-Ervin..." Harvey slurred his words as he slowly got up. "What-what just happened? How did we survive? Where is everyone else?"
There was no other way to say but just to say it. Ervin's face remained calm as he said, "Everyone else died at the demon's hands. I am not sure why he spared us, but after he knocked me out, I simply awoke to darkness. Since you were the only one alive, the only option for me was to quickly get out of there. None of them had any corpses left behind, so I suppose we'll just need to give out statements."
"They're all dead?!" Harvey's eyes instantly widened, his body completely stiffing from sheer horror and shock.
His emotions swirled into a chaotic mess. He may have just met them, but Alica, Jerry, and Glenn were really some good people he wanted to get to know more. They all had the making of fantastic Mage Enforcers in the future.
But of course, his emotions were more intense when thinking of Kane and Jane. They were his partners he had gotten close with for months!
Both were genuine friends who he had hung out together, bonded with, and shared life-and-death moments.
To just have them be killed without even a corpse suffocated Harvey. He tried to keep his emotions in check, but an overwhelming feeling of sadness threatened to take over his entire mind.
Ervin curled his brows when he noticed Harvey's declining mental state. He understood why, but he did not care for the others, nor did he want to deal with a grieving person he also does not care about.
Additionally, they were still knee-deep in Demonic Beasts' territory. Staying around here is just a recipe for disaster.
Choosing his words carefully, Ervin said, "There will be time to grieve their losses. But for now, we have to leave. We only have one spray left and the Beasts roaming around here will kill us in less than seconds."
"Oh-Ah! You're right. We need to be power through this." Harvey's mind was shocked back to reality.
The danger of the Twilight Woods quickly came back to him. The longer they were here, the less chances they would have to even make it back home.
A deep breath escaped Harvey's lips. He focused himself, slowly standing up while regaining his calm.
Taking a look back into Ervin's calm face, Harvey couldn't help but shake his head. "Sometimes, I truly do wish I had a sense of calm like yours. It's like nothing that isn't about magic can affect you."
"I just take the necessary steps forward." Ervin faintly smiled. Getting up as well, he continued to say, "Thankfully, we still have the map. I'll lead the way and we'll run at a moderate pace. Nothing too intense to alert the beasts, but something not too slow. Ready?"
"Ready." Harvey seriously nodded.
They had the map, but Ervin didn't really need it. He distinctly recalled the path they had gone on.
As he said, Ervin took the lead while Harvey followed behind in a moderate running pace.
The faint lights of the repellant spray glisten in their eyes as if it was a beacon of hope continually shrouding them.
Harvey desperately hoped that the spray would last all the way until they got to the city. It is their last bottle, the consequences could mean everything if they failed.
Every step they took rippled into their minds. Harvey and even Ervin to an extent nerves were tight as it ever been.
Even as Ervin had a plan, he couldn't stop his anticipation from tingling his body.
Their route seemingly went along smoothly. No other Demonic Beasts were around for what seemed like miles.
Great hope flooded Harvey's mind. He nearly thought the return home would be completely successful.
However, right at the moment they reached close to home, the green lights of the repellant spray suddenly vanished!
"Shit!" Harvey cursed while Ervin focused himself.
The duo, now alone without any sprays or extra teammates had to tread very carefully. They took up position next to each other since they could now recognize the route home.
A few more meters and the duo could just faintly see Lightwall City's bright magical lights on the horizon.
Just when everything appeared to be alright, disaster struck.
A massive shadow suddenly washed over the duo. Black Mana lights glittered across the forest. Powerful waves of air split through the area.
At extreme speeds, a mass of black light suddenly appeared right in the duo's way.
The black light turned about to be the large, terrifying form of a Class 1 Demonic Lion beast!
"Damn!" Harvey violently clenched his fists.
He was still feeling considerable fatigue from running all the way here. But their life was at stake here. Only action decides if they will be able to live.
Fiery lights swirled in Harvey's hand. He instantly brought out his magical gun.
Ervin at the same time brought his magical sword, his eyes narrowing in focus. He quickly said to Harvey, "I'm quite drained of energy as well. But we can easily win. On my mark, we'll split to the sides. Got it?"
"Mn." Harvey barely managed to get a nod.
As right at the same time, the Demonic Lion blasted forth with a howling roar and exuding a thick blanket of killing intent!
Dust flew everywhere beneath a raging magical force sweeping through everything.
The Demonic Lion's claws brightly gleamed with black lights. All of its Mana surged, bursting out extreme power to easily shatter boulders into thousands of pieces.
The beast's speed was extremely quick. Fast enough to kill hundreds of None Mages in just a matter of two seconds.
Harvey gripped his fists as he waited for Ervin's call. He glanced over at Ervin for a split-second to see his reaction.
But right when Harvey looked over, something occurred that put his soul into shock.
Before his very eyes, Ervin's entire body instantly vanished right from his sight!
He couldn't even sense Ervin anymore!
"Erv-Ahh!!"
Harvey's shock over Ervin gave his reaction time that lapse in judgment. By the time he had turned around, the Demoninc Lion was already inches away from him.
'Chi!'
Blood and flesh splattered all over the area. The Demonic Lion was utterly ruthless. Its glistening black claws brutally tore into Harvey's chest, ripping through his flesh, and digging deep enough to pierce into one of his lungs.
At the same time, the Demonic Lion mercilessly crunched on Harvey's neck with its terrifyingly sharp teeth. The teeth easily broke apart Harvey's skin, sinking deep into his meaty flesh.
"A-" Harvey could barely scream out. His voice was muffled by the overwhelming pools of blood flowing out of his mouth.
The pain was unimaginable. Every single inch of his body was wracked with a hellish misery he couldn't escape from. It would've been better if the beast simply gave him an instant kill than prolonging this torture.
Tears pooled into his ears as he could only wonder just what the hell had happened to Ervin.
It was right at this time that a cold silver flash sparkled right next to the tragic scene.
'Chi!'
A sudden magical silver sword sliced straight into the Demonic Lion's eyes!
Ervin had no expression on his face as he plunged the magical sword deep into the Demonic Lion's brain.
With a grit of his teeth, Ervin exploded out waves of Mana that utterly smashed apart the beast's brain into horrifying bloody mush.
The Demonic Lion's body trembled. The light left its eyes. It flopped to the ground, bringing along Harvey who was still embedded in its black claws.