Everything froze.
The falling mountain, the raging tornado, me, Dhana, the Duke and even the mana in the surroundings. Everything froze.
And why did that happen?
I didn't know. To this day, I didn't understand. But the only thing that I could account this phenomenon to was that the man in black, the man that I came looking for, the man who stayed in a meditative state for such a long time, opened his eyes.
There was an unfathomable depth to his eyes.
His gaze and presence oozed certain commanding power. As if he commanded everything around him to freeze.
"Long time no see, Taraksha."
He spoke lightly. But I was shocked.
Taraksha. The first name of Duke Kurma. Not even the king dares to call him by that. In fact, ninety-nine percent of the kingdom's people don't know it and that includes several nobility. How does he know that name?
I looked at the Duke's face and I realized that even though the effect caused by that man was gone, the Duke stayed frozen. He was trembling. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he looked at the man and he was also trying to force the mountain down. But it wasn't budging.
He extended his second hand and chanted some spell that I couldn't hear.
*BAM*
Another mountain came down and crashed on the first one. However, it didn't make any difference. The man just sat there in peace while the mountain levitated high in the air. Way above the black circle too.
The Duke panicked. I could see it in his eyes.
I looked at the man just sitting there with a blank look on his face. His gaze also locked on to me and a very subtle frown appeared.
"Zephyrion. Didn't know you had a new contractor in this dimension. I thought it would take a while for you to form another contract since I killed the last one."
I felt terror grip me by my throat. And it amplified because the Wind Spirit King, Zephyrion also started feeling the same terror as I did and because of the fusion state, I was also affected by it.
My head hurt all of a sudden and vision blurred.
A few images appeared in my head.
It was dark, the sky was grey. There was no sign of clouds, sun, moon or stars. As far as my eyes could see the whole land was covered in black soil, black rocks and even the mountain afar looked black. The surroundings were littered with corpses.
But none of them are intact to figure out exactly what corpse it was and in front of me was a knight on a horse along with a wolf standing beside him.
The horse was black, so was the wolf. I recognized who it was.
It was the same man that was meditating in that mountain valley. The same man that slaughtered a Duke and his family. That man was sitting on the horse, however there was a difference. He was wearing an armor.
It wasn't a metal armor, neither was it made of any material that I have ever witnessed. Instead, it looked like it was made from the hide of some creature of multiple creatures. It looked rough, a bit unrefined, but it emanated such blood thirst, I had a hard time comprehending how such a thing was suitable to defend someone instead of killing someone.
Behind that man stood over a doze other people. They were also on black horses and all of them had black wolves beside them. They were all wearing the same type of armor, but their armors were less… scary????
That was what I thought at least.
The man raised his blood soaked scimitar as the horse slowly moved forward.
*SPLASH*
I heard a sound and looked at the hoof of the horse. It stepped in a puddle. A puddle made of blood. By instinct I moved a step back and ….
*SPLASH*
Another blood puddle.
*SLASH*
A black colored ray was shot out of that scimitar and the next second, I came back to my senses. I was back in the valley looking at one of the strongest men in the kingdom struggle at the hands of a man who just sat there.
That vision wasn't mine. It belonged to Zephyrion.
That battlefield, that aura… I felt terrified and the wind spirit king resonated my feelings.
"Get lost. It is not your time yet. I will come and claim your life by myself."
The man spoke and he simply waved his hand.
*SWOOSH*
A huge gust of wind was shot at all of us. It couldn't even sense it and didn't show any visible signs, however it was stronger than the tornado that we saw before.
This one wave of his hand threw all of us away and we landed a few hundred meters away from his position and that included the Duke.
"We…we n…n..need to l..leave. Where is D….D…Dharma?" Duke Kurma spoke in a shivering tone.
"I will get him."
I volunteered and ran to find Dharma's location. He was still there, a bit better than before, but still unconscious.
Dhana stored the Zephyrwing in a beast bag by the time I got back.
"We lost a Zephyrwing." I told her. She just nodded.
Duke looked at him and said.
"It doesn't matter. A Zephyrwing isn't fast enough."
The Duke seemed to have calmed down a bit as he took out a scroll. It glowed with spatial energy and it surrounded all of us, including the Zephyrwing. I felt a strong force pull me before my vision turned black.
I hated that feeling. How many times was it that day?
When I got my vision back, I was already in the Kurma City.
The Kurma Duchy's Capital. Just like Anta City, Kurma city was also beautiful. But Anta's beauty came from the sea, but the Kurma's beauty came from the mountains and the greenery.
A massive mountain is at the back of the city. It was quite a beautiful mountain and many people called it nature's most beautiful sculpture. Because the mountain naturally formed into a peculiar shape.
It looked like a massive turtle carrying a mountain on its back.
So the base of the mountain looked like a turtle and on the shell of that turtle, it looked like there was another mountain.
That mountain was the estate of Kurma Family.
They stayed on top of it.
A river flows through the mountain and it exits through that as well. One of the primary contributors of the greenery. And because of the mountain terrain, the river was split into several small streams that turned into water walls.
It had been a great vacation spot for many lovers and great place to play around for a lot of kids.
Duke Kurma and us landed in the middle of the city. He stood there in deep thought, his hand was still shivering though indicating his tense nerves.
"All three of you, come with me. We need to go to the estate. I need to ask you guys a few questions."
I nodded and all of us made our way to the Estate.
It didn't take long as we Dhana and Dharma travelled on Zephyrwing, while I used the fusion state to close the distance, as for Duke he was naturally fast enough.
Around five minutes later. Inside a meeting room.
"Did he speak to you guys? Did he say anything at all?"
Taraksha Kurma asked.
I frowned and so did Dhana, but she also replied.
"No, Sir. Nothing. Until you came, he didn't even acknowledge our presence and I can understand why. His horse itself almost killed all of us."
Dhana said as she looked at Dharma who was still unconscious. I couldn't comprehend, what kind of hit he might have taken to get knocked out like that.
"Are you sure? Anything at all? Even a single word out of his mouth."
"No, Sir."
Dhana reassured.
"Alright, I want you three to stay here. I will send someone with an elixir that could wake Dharma up. I need to do something."
He was about to leave…
"Wait, Duke Kurma. From your interaction, you definitely know each other. Who is he?" I asked. Dhana also seemed to have remembered and looked at the Duke in askance.
The Duke turned to look at me and said.
"Nothing for you to know. This is way above what should be privy to."
Dhana didn't like the answer and she retorted.
"I am sorry, sir. We were the ones who tracked this man down. We were the ones to engage with him, I am pretty sure we have a right to know of this."
Duke gritted his teeth and said.
"I said, you guys don't need to know. That means you don't need to know."
I thought of something and asked.
"I am sorry, sir. As this is an ongoing investigation, we need to suspect everything and everyone. So, just tell us, are you related to him somehow? Why would he call you out by your first name? After all, we can't even organize a proper banquet with the number of people that actually know your first name. I highly doubt even your few cousins know your first name.
Even when you were in the army, serving for a short time, you were known as Soldier Kurma, then Captain Kurma.
Why would a man who slaughtered a Ducal family adjacent to yours come to your territory and address you by your first name?"
"TEJ" Dhana yelled at me angrily. After all, I did throw a pretty big accusation at the man.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY? WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING?" Duke bellowed and made a grabbing motion. Mana forcefully pulled me to him as he held me by my collar.
I didn't avert my gaze as he looked me in the eyes.
It would be a lie to say that I wasn't scared. I almost shat my pants. But I tried my best not to show it.
"DUKE KURMA. RELEASE HIM NOW. HE IS A CASE OFFICER AND YOU CANNOT HANDLE HIM LIKE THIS."
"HMPH.."
The man threw me to the ground and walked away.
"Are you out of your mind?" Dhana asked with frustration apparent in her tone.
"Something is wrong. He definitely knows who the guy was. And I am sure I saw guilt in those eyes."
"Guilt? Do you want to keep your head? He might just hammer you like a nail into the ground."
"Its fine, if he can answer all my questions truthfully while he does it."
I muttered and walked to the balcony.
I closed my eyes and cancelled my fusion.
The zephyrion with all his majesty appeared in front of me as he floated in the sky. However, his face showed worry like never before.
"You know who he is, don't you?"
I asked the wind spirit king.
Zephyrion nodded but didn't say anything.
"Can you tell me?"
He shook his head.
"Are you bound by a contract?"
He hesitated before he shook his head again. I frowned.
I had a great relationship with Zephyrion. A contract with the spirit king was not an ordinary thing and it was much harder than courting a woman. But once a bond was established, they could become your best friends.
So, as long as there was no contract binding the spirit, they would their summoners almost anything. In fact, I had witnessed cases where the mages were practically taught and bred by the spirits.
"Why? What was the vision that you have shown me? I have never seen, heard or read about any place like that before. Who is he?"
I asked.
But the spirit king just pursed his lips before saying.
"I cannot tell you, my child. I cannot risk drawing his ire.
The only thing that I can tell you is this.
His presence in your kingdom means and his actions of killing means, that you lost your greatest protector and your kingdom has wrought upon its greatest enemy.
And the reason for that should be within the borders of your kingdom.
He will come here as he said before and he will claim that Duke's life. Leave immediately and save yourself."