Back with the group, everyone watched the fight between Sariel and Indra in astonishment.
Then, a huge, bright explosion erupted in the distance, the shockwave and winds swept them away, almost freezing them on the spot.
Shiina and Raymond, who didn't have Luna's luck of being immune to ice, felt the hairs on their arms stand on end at such power.
The only one not so surprised was Aegreon, as he had witnessed similar scenes hundreds of times, though he was still confused.
After that great explosion, the lightning ceased completely, and the blizzard, though intense, wasn't as violent as before.
Everyone waited expectantly for a good while to be sure of the outcome.
"Indra... is he dead?" Luna, who had never in her life seen a magical battle, assumed the worst.
"With magic like that, definitely..." Shiina's voice trembled with a mix of awe and cold.
"So... is he on our side?" Raymond asked.
"No..." Aegreon murmured. "An unknown person with such power... he can only be from a Sect..."
"What's a sect?" Luna asked.
"We'll talk about that later." Sariel's voice surprised everyone, turning towards him and seeing him with his beautiful glaive floating beside him. "We have to leave before the Council investigates here."
The traveler's clothes were torn in places, like on his chest, showing that, despite being thin, he had well-defined muscles.
His walk showed calmness, the same calmness that Feng Ping possessed.
"What happened to Indra?" Aegreon approached with a threatening expression.
Hearing this, the traveler took an object from under his cloak and threw it to Raymond, who caught the item with an exemplary reflex.
When the bodyguard looked at his hand, he saw a severed arm, partially frozen and with golden and white fabric. The muscles were tense, and the hand still held a long sword.
Startled, Raymond almost dropped Indra's arm.
"Your element is Thunder like Indra's, so it will serve you better than a simple steel sword," Sariel said in an indifferent tone.
"You didn't answer my question..."
"That's all that's left of him."
Hearing this, Luna looked in shock at the arm and then at Sariel.
"Yo-You killed him?!"
"If I had left him alive, we would have even more problems with the Council."
"But... How could you?! He... He didn't deserve this..." This made Luna feel conflicted. She didn't expect that kind man who had helped her since they met would be capable of killing someone.
"It's indeed a pity, killing a Pillar is terrible for humanity... but I had no other choice, you saw his power." Sariel approached the princess. "We have to leave immediately, let's go."
"We're not finished with this conversation." Aegreon stepped in front of the traveler. "Tell me now who you are or I'll do what Indra couldn't." His weapon began to burn intensely with purple flames.
"Are you sure about that?" The blizzard began to intensify again.
"Your threats are futile now, I know you're low on power." The Conjuration's Pillar took a step closer.
Aegreon was ready to act, but he noticed the blizzard strengthening even more.
However, to his surprise, it wasn't coming from Sariel, but from Luna.
Seeing them both like that, the princess' nervousness began to grow, unconsciously, releasing magic.
The traveler, noticing this, smiled.
While Aegreon, noticing that reaction, realized that if he tried to kill Sariel, Luna would probably conjure a devastating blizzard that would serve as fuel for the traveler to use against him.
"Tch..." Without saying anything, just grumbling, the Pillar turned to go after his horse.
After the tensions dissolved, Raymond removed the sword from Indra's severed arm and placed it in an improvised way on his belt.
Then, he made lightning appear in his hand, which burned and pulverized the arm, ending the proof of its existence.
"Thank you..." he thanked the traveler warily, no longer knowing what to think of him.
Then, they all mounted their horses and set off, having to face a cold, frozen, and dark road.
***
After the battle, the group moved away from the location as quickly as possible.
Due to the scale of that fight, they traveled all day without any rest to make sure they wouldn't be caught.
Throughout the journey, Sariel constantly used Alteration to make sure there was no one nearby, while Shiina used Illusion to make everyone invisible and to make any sounds they produced inaudible.
When it was about eight o'clock the next night, Aegreon decided it was time for a break and a nap.
After setting up a camp, everyone gathered and ate together, but it wasn't long before distrust resurfaced.
Aegreon stared at Sariel constantly, as if expecting him to do something at any moment.
"I'll give you one chance to say exactly who you are, otherwise, I'll assume you're part of a Sect and trying to capture her soul." The Pillar glanced briefly at Luna.
"Sect? Soul? What does that mean?" asked the princess.
"Sects are groups of people with the Conjuration element who sacrifice the lives of innocents to gain power from the Gods of Darkness," Sariel explained.
"Basically, people like that necromancer, who covet power, gather secretly to communicate with the Gods of other worlds and seek to obtain their power.
"These Gods ask for souls in return, and most people exchange their own soul, receiving a certain amount of power, but soon fall into temptation and begin to kidnap and sacrifice innocents to deliver their souls and gain more power.
"Not much is known about souls, except that they are linked to the magical power of living beings, and that when someone gives up their soul to a God of Darkness, that person loses the ability to feel emotions, something similar to what Feng Ping does when he fights, but different since that's a technique.
"We also don't know the objectives of these Gods, but most try to manipulate society and attract more and more people to their Sects.
"Elgor is one of the several Gods and is the most aggressive among them, always sending dangerous creatures to our world and causing destruction."
Luna listened to everything attentively, realizing that no one interrupted Sariel's explanation, showing that everyone agreed with what he was saying, so he wasn't hiding anything.
"I don't understand... why do you think Sariel belongs to one of these Sects? He's protected me all this time!" She glared at Aegreon.
"There's a reason why there are only ten Pillars on the Council currently. It's difficult to find people with our level of power, and it's basically impossible for someone so powerful to go unnoticed." The Pillar stared at the traveler. "The Council's intelligence network is vast, the only place we don't reach are the Sects, which hide in the deepest darkness of the world."
Thinking from that perspective, Aegreon was right. How could such a powerful person have gone unnoticed by the Council?
But...
"It's a pity that your arguments are all flawed..." Sariel just smiled at those accusations.
"Then try to explain all this." Shiina supported Aegreon's argument.
"First, I was already in Fordurn before you two arrived, and I even protected Luna from an attack. Raymond can prove that."
The bodyguard nodded in agreement.
"Yes, if it weren't for Sariel, Luna would probably have been killed or kidnapped."
"Second, when we arrived at Fire Mountain, the guard who was responsible for taking our belongings stole my glaive, realizing it was a good weapon. When I decided to investigate, I discovered that they belonged to the Elgor Sect and planned to activate the mountain to destroy the kingdom, and as you know, I stopped them."
Aegreon, strangely, listened to everything in silence, without interrupting him.
"If I really wanted to kidnap her, why didn't I do it in Fordurn? And why would I stop the eruption instead of kidnapping Luna in the middle of the chaos? Why would I kill that necromancer and try to heal her instead of fighting you? I had numerous opportunities to do something, so why didn't I?"
"And why would he offer to fight Indra instead of simply observing and killing both of you when you were weak and capturing Luna?" Raymond supported Sariel. "Why would he give me Indra's sword instead of getting rid of it or keeping it for himself? And, mainly, why would he teach Luna magic to defend herself?"
"Besides, remember that I accompanied you everywhere Aegreon chose. Isn't it strange that he decided to go to Fire Mountain, a kingdom that hates angels more intensely, and the volcano erupted when we arrived?"
At that moment, Raymond remembered the way the Pillar reacted to the volcano's eruption.
Instead of trying to save people, he simply tried to flee with Luna.
"If there's anyone suspicious here, it's Aegreon." The bodyguard stared at him deeply.
"Raymond, you're being manipulated by him!" Shiina exclaimed. "Aegreon is a good person, I know that!"
"As I said before, all Sect members possess Conjuration. I wonder why you, Aegreon, have so much of that power." Sariel stared at him with a sharp look.
Despite all this, the Conjuration's Pillar only listened to the conversation in silence.
This made Raymond feel uncomfortable. A person like him, who used to get angry easily, controlling himself was even more frightening than when he was angry.
"Calm down, please! I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding. Sariel is not a bad man, and I'm sure Aegreon has good intentions!"
Realizing that the situation was getting out of control, the princess tried to calm everyone down.
"Luna, we can't ignore all this anymore. Who knows what will happen as soon as we get to Krimisha?"
"Walking with someone with the Conjuration element is never a good idea, imagine then the Conjuration's Pillar..." Sariel stared at Aegreon without hiding his disgust with that element.
It was then that everyone felt a terrible pressure from the Pillar, who remained completely still and silent.
He stared at the traveler with a cold rage, his amethyst-purple eyes glowing in the dark night.
Then he slowly stood up, making Sariel, who was already on alert, grip his weapon tightly.
But Aegreon, to everyone's surprise, simply turned his back and walked into the forest.
Everyone watched him walk away in silence, still doubting that he really wouldn't do anything.
When he could no longer be seen or felt, Shiina also stood up with an irritated expression.
"Since you trust him so much, then you can die for him." Imitating Aegreon, she entered the forest, though she went in a different direction.
Watching the assassin walk away, a doubt fell over Raymond.
Aegreon was definitely too suspicious to trust, but what about her?
Maybe he was just using her for his purposes, or maybe he even manipulated her to defend him.
Therefore, this made him want to try something.
"I trust you, so protect Luna if Aegreon tries anything."
"What do you intend to do?"
"I don't know yet..." Raymond stood up and went after Shiina.
Thus, the only ones left behind were Sariel and Luna, with the girl clenching her fists due to nervousness and not knowing how to act in that situation.