24: Mark

The earth elemental slowly let out a final howl of pain before slowly collapsing, leaving only a golden sphere where it had once stood.

"You defeated him!" - Elisabeth exclaimed excitedly, though her expression changed when she saw how the fire monster was looking in her direction - "Oh, I hope he doesn't think we're hostile"

Though before she could say anything else, she saw how the fire monster approached the light egg, which quickly cracked open, revealing the silhouette of Erika, who fell to the ground unconscious, being followed by Ren, who burst out of the fire monster's body.

Eric quickly ran to his friend to check his condition, only to let out a sigh when he saw how he was in perfect condition, albeit with a huge magical deficiency problem after using a forbidden technique.

Elizabeth and Rhea quickly walked to where Ren was, only to notice how he was unconscious, and not only that, with a strange red aura surrounding his body.

"Is that it?" - Rea asked with a frown - "Is it a curse or a blessing?"

"I think it's the blessing of flames..." - answered Elisabeth as she looked carefully at the young man - "Although it could also be Ifrit's infernal curse... I'm not sure, and we need an expert to deduce it."

"Then I came at the right time" - said a male voice that made all the soldiers react.

Eric quickly stepped in front of the unconscious pair before drawing his sword and peering in the direction of the voice's origin, only to see a hooded man - "Who are you..."

"Oh, my name is not important, what you really need to know, is that I can identify the problem that is affecting your leader" - replied the hooded man as he walked over to where the group was, only to stop when he saw how the soldiers took their weapons with hostility - "Tough audience..."

"What's a mage from the ancestral tower doing here?" - Rea asked with a frown - " "More so a wizard of the [Pilgrims]..."

"Oh, it's good to see that at least one of you has the necessary knowledge to recognize my garments" - said the hooded man as he stroked his chin - "Though now I'm a bit intrigued to know how you discovered my specific affiliation so easily, after all, my order is extremely silent, and we don't show ourselves so easily..."

"I have my ways" - Rhea replied as she folded her arms.

"Interesting... very interesting..." - muttered the hooded man as he narrowed his eyes, though he quickly removed the garment covering his face, revealing a handsome young man with messy black hair and red eyes - "As she said, I am a wizard of the [ancestral tower], being more specific, I am part of the [pilgrims], a group of wizards who spend their time traveling back and forth, seeking knowledge and materials for our magical experiments."

Elisabeth and Rhea were surprised to see this face, after all, they recognized him immediately.

He was [Mark, the absent], a powerful dark wizard who traveled all over the continent in search of knowledge, although his name did not refer to the fact that he was absent most of the time from the [Ancestral Tower], but because he had a huge flaw, he seduced women and after impregnating them, he disappeared, although there was a detail to remark, and that was that Mark had a particular taste for women, he only went for unattractive women and with bodies that could be defined as those that had a single huge curve, in other words, he went for ugly and obese women, that is why he was not so hated by the male sector, although for the female sector this did not change anything, that is why Mark had another nickname, he was called the [Tortured], because the sub-forum of the game related to him, was full of new ways to kill him in the strangest possible ways.

Mark felt a shiver run down his back when he noticed the looks of the two women in the group, who although beautiful, were not his type, no, he preferred girls with certain features, not to mention that they didn't have the perfect body mass for his taste, they were too skeletal.

"Come to think of it, there's a reason for his liking" - Rea thought with a frown as she remembered Mark's backstory.

Abandoned in an orphanage as an infant, Mark grew up under the personal care of the matron, who quickly marveled at his beautiful appearance. She trained him in the art of pleasing a woman, which caused the young man to develop an early taste for women, specifically women like the woman who caused him to awaken so prematurely. It wasn't until he turned 13, and was discovered by a wizard of the [Ancestral Tower], that this scandal came to light, the woman was arrested and Mark was taken to one of the most important magical academies on the continent, though the damage was done, his taste for women like the matron had become rooted deep in his head.

Thinking about this, Rhea began to feel a little bad for Mark, I mean, there were a few beautiful girls in the game who were interested in him, but due to his childhood trauma, he paid no attention to them, in fact, he seemed to completely ignore all their advances.

"I'm confused, first I felt hostility, then pity..." - Mark muttered with a frown, though he quickly shook his head - "Anyway, let me see the state of that young man."

Eric looked at Elisabeth and Rhea, who nodded, so he quickly ordered the subordinates to lower their weapons.

Mark smiled slightly before appearing at the unconscious prince's side, only to frown - "This is slightly worrying..."

"Is it the infernal curse?" - Elisabeth asked with concern.

"Oh no, that's the blessing of flames, the issue is that this young man used a forbidden technique" - answered Mark while shaking his head - "His current state is an elemental imbalance, a state that can only be achieved when someone's internal balance gets out of control, or when a mage tries to absorb a different source of magic than the one he is used to. In this young man's case, this is the former case, because from what I can see, he has trained all magical affinities in perfect balance, and now that he let Ifrit take possession of his body, the Fire element is far superior within him..."

"Any way to fix him?" - Eric asked with concern.

"Oh, there are many methods, the easiest one is to use magic draining to disappear the excess fire magic inside him, although this is problematic" - answered Mark while thinking carefully - "This is due to two reasons, the first one, is that we need a fire elementalist with an affinity higher than B, who must have an almost empty mana pool to not explode from Ifrit's power, and second, he must possess a catalyst that he can use for magical transfer, after all, the mana of a creature from another existential plane is very different from that of humans."

Eric frowned slightly before looking at the wizard - "And the other way to solve this?"

"It's simple, wait" - Mark replied as he shrugged - "The time varies depending on each person, but seeing this young man's magical talent, I could assure you that it will take him at most a week to make this mana his own, as for the rest, you don't have to worry, mana is an extremely precious source of life energy, so he won't need to eat or secrete fluids for this whole week, you just have to ensure that no one disturbs him because it could cause an accident that can range from at best a delay in the assimilation of this mana, or at worst, death by explosion due to an imbalance in the internal flow of mana."

Eric nodded weakly before ordering the soldiers to carefully carry Ren, and was asking Rhea and Elisabeth to carry Erika to prevent problems.

"Hmm, I didn't think I would meet the heir of the infinite knowledge" - Mark thought as he recognized the artifact of the [Order of Twilight] - "If the ancient records are correct, then it's possible that he is the last of the Dragonhart lineage, that means that girl has to be the last descendant of the Belldandy clan... Hmm, this is interesting, I didn't think to see two heirs so soon, though at the same time this is worrying, that the two have met means only one thing, and that is that a new era of terror is about to begin, though in retrospect this makes sense after seeing everything that is happening in the south..."

Mark was silent for a few seconds before reacting to the voice of one of the soldiers, asking him if he's coming with them.

"Ok" - nodded Mark, although inside he was thinking about staying, so he could observe everything that was about to happen, after all, the appearance of the [Tower of Babel] was something too seductive to pass up.