6 Chapter 6: Mages

In the village of Elmsdorf, after two days of non-stop use of flying magic, a group of humans dropped down at the village entrace, with each adorned in a flowing robes of pure white and immediately casted an protective barrier spell around the village.

"We didn't make it in time..."

A human mage with red hair spoke in sad tone while seeing the villager's ranging from youngest to oldest forever lying on the ground before looking away in regret.

A girl with long brown hair that reaches her waist patted her comrades shoulder in comfort.

"Don't blame yourself Siev, it was so sudden there's nothing we can do."

"But-"

"No"

Biting his lip, Siev then looked to his left, where a middle aged man with caramel colored hair struck bottom part of his staff unto the ground and a wave gushered out, making a mental radar on there.

After a minute of waiting, Siev questioned if the he was able to learn something.

"Is there anything master?"

The middle-aged man shook his head, while cautiously looking at each of the villager's houses

"I can't sense anything... the density of the mana in the air is making it much more harder for me to spread out my mana, it's like I'm trying to push an mountain using only a toothpick"

"Hmm..."

The group behind Siev, started discussing something.

"How long will Scuzaul last?"

"Give or take maybe about one week, ah no five days at least"

"So we only have a five days to find what's causing this?!"

A red haired man with a burn mark on his left face and large two handed sword on his back complained haphazardly to his colleagues.

"Oy!, shut up Drel!, master's thinking of something!" The girl with long brown hair shouted angrily the red haired man

"Eat shit, Opila." Drel made a cocky smile that almost any person in world would definitely want to use as a punching bag.

"Why you little!" Ophila quickly summoned her staff that looks like a much more longer mace and pointed it at Darel's face.

"HUSH!" The brown haired middle-aged man quickly stopped there immature fighting.

"Sorry, Master Throd" Both Ophila and Drel immediately apologized while also bowing.

"You three should go investigate the village if there is some clues that we can use to find the cause of this phenomenon"

"Eh? Why do I have to pair with this bitch/shit head?!" In sync both Drel and Ophila insulted each like there were each at other throats

"Because both your coordination and teamwork in fighting is something that even the royal south magic institution is rather quite envious about."

"But master we are not compatible!" Ophila quickly rejected her master's complement while pointing her index finger at Drel's face who is currently poking his nose.

"Bwahahah!"

"Sometime your greatest enemy, can become your greatest ally Ophila..."

"Wouldn't that just make you more susceptible to back stabbing master?" Ophila made a deadpanned face towards her master.

Throd's face immediately froze and sweat started to flow on to his face.

"Anyway's what I'm saying is that you three would do great!"

Throd gave them a thumbs up to further encourage there 'friendship'.

*Sigh*

'Master/Throd is being unreasonable again...' his students and priest inwardly thought to themselves.

After casting an invisibility spell on the group, Throd quickly issued out his orders

"Everyone split up and look for clues. Tuli, Elias and me will check the forest for any potential clues."

"Yes, Master/Sir!"

With the plan now set, Seiv, Ophila and Drel serving as the vanguard,they cautiously walked towards the villager homes one by one to find more clues on who or what was causing the mana in the area to suddenly become so dense.

*Creak*

"Hey, Ophila did find anything yet?"

In another room of the house Drel shouted at Ophila who is currently in a kitchen.

"Nothing yet!"

As Drel was rummaging through the drawers he accidentally was able to see a pair of clean pure white panties neatly hidden under a mountain of clothes.

"..."

Drel took out the panties from under the clothes and seriously studied it like it was the greatest mystery the world has ever seen, before finally imagining Ophila casually wearing them.

'hmm... It doesn't fit her style, it would be much better if it was black..'

*Bonk!*

"OUCH!"

"Hey what was that for?!"

Drel quickly looked behind him and was faced with a brown haired female who was looking at him, like he was the most disgusting creature in the face of the world.

"wa wa-Wait, Ophila le-let me explain-" Drel panickly raised his hand's in front of him.

"There no need for any more explanation..." Ophila summoned her mace staff and swiftly used it to smash Drel's most important crown jewels.

*Gasp*

"Agh!!"

Drel kneeled in pain as he continued holding the remainder of his future children in the ground with an expression that denotes an excruciating amount of pain.

Tuning out Drel's painful screams, Ophelia asked herself a question inwardly.

'Where did Siev go, he was here just a moment ago?'

In the middle of the village, Siev opened the door to the house of village chief cautiously.

*Creak*

*Step*

Using the sun to lighten out the darkened house, Siev saw a boy with brown hair and a priest wearing a green robe and on his neck is a silver pendant where a symbol denoting a scroll with two pairs of wings is engraved unto it.

"A middle rank goddess priest from the central lands? What is he doing here, in this secluded village?"

Crouching down, Siev then started to check both of there pulses

"They've been dead for three day..."

'I should take this pendant to the church they should know who this belonged to.'

Siev pocketed the pendabt and made a silent prayer for both of them before walking towards the darkened living room.

*Plop.*

'Hmm?'

All of sudden, Siev felt a weird sticky liquid stick to his shoes and immediately stopped and summoned his wooden staff to cast a bright light in the room.

"Support magic: Sanlicht!"

With a the glow from his staff, Siev was finally able to see what he was currently stepping on.

'Blood.'

Siev heart skipped a beat and immediately pour some mana on his eyes to check if the blood was normal or mana infused and prepared him self from an attack.

'Nothing.'

Breathing our a sigh of relief, Siev then crouched down and inspected the blood and the arrangements of the furniture around the living room.

'The blood must had came from either a stab wound or a slicing of flesh and looking at how the chairs and tables are broken into pieces the perpetrator and the victim was going about in a struggle...'

He then looked behind him, where the corpse of the priest and the brown haired boy was and shook his head.

'It can't be them... The boy and priest didn't have a knife or even have any wounds on their bodies...'

Standing up, Sieve then casted another spell.

"Support magic: Einspur!"

Immediately, he able to see the blood marks on the floor, walls, and furniture make a bluish aura making it much more easier to traceback, before finding something familiar printed on some of the broken furniture.

'A small human finger print..."

Siev squinted his eyes and followed the small traces of blood through out the house until finally, it led him to the back yard of the house and saw a patch of dead grass.

'The soil was dug up a while ago.'

Using his staff, Siev pulled out the loose soil where the traces of the blood stoped and saw a dead puppy rotting on the dirt.

'A puppy?'

Immediately putting the floating soil back into the whole, Siev couldn't help but be confused.

'Why did the traces leave me to a buried dead puppy? This doesn't make sense.'

After a minute of theorizing, he couldn't find the answer.

'Where did the body go? and who made those small blood finger print? Hais, I give up maybe Master or Ophila may find the answer...'

Unsummoning his staff, Siev left the village chiefs house and started looking for his colleagues

After a minute of searching he was was able to hear Drel's painful screams, Siev fearing the worst, immediately summoned his staff again and casted a spell that can boost his speed and mobility

"Support magic: Jilwer!"

In the house where Drel, who was still clenching his groin, angerly looked at Ophila

who was currently looking down on him with her mace staff on hand.

*Swoosh*

*Bang*

"Ophila, Drel is it an enemy attack?!"

Crashing unto the room, Drel and Ophila were in, Siev immediately questioned while cautiously looking at there surroundings with his wooden staff ready for battle.

Side eyeing Siev, who just casually broke the wooden door behind them, Ophila then made a tired sigh.

"No, it's nothing Siev, I just hit him on the balls nothing much."

"Nothing much?! You almost turned me into a eunuch!" Drel retorted but still continued seething in pain.

"To be honest that would had made the world a much better place." Ophila coldly looked at Drel before asking Siev where he had been.

"So Siev did you find any clues?"

Knowing that it was mostly a false alarm, Siev quickly calmed down and retold Ophila on what he discovered on the village chief's house.

"A middle class priest in this secluded village at the south lands?" Ophila raised her eyebrows in suspicion.

"Can you tell me where the priest is? I've memorized all of the priest in the south lands, maybe I can recognize him, priests hardly ever come here after the cival war between Bogen and Morgenrot..."

"Sure, but um... what about Drel?

Siev quickly eyed at Drel in pity, and inwardly prayed to the goddess so that he can keep his family jewels.

"Leave him."

"Ah, Sure..."

*Grunt*

Leading the way to the center of the village, Ophila and Siev were quickly able to return to the familiar doorstep.

Entering the house, Ophila was able to see the young boy and the priest in front of her and just behind them is the living room where the walls, floor and furniture was covered in blood.

Being unfazed by the scene, Ophila hastily crouched down on the priest left side and then his middle aged face with greyish hair and spoke in surprised manner.

"This is Jacob Yliu, a middle class priest who stole an ancient text that dates back the prehistoric era from the holy goddess church and disappeared without a trace over 13 years ago"

Ophila then tried to check the priests neck but wasn't able to find his signature pendant.

"Did you take his pendant, Siev?"

"Yeah, I thought it could be used to help identify him but it seems like it wasn't necessary." Siev took out the pendant from his pocket and tried to give it Ophila.

"No, you can keep it, this man had a bounty from the church so give it to the south church branch when you have the time and they will give you 10,000 gold coins and two spells of your choice in the holy library." Ophila refused Siev's kind gesture but still continued frisking the priests body.

"10,000 gold?! And two spells from the holy library?! Why would the church pay so much for a single middle class priest?!" Siev couldn't help but look at the silver pendant in his hand, and questioned why an above average priest was so valuable that the church is willing to pay two spells from the holy library as compensation.

'Wait, Is it because of the ancient text? Now I know why Ophila gave it to me in the first place in terms of true value, what she really wanted was the ancient text all along!'

"Gah, it's not on him, maybe he hid it somewhere..." Ophila infuriatingly stated before standing up and finally looking at the living room in front of them.

'A struggle between a ten year old and an old man? Looking at the amount of blood loss, the kid may had been the one who killed the old man...'

'A Demon child?'

Ophila who controlled some mana into her eyes to activate her mana sight was quickly able to see the finer details around the living room and made a simple deduction.

'Why would a demon child suddenly be at the south lands? There hasn't been a sighting of a demon living in the south lands for the past 500 years after the hero of the south fought against the sages of destructions...'

Ophila went into a deep contemplation, before looking back at Siev.

"We will have to wait for master to return and tell them that a demon child is living in the forest."

"A demon child? But I thought all of them were either killed or retreated back from the north after the hero of the south vanquished the three of sages of destruction?"

Siev voiced out his opinions to Ophila.

"I don't know either, but I believe the demon child may had been the cause of the mana wave..." Ophila made a presumption through the little clues they had before finally leaving the house and went to pick up Drel.

"Ophila wait for me!"

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