CHAPTER 55 - Unexpected

There wasn't anything new or special to point out from the meeting. The decision to move out of the city and into the forest was unanimous.

The negative side of staying in the city far outweighed the positive things that we could get from staying, so it was decided to leave with everything we had and depart the day after tomorrow, using the morning to make our way into the forest with everything we could carry.

Once that was done, I used the last hours of daylight to take a peek at what that guy with the rod was planning. I wanted to have an idea of what he was planning.

Reaching the area where I was told he was seen last time, I carefully and stealthily approach the place. While on the lookout for any movement around, I scout the place.

Soon enough, I spot a charred circle in the middle of what before was a square. Inside the charred area, I can spot some lines amidst the dust and ashes, looking like engravings of something big.

I look around the place for a safe distance, not daring to get too close in case there are more of those engravings and I activate some kind of trap unaware. Time passes, and at last I spot him.

My blood boils as I look at him, but I still try to hide my intentions so as not to alert the guy.

He is dragging something, at least I think it is a he, as I can't see its face, it could be a humanoid monster for all I know. In fact, it is probably the most probable outcome, taking into account who he is working for.

He drags one of the armored panthers that I am already familiar with. The beast is alive, and it trashes around in his grip, trying to flee from his grasp, but with no results whatsoever.

On his other hand, he carries the golden rod that I am familiar with, but I can see that it carries an even more sparkling and strong hue.

As he drags on the beast, I can see just how strong the guy is. It makes sense, he is the creator of those massive artificial storms, but I still had that misconception that maybe it was just the ritual that he performed that made it possible.

It is clear to me, the guy is strong in his own right, it carries its weight as it throws the live beast in the middle of the circle I spotted before. Once the beast touches the ground, it tries to flee in the opposite direction, but the engraving on the floor starts to shine and a nearly transparent dome surrounds it, preventing its escape from any angle. It tries to dig below the dome of light, but it's a vain attempt as it finds that the barrier also encompasses the floor.

Facing the guy again, it takes an aggressive stance, ready to perform a last-ditch effort to get out alive.

The guy controls the circle where he tossed the panther, he was the one who activated the barrier once the beast was inside and the one who created it probably too.

He doesn't react much to the efforts of the beast as he bumps it's rod into the ground and starts mumbling something that I am unable to hear from here, only able to tell due to the movements of its lips with my improved vision.

Waiting to see the whole process, I lay quietly out of reach to see how the whole thing unfolds.

Seconds go by, showing that whatever thing he is cooking now it's far more complex and difficult than the circle where the beast is still trapped. A whole minute must have passed when something happens.

Another circle, made up of engraving just like the other one that keeps the beast at bay, starts glowing up. This one though, is huge, humongous in fact. It covers the whole square and in some parts it extends into the city, passing in between the buildings.

Once activated, the beast inside the dome starts shaking in fear. I watch in awe as a feeling of dread appears all around and the beast starts disintegrating.

With a howl that sends shivers down my spine, the animal disappears from this world, leaving behind only a group of shiny particles that float around inside the barrier. Particles that the guy soon comes closer to collect with its golden staff once he pushes it through the barrier.

He holds the rod perfectly still as all the floating lights adhere to the rod little by little, making its golden color even stronger. Once all of them are glued to the staff, he dispels the barrier and sits down for a while on a nearby rock.

I can't help but wince at that. Not even a sign of struggle, the beast is gone, just like that, obliterated into motes of light in one go.

'Just thinking about it makes me scared of what he may be able to pull off if we were to fight. Would I be able to escape that dome if I were the one being trapped? I don't know…'

The only way to know that is to intentionally let myself get caught, and that's not happening. I could ambush it right now, seeing that he is catching its breath, meaning that repeating that whole thing must be tiring to some degree.

Looking at it from an objective point of view though, it doesn't really matter how tiring it is for him if it kills me. Once I am dead, I am dead, no turning back from that.

'As far as I know, he is still in the dark about my presence here, I should gather more intel before acting, let's stay around for a while.' And so, I choose to stay.

I wait for the guy to move, and when he does, he goes to the middle of the square and does something to the small circle of engravings there.

Once that's done, he goes to fetch some more beasts and monsters to repeat the process. A few monster deaths after that, his golden rod shines brighter than ever, even showing signs of the motes of light moving around and wanting to float away.

Once the guy finishes resting again, he goes to the middle circle again, but this time he does something different. After a few rounds of merciless killing, he does something different.

After fiddling around with it for a while he takes one of the corners of the square as his position before planting the rod in the ground again. He stays like that for a while, and just when I was starting to think that he was just going to leave, he throws away his robe.

A man, at least that is what his looks suggests, covered in purple and golden sigils comes into view.

He seems malnourished and not that well off by his physical appearance, but I know better than that. It is still the same body that toyed with the beasts and monsters that he brought before. So it clearly holds more than enough power to tear through steel with its bare hands.

The man, seemingly unaware of my existence, starts preparing as he starts chanting some weird things that slowly activate the sigils on his skin. Some unknown power starts coursing through his sigils like snakes slithering all around his body as they all start to pulse with power.

It is too far away for me to tell what kind of energy it is or if I even have any knowledge of it, but one thing is clear, whatever he is going to do is on a whole different level from before, which makes me prepare for the worst.

He keeps pumping up energy through its body with no signs of stopping any time soon. When he looks like he's about to explode though, he grabs the golden rod with both hands, sending every bit of the energy into it and creating a ripple in its end.

It starts quietly, as a small sphere that resembles one of the motes of light from before, just with a black color. With time, it grows to become apple size, and soon later enlarging itself even bigger and bigger.

The more it grows the more pale the man becomes. He keeps giving his all to pour every bit of energy into the rod as it shipons all the energy it gets into that black sphere. It shines brightly as it does so, the effects of the bright light visibly reinforcing the already compressed energy into the sphere.

*Crack*

"¡Huh!?" Taken by surprise, I look at where the sound is coming from.

*Crack*

And sure enough, it's the sphere.

*Crack*

*Crack*

I squint my eyes.

'Fuck! The shattering noises are from the fabric of space being broken by force by this guy!'

'I should stop him, I really should…' I think as I see the void enlarge inside the sphere and expand to devour the rest of the sphere to open up a bigger hole to who knows where.

'I may have watched too many TV shows, but if he is opening a portal to somewhere, nothing good could possibly come from it.

My fears become true when the rift opens up a bit more and I can see a couple of reptilian eyes on the other side, peering into this world through the portal. It's scaly skin only helps to reinforce a primal fear that comes from within as I imagine what I am dealing with.

I instantly make a knife from mana with a tip-filled to the brim with qi and launch it at the portal, trying to stop that thing from crossing over by making the portal collapse.

Not missing a beat, I take one of my newly acquired weapons, the black knife with the camouflage properties. I imbue it with qi and launch it too, but this time at the man behind the creation of the rift, going for the kill taking advantage of his lack of focus on anything but the portal.

Both projectiles hit their respective targets, and the mana knife explodes as intended after colliding with the beast on the other side, drawing blood with a big explosion.

The other one, however, is stopped by the man. He just blocks it with one of his arms, flinging again the same knife that before went through a few centimeters of concrete before with ease.

He does take a lot of damage though, making him focus on something else makes him lose focus on the rift and that, coupled with the disturbance of my other knife makes it start to distort.

"You fucker! Making me waste my life like this when I was so close!"

The man shouts something at me, but I can't understand a thing he says due to the language barrier, so I keep gathering qi and mana. I am on my way to create a replica of the same orb of destruction I brought with me when visiting the vampires, the only difference being its size and power, obviously smaller due to the short time of preparation.

The man, seeing me staying quiet, goes back to keeping the portal under control, and unfortunately for me, he does something again. He screams as the sigils on his skin shine with so much strength that nearly blinds me.

The newer surge of energy expands the portal at an astonishing pace as the guy starts to die in the process, decomposing as he feeds the rod with energy.

The bloody eye of the monster on the other side comes into view again, but this time I can see the other one too due to its increased size.

Panicking by the increase of speed, I am forced to launch my attack before it's too late and I throw the orb at the rift as I break the barrier keeping both energies at bay, letting both of them to mix.

I take cover, but can't help but peek to see the explosion that ensues.

That's when I know everyone in the whole city is fucked.

A torrent of flames comes flying through the rift as both eyes are substituted by the mouth of the creature. The flames envelop my orb before it explodes, blocking my line of sight with it.

Soon, however, an explosion does take place amidst the flames, but it's soon extinguished as the constant stream of flames eradicates everything on its path and flies into the air, hundreds of meters over me.

'I need to leave this place ASAP.'

My reaction time falls short as the beast has enough speed to leave the rift and descend on the city, smashing through the building I am staying on and sending me crashing down below all the rubble.

I reinforce not only my body, but even my clothes for a little extra protection as I hit the ground, and then I use a burst of mana perfectly timed to mold the debris all around me into a stone shell that protects me from the rest of the raining chunks of the building.

I barely survive the indirect attack, so I choose to lay low.

So I wait under the rubble, as quietly as possible.

Not daring to even breathe too loud.