Chapter 8:

"In a forest? Far from the prying eye...it seems the visitors are quite sketchy..." Elin said as he checked the foot-prints of 3 people which led deeper into the forest.

"Hmm, the owner said only 2 people had stayed the night. Maybe the third person is an accomplice whom the other two came to meet." Elin shrugged as it didn't matter. If they were dark magicians, he would eliminate them.

Dark magicians were always bad; the only good ones were dead ones.

The visitors last assumed location was supposedly the town square. After a bit of questioning, the town folk cited that they left from the south gate, towards Vivaldi. It was surprisingly easy to find the foot-prints.

There was an attempt made towards making a false trail, but the visitors seemed to forget to hide their real trails. It seemed they tried to hide the trail, but their shuffling and scratches on the ground was very obvious.

"That's weird. Did they think that nobody would come to look for them or something?" Elin remarked as he looked at the crudely hidden trails.

"Well, they're not very good at it. At the moment, they seem very suspicious."

He followed the trail, and he came across a cave.

He stealthily approached the opening of the cave and sensed two people inside, while the third one couldn't be sensed. This either meant the third person was so strong that an ex-grand sword master couldn't sense them or, that they had already left.

In any case, he needed to investigate them and find out their real intentions. He made his way inside the cave, when he saw two people in front of him; a girl and a boy. Elin lowered his body to the ground; the others were facing their backs towards him. It was a good position to strike them. But, he had to wait; he did not have enough proof.

The area of the cave was spacious, and there were many boxes laid around the cave's wall. There seemed to be some sort of magic circle on the ground. Although Elin was bad at magic, he still knew some magic circles so; he tried to get the view of it with no avail. He gave up on it. The cave seemed to go deeper than the area the people were standing around. It seemed the third person was deeper within the cave.

They may be suspicious, but they weren't dark magicians yet. He needed more information.

***

"Hey, Wallace I don't think that man is reliable. I think we should just dip when we have the chance, it'll be bad if he turns on us." A feeble girl talked to her accomplice in a sheepish voice.

"Don't worry, Emily we'll be fine. I have a plan if he turns on us. Besides, if he can really do it, then we don't have to worry. He won't try attacking us anyways, he needs us, and we have everything he needs in our hands. What is there to worry about? We outnumber him too; if he's a phony then we just silence him." Wallace talked back confidently. His cocky voice was annoying to hear.

"Bu-But your injury-", Emily seemed to say something, but Wallace just began talking on his own about some topic.

"So, they are planning to do something. I don't think I can attack yet, I don't yet have enough proof." Elin remarked about his current situation in his head. He stayed hidden.

Even without his aura, Elin was confident he could take them down, if they were truly dark magicians.

Then he came in. His appearance changed the atmosphere inside the cave. Elin became a bit worried, this man was covered in a hood like the other two, but he was leagues stronger than them.

"Can I beat this guy?" a thought came in Elin's head. He pondered over it for a second as he looked at the man.

The man was hooded and wore a cloak that hid his entire body. Very suspicious. He was quite tall, and after observing for a bit; he was quite skinny. Most magicians couldn't really be physically active, so being skinny could mean that these 3 idiots were just young magicians likely doing something stupid.

The annoying cocky boy, named Wallace, was someone in his late twenties, with dirty green hair. The girl, named Emily, seemed a bit younger and had bright orange hair. They were weak. They were nothing more than fodder; they were even weaker than the goblin group Elin had faced the other day.

"Why am I even asking the question? Of course I can. I am an ex-grand sword master, after all." Elin psyched himself up. He continued to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The tall skinny man reached his hands out. Elin was alarmed, something was happening. He needed to be ready.

The tall man was weird, he was strong. Elin knew he could beat him yet, Elin couldn't sense him for some reason.

"Ugh, this dammed body! I need to train my senses more." Elin cursed in his head.

***

"The catalyst...Hand...it over." The skinny man said. His voice was dry, and rough. It seemed to lack energy; he took deep breadths as he spoke his words.

"HUH? What's that punk? I ain't giving this to you." Wallace said quite angrily as he took out something from his cloak.

Since Elin was facing towards the back, he couldn't get a view on the item. He slowly moved so that, he could see the item as he hugged the wall while crouching. He hid behind the boxes and crates. The conversation continued as he made his way towards a place he could get a better view.

"How am I...supposed to...do it without the...catalyst?" he asked the man named Wallace.

There was a brief window of silence between them. The man named Wallace and the woman called Emily gave each other a look. Wallace looked to Emily for confirmation, and gave a slight nod; while Emily seemed concerned about this entire situation.

"UGH!" Wallace seemed like he wanted to swear at the man, as he gave the 'catalyst' to the man.

The man took the item and hid it inside his cloak, just as Elin started to peek his head above a crate. Elin was now perpendicular to the suspects and could see everything.

"When are you going to start the ritual? We don't have an entire day. So, start now" Wallace ordered the hooded man.

"What's the…hurry? The work...will take some...time, so...stop talking...You're...bothering Me." the man talked back.

"Mother-"

"Wallace!" the girl named Emily spoke up for the first time as she stopped her accomplice from enraging the man.

"Shit! I'm a bit late..." Elin cursed in his head. He listened in their conversation more, "But, it seems the girl knows that man is big trouble...Does this mean she has better sense than me?"

"Bitch! That catalyst took me 2 gold to get. It's a good thing that there was even a person in this shit town who could get it...I would do it myself if I didn't have to gather those other ingredients from that warehouse." Wallace said as massaged his right shoulder.

"Does it still hurt?" Emily asked Wallace with a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. If it weren't for that black haired bitch-", his words cut off as he changed the subject, "Ugh, it shouldn't matter anymore. The plan is almost done."

***

Elin, who had been eavesdropping, heard something very grim. He heard two things, one was about the catalyst, and the other was about money. 2 gold to be exact; the exact amount he had been paid for the goblin's hearts.

If it were any other person they wouldn't have known, but it was Elin, someone who had a more experiences on this topic than any other person on this subject.

Demons.

Wallace smiled ear to ear, like a snake, his face twisted and contorted, making Emily, the other dark magician flinched. He laughed hysterically like an actual demon.

The hooded man returned and started making something on the magic circle with a branch, he held a stone on his left hand, and the catalyst on his right.

The spheroid stone was a translucent red color and had a blue tinted core in its center. It was an object Elin knew all too well, the sacrificial soul stone. Made from sacrifices it was a stone that held souls of its sacrifices to be used as an ingredient for dark magic.

The catalyst was a spherical in shape and had a deep red color. The sphere oozed dark red energy as the man put mana into it. It could only be made with a very special technique, which required very rare and hard to find ingredients along with monster hearts. The hearts of the goblins fetched by Elin were used to make that thing, although using goblin hearts would mean that the demon would be of the lowest tier at best. It was a thing that made summoning a demon into the mortal realm possible without any large scale genocide. It was also the reason, Elin's no Rebecca's world fell to ruin.

"How..." Elin was stunned, he had thought no one in this world could have the knowledge to create that...thing, but he was wrong. But, this was not the time to be stunned. He needed to make sure the demon wouldn't be summoned, so he needed to be alert.

Elin did not attack right after knowing their identity. He knew the one he had to be worried about was the tall skinny man. He also knew the weakness for this summoning technique, a trade for ease of access. If he waited until the man was concentrating his mana, before choosing a host; he would be almost immobile and susceptible to damage.

Now, Elin just had to wait for the right time.

***

About half an hour later, the man began floating up in the air. He was about 20 centimeters off the ground, as the dark mana around him began to encircle him. The magic circle began glowing a disgusting purple color.

He was now concentrating on fueling the magic circle while, Emily started to guard him.

"The hosts reach out your hand, and touch the catalyst." He commanded. His voice was distorted. His previous rough voice was no more. He spoke normally without taking any big breadths unlike before.

Wallace was about to step up when suddenly a shadowy figure stepped up towards him.

"Summoning a demon using goblin hearts? What an interesting idea. Maybe if you tell me who gave you that idea I'll let you have an easy death." Elin slowly came out of hiding.

As his figure came to the dim light inside the cave, Wallace and Emily shuddered. They thought they had hidden their tracks pretty well. So, who could have followed them?

"YOU BASTARD, WHO ARE YOU?!" Wallace shouted as he looked at Elin and Emily readied a black magic spell.

Then, Elin's figure was fully illuminated in the dim light. The silver armor reflected the light making him seem more imposing.

"Ah!" Wallace remarked "You're just a kid, aren't you? Get lost brat, can't you see we are doing important business here?" Wallace made a confident smile as he looked at Elin's body which was no taller than a 14 year old.

"Wallace, get away! That guy is dangerous!" Emily screamed at Wallace, as she began to conjure up a spell.

"Emily what do you mean? Isn't he just a lost kid? We can just take-"

"You idiot! Quickly give me your hand!" the tall man spoke up in a hurry as he reached his hand out even further.

SLICE.

Wallace's left limbs were cut off instantly in one clean strike.

Thud!

Wallace had no time to even react. With a dull noise on the stony surface, his body fell on the ground.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" he shouted at Elin, conjuring a small dark fireball and releasing it at him.

"Come on! Is that it?" Elin shrugged off. He swung his sword lightly towards the fireball, as the sword met the fireball; Elin rotated it slightly, and deflected it. Elin drew a straight line on the air towards Wallace.

And just like that, his fingers fell to the ground.

"Now, I was going to ask, how did you find out about this method of summoning a demon?"

Elin asked Wallace calmly, but he was only met with groans of pain.

"Ugh!" Elin sighed as he deflected a bigger fireball from Emily.

Elin pointed at Emily with his sword, "Wait for your turn, until then stop doing pointless shit." Elin slammed his sword vertically, digging into Wallace's right leg.

"I will ask again." Elin slowly pulled out his sword from Wallace's leg.

"How." Slam!

"Did." Slam!

"You." Slam!

"Find." Slam!

"This." Slam!

"Method." SLAM!

Elin slammed his sword into different areas of Wallace's leg each time he spoke a word.

Wallace was now crying. Nothing else could be heard aside from his groans of pain.

"God damn it! Useless!" Elin cursed out loud as with a light swing, Wallace's head fell on the ground.

He was dead.

"Ugh, I hoped to get some more information off him, but it's too late for that now. Well, I have 2 more at least." Elin turned towards Emily, who was again readying another spell.

Elin raised his hand slightly above his torso and drew a straight line in the air.

Slice.

Emily's right wrist was cut off; the magic she was conjuring dissipated, and began rebounding.

"I told you not to do pointless shit. Why don't you just listen?"

"ARGHHHH!" Emily screamed in pain, she fell on her behind.

This was not only due to her limb being cut off but also, because of her rebounding. She began coughing up blood, as the mana which she had been using to conjure the spell tried to quickly re-enter her body.

Elin crouched in front of her, and made eye contact with her. Emily who was barely conscious, in excruciating pain, and now in fear looked into Elin's blue eyes which shone through the piece hiding his face.

"Ok young lass, I'll ask you once, how did you find out about the goblin hearts and the catalyst? You can answer it now or you can be tortured until that demon is summoned." Elin spoke confidently.

Seeing his confidence scared Emily to the point she almost soiled herself.

"Th-that man, he-he was the ah...o-one who came up to us. He...he was the one wh-wh-who had that meh-method. Pl-please sp-spa-spare m...m-me." Emily stuttered as she answered back.

Elin looked at her without any sort of human emotion.

Dark magicians were scum, the trash of the world, the villains. They were those who treated other beings like laboratory test subjects at best, things that had no value, they were those who would treat genocide lightly. They should be annihilated at all cost, that was Elin's view of them. And, this girl, the dark magician, was asking for forgiveness?

Of course not!

With a swift strike, Emily was dead. Her head fell to the ground; she was given a quick death. Elin...no, Eleanor and Rebecca had no mercy for dark magicians, in fact she despised them. But, she was also a "man of her words", so she gave her a quick death.

After Emily's death, Elin slowly stood up and looked at the tall man, floating in the middle of the room. He was concentrating his mana into the magic circle. If something were to disrupt his ritual, it would end terribly for him.

Mana rebound was the worst pain for magicians; it could even cripple them if the rebound was big enough. And, now this dark mage was in front of Elin, concentrating his mana, immobile. He was absolutely astonished, as his eyes glowed purple under his hood.

He looked at Elin with contempt in his eyes. Elin stared back at him.

.

.

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"The fuck you're looking at, bitch?"

[Sword slash: Type 15]

Crescent draw

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SLICE.