Chapter 88. Array

Alaric knew that misleading them for long was going to have some setbacks like having himself figured out. If he kept creating the arrays, they would easily find them.

***

It had been one hour later but they had found no other array. Joan had assembled the teams together. She could not help but wonder how culculative he was. Just how accurate his deductions were.

He had anticipated that they would have to see the arrays and also that theywould think that he would continue to use arrays to mislead them. They had fallen right into his game and had searched for arrays for the next one hour fruitlessly.

Yet, he had made no other array. She was silent for five minutes. She was beginning to doubt her own intelligence. Falling into his trap three times was a big fall for her intelligent self. Especially when she was his teacher.

Unconciously, she had started taking him seriously and treating him like a worthy rival. The fact that she was taking her time to come up with the next move was clear proof for that.

She thought of three possibilities. 1. The fact that he had set the arrays to lure them in different directions and then escape from the forest, 2. The fact that they was actually in the deeper parts of the forest and 3. The possibility that there was a god and all this was but a mere coincidence.

The third possibility could render the first two useless. She had foolishly destroyed the array in the city. Maybe they had left for good by now. She was telling these possibilities to the guys and they seemed to agree.

"But the most probable is that he is deep inside the forest," she said cancelling the first and third possibility. "The method I am about to use to cancel the third possibility is going to take at least thirty minutes. Anyone with essence stones should bring them."

Joan instructed the guys and they hesitantly gave her each few essence stones but no one dared remove a yellow or black essence stone. Joan started creating an array.

Everyone watched in awe as she drew complex patterns accurately. The array glowed pink and started channeling energy from the essence stones she had them place on the ground.

The array kept growing larger and it suddenly started levitating. She stopped after twenty minutes of hardwork with a sweat on her forehead. But the array did not stop absorbing energy from the essence stones.

The array kept growing wider and the blue essence stones were dimming. Some had already gotten colourless.

"It needs more," Joan said and started pouring yellow essence stones from her storage ring.

The rest of them poured few yellow essence stones and more blue essence stones. The array started growing at a faster rate. It rose above the trees and stopped ten meters above the tallest tree.

The bue essence stones got sucked up very fast as the array widened spanning almost five hundred meters and still growing. The blue essence stones all turned as clear as glass and the yellow essence stones were losing colour and becoming blue.

Everyone watched in awe as they realized why they were yellow and worth 1,000 blue essence stones.

"The reward for this mission is going to be a hundred transcendent stones. Pour all the essence stones you have," Joan said to them. Just who did not want to have a Transcendent stone.

Transcendent stones were rare. Even rare could be said to be in surplus. A Transcendent stone was enough to last you for the rest of your life without ever working again. It was even enough to start an empire. Transcendent stones were said to come from the Transcendent Realm.

Transcendent stones were in the form of crystals. It was said that a hundred transcendent stones merged to form an elemental core. An elemental core of a said element enabled one to gain affinity to the said element in the First Grade!

Transcendent stones were so expensive such that even black essence stones could not buy them. When everyone heard the reward, they poured all the essence stones they had in their storage rings including black ones.

The only ones who did not even bother were the two guys. Everyone watched as the array greedily absorbed energy from the essence stones. At the moment, blue essence stones did not stand a chance.

The yellow essence stones were turning blue at a very fast rate. The black essence stones did not even show signs of changing despite the fact that they were giving off the most energy.

All blue and yellow esssence stones had already turned to clear glass and only the black ones remained. The array was now reaching a ten kilometer diameter and growing.

In twenty minutes, the black essence stones turned yellow and rapidly turned blue and clear. The array stopped growing after covering the entire forest. The whole forest appeared to have a pink glow and the beasts had to take shelter.

"I will find them in ten minutes," she said confidently and in the ten minutes, she found them. "They are almost 50 kilometers inside the forest. It is very foolish of them. But still smart," Joan said

The array had enough energy in to sustain it for ten years at the moment. She told her gang the direction to follow. They headed deeper in the forest and at one point reached the waterfall. On top of the array, there were two dots that were moving rapidly.

But Joan and her gang were moving faster.

***

Alaric and Aurora were resting. He knew that the chances of their pursuers coming into the forest were close to zero. Also, they had gotten a distance that would require them some time to bridge the gap.

They were silent but they saw something glow in the sky. He had accounted for all possibilities but he never had accounted for the array expert using a wide range detective array. The pink glow was very familiar to them.

They looked at each other and then at the array which was now growing towards them. Their eyes showed denial because they could not believe that it was their array teacher.

The array grew and reached them. It then proceeded and grew away from them. Their faces shone pink and so did the surroundings. They felt like they had hit a dead end.

Alaric quickly scooped and activated a speed technique. He knew that they were safe from the beasts because the array was scaring them away.

He was moving as fast as he could. But he could tell that it was not enough. He needed to go faster but he was at his limit. Even his wind was not supplementing so much.

"Stop," Aurora said calmly. Alaric pretended he had not heard her but she once again told him to stop.

"Why?" He asked not stopping.

"Its pointless. Everything under this array is in her vision. Can't you see the two dots in the sky?" Aurora spoke like she had given up on all hope.

Alaric stopped and looked at the two dots. It really was useless to run. Even the speed they were approaching was ten times faster than his.

"This is not the end," Alaric said almost to himself.

"It does look like it is," Aurora said.

"Well, we are not giving them a hard time again. Let them come. They will regret messing with me," Alaric said as he sat down.

Aurora just did the same and they started chatting. It took an entire fifteen minutes for them to catch up. Alaric saw Joan leading the group. He stood up and stretched. He had a bored look on his face.

"Took you long enough. I even thought you were never going to catch up," Alaric said.

" I must say you almost had us leave you, the last trick," Joan said with a proud smile. Like someone who had beaten her long term rival.

"Don't you bunch of adults think that its very shameful of you to go after two teens in a group of thirty. How laughable," he said with a sneer.

" Don't run your mouth kid. We can kill you here on spot," one of the unmasked guys spoke.

" I was wondering why you were falling for my cheap trick. Who could have thought that you were following her. Excessive intelligence is surely harmful," Alaric said and laughed.

Joan clenched her teeth when she heard his words. Yes, a part of her was happy to be acknowledged but she realized that it was like he was insulting her intelligence.

"I have been waiting to find you so that I can skin you alive infront of her. It is going to be very satisfying. Don't you think so Aurora? The same way your mother died infront of your eyes. It felt very good slicing her throat that day. It brings a very refreshing memory," Joan said in reminiscence.

" Stop it!" Aurora screamed closing her ears with her hands and shut her eyes. The unclear memories from six years ago resurfacing clearly.