Seed of Malice

"Ho? You are actually able to deflect that? It's impressive."

Arthur was impressed by the reflex of the bald guy. Other mercenaries were not worth even a second glance, but the bald guy and the man hiding behind the energy shield were intriguing to him.

"I wasn't expecting to meet with some intriguing people. But unfortunately, I'm not in the mood to chat with you."

Arthur pointed his hand towards the mercenaries and a strong gust of wind released from his hand. The gust of wind impacted the mercenaries and blew all of them away aside from the priest who was hiding behind an energy shield. The priest had a horrified expression on his face. He fell to his knees and his body start shaking. Arthur noticed that the malice and ill intent he sensed earlier was coming from the priest. No, more accurately it was coming from the staff he was holding.

"Hmm? That energy shield was able to withstand my spell. Interesting. The mana leaking from your body isn't much so you can't be a powerful mage. Then it must be magic items. That staff you are holding must be the one. Still, the magic is weird. It's not mana, is it?"

While Arthur was murmuring to himself Connie appeared behind him. He swung his ax to his head but Arthur caught it with his thumb and index finger. Then he broke the giant ax with his two fingers. It shattered into thousand pieces like broken glass. This dumbfounded both Connie and Ezra. But their surprises weren't over. Arthur flicked the energy shield with his finger and this one also shattered into many pieces.

"This is made of... miasma. But how?"

"W-who are you! We are sent by the church under the orders of his holiness the pope! You will face the wrath of the Goddess Olena. You will burn you heretic!"

"[Hypnosis]. What does his holiness order you to do here?"

"Find a cursed artifact and bring it back to the church back in the capital."

"How do you intend to find it? What is its name?"

"... I have given a compass that shows the location of the artifact. I have been told that its name is Seed of Malice."

"How did the church learn this artifact?"

"I don't know."

After that Arthur kept asking questions but he didn't get any useful answers. He released a heavy sigh. He understand that he couldn't get anything more from the priest and he killed him with a wind blade beheading him. He turned back and saw Ellie sitting on top of a boulder while the dead bodies of mercenaries were lying around her. She had an innocent look on her face as she watched Arthur.

"They tried to escape so I killed them."

"What if some of them knew something important?"

"I already checked their memories but all they knew was this mission was coming from the church and they would be rewarded heavily."

"I see. Nothing useful. Let's return to the mansion. We will go to my workshop when we get the seed."

"Okay~"

Kitsunes and their descendants can read the memories of recently dead people. Of course, to do this they need considerable power but the mere fact of this ability being real is made some other demi-humans afraid of them. In the past, they were often treated as outcasts by others. This in turn made their lives harder and in time their numbers decreased a lot.

Ellie has now five tails and she can use most of the magic and techniques passed down from her ancestors. She is nowhere near my level but in twenty years she might catch up. Well, if the world would still be around. I can possibly take us to another planet but, I feel some kind of bond with this world. I do not wish it to die, not yet.

"There is only an hour left. After taking the seed and placing it into my workshop, I will pay a visit to the church."

"To save the demon they caught?"

"Yes. Darius and his family were like my second family. Now that there is a possibility of one of them being caught by the church, I can't sit still."

"Why didn't you take them after Demon Lord died?"

"At that time I thought everyone was already dead. The last ember aside from Darius himself was his sister. And she died while fighting on the frontlines. Their parents died because of a rare illness and their cousin was killed in a huge explosion even before the parents died. The last one was Darius himself."

"Then how come the church knows here and even has a compass showing the direction of the mansion?"

"There is only one thing I can think of. Someone survived and was caught by the church. If it's true, I don't know how long they were suffering at the hands of the humans."

The church and the big majority of humans believe in the religion of the Goddess Olena. According to their religion, humans are the superior race and all the other races are just faulty creations. And with the effects of the war, humans' hatred for demi-humans and demons is too high. The demons are already being used as slaves and if humans win the current war the result will be the same for the demi-humans.

"I'm going to attack the church. Even if they don't have any demons in their headquarters I will try to learn why they have magic items that can control miasma."

"You are acting rash. Even if they have demons or someone from the Demon Lord's family, they might not hold them in their headquarters. If you attack them without knowing where they are or a decent plan, the church would erase every clue we might find and we won't be able to find them at all."

Arthur fell silent. He know that Ellie was right. He couldn't solve everything just by attacking. He needs to be patient and plan it before acting rash. He released a heavy sigh. He decides to focus on the staff he got from the priest. This was a magic item that can control the miasma.

Miasma was polluting the world and it even creates monsters. It is the second biggest threat in the world. The biggest threat was of course the death of the world itself. But if it's not done something, miasma would eventually poison the ley lines. It was poison for the world and no one knew where it came from.

"Should I convert miasma into mana? But it would take a lot of effort to purify it and then converting it to mana would also take a lot of time... Perhaps, I can make something that will automatically do this process. Like... a tree? A tree that can turn convert miasma to mana, maybe I can also make it so that it can create fruits made of mana that can boost people's mana or its regeneration rate."

While Arthur murmured to himself Ellie watched him. She had a loving smile on her face and she played with her hair. She loved to watch him when he was seriously working on something.

"Hmm? The full moon is up. It's time to harvest it. Let's go, Ellie."

"Yes! Let's harvest it!"

They moved to the backyard of the mansion. It was a big garden full of overgrown plants. But the middle of the garden was devoid of any plant life except for green grass. In a few seconds, the moonlight falls on the grass and a new plant sprout from there. This plant had a purple heart-shaped flower that was beating exactly like a heart.

"This is the Seed of Malice. Now, we only need to take the philosopher's stone and we can leave."

Arthur gently took the Seed of Malice and placed it into his personal space. It was too sensitive so he didn't want to damage it. They return to the mansion and he opened a secret trap door leading to the basement. In the basement, there was a vault protected by strong magic. This was one of the strongest magics Ellie ever saw.

"I cast this magic."

Arthur had a smug smile after seeing her amazed expression. He easily opened the vault and inside of it, was a big blue crystal as big as a human. It was shining and anyone who saw it couldn't help but be attracted to it. Arthur quickly put it in his personal dimension too.

"Isn't it... kind of idiotic to leave this in here with not much protection?"

"There are a lot of protections you just haven't seen them because you came here with me. Anyway, let's go. We are done here."