Chapter 180: Shurahat: Rhodes is Coming for Me
As Serie's magic relentlessly reaped a harvest of death, in a dark cave far from the battlefield of Weiburg, a familiar figure stood.
Before him was a translucent magical screen, and on it, the small, distant figure of Serie, laying waste to all before her.
"Heh... hahaha," Shurahat let out a low, suppressed laugh. "Serie... your power is as terrifying as ever."
He had sent a force of twelve demons, three of them great demons, to test her, to slow her down. He had even hoped they might wound her. But reality had dealt him a harsh blow. Before her, a "great demon" was as fragile as a human. Their siege... it was more like a suicide mission. If I hadn't had my foresight, he thought, I would have surely met the same fate.
And now, to see his trusted subordinates so easily dispatched... his heart bled. Each great demon was the culmination of hundreds of years of accumulated power. "A great loss... a truly great loss..." he murmured, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white.
But the pain of it was quickly replaced by another thought. A cold smile spread across his lips as he looked at the heart-stopping figure on the screen. "But... fortunately, Grausam's plan is about to succeed. And then, Serie, no matter how powerful you are, there will be nothing you can do."
He looked away, to the west, to the Kingdom of Ersten, where his true ace, the great demon Grausam, was putting his secret plan into motion. Their target: the holy sword, 'The Light of Ersten', the sword that held a thousand years of human faith.
"He should be about to make his move," he said, a greedy light in his eyes. "That sword... the energy it holds is unimaginable. And once it is corrupted, once its core power has been reversed... then even you, Serie, will be helpless before its absolute power."
The thought of it chased away most of his gloom. To sacrifice a few demons, to gain a weapon that could not only suppress but destroy her... it was a worthy trade.
He returned his attention to the crystal ball, to observe her, to gauge her true strength, to prepare for their final battle.
And it was then that he saw him. The one who had so effortlessly defeated the demon. The distance was too great to make out his face, but he could see his movements. And he saw him, constantly looking up, as if searching for something.
"This human... he's no ordinary mage," he thought with a frown. "Is he her new apprentice? His senses are... remarkably keen."
The spell he himself was using was a detection spell, one that he had found in the first human grimoire, a spell created by the first god-slayer, Rhodes. He had been so shocked by the magic in that book. Just who was he, he had wondered, to have created such incredible things? He had even felt a pang of regret, that he had not been born in that era, that he had not been able to study this incredible man.
He had spent a decade studying that spell and had improved upon it, and had named his new creation "The Eye of the Abyss." The original spell, to him, had been like echolocation, a crude tool that could only detect the general number and direction of the enemy. But his spell... it was a true and proper scrying spell, an invisible eye that could see everything within its range.
But of course, it had its own limitations. The target could not be too far away, or the image would be blurred, as it was now. And the cost... it was a great deal of mana, and a much more noticeable magical fluctuation. If a keen-sensed mage were to be in the area, they could easily detect his presence. But he had been so far away, and the battlefield so chaotic... he had been sure that he was safe, that his spell was a perfect, invisible eye.
But he had been wrong.
The human on the screen... he had suddenly stopped. He was not looking at the demons, not at the battle, but... up. His eyes, even through the blur of the spell, he could feel them, on him.
"What!?"
His own eyes widened in shock, and he stumbled back, his back hitting the cold stone wall. "Impossible! It must be a coincidence! He couldn't have sensed my spell!" He had never thought that his own, prized spell could be detected by a mere human, and from so far away.
And in that human's eyes... there was a strange familiarity, a feeling of having seen them before.
And then, the man on the screen looked down and said something to the human girl, and he felt a wave of relief.
But then, he moved.
Without a single incantation, his form blurred, and he was in the air, a streak of light that was almost too fast for the eye to follow, and he was gone from the battlefield.
Serie, who was in the middle of a fight, also noticed his departure. "He's sensed him," she murmured. She herself had felt it, that faint sense of being watched. And now he was gone to deal with it.
A new rage, a cold and calculated rage, now filled her. She unleashed all of her power, and a new and terrible rain of death fell upon the unfortunate demons who were still in her path.
He had also unleashed all of his power, his flight speed now at its absolute maximum, and he was streaking towards Shurahat's location.
"He's coming for me!?"
A new and terrible fear, a cold that was far colder than the icy cavern around him, now washed over him.
He had not only been detected, but had also been tracked, in such a short amount of time, in such a chaotic magical environment... what kind of a monstrous understanding of detection magic did this man possess?
(End of chapter)
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