Chapter 236: Looking for Veronica
Now what? Should I go to where Veronica supposed to hide right away? I guess that"s the case.
I don"t mind if Celestine has found Veronica first. Veronica should be able to hold for a while against Celestine. But if the cult sent specialized people to chase after either of them, and they have found out that Veronica is actually helping Celestine, it will be complicated.
For now, I need to explain some things to the villagers.
The fire has gone, and one by one, the villagers have returned to see the status of their own house. Some houses are still standing, some are totally destroyed. But a white-haired old man who seems to be the Village chief suggested that some those whose house is still standing to let people whose house is destroyed stay for a while until they can rebuild the house.
Should I give them some compensation? It"s not like I"m the cause of their problem, right? And I"m disguising myself as criminal. There"s no way I can help them.
So, I approached the Village Elder to explain the situation.
"Are you the Village Chief?" I asked the white-haired old man.
"I am. Thank you for stopping the fire. But do you know who those people are? And where are they now?" The Village Chief looked at the dead bodies of the cult members I killed.
"How much do you know about the stampede that happened all over the kingdom few months ago?" I asked if the chief knew about the existence of the cult or not.
"Although this village is not like the city where they can easily get information, as the chief, I have the privilege to collect information from merchants, hunters, traveler, and villagers who returned from the city. I heard about evil cult. Are they related to the cult?"
"Yes. These people who died here are members of said cult. And those who disappear are orphans whom these people tried to kidnap. As for me, you can call me Ninja. If someone asked you about these people, just tell them that Ninja come here and kill everyone. I"m leaving now."
There"s no need to explain further to the chief. Unless they want to fight the cult, I don"t think I need to explain everything. Just letting them know that I"m Ninja who killed these people should be enough. Now, if the cult asked the chief, they will target Ninja.
I left the village along with Shelia. We went directly to where Veronica supposed to be hiding with Sonia showing us the direction we should take.
"…Roy, there"s one thing I forgot to tell you." While on the way, Victoria have something to say.
"What is it?"
"Actually, Ninja is a term from my world. You should have known that, right? Then when Javier told me that his first master was from my world, I started to think "what if there"s another otherworlder in the cult?" If there is really one person from the same world as me, then that person would notice Ninja and find you no matter what."
I stopped my advance when I heard Victoria"s confession.
"Then why did I call myself Ninja!? I will be their main target now!? Wait! Maybe I can use this to my advantage. Ah! I"ll think about it later!"
I continue running again since there"s no point in thinking complicated stuff when I have something important to do.
"Right! We can use it for our advantage! Although Ninja is a term from my world, you are not someone from my world! If someone asked you about something from my world, you won"t understand it, while I will try my best to keep my mouth shut! That way, we can tell if someone is from my world or not. If they are members of the cult, we should kill them before they can do anything." Victoria explain while we"re on the move.
"You sure you"re fine with killing your own kind? Don"t you have something that you like to share with them?" I asked.
"I don"t mind. This is my error after all. I shouldn"t have given you a name that people from my world will notice. Well, it already happened, so let"s use it as our advantage in finding more people from my world if there are any. And if we"re sure that they are part of the cult, you can kill them. If you"re not sure, we"ll investigate about them more before we decide if we could kill them or get them to be our allies."
That"s a good idea. Just by learning about air from Victoria alone is enough to get my air element so strong. What would happen if someone from her world able to use magic? That would be dangerous. Otherworlders need to be eliminated as soon as possible. Well, if they became our allies, it should be fine.
"Roy! I can smell several people in the forest!" Shelia shouted.
Seems like there are other people than Veronica and Celestine. When I get closer, I can see them. I don"t know if they are expert level mages or not, so it"s better if I slowed down my pace. Seems like we are getting closer to where Veronica is.
To make sure our secret way of communication, Sonia, not being found by the cult, I told her to leave.
Suddenly, I felt danger approaching.
"Shelia, get down!"
Shelia and I lay our stomach to the ground at the same time, then soon after I heard the sound of wind coming toward us and slashing the trees.
That wind is from wind magic! And a powerful one at that! It might be Veronica"s magic since she"s an expert level wind mage!
But even if I thought that it was Veronica"s magic, and even after the wind pa.s.sed above us and cutting the trees around, we still lay on the ground. We waited until it"s clear to move.
"What was that!? So powerful!" Shelia asked.
"Probably an expert level wind magic is fighting. It"s probably Veronica. But let"s stay down for a while."
I checked the situation, and see that the people I see from before in front of us are already dead. They are split in half in their body. Some of them noticed the attack, but it was too late for them to escape, so they got their neck decapitated. But some of them still alive and they keep moving forward.
Scary! This is how powerful an expert level mage is? I don"t want to get closer.
But if I don"t help her, Veronica might die. And our potential helper, Celestine, will also die as well. I don"t think all of the cult members chasing after them have died. Since they know that they will be fighting two expert level mages, they should be bringing several expert level mages as well.
Well, at least with that attack, there are fewer people chasing after the two. But I might die if I don"t sense the danger!
"So, there are an even more powerful mage in this world, huh? I can"t wait until the war is coming." Shelia said. She"s always keen on fighting more powerful mages after staying in our world for a while.
"Umm… I don"t want the war to happen though. Well, for now, let"s advance carefully. Victoria, you need to transform into a snake and scout ahead. I"ll be following you once you"re at the edge of my vision." I ordered Victoria to scout.
"Okay. And if possible, I"ll try to make contact with Veronica. You just need to figure out how to get everyone out of there safely." Victoria suggested.
"Yeah. I might need some reinforcement as well. I"ll call other Werewolves once we get closer and see the numbers of our enemies we must defeat."
I have tested it and I can call other Werewolves to my world even without contract. But I have to use portals to call them over. I can"t just summon them in front of me like how I summon Victoria and Shelia.
How did the knowledge of summoner"s portal magic disappear?
Maybe because we"re too strong.
We can call as many monsters from Monsters World as we want. And this Evil G.o.d think that we"re dangerous, so after killing all Aura users, he started killing summoners.
I have no proof of that, but I think my guess is right.
But what about tamers? I guess he thought that the monsters in this world is less dangerous than monsters from Monsters World.
"Let"s go. Victoria is already ahead." I told Shelia that we can move now.
But once we move only for a short while, there"s a huge earthquake and the ground is split.
"Escape to the sky!"
This time, I told Shelia to escape to the sky.
The earthquake is so strong that the ground where we were standing is split. Good thing Victoria is fine. She"s still moving ahead to where Veronica should be.
"An earthquake this time?"
"There should be an earth mage as well. Probably also an expert level. We"ll wait until the ground stop shaking and we"ll continue our advance on land. There"s nowhere to hide in the sky."
Shelia nodded and once the ground stop shaking, we landed on the ground and continue our advance.
Although the trees are cut, they can still be used for our hiding spot.
We advance carefully from then on. And once I can see more people, I open up a portal and call some Werewolves. Just twenty should be enough.
Now, how do I make my entrance?