The deeper they ventured into Verkes, the heavier the air became.
What little light had followed them beneath the canopy gradually faded until the forest seemed trapped beneath a permanent dusk, the enormous trees standing around them like silent pillars.
There were no birds calling from the branches, no insects humming beneath the leaves, not even the faint rustle of small animals moving through the undergrowth.
For a forest this vast, the absence of life felt wrong.
The group continued behind Elyra while several guards cleared the way ahead, cutting through thick vines and low-hanging branches while leaving marks along the trunks they passed.
If they needed to retreat, those marks would be their only guide back to the abandoned carriage.
Yet Elyra paid no attention to any of it.
She simply kept walking, her white eyes fixed ahead and her steps unnervingly steady despite the tangled roots and uneven ground beneath her feet.
Then, without warning, Elyra stopped.
Javier halted several steps behind her as the others gradually came to a stop as well.
“Elyra?”
No response.
Javier approached cautiously, watching her rigid figure as the uneasy sensation he had felt earlier returned.
Elyra stood completely motionless in the middle of the forest, her arms hanging loosely at her sides while her empty gaze remained fixed on something none of them could see.
“Elyra, can you hear me?”
She didn’t move.
Javier’s expression tightened as he realized that whatever had been pulling her through the forest was still there.
“Elyra, calm down. I’m here with you.”
Javier stepped closer and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
For several seconds, nothing happened, until her lips suddenly began to tremble.
“H-Help me…”
Javier froze.
Her voice was so faint that he almost thought he had imagined it, but then her fingers twitched at her sides and a slight tremor ran through her shoulders.
“Help me… Please… help me…”
“Elyra?”
Her breathing became uneven as the empty expression on her face slowly twisted into raw terror.
Her white eyes widened as though she were staring directly at something horrifying that none of them could see.
“HELP ME!”
Her scream tore through the silence of Verkes.
Javier immediately grabbed both of her shoulders, holding her firmly as her entire body began trembling beneath his hands.
“ELYRA! What’s happening? Elyra, look at me! I’m here. Tell me what’s wrong!”
Elyra’s head suddenly snapped upward.
Javier’s expression changed the moment he saw her face.
The terror had vanished completely, leaving nothing behind her empty white eyes.
Before he could react, a violent burst of mana erupted from her body and Elyra drove both hands into his chest.
“ARGH!”
The force launched Javier several meters backward before his body slammed against the trunk of an ancient tree.
Bark split beneath the impact, and a sharp crack echoed through the forest as he dropped onto one knee.
Javier!
Hans reacted instantly, drawing his knives as Jason and the guards raised their weapons and spread around Elyra.
Aveline stepped back as mana gathered around her hands, but Javier’s voice stopped them before anyone could attack.
“Don’t!”
Everyone hesitated.
Javier pushed himself away from the damaged trunk, one hand pressed against his side as he forced his breathing under control.
Pain spread across his back with every movement, but he straightened himself and fixed his attention on Elyra.
“Don’t attack her. Something is controlling her body. If you attack her now, Elyra will be the one who dies.”
The guards exchanged uneasy glances before slowly lowering their weapons.
Hans did not sheath his knives, but the killing intent in his posture eased as he stepped back.
Javier closed his eyes and released his mana.
The air around him trembled faintly as his perception spread outward, invisible currents extending between the trees like countless threads.
They slipped through the undergrowth, around enormous trunks and beneath twisted roots as Javier searched every direction for even the smallest disturbance.
He searched to his left and right, then behind and ahead of them, but found nothing.
Javier pushed farther, extending his mana until the group disappeared within the vast range of his perception.
He searched for footsteps, breathing, the presence of another Mana Heart, anything that might reveal whoever was manipulating Elyra, but even when he reached the limits of what he could sense, there was still nothing.
Javier slowly opened his eyes, his brows drawing together.
I’ve opened my mana pathways in every direction and searched everything around us, but there’s no presence, no movement…
no enemy.
“Lord Javier?”
Aveline’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
She stood several steps away, watching him carefully.
“What happened?”
“I tried to locate whoever is controlling Elyra.” Javier’s gaze moved through the surrounding trees.
“But there’s no one around us.”
Aveline stared at him.
“Seriously…?”
Before Javier could answer, Elyra suddenly raised one hand.
Mana erupted around her with such force that leaves were ripped from nearby branches and the surrounding trees groaned beneath the pressure.
Elyra’s eyes widened.
“Mana Spirit…”
Water began gathering around Elyra’s raised arm.
At first, only droplets formed from the moisture in the air, but more quickly followed, spiraling together until streams of water twisted violently around her hand.
The pressure compressed tighter and tighter, sharpening into dozens of narrow points.
Elyra’s lips moved.
“Torrential Water Piercing.”
Dozens of compressed water spears tore through the forest at terrifying speed.
“EVERYONE, MOVE!”
Jason’s warning came barely in time.
The soldiers scattered as the water spears tore through bark and branches as though they were paper.
Several guards threw themselves behind trees, while others rolled across the forest floor as the attacks passed only inches from their bodies.
Not everyone was fast enough.
One spear punched straight through a soldier’s chest, blood bursting from his back as the force lifted him from his feet before throwing him onto the ground.
Another struck a second guard directly through the head, dropping him before he could even scream.
“ARGH!”
“HELP!”
“GET DOWN!”
Chaos erupted around them.
Javier thrust one hand toward the earth.
“Stone Wall!”
The ground split apart as a massive slab of stone erupted in front of him.
The remaining water spears hammered against it in rapid succession, each impact sending cracks racing across its surface while fragments of stone scattered around Javier’s feet.
Javier remained behind the barrier, listening to the relentless impacts until his expression suddenly changed.
For the briefest moment, he had sensed something strange within the surrounding mana.
Again…
Beyond the cracked wall, Elyra slowly lifted her hand once more as mana gathered around her fingers.
“Everyone, stay behind the trees!” Jason shouted from cover.
“Don’t expose yourselves!”
Water began forming around Elyra again, her white eyes remaining lifeless as the streams twisted faster around her body like a violent current.
“Mana Spirit… Water Explosion.”
A deafening blast tore through the forest as a massive wave exploded outward from Elyra’s body.
Water slammed into the surrounding trees with enough force to rip several from their roots.
Trunks cracked, branches shattered, and chunks of earth were torn from the ground before being swept away by the violent current.
Javier remained behind what was left of his Stone Wall as water crashed over both sides of the barrier, but his attention was no longer on the destruction around him.
He had felt it again.
Every time Elyra activated her Mana Spirit, something changed in the mana surrounding her.
The disturbance lasted for only an instant before disappearing, but this time Javier was certain it existed.
I’ve already searched the entire area.
My mana perception covered every tree, every stretch of ground and every direction around us.
There’s no way someone standing nearby could have escaped my senses.
“Lord Javier!” Jason shouted from behind a half-broken tree.
“What are we supposed to do?! If this keeps going, we’ll all die!”
Javier barely heard him.
His mind raced through everything he had sensed. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
There had been no presence anywhere around them, yet something was unquestionably controlling Elyra.
Every time her Mana Spirit activated, he could feel the slightest disturbance before it disappeared again.
How could something be close enough to control her while remaining outside his perception?
Then an old memory surfaced.
“Javier.”
For a moment, the ruined forest around him faded as he remembered standing somewhere else years ago, a sword held in his younger hands while his master stood before him.
“Do you know the weakness of a mage who thinks he has already become powerful?”
Young Javier tilted his head.
“What is it, Master?”
His master suddenly burst into laughter.
“Because they’re big-headed! HAHAHAHA!”
Javier stared at him blankly.
“Huh?”
His master wiped a tear from the corner of his eye before raising one finger toward the sky.
“What I mean is… they’re too arrogant to look at what’s right above their heads.”
The memory vanished.
Javier’s eyes widened.
Above…
Of course.
He had spread his mana in every direction around them, searching left, right, forward and behind across the entire forest floor, but not once had he searched the sky.
Mana surged through Javier’s body.
This time, instead of spreading outward, his perception shot upward.
It raced along the towering trunks, passed through layers of tangled branches, pierced the thick canopy and continued higher into the open sky above Verkes.
Then Javier felt it.
A presence.
His expression darkened.
There you are.
“Found you.”
Jason looked toward him.
“What?”
Javier slowly raised his face toward the canopy.
“Above us.”
Everyone followed his attention upward.
At first, there was nothing but tangled branches and fragments of sky, until they finally noticed a humanoid figure standing high above the forest canopy upon what appeared to be a strange flying broom.
A dark robe shifted gently around the figure in the wind, while a hood concealed most of their face.
But Javier’s attention immediately fell upon something else.
Thin strands of mana extended from the mysterious mage’s fingers, descending through the canopy like nearly invisible strings.
They weaved between the branches before disappearing into the forest below, and every single thread was connected directly to Elyra.
Javier stared upward, his expression turning cold.
“You…”
The mysterious mage slowly lowered their gaze.
From beneath the darkness of the hood, two eyes gleamed with an unsettling light as a long smile gradually stretched across their face.
“Heh… Human…”
One of their fingers moved, tightening the mana thread attached to it.
Elyra’s entire body immediately jerked.
Javier’s eyes narrowed.
The mage watched his reaction with visible amusement.
“You’re quite impressive.”
Javier’s hand tightened around the hilt of his sword as mana began gathering around him, stirring the water pooled across the ruined forest floor.
“Let her go.”
The mage’s smile only widened.
“Or what?”
Silence returned to Verkes.
Javier stepped forward, his sword held firmly in one hand as the pressure of his mana continued to rise around him.
The wet leaves surrounding his boots began to tremble as he raised his face toward the figure above.
“Or I’ll bring you down myself.”