Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 110 - 105: Encounter

’That demon! Don’t tell me he actually succeeded in summoning the demon world!!’

Before, I completed processing the thought, my body was already moving.

Popping out of the ground, behind a tree’s cover, I looked up at the sky.

"What the hell…", escaped from my mouth as I saw a dark red curtain shrouding the vibrant sky, it’s source, a pillar of dark rising from the center of the forest.

Wherever the curtain went, life was robbed, transforming the forest that was full of life into barren death zone. Animals fled and plants died, simply being robbed out of vitality as the curtain of death loomed above them.

Seeing the curtain coming closer, ’I… I have to run…’, I realized belatedly, as I turned around. And it seems I wasn’t the only one being absentminded, cause there stood Fostoria, standing blankly as she stared at the sky.

"Hey!! Don’t stare! RUN!!", I screamed.

We may have been enemies just moments ago, but we stood on the same side when facing a demon. That’s how things worked in Alexis empire for humans or all species in general.

Snapping back to reality, Fostoria also saw that she had no chance in resisting whatever this curtain was, so she chose to run away as well.

Of course, the curtain was faster.

"Fostoria, extend other end of your bow!", I suddenly said to her, as I ran beside her.

"What!?"

"Just do it and hold on!", I shouted, as there wasn’t enough time to explain her about the inner workings of my attribute and skill that allowed me to use [Acceleration] spell as a transportation medium.

So, as soon as I held the other end of the bow, I spammed [Acceleration], and we disappeared in a matter of seconds…

-Boooom!

…with a loud Bom!

In what could be called an instant, we were near the small pond, the place where we separated with our respective Archmages.

Of course, not used to such unique means of transportation, Fostoria was haggard, barely hanging by the time we reached, but that wasn’t important now.

"Are you alright?", I asked her, while looking at the two Archmages beyond the barrier, who seemed relieved at our arrival.

Having calmed down a little, I turned and gauged the Archmages’ reaction.

Unlike before, they were standing not far apart from each other, seemingly having talked things through. Well, they couldn’t kill each other without serious consequences, and even fighting without dealing with this barrier was meaningless, so their current arrangement seemed reasonable.

As for their reaction to the pillar of darkness, just like us, they were shocked too, but to a much lower extent. Both of them still had an air of composure around them, that somehow assured me and gave me confidence. Instead, it seemed what stumped them more was the barrier separating us, than the pillar of darkness.

’Okay, now that you have calmed down, think.’, I said to myself, as I saw the curtain stopping after shrouding more than half of the forest. And though it wasn’t very clear then, I could feel it now, the demon’s aura that the curtain of dark power carried.

It gave me the same level of intimidation that Baron Marek did, so I guessed it was around B rank too.

Then turning around, I made eye contact with Amy, who promptly started writing on thin air, "Are you alright, Ray?", I nodded and she continued, "I am ashamed to say this, but we can’t figure out the way to bypass this barrier. It isn’t even visible to our senses. After a few tests, it seems that this barrier blocks the entry of everything above B rank."

’Atleast, she didn’t say, Young Master.’, nodding again, I took in the info and looked at Fostoria beside me who was having a similar conversation with Archmage Helden. Nudging her, I said, "Why don’t you try crossing the barrier?"

The cool elf, who had just gotten into character broke it again, as she gave me a bewildered look, "Excuse me?"

"Try crossing the barrier?", I said, pointing to the Archmages, who had written the same in the air.

Well, it was a normal, ’An Archmage couldn’t do it so how can I?’, kind of thought process that made it so that such thought never even came to her mind, but I begged to differ.

Following, the Archmages instruction, Fostoria and I walked near the barrier and she crossed it over successfully, as if it wasn’t there. Then, she was made to enter leave a few times, and everytime she was unobstructed.

After that it was my turn, and I could practically feel Amy’s gaze burning a hole in me, urging me to cross over, but, ’So, that’s how it is.’, I thought and turned around, walking away. Writing above in the air, "Equip her with the right artefacts and send her in. I’ll need her help."

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As I did, I could vividly imagine Amy trying everything in her power to stop, so I avoided looking at her and added, "I’ll lure the demon out, I’m counting on you to do the rest, lady Amelia."

Well, I miscalculated. I took a small peek, a really fast peek before looking ahead.

Amy, she wasn’t trying everything in her power, she was calm, utterly calm, just standing there as she looked at me. But something in her gaze was so terrifying that I couldn’t help but shiver.

’No, no, it’s just the demon’s overwhelming power.’, I thought as I started arming myself.

First, I removed all the accessories that went with the Ray persona.

Next, came my trusty armor, Calles Ren III, optimized for me with max specs, thankfully it could adjust to all body sizes. Moreover, I didn’t hold back and summoned all the high tier artefacts that gave me the highest stat boosts with their passive effects.

Finally, I took out three glass vials packaged quite like an injection without need its needle. I attached them to the utility hatch of my armor. These were vials of condensed holy element, quite pricey if I say so myself.

Closing the hatch, I slowly allowed the holy element to flow through my armor, dyeing its purple magical lines, golden. Then, I finally used [Attribute Infusion], merging with all my equipment, which made channeling mana through them as easy as breathing while giving me a significant stat boost and complete control over their enchantments and effects.

Overall, the whole process brought me to C+ rank stat wise and also granted me a high resistance towards dark and demonic elements.

’Okay… Let’s fucking go!’

I took a deep breath as I steeled myself and launched myself at supersonic speed.

The scenery around me changed in an instant as I went higher and higher into the air to gauge the total area affected by the curtain. It was very huge, a circle with 5 km of radius spanning from the center of the forest.

And that was what I was looking for, the center of the forest. As they say, the deepest darkness is under the lamp, in this case it was the opposite, the brightest light was at the center of the darkness.

Using [Peekaboo] and a stealth artefact in conjunction, I hid myself, floating in the air. At the same time, I activated one of the many of my armor’s enchantments that allowed me to have telescoping vision.

Looking around the center of the forest, I quickly spotted the demon, it was hard to miss him with him being the origin of that pillar. Along with that, I also saw a human, ’That must be Grand Chamberlin, Agnil.’, I thought as I saw his haggard state. Thankfully, I also saw what I was looking, the cave behind them.

’In the novel, the Tree of Light was in a cave made of roots, so that should be it.’, I guessed as I didn’t have that compass the late Scheleth made.

Actually, I didn’t intend to face the demon head on by any means. I’ll just stealthily go around him into the cave and after I absorb the Tree of Light the barrier outside should vanish too. Allowing Amy to do the rest.

But there was a problem, the vessel named Lecas and the demon possessing him were canon characters. Especially, the demon, Varkian. He was the demon of stealth, and though he couldn’t use his [Authority] at B rank, using stealth in front of him was going to be difficult.

’Let’s try nonetheless.’

Using [Acceleration] I quickly made my way towards the cave. After stopping once at the border of the curtain to check if I was actually protected, which I was, I landed around a 100m from the demon.

From that point on, I needed to be very careful. [Peekaboo] erased every physical trace of my existence so I was good with that, what I needed to be careful about was my mana and the fluctuations it caused in the surroundings.

Slowly, I deactivated my spells and active enchantments one by one, only keeping on stealth ones on as I watched the demon floating at the middle of the pillar of darkness.

In fact, I didn’t even stare at him, as higher rank beings could notice intent, and only kept him in my peripheral vision.

Gradually, step by step I walked closer towards the demon or rather the cave behind him, slowing down even the channeling of my internal mana.

As I got closer, the more details I noticed.

First, the aura of death was much thicker here. If the things were gradually dying at the edge of the curtain, then the life here was actually being sucked out in seconds.

I could tell as the rate of the vial’s consumption just kept on rising with each step I walked. ’At this rate I only had five minutes.’, I thought, increasing my pace slightly.

I also noticed the complicated magic circle the demon was floating above and a barely alive old man leaning against a tree not far away.

’He’s still alive without any protection?!’, I was generously surprised.

Yes, he was a certified C rank, unlike me and had more natural resistance against the demonic aura, but surviving this long with that alone was impossible.

Of course, that had nothing to do with me, except for the fact that I could get another helper. Not that he could do much with those injuries.

Going around them, I walked away, getting cover even when I had no need to as I slowly reached the cave.

Honestly, I was shaking a little. The rank difference between C+ and B was of just one letter, but the difference in power was immense.

There was a qualitative difference between C and B rank, that was hard to overcome. So, as the full force of B rank magic user’s aura who was a vessel for a S rank demon in turn fell on me. I couldn’t help but shake.

The situation was particularly bad since I couldn’t even use my skills to shake of the fear. Atleast, the passive the effects of my equipment were still on and the cave wasn’t that far.

Twenty meters…

I kept walking, careful to not step on the dead body of the little rabbit.

Ten meters…

I kept walking, hiding behind dead tree trunks as I moved forward, accidently I stepped on a twig and almost freaked out.

Five meters…

There was no cover ahead just some old moss that had withered and died now, but my author sense was tingling.

It was just a leap away…

’Fuck it! I am not going to do the same thing as a anime protagonist!’, I immediately went to full power, activating all kinds of skills and spells and turned around, ready to throw my sword and back away.

All this took a fraction of a second, and yet… a dark silhouette appeared in the periphery of my vision as a voice that seemed to come from deepest depths of abyss whispered in my ear, "Ohh, don’t you have some pretty decent instincts, cute little boy?"