Portgreen city was currently divided into five main areas:
The guild controlled most of the central area.
Black Hand Party controlled the slums at the west.
The south was a poorly developed area, and no influential group was interested in controlling it, so Mia and Cassidy hid in an inn there.
The north and east were the territories of the other two of the most influential mercenary groups in the city.
Right now, a scout was running through the eastern area until he reached a very high tower, which appeared to be at least 15 stories high. The man quickly entered the building and activated a kind of magic platform that went up, taking the man to the upper floors.
That building was the most technologically advanced place in Portgreen, and perhaps in the world, as it was the base of a group of mercenaries made mostly by wizards and mages.
A Wizard was a genius focused on enchantments and elementary spells for combat. They had no unique abilities and only relied on their intelligence and elemental affinity to fight and create new spells.
Mages were a little different because they were born with special abilities, which guaranteed them a place between classes without having to study so hard. Of course, this does not mean that mages were not as diligent as Wizards.
When the Mages or Wizards reached great achievements, they could go to a magic council, which happened somewhere in the world annually, to receive titles like Archmage and others.
The scout reached the fourteenth floor of the tower and was greeted by archmage guards. The scout said he wanted to report to the High Enchanter Cornelius, and as the guards already knew him, he entered the great room of the leader of the Magic League Party.
The room was over thirty square meters and filled with golden furniture. Behind a glass table, an old man, looking like a kind grandfather, was writing various things on parchments.
Cornelius knew who the scout was and asked for the report without even looking at him or stop writing his stuff.
“Sir, Black Hand and his men are making a mess around town while chasing someone. The guild must have been warned by now as several guards are following them.”
“Damn! What is that idiot doing this time?!” Cornelius banged on his glass table, making a muffled noise. Black Hand always made a mess that he had to clean. This time he was not willing.
“Report to Red Lady that she must resolve it this time.” The scout was about to follow Cornelius’s orders when the tower started to shake.
Cornelius was very surprised by this earthquake as he felt some earth mana. To perform a spell on such a large scale, the mage must be stronger than him.
He did not think twice before ordering everyone in the tower to get ready, and then they headed towards where the highest intensity of earth mana came from.
There were excellent mages and wizards in the guild. They also felt the earth mana and reported it to Olivia. The mercenary group Red Lady Party also mobilized themself, and everyone was heading towards Aria’s inn.
———————-
A few seconds before the earthquake.
Zerek was startled when he heard the angry voice coming from inside the hole where the room was just a second ago. He could feel waves of mana coming from the hole and knew that another mage was channeling some spell.
“Who are you? Why were you hiding?” Zerek tried to be firm, but he couldn’t hold back his fear the more he felt the intensity of the earth mana coming from the hole.
“Hiding? I was just trying to get some sleep before continuing my journey… But you guys attacked me for no reason!” The more Zerek heard the voice, the more he was sure it was a woman, and confirmed it when she came out of the hole, but…
“Levitation spell!” Zerek was shocked when a hooded woman slowly levitated out of the hole. Levitation spell was very rare, and only higher ranking mages knew it. So, he was sure that the woman was much powerful than him.
The hooded woman saw several people around the destroyed area and was furious. She looked for one of the most discreet places in town to spend the night, but they still found her… “Who sent you? Was it the Alliance?”
Zerek didn’t know what the woman was talking about. He was just following Black Hand’s orders to find anything about Shadow at the inn… “My Lady, I’m sorry for bothering you. In fact, I was looking for someone else, and I ended up creating this misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? Do you think I will believe this? I will kill you and whoever sent you!!”
The woman did not believe Zerek’s words. She was exhausted when she created the magic barrier that completely isolated her inside the room, so the woman didn’t hear anything about Lucien and the others while sleeping… Until everything started to shake when the room sank in the ground.
She aimed both open hands downward while levitating more than ten meters from the ground in the air. “Do you like to make the earth shake, right? See what a genuine earth spell is!”
Zerek felt a terrible foreboding, but before he could do anything, a ray of brown light came out of the hooded woman’s hands and hit the floor, making everything start to shake instantly.
The woman spared no mana and did her highest earth spell, causing earthquakes to spread everywhere, reaching more and more places in the city.
Everyone in the Zerek’s group fell to the ground as less resilient buildings around collapsed. The woman did not suffer the effects of earthquakes because she was levitating, but she could not do that for a long time and had to hurry.
“Damn!!! I need to get out of this city before they find me!”
The hooded woman headed towards the south exit. She could not levitate more than ten meters away from the ground, and her speed was not very high. Still, it was enough for her not to be stopped because everything was shaking, and no one could pay attention to her in the shadows of the night.
——————–
“Shit! Shit! shit!!!” Black Hand had just passed the southern gate with his mercenaries when he saw Lucien fleeing about 500 meters away. He was confident of catching them, but then an earthquake started of nowhere, making him furious.
Everything was shaking. Parts of the city wall began to collapse along with some older buildings; cracks in the ground started to open in several places.
Nobody could stand up without holding on to something, so the mercenaries were unable to continue chasing Lucien’s group.
Lucien and the girls also had trouble to keep running at maximum speed, but the intensity of the earthquake was less where they were, allowing them to keep moving away. Cassidy’s group was already in the forest ahead and suffered no effects from the earthquake.
“Let’s go! They cannot follow us now.” Lucien has high agility, so he took Marie and Anne by the arm to help them to run. Astrid has also very agile and followed them quickly. They were almost arriving in the forest…
“Stop, Lucien!” Lust shouted in Lucien’s mind, making him stop and ask her about what it was.
Lust could feel the mysterious woman approaching from afar as she was very different. “I felt a different presence! Her energy is different from the people here. Maybe she’s from another world…”
Lucien looked back, trying to see who it was and couldn’t help but think of some people. “My sisters?”
“I didn’t feel demonic energy, so it mustn’t be your sisters, but it’s still worth the wait.” Lust not only knew that the person had different energy from the people in this world but also that she was a woman, so she obviously, didn’t want Lucien to miss such an opportunity…
Lucien looked at the army of mercenaries who were trying to stand up to chase him again, and cannot agree with Lust. “Do you want me to let that army kill me to wait for a woman I don’t know?! You must be kidding me!”
Lust knew the dangers of waiting as they did not know when the earthquake would stop, but she could feel the high power of the mysterious woman. “Just wait for a while! She will appear soon, and you can run away together.”
He didn’t doubt Lust’s words, but he wouldn’t put the girls in unnecessary danger. Lucien sent Astrid to head into the forest with Marie and Anne while he stayed to check something.
Of course, the girls insisted that he should go with them, but Lucien claimed it was important and that he would follow them quickly afterward.
As the girls ran towards Cassidy’s group, Lucien stared at the gate where cracks appeared more and more in the walls and ground while the earthquake continued to rock everything and everyone.
“Look, it’s her!” Lust warned in Lucien’s mind when she felt the mysterious woman approaching. He saw her levitating over the walls towards him.
Many people saw the woman when she passed the walls levitating; after all, that was something incredible. The earthquake started to get less intense, but the cracks in the ground kept growing.
Black Hand didn’t care about the woman levitating and just wanted to catch Lucien. He didn’t see Shadow but was sure he knew where she was.
He felt that the earthquake was ending, and the shakings were less intense enough for his mercenaries to chase Lucien again. “Move now and catch that bastard!!”
The mercenaries were already able to stand up and started running towards Lucien. But some cracks in the ground were getting too big, making everyone fear falling into a fissure.
Lucien saw the mercenaries running again, and started cursing Lust and shouting for the mysterious woman.
“Who is that idiot?!” The levitating woman saw Lucien calling her and became confused. She was not going to follow a stranger with no reason, and then, she changed direction so as not to pass near Lucien while going to the other side of the forest.
“Do you see it? She won’t just jump in my arms!” Lucian started to sneer at Lust, but then he saw a strange light on the wall near the gate. As it was at night, few things shone like fire and magic, but that light he saw was green…
The green light was a crystal longbow held by a tall elf with long hair in the same color as his incredible bow. He asked respectfully. “Should I kill her?”
“She must be a very powerful mage to make the whole city shake… Just incapacitate her.” At the elf’s side was a masked woman who was looking curiously at the levitating woman.
“Yes, Leader.” The elven archer didn’t think twice before releasing his crystal arrow, which flew at super-speed very similar to Lucien’s black arrows.
Lucien also saw the green glow of the crystal arrow going towards the mysterious woman. He and Lust had the same thought. “It’s going to hit her!!”
“Behind you!!!” Lucien tried to warn the levitating woman, but she never expected that someone could shoot an arrow soo quickly and accurately at night on a flying target…
“AAAHR!” The woman cried when the arrow went through her shoulder. She fell to the ground causing more damage to her body from the fall.
She was still conscious and looked back just to see the army of mercenaries running towards her. They were actually going after Lucien, but the woman thought they had discovered who she was and panicked.
To make matters worse, the cracks in the floor made a fissure, which grew more and more separating Lucien from the mysterious woman and the city.
Lucien was about 150 meters from the woman and had no intention of trying to save her with the army of mercenaries rapidly approaching them. The fissure was the final reason for him to turn around and leave.
“You can’t leave her! You can catch her and run away with your high speed!” Lust believed that Lucien could save the woman without dying, so she tried to convince him.
“Really? Why do you care so much about her?” Lucien kept going towards the forest but stopped when he heard Lust’s answer.
“She seems to be of a very ancient race, and if you make her your woman, the powers you will gain may allow you to save your mother so much faster than you think!”
Lucien was not stupid and knew that going back would be very dangerous, but he was actually much faster than before… Gaining the power to save his mother before expected was tempting, and Lucien believed in Lust’s words… Still, he cursed her as he ran towards the fissure.
“Damn Lust!!! I will not forget to punish you later!”
