The Sword Saint’s Second Life As a Fox Girl

4-74 The Rift Blade

“This is the place,” Erin said as she stood before a collapsed inn that was located on a small pasture in the middle of the city. Though it was called a pasture, it wasn’t truly one. It was merely made to look like one to tickle the fancy of the rich folks who were in love with the charms of nature but without experiencing the flaws. Various other inns were also built on this false grassland and they were also in ruins.

Nivia and Aera stood beside her, staring at the ruined building with foreboding hearts and apprehensive gazes. These two were the ones Erin decided to take with her along the search for Amyra’s whereabouts. It was a quarrel that was on the borderline of a melee scuffle but Erin subdued them with her Lust skill and picked the ones she deemed the most suitable for this mission.

Erin picked Nivia and Aera in the end due to the two being very opposed to taking orders from anyone but Erin herself. Nivia was simply prejudicial while Aera was innately distrustful and dubious. Not to mention, Erin was the only one capable of subduing Aera should she go amok with her Wrathmonger skill.

“It’s destroyed,” Aera stated the obvious but no one retorted to her needless evident remark.

“There’s no one inside,” Nivia said after casting Life Sense on the collapsed inn. “Safe for the corpses within.”

“There are corpses? You can tell, how?”

“The Spirits are wailing,” Nivia gave a succinct answer.

“Amyra isn’t here,” Erin said. She trod slowly towards the inn that was missing a roof and half of its walls. It wasn’t known exactly what or who caused such a destruction but Erin had no doubt Amyra had a hand in it from the burnt marks she could perceive amidst the destruction.

“Will the city ever recover from this?” Aera asked as she followed closely behind Erin. Her gaze was not solely on the inn but also on her surroundings. It was the same scenery of ruination that she had seen in other parts of the city.

“I have seen worse,” Erin responded. “Whether this city will recover, it will all depend on the nobles. If this valley holds some significant resources, this city will definitely be revived. Even if everything’s razed to the ground, as long as the precious resources remain, you can believe in the nobles’ greed to repair this city.”

“Is that so…?” Aera muttered. “Do the nobles’ greed truly know no bounds?”

“Humans have gone to war for pettier reasons,” Nivia said. “Reviving a razed city from the ground up isn’t exactly an unbelievable possibility. Are you not aware of the intensity of your own kind’s greed?”

“I-I… I heard about it a lot but I thought those were just stories people told to get at people’s good conscience.”

“People are worse than what you hear in stories, most of the time. This sort of trash is not limited to the Covenant. There are people out there just as terrible or even worse.”

“...And these people… do they raze villages to the ground and rape mothers in front of their daughters too?”

“I heard tell someone even rape the mothers and daughters together while the rest of the family watches. It’s a cruel world out there.”

“Quiet,” Erin commanded as they came to a sudden stop right in front of the door.

“Are we going in?” Nivia asked.

Erin shook her head and pointed at a card that was pinned to the door by a small dagger, small enough to be concealed under one’s sleeve. Erin pulled out the dagger and took the card.

“What is that?” Aera inquired, peeking her head over Erin’s shoulder from behind. She was half a head shorter than Erin after all.

Erin held the card close to her eyes. “A spell card,” she answered.

“A spell card?” A look of wonder crossed Nivia’s face. “You mean like a spell scroll or a spell gem but in a card? Is that even possible or efficient?”

“A spell card is lighter than a spell gem. It is also not as frail as a spell scroll. A creation like this can only be a product of the Covenant.” When Erin turned the card around, she discovered a note behind it. “There’s also a note here.”

“What does it say?”

Erin frowned with fury dyeing her gaze. “They have Amyra, as we feared.”

“Spirits be damned…”

“Oh, gods… Is she—”

“She’s fine,” Erin said. “It’s me they want. Amyra is just bait.”

“Amyra is strong but she got captured… Just who— No… how are we sure, whoever wrote that note, truly has Amyra as they claimed?”

“Aera’s right, Erin. It could be a sham. The lure might very well be fake and Amyra’s still somewhere out there.”

“I doubt it’s a lie,” Erin said and brought up the dagger for the two to see. “The blade of this dagger contains traces of a very heavy paralytic poison and a strong hint of Amyra’s blood. She was incapacitated by this dagger and captured afterwards.” She then stowed the dagger away into her Vault.

“...Damn it,” Nivia cursed. “What do we do now? We don’t know where she was taken.”

“We don’t but this spell card here might bring us to her.”

“What exactly does this spell card do?”

“This spell card contains a teleportation spell. Once I use it, I’ll be teleported elsewhere.”

“But where?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t specify where. I reckon only the caster can know for sure.

“And we don’t know if this is Marduk's doing or the viceroy’s.”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course, it does, Erin. Marduk wishes to kill you but the viceroy doesn’t, though the latter intends to use you as some kind of a bargaining chip.”

“That is just my guess. I don’t actually know what the viceroy wants with me. But it is irrelevant. All the Demoids and Dregs are at Marduk’s whim and disposal, regardless of their alleged allegiance. Truth be told, the viceroy’s dissatisfaction is most likely nothing more than a tantrum in Marduk’s eyes considering he controls all of the Demoids and Dregs.”

“The important question here is if the teleportation spell is limited to one or all that stand near you?” Nivia said.

“Only one way to find out. Are you all ready?”

Nivia and Aera nodded without any hesitation. The two placed their hands each on one side of Erin’s shoulders.

Before Erin activated the spell card, she glanced at her stats.

[Erynthea - Level 55]

[Level Progression: 70%]

[Skill Points: 4]

[Ability Points: 16]

She had accumulated plenty of Ability Points but she held off from spending them as she had yet to know the manner of her upcoming foe. She would allocate her Ability Points accordingly when she came face to face with her next opponent. As for her Skill Points, her current focus was on Spatial Magic. It was a very handy Magic Art to have and she decided on it being her primary focus in improving her Magic Arts.

She glanced at Aera, whose level had shot up to the range of thirties due to enemies slain in her rampaging rage. Due to Wrathmonger, level differences meant little to her unless her opponent were twenty levels higher than her level. Nivia had also gone through a significant increment in her stats and levels. She was currently level thirty-nine and nearing forty. The proficiency of her Arcane Arts was also increasing steadily.

“They’re getting stronger…” Erin spoke with relief in her heart. It was reassuring to know that her companions would rise out of her shadow one day and walk independently, though the latter part was influenced by their desire to be by her side.

Erin gripped the card tightly with both hands and began pouring her Mana into the card.

In a similar fashion to all magic-induced tools, the card shone in a dazzling glow, signifying the activation of the spell. An incantation circle appeared beneath their feet and beams of light erupted from the circle. The usual spectacle unfolded around them and the striking display of incessant lights swallowed the group.

As how the spectacle would go, they were spat out by the light that swallowed them and they were now in a place they had no knowledge of. They were underground, most likely in a cellar of a building but neither Erin nor Nivia could truly tell as a spell was in place to disrupt the grasp of their surroundings.

“Where are we?” Aera asked once she got her bearings.

Nivia and Erin did not lose their bearings as they were acclimated to such treatment of spells.

“Haven’t a clue,” Nivia answered with a grumble. Her gaze scoured the room and all that she could make out was that they were in a dungeon of some kind.

“Just keep your wits about you,” Erin said. She wasn’t letting her gaze wander. Instead, she was staring intensely in a single direction. “Danger’s afoot.”

“I don’t sense anything.” Nivia cast Life Sense around her but it did not return any result— or so she thought. “Wait, I do sense something. It’s faint. It’s coming from another room.”

“Is it Amyra?” Aera asked.

“I can’t tell. The walls are strange. It hinders the reach of Spirits. We can only ascertain the identity of the presence by going into that room.”

“Then we should—”

“No.” Erin stopped her. “Whoever it is in the other room, we need to deal with the voyeur in this room.”

“Voyeur? What are you—”

Erin conjured up her sword using Bespoke and slashed at the empty air behind her. Instead of splitting the still breeze, her sword bounced off as if something had deflected her blade.

The space where she had struck rippled and a black-skinned man stepped out of the ripples. The man was dressed in a plain tunic and trousers with a cowl pulled over half of his face. In his hand was a sword that he had used to parry Erin’s slash.

The man’s sudden appearance evoked a hasty retreat from Nivia and Aera but not Erin, who stood her ground and stared dubiously at him.

“Who are you,” Erin asked.

“I’m Uvir.”

“Is that my companion in the other room?”

“It is.”

“Who’s your master?”

“I’m a slave to no one, except for money. My allegiance is sworn to the highest bidder.”

“So, you’re a mercenary.”

“That’s one way to put it. I… retrieve things for those who are willing to pay for my service. Just so it happens, Rylan Grid and… this other person had both requested me to apprehend you with the latter caring little about your health. Funnily enough, I have already been paid upfront half of my service by the two. So— whoa!”

Erin had lunged at Uvir with a swipe but he moved out of the way using Warp.

“How rude!” the man scoffed. “I wasn’t finished. I’m not a Demoid, you know.”

“I don’t care. You’re against me that’s all I need to know and you hurt my companion.”

“Fair enough. Let’s not stall the inevitable any longer,” Uvir said and swung his sword, sending Aura Blades her way.

Erin flourished her sword and parried all of the Aura Blade aiming for her.

Nivia didn’t dawdle and shot three arrows at Uvir.

The hooded man jittered and the arrows missed their mark.

Aera pounced at Uvir with her flaming fists raised but shuddered out of the way and dodged the punch.

“Spatial Magic?” Nivia gasped. “Erin, what are the results of your Appraisal?”

“There’s no result!” Uvir laughed. “You can’t appraise me. My Spatial Magic is level eight. You best believe me when I say that the three of you are no match for me even if you all work together to fight me.”

“We shall see,” Erin said and unleashed her Lust. A shallow pink mist filled the room. Her tails began glowing in a faint yet radiant violet. “This shall be quick.”

“You’re confident and yet, there’s little arrogance in you.” Uvir chuckled. “Not bad. I always look forward to a good fight against someone with a proper head on their shoulders.”

“So do I,” Erin retorted and shifted her sword into a sabre that was the length of a greatsword.

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