Something Escaped

Abigail didn't give up chasing Leon. Leon also sped up. He however still made sure he didn't get to far away from Abigial. He had been flying in the direction of the Volcano so the area was getting more and more dangerous.

Abigail didn't seem to understand which direction she was flying and continued.

At the camp Oren was sitting with a few people who had returned from training and had gotten injured. He was giving them medicines and having a beast heal the more serious ones.

Irene had left to chase after Leon and Abigial.

In the sky in front of Leon it distorted and a Women appeared standing on a winged Snake. It was Irene.

"You two have already gone to far, Let's go back now." Irene said sternly.

Leon looked up and saw the dead lands a few tens of meters away. They had reached the border to the outer zone of Mount Vulcan.

Leon nodded and turned back. Abigail had caught up to Leon and was surprised to see Irene.

"Teacher Irene why are you here?!"

"Abigail, look at where you are, you've both gone to far from that training site. I'm here to guide you back."

Abigail looked around and finally noticed the dreadful world of Fire and destruction in front of her. The strong heat finally settled in on her senses. She also turned back and started flying next to Leon.

"Why were you running away?" Abigail asked.

"Why were you chasing me?" Leon retorted.

Abigail changed her strategy of getting to know Leon. She looked at the small fire chick on his head sleeping. It was like a ball of feathers as it slept.

"Is that your primal beast, The Fire Bird."

"Yes."

"It's very adorable," Abigail said while internally adding "Unlike yourself."

"It is indeed very adorable, but sadly that's all its good for at the moment." The Phoenix woke up hearing this and smacked it's wing on Leon's head and went back to sleep.

Leon's head was jerked forward bemused the hit but he didn't react to it and carried on flying.

Abigail saw this and hid her face as she laughed for second. She then turned back and started Leon, she noticed the purple snake around his neck acting as a scarf.

"Is that Serpent the beast that killed the Cloud Shadow Worm?" Abigail asked.

"It is the one."

She had the Crow fly as close as it could. "Thank you for saving me..." She turned to Leon, "Does it have a name?"

"No."

"You should really give your-" Before she could finish the forest under then started shaking. "Earthquake?"

The Dragon and Phoenix woke up from their sleep. Leon felt alarms going out in his Mind. He turned around to see the Volcano. Irene who was in front of them also turned back.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sounds if explosions could be heard from the Volcano. Soon the sound of the earth cracking open was heard.

Leon could barely see anything from this distance. Irene could see a little better it didn't make to much a difference.

Leon felt his slaughter qi react. "It's what I feared." Leon thought.

Leon unsummoned the Phoenix. The Dragon got on his head and started sharing its sight with him using the blood oath bond.

Leon could see the volcano clearly now. Their were cracks all over it releasing a red light. Using the Dragon's eyes Leon was able to see through the clouds and see that top of the Volcano.

A thin Ray of red light flashed out from the Volcano to the sky. Then a being appeared above the Volcano.

It was a humanoid like beast. It had abyss like eyes and hair. Its back had black feathered wings. There were weird black halo like objects around its wrists and neck. There was a strong aura of slaughter on its body.

The beast took a deep breath then turned around to look in Leon's direction. The Dragon had already hidden itself and Leon as much as it could. It however couldn't do much about the other two.

Abigail and Irene didn't even know what was happening. They suddenly felt a choking sensation. Abigail coughed blood and fainted with her Sunset Crow. While Irene felt like she couldn't breath.

The beast looked in a different direction and broke into black lights. A golden lightning bolt hit the place the beast was at. Then golden flashed.

Leon felt like he could take a breather after seeing the golden light. It was to strong for the Dragon to catch in its eyes. However Leon could tell it was attacking the Black beast from before.

"Do you know that that beast was?" Leon asked the Dragon.

"No, but I could feel the aura of the Hell Plane."

"It didn't see us right?" Leon asked nervously.

"I don't think it saw us, when it looked in this direction it just analysed everything in a hundred thousand kilometers distance."

Leon stopped talking with the Dragon and looked at Irene and Abigial. Irene had recovered and caught Abigial. She was treating her with some type of medicine to wake her up.

Leon had the Griffin fly down. It was also exhausted from the state by the beast. It was protected by the Dragon but it still felt a fear in its heart. The only reason it hadn't fainted was the eyes of the Basilisk. They had activated when the beast had looked in their direction.

"Miss Irene are you okay?"

"Leon you seem fine. Do you know what happened?"

"My beast protected me, I did use an art to zoom in and see what was happening but I still couldn't see through the clouds."

Irene expected as much. Abigail woke up coughing. She didn't know what was happening.

"She doesn't seem to be in any situation to unsummon the Sunset Crow. Leon you take her back to camp, I'll go ahead with her Sunset Crow."

Leon carried Abigial with him on the Griffin. While Irene had her winged snake grab the Sunset Crow and zoom of back to camp.

Leon understood why Irene gave him Abigail, Since he couldn't carry the Crow and neither could Abigail move at such high speeds in her current condition.

Leon had the Griffin fly slowly back to camp. Abigail had opened her eyes but she still looked dazed. She didn't say anything or react to anything.

"Is she brain dead?" Leon thought.

He formed a runic formation and stamped it on her forehead. He peered inside her body to see what was wrong. Before he could react red aura flowed from her body into his. It was slaughter qi that had entered her body.

Even Irene didn't know what slaughter qi was. She must have just though it was demon aura. Demon aura similar to slaughter qi but wasn't as strong.

The slaughter qi locked up in his body had sucked up the slaughter qi in Abigail's body to break free. Leon reacted quickly and sealed it off as well. He had the Dragon give him a drop of its blood and used that to form a seal on his chest to seal it away again.

After feeling that nothing had gone wrong in his body he sighed in relief. He then looked at Abigail. It took her minute but she finally awakened. She looked around and looked at Leon holding her in his arms. She looked confused and didn't have the strength to move her body.

"Where's my sunset Crow..." She fell asleep again.

"Her body has recovered, now she just needs to mentally recover."

"You can go fast one buddy." The Griffin nodded and flew as fast it could.

Leon arrived at the camp. It had a tent and a barrier set up. Leon used his identity token to enter the barrier and walked into the large tent.

The tent had six people sleeping. They were all the people in his team. He laid Abigail on an empty bed.

"Irene and Oren should have gone to find the other three." Leon checked all the others and saw that they weren't effected by the Slaughter qi. "It was probably everyone directly in its vision."

Leon left the tent and sat on a rock outside.

"This trip should be canceled now. I didn't expect it to actually happen." Leon sighed again. "Looks like their are some beings I don't know about. That golden light seems to be hunting that hell beast. Things don't seem too serious."

Leon then sat down and cultivated the Formless aura technique. Cultivating it was a kind of meditation. It helped him clear his mind and solidify his goal of growing stronger.

"When did formless aura have the ability to do this?" Leon wondered. He had never meditated before to clear his mind. He had just done it instinctively. It was a weird sensation.

Leon got up again. He had been meditating for quite some time. It was already past midnight. Irene and Oren had brought back all the members of the team and a few had even woken up.

Outside the tent was a camp fire. Three of the team members were sitting around tending to their injured beasts.

Abigail was still asleep. It made sense since she was one of the people closest to the beast and so was most effected.

Leon found Irene. She was also sitting with the winged Snake. She was feeding it some type of fruit and soothing it.

"Teacher Irene, will the training spot change?" Leon already knew it would be had to start the conversation some way. Leon sat down close to her.

"Yes, We have informed the Council of Fire. A few elders should be coming here after checking the Volcano. The Council is also short on people. It seems like the earthquake effected a large part of the Fire Continent."

"What about the clans, have they sent anyone?"

"No, they should be to busy taking care of their own territories."

Leon stared Irene as she quickly answered his questions without looking at him. He could feel the slaughter qi in her.

He grabbed her shoulder and said, "Teacher Irene, if we do core for the next place to train I would say the Fire Plane." Leon absorbed all the slaughter qi as he said that.

He normally didn't want to get more of this stuff in his body, but he had to now. The slaughter qi in his body seemed to sense the other slaughter qi and started trying to break free from its seal to absorb it. So Leon let it have the qi so it could calm down. He would later seal it properly, he had just left it in a weak seal before and could summon it at wish. But now he would really seal it.

Irene slid Leon's off and looked at him weirdly. She felt her body grow less stiff. The demon aura had disappeared.

"Well then, I'll be going to sleep." Leon then left.

He found a tree and laid down a branch. He stared at the moon as he fell asleep. He was also mentally exhausted.