Chapter 7

The next morning, Aurora was read to travel back to the Claudius castles. Aurora went to the bar and asked for some food that she received for free from the Inn owner Nita.

''You don't have to pay me. Your friend already pays me more than enough'' She had a radiant smile on her face and a gentle look in her eyes.

But be careful in the forest. There are still dangerous monsters. You need to follow the cross on the trees to avoid most of them. That is what the boy said to me before going out.''

''Thank you for reminding me, Nita. I will be careful. I also will not be alone this time.'

After a quick breakfast, Aurora could hear Jaartheal and Alea. They were speaking loudly in the corridor.

We are going to be rich, Alea, rich! No need to keep adventuring after that. You could maybe return your Clan after this.''

The band of old fools, never! I will start a new clan, accumulate power, and destroy them. Hehehe.''

Jaartheal was euphoric thinking about all that money. He was ready for action, even risking his life. He wore a different kind of equipment than usual. On his grey tunic, he was wearing a black one with a silver pattern written in Elfic. He also had black earrings that were radiating magic.

On the contrary, Alea was wearing a full white mage robe with a green motif on it. It looked like the emblem of a clan. She also had one black earring with a small purple stone. Her staff was beautiful; it was made from a white wood ornate with green and blue jewels. It was much different than her primary brown magic staff.

Aurora was surprised by the different equipment because she could no longer feel their strength, but she could feel dread when looking at them.

She was not sure that her plan would succeed anymore, but she had no choice but to continue it even if they looked like other persons in terms of power.

''Aurora, Come, it's time to enter the forest!'' Jaartheal was pressing everybody to get out of the inn.

Zarul was already outside; he also had another armor than usual. This one was bulkier than the other. His tower shield had a red-eye wolf on it that was emitting a faint light.

Aurora was uncomfortable by the shield's energy and decided to walk a few meters in front of them.

''Guys, I marked the safest and fastest way to the castle. You can look for trees with a cross carved in them.'' She pointed at a tree that had a cross on it.

''Look like you did an excellent job Aurori.'' Alea had a smirk on her face and whispered to Jaartheal that was standing behind her.

"It looked like this bitch think we are stupid. This smells like a trap. She never did that before. How could she prepare so much with that we need to ask her?''

Jaartheal answered her question with an evil smile on his beautiful face.

''Don't worry, I am pretty sure that her trap should be near the castle. We will just catch her before we enter the castle. To be sure, let me ask her a simple question.''

''Aurora, how long are we going to be on the way 2 days?''

After a long silence, she finally answered his question. It should be around three or four days.'' After saying this big mistake with a cracking voice, she knew that she made a severe mistake.

She knew that she said the wrong time. It only took 4 days in total to go and come back!

She was nervous that they would say something, but she only saw that Zarul facepalmed while shaking his head.

Zarul was between Aurora and Alae murmuring to himself I really hoop thatcher trump card his powerful.

Meanwhile, Claudius woke up in the throne hall. The room was utterly cleaned and repaired. The light creature was still busy. It actually grew to the height of an average human. When it saw that his master was awake, it went to kneel in front of him.

''Young elemental fairy, your name will be Avo. You survive the night; this means that your core is stable; you are an essence fairy from now on. Congratulation!''

Claudius gave Avo a warm smile before taking a small tour of his castle. The smell in castle was gone, the red carpet was repaired in the corridor. The only places that were left untouched were the laboratory and the bedrooms of his subordinates.

Claudius was wandering in his castle aimlessly until he suddenly got an idea.

''I shall take a look at the surrounding; many things should have changed.

Avo!''

''Yes, Master?''

We will have visitors soon. They are already in the forest. Make the castle presentable for them.''

''Of course, master! Are you going somewhere?''

Yes, it's time to see how much my territory changed in my slumber. I will make a few other sprites to help you with rebuilding. Here take this blank magic stone and try to absorb it.''

Avo did as told, and he could feel that his strength grew stronger.

''Thank you, master!''

Claudius made a few essence spirits with the animals rests but didn't give them any magic stone. He directly left the castle after just nodding to Avo.

The fallen celestial Claudius walked north of the castle in the direction of the strange tree that was towering over the forest.

He saw quite a few magical beasts and monster looking at him, but they all kept they distance knowing that approaching this humanlike creature would mean death.

When he arrived near the tree, Claudius could see the beautiful scenery in front of him.

The giant tree had a faint gold color. The color was spreading on the ground near the tree, but it had almost no leaves. It almost looked dead.

A sky clear blue lake was in front of the tree with green grass around it, but there were hardly any animals in the surrounding.

''What a shame, the energy in the tree is almost gone. Fortunately, I was not late!''

Claudius strolled toward the tree reciting a couple of old chants. A mix of gold, silver, bleu were whirling in the air around the tree. The dead tree began to bud gold flowers were emerging from them.

A couple of minutes later, The dead tree was radiating life. It was full of leaves and flowers; small light particles were begun emerging above the lake.

''The life tree is back!'

''How is that possible? The tree was dead!''

''The gods are still looking after us.''

The small lights flying sound were Fixies. They were smalls elemental creatures that live in places full of life energy.

Claudius looked at the Fixie with a pondering looked.

"Were those creatures always here? I never saw them here before. It at least proves that the tree is back on track.''

The Fixies were busy discussing the strange phenomena and didn't notice Claudius standing behind the tree, observing them.

He didn't disturb them, and he just went back on his stroll, looking for the other trees.

On his way to the other trees, Claudius entered without knowing the nest of a mighty but reckless monster that decides to attack Claudius a few kilometers from the revived gold tree.

He looked at the reckless manticore in front of him, the giant monster with bat wings, scorpion tail, and a lion head. Those creatures were quite intelligent when they are older, but this one was five-year-old max. It was still following its primal instinct, and it was attacking trespassers.

Claudius saw this as a perfect opportunity to test his physical might.