Chapter 59: Hunted (Part 3)

"I must admit, your ability to hide is truly impressive. No body heat leakage, heartbeat and breathing completely blending with the rain, even the sound of raindrops bouncing off your muscles is indistinguishable from the ground. If I were here alone, I absolutely wouldn't have detected you. But unfortunately for you, with Master Seiya's Magic Eye, as long as you're a living being, it's impossible to escape detection within a hundred meters of him."

Oren stared at the shadowy figure in the corner as he spoke slowly. Beneath his feet, Talice lay motionless, her blood instantly washed away by the torrential rain. Only her luminous battle armor continued to emit its sacred white magical glow.

The corner where the shadow lingered remained completely silent, as if no one were hiding there at all. Yet Oren did not relax in the slightest. His face was still a waxy yellow, and his voice as faint as ever. Rain cascaded down his face in streams, yet the combat aura radiating from his leather armor and sword shone brightly, with faint magical runes flowing, ready to unleash at any moment.

Still, no sound or movement came from the shadowy corner. Growing impatient, Oren spoke again, "Stop playing coy. We know exactly how strong you are. That's why I felt so confident dealing with this girl in front of you. Isn't that right, Master Seiya?"

"Of course."

A voice drifted from above. The court magician, shrouded in a spherical magical barrier, floated out from behind a building. A massive magical eye hovered above him, its gaze fixed coldly on the dark corner. Unlike Oren, drenched by the relentless downpour, the magician stood completely dry within his protective barrier. His magical robe was spotless, his demeanor calm and serene, as if enjoying tea by a warm hearth rather than standing amidst a tempest.

A smug smile crept onto his face as he addressed the darkness. "When I focus my Magic Eye on someone, I dare say I understand your current condition better than you do. Let me spell it out: out of 10, your magic power is 4, your combat aura is 5.3. You've got injured ribs, and your left arm is temporarily out of commission. At best, your fighting capacity is between 3 and 4."

He paused, raising an eyebrow with mock pity. "When we first located you, your combat aura and magic power were barely at 1. Yet in the short time it took to handle that girl, you've already recovered this much. Honestly, I'm beginning to suspect you might be a troll in disguise."

"I'm no troll. But you sound like a crow—your endless chatter is unbearable."

At last, a voice emerged from the darkness, low but resolute. It cut through the rain and reached their ears. Apart from the voice, the shadow remained still, a silhouette in the black.

"And I don't get it. You've known I was here all along, but you ignored me and went after that girl instead. Aren't you all on the same side?"

"It's not that we ignored you. It's just that you can't escape; you're as good as dead. A caged beast can wait, but a lone bird, like that arrogant little girl, must be clipped before she rejoins her flock. We've wanted to kill her for quite some time. After all, having fewer people from the Church isn't a bad thing for Alrasia. By the way, we should thank you for killing Aescher."

"I truly wish others could hear those words. If they did, I wouldn't have to lift a finger—Lancelote would come and kill you himself," the voice in the shadows said with a sigh, regret tinging its tone.

"If anyone else could hear, he wouldn't be spouting such nonsense," Oren said impatiently. He glanced up at the magician. "Stop wasting time. Let's finish this."

"Don't you find it elegant, even entertaining, to eloquently address prey that has already fallen into a trap?" Master Seiya remarked, clicking his tongue in mock disapproval. A glowing orb of light appeared in his hand. "But since you're so impatient, let's just deal with him quickly. That girl's done for anyway. Let's draw in the others while we're at it and see what kind of person it takes to kill someone like Aescher."

As the glowing orb ascended, illuminating the area with its pale light, a figure suddenly lunged from the darkness toward Oren. Both men gasped in surprise.

Oren was shocked by the recklessness of the charge. Judging by the sound, this wasn't some distraction or decoy—it was solid flesh, hurtling directly toward him.

Seiya, on the other hand, was startled for a different reason. His Magic Eye, still linked to his consciousness, indicated the original target hadn't moved. Instead, this figure seemed to have been thrown—a living body, inexplicably appearing and flying toward Oren.

The glowing orb now floated higher, casting its stark light over the scene. Oren immediately saw what his sword had struck. It wasn't a man—it wasn't even human.

It was a spider.

Roughly the size of a man, the creature writhed and spasmed, its eight legs, as thick as wrists and bristling with needle-like hairs, reached out to embrace him in a grotesque hug. Its green body fluid spewed from the wound and its mouth, filling the air with an unbearable stench, as if rotting blood and pus had been boiled for days.

Horrified, Oren yanked his sword free and leapt backward, narrowly avoiding the spider's grasp. The torrential rain diluted its toxic fluids, washing them away before they could reach him.

The spider, missing its target, let out a sharp screech akin to the cry of a dying chicken and leapt again toward Oren, only to crash into a curtain of rain.

This curtain of rain, or rather a massive sphere of water, suddenly coalesced and rose from beneath Oren's feet. Amidst the torrential downpour, water was everywhere, indistinguishable from one source to another. It was impossible to tell if this water sphere had always been there or if it had converged from somewhere nearby. The spider struggled within the water for a moment, managing to drag half its body out, but the water twisted unnaturally, and in an instant, the spider—large enough to rival a human—was turned into a grotesque paste.

"I was wondering why this mage had been lurking quietly for so long, so confident in trapping me. Turns out they had summoned these things in secret," Seiya muttered as someone leapt into view.

This person had used the spider to force Oren back but now dashed forward to seize Talice' body from the ground.

"It's you?" Oren and Seiya exclaimed in unison, glaring at the man.

The illumination sphere hovering in the rain cast a faint light, enough to make his face clearly visible. Though neither had met him before, this man's face was infamous, known across the continent.

After grabbing Talice' corpse, the man channeled dark magical energy into the knight's body. The sacred glow on the glory armor flickered, dimming slightly as it clashed against the dark magic.

"Necromancy?" Oren and Seiya cried out again in astonishment.

"Bishop Aescher dying at your hands isn't exactly undeserved," Seiya said, nodding as he sized up this figure, who was practically the stuff of legend. "You even managed to kill Bishop Ronis and Duke Murak—let alone anyone else. It's clear that only necromancy could have dealt with those two Bishops with top level white magic."

The man, Asa, said nothing and simply smiled—a smile that appeared eerily sinister under the relentless rain.

Oren frowned at him and asked sharply, "So, were you working for Theodorus all along?"

"Only temporarily," Asa replied indifferently.

"We thought we had merely cornered an injured wolf, but it turns out it was a snake—a venomous one at that," Oren said, a light now gleaming in his previously dull eyes. "Either way, our luck isn't bad. I recall your head is worth 5,000 gold coins—enough to equip a small squad of heavily armed knights."

"Five thousand? More like much more," Seiya smirked. "Killing the notorious assassin of the Bishops in the name of Dehya Valley is one thing. But gaining the Church's gratitude? That's something else. I'm looking forward to seeing Magnus personally thank me."

As Seiya waved his hand, three puddles of water—identical to the one that crushed the spider—started to flow toward Asa.

At first, the puddles were small, merely odd collections of water propelled by some invisible force. But as they moved through the torrential rain, they grew larger and larger, transforming into towering giants, each three to four meters tall. Faceless and expressionless, the four water elementals surrounded Asa in a square formation, radiating menace.

Asa's eyelid twitched. Indeed, as Seiya had pointed out, his power was far from its peak, reduced to less than half of its usual level. Even at full strength, defeating these four water elementals would require everything he had. With Oren and the royal mage standing by, they wouldn't just watch from the sidelines.

Though he realized the situation was overwhelmingly against him, Asa wasn't overly panicked. He wasn't yet at the point of despair—there was still a slim chance to fight back.

Moreover, he had noticed something interesting. Smiling faintly, he addressed Oren and Seiya, "What's wrong? Aren't you going to make your move?"

"No need to rush; reinforcements will be here soon. All we have to do is hold the line," Oren replied weakly. Though his aura remained as strong as ever, he did not advance. The four water elementals stood their ground, and the enormous magical eye above Seiya's head stared unblinkingly at Asa.

Had their opponent been anyone else, they might have acted already. But when they realized their foe was none other than the continent's most infamous assassin, the top fugitive, and the one who had slain Bishop Ronis, caution was necessary. The stories of Asa storming through armies with sinister necromantic magic to rescue someone were legendary. The moment he emerged from hiding, he had headed straight for the corpse of the holy knight, Talice.

The glory armor still shimmered faintly with holy light, and even in death, Talice' pale face retained a kind of haunting beauty. Yet as long as she remained in Asa's hands, her once-proud body could turn into a highly dangerous magical bomb at any moment.

No one understood necromancy better than the mages of Dehya Valley, and even Seiya, as a court mage of Alrasia, was no exception. The magical eye could clearly sense Asa's depleted power, but it couldn't predict what kind of necromantic magic he might unleash.

Facing a venomous yet unknown adversary is like confronting an unfamiliar poisonous insect—you hesitate, knowing its danger but unsure of its capabilities. This hesitation was palpable.

Asa noticed their unease and smiled again, lifting Talice' body slightly. "What if I told you this holy knight isn't dead? I can bring her back to life. Would you still wait for reinforcements?"

His voice, not loud, carried clearly amidst the rolling thunder, causing Seiya's face to pale and Oren's expression to darken further.

Their shock was momentary, though. Oren coughed lightly, smirking, "Do you think we can't tell the difference between the living and the dead? I nearly severed her head with one strike. If even white magic can't revive her, how could necromancy? At most, you could turn her into a zombie. It'll certainly be... amusing to see the Church's reaction when they find a zombie knight."

Asa chuckled again, saying, "I'll admit, I intended to turn her into a zombie. But, to my surprise, my magic failed because her body still retained a spark of life. So I used a strong healing spell—originally meant for myself—to heal her wounds." He extended Talice' body outward slightly, smiling at his opponents. "She still has a heartbeat. If you don't believe me, come and check."

"Surviving such a blow? She'd have to be a zombie," Oren scoffed, refusing to approach. The smirk on his face had vanished, replaced by unease. Asa's confident, radiant smile was far more convincing.

"Everyone knows the knights of Celeste carry some of the best magical artifacts. Surely, you two are aware of that. This knight in particular had quite the collection—I saw her casually toss two top-tier magical scrolls once," Asa continued, his smile growing brighter and his voice louder. "Oren, you must be very confident in that strike of yours. You assumed this knight, like any other, would bleed out from a severed artery. Yet you didn't check if her glory armor or other equipment contained any life-saving contingency spells. It's not difficult for Celeste's Bishops to seal high-level healing magic within a gem or two."

Only now did Oren and Seiya's expressions grow truly grim. They had to admit such possibilities weren't far-fetched—perhaps even likely.

If Asa was telling the truth, even a tiny chance meant they had to act, no matter the cost. They needed to seize or destroy Talice' body at all costs—alive or dead. Yet Asa's motives remained unclear. Was he baiting them into action before reinforcements arrived? Did he have the strength to escape or defeat them? Or was Talice' body rigged with a deadly trap?

Her unmoving body remained in Asa's hands, seemingly no different from a corpse. But was it truly just a corpse? And if it wasn't, what kind of corpse was it? The questions left cold sweat dripping down their foreheads.

The power dynamic on the battlefield had not changed. Seiya's Magic Eye confirmed as much. Yet Asa's sudden diversion with the mutated spider, grabbing Talice' body, had flipped the situation completely.

The prey was still in the cage, yet somehow, the roles of hunter and hunted had reversed. Time ticked by, and every second was a potential turning point.

Finally, Seiya's laughter shattered the eerie stalemate. He laughed loudly, declaring, "Stop your theatrics, boy. Do you think I can't see you stalling for time to recover your strength? Let's see how impressive your necromancy really is!"

As he finished, the four water elementals raised their arms, sending four torrents of water, each as thick as a tree trunk, hurtling toward Asa with piercing howls.