Chapter 5
They climbed up a staircase that seemed to be at least a hundred feet high. Suddenly, a footrest flew towards Virgil and made a "whoo whoo" sound. Virgil picked up the footrest, rubbing its back, and said, "Titus, my old friend, are you still happy these days?"
Titus waved the tassels on the footrest, probably indicating that he was very happy. Xerath saw him holding the footrest and asked, "Titus seems lighter lately. Do you know why?"
"Does he eat very little?"
"Not too much. Maybe we should try a different food. Do you have any suggestions?"
"Of course I do! I heard there's something a magic wolf loves to eat. I'll tell Elvis the new recipe for dinner, alright?"
"Great. You were talking about her…" She drew a pattern that looked like a locked door, and suddenly a door appeared on the wall. "What will happen to her?"
They entered a very wide and spacious room, with only a brass instrument along the wall.
"Screaming, followed by explosions and wind blades or air cannons."
Xerath nodded and took out a golden feather from the storage cabinet beneath the instrument. She inserted it into the instrument, which started humming softly, and a wind wall rose around the entire room.
She led the girl towards the middle of the room and when she walked back, she left the girl alone in the center.
The girl seemed confused and whimpered, looking at Xerath. Xerath remained unmoved, and with two swipes of her finger in the air, invisible wind blades flew and cut the rune ropes on the girl's hands and feet, as well as the seal on her mouth.
After landing, she shouted twice in Xerath's direction. The water lord, Hyectra, spoke from behind her, saying, "My lady, she is summoning me."
"Summoning you?"
"Not just me, she is summoning all the elements."
"Interesting. Virgil, attack her, anything will do."
"Alright, but she is already very weak." Virgil drew his bow and arrow. As soon as the arrow was nocked, it flew out without even aiming.
The girl was clearly terrified by the arrow, instinctively screaming. The arrow then exploded, creating a silent shockwave that distorted the light. Xerath simply lifted her hand and flicked her wrist, causing a sudden smoke to appear around her and Virgil. The smoke was shaped like a cone by the wind blades. This effect was exactly the same as the scroll that Virgil burned.
Xerath only needed to raise her hand, while Virgil burned two coins with each burn.
"Good child."
It was unclear whether Xerath was genuinely complimenting her, but she said "blazing flames."
Firewalls kept rising around the girl, as she frantically ran through them but couldn't escape. In her panic, she started screaming again, causing an explosion from a stone above Xerath's head. Xerath quickly drew a circular mark in the air with her hand, and a huge earth elemental creature suddenly appeared and disappeared, leaving a stone to fill the trace of the explosion.
She suddenly became focused. Virgil noticed that his old friend suddenly became tense from her casual state. She straightened her back, and her focused side profile was charming.
Her two slender and graceful hands crossed in the air, leaving lingering traces of magic flowing from the fingertips. Every scream from the girl brought about an air cannon or a wind blade, while every time Xerath wrote in the air, a stone wall rose from the ground to block her attacks. The girl's voice gradually became tearful, and the explosions became more severe. The entire mage tower seemed to tremble, with the restless elements, even the rarely seen fire element, joining in the frenzy and igniting flames randomly throughout the room.
Despite being next to the Elemental Archmage, Virgil still felt terrified, not knowing where the attacks were coming from. What if Xerath couldn't protect him?
But Xerath didn't have such worries. She accurately blocked every attack from the girl, trapping her within a small space in the center of the room.
Virgil felt uneasy and under Xerath's protection, he had time to look around. Eventually, the hunter's eyes spotted something and he alerted Xerath, saying, "I think your wall is about to crack…"
Before he could finish speaking, there was a massive explosion, and a piece of stone on the side wall shattered, revealing the dim yellow sky. Wind rushed in through the opening, and even Virgil could feel the excitement of the wind element. The wind passed by the girl, suddenly accelerating and transforming into countless sharp blades, all emitting a piercing whistle as they rushed towards them.
Xerath summoned a stone wall to block the onslaught of wind blades. Unlike before, Virgil could hear the sharp noise of the wind blades scraping against the stone behind the wall, causing it to constantly crumble. In the meantime, Xerath uttered the words, "Rise into the air."
She swiftly crossed over, almost instantly appearing behind the girl. Xerath raised her hand and conjured a white mist, her water elemental following suit, clinging to an almost invisible wind shield formed into ice in front of her.
Xerath began reciting a lengthy incantation, and suddenly, the wind around her began to spin. The girl futilely shouted, but the wind no longer responded to her call. Instead, it passed through her and rushed towards the woman in front of her.
Xerath was surrounded by the raging wind, even soaring into the air. It grew larger and larger, rushing out from the opening in the wall and merging into the wind wall encircling Aimekotes.
Elements were always in a chaotic state, but mages had mastered the method of utilizing them in an orderly manner, easily commanding their obedience. Xerath took advantage of all the wind elements in the room, bringing them into a state of order and releasing their power. The wind elements could no longer respond to the girl's requests.
It truly was a battle between elemental mages. He was now immensely grateful that his old friend was an Elemental Archmage rather than an ordinary elemental mage. Otherwise, fighting against this A+ grade "demon beast," he wouldn't have gained any advantage at all.
No, no, no. Xerath herself was the mastermind behind everything.
After Xerath took a break and chased away all the wind elements in the space, she quickly summoned a huge earth elemental creature. The giant stone man sat near the damaged wall, blocking the hole with its solid body. Now there were no usable wind elements in the room, and her calling only brought relatively weak fire elements.
However, it seemed that she quickly learned how to ignite the fire element and sprayed a large fireball towards Xerath, who was eight feet away from her.
Xerath had no intention of dodging, she took a step forward, reached out and held the fireball. Suddenly, the huge fireball disappeared between the two of them, leaving behind some eerie smoke.
The girl was puzzled. The two women looked at each other, and the little girl slowly fell to the ground. Xerath examined her for a moment, squatted down, stood up again, and stretched out her hands, chanting, "Light as a feather."
