Chapter 118: A Hidden Observer

By the time Damian returned to the Four Valkyries’ camp inside Moonveil Forest, the surrounding woodland had finally begun settling into something vaguely resembling night again.

The terrible glow which had illuminated the southern horizon during his battle with Ravelhorn was mostly gone, although a faint reddish haze still hung above the distant trees.

Frightened beasts continued migrating away from that region and periodic disturbances in the ambient Mana revealed that the forest had not quite recovered from being subjected to what amounted to a tactical magical nuke.

Damian approached the camp quietly, although calling what he was doing ’sneaking’ would have been generous. His Divine Sense had already informed him several hundred meters away that all four Valkyries were awake, and worse, every single one of them appeared to be waiting for him.

Eunice sat beside the extinguished campfire with her hands folded calmly over her lap, Julia leaned against a nearby tree with her arms crossed, Paulina occupied a fallen log while one muscular leg bounced impatiently, and Janet had somehow positioned herself directly beside Damian’s bedroll as though guarding the scene of a future crime.

Four women, four pairs of eyes and one suspiciously empty place across the campfire.

Damian briefly considered turning around.

Only as a joke, of course... mostly.

’Maybe if I walk naturally enough, they’ll at least have the decency to pretend they didn’t notice me.’

He calmly stepped through the final line of trees, causing all four women to turn toward him in perfect synchronization.

Well, so much for that.

Damian continued walking as though there was absolutely nothing unusual about returning to camp several hours after vanishing without warning.

Janet’s eyes narrowed as he passed her, Paulina folded her powerful arms, while Julia’s expression became increasingly judgmental with every step he took toward his bedroll.

For half a second, Damian genuinely considered simply lying down, then looked at their faces again.

Yeah, no chance.

The jig was up.

With the dignity of a man who had committed absolutely no wrongdoing and expected the court to recognize this obvious fact, Damian turned away from his bedroll, walked toward the opposite side of the dead campfire and sat cross-legged before the four women.

"...Evening."

Paulina’s eye twitched while Janet immediately opened her mouth, likely to begin an accusation involving desertion, suspicious explosions and the casual abandonment of one’s party in hostile territory.

Naturally, Eunice raised one hand before the Halfling could begin.

The mature priestess looked toward Damian with the same gentle patience she usually reserved for injured Adventurers, unreasonable people and children who had somehow swallowed things clearly labeled poisonous.

"Damian, where have you been?"

There was no accusation in her voice, which somehow made the question feel considerably more dangerous.

Damian scratched his cheek. "Well, that’s a somewhat long story."

Julia immediately answered from beside the tree. "We have time."

Apparently they did.

Damian glanced between the four women, realized there was little point delaying the inevitable and shrugged.

Most of what happened no longer needed hiding anyway, especially since Roland and Selene already knew the important details.

"Alright, after leaving camp I tracked the actual source of the problems in our sector and eventually found Ravelhorn the Reveler. The information claiming he was around Challenge Rating Eight turned out to be deliberately false. He was already at the Master Stage, roughly the lower end of it, and Varkas had been manipulated too. Ravelhorn also had Alfaro under some kind of Fey enthrallment, so I fought Alfaro first, knocked him unconscious without killing him and protected him with a <Glyph of Warding> before dealing with Ravelhorn."

Eunice’s calm expression immediately tightened at the mention of the old Moonfang. "Alfaro survived?"

"Yeah, he’s alive. Roland currently has him in Guild custody for examination, because the control disappeared once he lost consciousness and nobody wants to guess what Ravelhorn actually did to him without checking properly."

That answer visibly relieved Eunice, although Julia had clearly latched onto another part of Damian’s explanation.

"You dealt with Ravelhorn yourself?"

"Eventually."

Julia stared and Damian stared back.

Her expression very clearly said that the word ’eventually’ was carrying a suspicious amount of information.

Damian sighed and continued, explaining how Ravelhorn’s true combat ability had been considerably higher than the Guild intelligence suggested, with the ancient Fey combining illusions, substitution, teleportation, martial skill and centuries of experience into an extremely annoying package.

He also told them about Mirelle, the three-tailed White Fox who had remained beside Ravelhorn throughout everything, and how she had eventually intercepted the Longtian Sword when Damian sent it forward to finish him.

The mood around the camp changed immediately, and even Julia’s irritation faded.

Eunice asked softly, "She deliberately took the attack for him?"

"As far as I could tell, yes. She knew exactly what was coming and still moved between them. She dissolved into Fey light afterward, and Ravelhorn completely lost it."

Damian kept the uncertainty concerning Mirelle’s missing soul notification to himself. He had no answer for that particular mystery yet, and speculating aloud would serve absolutely nobody.

"His grief triggered an advancement immediately afterward and pushed him from Great Fey to Archfey, which meant he crossed directly into the Legend bracket."

For several seconds, none of the four women reacted at all.

Paulina’s bouncing leg stopped completely, Julia straightened away from the tree and Janet’s mouth opened slightly as the implications reached her.

Even Eunice, usually the hardest among them to genuinely surprise, stared at Damian as though waiting for him to explain the part where the story stopped being insane.

Unfortunately for them, it only got worse.

Damian continued, "He became substantially stronger after the breakthrough, definitely stronger than anything I wanted to keep fighting in close combat, so I grabbed Alfaro, gained altitude and ended things from a safer distance."

Paulina slowly asked, "...How exactly did you end things?"

Damian smiled somewhat sheepishly. "That I can’t divulge, but suffice to say it was the reason for the big boom earlier."

Nobody said anything.

Damian looked from one woman to another, the silence stretching long enough that even he began feeling slightly awkward.

Janet finally raised both hands and pointed toward him with the expression of someone attempting to confirm whether reality itself had developed a drinking problem.

"So let me get this straight. Not only are you an Adept after being in Valoria for barely over a week, you can also release Legend-level spells?"

Damian nodded seriously. "Correct."

Paulina took over almost immediately, disbelief written openly across her broad features. "And on top of that, you personally killed the Great Fey who was responsible for this entire operation?"

"Yup."

Eunice slowly followed, still looking as though she was arranging the information inside her head before deciding whether any part of it made sense. "And this same Great Fey became an Archfey during your battle?"

"Mhm!"

Julia finally pushed herself completely away from the tree. "And despite that advancement placing him in the Legend bracket, you still defeated him?"

Damian straightened slightly and answered with shameless pride. "Yes, I did indeed do that."

That killed the ’interrogation’.

The Four Valkyries simply stared at him for several seconds before exchanging increasingly helpless looks with one another.

What were they supposed to say?

Barely more than a week earlier, Damian had entered Moonveil Forest with them as a relatively inexperienced Mage who needed an established Copper party accompanying him.

Since then, the bastard had become an Adept, developed enough strange abilities to make every previous assumption about him useless, and now casually admitted that the massive explosion which had illuminated half the southern forest was his work after a Great Fey transformed into a Legend during their duel.

Janet finally looked back toward him as though hoping he might somehow become less ridiculous upon second inspection.

(Un)fortunately, Damian remained Damian.

The same irritating Otherworlder who argued with her, teased Julia whenever possible, casually flirted when the mood took him and treated increasingly absurd developments as though someone had merely added another appointment to his schedule.

Damian eventually chuckled. "I think the interrogation has lost momentum."

Julia gave him a flat look. "You think?"

"Well, if nobody has anything else, I’m going to sleep."

Paulina immediately leaned forward. "Hold on. What happens with the operation now?"

That was actually worth answering.

Damian stopped rising and explained, "The operation continues. Ravelhorn was the main problem, but his death doesn’t magically clean up everything he caused. There are still hostile populations throughout the southern sectors, the Fey crossings need to be properly secured and the Dark Goblins are still active even if their leadership is collapsing. Tomorrow I’ll work with all of you to finish clearing our zone, then I have something else to handle afterward."

Julia’s eyes narrowed immediately. "What exactly are you planning after that?"

Damian smiled. "Something special."

Julia’s expression darkened while Janet groaned under her breath, but there was no actual reason to keep Damian sitting before them anymore.

He had explained where he went, told them what happened, returned alive and confirmed that the wider operation remained active under Roland’s authority.

Eunice eventually sighed. "Fine. Sleep, Damian. We can deal with whatever this ’something special’ is tomorrow."

"Excellent decision." Damian praised with a thumbs up.

Julia scoffed while Damian finally walked back toward his bedroll, lay down and closed his eyes.

Between Ravelhorn, Valor, gaining administrative immunity from the Valorian Overworld System, Kellan’s accelerated training and whatever nightmare the Dark Goblins were about to experience tomorrow, Damian had accumulated enough events in one evening to fill several normal people’s entire month.

A few hours of sleep sounded absolutely wonderful.

............

Several hours later, just after midnight, the crater left behind by Damian and Ravelhorn received another visitor.

The devastated region lay silent beneath the moonlight, with Selene’s earlier <Blizzard> having transformed large portions of the scorched battlefield into frozen mud, cracked glass and blackened tree trunks covered by thin layers of frost.

There was no obvious spatial disturbance or burst of Mana announcing the newcomer’s arrival.

One moment the crater stood empty, and the next, a tall cloaked woman was already standing along its fractured outer edge.

Her hood concealed most of her face, although several long strands of silver hair escaped from beneath it whenever she moved. The dark cloak similarly failed to disguise much about the figure underneath, wrapping itself around a tall feminine frame whose dramatic curves made complete anonymity somewhat optimistic.

The woman remained still for a long moment before beginning to walk.

Her boots passed over vitrified earth, frozen soil and shattered stone while her attention moved constantly from one damaged section of terrain to another.

She inspected broken trees, gouges carved across the earth, scattered Fey residue and faint traces of magic that ordinary people would never have noticed beneath the overwhelming aftermath of the final explosion.

After almost a minute, she finally spoke in a cool, controlled voice, apparently recording her conclusions for later review.

"Investigation record, southern Moonveil incident. Battlefield confirms at least two principal combatants with intermittent involvement from secondary entities. One primary combatant was Fey, Satyr lineage, mature Great Fey before the final stage of combat. Residual signature, movement traces and surviving essence are consistent with Ravelhorn the Oathbreaker. Evidence indicates repeated short-range displacement, layered illusions and high-speed physical exchanges occurring alongside conventional spellcasting."

She continued walking as she spoke, pausing when several severed trees attracted her attention. The cuts were unnaturally clean, but what interested her was not the sharpness. It was the angles.

Several blows had originated from positions where no corresponding footprint, impact mark or body movement existed.

The woman crouched beside one of the severed trunks and ran a gloved finger near the smooth surface without touching it.

"Second combatant employed a bladed weapon capable of attacking independently from the wielder. Initial possibility of projectile launch rejected; trajectories change after release and several strikes reverse direction without evidence of retrieval. Most likely a magically controlled weapon, although no recognizable Valorian spell structure remains within the cuts."

She straightened and followed several of those paths deeper into the ruined clearing, slowly reconstructing where Damian and Ravelhorn had exchanged blows directly.

The physical evidence produced another problem.

"Second combatant also possessed substantial martial proficiency despite clear Mage-related magical residue. Foot placement and weapon transitions do not correspond with major Rastia Kingdom Fighter schools, guild-standard swordsmanship or recognized human martial forms. Repeated attack sequences preserve momentum through unusual chained reversals, suggesting a foreign martial discipline rather than improvised technique."

That explanation was imperfect, but it was the closest conclusion available from the evidence.

The next anomaly proved considerably harder.

Near one of the places where Ravelhorn had bled heavily, remnants of something foreign still clung stubbornly to traces of Fey essence. The woman finally knelt and touched two fingers against the earth, allowing a faint pulse of purple-grey power to enter the dried blood.

Her expression changed almost immediately.

"Unknown invasive energy remained embedded within the target’s injuries. It is neither Mana nor recognized Divine Power and appears to have actively resisted Fey regeneration, forcing repeated expenditure of additional essence to purge or overpower it. Probable enhancement energy delivered through weapon contact."

Again, close enough.

She remained there several seconds longer, testing the residue twice more before continuing toward the center of the battlefield.

"Accumulated injuries progressively increased Ravelhorn’s expenditure while the second combatant maintained pressure. Several later traces indicate Ravelhorn’s restoration became increasingly inefficient before the battle experienced an abrupt emotional and magical escalation."

The woman’s steps finally stopped.

Almost nothing remained at that location.

Selene’s blizzard, the final explosion and the natural dispersal of Fey essence had erased nearly everything, yet a faint pale residue still existed beneath the stronger signatures surrounding it.

For the first time since arriving, the woman’s cold expression shifted.

"...Mirelle."

There was no dramatic grief in the name, but there was unmistakable recognition.

She lowered herself and remained beside the residue for several seconds before resuming the report.

"White Fox Fey Essence collapsed at this position shortly before Ravelhorn’s advancement. Spatial placement suggests intervention into an incoming lethal attack directed toward him. Her death appears to have served as the immediate emotional catalyst."

The woman rose again and finally turned toward the full extent of the crater.

"Ravelhorn subsequently advanced from Great Fey to Archfey."

That conclusion changed the meaning of everything surrounding her.

Once she treated the final stage as a Legend-level confrontation, several pieces of destruction made more sense.

The flattened forest beyond the glade, the melted stone, the immense shockwave pattern and the widespread thermal damage all pointed toward a single overwhelming magical release rather than prolonged exchanges between comparable destructive spells.

The woman descended farther into the crater while her eyes began glowing faintly beneath the hood.

"The final attack produced confirmed Legend-level destructive output with overwhelming Fire alignment. Initial estimate suggests a high-tier spell, likely Level Eight or above."

She stopped.

The glow in her eyes intensified while thin threads of purple-grey magic extended outward and disturbed the remaining traces beneath the frozen glass.

After several seconds, her brow furrowed.

"Revision. Surviving structure does not support Level Eight complexity. Possible Level Seven construction with extreme reinforcement."

Another pause followed.

Then her expression changed again.

"...No."

She raised one hand and drew a microscopic fragment of residual spell structure from beneath the scorched ground.

The stranger studied it in silence, and the answer clearly offended every expectation she possessed.

"Base formula is... low-tier."

For the first time, genuine surprise entered her voice.

She examined the fragment again before continuing more slowly.

"Fire-element offensive spell originating from a relatively simple construction. However, the formula exhibits development vastly beyond conventional mastery limitations. Grandmaster mastery is the most probable explanation, followed by reinforcement through a higher-level Spell Slot."

Her eyes lifted toward the crater surrounding her.

"Upcasting."

That explained the final attack, but it did not explain the person who cast it.

Whoever fought Ravelhorn possessed a bizarre combination of capabilities that did not naturally belong together.

There was human Mage spellcasting advanced to an absurd degree, an unfamiliar remotely controlled sword, a foreign internal energy capable of suppressing Fey regeneration and a martial discipline whose principles belonged to no fighting school she recognized.

The woman allowed the remaining magical fragment to dissipate before slowly turning in place and surveying the battlefield one final time.

"Final reconstruction. Ravelhorn the Reveler entered combat as a Great Fey, sustained progressive injuries from an unidentified opponent using mixed Valorian and foreign disciplines, then advanced into Archfey after Mirelle’s death. Despite successful advancement into the Legend bracket, he was subsequently killed by a Grandmaster-level Fire spell amplified through upcasting to Legend-class destructive output. Identity and origin of the opposing combatant remain unresolved."

Purple-grey light gradually formed beneath her boots, and the woman drew her cloak tighter as the surrounding air began to distort.

"Whoever did this possesses abilities I do not recognize and strength sufficient to kill one of ours immediately after advancement."

The light intensified, her silver hair lifting within the rising magical current.

"The culprit will answer for what happened here before the Wild Court."

Then the purple-grey radiance folded inward as the mysterious woman vanished, leaving the ruined crater silent beneath the moon once again.