458 From the Shadows
Cain looked up, “What do you need other than a heat sink?”
“Probably regeneration, for Mana as well. Fire amplifier and a few stored high-tier spells.” Zaleria said with a thinking face.
“Those are simple, I have to go check on Selena and Gracie. In the meantime, you think about it.” Cain stood and then looked at Ellie. “Keep your condition a secret, I will bring it up to Alice and the others.”
Ellie nodded, she felt relieved not to do it herself.
…
“Alice, you there?” Cain knocked on Alice’s door.
“You know I’m here,” she replied.
Can slowly opened the door and entered the room. Selena was sitting on the desk brushing her hair, while Alice sat beside the still-sleeping Gracie.
“You can move already?” Cain remembered seeing Selena with a hole in her stomach. Even if healing magic healed her, she shouldn’t be able to move yet.
“I’m perfectly fine as you see. In the wild, we’re either doing good or in the grave-nya” She puffed her shoulders. A slight shiver can be noticed on her knees.
“We’re not in the wild, you’re in my house. Don’t push yourself and rest.” Cain used [Telekinesis] to move her toward the bed.
“Can’t rest-nya!” Selena stood back up the moment he let her go. When she said Nya, Cain could notice the faint vibration in her voice, she wasn’t fine.
“Fine, do what you want. I will do what I want, is that okay with you?” Cain stared at her.
“Of course-nya.” She puffed her chest staring back at him, clearly resisting a cough.
Cain pointed a finger at her [Sleep] “Nya….” Her eyes closed and her tail dropped, her body went limp immediately. [Telekinesis] he caught her before she could fall to the ground. “I can see your knees shaking and you’re barely standing. Don’t pretend you’re not hurt, the effects will show when you grow older.” Cain sat her on the bed.
“With how high her constitution is, she could have recovered anyway,” Alice said looking at Cain.
“Overexerting yourself at a younger age is never a good thing, she will regret it later. How is Gracie doing?” He sat beside Gracie.
“She woke up earlier dehydrated, had her drink a lot of water and she got back to sleep. The burn had its toll on her body but she seemed to be fine.” Alice replied.
“Gracie isn’t that expressive, she can be in pain and not show it. Hope she’s doing well. You as well, go take a rest, let the maids handle the situation here.” Cain said standing up.
“How about you?” Alice stood and asked him, to her knowledge, he was the one who got hurt the most.
“What about me?” He gave her a weird look.
“You can have a whole first kiss again, don’t you remember that your entire head got incinerated and we had to grow you a new one? You’re the one who needs the most rest.” Alice poked his chest, he could tell that she wanted to shake him a bag.
“You’re right, but I did rest for an hour. I even took a bath, I’m used to getting injured so don’t worry about me.” Cain patted her head.
“Go take a rest, I will see you later.” Cain turned to head toward the door.
“Hold up, where are you going?” She stopped him.
“To check on Sofia, father, Ariel, and even Farryn. Can’t just ignore them.” He exited the room quickly after that. On his way to Sofia’s room, he met his father.
“That’s the door direction, you were outside?” Cain asked.
“Yeah, bad news. The lizards have attacked this city as well. An ancient black.” Chad said with a passive face.
“How much is the damage, where is he?” Cain was getting ready to go take care of him immediately.
“Already taken care of. Hati, the rooster, and the ice witch hunted him down. They are now resting at the church.” Chad pointed toward the door.
Now Cain was worried about a potential attack at Ourals, the dragons seems to be having some sort of plan.
~Marina, answer me!~ Cain called her immediately, he can’t remember anyone with the strength to beat a dragon in there. He was hoping to not find the city in ruin.
~Cain? Been a while since you called~
~Are you all right? Did a dragon attack the city?~ Cain wasn’t waiting, Ourals was vulnerable.
~How did you…No, sorry. A dragon did indeed appear close to the city about two hours earlier, but it suddenly fell dead~
Marina then explained the report she got from the soldiers guarding the walls.
A massive, red-flying creature was spotted in the distant southwest. It was later identified as a red dragon. When it approached the city, the guards could estimate it to be a bit taller than the walls.
When getting into the city ballista range, the soldiers shouted a warning at the creature, they could feel it wasn’t Zaleria, but since all red dragons looked the same to them they couldn’t risk shooting her.
At that moment, a black smoke cloud engulfed the dragon. They could hear it roaring but didn’t see any flames or light. After a few seconds, they could hear a massive thing crash to the ground.
When the smoke dissipated, they could see the dragon’s corpse on the ground. The creature’s whole body was covered in stab wounds, as the soldiers described it, he looked like ring mail armor, riddled with tiny holes.
~Was it you Cain? I suspected it to be Gracie as the black smoke looked similar to her magic~
~It wasn’t us, the capital was also attacked, as did Furberg. Keep the corpse intact, I will inspect it later.~ Cain replied. Shadow mages were rare, the chance of a random one being around is abysmal. He might believe Marina to be the one killing the dragon rather than that.
~I already told them to secure it, it will be a hustle to drag it inside the city but we’ll manage~ Mary replied.
~Understood, I will come tomorrow to check it out.~ Cain closed the call.
…
Right outside the capital, a woman was panting inside a cave. Her body was drenched in sweat her she could feel her vision blurring.
~Mauzzkyl, you don’t sound that healthy~ A voice rang in her head.
~Don’t call me by that name, you know we failed to hunt him down.~ The woman growled, ~He ran away right from under our noses~ She added.
~I can’t use your real name, I will keep calling you Mauzzkyl Jaezred. Find and kill or incapacitate him~
~listen Asmodeus, I can’t, that man was Cain’s close friend in the original line and he never told us how strong he was. A half-drow (Dark elf) half-black shadow/acid dragon with a millennia’s worth of experience in assassinating, his shadow spans over a whole continent.~ The woman growled.
~We can’t have that, he must be taken out of this line. Don’t you two have the same skill set?~ Asmodeus replied with a confused tone.
~You’re comparing a succubus to him? On top of that, I don’t even have half of his experience. Unlike you or Tiamat, I never had a powerful ability, to begin with.~
~Fine, should I send you reinforcements?~
~No, anything weaker than a pit fiend would get killed instantly by him. And if you did send pit fiends, they are bound to cause a ruckus. Just let me rest for a while, had to run from Ourals to the capital in minutes, even with shadows it was exhausting.~
~I will let you in a moment, what about her? The blo…~
~Don’t even suggest that, the maids all went insane after his death. There is a reason we banished them to the shadow realm~
~Mauzzkyl, they aren’t insane. They are regretful, sad, and devastated, just like us. The only difference is that they only want him to survive, even if it was at the expense of the whole world~
~And that’s insanity, Cain would have never agreed to that. Let’s ignore the real Mauzzkyl Jaezred as he doesn’t seem interested in our plan yet. Instead, how about you give me the green light to kill her already?~
~Not yet, don’t do anything rash~