The Sword and The Shadow

True Intention

[Lass?] Angelista looked to be around her twenties in human terms. Given elven rates of growth, she was at least sixty or seventy years old. Leguna didn't understand why Gahrona called her a lass.

[Hah! This child's a soulgrasper, so she can use the power of souls to speed up her growth. Actually, she's not much older than you.]

Leguna was speechless. But at the very least he learned the strength of soulgraspers. If they could even change their rate of growth, they could even go against natural biological laws. It was indeed rather a formidable power.

[Normally, soulgraspers can suppress all foes with weaker enthymema than them. Even if you're a gifted, you probably won't fare too well before her,] Gahrona continued, [But with me here, you won't have to fear.]

[Then I'll count on you, Teacher.] Leguna rubbed his temples and graciously accepted her help, arrogant as she sounded. The mental blow he suffered was truly terrifying. It was one thing for magi like Annelotte with strong enthymema to take the blow, but he reckoned he wouldn't be able to fight after taking two more such strikes.

[Feel free to count on me! I can protect you.] The moment she finished, Lighteater glowed with a subtle black light. Gahrona had put her soul powers to use.

[Since that's the case…] Leguna snickered and charged at Angelista once more.

"Hmph! What else do you think you can do?" she spat. She hadn't even used her full power. While soulgraspers were all too common in the star realm, they were even rarer than gifted on the base plane!

Angelista threw a fireball, which Leguna easily evaded.

However, her lips curved into a smile at that moment. The next second, Leguna suddenly found that the fireball that missed him had curved and was coming his way.

"Consider it a welcome gift." She put her soul powers on full display and her will even caused space itself to distort.

Leguna only saw a distortion in space coming for him. He had two choices: either he defended against the front and got roasted by the fireball from behind or he avoided the fireball again and had his mind fried.

[Darn it, I can't use Shadow Blink!] Angelista seemed to have picked up on Leguna's ability to skip through space, so she distorted the space to seal off his gift.

Angelista paled visibly when she finished that round of attacks. She seemed to be quite aware of the threat Leguna posed and decided to finish him off before he could figure out what her ability was. That was an attack she was certain would connect as she had taken multiple situations into account. While it drained her considerably to do so, she believed she could take him out without question.

But, Angelista failed to consider one factor: Gahrona's presence.

Leguna ignored Angelista's mental attack and surged his impetus. He then formed a shadow shield to block the fireball coming from behind.

Bam!

Fireballs from high-order magi had terrifying power. Leguna was blown away flying by the terrifying explosion alone.

Is it settled Angelista thought tiredly when she saw Leguna sent flying in mid air. Even if Leguna managed to block her fireball, he shouldn't have escaped the mental strike.

The moment he landed, however, he seemed agile all of a sudden. He kicked his legs lightly and readjusted his posture before dashing straight for Angelista again.

A moment ago, Gahrona had used her soul power to form a barrier around him to mitigate the mental wave Angelista sent his way.

"Look here!" Leguna tossed a slightly golden crystal ball into the air when he was less than a meter away. Then, he left the range of space disrupted by Angelista and blinked behind the dark elf.

He didn't face her and appeared with his back facing hers. Then, he closed his eyes.

The crystal ball burst into a sudden, eye-piercing light. It was one of the many magic tools Annelotte had given him: a crystal ball with a magic formation engraved within. The spell within was a simple level-zero flash spell.

Apart from being able to let out a blinding light, it didn't do much else. While a human wouldn't lose the ability to fight due to a flash, dark elves were different. Their excellent night vision was traded off by their extreme sensitivity to light. For instance, Linq had cried from pain from the sudden ignition of the torch. One could only imagine the kind of damage to Angelista's vision from that bright flash. She shrieked in agony and covered her eyes that were tearing up nonstop.

"Ugggaaaaah!"

Angelista aside, even Linq and Angelista's warrior subordinate who were fighting nearby closed their eyes.

Leguna didn't give that chance up and grabbed her collar and tossed her to Linq.

"I said to warn me the next time you do it…" Linq opened his eyes and saw Angelista lying on the ground and writhing in pain. It seemed that it would take her a long time to recover her vision.

"Alright, Eirinn, it's fine now." Leguna kicked the warrior elf down and used needles generated with Shadowedge to seal his impetus channels. The two enemies were successfully subdued.

"Big Brother, I'm here. I'm alright." Eirinn turned the ring off and stepped out from behind a large rock.

Leguna breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her fine. He gave her a light hug and whispered, "Sorry, Eirinn. Go take a short rest."

She then felt a warmth flow into the back of her head before she passed out.

He carefully laid her down on a large rock and looked at Linq coldly. "Well, isn't it time we had a good talk?"

"Talk? What talk?" Linq said, appearing completely confused.

"I think there are many things we can talk about. " Leguna gave the dark elf magus another kick. "I don't know what kind of grudge you have between House Elvin and House Andalir, but it seems that you dark elves are willing to hire a high-order magus to stop Eirinn from meeting her mother. I don't think dark elves would do something that don't benefit them."

"No, you don't understand the two families'--"

Before Linq finished, Leguna bellowed in anger. He stretched out his hand to grab his neck at lightning speed and raised his whole body up on one arm. "Know your place, Linq! Don't try to hide anything from me. If you do, I'll end you!"

"Alright… I'll… I'll tell you…" Linq struggled to say.

Leguna loosened his hand and dropped him on the ground. He gave the elf some time to cough it out and said, "Now, tell me the truth. You know what will happen if you lie."

Linq looked at Angelista and her servant. Leguna had intentionally kicked them unconscious.

"I wasn't lying. House Elvin's matriarch is indeed Eirinn's mother." Linq knew that Leguna wasn't in a good mood based on his rough actions. So, he said it like it was. "I definitely wasn't lying about that."

"Then what about these fellows?" Leguna swept his gaze at Angelista.

"They are hired by House Andalir to abduct Eirinn."

"Why?" His gaze turned cold as he glared at Linq intensely. "Eirinn doesn't have any times with them. Even if she's related partly by blood, what does it have to do with House Andalir? Why would they abduct someone completely unrelated to them?"

Linq felt the fear welling up from the glare. "Because… Eirinn is a priestess of the sun god Pyro."

"So?"

Linq carefully said, "House Elvin hasn't been developing well over the past few years. They had secretly been ostracized by the others among the seven great houses. That's why we are forced to earn Ross's support. If we are able to cause her divine manifestation to descend among us, our house will be able to break out of this predicament and emerge even stronger than before. And to gain the favor of the goddess Ross, we have to sacrifice something she likes to her. Eirinn is a priestess of Pyro and we heard that she's also divinely favored."

Linq carefully looked at the completely expressionless Leguna and calmed himself. He grit his teeth and said, "That's why the matriarch believes that if she sacrifices her own flesh and blood who has the blessing and favor of Pyro to Ross, the house will definitely prosper again under her grace. Our nemesis, Andalir, heard about this somehow and are trying to foil the sacrificial ceremony. They are fine with either killing or abducting her."