“You think you can just waltz in and then bear no consequences?!”

  Vanda’s cold voice resounded as her thumb made a horizontal swipe while her index finger moved vertically, aiming at the pce where Illyan had just nded.

  ‘Oh fuck!’ Illyan, who had just dodged the first attack, had to dodge another as two crossing lines came at him.

  Just as the strings were closing in on him, he sidestepped to avoid the vertical string while rolling underneath the horizontal one.

  Unfortunately, these were not attacks like those of warriors, where the attack was linear.

  The moment he moved, the strings also broke their linearity and changed direction with Vanda’s finger movements.

  Illyan was continuously dodging the strings as his intuition told him that these strings could easily sever his limbs.

  However, as he was dodging two strings, Vanda’s other three fingers moved, making the other strings circle around him to create an inescapable net.

  Illyan gritted his teeth. He noticed it but didn’t have the leeway to get away.

  ‘Aurelia, what is your situation?’ In the end, he asked Aurelia, as they couldn’t keep this up.

  ‘Not good.’

  Aurelia responded curtly, as she too couldn’t focus on anything else.

  Vanda used one arm per person, achieving total suppression of both.

  The soldiers, who finally responded to the danger, surrounded the two ambushers and waited for Vanda to finish them off or in case they managed to escape.

  Illyan, hearing their footsteps, had a grim expression.

  ‘How is she so strong? I feel even stronger pressure than when I fought Ezekiel a year ago! Will we be able to succeed?’

  Looking at the woman he had spent a night with, Illyan was once again shocked.

  The only good thing was that she hadn’t discovered them before the ambush; otherwise, they would definitely fail.

  She was strong. In fact, because her fighting style was so different, she was even more dangerous than the likes of Ezekiel and Varel in his eyes.

  But he wouldn’t falter. This was the st node. They didn’t need to win.

  Activating the node was the only goal.

  Illyan’s eyes glimmered with determination.

  ‘Aurelia, I will create an opportunity for you to get to the starstone. Will you be able to activate it as long as I stop her?’

  ‘It will be difficult, but it should be possible!’ Aurelia sounded hurried as she elegantly dodged and parried the attacks.

  She finally took out her blood sabers and infused them with mana.

  “Hmm? Mana? How come I didn’t feel anything before? No, you fused your mana with blood energy… How foolish. Also, the blood sabers… Are they the Heart Bearers' tools? Did you steal them? If not, then Brynjar has a lot to expin. His cn’s factions almost ruining the grand pn…” Vanda shook her head in disapproval.

  But seeing her shift her attention to Aurelia, Illyan found an opportunity.

  Blood energy raged inside his veins as they became visible on one of his arms.

  He dodged one of the strings but reached for the next one with his hand.

  Vanda, seeing this, thought he was being ridiculous.

  ‘You will just lose fingers.’ Vanda smirked with a gleeful smile.

  But she still moved her other fingers to attack him from other angles in case he had some scheme in mind.

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t predict what he would do.

  ‘Flow Infusion!’ Illyan roared in his mind as, at the same moment when he almost touched the string, he started to infuse his flow into it.

  The flow couldn’t be emitted outside the body, nor could it be shaped or compressed.

  However, if there was a medium, it could be infused into it.

  Theoretically, air could be a medium too, but it was too difficult to realize as of now, since the infusion rate depended on the density of the medium.

  After all, gases and liquids had much less density, which also allowed them to have currents that could easily disrupt and disperse the flow.

  Solid objects were the easiest to infuse the flow into.

  However, Illyan didn’t need to truly infuse the flow.

  At that split second, the air between his palm and the magic string filled with the dispersing flow, which shielded his hand for a bit.

  With a grin, Illyan grabbed the string and, with all his strength powered by blood energy, he pulled.

  “E-eh-eeeeeeeeeehhh?!”

  Vanda, who noticed this, wanted to detach the string from her finger, but Illyan was faster, which caused her to be dragged into the air by her string.

  Unfortunately, Illyan let go of the string since his flow ran out.

  His hand was bloodied, but he didn’t care as he immediately ran from the encirclement.

  Vanda being dragged away caused all of her strings to be dragged as well, breaking the formation of strings.

  This allowed Illyan to find an opening as he jumped out.

  With quick movement, he took out his longsword and, with fluid motions, severed the heads of the closest three men.

  “What the…!” The fourth one wanted to retreat, but Illyan grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and threw him at the falling Vanda.

  “Urgh!” Vanda, who was in the air, growled as mana started to stir around her.

  The man who had just been thrown at her came into contact, and his entire body was spttered around.

  All of this happened in a few seconds, but Aurelia, who also found an opening with Vanda being distracted, ran away.

  “You are going nowhere, you bastard!” But as she avoided the men’s encirclements, a rge man blocked her path, and with a mace in his hand, he wanted to smash her head.

  She avoided just in time as the mace erupted with red energy and cracked open the ground in front of him.

  Illyan, who heard this, didn’t wait as he sshed with his sword in that direction, causing the air to condense into a ssh that flew across the cave.

  The man felt this, and his entire body erupted with bloody fme as he swung the mace at the air ssh.

  Boom

  Two forces collided, dispersing each other.

  “What in the world… That was not magic.”

  Vanda, who finally stabilized her stance and nded back on her feet, stared in wonder.

  ‘Shit… If it is not mana, then I can’t feel it!’

  Vanda bit her lip hard until blood seeped out of it, dripping on her chin.

  She was known for being gifted in Mana Perception and her skillful Raw Mana Manipution.

  But heaven was fair as it gave and took.

  What she gained in mana perception, she cked when it came to mind power.

  She never managed to condense her mind power.

  Not that she tried hard. In fact, she probably had simir or below-average talent compared to other acolytes in it.

  But why work hard for something difficult to achieve when she had already paved her path in the profession of Mage?

  Mages didn’t need mind power. They didn’t need to have spells.

  They didn’t need intelligence or a strong body.

  The only thing in their heart was the mana.

  The extreme of mana sensing and manipution.

  That’s what a mage was.

  And she was worthy of being a prospect of becoming one.

  With her imprint almost manifested, she was on the verge of becoming a Magister, a person worshipped by all mankind.

  Unfortunately, she was of humble origin.

  Like most acolytes, she was born a peasant who was ter kidnapped by her sect.

  The sect’s name was Poison Bloom Sect.

  Together with her brother, she entered the sect against her will and competed with other acolytes.

  Her brother, however, didn’t have any talent and became a warrior who was sent to the battlefield a few months after training.

  She, on the other hand, learned the ways of magic from the instructors in the branch of the sect she was sent to.

  Unfortunately, the sect’s competition was too cruel. Those who stood aside managed to keep their pitiful lives, but the ones who stuck their heads too high got their necks severed.

  Vanda rose too fast without any force backing her.

  She also wasn’t exactly cunning as she focused on studying magic.

  Because of that, her knowledge of poison was gging and resulted in her getting poisoned by a toxin that ate away at her mana.

  She survived but lost a lot.

  However, she didn’t give up.

  Since the poison was eating away at her mana, she pleaded with the Magister of her sect to allow her to attend a mission in the Vanaras Kingdom where the power was siphoned.

  While it was Bck Obsidian’s territory, there was a need for a guardian from another sect to prevent embezzlement, as decreed by the Arkravav Empire.

  To her sect, she was already useless, so they didn’t want to expend their efforts on her, but Vanda found her own way of getting what she wanted.

  She gave up her dignity of today for the sake of hope for tomorrow.

  Thus, she became a guardian inside the Vanaras Capital.

  During that time, not only did she want to restore her prowess, but she also swore vengeance against those who hurt her and those who pyed with her as just a toy.

  It was around that time she met Korin, who was coincidentally in the capital one day.

  That moment was essential for their alliance.

  Later on, her brother, who still fought on the frontlines, decided to feign death.

  This act of disobedience caused the poison given to all warriors of the sect to stir up inside him, but he was lucky during his days and found a way to neutralize this poison.

  In that way, he deserted and changed his identity as he arrived in the Vanaras Kingdom, where he reunited with his sister.

  Both, lusting after power, decided that he would stay at the pce most likely to hold the inheritance while she would stay in the capital.

  This happened several decades ago.

  The sect had already forgotten about the useless woman, but she never did.

  She slowly recovered while the mana inside her nourished her and kept her young, while her brother grew older and became a grandfather.

  But nothing changed. Since she wasn’t a Magister, she was also reaching her limits.

  However, as long as she got the inheritance, she would be able to get her revenge.

  Vanda gritted her teeth.

  ‘My dear brother… Why are so many people trying to harm us?! Why, Varel, why?! Why are those bastards doing this to us?!’

  Vanda’s eyes turned red in anger as the mana surrounding her fingers started to change color and consistency.

  The mana turned into the shape of a dart as she flicked it at Illyan.

  Then she conjured her mana strings again and sent their ends to the bodies of the wendigos, where they connected to their limbs and heads after she severed the chains covering them.

  ‘I will not fail. Not this time!’ Vanda said in her heart as she started to control two corpses of the wendigos and threw their bodies at Illyan.

  She wanted to attack Aurelia too, but Aurelia disappeared from her perception as she stopped using mana.

  The poison dart was upon Illyan, who had just finished the air ssh, with the dead wendigos in tow.

  ‘What is that? The sensation is the same as when Arwen used that acidic ball spell…’ Illyan saw the dart and felt unforeseeable danger.

  He couldn’t dodge as he had just finished the attack, so he needed to block.

  ‘But without this sword, it would be difficult to fight against her…’

  Without any more hesitation, Illyan sheathed the sword and took out the two sabers he had been using before and sshed at the darts.

  Upon contact, the darts exploded into a votile mist as the sabers immediately corroded.

  Illyan immediately threw away the hilts of what remained of the sabers and retreated before the mist completely submerged him.

  Still, there were a few body parts that made contact with it, as his flesh bckened and extreme pain spread through his body while his spotless white robe started to melt in some pces.

  When he saw that Vanda used her strings to control the wendigos, he gritted his teeth.

  While retreating, he ran towards the closest corpse and retrieved the dagger the person had behind the hilt.

  Without much aiming, he threw it behind himself as he continued running.

  Vanda grinned in contempt upon seeing this, but then froze.

  ‘Wait, Korin!?’

  She immediately moved one of the corpses and blocked the dagger that flew at Korin.

  Fortunately, the dagger didn’t pass through its tough flesh and bones.

  Vanda gred at Illyan as she yelled out.

  “Guard Korin and keep your distance from that guy! Also, find that other bastard!”

  As she said this, she put all her attention toward Illyan, who kept her off with all his power.

  Meanwhile, Aurelia, who had run away, hid in the darkness as she used the ritual engravings that Korin made as the foundation for her own ritual to shorten the time.

  She did it in a very discreet way, as she didn’t want to be discovered and moved to the Starstone only when the Stele was blocking people’s sight.

  In this manner, she managed to progress slowly.

  But just as she opened the blood essence for the sacrifice, she had to jump away as, once again, a mace smashed into the pce she had been.

  “Finally, I can smell it. The blood!” The ugly face of her cousin, who was a decade or so older than her, grinned with madness glinting in his eyes as he charged at Aurelia…