Chapter 68: Pursuit

  The cultists had left their stronghold some time ago, but this wasn’t a major issue for Alex. Thanks to the Zerg’s keen senses, he quickly detected the faint smell of sulfur lingering in the air. Following the st, Alex and Fina tracked dowraces left by the cultists without much difficulty.

  This wasn’t particurly hard. Acc to Padin , there were a total of thirty Temple Warriors statio the stronghold, excluding the cavalry patrolling outside. This was no small he cultists hadn't killed them all but instead captured them before leaving. Moving such a rge group without leaving any traces would be impossible.

  It didn’t take long for Alex and Fina to determihe dire the cultists had taken, and they tirag them. Alex mainly focused on trag, while Fina wasn’t idle either. Although this novice priestess had a somewhat dogmatic approach, her adhereo doe had its adva least she knew everything taught in the books.

  Along the way, Fina was responsible for deteg any magical marks that the cultists might have left behind. Acc to her, cultists often pce warning marks in the pces they pass through to avoid beied. This is a simple spell that alerts the caster as soon as someone crosses the mark.

  Because this spell is very ve and has a duration of only half an hour, it has bee a signature spell used by many magic practitioners fince. As a priestess, Fina naturally had learned how to use, detect, and sense such spells. Her role was to decipher and locate these marks to prevent Alex frering an arm, which would cause unnecessary trouble.

  Thus, Alex took oask of trag the cultists' traces, while Fina stayed by his side, keeping watd searg fical marks. Their teamwork was fairly effective. What intrigued Alex even more was that despite her frail appearahis novice priestess had an excellent physical dition.

  Sihey left the stronghold, it had been most of the day, and they had even crossed a mountai, Fina was still posed, showing no signs of exhaustion. Alex, being of Zerg stitution, had no s about stamina, but he was surprised by the stamina of this novice priestess.

  Then again, thinking about how people in this world seemed to train their bodies by cultivating starlight energy, it wasn’t that surprising. Of course, this also had its downsides—like with Stone and Malte, who seemed invincible but were instantly crippled by a single debuff from the Son of Chaos…

  Perhaps the cultists, feeling overfident after breaking through the stronghold, or perhaps because they had other important matters to attend to, didn’t bother to cover their tracks. With Fina handling the vigince against magical marks, Alex was able to search much more quickly. Finally, at dusk, Fina made a new discovery.

  “There’s a magical mark ahead, Mr. Alex!”

  “A magical mark?”

  Hearing Fina’s warning, Alex immediately stopped in his tracks, feeling a surge of excitement. Acc to Fina, magical marks st for only half an hour. The fact that they hadn’t seen any marks along the way could mean that the marks had either been missed by the cultists or had simply expired.

  If the tter was the case, it meant they were still some distance away from the cultists. But now that a mark had appeared, it indicated that Alex and Fina had closed in on the cultists, and the distaween them was likely less than half an hour.

  “ you ha?”

  When Alex asked this, Fina fidently nodded. “Of course. I temporarily disable the magical mark’s power. Although I only maintain it for about ten seds, that should be enough.”

  A magical mark mas as a liher than a circle, meaning it’s more like a transparent wall formed by magic. If someone crosses the wall, it triggers a. Because of this, magical marks are difficult to bypass, which is why they’re only used for trag and vigince.

  However, spellcasters naturally have ways to deal with them. Alex watched the priestess beside him as Fina stepped forward, staring at the seemingly empty air in front of her. She took a deep breath, then raised her staff.

  The staff had been in Fina’s hand all along. It was about the length of a person’s forearm, silvery-white, with straterns and characters engraved on it. At the top of the staff was a round white crystal. Alex wasn’t sure if this was standard equipment for a priestess, but from Fina’s appeara seemed like it was.

  “Holy light of rahe power to veil the truth!”

  As she softly ted, Fina raised her staff and poi at the empty air in front of her. Soon, Alex saw a white beam of light shoot out from the tip of the staff, striking the air. Immediately, the air in front of him rippled like the surface of a pool, and then a strange wall appeared before him.

  The wall was transparent and blue, with mysterious runes fshing on it. These runes bio form a wall about teimeters thick, stretg out like a t city wall before them. However, though it appeared tall, the wall didn’t seem solid at all; it was more like a stage set used in a py.

  Uhe beam from Fina’s staff, the inally glowing wall gradually dimmed. Soon, Alex watched as the glowing runes went out one by one, and the blue barrier turned gray.

  “Now, Mr. Alex!”

  “Alright.”

  Upon hearing Fina’s words, Alex nodded. He g the barrier before him, then stepped forward. Crossing the barrier took only a moment for Alex, and to his surprise, he felt nothing at all. Even with his Zerg-enhanced senses, he detected no movement. This deepened Alex’s curiosity and wariness about the magi this world.

  It seemed he would have to find a way to study the magic of this world. “How strange…”

  As Alex pondered his future pns, Fina also crossed the barrier, but instead of excitement, she looked puzzled. She turned her head to gaze at the barrier, her face full of fusion.

  "What's wrong, Miss Fina?"

  Seeing Fina's puzzled expression, Alex timely asked. Although she wasn't a mage, she was still a spellcaster, so getting more information from her would be beneficial. Fina didn’t hesitate and quickly responded.

  "Didn't Padin mention that the enemy has a Destruage?"

  "Yes, he did."

  "But it's strange... I didn't sense any infernal energy in that magical mark."

  "So, does that mean there’s another spellcaster?"

  Alex was taken aback by Fina’s respohen quickly realized something.

  "Could it be a Neancer or a Lich? They’re often associated with cultists..."

  "This is different, Mr. Alex. You may not be familiar with this, but even though many professions cast spells, their spells always carry specifiergies. For instance, a Destruage’s spells would definitely have infernal energy, and a Neancer’s spells would carry the energy of death. Even the divine spells we priests and bishops cast tain a holy aura. But the magical mark we entered earlier doesn’t feel evil or carry ah or destru energy. Instead, it feels very precise, more like..."

  "More like what?"

  This time, Fiated for a while before answering softly.

  "More like a spell cast by a mage from the School of Order... And it seems that the caster is quite powerful."

  "How powerful?"

  "Judging by the magical mark's potency, at least elite level."

  "I see."

  Alex Fina's reply. He had a good grasp of his own strength. Before his jouro "Edge of Tomorrow," Stone had mentiohat Alex's regur strength was about mid-level elite. During the battle in Shadow yon, Alex firmed that if he fought with all his might, an ordinary Temple Knight wouldn’t stand a ce against him.

  Even against Stone and Malte, Alex could hold his own. If he activated his soul stohey would certainly die. As for a Lich Lord, Alex believed he would o activate his soul stoo stand a battle, though the oute would be uain.

  Now, with his time-maniputing ability and greatly enhanced physique, Alex’s regur strength was at the peak of the elite level. If he activated his soul stone’s abilities, he would definitely reach the master level, and if fully activated, he could tend at the legendary level. This fidence was why Alex volunteered to track the cultists, knowing that as long as there wasn’t a Lich Lord among them, he could easily deal with them.

  Moreover, Alex wao test how his time-maniputing ability would perform in real bat.

  "Let's keep moving."

  Though curious about an e appearing among the cultists, Alex didn’t dwell on it. Fina, however, seemed deep in thought, her face showing .

  They tinued forward, crossing several more magical barriers. Finally, they stopped at the edge of a forest.

  The reason was simple: this time, even Fina was stumped.

  "It’s no use; this forest is protected by a powerful illusion barrier and an arm barrier."

  After several attempts, Fifully informed Alex of the bad news.

  "I tried to disable them, but these barriers are interected. If one barrier is disturbed, the others will immediately trigger a rea. I suspect this is the cultists' camp."

  "It seems they’re up to something..."

  Hearing Fina's report, Alex frowned. If there was nothing suspicious, why would the cultists go to such lengths to set up suplex defenses?

  Clearly, something was going on inside!

  However... Alex had no way to ehe forest. Though he could accelerate time, Fiiohat the barriers would react as soon as they detected any disturbance. Alex's ability didn’t involve space, so if he ehe barrier, all he could do was dey the barrier’s response.

  "Damn it..."

  Through the Zerg's life dete, Alex could clearly sense several life forms deep within the forest. They were likely the cultists and their captives. But the dense forest blocked his vision, making it impossible to see what the enemy was doing.

  If only he had a drone for aerial reaissance... Hmm?

  At this thought, Alex suddenly had a bright idea.

  Didn’t he draw a summoning soul stone i ten-pull? If he remembered correctly, it should be an angel, right?

  Si’s an angel... at least... it should be able to fly, right?

  (End of Chapter)

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