Cynthia's hands twitching as she starts to panic, her teeth digging deep into her lips as a stream of blood falls out onto the inside of her helmet
"Sir I believe you may be mistaken, we didn't intend to leave, merely catch a breath of fresh air."
Cynthia healing her lips, quickly explains to the man.
"Oh? So you didn't just use magic right in front of me?" The man's grin progressively increasing as time passes.
That confirms it, Cynthia concludes, understanding what must be done, reaches into her Dimensional Pouch and grabs out unimportant records that were unnecessary and chucks it at the man.
Catching it the man pauses, glances at them and smiles, "Do you honestly expect me to believe this is all you took? Not to mention..." He pauses as a glint passes in his eyes.
It was worth a try. Cynthia sighs reaches into the Dimensional Pouch taking two artifacts, holding them in one hand whilst she throws the pouch towards Newt who catches it in confusion.
"Newt, Run." Cynthia says just loud enough for Newt to hear.
"Run? But what about you?!"
"I can hold him off, I'll catch up with you later." She says in faux calmness, as if she had everything under control.
Charging forward towards the man, she yells out, "NEWT! RUN!".
Understanding the seriousness of the situation he sprints away, pouch in hand.
-------
POV: Cynthia
"Do you really think I won't catch him?" The man arrogantly proclaims as he watches the entire interaction, just letting Newt run.
"You won't touch him if I have anything to say about it!" She shouts as she charges towards the man.
She quickly flings three large fireballs, in close proximity of each other as they leave an obvious path for the man to dodge.
He easily dodges the fireballs following the obvious path of avoidance, unknowingly heading right into a sea of wind blades.
"Argh!" The man internally cusses her out as his armor starts getting chipped and cracked from the constant stress, with small streaks of blood from his cut chest and bare arms.
Enhancing his body with Drana, the man rushes quickly towards Cynthia, far faster than he had been moving previously, catching her off guard.
Barely reacting fast enough to block a Drana enhanced punch towards her chest.
The sheer force of the blow launching Cynthia meters away until she hits a tree, it creaking and cracking yet she merely bounces off it as if it was made of cushions.
Shit, that hit ate away at my Mana... Not to mention the Mana burnt to reduce the impact of the collision.
"Sir!" A couple of guards with a exhausted looking women make their way over to the Devoted.
"I'll handle her, go get the kid, he ran that way." He says with a kind smile, gesturing towards where Newt ran.
Cynthia who had hidden behind the tree she had hit pulled out one of the Artifacts she had grabbed.
A second Cynthia appeared and began running towards the Devoted, distracting him momentarily, allowing her to rush towards the group of guards, casting wind blades and fireballs towards their backs. Though immediately after having finished casting the spells she takes her other Artifact out, causing the numerous spells to seemingly duplicate.
"Awfully rude don't you think?" A voice calls out, the man appearing in-between the spells and guards with a sword in hand, covered with Drana, he slashes out.
A slash of Gold escapes his sword and slices in half the spells.
Majority of the spells, nonetheless, were real and meant to injure, the others merely being a illusion, with most of the real spells just hitting the ground in front of the Devoted, kicking up a small dirt cloud that covers the Devoted.
Cynthia running forward as this all occurred mumbles a spell, a small spell circle appearing above her palm as the Devoted uses a small amount of Drana on his sword to swipe away the cloud blocking his vision, coming to Cynthia a meter away from him.
Panicking he takes a step back whilst slashing out.
Agilely dodging the sword strike, Cynthia slams the circle on her palm into the man's head.
Sinking into his body.
--------
POV: Devoted Seth
Slashing out cutting the spells in half, saving the guards, a small blanket covering a vast majority of the spells was removed, the spells disappearing, glitching out of existence as if they never existed.
The real spells that hadn't been cut had created a dust cloud that blocked his vision.
Easy. The man arrogantly proclaimed as he swipes away the cloud.
Revealing the black haired Mage, swiping, trying to create distance he takes a step back.
Countering this she dodges and slams her palm into Seth's face.
A ding resounds inside his head.
The use of Minor Mind Control has been detected on the User!
User's of the Holy Guide cannot be brainwashed!
The Holy Guide is Neutralizing the Magic!
---------
"Haah....Haah" Cynthia deeply breathes, Now i know why they always said to exercise.
Finally calming herself saying, "Stay Paralyzed." to the Devoted.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Turning around, she begins heading towards where Newt had ran.
Grunt*
Wha-?
*Stab
The sound of a sword cutting through flesh and bone echoes throughout the woods, a longsword piercing through Cynthia's Heart.
Choking on the blood that was spilling into her lungs from the punctured organs, she slowly turns her head around.
"...H-How?" Cynthia chokes out.
"Can't mind control Devotees." Seth the Devoted calmly explains with a slight tilt of his head.
"Heh Blerghh, What a fucking cheat." Cynthia bitterly smiles, blood spilling from her mouth as she gathers her strength to say one last sentence, to stir the empathy of the Devoted.
"He....Is....Just....A....Chi.....ld...."
The man stands still for a moment, takes his blade from Cynthia's body and starts to clean it.
Only stopping to check the mission progress.
Quest
Purging Evil:
Description: A human who has betrayed mankind and turned to one of the demonic powers, Mana, has infiltrated Perros and stolen important documents from the church.
Goal: Eliminate the Mage, kill all those who know of the Documents and the information within
Reward: 2000EXP, Skill:Mage Seeking Eyes.
Failure: -5 Levels.
Progress:
Mage's Killed: 1/1
Kill those who knew of the documents and the information contained within: 1/2
Time limit: 1 Day
-------
POV: Newt
Sprinting with all his might through the forest, clearing a far longer distance than expected he looks back noticing the clear signs of his passage and decides to change the plan a little.
Making slight adjustments in the leaves, breaking a couple sticks, leaving footprints in grass and in more moist areas of dirt.
leading to a different direction, this was all he could do before a clatter of metal and voices are heard approaching.
"The tracks suddenly turn? That's weird..." One of the guards comments, a straight line than a sudden turn, for no obvious reason?
"He either realized he was getting followed and decided to change his path to throw us off... Or these are fake." The man declares gesturing at the tracks.
"Shouldn't Just leave it, just in case." Jane voices, ordering half of the group to follow the path while they decided to search the surroundings.
"He is just a kid right?" One of the guards searching calls out, getting numerous nods.
"He has been corrupted by a demon! Don't forget!" One of the more religious guards yells out., a small grimace crossing Jane's face but she quickly hides it.
"It doesn't matter, we just have to catch the kid and leave it to the Hero Seth."
Jane calls out which gets a couple grunts of agreement with another church follower among the guards voicing up.
"The Tournaments to decide each gods Hero hasn't begun! He's not a hero yet!"
In complaint to this another guard cuts him off replying, "Let's be honest, Devoted Seth is most likely going to become the Hero of the Goddess Malvolia!"
"Shut ya traps and search for the kid!" Jane silences the guards before a fight breaks out, getting back onto the objective.
That man was a Devoted?! Why did Cynthia face him?! She was the one that said not to fight them at all cost and to run!
Newt terrified exclaims internally, coming to a short realization.
Me... She did it for me! I've got to sa-NO Don't give up the chance she has given you!
He chastises himself and begins to sneak away, stepping directly on a branch.
Shit. Realizing he was fucked and about to be captured, he splits the artifact leftover and separates it into four parts, chucking one towards a patch of tall grass, which happened to be blocked by a guard, who dodged believing the Artifact to be a rock of some sort. The other piece he hid behind a tree, calculated the angle and underhand tossed it high up over the guards into a small hole in the tree behind him, running up to a bush planting the third in it and picking up a rock then turning and rushing forward towards the place the last piece could be placed.
"He's over here!" The guards call out and begin to regroup.
"He's just a kid, grab him and lets go inform Devoted Seth." Jane dryly explains.
Rushing forward the guards try to grab Newt in a hold, who instead drops down and slides past the guard, that wasn't it though, another two guards rush over, one goes for another bear hug-like hold who promptly gets nailed in the forehead by a well placed rock whilst he tries to slide past the last guard who, having seen the previous failed attempts, is watching all his moves with a keen eye. Newt tries to run past, but is blocked immediately, he fakes running to the right and tries to slide behind a tree, around the guard. The guard however, doesn't fall for this and immediately grabs Newt.
Barely getting his arms past the guard who had grabbed hold of him he pretended to kick and escape but was actually making enough movement to just barely throw the last piece into a small bush near a tree without anyone noticing.
"Got him!"
Most of the guards don't really care while a few that were close to the one who caught Newt do a deep bow, holding both their hands forward and golf clapping.
Prompting a short, "Fuck you guys." as the other guards who don't care head back to inform the Devoted.
-------
Newt watches as the Devoted is brought to him by the guards, a small pit in the gut starts to form as he doesn't see Cynthia, but the devoted was still cleaning his sword...Of Blood.
"Where's Mum?!"
Unintentionally spilling some bottled feelings out, he demands an answer, tears filling his eyes.
"Oh, you actually treated her as your mother? It would seem you have been fully corrupted by that devil-spawn." Seth putting on an act, sad face, tears and all.
"You shouldn't watch this, please return to the city, I'll handle the rest." He sadly explains to the guards.
Most Sympathetic and sad for both Newt and Seth, others not buying the bullshit, including Jane.
Orders were Orders however.
"Understood!"
And they marched back to the city.
Once out of sight he drop the act and looks at the kid.
"Man that mage was fucking strong! Not very powerful spells or physical fitness, but damn did she strategize! Would have gotten me if not for the Holy Guide!" He laughs lightly and looks at the furious face of Newt and explains.
"She's dead Kiddo." He replies with a blank face.
"YOU BASTARD!" Newt screams in fury as he desperately tries to escape his bondage.
Casually walking past Newt, Seth yanks the Dimensional Pouch and takes everything within it.
"Would you like to hear her last words?"
The sudden question that Newt was dumbfounded that he was getting asked.
A nod and the man continues, "She said, 'He's just a child'."
"AHHHHH!!!" Screaming at the realization that she had been prepared to die and just wanted him to be safe, even though he had only known her for a short time, those weeks were more important that the past 15 years he had lived.
Stab
A sword pierces through his heart.
------
"Okay that should be it." Seth gleefully says, leaving the corpse of the boy on the ground, pouring out the contents of the Dimensional Pouch on the floor, moving them into his Storage Ring and walking back to the city.
-------
Seeing Seth had left, he quickly cancelled the supply of Mana to the artifact.
"Fuck me." He sighs with tears starting to surface.
The artifact could create a illusion that could fool the senses, but that was it, they weren't physical constructs.
So Newt did the only thing he could think of to fool the man, shifted his body's position just slightly, enough that it wouldn't be immediately lethal. Make him think he dealt a fatal blow, and had completed his mission.
Reaching into the real Dimensional Pouch, he took out the book that Cynthia had been writing.
Praying that healing Magic was within.
Flipping through the book he reaches a page, 'Basics of Healing Magic', scanning through and finding the spell formula and Spell Circle there he follows the steps in the book.
The spell was a simple 'Minor cut heal' which was incredibly inefficient but could be overclocked to force enhanced healing, as this was all he could do with his lack of Magical Knowledge.
Forming the Spell Circle with his mana was difficult but possible, exhausting all of his Mana on trying to heal the Internal Injuries and the open wound.
------
Completely mentally and physically exhausted, Newt struggles to get up and begins moving again.
One step in front of another. Never stop. Recycling these words over and over in a constant loop to remind himself.
One step, ten steps, 100 steps, a thousand steps, tens of thousands.
The forest continuing onwards as if endless, slowly reaching a low incline.
Unknowingly heading upwards.
His exhausted body having walked for days, with no food or water.
Newt's body exhausted, his muscles torn, with lacking nutrients and water his body unable to keep up with his sheer willpower to continue on.
However, no amount of willpower could overcome physical limitation.
SMASH
Newt's body once again hits the ground, unable to move, losing consciousness.
"@#!$" Hearing a young voice calling out, he looks up through the sweat dripping into his blurry eyes, withstanding the instinct to wince, he looks up.
"Daddy, please save him!"
"Baby, we don't know where he's come from, he might be apart of the Church! You and your mother's lives could be in danger!"
"Daddy he's like my age! No way he's apart of that stupid Church!"
"I can't sweetie, its too risky."
"I'll tell Mum the truth about the fish!"
"You wouldn't!"
"Help him or else!"
"Haah...alright, only this once!"
"Ki----"
Newt loses consciousness.