The massive banyan tree, once vibrant, now stood as a skeletal sentinel. Its gnarled branches, stripped of leaves, resembled skeletal fingers against the sky. Its trunk, once robust, had decayed into a pillar of despair. The sprawling roots, were brittle and lifeless.

This lonely giant loomed, emitting an eerie spectral aura. It was a symbol of decay, a stark contrast to the once-thriving forest. And amidst its desolate aura, from within its heart, black mist slowly creeped out. As if it were a wave of small bugs, the mist spread across the tree, covering every inch of it, devouring every trace of life in it. The mist seeped deep into the ground, into the roots and high into the branches.

The ancient evil had had its first meal in a long time.

And in the center of it all, surrounded by the black fog, floated a shroud. It was surrounded by branches, almost as if it had merged with them. The tendrils of dark energy that were spread to devour the tree originated from it. A low hum echoed in its surrounding, as the being focused on devouring the life of the great tree that had stood for centuries. The tree had stood for a very long time, even before the village was build. And now it was at its last moments.

The ancient evil was lost in its bliss, devouring the abundant life energy, when it was abruptly disturbed by the arrival of two insects in its territory.

'Vermins'

Its anger flared, as it released its magic upon the surroundings. A heavy pressure descended upon everything within its presence, as the banyan tree - now just a husk - withered beneath the might, crashing. The two intruders also faced the pressure of this evil entity, yet were unphased in front of its strength. The one holding a sword staggered for a moment before continuing to stride towards it.

The strange one on the other hand showed no expression of trouble, as if its magic were non-existent. But indeed, for Aria felt no pressure in the presence of this ancient evil that had turned her life upside down.

......

As Aria stared at the shroud surrounded by branches, beneath the tapestry of the now dead tree, her focus and determination flared. She only glanced at Chrono at once, before her attention was again at the entity. They were just outside the clearing of the village which once used to have children frolicking under the tree's shade, but now was like a graveyard. Steeling her mind, she took a step forward.

But as soon as they did, as if a bomb had been detonated, the huge tree shook. Then it came down crashing, the wide trunk collapsing and wide branches withering into dust. The leaves had already all fallen and got crushed, while the prop roots also broke into fragments. The crash came out of nowhere, as Aria had felt nothing. She glance back at Chrono who seemed to have stumbled. But then she noticed the rune mark glowing on his head, making her realise the entity was doing this. It was simply releasing the pressure from the accumulated magic within it, causing the tree which was on its last breath to collapse.

"Chrono, follow the plan and ignore the monster. The protection will hold for some while, so finish fast and then escape from here"

Aria whispered to the apprentice mage who held few scrolls and a pouch in his left hand and a sword in the other. His task was a simple one, as long as he managed to avoid the entity's mental attacks. Looking at the collapsed area in front of him, he gritted his teeth and then separated from Aria, running around the perimeter of the area.

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The young woman, on the other hand pulled out a cross bow from her backpack. She had already used the augment scrolls that she would have needed. Any offensive scroll would in her arsenal had to be used at the right time, and had to be used strategically. So she had to bring out the only weapon in her luggage, a rune artifact, forged with the help of her friend Apollo. Even though it might not cause much damage to the enemy, it had some special effects that would catch its attention, letting Chrono do his job unhindered.

As she walked forward, she felt a gaze lock onto her. The black mist swirled, and then pounced in her direction. A black tentacle, swirling like a tornado zoomed right into her face. Aria, unable to dodge, quickly pulled the trigger of her crossbow. A chilling aura spread as the mist was frozen for a moment, before the magic behind the bolt was devoured. Using that instant, Aria rushed forward, pulling her trigger twice again.

This time fire and wind synergised to create a whirlwind of flames that devoured the black mist or tried to. Before the fire could even feed on the dry husk of the collapsed tree, it was erased by the devouring mist.

But Aria had covered the distance between herself and the shroud in that instant. Her speed, stamina and agility were all enhanced for a duration using her augment scrolls. As soon as she was within reach, she started aiming at the shroud, making the black mist to come forward to protect it.

Right now, her actions seemed dumb, as she was basically feeding the mist magic. It was devouring her magic to fuel itself. So why was she doing something so futile?

The reason was because she had identified that the monster was not free yet. In fact it seemed even she had underestimated the prison built by a Grandmage. The core that held the entity's magic matrix was not here. It had to be underneath, surrounded by the shard of Sylas. Having realised that, she was sure that right now, even though the black mist was devouring her attacks, it was not able to recover any magic. As was also visible from the declining mist around her.

This had become a battle of attrition. This had not been her original plan, as she had prepared for the worst, but if it continued like this, then she would be done before even Thalia arrived.

As she continued to fire her crossbow, using bolts of various elements to power her attacks, she glanced beyond the shroud, to where Chrono had placed the last scroll on the ground. He looked up at her one last time and nodded, before tearing the scroll of escape to disappear from the battlefield. Aria immediately pulled her brush from her pocket and created some distance from two tentacles of black mist that had pounced at her. her hand waved at a crazy speed as she wrote runes in the air.

*expelle in speculum*

She lightly chanted.

Bright points of light suddenly rose into the air, all around them. They were small shards of mirror, each having a rune etched onto them.

*"SCREEECH"*

The Shroud seemed to have sensed what was going to happen, as it let out an ungodly noise in that instant. The shards paused for an instant, before shining even brightly, racing towards the shroud, as if attracted by some law.

*"Thou dost dare employ the same enchantment upon me twice, mortal."*

Black runes started to form around the shroud, forming a shield of sorts that reflected the shards from enclosing any further. The black runes were ever changing, as if trying to find the right pattern to diffuse the encroachment of the shards.

Aria on the other hand was not surprised by its announcement or actions. Neither did she change her plan of action and continued to draw runes in the air, like a conductor conducting an orchestra. She understood the runes that the shroud was setting up, so she guided her runes enchanted shards to fight the runes accordingly. She had accounted for the evil entity to have prepared someway to avoid the magic of the mirrors after being imprisoned for so long. But imprisoning the shroud was never her main goal. It was all one big distraction for her to enact her true-

*"Aaaahh"*

The scream jolted her as she realised who that voice belonged to. Thalia. Something bad had occurred to her. For a brief moment she panicked, and the black runes overpowered her control.

As if in a nightmare, Aria saw the shards change direction as they surrounded her in a flash. Covered in black runes now, the shards revolved around her in a frenzy. Her strength was being sapped, the augment from her scrolls, the protection started wearing off as she watched the shards come closer. Then the small pieces started come together in the shape of a circular mirror.

Aria was now paralyzed, all her strength drained as she saw the the mirror come closer to her face. A flash occurred somewhere to her right, but the mirror was already engulfing her, all she caught was the shocked look on Thalia's face before darkness overtook her.