A man dances across the treetops of the Ystrian forest. Within these forests, the sun above can be seen but its light seems to only bleed through the leaves of these Iryil trees.

The leaves of the Iryil trees are large and wide, soaking up the light of the sun so the trees themselves can grow as massive as they are able to.

This is also perfect cover for someone who doesn’t wish to have their movements seen from people below on the forest ground.

Alin is currently dashing through the forest from treetop to treetop, the massive leaves preventing him from being seen.

Currently, he is extremely close to the coordinates where his researchers predict the heroes have arrived.

Soon he reaches a large clearing in the forest.

This is it, huh. But… I don’t sense anyone. There aren’t even any patrols… The heroes are here?

Alin has the ability to sense the presence of other lifeforms in his vicinity. His search radius is extremely wide at about forty kilometres. The radius can increase depending on the mana of the individual.

For example, he could sense the two divine beings Ajax and Shaula at a distance of seventy kilometres away.

But… There is no one here. He can sense many living creatures including packs of land dragons, antlered lintroses, even a Faltris beast about thirty kilometres away.

Sigh, those are so rare too, I’d take it home to be my pet but… I really need to find the heroes now.

Alin observes the facility from afar still at the top of an Iryil tree bordering the man made structures. This is the facility where the heroes were first summoned.

Luckily, Alin can perceive a trail north. His tracking skills are extremely advanced.

The people at this summoning facility left here very hastily but… they didn’t hide their tracks very well, at least not well enough to avoid the likes of me. But before I continue searching for them, let me take a look at this building...

Alin applies flight magic to his body. This is an advanced form of wind magic but because wind magic is not his specialty, he is not skilled enough to use it for his entire journey here over thousands of kilometres.

He examines the facility from above. It is a three floored facility in the shape of a ring. Its defensive walls are quite well fortified and the building itself might be able to withstand quite a lot of damage.

They were careful… The windows are made of glass but they can be sealed with celestial iron shutters, the walls themselves cannot be destroyed from the outside… but it seems they didn’t apply barriers to the insides of the building… I see a broken window and a wall with a hole in it. It must have been broken recently...

Alin considers why the facility has been evacuated as he continues flying to just above the center of the ring shaped building.

So… this must be where they were summoned…

Alin examines a large, concrete-walled pit about one story deep. There are multiple staircases lining the walls of the pit. There are also traces of a magic circle which has since been destroyed.

This must be the receiver for the summoning ritual.

In order to summon beings from the heroes’ world to this one, there must be a sender on the heroes’ world and a receiver on Omicron.

The receiver circle must always be activated with mages continuously supplying mana to it during the time when a new group of heroes is expected to arrive.

Otherwise, the heroes would land in random places on the planet’s surface or in the worst case, miss the planet entirely and drift off into space.

This pit is that receiver.

“Shit. This must have something to do with Ajax and Shaula. They were already a huge distance away from the facility when I found them. These guys must have moved when they left or escaped. I was never going to get here in time... I was going to infiltrate this place with the Hero Killer but now… Now, I’ll have to follow the trail of the holy knights who moved the heroes. If I’m unlucky, the heroes will be split into groups to travel separately… ”

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Alin regains his composure as he prepares to track the heroes. Alin starts following the northern trail, leaving the hero summoning facility behind him.

He carefully follows this trail making sure not to miss its remnants but after about fifteen kilometres, the trail remnants start to diverge.

I see… decoy trails made to look like they’ve also been covered up… probably created with earth magic holy knights…

Decoy trails which are able to mimic the walking patterns of holy knights as well as the ‘cover up’ of these trails by imaginary holy knights.

A troublesome thing.

Some of the trails go southeast, northwest, east, west, even completely changing directions backwards.

Well, they’re not complete morons. Perhaps this would work if it was anyone but me doing the tracking.

Alin’s sensory abilities let him not only find actual living beings, it also allows him to sense the remnants of mana left over from individuals with high mana concentrations.

The holy knights in particular can hide their physical trail well enough but their leaking mana is a liability. The trail with the most leaked mana must be the trail that the holy knights used.

Alin continues along this trail for about forty kilometres. He leaves the forests and starts moving far more covertly, now that he’s lost his tree cover.

This slows him down a little bit but he still can’t sense any humans in his vicinity so he doesn’t fear they’ve escaped just yet.

He can see a mountain range in the distance. And…

There’s someone there. Alright. Let’s get some information.

Within Alin’s search radius, he is starting to sense groups with significant amounts of mana; groups of what could only be holy knights.

~

A man walks through the forests surrounding a mountain. He is slightly far away from his comrades.

He is the captain of a holy knight squad who has done his best to safeguard the newly summoned heroes from outside agitators. His name is Sertre.

His current mission is to search this sector of the forests surrounding the mountains. About half a square kilometre has been given to him to patrol. He has to patrol this area for at least one more day continuously until the heroes are transported to safety.

The trees in the forest Sertre is walking through are smaller than the Iryil trees he’s encountered before. It feels more secure in those forests because the Iryil trees were always spaced far enough for even carriages to pass through.

Even if enemies could hide better there, a search party could be more easily dispatched to defeat them without losing men in the process.

But through forests like this, supplies and visibility are cut off. An enemy attack would be troublesome.

Luckily, it’s not a problem right now. His sacred leaders have a way out of here that they’re working on enacting right now.

Sertre is carrying a large bow in his hands along with a quiver holding magical arrows slung over his back. These are arrows that are capable of each destroying an Iryil tree in one strike of the tree trunk.

He looks at his wooden bow. He polishes its engraved and shining silver handle. This bow is an heirloom from his family. With this bow, he will work to protect humani--

“Oh. That is quite an exquisite bow.”

The man hears a voice from behind. An unfamiliar voice. For a split-second, he freezes. Then he turns his head to face the individual behind the voice.

A man appears before him. Handsome. Extremely well built. Golden hair, streaked with red. Pointed ears. Spiral horns.

Not a man.

“No. It can’t be… Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

“Why are you shouting right now? Do you think I would confront you without at least putting up a silence barrier?”

A silence barrier. It is a dome-like barrier made with intermediate wind magic that can prevent anybody outside it from hearing anything within the confines of the barrier.

“Shut up, demon! By the authority of Sapiora, I will cut you down and send you to damnation!”

Sertre takes out an arrow from his quiver gracefully and quickly. Mana is imbued into the arrow as soon as his hands touch it. The arrow is now capable of exploding upon impact. An explosion that would smash even a cliff face.

The man opposing Sertre stares in anticipation without entering a defensive stance. Sertre aims at the demon before him, his eyes burning with hatred. He fires.

But not at the man before him. He aims upwards in order to signal to his comrades for assistance. If he can fire the arrow outside the silence barrier, then such a large explosion will be instantly perceived by his men and they’ll come to his aid.

Boom!

“Ah, well done. Good try.”

The arrow explodes. But too closely. It is hit by lightning that came from the raised right hand of the demon before Sertre. When did he raise his hand? Sertre didn’t even see it.

“Wh-What? That’s impossible… ”

Sertre comes back to his senses and quickly pulls out two arrows from his quiver. He fires them in quick succession. The demon makes no moves while his right hand remains raised.

He fire them and--

Boom! Boom!

This time Sertre saw a silent whisper. Lightning magic has been fired rapidly.

“Not giving up! What a good soldier you are.”

“How? How can you hit my arrows with lightning magic? That’s… that’s impossible! Nobody’s that good a sniper!”

“Well, you’re wrong about that. I haven’t met an Omicron person yet who can fire past me.”

“W-Who are you? T-Tell me your name. Tell me your name, whore spawn!”

The man’s expression changes. Sertre feels a chill run down his spine. His taunting smile vanishes.

“Hm. The funny thing is, I was going to torture you anyways, but now you’ve given me a motive for it. It’s nice when your job has passion. Ah, my name? Well, I suppose ‘his majesty, the Immortal Emperor’ is too formal. Just call me Alin then.”

A sinister smile.