Followed by the girls, I walked along the water's edge to the other end of the room. There, a staircase began to go up to a kind of box or balcony where you could see the entire room from above.

In the center of the box, there was an empty pedestal. It had a rectangular shape and was of considerable size. Under the watchful eyes of Anna and Nili, I approached and placed my hands on it.

The pedestal began to shine, and different magic shapes appeared around my hands on the pedestal. Thanks to my studies of the artifacts, I knew those weren't runes or some other type of writing. These shapes could be said to act as cables transmitting my magic to the tower or, rather, to this specific floor.

There were countless nights I cried over a Rosetta stone so I could translate them, but it turns out there was nothing to translate in the first place…

Anyway, once all the reliefs on the pedestal had begun to shine, the water in the center of the room also did the same, surprising my companions.

"Kingdom of Forlan, capital Leirel, southeast sector, slums, Fiammeta, House Canimios."

"Master?"

"Silence Anna," Nili whispered, while covering Anna's mouth with one hand as delicately as she could. "Argyros is in the middle of an incantation; we shouldn't distract him."

Actually, there was no problem with them distracting me; it wasn't something as complicated as an incantation.

It may have sounded like that to them since the words that came out of my mouth were not of a known language but rather coordinates and other data transmitted through auditory magic.

But in my mind, I felt like I was doing an internet search.

Soon, the water began to reflect an image, the capital of Forlan divided into three parts by the fork of the Ordell River.

The image approached Leirel until it focused on a neglected sector of the city, with dirty streets and buildings that no one would be surprised to see collapsed the next day.

Soon, the entire surface of the water only showed a single alley, where a dirty red-haired girl appeared, sitting with her back against the crumbling wall. The expression on her face was one of exhaustion, almost resignation. But the emerald eye that we could see from the side still showed strength.

"Okay, now we can dive in."

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The two girls, who were mesmerized by what they had seen, hurried to follow me when I started to get off the box.

"Master, do you want us to go into that image?"

"That's the idea, but Anna, you better wait for us here; both the slums and Fiammeta can be dangerous."

"Okay, but be careful..."

After arriving at the water's edge, I began to descend the steps closely followed by Nili, who, like Anna, was not very convinced about entering those waters but still followed me without complaining.

You have to be very careful when using this type of magic if you don't want to appear in the middle of a wall, so I made sure to walk straight towards the alley where you could see the tired girl. Step after step, my body went deeper and deeper into the water until, at last, I submerged my head.

But at no time did I feel the humidity of the water, only the thick air of the slums. In fact, I was not walking along the bottom of the water but through the alley that was reflected in the image.

Fiammeta turned her head heavily, and her eyes met mine. One was emerald green, the other blood red, and a magic circle shone in the center. Her long scarlet hair was dirty, and her clothes showed the wear and tear left by the battle.

The girl's face showed the surprise of seeing someone dressed in fine robes and an elf who seemed not to know where she was standing appear out of nowhere. But she recovered shortly and struggled to stand up as best she could.

"A magician... has the kingdom sent you?" Fiammeta said as she drew her sword. "I'm surprised they sent a magician to chase after a puny thug like me. But I'm sorry, I don't plan to die devoured by some monster."

After those words, the circle in Fiammeta's red eye began to shine while a drop of blood dripped from it. The girl started running towards me with her sword raised, but she stopped dead in just a few moments.

"What happened? Where...?"

Fiammeta didn't manage to finish her sentence when she received a strong kick in the stomach from Nili. The redhead rolled on the ground, and her sword fell behind her. It was a rather anticlimactic encounter, but seeing the girl's state, I couldn't imagine anything else.

"Where... were you..." Fiammeta said with difficulty after spitting some blood on the ground.

"I'm sorry for having to act so violently; we just want you to listen to us."

"I am not sorry, my lord. This barbarian tried to attack you as soon as she saw us; I should have split her in two," Nili said, tightly squeezing the two hilts of the swords that made up the melee version of [Sky's Might].

"Nili, it's normal she feels cornered; Something like this was bound to happen. But thanks for your quick response." After calming Nili down, I turned to Fiammeta. Regarding your question, I did not disappear; I simply prevented your eye from perceiving my presence so it could not see me or stop my time.

Indeed, Fiammeta's skill that I had seen with appraisal was [Death's Glance], a terrifying skill that can stop the time of whoever the user looks at. The victims can only wait for their end, which will arrive without them even realizing it.

Of course, it is not very effective when there are multiple enemies. In those cases, the attacker must deal with an enemy quickly before looking at the next. It depends on the ability and speed of the skill user.

And what happened just now is an excellent example of how to counter it. Even if I hadn't used my cloak to erase my presence, with Fiammeta's current physical state, Nili would most likely have been able to intercept her anyway.

Fiammeta stood up with difficulty and gave me a challenging look.

"What are you waiting for? If you don't attack, I will pick up my sword again; I already said I have no plans to become monster food."