Chapter 242 – A Vengeful Spirit vs. A Vengeful Father

Phosi

While the infernal [Blinding Light] hurt like a motherfucker, the fact I didn't actually have eyeballs worked to my advantage as I was able to start chasing after Nevahl the moment the pain let up.

I knew leaving my friends blind and writhing in pain, and chasing after a mage that powerful on my lonesome was stupid, but I couldn't let the old bastard get away. Not after he killed that girl for no reason. And it wasn't like I didn't have my own advantages. I was faster than him, and my lack of a rigid form offered me advantages no fleshbag could match.

Yes. I will show him what it is like to be helpless.

I got to him in five bounds, but, like an idiot, instead of pouncing and devouring, I gave in to my worst instincts and decided I wanted to see the terror in his eyes.

That gave him the opening he needed, and a circular wave of force emitted from his body, preventing me from encircling him and pushing me back.

He then pointed his cane at me and shot a beam of searing light from it, aiming it straight at my chest.

I tried to dodge, but I still haven't fully recovered from the force attack, so all that I managed to accomplish was to provide Nevahl with a far better penetration angle.

‘Aaaargh,’ I screamed when the spell pierced my body.

‘Yes,’ Nevahl said with grim satisfaction. ‘Scream. I want to see you suffer, beast. Oh, how I have longed for this day.’

‘W-why…’ I couldn't help asking.

‘YOU KILLED MY SON!’

Sh-shit.

‘Sorry,’ I rasped, lifting myself to my feet. ‘Doesn’t ring a bell, little snack.’

Still, I figured the man earned the right to see the real me, so I abandoned my elf form and expanded to my full dimensions.

If I am to die, let me do it in my true form.

Judging by his expression, Nevahl didn't see me becoming a ten-metre-tall monster coming.

The height also let me see that the blue-haired morsel was rushing towards us, meaning I just had to buy her some time to get here unnoticed.

Being a pack predator is fun.

‘Been a while since I got to stretch my legs,’ I smiled, droplets of acid from my spit falling onto Nevahl, but getting stopped by a magical shield I didn't notice before.

Not waiting for his move, I lunged towards him, but Nevahl simply tapped the ground with the end of his cane and, with a flash of light, disappeared from my sight, only to reappear maybe twenty metres to my right.

Before I could react, the Scholar raised his cane and a dozen spears made from pure Light materialised in the air above him.

‘Thank you for making yourself such a great target for me, beast,’ Nevalh snarled and launched the spears.

I began to shrink, but it wasn't enough to dodge all of them.

I screamed in pain as several of them pierced my body and sent me flying.

Nevahl teleported next to where I landed.

‘End of the road,’ he said, smiling ear to ear.

He pointed his cane at me, but before he could cast a spell, several orbs of red fire manifested above him.

Aki

Fuckfuckfuckfuck. Why the fuck did you chase after him, Phosi?

Having seen what I have just seen, there was no way any of us could face Nevahl on their own. To stand a chance, we would either need numbers or the element of surprise.

Phosi had neither, but since the scholar was so focused on her that he didn't notice me coming, I had a chance to catch him unawares.

Now, I couldn't be sure, but I thought I saw that Nevahl had a magical shield around him, so I would need to play it smart.

I used [Abyssal Bombardment] to summon several launch orbs and then fired the beams from them, not at once, however, but in quick succession resembling automatic gunfire.

The barrage began peppering the shield, and soon cracks began to appear in it. I increased the intensity of the spell, but by then Nevahl got over the initial surprise and teleported from outside the spell area.

‘So the pup seeks to test herself,’ he chuckled. ‘Very well.’

I began firing the spells at him, but he started to block them with his cane. Enough of them got through, however, that his shield came close to failing. More importantly, they kept Nevahl's attention on the sky.

[Abyssal Pillar].

The fire erupting from beneath him caused Nevahl to drop his guard just for a fraction of a second, but it was enough and [Abyssal Bombardment] finally broke through his shield.

Yes! I thought so when the pillar of hellfire engulfed him, but my elation was short-lived, as a wave of force dissipated it from the inside.

Nevahl didn't come out of the mess undamaged - he had several burns and his suit was ruined, but otherwise he seemed still ready to throw down.

If hellfire didn't work… [Ice Bindings].

Chains of ice erupted from the ground and began to wrap themselves around Nevahl's wrists and ankles, beginning to freeze them. It was one of the spells I learned from my grimoire, and while it was highly inefficient in the hot weather, I only needed it to last a few moments.

Activating the [Grace of Water], I summoned my swords into my hands and charged towards Nevahl. To hide my attack, I summoned another [Abyssal Pillar] underneath Nevahl, but when the spell ended, there was no one there.

‘Behind you!’ Phosi suddenly shouted.

An old me would have turned around, but after weeks of training with Savri and Deirdee I leapt forward instead. A good thing too, because I felt the wind caused by a slash of sword touch my neck.

Shit!

I ended my jump with a roll, which let me get up on my feet facing where Nevahl was. Except no one was there.

[Abyssal Barrier].

Nevahl screamed in pain when hellfire suddenly appeared in the path of his moving arm. Using his voice as a way to hone in on his location, I fired another barrage of [Abyssal Bombardment], which gave me enough time to turn around to face the bastard.

I was rewarded with the sight of Nevahl teleporting and beginning to retreat.

Yes!

I gave chase, but Nevahl teleported once more and then vanished into a portal.

Elation filled me.

I actually won!

Lilyth

I found Rennie sitting on a rock, watching the river. Hearing me approach, she patted the empty spot next to her.

Not how she imagined the whole thing would go down.

‘Persephone can mostly see now,’ I reported when I sat down. ‘She just returned from her trip to dump Izartiel in Ror-Bhyk with a letter of recommendation.’

I think I seriously lucked out when Ere gave

‘Any sight of Nevahl?’ Ren asked absentmindedly.

‘No. Not sure how he could track us down here.’

We were currently at a temporary campsite we erected ten kilometres down the river from Kalaade. When we heard that Zaevi was coming, we had Phosi, Deirdee, Anika, Taros and Persephone take our boat to a safe spot. Once a suitable enough site was identified, the sorceress teleported back with the Sconryoll, leaving the other three to set up the camp.

Ren simply nodded, and we just sat there for a while.

‘It wasn't your fault, you know,’ I finally said, breaking the silence. ‘If anything, I got overeager. Shouldn't have pressed him about his “contractors.” I just saw an opening, thought “gotcha, bitch” and went for it.’

‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘You were right. If anything, his unwillingness to talk would have been an extra argument to turn them away. I think he just realised that the walls were closing in and decided to bolt. I am not sure what his long-term plan was. The subject would come up eventually.’

‘Aki thinks Nevahl’s plans fell apart the moment we knocked him and Zaevi out back in Ror-Bhyk. Since he was after revenge, all he needed was for us to drop our guard. He is powerful enough he’d wipe the floor with us if he caught us unawares.’

‘Yeah,’ she shook her head. ‘Makes sense. So he was probably on plan C or D by the time of our second meeting.’

‘Or the “just wing it” stage.’

‘Our favourite,’ Ren gave me a soft chuckle, wrapped her arms around me and nuzzled against my body.

‘Yeah,’ I hugged her back. ‘I sometimes wonder why we even bother to make plans to begin with.’

‘Makes winging it more organised.’

The remark gave both of us a chuckle.

‘Nevahl’s real name is Rene Vehlor,’ Ren said after another moment of silence.

‘Is that supposed to me- ‘ I began, but then I realised something. ‘Wait… how do you know that?’

She explained her Ability to examine people to me.

‘How long could you do that?’

‘Since I became what I am. It was one of the first things Ere wanted to teach me, but I refused to use it. It just felt… wrong. And so I mostly forgot I had the Ability. Until today. And… I just realised…’

‘That you had to know?’

‘Yes,’ she nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. ‘I shouldn't have done it.’

My brain went through all the possible uses for that ability now that the psychological barrier had been breached.

‘Yes,’ I finally said. ‘You shouldn't have, but I don't think you have to worry about a slippery slope here.’

‘What do you mean?’ Ren pushed away from me slightly, as if I was suffering from some sort of contagious madness. ‘What if we suspect someone is a spy? Can I really resist checking?’

‘And learning what exactly?’

‘That they are using a fake… Oh. This tells me nothing.’

‘Yep. There are many reasons to use a fake name. I mean… let’s look at Nevahl. In a vacuum, it could just be a nickname. I mean, it is just the last syllable of his first name, and the first syllable of his last name with a letter swapped.’

I had no idea whether that was the case in Raivarian, but judging by Ren’s nod, it was.

‘Yeah. I can easily see someone using that.’

She got closer to me again.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I feel better about myself.’

‘Anytime, babe. Anytime.’

‘Can we just sit here for a while?’

I simply kissed her on the forehead in response.

When we returned to the camp an hour later, the rest were busy packing and doing gear checks.

‘What’s up?’ Ren asked.

‘We have decided to move up our schedule,’ Sav explained. ‘Taros raised a good point that there is a decent chance the Nevahl's friends could have been waiting nearby and are now looking for us.’

Shit!

‘Do we know who they are?’ Ren asked.

I had a few ideas who they could be, but I had to confirm that, so I stayed silent.

‘I have been thinking,’ Phosi rasped. ‘Nevahl said I killed his son. Now in the past year or so I have racked up quite a kill count, so it doesn't really narrow it down. First there are the sacrilegious bastards on the ship, but I was there in my true form, and Nevahl didn't recognise it. That also rules out Varlia.’

The mention of the island sent a pang of guilt through my heart, as I remembered I still had to rescue Dain from the afterlife.

So much shit to do, so little time.

I promised myself I would do it right after we dealt with Halveck, even if the rest of the Moon decided to break apart.

Still, Phosi’s trail of thought has shown me we were on the same page.

‘That leaves the Temple Dragoon I fed to you and the bozos that tried to rob you and Deirdee.’

‘Yesssss…’ Phosi seemed almost ecstatic. ‘Nevahl can't be a Red Mask; his actions wouldn't make sense in that case. Him being an actual Lightie… It is possible, but based on the fact there is another group of them trailing us…’

‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘Well, we do have a set of “friends” who value secrecy and have an axe to grind with us.’

‘Sssssssssstrickland!