Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3597

Chapter 3597 Last Resort (Part 2)

The problem was finding the hideout, and to do that, Nalrond needed to find enough marked stones to triangulate its underground position.

Swimming in blind would have taken time, a luxury they lacked.

"He's been here." Protector said after Nalrond Warped him inside the underground cave. "Luckily, there's no blood. Unluckily, Salman's smell is so faint I doubt he stayed here for more than a day. Whoever was chasing him got close real fast."

Lith marked the second mana geyser as well, and they left once a full sweep of the Eyes failed to detect anything useful.

When they reached the third mana geyser, there was no need to search for the hideout. A powerful spell had opened a deep hole into the ground that had been roughly patched up. The soil was uneven and there was barely any grass covering it.

"Rushed light magic applied on vegetation." Protector examined the sealed entrance of the tunnel while Nalrond estimated the quickest route to the safe house. "This is not the work of a plant folk or even a talented mage. An apprentice was left here for the clean-up."

Nalrond wasted no time swimming through the ground and reopened the passage with earth magic. The tunnel was quite long, but whoever had dug it the first time had taken care to stabilize it by placing stone pillars at the right intervals.

"Gods-dammit, this is the work of a very competent mage, instead!" The last layer of hardened ground opened in front of the Agni, revealing the ruins of the Rezar's safe house.

Part of the rock was molten by intense heat, pools of water were all was left of ice blocks at least the size of a man, and several perfect holes with blackened edges were the telltale sign of heat rays.

Light Mastery was prevalently known for its holograms and hard-light constructs, respectively tier zero and four spells. Everything in between was a mystery to the general public, but that only until one fought their first Light Master.

"Good gods, that's a lot of blood." Friya looked around the artificial cave. "It covers most of the walls to the point I can hardly see the stone beneath."

"I have good news." Protector sniffed the air. "Most of the blood doesn't belong to Salman. I can count at least four different new scents."

"That's to be expected." Lith nodded. "Heat rays are a form of magic unique to Light Mastery. The problem is that they are not as good as constructs in a fight. Once you understand how heat rays work, they are too predictable and easy to deal with."

"I know." Nalrond sighed as he remembered his first meeting with Lith. "Did Salman manage to escape?"

"Most likely." Ryman replied. "Had he been captured, the Awakened wouldn't have done such a sloppy job in covering their tracks. They were in a rush to continue the chase. They did the bare minimum to keep their competition from finding the signs of the fight by chance."

"Do you think Salman killed a few of his pursuers?" Solus imprinted the mana geyser, using the brief stop to restore her strength.

"I don't think so." Lith checked the amount of blood and its patterns. "Awakened are hard to kill. They can heal from any wound with one breath. On top of that, you've seen the pillars. That's something only a mage old enough to learn engineering can do.

"The apprentices must have called their master, and he's now leading the hunt."

"If you're right, I know where to go next." Nalrond said. "There's only one place where Salman would go after escaping the clutches of a powerful mage."

He sealed the hole in the ground even more sloppily than the Awaekned before him and charged forward as fast as his flight spell allowed him to. The Agni stopped from time to time, but never for more than a couple of seconds.

He resumed his flight as soon as he oriented himself without giving so much of a word of explanation to his companions.

'We've crossed thousands of kilometers in a day, but we are Awakened and have a flying Divine Beast on our side.' He thought. 'The chase must have lasted for days, or Salman would have already been captured after running out of mana. _{freeωebnovēl.c૦m}