Chapter 286 The Search For Kelly

"What information can you give us? Where is the other cultist member?" Titania asked as she stepped beside me.

"Kelly is hiding right now because she was told to do the same thing, but she is really clumsy and knows she will fail. I tried to get her to come with me, but she didn't want to die. Most of us don't want this, but we are people shunned, and Joselyn seems so nice when you first meet her, but then things change really fast. You would never expect a woman with such a kind face to be so mean, but I guess that is the point," Shelly explained in a tired voice.

"If you know where she is, then I will go get her. I am sure that Joselyn isn't going to let her just hide, and she is more than likely to send people after her," I explained, and Shelly nodded.

"I think so too, but Kelly just ran off out of town when I came here," the cultist explained, and I sighed. Nothing could ever just be easy.

I was hoping that I could just get them all tonight, but this was going to make things much more difficult.

"What direction did she go?" I asked, and Shelly pointed in the direction of Grimora's old place that the goddesses had gone to earlier in the day. I would have to go alone, and if I didn't make it soon enough, the woman might do something stupid.

"What else do you know about the cult?" Titania asked as she sat in a chair, but I turned to her.

"Do you mind doing this without me? I am sure that you can handle this one girl, but," I said, turning to Shelly and waving my hand at her, making shackles appear on both wrists and attaching them to the bed. "This should keep her in place. Sorry, I just don't have time to take any chances."

"I understand," Shelly said, and then I turned to Titania.

"Yes, I can do this. I haven't really helped out much, so I will do my part here. Just do try to make it back soon enough. I came to see you because I wanted to see if you wanted to talk some," Titania explained, and I nodded.

"Yeah, but I can't make any promises on the speed that I will return with. I should be able to find her pretty easily with my eyes if I fly, but that is only if she is above ground and not hiding somewhere," I explained, and Titania nodded.

"I understand. Good luck," Titania said, and then I turned to Shelly as well.

"Just remember what I said. Speak only when you are asked a question and nothing else except the truth," I warned the cultist but then quickly disappeared out of the door before anyone could say anything more to me.

I left down through the now dark inn and then closed the door and locked it behind me. I was curious how Shelly had gotten into the inn if the door was locked, but that was a question for later.

I summoned magic to myself and silently shot into the air as my wings burst from my back, activating the other runes in my eyes as I looked to the east. I could only see things with Mana brightly, but I could see many red spots of animals. I was sure that even if the sun was up right now and I was walking cloaked, I still wouldn't find an animal that didn't have its own Mana. In all my lifetimes, I had no memories of a phenomenon like this.

While that was highly interesting, and I would delve into it another time, it just made my job ten times harder. Still, I knew the shape I was looking for, so I could ignore most of the small stuff, but it was just the fact that even the damn rodents and birds had Mana! There were places where there were birds in the trees and animals in the ground, making them blobs of red.

I flew faster, leaving the town, and heading towards Grimora's old place. I followed the road leading out of town, passing Grimora's, and went for a while before I came to an area where there were no red spots at all.

A while later, after concentrating, I found a trail of Mana that was hardly detectable if I wasn't looking for it. It looked like Kelly ran through this area with so much panic that all wildlife left the whole place. That projects even more just how terrified she must have been to chase away everything with her own Mana! This girl was going to end up getting hurt if she kept going like this. I had been hoping she would have been hiding at Grimora's old place, but I was never that lucky.

I tried to follow the path by flying as close as possible from above, but I was forced to land. I found her trail again, but I also noticed some other prints that looked drier but still fresh. I would assume that these were my three goddesses from the two single sets that would be Kelly and Claire, and then the double set that ran beside Claire's. I started using an auto-walk spell on myself that teleported me short distances without any effort at all since there was no street or road for me to walk down.

After going a bit further, I stopped and let out a long groan, but this was probably for the best. I was standing outside of what was, no doubt, the labyrinth that the girls had stumbled into. I was a bit apprehensive about going inside but walked in anyways since this was where Kelly's path led to.

The place was all stone, but it looked to be in very good condition, to the point that there wasn't even any dust on the stone tile floor. It looked like there was only one path, so I started down it.

I went for about a couple of minutes and then came to an intersection. I stopped there for a moment and looked around, even using my other senses to check the area. There were two ways that Kelly could have gone from here, but both paths followed down in different directions.

I stared at the two paths, but there was no indication that Kelly had gone down either. I looked back and then lifted my feet, frowning at my clearly we boots, but they were making no tracks. This place was starting to frustrate me, but getting angry about it wasn't going to point me to the right path.