Book 2: Chapter 2 (2/7)

Four hours earlier. Eight miles toward the North. Kain caught up to Vedas’s corpse and commanded his Ice Gargoyle to cut open Vedas’s stomach. Vedas could not outrun Kain’s Thunder Eagles and Ice Gargoyles, therefore he was killed after running for over eight miles toward the North direction. Kain nodded in happiness as he saw there were three Magical Black Stones inside Vedas’s stomach. Kain casted [Conjure Fire Demon] and commanded the Fire Demon to cook the Black Panther Vedas’s corpse so he can eat it. Eating a powerful magical creature such as Vedas for breakfast is not a thing that any magic casters can do.

Kain thought to himself, “If I continue to stay in the Blood Mages Guild, Etgar will punish me after he finds out that I spared a girl and let her expose my true identity. Etgar still has my Blood Daggers, he will know that I am alive and can use it to track my locations.”

The Blood Mages Guild’s network had spread all over Toria Continents. It would be very hard for Kain to avoid being located by Etgar Revenmar, so Kain had decided to stay inside this magical forest until Etgar gave up on finding him. Kain chanted for the secret words and patiently waited for the Blood Daggers to fly back into his hands. After three hours of waiting, Kain still didn’t feel any connections between him and the Blood Daggers. The Blood Daggers must have been hidden inside Etgar’s Storage Ring and couldn’t react when Kain chanted for the secret words. Kain then decided to release the Soul-Bound connections between him and the Blood Daggers by chanting some other secret words. In that way, Etgar won’t be able to find Kain later using the connection between him and the Blood Daggers. On the other hand, the Blood Daggers are no longer bound to Kain’s Twin Soul which means Kain is no longer its owner.

Blood Magic required human’s blood to cast the spell. And since there rarely is any human wandering around this magical forest, Kain decided to put his Blood Ring away and won’t touch it again until he encounters a deep shit situation that requires him to use Blood Magic to survive. “I will just use my stamina and mana for every battle from now on.” Kain thought to himself as he started walking deeper toward the North of the magical forest.

Jaane didn’t rush out of the magical forest like the other Student Mages and Professor Lawson did. She took her time walking as slow as she could while continuously looking back to see if Kain was lurking behind her. “Kain, I would have followed you anywhere you go. Why didn’t you let me do that?” Jaane cried thinking about the happy moment she had with Kain. Jaane could only kiss Kain for less than a minute, but she will never allow that minute to fade away from her memory.

Three days later, Jaane got close to the exit of the magical forest. The Fire Demon communicated with Kain telepathically using the abyss link connected between them to let him know that Jaane was safe out of the forest. Kain activated [Banishment] to banish the Fire Demon and the Ice Gargoyle that were escorting Jaane. Jaane looked back one more time hoping to see Kain was standing behind her. She would gladly abandon this beautiful world to live the rest of her life with him inside this magical forest if he wanted her to do it. Even if they get caught and executed later, she will never regret her decision of following him. But too bad, Kain was not standing behind her or anywhere nearby. Tears ran down Jaane’s eyes as she walked out of the magical forest.

“Jaane! It's Jaane! She is over there!” Golda yelled out loud while pointing her finger toward Jaane.

Professor Lawson and the Student Mages made camp outside of the magical forest. They have been waiting for Kain and Jaane for the past three days. Professors and students of other groups have escaped the magical forest as well after seeing Cade’s firecrackers repeatedly shot into the sky.

The first person who ran toward Jaane was Arthur and the first question he asked was, “Jaane, where is Kain? Is he okay?” Some people were mad when Arthur didn’t ask about Jaane’s well-being first since she also went missing for three days but Arthur didn’t care about it. Jaane has escaped the magical forest, which means she is fine. There is no reason to waste time asking Jaane about her well-being since everybody here could see that she is fine.

Tears were running down from Jaane’s eyes, but she then cried out loud when Arthur asked her about Kain. She said, “I… I couldn’t… I couldn’t find him.”

Arthur stood still as he heard Jaane say that. “No way… Kain wouldn’t die like that.” Arthur whispered to himself but from his observation of Jaane genuinely crying, he feared the worst had happened to Kain.

Cade approached and separated other Student Mages who were asking Jaane a bunch of useless questions. She asked, “Jaane, where did you go for the last three days?”

“I’m sorry, Professor Lawson. I was looking for Kain thinking my Earth Magic could help him out somehow.”

“The Black Panther is at Legend-tier, your Intermediate Magic won’t be able to help anybody!” Cade yelled at Jaane for making such a big mistake.

“I’m sorry.” Jaane apologized while continuing to cry.

Being yelled at by Cade didn’t stopJaane’s mind from thinking about Kain. It made her think about him even more. Jaane started to blame herself in silence, “If I didn’t go looking for Kain, he would still be here now. It was all my fault. All my fault…”

Many Student Mages believed Kain was eaten by the Black Panther and then the Black Panther must have gone back to its lair deep inside the magical forest after eating him. That explained why Jaane couldn’t find either Kain or the Black Panther when she got into the area where Kain and Arthur rescued Sofia.

"Kain…" Sofia also cried as she thought about Kain. Even after she broke up with him publicly, Kain still sacrificed his life to save her. Sofia couldn't understand why Kain doesn't want to be with her anymore but that was no longer important.

Professor Rogal Caligarus is also a Blood Mage, he knew Kain wouldn’t lose to a Legend-tier magical creature like that. Rogal didn’t know anything about Kain’s Second Soul and the battle between Blood Mages Guild with Lord Vonda Hardy of the Red. He thought Kain had been staying inside the Mages’ Academy of Nosh the whole time and never left except for the Student Mages Tournament five years ago and this magical forest hunting event. Rogal thought to himself, “I have just refilled his Blood Ring, there is no way he can lose to a lowly Legend-tier magical creature.”

Rogal said, “I will go look for him.”

Cade wanted Rogal to wait for assistance from the Army first but after two seconds of thinking, she said, “Professor Caligarus, please be careful.”

Rogal then casted [Wind Walk] and [Detection Wind] spells to fly above the magical forest while detecting all movement below to look for Kain, as well as looking for the Legend-tier Black Panther. Rogal is a level 30 Master Blood Wind Mage, defeating a level 45 Legend-tier magical creature won’t be a problem for him especially when he possessed a Blood Pendant and a Blood Ring.