Chapter 82 - Ruby Enchantress

Several minutes prior to Alexander's arrival...

Back in the camp, the head of Alexander's soldiers, a sturdy man at the Late Stage of Spirit Rank had been on his night watch duty for a few hours at this point. The cold wind of night brushing against his reddening cheeks.

Taking a big yawn, he freezes midway when a sudden feeling of unease takes over him. Something feels off. Looking into the darkness of the Thistle Forest however, he sees nothing of note beyond a few harmless animals resting and crawling in the night.

Seeing nothing with his normal sight, he decides to enhance his vision by using the technique one comes to gain at the Spirit Rank, the Conscious Eye!

With this enhanced vision, however, he still finds no signs of intruders in a mile radius around him. Nearly thinking he was worrying for nothing, he suddenly thinks of another possibility for this uneasy feeling bubbling up inside him and turns his vision towards the camp itself.

He sees no intruders thankfully and is just about to finally give up when he notices something shocking in his peripheral vision. There is no aura in his Young Miss' tent!!

A deep feeling of shock and despair rushes over him, a frigid cold burning up in his chest colder than the night's shiver-inducing breeze. His eyes are wide as his pupil's dash left and right madly, searching for any semblance of the Young Miss, and her newly gained partner, the kitten, for that matter.

But to his utter dismay, he cannot find them anywhere and a surge of worry, anger, and despair overtakes him at that moment. But having been in this business for most of his life and having a strong soul at his level, he doesn't allow himself to be overcome too long before his worn brown boots are dashing towards the largest and most grand tent in the encampment.

"SIR WILDERWOLF!!!" The man shouts, a scream filled with anguish and haste. "IT'S AN EMERGENCY!!!"

Seconds later, a hand reaches out from the entrance of the tent and pulls apart the opening of the tent, revealing Alexander as he walks out the tent with narrowed eyes. His hair is a mess, obviously having been just woke up and his eyes are slightly hunched despite his best efforts to appear alert.

"Do we have intruders?" Alexander inquired, his eyes darting about the encampment, but seeing nothing obviously wrong he turned to look at the head of the Wilderwolf Soldier's dubiously.

"Sir, Andria is missing!!" His voice came out croaky and anxious, but yet hauntingly clear in the ears of Alexander.

Upon hearing those words, Alexander's face pales instantly and his hazy eyes widen as a turbulent emotion surges inside. His fists were held so tight his nails were digging into his palm. If his mortal body weren't so tough, his nails would definitely have pierced deep into the skin, drawing blood.

"WHAT?!" Alexander finally exclaimed with bloodshot eyes.

The man opposite winced but didn't dare tarry as he explained all that he knew. Alexander used his own search using his own Conscious Eye and studied the area in a several mile radius, but also came up with nothing to his utter devastation.

"Alright... Wake up everyone and have them prepare. I'll find them!" Alexander ordered the soldier, with the soldier running off without delay to follow them.

Alexander meanwhile fished his hand into the collar of his shirt before he pulled out a chain necklace that held a particularly beautiful platinum rose jewel hanging delicately. At the center of the rose, a red jewel was shaped into the intricate form of an eye, looking both beautiful and enchanting.

'How did these intruders get passed my 'Ruby Enchantress'... I know my senses weaken greatly when I sleep, but I should have been able to detect someone at least at the Spirit Rank or below still with the added benefits of this necklace... Was it a Sky Magician or Beast?!... Or maybe, a Magical Item. Either way, these b*stards are not simple! My dear Little An...' These thoughts came to Alexander like turbulent waves, one after the other until he finally shook his head of all unnecessary and unwanted thoughts. 'I only have one choice. It may use up its dose for this month, but if there's ever a time to use it, it is now when my beloved daughter is desperately waiting for me!!'

Hands clenched shakily around the 'Ruby Enchantress' necklace, Alexander gritted his teeth and directed a surge of his own aura into the Magical Item until it began to glow brighter and brighter of a deep azure colour.

Suddenly, everything around Alexander seemed to pause in time, though that was just at initial glance, if Alexander concentrated hard enough for a long while in this state, he would notice that everything wasn't actually still as if frozen in time, but actually everything was just moving hundreds of times slower than their natural state.

Like when a Magician of the Spirit Rank and above used the ability of the Conscious Eye, Alexander could see the aura of everything around him, that of every person and Magical Item in sight. This also included every single Rising Earth Thistle flower that made up this grand Thistle Forest.

Without the use of the 'Ruby Enchantress', Alexander's vision would not be nearly as advanced as it was in this moment, as not only did the item help to increase his range of sight but also advanced the precision of his sight. Where the Rising Earth Thistle's would have blurred slightly in his sight previously as he gazed off into the distance, they were now as clear as if they were right in front of him.

With this sight, it wasn't long before he noticed an anomaly a few miles from the encampment.

'A barrier?' Alexander's eyes narrowed and he increased his concentration into peering deeper through the barrier, which fought with tooth and nails to keep him from seeing beyond its confines. 'This barrier is extremely well made. Almost at the level of a Sky Magician... But it still falls short to my 'Ruby Enchantress'!'

In conjunction with those thoughts, his sight broke through the restraints of the barrier and he peered intently inside, only to have his eyes bulge in horror at the sight before him. His sight didn't stay on the area long as his eyes closed in pain. Tears threatened, but he held them back. He had no time to let his emotions get the better of him.

At this time, several Wilderwolf Soldier's had begun to gather behind him. All of their eyes held a dark gleam as they waited at the ready, bulky fingers grasping their weapons with intensity. They would do anything to save their precious Young Miss!

"What are your orders, Lord Wilderwolf!" The Head of the Wilderwolf Soldier's returned to his side, his face looked stoic and his hand rested on his sheathed blade, but one could tell from his intense, narrowed eyes that his anger didn't fail to match the best of them.

Alexander had just closed his eyes seconds before this inquiry and seemed to not hear his words until his eyes shot open and with one, bellowing step, he was flashing off into the distance, his form quickly shrouded in the darkness of the forest.

"Follow!!!" Alexander's growling voice echoed back to them with a fiery intensity, passing his simple but apt orders.

They noticed in the wake of their Lord's path, a line of ice forming a long path into the horizon and they knew immediately to follow this path to follow their Lord on their mission.

"Follow the Lord!!"

★★★

Elsewhere in the Thistle Forest, neither in the Wilderwolf encampment or in the Beast-Eyed Killer's hideout, but instead about a mile off from there, atop the leaf of a Rising Earth Thistle was the familiar form of a tall, lanky man. H was the same man who had erected the barrier around the Beast-Eyed Killer's hideout and lent them the Ghost Walker Medallion. Beside him was his usual companion, the man who had initially met up with the Beast-Eyed Killer all the way back in Skyview City.

The lanky man's attention which had been solely watching the Beast-Eyed Killer and his men as they roughed up their target, suddenly darted in another direction as he felt a great surge of aura flashing through the forest.

"How did he see past my barrier?" The lanky man's eyes opened in surprise before returning to normalcy, seemingly not to be too affected by this fact beyond his initial surprise.

"It would seem the plan has been compromised..." The other man by his side muttered.

The lanky man didn't bother to respond as he watched intently at the blurred form of Alexander he arrived at the location of his barrier and broke through it with an intensity that didn't hold back in his anger and watched with no emotion as his finger's grabbed their employee with an iron grip, quickly sucking him of his life.

"It seems we have really riled 'em up this time, hehehe..." the lanky man's eerie laugh was shiver-inducing as he watched on with strange interest.