2765 Professional Pride (Part 1)

Normal magic was useless against Spirit Spells so the Leviathan kept flying undisturbed, quickly reaching a vantage position from which he could study his mark from a safe distance.

He always kept himself a few hundred of meters away and upwind. This way, no mystical or physical sense would perceive him while Finjorn gauged his prey.

These things cost a fortune but they are worth every single gold coin spent. He wore the goggles that he had bought from Verendi.

Finjorn had to give the commission for two hits to the Forgemaster in order to afford the goggles, but they were worth the price. The artifact would boost Life Vision, expanding either the data it could collect or its area of effect.

The Leviathan always used the latter, collecting as much information as possible before risking to use life-sensing arrays and array-detecting spells that could be perceived by an Awakened or by a Warden on their guard.

Little did he and the Forgemaster know that Lith had collected two pairs of goggles from the assassins from Verendi and was currently studying them with the Thievery.

Lith's plan was to see if he could use the enchantments to boost the tower's Eyes of Menadion and then sell the goggles, passing them as his own creation. But this is a story for another day.

All of Finjorn's confidence crumbled the moment he laid eyes on the small, insignificant human woman that Zinya Vastor was.

According to Life Vision, she had a bright red mana core and a body weak even by human standards.

Her clothes bore excellent enchantments and were made of Adamant but they were nothing special to a Divine Beast. The Leviathan only needed a gentle tap of his fins to crush Zinya under his weight.

In theory.

Even from such a distance, the mere sight of Zinya filled Finjorn with dread. His body shivered so hard in fear that the few people who could see the bird perched on the high roof thought it was having a seizure.

As Zinya slowly walked along the streets, she received countless bows and gifts from the people of Verlan.She also came closer to the Leviathan who found himself covered in a cold sweat even though that form was supposed to not have the necessary glands for the job.

As she neared, Finjorn's survival instinct screamed at him to run away and never look back. With each step Zinya took, the Leviathan's sight darkened as the cold embrace of death numbed his body.

Such was the fear ravaging his mind that he lost control of the spells he had at the ready and the Spirit Arrays he had already activated faded into nothingness. It was then that the horror haunting him lessened enough for the Leviathan to Spirit Blink away.

He kept Blinking until horror faded into "just" terror and Finjorn regained enough presence of mind to cast a Warp Steps that consumed what mana he had left and brought him as far away as possible.

The Leviathan tried and failed to use Invigoration, his breath too quick and shallow to keep a steady rhythm. Mana abuse made his whole body ache and he felt so tired that if not for the fear that was burning through his veins his eyes would have started to droop.

Finjorn still didn't feel safe, like something was after him and there were only a few seconds left before it found him. He flew at breakneck speed after picking a random direction, hoping that if he didn't know where he was going, neither would his hidden enemy.

The Leviathan found a lake on his path and dived in without hesitation. He swam to the deepest corner of the lake and then he used his natural affinity toward water and earth to burrow deeper and deeper underground.

Finjorn would never know that his survival instinct had saved his life twice already.

He had just found the underground aquifer that connected the lake to the sea when a series of Chaos Gates connected Verlam to every one of the dimensional exits that the Leviathan had opened and then straight above the lake.

"Weird. The smell literally disappears here." Tezka scratched his hairy chin while sniffing the air and sensing the space around him in search of other residual spatial distortions.

He took his communication amulet out of his pocket dimension and called Zoreth.

"You were right. There was definitely someone casting arrays. I followed his dimensional path and then his smell to a lake but either the guy had the smarts to start relaxing the space or he plunged under the ground or water.

"Whatever the answer, I've lost his trail. I have no idea what direction he took and blasting the whole area seems overkill."

"Is there anything you've discovered about him?" Zoreth asked.

"Nothing much. Male, Leviathan, a little over 300 years old, and with a bright blue or deep violet core. His equipment is crap and he has a perspiration issue." The Suneater replied.

"Go back to your lab, old fox. I'll contact Abthot and ask her to search the underworld for someone who fits the description." The Shadow Dragon inwardly cursed her bad luck.

"Divine Beasts are rare and Leviathans are even rarer on this side of the ocean. Xenagrosh out."

"Guys, I'm grateful for your care but there's no reason to get worked up. I'm fine and nothing bad happened." Zinya said. "Maybe he wasn't even here for me."

"Then why did he run away?" Kigan emerged from her shadow as well.

"Maybe because you glared?" She shrugged. "I'm no mage but even I noticed that the entire road went silent when you released your aura. If people you didn't even care about fainted, imagine what he must have felt having your focus on him."

"You have a point but one can never be too careful." Zoreth nodded.

The feeling of dread that anyone coming too close to Zinya experienced derived from the couple of Eldritches that always followed her around. Usually, it was Xenagrosh and Kigan, but when she was busy, Orulm would take her place.

Kigan was the constant because only the Phoenix could use Shadow Step, a bloodline ability that allowed him and his partner to merge with a shade and become nigh-invisible even to mystical senses.

Thrud's soldiers and Generals had survived the encounter simply because they had loyally followed the Mad Queen's orders and limited themselves to observing Zinya. The Eldritches wouldn't attack willy-nilly nor would they risk blowing the Master's secret identity.

They would perceive the approaching of a powerful individual and welcome them with waves of hostility that would grow stronger as the stranger got closer. Human Awakened like the Forgotten had been frozen by fear from a distance whereas Divine Beasts like lata had been bombarded by killing intent until she fainted.

Finjorn's mistake had been to conjure his arrays, making his intentions clear.

Xenagrosh had the best senses among the Eldritch-monster hybrids and even from a distance and through the distortion effects of Shadow Steps she hadn't missed the weird bird surrounded by magical formations.

The moment her Dragon Eyes had deciphered the purpose of the arrays she had alerted Zinya and called Tezka.