[Race: Cindari]
[Level: 35]
Seris stared at the panel without moving for several seconds.
Level 35.
The number alone did not explain everything, but it was enough for her to understand that the man standing a few meters ahead of her could not be compared to Maelor or Kael.
Maelor had become dangerous inside Vhalaris because of Territorial Covenant.
Kael was a powerful military commander.
But the man in front of her was not connected to the city’s defensive network, he had no army behind him and he was not even wearing heavy armor.
Even so, he was walking alone inside the Dead Zone, a place where entire Cindari Expeditions had failed to return from.
And worst of all, he knew exactly what stage the Cocoon had reached, and he was also the current leader of all the Cindari in this Emberroot forest.
They were facing one of the most powerful beings in this small world.
Caelus did not take his eyes off the Cocoon.
The white and black roots around Selina were still slowly contracting in a steady rhythm, and the golden light inside them was slowly mixing with dark spots.
"You Outsiders should not be here." After several seconds, he finally spoke.
"I think that applies to you too, and I thought Cindari were afraid of coming here." Seris held her sword in front of her body and her eyes moved across the dead ground around them for a moment.
"I am different from the others." Caelus turned his head slightly toward her this time, his face still calm.
Then he looked at the Cocoon again.
"And I have no choice but to come here to observe the process of the new Vessel’s formation."
The young Pendragon narrowed her eyes slightly, there was no doubt anymore, he not only knew what had happened to Selina, but he also knew about the process of her transformation.
"So you really know what is happening here."
"More than you should know."
"We are not going to let that girl become a Vessel for that Corruption or whatever it is." Seris took one step forward, the blade of her sword lowered slightly, but her body became more aggressive instead.
Caelus looked directly at Seris for several seconds... it was more like the look of someone listening to a child talking about something much bigger than what they could understand.
"This process was planned years before you were born." He continued with an unsettling calmness.
"That girl’s fate is to become the new Vessel."
The young Pendragon frowned and was about to say something, but the leader of the Cindari continued.
"Neither you, your friend, nor any other Outsider can stop it."
"I don’t know why...but I have a feeling that the death of this tree is your fault too." Seris thought for a moment and looked at the dry roots of the Forgotten Tree.
Caelus gave no answer, he neither confirmed nor denied it, but only stayed silent for several seconds, and that silence was worse than any confession.
Aren had kept himself back until then, but he could no longer stay quiet.
Twenty-five years.
He had spent twenty-five years of his life in this world.
He had seen people who entered this Realm with him die.
He had seen their groups being hunted.
He had seen the fear Cindari had of the Black Silence.
He had seen Corrupted bodies.
And now he was standing in front of a man who seemed to know all of this and was still deliberately allowing the disaster to be released again.
"Are you crazy?"
Caelus gave him a short look and Aren raised his voice.
"Do you understand what you’re doing? Black Silence isn’t some normal disease! That thing almost destroyed this entire world!"
"Look at this!" He pointed at the dead and abandoned area around the tree.
"This thing you see around us is the result of it!"
The leader of the Cindari remained calm and did not seem to care, and there was no sign of concern in his eyes either.
"And now you’re releasing it again yourselves? Why?"
This question was not really coming from anger, but from being unable to understand.
Even after everything he had seen, Aren could not imagine the logic behind doing something like this.
"Power? Immortality? Revenge? What is worth destroying your entire world with your own hands?" Then he pointed at the Cocoon.
"And why a Human?" His voice became lower for a moment.
"Why should a Human be the new Vessel?"
"You don’t understand." Caelus showed a small change in his expression for the first time.
It was not sadness or something as simple as anger, but something like pity, as if he felt sorry for them.
"Then explain!" Aren answered harshly.
"There is no need, in the end, all of this is for Salvation, what was started by our Founder will finally be completed by my hands..." The leader of the Cindari said slowly, but with hidden excitement.
"Salvation for you, and your world too." Seris immediately cut him off and raised her sword.
"If that thing is released, our world will be in danger too, so I don’t care if you call what you’re doing Salvation or some other bullshit." And her eyes moved to Selina.
"And there is no way I’m going to let a Human become the Vessel of that thing."
This time Caelus actually frowned because of the question and for a moment his eyes moved from Seris to Aren.
"You...know?"
"Know what? What do we know?"
Caelus looked carefully at both of them for several seconds, the calmness that had been on his face until then was replaced by a kind of cold evaluation.
"That’s strange, you know that a Calamity can enter your world from this Realm...but you don’t know why a Human was chosen."
"What do you mean?" Seris asked immediately, she felt like this bastard was playing with words with them, how could he twist everything this much?
It was one of those times when she wished Lian was here, of course, even without him they would not have a problem, she just did not like this part of talking very much.
"That Human was not chosen by me."
This time even Seris stood completely still for a moment.
What did he mean by saying that this Cindari man had not chosen her? If she had not been chosen by the current leader of the entire race, then who had chosen her?
"Then who chose her?" Aren reacted faster.
"The dead don’t need to know." Caelus looked at him, the previous pity completely gone.
"You will be the only dead one here." Seris’s fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword and her gaze became cold.
"The children of Father will be eternal." Caelus answered without hurry.
Seris did not ask any more questions, she felt that whatever this thing in front of them was, it had gone crazy and there was no need to talk anymore.
It was time to use the same method as before, the method that always worked.
She moved and her sword came up from the right.
[Moonless Severance.]
Mana gathered on the blade, but unlike a normal Sword Aura, it did not leave the sword.
At the moment of the Slash, no wave could be seen, no bright light, no Projectile, only the slow movement of the blade through the air could be seen.
Caelus did not even move, for a moment, the attack seemed like a complete Miss.
Then the space between them suddenly split, though not in a physical way.
Instead, the cutting line that Seris had compressed Mana into along its path was released with a delay of less than a blink.
The ten-meter distance was practically removed from the equation and the leader of the Cindari moved his head slightly backward at the last moment.
The sound of cloth being cut was heard and a thin line appeared on the chest of his black and white robe.
One second later... blood... a red drop came out from under the cloth.
Caelus looked down and ran his finger over the cut, the tip of his finger became covered in blood.
"Interesting." His expression finally changed again, mixed with interest.
Seris did not wait for praise and her body disappeared, Mana was released from her legs and she closed the distance in a few fast steps.
The sword rose.
[Thousand Petal Swordstorm.]
The first Slash came from above, then the second, then the third and....
But every time the sword moved, dozens of thin Sword Aura lines separated from the path of the blade.
They were not Illusions or empty Afterimages, each one was a real Slash!
In less than a second, the space around Caelus was filled with hundreds of thin cuts and forced him to raise his right hand.
[Crown of Thorns.]
White and black roots came out of the ground and wrapped around his body, forming the first layer of the Barrier.
The Slashes hit it and the sound of metal and wood colliding filled the air.
The first layer cracked and... broke.
New roots replaced it and then the second layer formed.
But Thousand Petal Swordstorm continued and it was not going to stop that easily.