“Where are you?” a sinister voice rang out in the dark forest.

The sight of a grown man was running blindly for his life was not something one could witness every day.

He stumbled over something he couldn’t see in the darkness but immediately got to his feet. Alas, it was too slow.

He felt something wet touch him and his eyes widened.

“No! You can’t ----”

He didn’t finish the words as his mouth was filled with water and a spike rose from the earth piercing his heart.

“Hehe” the voice said, “Last one~”

The shadow of a tree nearby moved and a figure clad in black could be seen. Apart from the sinister looking red eyes drawn on the mask it wore, everything else was black. As it walked further from the tree, it could be seen that this person was female. Her footsteps couldn’t be heard by the average person in this forest, telling of her skill.

She walked with calculated step to where the man lay in the puddle of his blood. With a wave of her hand, a purple hue covered her hand and the earth spike retreated slowly back into the earth but not much.

“Tch” she clicked her tongue, “I hate earth spells”

She places her hand on the ground and sent her mana in and this time the spike retreated quickly but she was breathing hard, “I hate earth spells” she repeated again.

She stood up and stayed in the same position till her breathing stabilized. She then turned toward the left and began walking, whistling a very odd tune.

When she passed a particular tree she paused a looked to the left, “Found you!”

There sat a shivering dwarf-lurk child. He shrieked in surprise and moved backwards, “Don’t hurt me” he cried.

The woman squatted down to his level.

“No, please! I didn’t do anything…. They…”

“I know” She spoke softly, “I’m not going to hurt you”

The boy obviously didn’t believe her, shaking his head and crying. He wore brown tattered gown and there were bruises scarring his face and visible parts of the body.

She sighed and took off her mask, revealing a beautiful visage of blue-and-purple eyes. She had very short blonde hair that looked crassly cut and then she smiled.

The boy froze and his fear was forgotten for an instant. She took advantage of that blank and grabbed him. He immediately realized what was going on and wanted to struggle but she began to pat his head and hum very softly.

The humming was very serene and before the child knew it, he began to cry. She only patted his head and stood up, carrying him in her arms. She sent a glance at the torch or fire appearing in the distance. Apparently, the commotion had been noticed.

She muttered something and the darkness around her seemed to stretch after which she couldn’t be seen again.

***

“Agnes!!!” a very furious voice rang out. Noet was practically smoking from his ears right now.

“Hmm?” an upside down face popped in front on him, startling him.

The face had her usual innocent smile as she stared at him with a small smile. He glanced up to find her leg inside the ceiling as she hung from it.

“Did you do it again?” he asked angrily.

“What?” she played dumb.

“Agnes!”

She wriggled her hand in her ears, “You don’t need to shout. And my name is Raena”

“How many times have I told you not to attack slave trading caravans?!”

“They were in front of me, what should I do?”

“Ignore them!”

“I don’t want to” she replied with a toothy grin. She could imagine a vein popping on Noet’s head.

“If you get caught…” Noet began.

“… you will get implicated” Agnes cut him off, “I know, you say this every time”

“Agnes, I unders…”

“Raena” she cut him off again

“Raena” he gritted his teeth, “I understand you don’t want to see semis placed in the colosseum like you were but rescuing them on a whim isn’t going to do anything!”

“It’s better than just sitting around doing nothing” she replied and flung herself from the ceiling landing behind him.

Noet opened his mouth to say something but decided not to. It would go on deaf ears after all.

He sighed massaging his forehead then said, “Ok, you deal with it. You don’t even listen to me anyways”

Agnes smiled.

Noet wanted to speak again and froze as a particularly ugly monkey strode past the door of the room they were in.

Whoops, Agnes groaned inwardly.

“Is that…” he began then paused, “Is that a new one?”

“No” Agnes replied quickly.

“It’s a new one, huh” he nodded, quite calmer than Agnes expected.

“Yes” she replied softly.

“Agnes”

“Raena”

“Agnes” he repeated himself glaring at her, “Didn’t I say no more animals?”

“But they’re cute” She refuted.

“They’re quite ugly to me. And even if they’re cute, I don’t want them here!”

“Sorry”

“What do think this place is? A zoo?”

“What is a zoo?”

“Don’t play dumb with me” he snarled.

“Yes” she tried her darnest not to smile.

He felt like saying more but then she wasn’t really listening to what he said, was she?

He sighed, “I have a meeting soon”

“When?” Agnes immediately took a serious tone.

“Around 5”

“I understand”

“And ask Morgan when he’ll be done with the new batch of pills”

“I understand” Agnes paused wondering if she should ask something.

“What is it?”

“That… about Gretel” Agnes said softly.

Noet sighed, “Ever since Irisa died, she hasn’t been so good. It’s gotten worse?”

“Yes”

“She hasn’t lived that long though. Around 400?”

“400 is long! What is wrong with her though?”

“Grief and failure to ascend. That’s why I told her to stop trying to breakthrough”

“She must have felt frustrated” Agnes replied thoughtfully, “After all, Lysa ascended when she was barely 200? That’s fast”

“People die without ever attaining the rank to ascend. Lysa has talent, that’s different” Noet sighed, “It’s going to be hard to get another healer”

“Well, good luck with that” Agnes shrugged.

Noet gave her a look and just left the room.

Agnes smirked and saw that the ugly monkey was still lingering around, “Juven!” she called and dashed towards the furry creature. She wrapped it in a hug, rubbing her face in its soft fur.

It didn’t resist, enjoying the cuddles and caresses.

“How was your day here? Do you like it?”

It made some sounds.

“Sorry, Lysa isn’t here so I don’t understand what the hell you’re saying” She pouted.

It made another sound.

“Really, where is Lysa this time?”

“Mommy!”

Agnes eyebrows twitched at the familiar voice and she let go of the creature. It bailed immediately, having just come for the hug.

“Who are you calling mom, you brat?” she growled at the little elf-human girl who smiled at her.

The girl seemed not to care about Agnes’ anger and gave a toothy grin, “Mommy, Sir Ianan needs you for something”

The edge of Agnes’ mouth twitched and she pulled the girl’s cheeks hard, “You brat, I am barely above a hundred! When would I have a big girl like you?”

“Wow, you’re an old lady then” a voice said from a corner.

Agnes paused her cheek pulling and send a glare at the elf-human boy who had popped up at the corner some time in between their talk.

She sighed, “I don’t have time to deal with you kids. I’m going. Tell Ianan I'll meet him later"

She released her hand and waved at them.

“Bye” the two chorused before running away.

Agnes ran a hand through her hair and gave a half smile. These kids made it a job to tease her every day, calling her 'mom'. They had picked it up when Lysa once said she was like their mother., sometimes. It was aggravating to be the object of their affections though. Made it harder to leave.

She sighed inwardly and began to walk towards the exit. She’d talk with Ianan later.

Agnes soon reached the ladder which led outside. She pulled herself up into the ‘house’ and was greeted with the wonderful smell of horse dung.

She was used to it so her expression didn’t change and she waved at a particular horse with a reddish brown mane. It was Flynn and Glynn’s descendant and her personal ride.

She didn’t need a horse now so she just waved and left the house which was used as a cover for the underground. As she walked, she saw numerous posters on the walls for runaway prisoners, bandit, etc. They were in a remote part of the right side of the Kingdom so there were no neighbors.

Noet had the house built close to the village of Tova as imperial soldiers weren’t concentrated here much.

She kept seeing a particular poster as she walked to the central part of the Kingdom. It depicted a blonde girl with the right part of her hair gray, showing she was a semi. Her eyes were colored bright blue and she had a weird smile. The crime she had committed wasn’t listed but this poster had been commission by Queen Abigail and had a hefty bounty of 10 gold.

Agnes smirked as she passed another posted. Perhaps she had to thank her demon transformation? The poster and the current Agnes looked nothing alike. The good part was that she had a different eye color and no gray hair. The bad part was that Agnes had aged rapidly the past few years looking to be like a non-cultivator in her mid- twenties now. That meant that demonic transformation actually ate into her lifespan.

Well, the fact that she, a fighter, was ripping warriors in half was absurd so the price she payed that sort of power up was understandable. At least that’s what Noet said.

Even if it made her stronger, that kind of price was something Agnes didn’t want to pay.

She had sworn to never take that form again or else she wouldn’t even know how she died. The thing might be shortening her lifespan every minute or even second she used it.

Well… thing is a weird way to call it. It wasn’t really a thing, just something she knew she had but couldn’t see. It had no form or anything tangible.

She paused as she saw the huge building in the distance. Noet’s merchant company. He had big dreams of an empire and Agnes had scoffed at first but these days she was starting to believe that it could actually happen.

To say Noet achieved his continuous success over the past few years by himself would be a lie. The civil war played a huge part. Princess- now Queen- Abigail had asked her father for the throne weeks after Agnes escaped.

And the King actually agreed. Eliot was already crowned prince, so people couldn’t believe it. Prince Eliot refused to acknowledge it and the Kingdom was plunged into war. The war lasted for years. People predicted it would last 5 days but Prince Eliot put up a considerable fight.

With all the injuries and chaos war causes, it was inevitable that pills like Noet’s would sell like hotcakes. Noet capitalized on that and right now, the company was becoming a formidable existence but not enough to be called an empire.

A merchant empire was one that existed and flourished in the four continents. They only had a base in Ferasi so they weren’t even half way there.

They. Agnes didn’t include herself in that ‘they’. She didn’t see herself as a merchant currently or ever. Right now she was saving enough money to be able to leave here. Noet had been trying to tie her down to the company but she’d rejected everything.

The Kingdom of Ferasi wasn’t a place she wanted to be at all. And that was putting it mildly. With everything she had experienced here, it was understandable that she wanted to be anywhere but here. Unfortunately, she couldn’t leave Ferasi easily. It was like that during the reign of King Alejandro and it was the same with the reign of Queen Abigail.

Every exit out of the city was guarded but it was understandable to monitor the going and coming in of the Kingdom. And it’s not like they stopped people from leaving or entering. The only problem was the I.D requirement. Agnes didn’t have an I.D. and she couldn’t risk alerting Abigail by trying to get one. Just the picture of the current her would be a flaming beacon. Sure she had some changes but anyone who actually looked closely could see the resemblance.

Agnes moved her eyes away from the building and began to run. She let the wind carry her, enjoying the feel of it on her skin.

She soon found herself in an empty plot of land, hidden from public eyes with the bulk of trees that surrounded it. Agnes had found this location when she was raiding a slave caravan 2 years ago. She had figured out fast enough that it was a prime location for training.

The peace and seclusion made it perfect. She took a deep breath and smiled. It was sort of a shame that she had no air affinity. If there was anything she loved more that ugly furry creatures, it was the air.

Instead she was stuck with earth affinity. She really disliked earth magic. It wasn’t that earth magic was weak but that it was noisy. The movement of the earth always made some kind of noise. And earth magic was permanent. If the earth was moved, it would stay like that.

All in all, earth magic was the exact opposite of the current Agnes. When she was in the colosseum, she preferred explosive, vibrant power. Now, she preferred it subtle but deadly.

It wasn’t like she could chose to abandon earth magic as it was currently the only thing she could learn. Lysa was a nature magus so she was perfect to learn earth spells from. But that was all she could learn from Lysa. Agnes couldn’t risk going to the adventurer’s guild or the temple and getting her mana signal in the Ferasi database so she couldn’t acquire any new spells on her own. She could in theory create one but that required decades of research she couldn’t spare. Plus she wasn’t really interested in research.

She found a nice spot next to a rock and sat down, facing the rock. She raised her hand and whispered softly, “Shadow bind”.

Tendrils of darkness spread from her hand, wrapping around the rock, attempting to bind it. The rock didn’t budge and the spell dissipated. She didn’t bat an eye at that and cast it again.

The more you use a spell, the better you got at using it. It didn’t get more powerful per se but it was more deadly. It was akin to a swordsman using a sword like an extension of his own body. The sword didn’t get better or anything, but it was deadlier.

She’d gotten this spell on her hands during the war some years back. And a few other darkness spells but the amount of darkness spells she had access to could be counted on one hand. Mainly because having the affinity of darkness wasn’t smiled upon in Ferasi and many other parts of the world. Many of its past wielders have shown the world just what horrid things the element was capable of.

And the fact that demons were born of dark mana did not help the affinity’s case in the slightest.

She chanted again, continuing in this rhythm of casting and dissipating for a few hours till her mana ran out. She cringed a little at the feeling of an empty mana well and got up. She scratched her head trying to remember what her next line of action was supposed to be.

“Right” she exclaimed softly then broke into a run, “Ianan”