Journey to Alvanheim
"I am not prying into your matters; however, I must hear your reason before I could do something…" Krieg said with a panicked face.
"I have heard the news of the Elves' Hero known as Riveria being gone for a while, I wish to take this opportunity and search for her." Veil replied after pondering.
"I understand, I could provide you a certain authority to travel to their borders, but that is the extent of what I could permit. Being accepted inside is a different matter altogether."
"You see, they care about the sacredness of the World Tree, so they do not allow outsiders to step inside the city." Krieg explained in a worried voice as he sighed.
"Mhm, that is good enough. Thank you." Veil smiled with satisfaction.
The King then arranged an expedition set to the borders of Alvanheim; Veil's condition is that the King's Guard guild will travel with her until the border.
Veil agreed without hesitation, being watched or guided through her journey will not affect her plans.
[…]
After a few weeks of travelling, the journey did not suffer too much battle, the members of the guild are all in a rampage.
Their bloods have been boiling since the duel between Veil and Lauron.
As the atmosphere slightly changed into a colder one, forest sprites also started appearing: signifying that they have reached the Elven land.
"We would only guide you up to here, Hero Veil." Gor said.
"Mhm, see you." Veil turned around towards the forest.
Lauron watched Veil's back as she departs with teary eyes, in the time they spent, Veil treated her as a sister.
Veil also taught Lauron some mana usage techniques, which she could apply in her sure-kill skill Empyrean Awakening.
The three-pronged attack only requires one slashing motion, but produces 3 separate attacks; however, the downside is that the target will still perceive the attack as 3 separate ones.
Thus, easily deciding on how to block or dodge, however, after Veil's advice, she could mask the mana of the attack that will erupt from the ground, so that only her actual slash and the beam of light would be initially visible for the target.
If the said target counters by blocking the slash and the beam, it would be too late for them once the erupting ground smashes them to break their defense.
With that, the beam of light would further disable the target, ultimately letting Lauron hit the strongest part of the skill: the slash.
"Sister, I will wait for your return! Until then I will train and surpass you, someday!" Lauron declared with tears in her eyes.
Veil nodded as she smiled back to Lauron, she was the first one after Ara who treated her as a sister.
As soon as Veil is not visible anymore, the King's Guard members started departing as well.
Veil's goal is not just to recover Riveria's tracks, but ultimately, to build a good relationship with the Elves.
Among the races that have opened trade routes with Marlov, only Elves have not accepted the negotiations because the final word is for Riveria to decide.
But now that Riveria is nowhere to be found and contacted, they could only decline the goodhearted offers.
The Elves could accept the trade routes for their other cities, with the exception of only the Alvanheim.
Not only is Alvanheim their main city, they have already made the Aegis their sole trade partner.
Veil, after running for a dozen hours, finally reached the gates of the city.
"Human, for what purpose are you visiting this city?" The Elf guard asked in a slightly surprised tone.
The reason for his surprise is that a human successfully found the city without asking a forest sprite to guide her.
This is why Alvanheim is one of the safest cities in the whole Terra, visitors could only reach the city if they negotiate with forest sprites.
Forest sprites will lead them accordingly, if they show evil intentions, they will be lead farther from the city, to which they will be stuck in an endless maze.
Otherwise, the forest sprites will lead them to the city gate for an absolute duration of 1 whole day.
This is akin to a test, to see if visitors would have the patience and unbending will to visit the city.
However, this human before him only travelled for half the supposed duration and without any sprites guiding her.
"I wish to converse with an elder or a higher up, this is an authority letter from the King of Duran." Veil as she pulled a letter from her shadow.
"Very well, however, you must pass the test before I could let you in." The guard lightly waved his hand and a fairy appeared.
"My name is Iridia, the fairy of puzzles. I shall test your intentions with a simple puzzle." The small fairy declared.
Upon finishing her words, a small crystal with various engravings and runic symbols appeared.
"This is similar to a memory crystal which affects your consciousness, touch it and your mind will enter a simulated state. Inside, a massive maze would appear and you must lead your mana to the exit without passing out." Iridia explained excitedly.
"Mhm." Veil nodded and put her hand on the crystal.
Shhhh!
A small blow of wind passed her ears as her consciousness was transferred.
An endlessly tall wall covered all her sides, she was now in a maze, or more accurately, her consciousness in a form of mana is now in a maze.
She easily controlled her mana as she searched for the exit, however, the more she progressed the harsher the mental oppression hits her.
This is why Iridia's puzzle have denied thousands of visitors in the Alvanheim, even if they spent large amounts of resources just reaching the forest and negotiating with the forest sprites, it will all come down to passing Iridia's puzzle.
They are free to retry, as long as they have the patience, but no matter how they steeled their resolve to enter, they cannot pass the final hurdle.
[…]
Half an hour already passed, Veil constantly changed the form of her mana within the maze, only after she tried changing her goal in her mind did she succeed.
At first, the only thought flooding her mind is to find Riveria, but now that she changed it, the mental oppression slowly started fading out.
With such ease, she finally reached the exit, her consciousness then went back to her real body.
Plop.
The fairy sat on her shoulder and pointed towards the tallest building in the city.
"Well done human, you passed my test with good intentions, I shall personally lead you into our elder." Iridia said in an excited voice.
After reaching the hall, Veil was welcomed by the said elder.
"Human, I am called Doryarus, I was informed of your intent of visiting our humble city." Doryarus caressed his white beard.
"My name is Veil, Elder Doryarus. I wish to search for the Hero Riveria's tracks." Veil introduced herself respectfully.
"Hmm, for a whole year, no one among even our strongest combatants have found a trace of Riveria's mana, but now you are declaring you wish to take part of the search?" The elder asked in a slightly awkward tone.
It is not that they are belittling the human before them, it is just that Riveria's disappearance is not a simple matter involving a race that is not as adept in magic such as Elves.
"I have here King Krieg's authority letter, I wish this explains more." Veil passed the letter to the confused elder.
"Hmm hmm, so you are the rumored Hero of the humans. Then I shall not deny your efforts to take part of the search." Doryaryus showed a slight interest.
"Thank you, Elder Doryarus. However, may I ask when I should begin?" Veil said cautiously.
"Youngsters really have no patience these days, ahh." Doryarus put his hands on his back as he slightly nodded on one of the Elven Adventurers.
The Adventurer then explained the last area Riveria visited before disappearing.
As Veil sets out towards the said area, Doryarus warned his fellowmen of Veil's hidden powers.
"The darkness within that young Hero is far more frightening than the Abyss itself. We must absolutely not offend her." Doryarus warned in a grave tone before sitting down.
The Elves listening nodded as they spread the word to their comrades.
Veil flew directly to the area detected by the Elves before Riveria disappeared, she then manipulated the mana to trace Riveria's mana remains.
Shimmer~
As the atmospheric mana spread out accordingly to Veil's control, she spotted berserk mana dancing around a single point.
She immediately followed the path of mana towards the berserk mana.
Veil looked confused as she monitored the berserk mana, she then pondered for quite a while.
'Bingo!' Veil thought of using her cursed eye to perceive the mana differently.
She then closed her right eye and concentrated her own mana as a lens for her left eye.
Shurururu!
She was greatly shocked by what she saw, a magic cage with seemingly infinite mana appeared within the berserk mana.
It seems that the mana making up the magic cage is colliding with natural mana of this world.
She then immediately created a gate directly towards Alvanheim to inform the elders.
Elder Doryarus, together with some council members and their strongest combatants immediately set out with Veil's gate.
[…]
After arriving, Veil pointed at a seemingly empty field and explained what she sees.
"Human, we have already detected this abnormal energy, however, we cannot perceive what you see." Doryarus explained.
"I see, if that is the case then…" Veil wrapped the whole cage with her own mana.
As soon as the mana collided, everybody gaped in astonishment.
"It seems that you truly have an ability you are still hiding from us, human…" Doryarus caressed his beard with slight anxiety.
This magic cage truly seems like the cage that sealed Riveria, however, among the Elven combatants and even the council lead by Doryarus, no one is confident in breaking the infinite mana.
They must suffer a great backlash for even trying to break the magic cage.
"It seems like I am the only solution here." Veil said in a slightly cold tone as she walks toward the magic cage.
"We will surely repay you, human." Doryarus slowly closed his eyes and backed up away from the cage.
Everyone else distanced from Veil and the cage, even more berserk mana has appeared since she wrapped the cage with her own mana.
Veil then made her shadow sword through her hands and held it over her head.
Third Divine Technique: Transcendental Severance!!!
The sensation of every single type of mana draining out from the surroundings has soon reached the spectating Elves.
'A Divine Technique wielded by a human?!' Even Doryarus who is a Grandmaster of magic arrays paled due to the extreme discomfort and shock.
As all the colors of the world seemingly disappear, she slashed 4 times in a single point on the center of the cage.
Swing swing swing swing! Crash!
As the 4 attacks combined and a blinding light extended in the whole forest, a cracking sound soon followed.
Crack.
[…]
After the chaotic commotion calmed down, Veil was now nowhere to be seen.
Only a massive fissure extending a hundred meters was left and before the fissure is the Alvan Argonaut, Riveria!