SPOILS & RETURN

"Well fuck you too," Sage responded to the necromancer's last words.

Of course the person in question could no longer hear her as he had been reduced to a pile of green flesh that reeked even worse than the most rotten zombie. As for the Cryptmaker's undead; the ones that not had been reduced to ash by [Conflagration] dissolved to dust the moment his last words fell. These included the sentient undead as well. Without a link to their necromancer, undead that were created by said necromancer crumbled. Even the giant mole of a Familiar screamed as it vanished from the Main Plane to what was likely the Primordial Plane, where it would become part of the chaotic Plane once more.

Witnessing this instilled a bit of gratitude within Sage. Her contractor was merely an anchor to the Main Plane instead of her raison d'etre.

The black flames had now spread to all the buildings of the village and the heat from them was hot enough that she had the urge to rub her exposed skin. If not for the fact that she were undead, no doubt she would be sweating like a pig in this situation.

The only place untouched by the fire was the village centre, where the disturbed ritual circle of blood and corpses was. The six bound individuals at the centre continued to squirm, presumable in an effort to get out of their bonds and escape the fire. When several of them saw Sage approaching their eyes widened, the moans from their gagged mouths became louder and the struggle against their bonds intensified. The fear in their eyes was as palpable the perspiration that rained down their faces.

When Sage entered the circle and got within a metre of them they became even more apprehensive. Their moans and grunts turned to whimpers as tears joined the sweat on their faces. Sage stared them down and cast her spell, [Sleeping Circle]. The struggles of the bound villagers immediately ceased as their bodies went limp. Seeing this, she prepared another spell. A second later a violent chilly wind swept cross the village centre, reducing every place it passed to a frozen hellscape.

And so the bound villagers passed on peacefully in their sleep. Sage could not afford them telling others what they had seen.

The [Icestorm] would not be able to hold the fire back for long though, so before the black flames jumped onto the frozen corpses in the centre of the village she cast [Flight] and flew out. Landing a few hundred metres from the burning community, she cast [Mystic Eyes] and looked around to make sure the Mercenary Guild had not sent more Familiars for reconnaissance. Only after watching for a few minutes did she relax and allow herself to do what she had been itching to do for a while.

She raised her left hand and scrutinised the steel ring on her finger. It was a storage ring with about a cubic metre of space. As an infamous necromancer the Cryptmaker carried all his important stuff with him in case he might have to make a quick getaway. At the thought these possessions now belonged to her, she could not help her lips from curling upwards.

Directing her mana into the ring, she uttered a single thought and all the contents were expelled from the storage. At first glance she saw about half a dozen small clear bottles with red, green and clear fluids. She recognised them as being vigour potions, detoxification potions and spirit potions; only the last one was useful to her. There were several books about magic, alchemy and enchanting; they numbered well into the tens. This was the main reason she had come here and, seeing so many books on magic, her grin widened.

Fuck Yeah! she thought excitedly, singling out what could only be a spell book.

Using [Mage Hand] to bring it into her grasp, she did a quick flip through it and sure enough there were all sorts of spells recorded in it. [Telekinesis], the 7th Order spell the Skeleton Magician had used was in the book as well as [Teleport], the spell she had been looking forward to the most. More 7th Order spells included single-target flesh-rending [Harm], an improvement of [Chain Lightning] called [True Chain Lightning], a stronger version of [Icestorm] called [Blizzard] and several necromancy related spells including [Heal Undead]. With such a spell, healing herself would no longer be an inconvenience!

As this was the spell book of a 9th Order mage it also recorded spells of higher Orders like 8th Order [Regeneration] and 9th Order [Inferno] just to name a few. With the amount of spells listed in the book her path to the 9th Order was set. All it required was a bit of study and she would get there.

Surprisingly, the last boon she received from killing the Cryptmaker was money, a shit-tonne of it. The amount of gold, silver and copper coins was so much that, although she could not make an accurate estimate, she guessed that their value amounted to far more than five hundred gold. She was rich again!

But I should put it away for later, she thought, trying to quell her desire to jump up and pump her fist in the air.

The items were placed back in the storage ring as she prepared to head back. Some time had passed and Kaylee might wake up soon.

This time, instead of running she decided to return via air. Again casting [Flight] on herself, she rose off the ground and activated {Invisibility}. Then she set off in the direction of Nervahn. If nothing went wrong she would make it back before the half-elf woke up.

Any evidence of her coming to Hassun would be erased by the fire. Considering how ferocious the flames were, everything would be reduced to nothing within the hour and the flames- with no source to keep them going- would die out. No one would know what happened here. Even if they tried to investigate with [Mystic Eyes] it would not amount to much. Her involvement in the village's destruction would never be known.

That ungrateful bitch would not suspect a thing!

After Kaylee wakes up the first thing Sage would do is tell her was that she was leaving. She would be going her own way so she could do whatever she wanted. The fact that Kaylee was her anchor gave her more than enough power to prevent her from going about things her way. It might not mean much at the moment, but in the long run it could prove a serious hindrance. The best way to deal with it was to put as much distance as she could between the two of them; then both of them would be able to go about their lives without bothering each other.

Flying covered ground much faster than on foot. The terrain changed so quickly that before she knew it Nervahn was on the horizon.

However, before she could rejoice at making it back in time she spotted a couple of figures headed in her- or more accurately- the village's direction. They numbered seven, with each of them bearing at least one set of equipment that gave off a magic signature. Real Magic Items, not like the ring she currently had. The difference between the two was that with time the storage ring's enchantment would lose its potency until it became a regular old ring while the enchantments on those items would last until they were destroyed. The difference in the two was something that could be felt even over a distance.

Sheans, she guessed. The Church was the only the only organisation rich and willing enough to lend out such valuable items to deal with a threat. The Mercenary Guild did not provide equipment to its members and the nobles were too selfish to give such valuable equipment to others.

Curious, she inspected the group.

Their leader was a woman with long blonde hair and a slender build. She was clad in silver plate armour, one of the items that radiated magic on her. Another was the sword that hung at her hip and the shield on her back. The {Index} showed her stats as she got closer.

Race: Human (Human)

Physique: Grade 1

Mana: C (Cyan)

Other members of her party included a dwarf with an enchanted hammer that seemed to weight more than him, although he seemed to carry it with ease. He too was clad in silver plate armour although the colour was all it had in common with the blonde woman's enchanted armour. His most distinguishing feature was a long beard that ran from his chin to his knees.

Race: Dwarf (Human)

Physique: Grade 1

Mana: H (White)

The rest of the members were not as remarkable as these two but they were nothing to scoff at. Among them was an elf priestess with an enchanted staff and a dwarf sorceress in enchanted robes; both of them spotted basic physiques but possessed mana of the 8th Order. The last three members of were humans; an archer with an enchanted bow, a warrior with enchanted armour and another warrior with an enchanted sword; all of them had Grade 2 bodies.

The church must have gathered its strongest members in the country, she thought. It was the only explanation she could come up with after seeing this line-up. Sage would not even be surprised if some of these members came from outside.

If not for the fact that some of them were magical awakened she would have tried using [Mystic Eyes] to take a closer look at the enchanted items. Unfortunately, if she did that she would be discovered. As a force put together to combat the Cryptmaker, they were probably tougher than their base information revealed. Also, since they were on their way to fight a necromancer their attainments in Light Magic had to be considerable for them to be selected by the Church. The only reason Sage was able to beat the Cryptmaker was because of her clear advantage. When it came to this group she had no confidence in taking some of them on individually and those she did have confidence in beating only needed to team up and she would be outmatched. Because of this she stayed her hand and chose to fly past them under the effects of {Invisibility}.

However this group reacted to what had become of Hassun was none of her concern. The only thing she had to worry about was cleaning herself up before Kaylee woke up.