Birth of the Legendary Battle Mage

Chapter 20

“Now, how should I greet them?” Julius said as he set his gaze towards the cave hideout of the assassins.

“Hey you. How did an outsider enter here?” An assassin who was standing guard at the entrance of the cave said as Julius approached the cave. Just as he was about to attack, another of his brother (not related) said from behind not to kill the intruder, but to capture him for questioning. As he motioned to attack, he suddenly felt light as though all the weight had been taken away from his body. ‘What is this weird feeling? So weightless. Wait, is that my body without a head?’ Before he could spare another thought, Julius split his head mid air into two. The second assassin who was inside the cave was utterly taken off guard by Julius’ speed.

“What the... how can someone have such speed?” ‘The only ones with such abilities are the upper members that have received the blessing. Is he one of them? Who knows? Not all of them are known even to us in the lower ranks. I have to greet him immediately before I become like the other brother.’ “Welcome back sir! Sorry for the rude greetings earlier, we couldn’t recognise you as you aren’t on uniform sir.” He knelt down as he greeted Julius who he had mistaken to be one of them.

“Sir? Do you welcome just anyone in here like that?” Julius asked as he stood behind the dead body. At that moment, the one kneeling jumped backwards, further into the long passage that must have connected the entrance into the inner parts of the cave. He seemed to have realized something unusual that made him react that way.

‘I have to inform the upper members about this. He doesn’t have it, which means he isn’t one of use. He is an enemy.’ Just as the guard thought, all members of the assassins are given a mark somewhere on their bodies like a tattoo that signifies your membership. If this tattoo is imbued with mana from the bearer, it alerts the bearer of the tattoo if another with the tattoo is nearby. The assassin was so taken off guard by the capabilities of Julius that he forgot to use it, since only the higher members could display such remarkable physical strength and superhuman speed in this world.

“Where are you going?” A calm voice spoke just behind the assassin just as he tripped on something and crashed. The intruder who was only visible as a shadow now as the light from the cave entrance shown behind him, squatted in front of him. “You seem to be an aux warrior. With this level of strength, if you were in the military, you would enjoy many privileges and a pretty high position. But here you are doing dirty work. Heh, where can I find your leader? And don’t waste my tim... forget it.” With that Julius placed his hand over the man’s head. As he did, the assassin’s eyes started shaking slightly, shifting rapidly and randomly in all directions. When Julius lifted his hand, the assassin’s eye balls had rolled backwards into his head. Then Julius touched his forehead with his thumb, and the assassin turned to ashes, leaving behind his cloths and everything he had on him, vanishing completely.

...

“Leader!... Leader! Leader!”

“What is it?! Who is disturbing my rest?”

“Reporting to the Leader.” The one who rushed in took a knee. “We have an intruder.”

“What? How did an outsider find out the location of this hideout?” Her expression became serious immediately. “How strong is this intruder? Why isn’t the intruder dead yet?”  

“Almost all of our men have been killed by him. All he does is wave his hands and everyone turned into ashes.” The one who was reporting shivered as he gave the report.

“What? Ashes?”

“Yes Leader. I saw it myself.”

“Quickly! Send out all the upper members including number 1 and 2 who are resting. Go now!” ‘Good thing number 1 and 2 are around. They are in a different league from the lower numbers. Let me see who can get past them.’

Some minutes later, a man appeared dragging the body of a bald man by the collar inside the assassins Leader’s room (like a throne room).

“Number 2!” The woman who sat on the throne said in shook. Her face was spoilt with anger as she stared Julius in the eyes. “Who are you.” She asked. But before Julius could speak, number 2 sent his last words to his leader.

“Run leader. [throws up a little blood] Run. Away.” As he finished saying the last word, Julius dropped him as he instantly turned into ashes, both flesh and bone.

“So you are the leader? I always heard that the leader of the assassins is a man. Turns out to be the opposite.”

‘Who is this man? He is very unusual. That magic of his that turns the body to ashes is higher than 8th tier magic. I can’t sense much mana from his core, just minimal amounts and yet he can cast such high level magic. I’m I too weak to comprehend his level? Or is he good at hiding it?... It doesn’t matter. The fact that he can use magic higher than the 8th tier is troublesome and the fact that he could defeat number 1 & 2 who have body enhancements from their First stage ascension class mana cores that easily is proof. I can’t win.’

“What are you thinking about so intensely? Come on, share your thoughts.” Julius said as he started moving closer.

“Stop him. Now!” Following the Woman’s voice, four elders jumped from the shadows and stood in front of Julius forming a line.

“How foolish.” Taking that opportunity, the leader opened a portal behind her and disappeared into it.

“Usless.” Julius said in a calm voice as he swung his hand. The elders who stood in front of him cut into halves as their blood spilled over the tiled ground. Immediately, Julius used his sense technique ‘soul sense’ to look for the leader. After stretching it quite far, he spotted her. “She’s quite fast, to have covered his much ground in such a short time.” The assassin’s hideout was like a maze. Although, finding the way out would be an easy task for Julius, it would still be time consuming and more stressful than what he has in mind. Normally, one can only teleport to a place they’ve been before or to wherever a person they’ve placed their mark on is. Higher level mages who are more proficient in the spell can teleport to any place or location, as long as they have a mental image of the place through visualization. But with the soul sense technique, he could teleport to anywhere his ‘soul sense’ had covered. Once he activated the technique, there were no blind spots, and the teleportation magic had no limitations within that space.

*VOOM*

Julius appeared a couple meters behind the woman. She immediately noticed his presence behind her, so she picked up her pace wondering how he caught up to her so fast. Julius kept expanding his search technique till it covered about 3km (kilo meters). With that, he slowed down steadily to let the assassins leader to get further away from him, fooling her into thinking that she had lost him. Since he wanted to tail her in order to investigate the origin of the demonic beasts. He continued tailing her for a few days before she stopped moving. Julius was impressed as she could enter this deep into the forest. As at that moment, she wasn’t far off of where the cave Julius stayed in was located from the river, in regards to how far from the river her current position was. He had to activate his artifact after reaching a certain level for safety measures. He had not tested if he could survive without it yet, and now wasn’t the time for that. ‘Hmm… Interesting, she can survive here and still move around freely even with the pressure that the river of ends brings. I wonder how she’s doing that?’ Julius wondered as he observed her movements.

He moved closer to where she was, enough for him to monitor her visually without using soul sense. She seemed to be gathering some things to a spot where she set up a magic circle.

‘Hmm? This magic circle looks like one used in dark magic. Let’s continue watching some more.’

After the preparations where finished, the assassins leader gave enough distance between her and the magic circle, then she repeated some phrases until a portal appeared within the circle.

‘Is this where the demonic beasts come from? That is surely a demonic gate that connects the earth to the underworld. I’ve only read it in books, and the practice was lost too. To see it with my very own eyes, beautiful. What’s next?’ While Julius thought to himself, he witnessed the woman sprint full speed into the portal. She seemed to struggle a bit as she breached the portal before entering. After that the portal started to reduce in size gradually and steadily. ‘She went in?... Hmm… I’ve made up my mind, I’ll enter too. I’ve found such an ancient practice that is lost even in history, I can’t just let it slip by me. I’ve decided.’

As the portal closed up gradually, Julius shot down from the tree he was hiding in into the portal with no resistance unlike when the woman did.

*Whooosh*

*Cough* *Cough*

The woman threw up some blood as she coughed. “Damn it. I always sustain internal injuries whenever I pass through that gate. This is why I brought so many demonic beasts back last time, so that I won’t come back here anytime soon. But to think… wait. Why hasn’t the gate closed yet?” Just as she finished, a familiar figure appeared before her. “What?!”

“So this is the underworld? Hmm, so calm. I didn’t expect it to look just like earth.” Julius said with a plain face as he walked closer to the woman. She raised her head up to look at him. She wore a mask that covered her entire face, exposing only her eyes and fore head. The rest of her body was covered in bandages with proper quality cloths over the bandages.

‘He followed me? This man…’ She thought to herself while on the floor. Her internal injuries prevented her from moving, so she could do nothing even though she was attacked at the moment. The place the gate was connected to was a deserted place where both animals and demons don’t visit, just a large area with small hills and vegetation spread out everywhere, with both normal sizes trees and gigantic trees filling its lands. A truly beautiful place.

“Looks like you are injured internally. That’s better. Why don’t we sit and have a chat for a moment?”