The Reborn Magus and His Prince

Chapter 25

It was only for a brief moment and Alex's attention got taken again by some random nobleman.

Yulian decided then that he have to move fast and catch this man called Theodore.

He once again, check the area for any danger and noted that Luke was beside Alex while Leo was not far from him, he could reach the prince with one or two large steps if anything will happen. After making sure of Alex's safety, he took a step towards the door.

"You're going to leave without telling the prince?" Clayton asked, baffled at his urgency.

"I won't be long, just tell Alex I am going to meet a friend." He answered without looking back.

Yulian exited the door, the marquis and his wife had long gone went inside as no longer guest was coming in. The attendants had been ordered to serve all the guests inside and so the courtyard was devoid of people.

Yulian easily navigates himself towards the east. The stables weren't far and only separated by a wooden wall decorated with hanging plants.

Just like the courtyard, the stables had no one outside guarding them. Yulian crouched a few feet away and put his forefinger on the ground. An invisible current came out from the tip of his finger sneaking fast and expanding until envelope the whole stable. Yulian through the current can now see what's inside. Lines of horses, hays, and aside from sight, he can also smell the organic odor of manures and hear the horses even outside. However, no sign of Theodore. Did he sneak inside the party? He was about to withdraw to sever the connection but he felt something was beating inside the current. Something different aside from the breath of the horses. Though faint, he definitely could it was a human heartbeat. Where is this coming from?

Yulian knitted his eyebrows and concentrated some more. His consciousness traveled in every corner of the stables. He stopped when he reached the ground. That's where the faint beating came from. Someone was hiding below the ground. His consciousness tried to penetrate through the earth however he was repelled by an unknown force and the current recoiled withdrawing back in his finger.

Yulian stood up and with a determined stride, he went inside the stables. There's something sinister below, and he knew it wasn't some barrier that repelled him. It felt like a mass of energy pact together tightly that there was no room for an alien force like his to pass through.

"Ignis." He called as he search for a hidden passage.

'I am here.' The little fireball appeared at his side.

"It's not Calis, right?"

'No. I don't sense any dark energies nearby however, whatever down below is equally dangerous. Be careful."

"I know."

"Who are you talking to?" The door of the stables swung open. and the figure of mohawk was illuminated by the moonlight.

Yulian let down his hand that was ready to attack and extinguished the sparks when he saw who it was.

"You! What are you doing here?"

"You were acting suspicious so I followed you here. Ugh! This smells so bad!" Clayton pulled a white cloth from his pocket and covered his nose. He made his way towards Yulian. "What a terrible job! They did not clean this properly!"

"Sshh! Could you quiet down?" Yulian was crouching down as he was trying to find any traces of a passage.

Clayton looked down on him in disgust. "I thought you found that guy Theodore and were talking to him. Have you finally gone crazy?"

"No, and it's none of your business. Now go back to the party." Yulian answered without looking at him.

"Move over." From his searching, he came to the place where mohawk was standing.

Clayton did not budge just to piss him off. "What in disgusting's name are you doing?"

Yulian sighed and stopped his groping to the ground. He casually opened his palm with a blazing fire and made a motion of grabbing the mohawk's ankle.

Clayton panic and took a step back but he steps into a lying sickle and fell into a heap of hays.

The weight of a grown man made the hays fly in different directions.

"You - *cough* ." Clayton could not form a single sentence as some of those disgusting grasses had stuck in his mouth. He struggled to wipe them off but it only became more of a mess as his hands were also full of hays.

Clayton saw Yulian offer a hand to help him up and thought that the peasant was finally being nice. He took his hand and got frightened.

"Oh s**t!" Instead of being helped, he felt like he was being thrown forward. Damn! This shrimp's strength was no joke.

Yulian ignored him and with agile hands he grabbed every hays his hand could land on and threw them in the sides. When the heap of dried grass got cleared up, the ground revealed a wooden squared board.

"What is that?"

Still no answer for him.

Yulian destroyed the lock and pulled open the board. A staircase leads to the dark underground. He glanced back at mohawk.

"Go back at the manor." He ordered him once again with all seriousness.

"No way, I've never known there's something like that here." Clayton dismisses the solemn atmosphere. He squatted and leaned beside Yulian to see the passage. "Woah, it looks creepy down there."

Yulian had an urge to knock him unconscious but he felt a sense of urgency that he can't explain. So not caring about the stubborn mohawk, he descended the staircase.

"Hey! You're really going to go down there? Your friend's cousin's friend might not be there!"

Clayton saw how the figure of the peasant disappeared into the darkness. He fidgeted and glanced at his surroundings. He had an internal debate for a while before making up his mind to follow Yulian.

The stairs were short and Yulian instantly reached the bottom. There's a narrow passageway that fits only one person at a time. The clumsy shuffling behind tells him that the i***t had followed. He began his quick strides until he reached a door.

In here, the sinister and mysterious force was just behind this door. Even without his internal consciousness probing inside he could feel it. He grabbed the doorknob and even it was pulsating with power.

One hand ready for any attack that might come, he pushed open the door. But the scene that came before him send chills in his spine.

A magic circle was laid on the floor of the room. Its size almost occupied the whole space. He squatted and touched the circle.

Blood. It was drawn with human blood. The magic circle pulses with a sinister aura however nothing was happening.

He stood up and followed the complex outer line. He had never seen this kind of pattern even back when he was a magus. He tried entangling every structure of the circle but could not find its origin.

A scream followed by someone falling to the ground made him turn his head. Clayton with horror in his eyes was pointing at something.

"T-that... I-s t-that a d-dddead bo...dy?"

Yulian glance at where he was pointing. At a dark corner of the room. A body was lying still. He walked towards it and recognize her in an instant. It was Minnie. He immediately check for her pulse and sighed in relief, though faint but still breathing. It must have been hers what he sensed earlier. He found multiple wounds on her body mostly on her arms where the blood came from making that bloody circle. He may not be a healer, he knows some method in stopping the bleeding wounds.

Yulian uttered a silent chant, though the wounds had not healed up, his chant made her wound temporarily stop bleeding. He then carried her.

"Snap out of it, Stewart." He said to the dazed mohawk on the ground. "Quickly go back."

He kicked that stiff body on the ground on his way out and only then did the mohawk move.

"You go first."

"O-okay."

Clayton scrambled to get up and clumsily step forward, there was horror in his eyes when he saw the girl in his arms.

The two went their way back and Clayton got up first on the stairs then he had his help in carrying Minnie.

Once back at the stables, Clayton struggled to catch his breath.

"What in the world was that? And this girl... Is she okay?"

"She's not okay but she's alive."

Yulian once again checked the girl. For now, her life was not in danger. They had just to find a healer quick. He took off his coat and cover the girl, he made her settle on the hays. While doing this, Ignis appeared.

'That circle...'

'I could not figure what it was.' Yulian conversed with Ignis in his mind.

'You won't be able to decipher that one. That circle was only known in the gods' realm and had long been banned from appearing.' Ignis said with a cold expression.

'Then what it's doing here for?' But as Yulian thought that, only one name came in both of their minds. Calis.

'It was a blood sacrifice. A life in exchange for a life. They're trying to summon Calis with this method. The girl only survives because the circle was incomplete and her life was not enough in exchange for a god's presence. They needed more than one life.'

Yulian paused when he heard this and instinctively stood up.

"Mohawk." He stared at the guy. " Stay here and guard the girl. Don't ever come out, you understand?"

"Who you calling -?"

"Understand?"

"A-alright." Clayton cowered at the dangerous glint at Yulian's eyes. Though he did not understand anything, he obeyed his words or he felt that something terrible will happen to him.

After the mohawk relented, Yulian sprinted out of the stables back towards the manor.

He needed to get back!

Alex!

He is still inside!

Alex, he - .

Yulian, in frantic to get back did not notice that a barrier broke out from the manor and ran right to it. His body went flying a few feet away due to the impact.

He was too late.