The Moon Thief

After Heinald dispensed the potions, they left the house and Baunt began to take them to the meeting place. The sun was setting and darkness was beginning to fall slowly. The last beams of the setting sun were hitting a wooded area,making the inside of the wooded area relatively visible.

A group of eleven men waited among the trees. This group of Level 2 Ainsar Elyana Avveleon, the head of the Avveleon Clan, and her delegation. Elyana Avveleon was Baunt's grandmother and was highly involved in Dark Magic. That's why his grandson's words were of great interest to her.

"Here they are." Baunt pointed forward as he brought Heinald and the others in front of the woods.

Heinald's eyes were fixed on the woman in front of the waiting group in the trees. This woman had silver-colored, well-groomed hair that reached her waist. Certain parts of her hair were adorned with jewels. She had a tense face that showed she wasn't young, although she didn't have a single wrinkle on her face. She was taller than most women Heinald had seen. She was wearing a long white robe with blue, white, and yellow patterns on it. Her eyes were gray and his gaze was cold and contemptuous towards his surroundings.

"Elyana Avveleon, the leader of the Avveleon Clan and my paternal grandmother." Baunt introduced her grandmother to the others when they arrived in front of the group waiting in the wooded area. Everyone, including Heinald, greeted the Level 2 Ainsar in front of them.

"You must be the one who knows the secret entrance." Elyana Avveleon walked slowly and stopped in front of Heinald. Her eyes looked as if he was trying to see his soul. Her voice was calm and devoid of emotion, but there was something in that voice that made one uneasy.

"Right." Heinald nodded.

"Are you sure they won't notice us entering?" Elyana asked.

"I'm sure, you don't have to worry. I made the necessary adjustments." Heinald looked confident.

"Okay. Baunt tells me you've already agreed on terms." Elyana's gaze wandered over Heinald, Dane, Morena, Ruske, and Mady. "Does anyone have a complaint about the terms?"

Nobody made a sound.

"Very well! Then we can make the Blood Agreement on agreed terms." said Elyana.

Elyana took the paper Baunt had shown Dane and the others from the pocket of her robes and began to write down the terms. No one who spilled his blood would harbor treacherous thoughts towards each other, and if there was a successful raid, the resources obtained would be distributed at a predetermined rate.

When Heinald dripped his blood on the Blood Seal, it really felt like he had made a normal Blood Agreement. He really couldn't detect the trick on the paper. He glanced momentarily at Baunt and saw that he was staring at the Blood Seal with a devilish smile on his face. Then he quickly averted his gaze from her to avoid being noticed.

Baunt's demonic smile was also only momentary, then completely disappeared.

"Now that we've done the Blood Agreement, we can move forward for the raid." Elyana said.

Heinald had done unbearable torture to Erald and learned everything about the organization's underground building. The building had two entrances, but no one except Kroll and Erald knew about it. The secret entrance was in a small, inconspicuous cave south of the Cruxal's guarded area.

They had waited until it was dark before they began advancing into that area. Then they took action and began to advance through the darkness. When they came to the cave, they started to walk quickly through the very narrow cave. The increasing intensity of Dark Energy was noticed by everyone. After walking for a long time in the curved and long cave, they came to a large stone door.

Heinald took out the Sin Stone from the dimensional pocket of his robe. He pulled a piece of Erald's spirit that was imprisoned in the stone and brought it out of the stone. Erald's soul fragment looked like a small white oak in his hand.

When Heinald touched the door, the carvings on the giant stone door glowed with white light and the stone door opened. Elyana had watched this whole process with too much attention that can't be innocent. There was doubt and curiosity in his eyes, but he did n't make a sound. Likewise, Baunt and the others had similar looks.

When the stone door opened, they emerged into an old and neglected corridor. There were cobwebs almost all over the corridor. Although the immediate surroundings were lit by the flames of Ainsars, the corridor seemed to descend into an endless darkness. After walking for a long time to the end of the corridor, the stairs ascending became visible.

As they went up the stairs, they came to a large round hall. The perimeter of the hall was completely made of neglected stones. It was more as if a huge existing rock had been dug and made a hall. Ahead was a stone door similar to the ones they had seen before, but much smaller than it.

Heinald used Erald's spirit fragment to unlock it with ease as well.

"We've come to the western part of the underground building." Heinald turned and looked at the others. "From here on everyone be careful"

A child's cry was heard as Heinald finished his sentence.

At the end of the corridor ahead was the cruxal Heinald had seen earlier, given the body of a dead child. Jet black smoke was oozing from his eyes and mouth. He had no pupils, all his eyes looked like the darkest night.

Cruxal suddenly spread his arms wide, and dark shadows began to emerge from its hands, attacking like wild beasts. It was heading straight for Heinald and the others.

Elyana held out her hand and a red ball of fire formed about a meter away from her hand. Although the red ball of fire was so small, it made the environment so hot within seconds that smoke began to rise from the tunnel walls. Waves of black shadows emanating from Cruxal's hand were drawn into the ball of fire, the faint screams of strange screams emanating from the shadows could be heard by everyone present.

"Are those shadows alive?" Heinald muttered inwardly, watching carefully.

Cruxal screamed again as the shadows were completely burned and destroyed.

The hazelnut-sized fireball that Elyana had formed flew towards Cruxal and when it hit it, its body was instantly engulfed by fierce flames that seemed to have come from hell, turning it to ashes within seconds.

"Where is the Dark Energy source kept?" Elyana calmly turned to Heinald and asked.

"I'll take you there, follow me." Heinald started walking quickly and showing the way.

Heinald could feel the energies emitted by the members of the organization coming towards them. Baunt, Dane, Morena, Ruske and Mady immediately consumed the elixir given to them, they were noticed and would have to fight.

"You take care of them. We will go to the source of Dark Energy." Elyana gave her orders to everyone except Heinald.

"We need to go down to the bottom floor of the underground building, for that we have to go through the big door on the east side of the building." Heinald started walking quickly, with Elyana following him.

As they reached the far east of the underground building, they came to a huge door surrounded by a purplish aura. Actually, it could have been more called a gate, guarded by a defensive formation along with the surrounding walls. Because they were so close to the source of the Dark Energy, they felt the Dark Energy density more intensely than they had ever felt before.

"A security formation..." Elyana had a serious and at the same time thoughtful expression on her face. She was clearly considering how to overcome the formation in front of her.

"Do not worry." Heinald looked at her and smiled faintly, then picked up Erald's spirit fragment again and touched the door. The purplish aura of ash in the wind dissipated and the door opened. As the door opened, an intense wave of Dark Energy spread out. A large number of stairs descending began to appear.

"You...How?" Elyana locked her confused and serious gaze on Heinald.

"The leader of the organization is inside!" Heinald ignored her, he could feel Kroll's energy waves. He needed to get away from this area as soon as possible.

"Go and help the others." said Elayna, and began to descend the stairs.

Heinald started walking slowly down the corridors of the underground building with a disdainful expression on his face. Dane and the others had begun to fight the members of the organization, the energy waves released by the spels could be easily felt. As he continued walking down the corridor, he began to hear footsteps running fast.

Up ahead, an old man ran out of the corridor that curved to the right. He looked around in panic, then he saw Heinald and his eyes widened.

"Old Rolls!" Heinald opened his arms with mock enthusiasm.

"Y-You... are you one of them?" Old Rolls was breathing extremely fast.

"No, I'm not one of them, but I'm not one of you either." replied Heinald.

"What does that mean?" Old Rolls frowned.

"I think you should get out of here." Heinald ignored his question.

"Damn you!" Old Rolls' expression darkened and he prepared to cast a spell. However, Heinald reacted quickly and, with one thought, pulled his sword out of the dimensional pocket of his robe. He then threw the sword at him with all his might. The sword cut through the air and plunged into Rolls' head.

The old man's entire body began to tremble uncontrollably. He then fell to the ground and died after dying for a few seconds. The ground had turned into a pool of blood in a matter of seconds. Heinald drew the sword that was stuck in the old man's head and began to clean it.

"I really didn't want to kill you, but you left me no choice." Heinald looked at the old man's lifeless body and shook his head.

He hurriedly started walking towards Dane and the others. As he got closer, he began to hear screams, explosions and roars. The floor trembled and dust fell from the stone walls. Heinald saw Baunt running back down the forward corridor, followed by Dane, Ruske, and Morena.

Heinald quickly realized that Mady was not among them.

"Heinald! Help!" Dane was in a rather panicked state.

"What's going on?" Heinald began to watch him intently.

"They attacked us with Magical Beasts and the animals they were experimenting on. We killed every member of the organization we could see, but those on our side died too. Mady...Mady too..." Dane gasped. Blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth, there was an open wound on his chest.

"There are about six Magical Beasts." Baunt had an ugly expression on his face. He didn't appear injured, but it was obvious that he had consumed a lot of Magic Energy.

"They're coming!" Ruske cried out in panic.

Six amber colored spiders were coming from behind. These spiders were short in stature but large in width, moving quite fast. An energy equivalent to that of a Level 1 Ainsar was emanating from them. Heinald soon realized that these spiders were Dead Canyon Spiders. These spiders had high maneuvering abilities and a very strong venom that rotted in a single drop. Their only weakness was their very little endurance.

"Morena, tie them up!" said Heinald.

Morena immediately cast her magic called Fire Vines. The burning vines did not envelop all six spiders. At that moment, Heinald leaped forward and pointed his palms at the spiders. A scorching ray shot out of his hand and struck the foremost spiders. The spiders, fixed in place, were unable to escape, so they were hit by the scorching fire ray.

Heinald made an arc with the scorching ray emanating from his palms, thus burning all the spiders in the area. The spiders could not stand the intense heat and were charred in seconds. There was a foul smell of burning, and the area where the spiders were was completely burned and black.

"Use the potions I gave you!" said Heinald, a rather serious expression on his face.

"We must drink the purifying liquid first!" Morena said.

Everyone to whom Heinald gave the potions drank the purifying liquid. They then consumed the second Low-Level Fire Effect Potion.

*Rooooaaaarrr!* Just then, a frightening roar engulfed the surroundings.

Loud rumblings came from the corridor on the right. When they looked to the right, they learned the cause of the noise; At the end of the long corridor a huge bear was striding towards them. The Dark Energy emanating from the bear was perceived by everyone, this bear must have been one of the organization's experiments.

"Watch out! This bear is not a natural Magical Beast.It was probably an ordinary bear before." Heinald was examining the bear carefully. He hadn't thought of asking Erald about the organization's experiments, as he often focused on asking questions about the chest and the underground building. He wondered how many experimented animals the organization had.