Kaedros didn’t like the sound of that, but what was he supposed to say? So instead, he shifted uncomfortably, eyes narrowing as the tension between the two thickened.
Thalso gave a slow nod. "Of course, you’ll do as you wish. I’m only trying to make you understand how weak they are."
"I know how weak they are!" she snapped, pointing directly at Kaedros. "Even with his true strength hidden, he’s still a weak kitten."
Kael and Taria both glanced at Kaedros but said nothing, watching the argument unfold.
Taria thought. ’...they must mean his secret parh, the Sorcerer one, maybe, while Kael was thinking, I knew it. He’s hiding his real rank..’
Kaedros, however, was just surprised.
The Keeper had also seen through his illusion. How powerful are these people? From what he’d gathered, they didn’t use the standard mana cultivation method.
He tried comparing them to the highest-level beings he knew.
The strongest Kaedros had ever encountered was the Dragon queen, his mother, back in the City, rumored to be at rank ten.
But when it came to Thalso, Kaedros genuinely didn’t know where to place him.
He couldn’t even measure him. He didn’t try.
"...I’ll send my subordinates to fight them," she said with a casual wave of her hand. "They’ll be happy to have something to do."
"Before that, can we have some water?" Taria asked politely.
Kaedros didn’t trust that smile one bit and he was immediately on guard against it.
"Come with me," Chef said, turning without another word and walking down a well-worn forest trail.
Kaedros and the others followed the short woman into the cool, mana-rich woods.
"I’ve never felt mana this dense in the air," Kael murmured, exhaling slowly, feeling it seep into him with every breath.
"So this is what a mana-concentrated area feels like," Taria whispered, stretching out a hand as if trying to catch the energy. "The air is... heavy. Like it’s gained weight."
"This is enough to passively advance," Kaedros muttered. "Stay here long enough, and your stage will climb on its own. No wonder they’re so strong. You can’t live in a place and not become absurdly powerful. It’s just not possible."
"You call this a mana-concentrated area?" Chef scoffed from ahead, hands folded behind her back. "You must come from a very poor place."
"There are places with more mana than this?" Kaedros couldn’t believe it. That would mean...cultivating every time you breathe in.
He froze. He just couldn’t warp his head around it.
They stopped in front of a crystal-clear lake, shimmering as it gently flowed downward. White pebbles rimmed its banks, and within the lake floated dozens of wooden cups with long handles.
"That’s the water," Chef said, taking a drink from her flask. "Help yourselves."
Taria dumped her spear and rushed forward, ignoring Kaedros’ warning to stay alert. Rauk followed her, shrugging.
With a sigh, Kaedros did too.
The water was cool, clean, and as soon as it touched Kaedros tongue, he swallowed several gulps.
"What is this?" he asked, pulling another cup. It looked and tasted like water, but the way it surged through his body, like pure liquid mana, wasn’t normal.
"Exactly!" Taria exclaimed, lifting another cup from the bank where they all knelt.
"It’s healing me," she added after a few moments, her voice clearer and brighter.
Kael nodded in agreement and took another deep drink, his third in just a few minutes.
"My mana’s already back," Kaedros said in disbelief, feeling the energy flow within him. Something that should’ve taken hours now lasted only minutes.
"Same here," Taria said. She no longer looked like she might collapse at any moment.
"Yes," Chef said beside Thalso. "The water has healing properties. It refreshes your body and replenishes your manaspace."
Taria laughed, a sound so light and free that it almost felt foreign. "My limp is gone!"
"It’s been a while since I heard a smile," Chef said lightly, before her tone dropped. "Too bad it won’t last."
Thalso said nothing, simply watching—his face concealed behind a seamless, expressionless helmet.
Then the lake changed.
Three long, brown, withered hands, like twisted tree roots, rose from the now green-tinged water. Without warning, they snapped forward, each one clamping onto a neck.
Kaedros, Taria, and Rauk were yanked into the water, dragged beneath the surface without a sound.
Kaedros didn’t have time to scream.
One second, he was kneeling by the water’s edge. The next, he was yanked beneath the surface, dragged into the cold, suffocating depths of the lake. Instinct kicked in. He thrashed violently, legs kicking and arms flailing, but the more he struggled, the tighter the grip on his neck became.
He forced his eyes open, hoping to identify whatever had him before his lungs gave out, but the lake was murky, the water now a dull green, thick with floating particles of brown sludge.
Visibility was almost zero.
His lungs screamed. Panic surged.
He scrambled to form a spell, anything that could help, but his mind was a blur, every incantation slipping from his grasp like wind through open fingers.
Finally, he managed to cast something, but it was a fire spell. It fizzled out before it could ignite, swallowed instantly by the water.
That failure hit him harder than the dragging force. This is how it ends? Drowned in some cursed lake? Just like that?
No. Not yet. Not here.
Not when I still have a lot of things left to achieve.
He stopped struggling. Let the thing pull him. Let it think he had given up. With trembling control, he gathered his will. One spell. Just one.
Desperation focused him. Power pooled.
A compressed light bubble exploded into place around him, driving back the lake water and giving him blessed space to breathe.
"Shit," Kaedros gasped, inhaling deeply even as the root-hand continued dragging him by the back of the neck. "Time to end this."
He called sunlight into his hand, pure, condensed light heat. He reached back and pressed his burning palm against the root gripping him. Mana surged. Heat blazed.
A muffled scream rippled through the lake as a large wave slammed into the bubble. but the root-hand burned away into ash, drifting like cinders in the air pocket.
Kaedros exhaled sharply.
Sun was his gift, his element. Even with the others now, he was most best at it.
He spread his awareness.
He found her quickly. She was drifting deeper into the green depths, limp and unconscious. Her mana signature was weak. She wasn’t even struggling anymore.
Kaedros turned and formed another light spell, blasting himself forward. The bubble shuddered and warped from the force, threatening to rupture, but he pushed more mana into it, gritting his teeth as he neared her.
"No, you don’t," he muttered. "You still have a lots of uses."
The root holding her tightened.
Kaedros conjured a kinetic of heat blade.
It slashed cleanly through the root.
Another muted scream echoed through the water, but Kaedros ignored it. He caught Taria and pulled her into the bubble. She was unconscious, but breathing.
He turned his focus upward and unleashed a massive burst of mana, propelling them toward the surface.
The bubble burst the moment they broke through.
Kaedros held onto her tightly as they slammed back into the lake. He kicked hard, dragging both of them through the water until they reached the bank, where he hauled her up and collapsed beside her gasping.