Lucas quickly flew back to Agatha's county. They were gone for long enough to push anyone to make a move. If the protectors of Agatha weren't present, it's obvious what would happen.
Still, Lucas held Galen in high regard despite the fact he wasn't even a mage. Flying towards the place, Lucas felt strange for some reason. There was the obvious rage he felt in his veins, but also a hint of sadness. His emotions were unruly, not following his commands. Slapping his own face, he focused on what had to come next.
The powers he had gained from reaching his current rank weren't really explored since he never got the chance to do so.
Spending ten years battling, he understood his own powers a lot better. Not only that, but his spell repertoire expanded enormously. Creating a small willpower bubble around him, he noticed something was off.
Stopping his forward momentum, he floated in the sky as he inspected the air around him. There was nothing but a red sky and almost dried up reddish-brown ground. Seeing the state, Lucas clicked his tongue.
He was already in Agatha's territory, and had created plenty of ways to influence the land, but the results weren't as good as he expected. Going down to inspect it closer, he removed his bubble of willpower to focus on the ground itself.
Placing his hand on the somewhat rough terrain, Lucas closed his eyes.
'How many?'
'I can sense six dumbasses.'
'Do we lull them into a false sense of security and ambush them?'
'Nah, we won't have the chance to do that. Besides, I don't feel like thinking anymore, I just want to vent for a bit.'
They had long surrounded Lucas, but he feigned ignorance. Taking the time to check what happened to the earth and how he should improve upon it later, most of his thoughts were incomplete and broken. He felt like his mind was failing him as if his heart had it in a chokehold.
The moment he stood back up, six spells were shot out, each one of a different element. Massive lances of pure elemental power converged on his position. Wind, fire, ice, earth, darkness, and lightning all reached him at the same time.
With the explosion that followed, the mages exposed themselves. Each one prepared their next spells but waited for the dust cloud to disappear.
"That's it? Wasn't he supposed to be strong?", one of the demons felt extremely disappointed to see no reaction from the center.
"Put up your shields, fire the second batch," the leader didn't take any risks, firing off a second volley of spells, they destroyed the place completely. "Prepare your next spells and check for his presence."
While perhaps taking it too far, since they successfully ambushed the target and fired off a second volley of attacks, the leader of the group didn't try taking any risks. He had seen his fair share of trouble on the battlefield and knew not to take things for granted. If things seemed to go smoothly, it only meant they were in for a surprise.
Six bubbles of willpower quickly spread over the place, finding a single person standing upright with his arms crossed. The leader of the group furrowed his brows seeing his nonchalant stance.
"I'm not really in the mood right now. I'll let you leave with your limbs attached if you stop bothering me," Lucas pushed all their willpower away with a single clap of his hands.
The leader didn't react in the slightest as he just stared at Lucas. The man wasn't just fine, the ground around him was fine as well. 'Is he just trying to show off, or...?'
Having investigated Lucas with his willpower, he knew that Lucas wasn't a Rank 2 mage, even if he tried to hide it so carefully. His own troops were at the peak of Rank 2, while he himself just made it to the next Rank. Seeing the current state, the leader instantly knew this battle would end in his defeat, but he cared little for that.
"Don't you dare make fun of us!", hearing the cocky tone of Lucas, one of the demons rushed in, holding two small daggers in each hand, his speed was immense. Zipping around Lucas, it was difficult to tell where he even was.
"Hahaha, bet you can't even see me, can you?", any normal person would see the demon multiple times in different places, his afterimages jumped around making it hard to keep track.
Yet Lucas simply snapped his fingers to unleash a Blue Flame cirlce around him that expanded rapidly, growing bigger and bigger, quickly forming a massive circle around him. Standing in the center of the circle, he basically created a small arena.
"Hahaha! Did you think that would hit me? We can all fly, you know!", running in circles around Lucas, his eyes saw multiple afterimages, making Lucas a bit jealous.
'Most likely a wind technique, can you gain anything from it?'
'Nah, it's too fast, replicating that isn't an option.'
'Then I'll just kill him.'
Preparing his next spell, Lucas snapped his fingers to turn the circle of flames into five large snakes that flew towards the demons still floating in the air. The snakes were fast and ferocious, making the demons who were simply observing, now hunted by inanimate fire snakes. Just running away wouldn't make them who they were, so they hurried to shoot spells at it. The snakes, sadly, were fueled with willpower, Lucas made them dodge the spells they shot at them.
Conjuring up a bow made from Blue Flames, his hands turned metallic gray to handle the heat. Pulling the arrow back, Lucas fully ignored the mage that was running around him.
One of the demons had just dodged an attack of the snake and lifted his wand to unleash a small wind tornado. The moment the spell was released, the snake exploded, turning the tornado into a flaming one.
Normally the demon would keep his control, but due to the willpower infused into the flames, the tornado turned against him. Barely dodging the tornado, an arrow was aimed directly towards his head, exploding on impact. All that was left was a charred corpse falling to the ground.
The tornado joined Lucas on the ground as it disrupted the mage running around him. Using his command over wind, the demon sliced the tornado open, splitting it apart, allowing Lucas enough time to launch another arrow at another demon struggling with the snake.
"Tch, how dare you look away from me!", rushing to Lucas, the demon readied his daggers, yet the moment he got close, Lucas snapped his fingers once more.
"Finally."
While his speed was immense, Lucas had a few countermeasures. For during his training with Yaldor in the temple, the man moved so fast they were rarely able to get a hit in. Knowing full well there would be others, Lucas developed two things. One to increase his speed immensely and one to slow down his opponent.
Setting foot near Lucas, the demon saw the ground beneath him light up as an array activated. Chains appeared and pulled his limbs down. Besides that, the very ground itself turned into a slimy mush that caught the demon's foot. The viscosity was so high, he almost fell over from his own speed. The combination of both tools brought his speed to a standstill, and before the demon could escape, Lucas was already in front of him, grabbing his arms, Lucas ripped them off his body.
The blood burst out as the man screamed loudly in pain. Tossing the limbs to the side, he brought his hammer-like fist down, crushing his head.
If there was one thing Lucas was proud of, it would've been his body that was enhanced to the highest level. Nobody of his rank would be able to rival him, a fact he took more than advantage of. Especially after fighting with Yaldor, he knew that as long as he boosted his muscles with magic, a simple hit could spell danger to most.
The leader, who dealt with the fire snakes, saw that half his group was done in. "Karisa, disrupt his spells! Claren, keep him busy! I'll deal a finishing blow."
The demons nodded before shooting into action. Karisa conjured a few small ice shards that pummeled the area around Lucas, with some aiming for him. Lucas hadn't moved from his position during the entire fight, simply observing.
The shards coming towards him hurt at first, but the sturdiness of his body overcompensated by limiting the damage. Claren who got close with a broadsword, swung it wide, catching Lucas in his swing.
Simply using his steel skin, Lucas took the brunt of the attack since all his attention was vested upon the leader who had been gathering a large amount of magic. Sure, the ice shards and the hits from the sword hurt him, slicing his skin open in places despite it being reinforced by the steel layer. The only saving grace was the fact they weren't damaging enough to kill.
That task was left to their leader. Seeing the levels of mana, Lucas was worried, conjuring up shields in preparation, he made sure he would be able to jump away. Part of him was focused on defending the attacks, the other half was staring daggers at the leader.
Their boss concentrated the mana inside himself before suddenly turning around and using the mana to boost his speed immensely to fly away.
"What?", "Boss!?", the demons turned to stare at the dot in the sky that continuously shrunk. Completely dumbfounded, they felt despair sink in their hearts.
Their reactions were too real for it to be an act, making Lucas determined to take action. Dashing towards Claren, he barely had the time to raise his broadsword to block Lucas' fist. Breaking his guard, Lucas took a step forward and inserted his hand into Claren's chest.
Plunging his other hand inside as well, Lucas ripped the body vertically into two pieces. "Distracted on the battlefield is asking to get killed."
"You monster!", Klarisa conjured a massive Ice Spike to the point it reached a small hill, launching it forward. The size of it was so large that it could obliterate a small village in an instant. Landing, it crushed the earth and left a massive dent in the landscape.
Klarisa was out of breath, consuming so much mana for a single spell pushed her core to its limits. Standing up, she suddenly felt a rock-solid grasp on her head, the rough fingers covered her eyes.
"An impressive spell, but useless if you can't hit your target," the dread set in as the fingers started to exert strength, slowly crushing her skull. She screamed out in pain, but nothing stopped the slowly clenching fist from completely shattering her mind.
'You let that fucker get away.'
'There was no way to efficiently catch up. Besides, the moment we chase after someone, we could easily fall into their trap.'
Lucas always used the terrain to his advantage, something he tried to do since he became a mage. Plant traps all around you and use them effectively to your advantage. It was a basic way of fighting for him.
If he had his strategy of luring his opponents into traps, chasing after someone would just make him the victim, a position he'd rather avoid. 'In any case, we should hurry to Asta. For all we kknow,Agatha's dead or worse.'
'Worse?'
'I don't think I need to paint the picture for you, you're quite proficient when it comes to using body parts to frighten others.'
'Oh! Nah, who was it? That Isale wench? She ain't smart enough to use such a good tactic.'
'She did seem to spend a lot of focus on keeping her image clean for some reason. Either way, I thought of a move to use, question is, are you willing?'
'Not yet, I wanna hear what genius boy has to say first.'
'That can be accommodated'
Dusting himself off for a moment, Lucas inspected the bodies. They didn't wear any kind of insignia or had important things on them. One of them had a small spatial ring containing a few items. Gladly stealing it, Lucas looted the bodies for their weapons.
Grabbing the wand of the woman, he noticed it was capable of storing spells. Using it for a few simple spells, Lucas also noticed how quickly it sucked the mana out of his body. After experiencing it, he threw it in the spatial pocket of the ring and deemed it useless.
For any normal mage, a wand that was capable of storing spells was a potential trump card. Not only that, but the efficient way it gathered mana to shoot off spells was incredible. If, by some interference, the spell failed or an incorrect rune was used, only the wand would suffer damage.
To Lucas, it was worthless. His body was capable of storing as many spells as he could keep active at the same time. If he screwed up a spell, he would just have to patch up the wounds caused by it.
Having fought for a bit, Lucas felt somewhat better, but a nasty feeling rested in the corner of his heart, annoying him to no end. Continuing his journey to Agatha's estate, Lucas slowly tried to hide his feelings.
---
The leader of the group of assassins was flying at the speed of sound, moving so fast, Lucas surely wouldn't be able to follow him. Arriving at a random location, he landed on the ground and entered a small, secretive cabin in some random woods.
Hiding his presence, he pulled out a strange disk and started to type. 'Target succeeded in escaping the temple. Magical strength is decent, physical strength is great, and he's tactical, compensating for his lack of magical strength.'
Waiting for a moment, he received a message back, 'Good, return to proxy base and report to candidate with enough exaggeration to scare her,' reading it over, the man nodded to himself.
"I'll be right there, Isale."
---
Arriving at Agatha's estate, it looked like years had passed. The ground was remade, the cracks vanished as if they were never there. The gate that fell down was replaced by a sturdy one, it was even accompanied by two demon guards, surprising Lucas.
He hadn't seen them before, meaning they came from the local populace. The estate itself was rebuilt, nothing too grand, but good enough for a local ruler.
Approaching the gate, the guards moved their spears, blocking his way. "State your business."
Staring at them, Lucas could tell they were decently trained, but that shouldn't exist in this county. They were Rank 0, but that mattered little.
"Ah, Nero must've trained them. Fine, tell Agatha that I've returned."
One of the guards had a mocking look on his face, "I doubt the lady is waiting for a human. Leave this place, slave, and go back to your master to tell him to come personally."
Part of Lucas was seriously ticked off, but he had to hold himself back, the estate was only recently repaired, destroying it out of anger wouldn't be a good move.
Luckily, one of Nero's guards was doing his rounds and quickly stepped in. "Men, let him through, he's the Starborn. Sir, it's been so long since you've returned."
Letting him through, they quickly moved to the office of Agatha.
"Yes, I wasn't exactly planning on it, but it seems I returned at the perfect time. Have those leeches come back?"
Shaking his head, "No, we did get a letter they would be on their way. We followed your instructions on how to deal with the matter."
"Yes, but only Galen would be able to stop them, and he can't leave her alone. At least not for now. I'll deal with it myself."
Entering the office, he found Nero sitting in Agatha's seat looking over the papers and signing some of them. Seeing Lucas enter, he quickly rose and bowed slightly. "Starborn, sir, we've gotten far in the plans, but are behind on the agricultural progress, I apologize."
"Don't, it was my mistake the rain didn't keep up. I'll take another look at it. Has Asta returned yet?"
"The moment the estate was refurbished, we started to get letters from all the debt collectors. It looks like they don't like what we're doing, but thanks to the funds we got from Augustinus, we've been able to pay off the smaller debts while hiring some muscle to hold the others back.
Besides that, Augustinus instructed us to pay the larger debts on our shoulders in weekly installments to feed them the money to keep them satisfied. He told us he would then take it back in due time, recovering the money for us.
Sadly, the sum of money we kept giving them wasn't enough after some time. We have gotten letters that the inspectors and lawyers are on their way to help with our financial situation," Nero spoke sarcastically, since both knew what this was about. "Considering the distance and that they should travel by carriage as stated in the letter, they might arrive in the very near future. I hired some mercenaries to keep them at bay, but since we haven't heard of them yet I've directed them to build houses and help with the farms."
Hearing the report, Lucas smiled deeply, feeling extreme satisfaction. He knew bringing some aid from the Underground would be a net positive, but this was way more than what he expected.
"Good job Nero, I knew it was right to ask for you. Make full use of the hires, I'll stop those inspectors myself."
"Sir, even if we stop them, the contract states that they have to come and 'help us' figure out our debts. They'll all send over some men, and even if we try to convince them to turn back, more will simply arrive."
"Hahaha, I'm well aware of that, Nero, but don't worry. I wasn't planning on convincing them. They will just experience an accident on the way here," the cruel smile on his face gave Nero pause. If only for a second, Nero saw the ruthlessness of the Starborn again. He returned the smile, "That would spare us quite a lot of funds. Thank you."
"You'll have to thank the wildlife, I can't have them connect it to me."
"Of course, sir. Should I gather information on the local beasts? Perhaps a Black Griffon or something similar might be nearby."
"No need, I've already gotten a good idea at the back of my mind. Anyways, I'll go and greet them, please wait for Asta to arrive. I have some plans that I want to put in motion, but I'll need his help."
"Then I'll inform him when he arrives, and try to keep him here."
"Good, I'll take care of the irrigation issue on my way. Oh, and do you have a register of the people living here?"
"I started to work on it, but the county is too big to have contacted everyone. I wasn't aware it was important enough for you to inquire about it. It was more a pet project than anything."
"Use some of the funds to complete it. In the near future, we'll have to administer medicine to all our citizens. I don't want to miss one."
Nero felt the gravity of his request and nodded with a serious look. "Consider it done."
"Good, and start stockpiling food as an insurance. You don't have to worry about leaving some security funds left, Augustinus will up his game and provide more."
Writing down the plans, Nero quickly went to work without questioning Lucas' orders. Cracking his neck, Lucas left the estate and went to greet their partners.
The moment he was alone, flying towards the incoming group, that nasty feeling appeared again. It kept him in a chokehold for some reason, as if he made a major mistake, a failure that blotched his clean record.
He didn't know what it was, after all the years planning it out in the temple, he felt like he achieved his goal in the most efficient way possible. Yet he couldn't help but think of her when Augustinus questioned him.
The queen of the Kingdom of Elise, she was shrewd, a master schemer, outwitting him with effortless ease. Despite her intelligence, she still held a single rule.
'If things go awry, run away and save yourself. Plans can be remade, people cannot.'
'Shut it, that woman had no idea what she was talking about, we were right back then and now.'
'Are we?'
'Are you doubting the both of us?'
'No, it's just... what's that stupid feeling?'
'We'll get over it, we just need to fight more.'
'...'
Lucas thought he was convinced his methods were the correct ones. To truly achieve the results they need within a year, the scheme he thought up was the most certain one. If there was one where he didn't need to get his hands dirty, sure, that would be better, but he couldn't think of it.
Should he hate himself for not being smart enough to come up with a different plan? Or should he abandon his ideas and start from scratch? No, Asta even said it was an extremely terrible plan with fantastic success rates, there was no need to think twice about it.