As the fireball hit the cocoon, a deafening explosion resounded in the air and the sound of the explosion was strong enough that it created tiny ripples in the air. Everything was shrouded in smoke of the fireball's explosion and the cocoon seemed to disappear in it, not knowing where it went.
Daniyal and novias, both of them were blinded by the smoke, and they were not able to look at the cocoon. They were coughing out loud because the smoke had gotten inside their lungs through their nose.
*cough cough*
As the smoke cleared and Daniyal regained his ability to see once again, he immediately threw balls of holy light in hopes of hitting Novias, but it seemed that he had underestimated the power and intelligence of the grand mage too much, because in the next moment, another fireball appeared out of somewhere and struck Daniyal from behind! Daniyal was not expecting it, so he was caught unprepared and suffered the full brunt of the fireball once again and this time, it was more brutal than before, as he didn't have enough mana to cast that high-level healing skill this time thus, he was doomed! And to add insult to injury, the fireball had a strange effect this time. Instead of fizzling out of existence like it was supposed to do, it remained stuck on Daniyal's body, not going out and continued to burn his skin horribly.
He cried out in agony; the pain was really unlike he had ever felt before. He could feel his skin melting and even his bones were melting but somehow, he was being healed continually and damaged again. It was a never-ending cycle of torture which didn't seem to be ending for him.
Novias finally stepped out of the smoke, looking uninjured and unaffected by the smoke. He was smiling from ear to ear, like he has just eaten the most delicious thing in the world for the first time in centuries. He first glanced at Daniyal and after seeing his state, he had a smile on his face once more, like what he wanted has happened! It was one of the greatest joys in Novius's life to see the strategy he had put in action work against a powerful enemy and now, he had captured the fish without losing the bait in the process!
"aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Please stop! My holy order will f***ing tear you apart, just you wait, wretch!" Daniyal's begging and curses were ignored by the village chief as he looked towards the place where the cocoon should have been but it seemed that it wasn't there anymore.
Originally, Novias believed the cocoon to be one of the experiments of the holy order on a creature because the holy order, despite being one of the major organizations in the world for using holy magic, were also notorious for doing experiments on the bodies of living creatures but this had no direct proof and was only a theory without an evidence to back it up but now, after seeing the cocoon, Novias believed all those theories to be true and now, Someone had managed to trick him for the first time in his life of over a hundred-years, and not only they had tricked him, but also ensured that no blame would come to them and instead, there pon, Daniyal was to suffer all the blame while they enjoy their reward while still being in the shadows.
Novias spread out his senses in different directions to locate strong presences of life nearby or to find the cocoon. As an A rank grand mage, he possessed some heaven defying abilities and his spiritual sense was his favorite among them. This ability allowed him to view farther distances where his eyes could not reach while ensuring that no one weaker than him managed to knew about it without some ancient artifact but artifacts like these were quite rare to say the least and it wasn't easy to acquire them in the first place.
Despite spreading his senses all over the village, Novias was unable to find anything or anyone so after taking a large frustrated sigh, he looked at Daniyal which was writhing in flames while still burning and scoffed at him for the umpteenth time before capturing him and trapping him into a dungeon for the time being. It was more important to find the cocoon. It's presence was unknown and he didn't want to risk anything which might come out of it. It was very much necessary in order to protect the peace of the village. He could not risk another war like which ended sometimes ago.
As he was about to leave, his eyes fell on to the Floor nearby and there were some things littered on the floor. after thinking for a while, he decided to pick them anyway while thinking about a young man who he could reward with these things for his contribution to the villages protection.