"Thank you for your help, Leader," Azeron, Elmyra, Lynera, and Kaerith spoke in unison.
"Return immediately to avoid the risk of a follow-up attack. If that happens, I won't be able to assist you as I am currently recovering," he said in a calm voice that commanded authority.
Elmyra exhaled in relief, her worries about their safety vanishing. "Finally, the threats are gone. If the Leader's voice projection hadn't arrived to warn him, we would have been killed by now."
"Hey, don't forget about me!"
Everyone turned toward Kaerith, who was still sprawled on the ground. He lifted his head slightly, grimacing in pain.
"I'm injured like this because Adverion attacked me. So, Elmyra, you still have enough magic energy to heal me, right?"
Elmyra had just taken a step closer when a hand tapped her shoulder.
"Don't," Azeron said casually.
Elmyra stopped. Azeron looked down at the fallen Kaerith with a flat, indifferent gaze.
"His wound isn't that severe. You'd better use your energy to look after Vaelryn."
Kaerith immediately raised his hand and pointed at Azeron in disbelief.
"Hey! Azeron!" he protested. "Vaelryn just needs rest and he'll be fine! But me—look at me! I just took a hit from someone who could even gravely wound the Vice-Leader!"
He thumped his chest dramatically.
"If I'm not in top condition, the mission Avelyra gave us could become much harder! And if the results aren't satisfying..." He swallowed hard. "...I might get punished by her."
Azeron stared at him for a few seconds… then let out a soft sigh.
"Which part did you expect us to believe?" he asked flatly. "The part about you being afraid of Avelyra?"
Several people around them stifled their laughter. Azeron crossed his arms.
"You've even defied her directly before. Everyone in this organization knows there are only two people you truly fear."
"The Leader… and the Vice-Leader."
Kaerith fell silent. Then, he slowly turned his face away.
"Fiuu~ fiuu~"
He began to whistle softly while staring at the distant trees, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
Azeron stared at him expressionlessly. "…You realize we're all still here, right?"
Instead of responding, Kaerith just kept whistling.
Elmyra sighed deeply. "Enough, you two, don't fight," she tried to mediate. "My magic energy is still enough to heal both Kaerith and Vaelryn."
Elmyra reached out her hand, emitting waves of pure emerald energy that healed the wound on Kaerith's abdomen and accelerated Vaelryn's recovery. "I told you he wasn't badly hurt," Azeron remarked after Elmyra used nearly all her remaining magic energy.
Elmyra panted, exhausted from depleting her reserves.
Kaerith then stood up. "Since I'm all healed, I'll head back to headquarters first." He suddenly leaped upward; the ground around him cracked, and as he reached a height of eight meters, his body stopped falling—he was hovering.
"Be careful on your way back, some of them might still be lurking around," he said with a mischievous grin.
Kaerith's body shot off at high speed, flying away toward the Black Dawn headquarters.
Azeron folded his arms, watching the departing figure. "That guy, he's always like that."
"Don't believe him," Azeron added casually. "They've all been cleared out; not a single one remains."
Elmyra looked around. "But how will we report this to the Leader and Vice-Leader?" she asked, confused.
Azeron raised his right hand. "Don't worry, I have the solution." A vortex formed in his palm, pulling small tokens from the corpses of the fallen sorcerer.
Azeron scanned the tokens briefly before tossing them aside. "There were 5,769 High-Level Sorcerer of Rank G, 2,009 of Rank E, 1,254 Early-Stage Rank D, and 624 Mid-Stage Rank D," he paused to take a breath. "259 Late-Stage Rank D, 68 Peak Rank D, and 17 Half-Step Rank C High-Level Sorcerer." He spoke casually, despite the death of so many powerful individuals.
Lynera, who had been listening, could only stare in disbelief. All of them were High-Level Sorcerer—beings of immense power. Meanwhile, Elmyra's reaction was plain; it seemed natural for someone capable of severely wounding the Vice-Leader of Black Dawn.
Elmyra then approached Vaelryn's body, leaning down to lift the unconscious man onto her back. She closed her eyes, and in an instant, her empty Golden Core began to rapidly refill, reaching one-third capacity.
Azeron walked toward Lynera and pulled her onto his back. "Hold on tight."
Magic energy began to swirl around them. Slowly, they lifted off and soared toward the Black Dawn headquarters, their hair whipping back against the rushing wind.
After flying for a while, Elmyra finally broke the silence. "By the way, how strong was the person who saved you, Lynera?"
"He was an A-Rank Low-Level Sorcerer," she answered.
"An A-Rank Low-Level Sorcerer? How could he remove the poison of an F-Rank High-Level Sorcerer? And what about his age?" Elmyra asked inquisitively.
"He used a special method to extract the poison from my body, and he is 15 years old," Lynera replied, though her face still showed confusion regarding that method.
Elmyra's expression turned serious. "It seems he isn't as simple as he looks."
A Low-Level Sorcerer with an A-rank being able to extract poison from a High-Level Sorcerer... In this world, sorcerer were divided into three levels: Low, Mid, and High, with each level further divided into ranks from G to S—
"Don't think that person is involved with them," Azeron's voice shattered Elmyra's train of thought. His gaze grew sharp. "The one who saved Lynera is from the Valerion Clan."
The pupils of Lynera and Elmyra shrank to the size of needles. "The Valerion Clan? Weren't they all slaughtered? Brother Azeron, don't make things up," Lynera said, her voice trembling.
"No," Azeron said in a low tone. "I'm not making this up."
Elmyra frowned. "If that's true, could he be persuaded to cooperate, or even join us?"
Azeron let out a long sigh. "I don't know. He has always walked his own path."
"Wait, you've investigated him this far already?" Kaerith's voice suddenly rang out from beside Azeron.
Startled by Kaerith's sudden appearance, Azeron instinctively kicked him, sending his body plummeting downward. "You! You scared me!" Azeron snapped irritably.
Kaerith's body shot downward diagonally at a speed Lynera's eyes couldn't track. When his body hit the ground, a loud crash echoed, sending birds scattering into the air.
"Weren't you two surprised by his arrival?" Azeron asked, slightly annoyed.
"He told me to stay quiet," Elmyra answered shortly.
"Brother Kaerith told me to stay quiet too," Lynera added from Azeron's back.