Chapter 124
"...I don't know... I don't know..."
"Don't cry, don't cry!" Virgil frantically searched all over himself but couldn't find a handkerchief. "Don't cry, I was just asking! I won't abandon you! After all, I brought you here. Don't cry, don't cry, be good..."
"Xerath is going to die, right? You said it yourself, you think she's going to die, right?"
"No, no, no, I didn't say that. Maybe she still has a chance. She's an archmage! She has so much knowledge in her..." Lightning flashed intensively from all directions, each strike in front of them made their hearts race. While Virgil looked back towards the tower to adjust their direction, he commanded Leunen to stand up. The water lord turned into an eight-yard-high flagpole, with a crooked wire at the top and a thin chain dragging on the sandy ground, bouncing up and down as they moved at high speed.
The first lightning struck the "tip" of Leunen, it screamed, but then came the second, third, fourth... bolts of lightning, sticking to its body. The entire electrical grid even moved along with it. Sylas looked at it worriedly, but it swung one of its tentacles and said it was fine.
Virgil warned her, "Don't get too close to it, but also don't stay too far. Oh my, I feel like the storm is crawling back..."
He looked up at the sky. The core that had just turned in the northwest slowly turned back. The dark clouds kept releasing lightning, not only towards the ground, but its tentacles were reaching everywhere.
The thunder kept roaring like an avalanche as the lightning became more and more intense. Leunen had to slow down, and they had to slow down too. They watched as the storm core turned past the westerly belt and hovered back and forth in a certain place.
Virgil couldn't help but stop his horse. The wasteland in front of them was filled with wandering Sons of the Wind and cloud formations. They fought each other, with lightning flashing back and forth, crackling.
The storm core continued to shake. Although there was no solid evidence, both Virgil and Sylas had a faint feeling that it was searching for Xerath. The more they delayed, the closer the storm core would get to Xerath. Their chances of seeing her again became more and more uncertain. Each pause in the sand made Sylas feel even more anxious.
"Virgil...! Can't we, can't we fly over there?"
"That... that's very dangerous! We don't know what might fall from the sky! Also, how will Leunen get over here?"
"But Leunen is a water lord, don't worry about it! Virgil! I will deal with the wind!" Dvořák had no objections. It took a few steps back, flapped its wings, accelerated, and finally took off. Sylas gave it a "feather" and called the wind to blow on its back. Pegasus leaped through this unrestful area at a speed as fast as the wind.
Virgil shouted loudly, "Going out with the magician is so exciting!"
"Bad news is coming!" Sylas sat obediently in his arms, with tears still wet on her face, but her eyes stared steadfastly at the sky above. Virgil looked over and could only see a gray sky without any signs of unusual things.
"What's wrong?"
Suddenly, he noticed a change in the swirling clouds. It wasn't until the clouds were almost reaching the top of their heads that he realized what it was. Dvořák flapped its wings vigorously and kept screeching. Virgil said, "It has noticed a change in the surroundings of Lucky Point, Sylas?!" He anxiously grabbed Sylas's shoulder and asked the little girl.
Virgil was just a hunter, and of course, he could tell that it was a tornado forming, but he had no way to deal with it!
Sylas continued to look at the sky, raising both hands and writing golden light in the air.
The bright silver eyes were still intimidating, as if they would float above them soon. Virgil suddenly noticed that the "eyes" seemed to be crying, continuously dripping silver tears.
"'The Wind within the Wind...'"
Virgil was startled by the expression on the little girl's face. It was the first time he saw Sylas casting a spell with such a serious expression. He knew she was Xerath's star pupil, but he didn't know that their expressions during spellcasting were so similar.
"I hope you...
The wind around started swirling anxiously, and the range of the swirling grew bigger as each word popped out of her mouth. The Son of the Wind, who were fighting each other, also got disturbed and shook their bodies. They decided to join the whirlwind and left their fight behind.
"Leave this place...
The wind column began to rise, and even sand mixed into it. The surroundings became blurry, and a large wind column wrapped around the blurry and swirling end of a tornado above their heads. The two opposing vortexes fiercely collided and wrestled with each other. The wind inside the tornado, which was aimlessly hitting everything, got scared by the disciplined group below and slowed down its speed.
"Never turn back...
The golden flame spread into the wind, carried by the strong swirling winds on the outskirts. It roared and dispersed several tornadoes coming down from above, even creating a gap in the clouds. The swirling winds collided and made a tremendous noise of destruction. But in the storm, this noise was just slightly louder.
The roaring winds collided and then rebounded in the opposite direction. Although they became disorderly again and lost much of their power, Dvořák, who couldn't fold its wings in time, was heavily slapped down by the wind. Luckily, it saw the "Lucky Point" and flapped its wings to dash forward, successfully saving itself with a running start.
The surrounding swirling winds and Sons of the Wind were blown around as if they were being harvested. The large tornadoes that had rebounded knocked them out of balance, and they lost their vitality one after another. Some were even sucked back to the Elemental Realm by the silently appearing crack of elements. The surroundings became clean and Pegasus felt a bit uncomfortable.
But the most important change wasn't on the ground. Virgil still looked up as Sylas's Exile Spell made the wind cheerfully race to the sky. Apart from the part that had just been rebounded, more "wind" soared directly into the sky because of her driving force. The heavy cloud layer was shattered by invisible airflow and instantly dissipated, leaving only a bright blue void.
The clouds were very, very thick, so thick that they were like frogs at the bottom of a well.
The glaring sunlight shone down from above, and Virgil quickly covered Sylas with a cloak, while putting on goggles to protect his own eyes.
The sky was still continuously changing, and based on Virgil's experience, such a large-scale spell would cause even more "unpredictable" changes. The black clouds above their heads, like the walls of a well, were rapidly collapsing and spinning. It seemed that the high-altitude vortex was still not stopping, so...
He couldn't help but glance at the storm's core in the distance, with silver tears dripping from it. It had become even more terrifying, like a monster suddenly lifting its head. The "eye" of the core really looked like an eye, staring at them and reaching out its claws, as if it was about to crawl over. All the lightning emanating from beneath its huge body suddenly changed direction, stretching towards the newly formed whirlwind, as if trying to grab hold of it.
It was spine-chilling. The monster's location was just ahead, but Xerath was there as well. That was why Sylas eagerly crawled out from under Virgil's cloak and urged Dvořák, "Quick, let's go!"
Pegasus neighed: Pegasus is very busy! It's quite a brain teaser to find a safe path in Lucky Point. It only had a few bites of peas, so it's not full yet!
In the end, it chose a route that seemed the luckiest, even though it would ultimately lead to an area with a high overall danger level. But Pegasus still accelerated and rushed forward. Sylas said to Virgil on the horse, "You don't have to come with me."
"Don't be silly! It's safest to follow Pegasus!"
They left the sunny area behind, but the well above their heads seemed to be experiencing intense turbulence. In the high altitude, the "wind" was rolling freely in unobstructed places, and the cloud layers also changed their speed and direction due to new vortexes. The activity here was too high, to the point that the mature core abandoned Xerath and crawled towards them.
The lightning was flashing above, and everything around suddenly became bright. It was getting closer to the wind tunnel.
"Dvořák! Can we go left? There's a tailwind over there!" Sylas yelled, grabbing Pegasus' ears in the chaotic airflow.
Pegasus snorted unhappily, but surprisingly obeyed and changed direction to the left. The speed increased instantly. Virgil stared at the core, which was still dropping silver tears without stopping, and thought, "Please don't have any accidents. Otherwise, there will be another elemental chaos. Perhaps my reputation will be buried silently in the desert."
His worries were soon proven unnecessary. A golden flame rose like a pillar, piercing through the shiny silver "eye." The weakened monster quickly deflated.
The highly concentrated wind core disappeared, and the lightning stopped. The thunder ceased, and the storm seemed frozen.
The wind, once bound by its power, broke free and fled in all directions. The clouds were being pushed back by the turbulence. Dvořák suddenly knelt down, folding its wings over its head and enveloping the two foolish and ignorant humans. Virgil realized what was happening when he felt the weight of its wings pressing down on him. He quickly used his cloak to protect Sylas as well.
The pressure of the wind was felt almost instantly. Even though they were heavily protected, Virgil couldn't help but tightly shut his eyes. The chaotic clouds, winds, and sand wildly swayed and trembled. The wind pressure didn't just come from the front. It kept changing, sometimes from the left, sometimes from behind, and sometimes directly from above. His cloak was torn, and Dvořák's feathers were probably not looking good either.
He felt "heat" more than brightness. It was the direct warmth of the sun on his body. He shook off his cloak and removed the hand covering Sylas's eyes. He said to her, "The wind has stopped."
The wind ceased, and after the strong wind, there were only mischievous breezes around, pretending not to know what had just happened (perhaps forgetting). Dvořák stood up, snorted, shook its nose, and ran forward.
Under the blue sky, the white sand stretched endlessly. Even Virgil didn't know why Dvořák was running in this direction. Without the wind core to guide him, it was difficult for him to determine where Xerath was.
Dvořák gradually entered a strange area. There were a lot of quartz crystals on the ground, which were solidified transparent crystals formed after the sand melted. Needless to say, he knew they were the "tears" of the wind core. The scenery not far away was slightly distorted due to the heat. Dvořák approached closer, and Sylas suddenly shouted, "It's Xerath! Dvořák! Faster!"
