Chapter 397
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Chapter 397: Prelude to the Fire Festival
In two more days, it will be the Fire Festival. Jesse came out of the basement and walked to the Mage Tower in the evening. He saw colorful ribbons floating in front of the shops, like a sunset, and realized that the summer festival was approaching.
Coming back from Duskwood, he was busy for two weeks, juggling between classes and the basement. Although he couldn’t practice The Hand of Gul’dan, using the Shadow Shield spell to improve his emotional control was helpful.
He couldn’t exactly explain what he had discovered, but now he could maintain that spell for nearly ten seconds.
However, because he was too focused on practicing, he even forgot about the passing of time.
The midsummer Fire Festival starts on June 21st and lasts for two weeks. This festival has a long history, and people hold it in high regard.
Many races believe that fire can dispel ancient evils, and long ago, they would choose a Fire Guardian to lead a grand Holy Fire ceremony to bless the safety of the coming year.
Of course, nowadays the Fire Guardian, like Winter Veil’s Grandfather Winter, has become part of the celebratory activities and no longer carries the strong religious significance of centuries past.
Even though the Fire Festival hasn’t officially begun, the festival atmosphere is already present.
While passing through the garden, Jesse saw a mage completely transform into a fire person and dance under the tower. Many young mages watched nearby, some admiring his control over fire elements, others appreciating his powerful movements and rhythmic dance, intensified by the flames.
At this moment, the whole garden became much livelier due to this impromptu performance.
It must be said that Jesse was quite envious of this guy’s control over the flames. These flames were definitely not some street magicians’ tricks. Jesse noticed that even though the mage was performing on a stone road, the grass growing in the cracks under his feet had already turned yellow from the flames coming out of him.
Maybe this guy was directing a burning spell on himself while using a powerful Fire Protection Barrier to protect himself. Jesse could only guess like this. However, with his knowledge of fire magic skills, he couldn’t figure out how this guy was doing it at all.
In the crowd, there were many apprentice mages, and even official mages. It was clear that everyone was amazed.
Not long after, Jesse smelled a strange odor. The smell was not very noticeable, but it kept passing by Jesse’s senses from time to time. Was it an illusion caused by practicing the Shadow Shield spell?
No, this was not the smell of shadows.
He gradually began to forget about the performance in front of him and focused on this smell. Specifically, it was a burnt smell.
It was not the smell of burnt clothes or hair, but a very peculiar stench, a sulfuric smell, a demonic smell!
A demon from the Mage Quarter?
He didn’t bring Molofeel or Saenor here, and when they were hiding carefully, they wouldn’t emit this smell.
Jesse looked around, focused on using his ability to Detect Demon, wondering if someone from The Slaughtered Lamb summoned an imp here.
However, he couldn’t see any demons around, no suspicious shadows at all.
So, where did this bad smell come from?
The mage in front of him paused his performance, seeming to prepare for the next dance, but the fire still burned on him.
Can’t anyone else here smell it? Only he felt it?
"Wait… help!"
The mage suddenly shouted, frantically patting the flames on his body, the magic seemed to be completely out of control!
At that moment, an elder mage in the crowd shouted a spell, a small ice storm immediately enveloped the burning mage, the flames dimmed instantly. Just as Jesse was starting to relax, the fire suddenly swelled up again, but this time, it wasn’t ordinary fire anymore, it turned into a green flame!
Even though the dark fire suddenly burst and was immediately extinguished by the ice storm, it still startled everyone present. What happened?!
The older mage helped the drenched and injured Fire Mage up. It seemed that due to the timely rescue and the Fire Protection Barrier not being completely destroyed, there didn’t seem to be any serious burns. The older mage muttered quietly, "Master Dumas… I don’t know why…"
"Make way for this injured person!" Magino Zhemar looked at the onlookers and said, "The Wizard’s Sanctum will immediately investigate this matter."
Why did the dark fire appear? And why was it such a pure green flame of fel magic? Jesse had only occasionally seen it on top of an imp’s head. Even the flames ignited by their fel magic didn’t look as green as this. It still appeared like regular fire.
Jesse didn’t notice any demons nearby, but there was definitely an unsettling smell in the air.
The crowd dispersed under the urging of the Battle Mage guards. He knocked on the door of Malin’s study but found Malin wasn’t there.
Looking back in the direction he came from, he felt that this had nothing to do with the warlocks at The Slaughtered Lamb. After all, the chances of them conjuring such a pure evil fire were slim.
Leaving the Mage Quarter and heading home, he noticed from the canal that there seemed to be a black smoke rising from Old Town in the distance.
He remembered the occasional fires in the city during last year’s Fire Festival.
But Jesse couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not quite right with the black smoke, especially with the strange smell lingering in the air from time to time.
Also, it wasn’t even time for the Fire Festival yet, so why were all the people in the city getting so excited?
Some Stormwind Guards rushed past on the street, heading urgently towards the gates leading to the trade district, while curious onlookers watched them go by.
The city was starting to feel increasingly hot at the moment, and the strange smell Jesse had noticed in the Mage Quarter earlier didn’t seem as clear now.
Upon returning home and opening the door, Saenor was unexpectedly leaning out of the window staring outside. Jesse immediately whispered, "Are you crazy? Get down quickly, what if someone sees you?"
"Master, don’t you feel it?" imp turned around and jumped off the table, saying, "Both me and your companion Molofeel can sense it."
"You mean, the smell of demons." Jesse said, "I can smell it. What do you think, could there be demons causing trouble in Stormwind?"
Molofeel shook his head and said, "I can’t sense any traces of demons. The scent of fel magic is too diluted, it seems to be everywhere but too weak to be the deliberate work of a specific demon."
"Regardless, the Wizard’s Sanctum is already investigating. We’ll find out when we go to the Mage Quarter tomorrow," Jesse said.
