In the morning they packed up to leave but the temperature had dropped significantly from the previous day causing everyone to change from the normal robes they were to ones that were suited for the cold. This applied to everyone except Alrin who still wore his signature red cloak being much more resistant to the cold.
If they were only going to be in the cold for a short time using Sencia would easily alleviate the problems but doing that while also using the energy to run a long distance when their was to hunt down a fiend was just too much of a waste of energy. The only exception to this was Alara.
"This sucks if only I had the energy to fly there." Rex complained before leaving.
"Ascend and you can." Vera replied.
"Yeah right I won't settle for being some low tier immortal." Rex laughed.
"Then actually spend your time cultivating so you can get to 9 cores" Edward said.
"Whats your excuse then?" Rex snapped back.
"Alright lets stop wasting time and go." Vera said and they took off.
Hours later the sight of the town finally appeared from what they knew the town had around a 1000 people living in it. Looking at it Vera believed their was a good chance the fiend was still here and had not continued to run after being injured and chose to hide among ordinary mortals.
"They're here." Alrin said as they arrived within the vicinity of the town.
"I suspected as much but how are you so sure?" Vera asked.
"The scent, the sensation of the evil energy that is pervading throughout this entire place I can guarantee a fiend is here." Alrin said calmly but they could feel the rage he held back as he spoke.
"Can you track him down." Vera asked
"No the entire place is covered in energy of the demonic path. He most likely aims to use the lives of everyone here as a sacrifice." Alrin said as they arrived at the entrance to the town.
Hearing this Vera fell into thought since she did not have the same abilities as Alrin before asking, "Based on what I know these rituals take time are you able to estimate how far along it is?" she asked.
"Not much I've experienced one before and this one is close to completion." Alrin said
"Fuck…Alara can you track him." Vera asked.
"Doubtful he will likely keep his cultivation sealed until his ritual is complete but if he is only suppressing it I will be able to tell if I get close enough."
"This has become a problem and the elders won't interfere unless another immortal does damned natural laws. Rex this ritual must be conducted through the work of a formation you are gonna have discover the core of it."
"Easier said than done do you know how many possible ways their are to hide the core of a formation. It would be one thing if it were directly effecting me or we got here before the Sencia became distorted but now its gonna be hard." Rex said now that they were within the town he could feel how distorted the Sencia had become. "But I can at least disrupt it and slow down the process."
"Good for now Rex take Edward and do whatever you can to slow down his ritual the three of us will go talk to the mayor and the search the town after. If something does happen alert me and focus on defending until we arrive." Vera decided
Walking though the town everything appeared quite normal other than the stares they received as outsiders.
After asking around they found the mayor's residence where they were greeted by an old man.
"Young immortals I apologize for not greeting you upon your arrival but such things are hard at my age." The old man said greeting them with a bow.
"No need for any apologies but I'd like it if you could provide us with information." Vera spoke.
"Of course but since you've just arrived would you like to talk over some tea, it is our specialty."
"We will do that but I'd also like you to have some refreshments sent to our 2 companions working in the town."
"Gladly." He said calling a servant over to have it all arranged.
While they were waiting for the tea Alrin decided to ask a question, "How old are you this year?"
"This year I turn 135."
"You never tried to cultivate?" Alara asked.
"When I was young every time Star Sect came to recruit I would try but I simply lacked the talent but I suppose that is fine I've enjoyed my life and have no regrets." He said looking at a picture of his family.
A few moments later a servant returned with the prepared tea as everyone took a seat.
The first to take a sip of the tea was Alrin. He had previously told them that he was immune to poisons which was true in a sense and that if they were to be offered any food or drinks he would try them first as a precaution.
"The tea is delicious." Alrin said indicating the other two they could drink.
"Thank you it was my wife's favorite." The mayor said once again looking at the picture he kept
"We will definitely have to buy some before we leave but lets speak about the important matters first." Vera said.
"Please ask I'll answer anything I can."
"I'll be blunt we suspect a fiend is here so in the past few weeks have any visitors come by in the past few weeks."
"No we seldom get any visitors this time of year. The most recent visitor that I know of was at least two months ago and she has since left."
"Has anything unusual happened recently such as disappearances or unusual deaths?"
"No unusual deaths but we do have people occasionally disappearing this time of year but I haven't received word of any recent disappearances."
"I see that will make this more difficult then. For now I recommend telling people their is a wild beast roaming around and to stay within their homes." Vera said.
"Is there anything else I can do?"
"Prepare a place for 5 of us to stay for now we will take a look around to see if we can find anything." Vera said before finishing her tea.
Walking through the town the three didn't see many people out and about due to it being the middle of winter. After walking around for a few hours and talking to some of the townsfolk they didn't come across any clues.
"Looks like this is gonna take longer than you thought." Alara said to Vera as the sun began setting.
"Seems like it will. lets go meet of with Edwards and Rex." Vera said.
"Hows the progress." Vera asked watching Rex draw a formation the ground.
"Half-done I still need a few hours." Rex replied as he finished up the formation at the edge of town.
"Alright you will have to finish tomorrow I don't want us separated at night." Vera said.
"It would be better If I finish otherwise its basically useless." He replied.
"I wouldn't recommend that I've been feeling something is off here and its been getting stronger since the sunset."Alara interjected.
"I hear something." Alrin suddenly spoke.
"From where." Vera asked.
Alrin pointed in the direction of the woods. Only a few moments later they were being besieged by a pack of wolves totaling almost 100. More accurately these wolves were shades taking the form of wolves.
Alrin having already been prepared summoned his greatsword and charged foreward to slow down the pack but even if his swings could take out multiple at once he couldn't stop them all. Knowing that he couldn't do anything to stop them all he chose to focus on the ones in front of him. In doing so he chose not to dodge and take the hits head on and while he wasn't taking much damage from the shade wolves he could feel his energy being drained every time he was hit.
Seeing the incoming shade wolves Edward quickly summoned his black sword and swung it taking out even more than Alrin with with each slash but unlike Alrin Edward had to dodge each attack.
Just behind the other two was Rex and his method of attack was much different than Alrin and Edward. The formations Rex had tattooed all over his body began to glow with each having it own distinct color but not only that each formation began to slither off his body into the ground around them. One of them provided a barrier over Alara and Vera while the others provided various debuffs to the beasts such as disorienting them. The most dangerous was one of the formation slithered into the air entrapping over a dozen beasts and using the energy that beasts expended in trying to escape to fuel the formation further entrapping them.
Behind them Vera summoned a gold flame and shot a massive fireball at the swarm of shade wolves still incoming. As an alchemist Vera had mastered the use of many flames in her attainment of alchemy and this was one of them. This gold flame had purifying effects and was often used when creating pills to cure curses. Because of this each of the shade wolves were being destroyed while none of them had to worry about being hurt by it as it would only feel cool to them.
Lastly behind everyone Alara began summoning countless white lotus petals that began to light up the dark night. This attack was something she couldn't easily use alone as it required time build up the lotus petals but after a few minutes she had created enough as they began to rain down upon the shade wolves. Once the attack was finished not a single one was left.
"It seems like they were just testing us." Alara said
"Fuck he should have just come out himself if he wanted to test us." Rex said
"For now we will rest for the night. Alara you're confident in being able to monitor the town?" Vera asked
"It's fine I can easily handle something like at this level."
"Good in the worst case scenario we will have to evacuate the town."
With that said the five of them returned to their lodging. Sitting outside the house Alara was guarded by the other four as she began creating entire lotuses instead of just the petals this time. The hundreds lotuses flew all over the town landing and fading into the snow as if they were never there. Through the lotuses she could monitor the entire town but using it would prevent her from doing much else leaving her weakened.
"All done." Alara said opening her eyes and floating up to stand.
"You're sure you won't run out of Sencia doing this all night?" Vera asked slightly worried about her well-being.
"Have you forgotten who I am if I can't do it then its simply not possible." She said sounding extremely arrogant but she wasn't wrong.
"Yeah yeah, I forgot how arrogant you can get." Vera said with a smile.
***
Inside a small house a man got up in the middle of the night. Getting out of bed he was careful not to wake up his wife. Exiting his room he went towards the room of his daughter and after confirm she was asleep he pulled out a small orb like object and put it on her forehead. Once it made contact with her forehead it melted into her body disappearing as if nothing happened.
With that done he began looking outside their the window at the ground. He was not looking at the lotuses Alara left though he was able to see them no he was looking further under snow and deep into the ground were hundreds of small formation working in tandem creating what is known as an organic formation.
After confirming the formation was fully intact he smiled despite thinking about how after so many years of hard work he would finally be able to ascend into immortality as long as he dealt with a few Star Sect disciples.