Chapter 309: Underground Cave
Looking at the deeply moved Kraft before her, Flamme didn't want to continue the conversation; all she wanted now was to find Carlo as soon as possible.
But then a thought struck her, and she asked urgently, "Excuse me, Lord Kraft, have you ever met a magician named Carlo?"
"Carlo? If...it's not just a coincidence of names, then I have indeed seen someone like him. He wore glasses, looked quite thin, and had black hair that gradually turned white."
Upon learning that Kraft had news of Carlo, Flamme was first surprised, then curious why his hair had changed color so dramatically.
But without a doubt, the Carlo that Kraft mentioned was the one she was searching for.
She suppressed her anxiety and maintained a calm demeanor. "Do you know where he is now?"
Although Flamme had tried her best to maintain a calm demeanor, Kraft was no ordinary person. He could naturally sense the hint of urgency and desperation hidden beneath the calm surface.
However, he had no penchant for prying into other people's privacy, so he nodded and pointed to the misty mountains in the distance: "Just yesterday, while patrolling near a canyon there, I encountered a reconnaissance team composed of humans and dwarves, including a mage named Carlo."
"They had received orders to investigate a recently discovered cave deep within the canyon, suspected of harboring demonic activity."
I finally found him!
Without further delay, Flamme quickly thanked Kraft with genuine gratitude and immediately cast a flight spell, transforming into a streak of light and speeding towards the canyon in desperate haste.
She must find Carlo as soon as possible, before he causes even more trouble or reveals secrets he shouldn't.
Kraft watched her retreating figure disappear into the distance, a thoughtful glint in his ancient eyes, but in the end, he shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
Flamme flew at full speed, while pondering Carlo's motives during this urgent journey.
The other party actually joined the reconnaissance team? This is unlike his usual style of being engrossed in solitary research.
Even if he wanted to study magic that absorbs the life force of demons, he should have done so in a safer location on the battlefield. But reconnaissance teams are highly likely to confront demons head-on in direct combat.
What exactly does he want to do? An ominous premonition crept in, spurring her to speed up even more.
Using the speed of her flying magic, Flamme quickly arrived at the canyon, and based on the rough directions provided by Kraft, she soon found the so-called cave entrance.
However, it was not a simple cave, but an enormous entrance that looked like a crack in the mountain itself.
Especially after Flamme went in and advanced a distance, she discovered some clear signs of battle. It was evident that Carlo's squad had already fought with the demons here.
Flamme's unease deepened considerably.
She tried to unleash her detection magic, but a strange force inside the cave seemed to interfere, rendering her perception useless.
The detection magic that could originally be easily extended to hundreds of meters can now only be extended to a hundred meters away. Although Flamme can fill the magic effect to increase its range, it comes at the cost of a rapid depletion of magic power.
Let's keep going!
Flamme gritted her teeth, deciding to continue forward a while before using her detection magic. After all, the cave wasn't that big; she didn't believe Carlo could have run off anywhere!
With the aid of magical light, she cautiously ventured deeper into the darkness ahead.
However, as she delved deeper, Flamme truly realized the vast scope and complexity of the place.
This is not a cave at all, but an incredibly vast underground labyrinth!
Countless branching paths crisscross like a spider web, some even having upper and lower levels. Although the occasional magical ore on the walls barely allows one to make out the paths, the place's complex structure is fully revealed.
Even the air was damp and chilly, clearly indicating that this underground labyrinth was connected to an underground river somewhere below.
Flamme tried to follow the trail, but the maze was too complex and the trail was intermittent, and she soon lost her way completely.
"There's no other way—" Flamme stopped in her tracks.
She took a deep breath, and a magic circle unfolded in front of her, unleashing a massive detection spell with concentrated force.
An invisible circle of magical energy spread out, encompassing both the upper and lower levels of the labyrinth, sensing all entities within its range that possessed magical energy fluctuations.
This was a large-scale spell that consumed a great deal of magic and easily revealed the caster's identity to nearby watchers, but Flamme couldn't care less about that at the moment.
Buzz!
The magic returned a large amount of information.
In her perception, there were scattered magical points of light throughout the maze, while in a certain area deep below the maze, there were several relatively bright magical fluctuations, one of which carried a magical characteristic that she was familiar with.
Found it!
Flamme immediately locked onto that direction, and didn't even have time to look for a passage to get there. Instead, she chose the simplest and most effective method.
She used magic to blast open the rock beneath her feet, blasting anything in her way into dust, and forcefully approached Carlo's location at a rapid, straight-line distance, disregarding the consumption of magic power.
However, when she finally broke through all the obstacles and arrived at that area, she was stunned by what she saw.
This is a huge underground dome, with glowing minerals at the top providing a faint light source, and below is a bottomless abyss stretching into darkness.
A narrow natural stone bridge spans the abyss, connecting the two platforms precariously.
At this moment, on the stone bridge near Flamme, Carlo was facing away from her, surrounded by dozens of monsters along with several allied soldiers fighting desperately.
Carlo seemed to be casting a defensive spell; the light flickered, and he appeared to be struggling against the onslaught.
The moment Flamme appeared, a demon suddenly appeared and immediately launched a magic attack on Carlo without warning.
"Watch out!" Flamme cried out in alarm, and a beam of light shot out from her hand in an attempt to intercept it.
But it was too late!
Pfft!
The demon's attack caught Carlo completely off guard, leaving him no time to even unleash defensive magic.
He screamed in agony as the immense impact caused him to stumble and fall off the narrow stone bridge, plummeting into the abyss below without any way to stop himself.
"Damn it!!!"
Without a second thought, Flamme unleashed her magical power and cast a flight spell, following closely behind Carlo as she hurtled down into the abyss like a shooting star.
Although Carlo's death would perfectly achieve her goal, Flamme, out of guilt and responsibility, preferred to erase his memory instead.
With the wind whistling in her ears, Flamme pushed her speed to the limit and finally grabbed Carlo's clothes just before he was about to plunge into the dark water below.
However, the inertia of the fall was simply too great to overcome completely.
Thump! Thump!
The two of them crashed heavily into the underground lake, one after the other.
[End of Chapter]