You have been invited to a team by Katarina.
For the last time, Ray observed his clone that slept in his bed. Jade's magic had made the perfect clone; unless someone wanted to see its system, no one could recognize him.
"I accept."
From within his soul, a portal devoured his body; in a blink, he stood somewhere else.
The ground was dark, pure black, with no light reflecting on it. "Obsidian stones—this must be a volcano territory." The sudden increase in temperature improved him too.
"I will fucking kill you."
The sudden scream roamed around the small cave that they were in; near the entrance, Katarina was fighting five other people at the same time.
No matter what they tried with their magic and weapons, nothing could land on her. With bare hands, she moved through them like a ghost, tearing apart the throats.
"Don't use your mind when fighting her." Ray yelled to the last man standing; with a bow in his hands, he fell on his knees upon seeing that she was not alone.
Not long, his corpse fell on the ground too.
"When fighting her, your biggest weapon becomes the greatest weakness. That alone makes her a terrifying monster." Even with their close relationship, Ray always had a plan to deal with her if things got messy.
Katarina had worn her usual white cloak, with her white hair open to dance in the air. Her lips licked the remaining blood on her hand. "I had missed this."
"What is your plan?"
"No one in here except Alice is a problem. Just kill anyone you see on your way."
With a surprised voice, Ray said, "Alice is here?"
"She is level 4 too, but I'm going to kill her myself again." In their previous life, Alice was her soulmate, yet in the end she sold her to the military.
"How about the monitor group?" Ray had tried to gather some information about who would be in the monitor team, but all of them were above his rank in the military.
Katariana pointed at a frozen eye in the sky; although it was well hidden, both of them could see it trying to break free from the ice around it, but all of its attempts ended in failure.
"That's eye magic; fooling is rather easy. Some of my thoughts will follow you to protect you."
"Who is my target?"
She laughed; it was always easy to work with Ray. "Cardinals of the underground. Both of them have strong mind defenses; after you kill them, tell me to come for the minds."
"Ok, send me the information."
After their small conversation, each of them went on their separate ways, with Ray's targets being near the core and Katarina's targets on the surface.
Ray flew through the small ways made in the stone; there was no point in hiding his magic, and no way of connecting the dungeons and earth existed.
"Hey man, why do you look so familiar?"
A team of two men yelled as they saw him coming their way.
Before they could speak again, both of their heads were on the ground. Ashbringer glowed in his hand. "There is no way I'm going to let Orcus's first blood be such scum."
No one expected for someone to attack them out of nowhere; as a result, even after his 10th team, there was no sign of fighting on his body.
"Alice noticed us; she probably waits for us to attack the underground."
Ray didn't respond to her; the chances of them getting away from Katarina's palm were so little.
"I have my own problems to focus on for now." And soon he faced his goal.
In a cave as big as a small village with rivers of magma on all sides, a big iron mansion was built in the middle of the cave.
Outside of it, ten people stood on guard, with weapons at hand.
Ray let go of his wings and walked close to the guards. "I want to pass here."
"Pay a dark crystal."
"So they are with the underground. What is their leader's magic? Iron or building?" Ray thought for a second and answered, "I don't have that."
"Then fuck off."
Ray turned around and returned the way he had come; after he got out of sight, his figure changed into a small blood bird.
With no sound, he flew to the cave again, but none of the guards noticed his existence.
"Gotta see how many people are there." Above their heads, Ray returned to his human form; with his wings, he landed on one of the guards.
Ashbringer had torn him into two pieces with a burst from its tip; other guards were burned to ashes. He didn't let the remaining ones react; one by one his blade found their throats.
"Whoever the owner of this mansion is, take this as my gift."
With that he teleported into his previous location; outside of the cave he saw twenty men coming out with a woman in the middle of them.
The woman first checked the corpses, and soon his eyes met Ray's eyes. The look on her face seemed more interested than most.
"She is one of the Cardinals, so where is the other one?" Underground troupes were not famous for working together.
They threw the bodies in magma rivers, with the rest of them returning to the mansion and five more standing on guard.
The bodies soon melted in the magma, with their smell reaching his nose.
"Not bad." Ray praised her in his mind: "Coming after me meant losing more men, and I can get into that mansion too."
After a minute of thinking, Ray decided to return to the tunnels, finding the other Cardinal first.
"The best should be kept for last."
Meanwhile, on the surface Liam grew more and more impatient. There was no sign of Marcus, and his magic seemed to fall apart.
Suddenly an idea came to his mind: "What if I make contact with the underground Cardinals?"