Descending Into A Novel

Raymond stared at the ceiling. Wondering internally why he even felt this way.

He already told himself he wasn’t going to ruin his peaceful life, but each time. He caved in so easily. Each time, it always involved a certain other person.

Ellen.

If it weren’t for her new time-attunement. Raymond might have thought she was using her emotion Arts to control him. Except without her willpower-attunement, her Arts inherited from Killian were much weaker to the point they were unable to influence him as significantly.

He sighed, attracting a gaze from said person next to him.

This was the fifth sigh already.

She smiled, having someone like Raymond around was so much fun!

If it was the previous Ellen, she might have just gone on a mini (for lack of a better word) tantrum and destroyed a few things. But with Raymond around, she could suddenly do all the things she wanted to do now!

It was like restraining a bear for decades, before finally giving it an entire deer. She no longer had to hold herself back just to maintain her calm and composed image that others had of her.

Even if it was only one other person, being able to share secrets and act as crazy as she wanted felt really liberating!

And no one would care! Except for Raymond but that didn’t matter.

Happily swinging her arms back and forth, the two of them continued following the arrow. A magic tracking spell Raymond casted that would follow Leo’s blood.

And in order to obtain said blood, Raymond had to run onto stage invisible with a cloth and quickly dab up the few bloodstains on the floor.

He even bumped into someone accidentally, luckily since he was invisible. No one noticed, but it was still stressful.

He didn’t even feel this stressed compared to the time when he had accidentally proposed to someone during his travels. At least that one was just a misunderstanding that could be corrected, albeit it took a while to correct that mistake.

Following the arrow, Raymond pulled out his phone. Checking the map and the direction they were going.

His brows furrowed, "That’s strange...there’s no hospital in the direction we’re heading."

"Maybe they’re on an alternate route?"

With the thousands and thousands of people leaving the stadium early. Traffic was a mess so they couldn’t hail a cab, and Raymond couldn’t teleport and keep the tracking spell active so they had to walk the whole way.

"Maybe. But they haven’t moved in a while."

Just then, the arrow abruptly changed directions. Turning a perfect ninety degrees, then another, then another. Before just vanishing into thin air.

He stared at where the arrow used to be. Sure the tracking spell wasn’t the best that he could use, but it should still have been able to keep up with individuals teleporting or moving at high speeds.

The only explanation was that he had moved somewhere isolated such as a different realm, or the more likely explanation.

"His whereabouts are being hidden."

Well, it didn’t actually matter all that much.

The tracking spell was still accurate after all, they just had to follow the directiok or was going in all the same.

So they walked and walked and walked.

The City of New Rayan was really big, so they got to experience some beautiful sights along the way.

Like a massive billboard advertisement, and more advertisements.

Seriously what was up with the copious amount of advertising? There was even an entire square called Era Square which was literally just advertisements everywhere. With hundreds of people just staring in awe.

Its resemblance to a certain place on Earth was uncanny. Although Raymond had never actually been there. He figured this was pretty similar.

Arriving near the outskirts of New Rayan, they approached the wall that covered it. Protecting the city from the monsters outside.

The distance between cities was vast after all, they couldn’t rely on reinforcements from others for protection especially when New Rayan was the flagship city for the Grace Family.

With how much money flowed in New Rayan, the wall the protected them was equally as spectacular.

Technology on Terra relied on mana the same way Earth relied on electricity, even when things looked and functioned basically the same. The inner workings were very different.

But mana and electricity were vastly different sources of energy, and this wall showcased some of the peak that magic technology could reach.

Standing at an astounding 50 meters and being as thick as ten, the entire wall constantly sapped the mana from its environments to power itself. Countless spells working around the clock to ward off any monster nearby, as well as serve to protect what was within. Grace Family retainers patrolling across the wall, armed with some of the latest technology themselves.

This wasn’t even the full capabilities, when the third Human-Demon war kicked off and the city of New Rayan fell under siege, the wall alone was responsible for keeping it standing all the way to the end.

It was even more well defended then the capital, so the higher property prices here were definitely justified.

Approaching the wall, Ellen put her hand onto a certain section of the wall. Before balling her hand into a fist and punching a hole right into the peak of magical technology.

"...how did you even know it was there?"

"This wall is strong enough that I can’t see any weaknesses for it at my current level. Except for this spot right here."

Her eyes glimmered, a sign of her innate powers at work. Which sign always such a cheat code.

He mentally added a note to try and find or create a spell that did the same. Because even with all his years of learning magic, he still didn’t know every basic spell. There was just way too many.

The insides of the wall didn’t reveal much, with the only lights being the several pulsing pathways of mana. Not that either of them really needed light to see.

With his staff in hand and her bow in hers. The two of them turned to the same direction and raised their weapons.

"Freeze ray!"

"River Crossing!"

Two beams of gold and blue fired out of their weapons.

Flying through the darkness of the wall insides, a faint clang could be heard as they collided somewhere much further down then expected.

Silence.

A man walked out of the darkness, holding a lantern in one hand and raising the other.

"You guys just attack immediately? You don’t even try to talk first to see whether we’re friendly or not?"

"Are you friendly then?"

"Depends. Are you here for Leo?"

"Yes."

He shook his head.

"Sorry but we need him for the moment. We won’t hurt him or anything, but we really need the money you see."

Ellen stared at the man, with his current level. It should have been a cakewalk for him to knock them out and move them elsewhere. Yet he chose to just remain and talk with them instead.

Also, that outfit he was wearing looked awfully familiar...

"Red Ghost?"

"Close! I’m not the Red Ghost but I am part or his crew. He told us to try and get you to leave without revealing our identity but it’s a load of bul-

"What are you doing here? You should be in the Demonic Continent now."

He raised an eyebrow at her question.

"Miss, we may be thieves but calling us demonic contractors is too far."

"That’s not what I meant. Why are you here?"

Knowing that it was only Red Ghost and his crew soothed Ellen, but it also brought up a problem.

They shouldn’t be here.

According to the timeline, after the failed government vault heist. They had decided to take on a new contract to rescue a settlement of humans on the demonic continent. Since a lot of humans still resided on the demonic continent, stuck and fighting for survival each day.

Even if they had cancelled the heist after her warning then of a traitor, they should still have taken the same contract.

Red Ghost and his crew rescuing this settlement was what caused them to gain their fame, at which point they would be officially pardoned for their crimes and would be joined by a new member.

Denver Shaw.

The individual who would soon become humanity’s newest SS-rank.

"We’re criminals, why else would we be here? For the money of course!"

What was supposed to be a regular trip for a concert had just shown Ellen the unfortunate butterfly effect of her own actions.

Since Denver and Red Ghost would soon become extremely close, she had figured getting Red Ghost to owe her a favor would be the same as getting a favor from Denver. It didn’t seem likely to alter the future too badly either. Since the heist was destined to fail no matter what.

She narrowed her eyes. "Take me to where Red Ghost is."

She needed to see the man for herself.