Chương 416: Chapter 415 – Help?

"Straus, why are you calling me?" The annoyance and disappointment in Damion's voice was evident, and he struggled to not immediately disconnect. Having spared the man's life was enough, he had no desire to interact with him.

"Disappointed I'm not that little blonde noble?" the former Justiciar teased.

"Unless you have something important, I'm disconnecting…"

"Wait. I need your help with something."

"And why would I help you?" asked Damion.

"For old times' sake. I found a challenging A Rank dungeon, but I can't manage the guardian on my own. But I think the two of us together can make it work."

"Why not call your Iblis friends? I'm sure they would be eager to help."

"Nah, they have rules about collapsing Realm Breaches, something about mana backlash on the planet. Besides, I thought we could do this together, you know, like how my men helped you with Phil." Damion was instantly alert at the mention of his familiar. The only interaction the Justiciar had with Phil was when they abducted it and then laid an ambush for him. Was Straus trying to say there was another ambush planned? Or was the knight trying to say he had been abducted?

"Why don't I find the Iblis first, I'm sure they can provide us with the support we would need for such a dangerous dungeon."

"You haven't made it to them yet?" Straus asked, worry filling his voice.

"I got sidetracked with a Realm Breach of my own."

"Don't bother going to them, just head back to where we ran into each other before, you should be able to follow the trail I left easily enough."

"Fine. I'll see you in a few days." Damion disconnected and then looked to Visneer. The Iblis was silently looking at the human, waiting for an explanation.

"Seems like Straus has gotten himself into some trouble," Damion told the Iblis.

"I gathered as much. But why did you say you had not found us?"

"Because of what he said about Phil. Phil is my bound familiar and Straus and his men set up an ambush after abducting it. I think he was trying to warn me that there is an ambush being set."

"And you did not mention having reached us, so whomever is setting the ambush would not expect you to bring allies."

"Precisely. Of course, that is assuming you are going to provide me with allies."

"You place me in a precarious position. Ardnet is not a military outpost. It is a city with strong defenses, but little in the way of offensive power." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"What about those warships that surrounded me?"

"The patrol ships we use to keep down the number of Demonic Beasts. They could be used offensively, but they are hardly discreet. If I sent one along, your ambusher would see and hear it from a great distance and your plan to ambush the ambusher would fail. They might even kill Straus just to make sure we do not learn their identity."

"I guess that leaves me going alone," Damion said. He thought Visneer valued him as a true mage and would offer support of some kind, but perhaps he was wrong. Damion was half in disbelief with himself that he was considering going and attempting to rescue Straus at all. After all, the man was not exactly an ally. He had already spared the knight's life, and he was not sure if it was worth it to risk his to save the former Justiciar. However, the question remained, who was out there?

Who even knew he was here that they would attempt this in the first place? Those were the questions Damion wanted answers to. Rescuing Straus was simply an unintended side effect of finding out who was after him this time.

"There is no need to go alone. Visault will go with you. Should the ones you encounter be too much for him, he can send me word and I will respond at once."

"You have an idea of who it is," it was not a question, Damion was sure Visneer did.

"The Alfar. They are the only ones who would go to such lengths. And the only ones who actively pursue humans on the Mother World."

"Should we be expecting to fight an army?"

"Movement of an army, even through the means of Spatial transport would be noticed by the Legion. There will be only a few, none at S Rank."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just as the Alfar keep watch on my people's S Ranks, we keep watch on theirs. Even if they took a roundabout journey to reach the backlines, there is no way for an S Rank to move about unnoticed."

"Well then, a few Alfar, against your son at A Rank and me at B Rank, at least we should be able to locate them before we get too close."

"What do you mean?" Visault questioned.

"With this," Damion pulled out his tablet, on its display was the map created by his auto-mapper.

"Such a remarkable device. Much more precise than our own mapping and to be able to be handheld. Most impressive. What is its range?" Visneer asked.

"50 Kilometers, should let us locate Straus from a distance and get an idea of numbers before we face any real danger."

"Excellent. Go with my blessing."

"Do you need to get anything?" Damion asked, turning to Visault.

"No, you can open a one-way Portal from here, we just ask you do not open a Portal directly back into this room. It would cause… problems." Damion shivered at the idea of what problems might happen if he opened a Portal into their command center. There was no doubt in his mind the Iblis had some sort of security to block, redirect or maybe even clamp a Portal shut on someone trying to enter without the proper authorization.

A moment later, Damion opened a Portal to the far side of the line of the forest where he had encountered Straus before. He felt being on the opposite of Ardnet would be beneficial in their counter ambush.

"How far are we from the meeting location?" Visault asked.

"About ten kilometers," Damion answered. He was already pulling out his tablet and taking a look at his map. Aside from himself and Visault, there were only two signals showing on the map, both were around at the location where the Realm Breach Straus cleared had been.

"Looks like they are waiting patiently for us."

"Just two?" Visault sounded a bit disappointed.

"Straus and one other? Or are they both Alfar?"

"One way to find out," Damion said, he was about to open a Portal closer, but the Iblis stopped him.

"Wait, can you send me here?" Visault pointed to a place on the map a few hundred meters from the pair of signals. The location would conceal him from their view yet allow him to be close enough to spring into action at a moment's notice.

"I can do that," Damion said. He had passed overhead of the area before so as long as he focused on the location, opening a Portal to that spot was not an issue.

"I'll open your Portal and then mine. Hopefully, if the Alfar does detect something, they won't be able to discern that two Portals opened."