”Get atop me, honey. I can cover ground fast enough, and I can track the thief better,” Talia said as she gestured to him to get on top.
Viktor didn’t hesitate as he climbed on top of her, and to his surprise, her radiant white fur was so soft and comforting to the touch, he felt as if he could sleep on top of her, and it would feel even more comforting than sleeping on the best mattress.
However, he knew right now wasn’t the time to think about the softness of her fur as he was about to tell her to go when she suddenly took off forward, making him almost fall back because of how fast she took off.
He somehow pushed himself forward and held onto her soft yet muscular body for balance.
”Ahh, honey~ You are tickling me, hehe~ Did you miss me last night?” Talia giggled as she felt Viktor squirming his body on top of her in order to try and make himself comfortable.
”Seriously, Talia? Don’t lose focus,” Viktor shook his head as he wondered if this crazy woman would be the end of him.
Still, he was impressed at the speed at which she was racing through the beautiful forest. They had long since come out of the ethereal bubble that was covering the place where all the fairies and pixies lived.
”Are you able to track the thief?” Viktor asked as she continued to speed through the forest.
”Hmmm, it is a ‘he’ based on the smell, I think, and he did try to cover his tracks quite well, though he obviously isn’t good enough to fool my senses. I think we will get him!” Talia said in a tone of confidence, making him realize that she was a good hunter indeed.
”What if he leaves the realm by the time we try to catch up to him?” Viktor asked and wondered if the thief had already left as well.
”If he already left, Aunt Seraphina would have sensed it.”
”But she didn’t sense him when he got in, right?”
Talia remained silent for a few moments as if she was thinking about what Viktor said and answered, “There are two ways you can get inside this realm. The first one is that you have a spatial gateway stone that only the Fairy Queen can give to you. Using that, you can open a portal anytime to this realm, just like how I brought you here. But it only works once, and it is a one-way trip. And the second way is the straightforward method of entering through the barrier that protects this realm, either with her permission or maybe using some powerful artifact to make their way inside just like the thief. It should be quite a rare and powerful one since he was able to enter. But we will know for sure once I claw out his guts and make him tell the truth.”
Viktor had gotten used to her ferocity and asked, “Then what about leaving this realm?”
”Again, there are two ways. One, Aunt Seraphina personally sees you off, and two, you need to have some means of getting out of the barrier. But I am sure even if he had the means to leave this realm, Aunt Seraphina will immediately know,” Talia said with narrowed eyes.
”He is close!” Talia suddenly informed as her eyes looked around with a vigilant gaze, and Viktor also tried to spread his senses to see if he could sense the thief.
He had learned from Umilia how to use the odic force inside his body to concentrate them on his eyes and let him see anything that has odic force flowing through them within his vision. In this case, the thief was obviously an odic force user, and so Viktor was expecting to at least see something since Talia warned him that he was nearby.
However, he could only see odic force flowing through the plants and trees around him, and right when he was about to turn around and look at his back…
”Honey, look out!”
Talia frantically shouted, and Viktor quickly reacted as he jumped to the side as a blast of dark green energy whizzed past the place where he was present before.
’That was close!’ Viktor inwardly thanked Talia for warning him, and as he looked forward, he saw a handsome yet slightly feminine-looking man revealing himself…and he obviously didn’t seem to be a human.
”A Dark Elf? What the hell are you doing in this realm?” Talia asked with a low growl as she glared at him.
Viktor observed his appearance and saw that he had pale grayish skin with pointy ears just like that of an elf, and his eyes were a pale white that seemed a bit eerie. But despite having a slightly feminine-looking face, his body was muscular in a lean way.
’A dark elf?’ Viktor felt that they almost looked similar to the way they were depicted in certain mythological books, and by now, he was sure some of the humans in the past surely saw these supernatural beings and made a story out of them.
The dark elf clicked his tongue in frustration seeing these two standing in his way, and said in a dark tone, “You both will have to die now!”
”I don’t think so, puny elf,” Talia let out a roar as she charged toward him to maul him down, but the dark elf snorted in contempt as he clapped his hands together, and a dark green smoke formed a cloud in front of him and spread towards her, making her immediately slow down as she whimpered and fell back.
Viktor’s expression became grave upon seeing that this elf was able to quickly stop Talia in her tracks, and seeing her face twist in discomfort and her limbs stagger, he felt as if that dark green smoke was nothing good.
He immediately teleported beside the dark elf and tried to punch him in the face, but the dark elf quickly reacted as if he predicted Viktor’s attack and dodged his fist before blasting Viktor away with a ball of dark green energy.
Viktor’s eyes widened as he fell back by a few feet, but his expression froze when he realized that his blood was beginning to solidify!