chapter 1248 terrifying spiritual power (part 1)
"what is she doing here?" evan muttered in a surprised voice as he observed a tall woman clad in crimson-red armour. her shoulder-length black hair framed her deep blue eyes, and a star-shaped gem adorned the center of her forehead.
the woman was none other than blaze, the cheap sister he had forcefully acquired in the tomb of the ancient.
currently, blaze was surrounded by three vampires, and they appeared to be arguing about something.
deep orange phoenix flames flickered around blaze, radiating an intense heat as anger burned visibly on her face.
not far from blaze, evan noticed a peak rank four vampire locked in combat with a mid-level rank four phoenix. despite the disparity in their ranks, the phoenix was holding its ground and coping surprisingly well against the vampire.
as evan heard their conversation, he pieced together a fragmented picture of the situation.
the peak rank four vampire was the leader of the group of vampires surrounding blaze, while the mid-level rank four phoenix was her personal guard.
the details were murky, but it seemed that the vampires were mercenaries who had ventured into the dark forest to search for treasures and earn some money.
blaze, on the other hand, had come to the dark forest after receiving information about something of interest.
from what evan could gather, blaze had likely found the object she was searching for, but the vampires had also discovered it.
a conflict ensued, and blaze, along with her guard, clashed with the vampires in the deeper area of the dark forest. somehow, they managed to escape, but before they could fully retreat, the vampires tracked them down, forcing a renewed skirmish.
among the three vampires surrounding blaze, two were mid-level rank three, while the third one was at the peak of rank three.
thousands of years ago, much like the dragons, the phoenix clan had been a dominant force. however, a catastrophic incident wiped out most of their members, causing their numbers to plummet.
although evan wasn't sure what had caused the phoenix clan's decline, he had confirmed with anastasia that azroth wasn't responsible for this incident. he needed to confirm this thing with anastasia because, whenever he encountered stories of large-scale massacres, azroth often turned out to be the culprit.
fortunately, anastasia assured him that azroth had no involvement in the phoenix clan's downfall, though she was unaware of the specifics.
"although the phoenix clan's situation isn't as dire as the dryads', it's far from ideal, so it shouldn't be difficult to bring them to my side. if i can bring them to my side, they would be the perfect allies to help me monitor winterclaw's activities," evan muttered, considering discussing this matter with anastasia and others after going back.
his concern about winterclaw stemmed from the possibility that, aside from eilistraea, winterclaw might also come looking for him.
when winterclaw opened portals on earth, it was undoubtedly because he had somehow tracked down valery. now that he had brought her to utopia, he feared winterclaw might locate her again and come after them.
although evan could ask anastasia to conceal valery's presenceâgiven her unparalleled skills in concealment it wouldn't be difficult to hide her.
however, it wasn't a perfect solution. the best option, evan decided, was to enlist people who could actively monitor winterclaw and report on his movements.
resolving himself to this course of action, evan rubbed his face to make his expression brighten, and a smile spread across his face.
he carefully set down the ice cocoon and summoned several shadow undeads to guard it and velgoth.
"wait here," evan instructed velgoth before vanishing from sight.
velgoth flinched at evan's sudden departure, but upon seeing the shadow undeads standing guard, he relaxed and stayed put.
in just seconds, evan reappeared some distance away from the ongoing battle and approached blaze with an innocent smile on his face.
"sister, long time no see!"