System vs Rebirth
chapter-146

"Now, no demons are chasing us anymore," said Anna while glancing at their back. They had been raining the demons with their power, killing them one by one. Because they had to chase them, they couldn't move so much, so they ended up dying.

Meanwhile, Noel was staring at Anna, thinking, 'What was the power earlier? She felt different as if she underwent a great change. In fact, it felt like a completely different person.

'I don't understand how she can draw out a power like that. The lightning sword that is usually vaporized together with the explosion remained intact and could still be used. Each attack had the lightning power instead of just a mere Spiritual Energy.

'Lightning power should come from her Spirit, so is it related to her Spirit? Does that mean she can utilize the Spirit better?

'But I haven't found any record about them being used like that… It's like the spirit is possessing her. Still, a spirit shouldn't think like that. Even Ardagan doesn't have the intention. Though, he never clarified that the other spirits had the same intention.

'This only means one thing, Anna seems to know Spirits than your average person. I don't know how much she knows, but it's worth to explore.

'Now that I think about it, Anna is powerful and knowledgeable. I have been using her as my sparring partner so that I can get stronger. And I think I should make her spill the knowledge from time to time, not just about a special region that can provide me with some power up, but also the general knowledge about spirits.'

Noel thought for a moment. He wanted to say, 'What a powerful humanoid spirit,' to see Anna's reaction. The information that only he knew currently.

If Anna actually reacted to the word 'humanoid,' she might be aware of the Spirit Ranks as well, making him doubt Ardagan and Anna at the same time. This statement also meant that Anna's spirit originally was a higher ranking compared to his if he didn't meet Ardagan.

In other words, he could see Anna's true potential.

Still, it would be too risky to expose something that he only knew currently. Hence, Noel decided to refrain himself and rode the wave, waiting for the right time to probe for more information.

He said, "Now that we've escaped from the demons, it's time to chase after the Advanced Level Demon. The fact that the demons chased us to this forest meant that the Advanced Level Demon is here."

"So, we're in the middle of his territory now." Anna nodded with a serious expression.

"Yeah. But I don't think the Advanced Level Demon will be meeting us. And his movement right now will be extremely unpredictable."

"So, that's why you were so angry?"

"Yeah. I believe that we can escape those demons in one way or another, but the aftermath will be horrible." Noel nodded.

"Should we split up now?" Anna asked.

"No. We can't split up no matter what." Noel shook his head solemnly. The moment they were separated, the demon would take advantage of it and attack one of them. It didn't have to fight them since controlling their mind was all it took for the demon to win.

"Alright then. Where should we go?"

"Let's go to the north first to make sure it doesn't escape according to his pattern."

Anna and Noel had come to an agreement as they started running, chasing after this Advanced Level Demon.

Unbeknownst to them, the Advanced Demon itself was actually hiding not far from them. There was a small mushroom behind the tree that could move left and right depending on his needs.

And this mushroom had been releasing its spores into the air this whole time. Unfortunately, the demon was barely outside the range of Noel's detection with the help of the Demon Hunter Medal. If not, he would have found it.

…

A few hours later.

Noel and Anna had been running around the forest, trying to find the demon's location but to no avail.

"This is going nowhere." Anna became a bit frustrated.

Noel was the same but his expression remained calm. He had predicted this outcome, so he wondered what they should do next.

They had met multiple demons but had no result in finding the Advanced Level Demon.

"So, you don't have the mood to joke anymore?" Noel glared at her.

"…" Anna looked away, ashamed. She finally understood why Noel wasn't happy this whole time. At first, she thought the reason was because they were in danger, but it turned out the search was the one that concerned him.

"I'm sorry, alright? Spare me with the nagging. I won't be like this anymore."

Noel rolled his eyes, not believing a single bit that she would repent.

"Whatever. The problem is that… the night is going to come soon, and the search will become extremely hard and dangerous after that point. Even so, we have to find them no matter what. There's a chance that the demon is preparing more demons, but their target is not the city, but…"

"Us." Anna's face turned serious. She knew what would happen at that point. They could barely defeat the Advanced Level Demon, but their mission would absolutely fail if there were other demons helping them. Although the knight captain had promised to help, but he wouldn't bring so many people to make sure the city didn't fall while they were fighting here.

Hence, they couldn't afford to have other demons fighting them.

"What should we do…" Noel muttered in a low voice, racking his brain.

"Noel. I have an idea." Anna raised her hand as this might be the first idea she ever gave him since she had been relying on his brain to come up with an answer.

"How about causing chaos everywhere? We utilize one explosion to another to check the place in wide area. The normal demons will be alarmed by this movement while those demons… I'm not sure. There are two possibilities. If a huge number of demons gather in one place, their roars will be extremely loud or there won't be any roars at all because they're controlled by the Advanced Level Demon."

"What a reckless plan, but it sounds like you, a crazy witch." Despite his words, Noel was actually impressed.

But everything didn't seem to be going according to their plan. Noel suddenly received a notification from Ardagan as if it was the proof of his explanation from earlier.

[Warning!]

[Unknown source has entered Master's consciousness.]