Two hours earlier, in a place far from the city, right at the entrance of the city's secret base, Enrico finished setting up the two layered traps. It was a bit difficult to create a trap capable of killing Circle Sixes without being a Circle Six himself, and to make matters worse, it would only serve to build confidence for his plan to succeed.
[If this plan fails, I'm going to laugh at you.]
"If it succeeds, then you'll apologize a hundred times."
[Never.]
Behind him, an elf observed everything in detail. Her eyes shone with admiration at the magic control and careful handling displayed. Such skill coming from the prodigious aberration people talked so much about was surprising—but thinking about it, there were prodigies for everything in this world. Perhaps he was an aberration in magical mastery beyond the other abilities mentioned by the humans.
'The only one who can truly approach the three aberrations can only be the princess once she recovers half of the magic Elithia stole from her.'
"Serina, could you transform my fire clone into my appearance?"
"You don't need to ask, just give the order, Commander."
Enrico had become one of the war's Commanders recently, so it was somewhat uncomfortable for the elves to start revering him everywhere he went. Of course, he would get used to it—after all, thanks to that, he could choose an elf to be his subordinate, and naturally he would choose someone very useful and loyal to whoever became her commander. The elf before him was Serina Marfim, Cavirieth's daughter. She was Circle Six and three years older than him.
'She's close to becoming Circle Seven.'
Looking at her statistics, he noticed her percentage was at ninety-four percent within Circle Six. She would be a good ally for him to use his pact to increase, since she would only awaken that level in two months according to the original story. Unless you were a genius, percentage growth was slow, and the elf before him, even being the daughter of a Circle Nine, was not a prodigy compared to the humans—but it wouldn't be her potential that made her so dangerous in the future.
'Besides, elves usually take longer than humans.'
"Illusion Magic: Appearance Transformation."
Serina used her magic on his fire clone, successfully changing its appearance. Without that, his clone had a more physical look and resembled him, but it was still imperfect, so to be sure, he asked Serina to use her magic. One incredible thing she could do was sound illusion, which allowed his clone to reproduce his voice according to her thoughts. That meant the only thing he had to worry about was how long his clone could last.
"As I said, Serina, for now keep this a secret."
"Yes, Commander. I won't tell even my father."
'As if he wouldn't notice.'
Cavirieth could perceive that magic as if it were child's play. The only ones who could be deceived were Circle Sixes with lower percentages than hers, thanks to how she had trained that magic to the extreme. She could manipulate perception, making a person believe an illusion was real and even feel it.
'If she unlocks her unique ability, she could reach Damian's level.'
Without a doubt the strongest illusion mage currently. In the original story, he could make illusions become reality, whether for seconds or for years. He literally created an entire world from scratch with an enemy's deceased relatives inside it and maintained that illusion for years—at least until he destroyed that world along with the enemy in a rather cruel way.
'That guy really irritated him... anyway, I'll kill him before he meets Damian.'
With his clone ready, he deactivated it and waited with Serina at the entrance. An hour later, he saw corrupted dark elves approaching. It seemed he now had new types of enemies who hadn't appeared in the original story, thanks to the alliance formed by Sairao's cult and Elithia.
"They look new, so they're recruits... possibly Circle Four and Five."
"Then it'll be easy, Commander. Would you like me to eliminate them?"
"Yes. Just leave one or two alive. Depending on what happens today, they might be useful."
She nodded and drew her sword from its sheath as she walked toward the seven recruit elves ahead. It was time to show what she could do for the commander she had chosen as her primary superior.
'I'll finish this quickly.'
Serina vanished before the recruits noticed anything wrong. The air around them distorted slightly, and the first elf fell with a clean cut to the neck without even understanding what happened. The second tried to react by raising a shadow barrier, but her blade passed through the magic as if slicing through mist.
'Perception manipulation.'
The third launched a burst of corrupted fire in the wrong direction while a second Serina appeared behind him and pierced his back. It wasn't absurd speed—it was the perception manipulation Enrico had mentioned. She made them hear footsteps where none existed and feel presence in empty spots.
"Who is she?"
"She's too strong."
"Should we retreat?"
Two tried to retreat, but the ground beneath them seemed to crack open into illusory fissures. They hesitated for half a second—and that half second was enough for her blade to pass through both. Only two remained alive, as Enrico had requested.
"Commander, I'm done."
"Good work, Serina."
She bowed while the two survivors knelt, disarmed and trembling, realizing they had never fought someone at that level. Serina lowered her sword near one of their faces. One of them still seemed willing to continue fighting despite the fear.
"It's better if you don't do anything unless you want to die."
Enrico observed everything in silence, evaluating timing, reaction, and mana control. He realized the best one to assume the appearance of was the one who used ice magic.
'If I use my Deep Waters magic, I can use the extreme cold of the depths to wield ice as magic.'
With his magic, he was capable of doing that. He just needed to change the lines he would use in battle. He wanted the two elves to obtain information about possible plans of the cult, since in the original story they weren't part of this war. It was best to prepare as much as possible.
As he approached, the elf who still wanted to fight used fire magic to try to hit Serina—but quickly had his head cut off, while the other elf trembled.
"Okay, that was stupid... as always, corrupted elves being corrupted elves."
Enrico watched Serina clean the blood from her sword. She hadn't even considered that they could still use that elf and simply killed him. Of course, she deserved it for being so foolish—but he wanted to clear up a few doubts before killing her.
"I guess I'll have to keep you alive for quite some time."
He asked Serina to check the surroundings to make sure no one else was alive. Once she left and moved a safe distance away, Enrico created an ice coffin using the extreme cold from the depths of his magic.
"Very well, you're going to enter here and give me some information, elf."
"I-I'm an elf, sir."
Enrico was slightly surprised before tying her carefully, covering her mouth, and kicking her into the coffin.
"Interesting, but I'll have to ask later. Time is running out."