Losing sight of them again as he descended the hill Chronos focused on trying to find a trace of anything in this empty place. If he could find something, anything he could follow it back to the source but even after another hour there was nothing.
"This isn't working, we need another plan," he said.
"I'm open to ideas." Lyla stated.
"Is there no message from your god?"
"None, it feels like something is obscuring my connection. I can still pull power through my connection, but I can't hear anything from the goddess."
Fweeee-Boom!
In the distance a whistling cut through the air as Magar launched a fireball into the air. Seeing the fireball Chronos changed directions immediately running towards them.
"That's the signal to return. Do you think they found the core or got trapped?" Chronos joked.
"We've covered a lot more land than they have so I think they got trapped."
Lyla laughed as they climbed over the top of the last hill separating them from the army, they found that Magar was indeed trapped. His army had run into a cul-de-sac thinking that the cliff-like hill on the other side would fall before they reached the end; it hadn't.
Unable to escape they were defending themselves until the hill fell far enough for them to climb it and run again.
Unfortunately, the goblins were strongly pressing against their defensive line using pure numbers. They hadn't broken past them yet, but it was only a matter of time before the goblins reached the mages.
Seeing both armies from above Chronos realized that they were outnumbered even worse than he had thought. Being outnumbered ten to one meant that their advantage in rank could only help them survive for so long.
Looking at the goblins, he saw a group of warlock leaders preparing a massive spell at the back of the army.
"Lyla we're hitting the warlocks, any complaints?" He asked while charging down the hill.
"You're too slow!" She whined while releasing multiple [Judgement Arrow]'s into the goblins ranks.
Chronos admired the silver trail they left behind as they penetrated multiple enemies before they dissipated. Why couldn't his skills look that nice? All of them just caused destruction.
As he ran, he realized something that may or may not be important, he had been getting distracted more and more often while in combat. That hadn't happened in the past. Even right now he was thinking about random things rather than killing the enemy in front of him.
For that matter, despite running as fast as he could his mind was still moving faster than his body and this wasn't the result of his training.
Recently whenever he was in combat it felt like his blood was boiling over with energy. Was his bloodline growing stronger again? And why was it affecting his mind? His bloodline was focused on the body not the mind.
He didn't have any more time to think as he reached the goblins rear lines.
Letting out a [Wolf's Roar] he shattered their backlines and charged past them heading straight for the warlocks.
Summoning her gavels Lyla had them strike any goblin that got in their way easily clearing a path.
Feeling death coming from behind them the lead warlock spun the magic circle around unleashing a massive red lightning bolt right at Chronos.
[Isolate]!
Chronos' claws scratched the ground as he desperately tried to stop, barely managing to erect a barrier around them as the lightning lit up their surroundings.
That spell was strong enough to kill them if they took a direct hit.
"Oh, that's pretty." Lyla muttered, mesmerized.
Watching from inside the barrier Chronos and Lyla marveled at the beautiful lightning snaking its way over the barrier.
Boom! Crrrsh!
It suddenly exploded killing everything in their immediate vicinity. Cracks crisscrossed the barrier as it was nearly destroyed by the lightning with fragments falling away bit by bit.
"That was close." Chronos muttered.
Seeing that their attack had failed the warlocks panicked and tried to rally those around them. Not giving them a chance Chronos leapt forward biting the head off of the lead warlock while Lyla unleashed a [Verdict Pillar] into the warlocks behind him.
With his claws and teeth coated in [Sever] Chronos tore through the remaining warlocks before the other goblins could intercept him.
As the other goblins pressed in on all sides Chronos glanced into the distance, the hill behind Magar was finally low enough for them to begin crossing it and he decided to take a risk.
"Can you endure the cold?"
She gave him a confused look, "Of course I can."
Nodding he focused for a moment then used a skill he hadn't used in a long time to force the goblins back.
[Cold-Moon Pressure]
Releasing his aura at full strength it transformed into a cold wintry air that wrapped around them like a cloak and froze the ground within thirty meters of them. As the freezing chill rippled into his surroundings the goblins that were too close were turned into ice sculptures while the rest had their eyes shrink in fear as his aura attacked both their minds and bodies.
In a moment of panic one of the goblins attacked another trying to escape from the monster in front of it, unleashing chaos as every goblin did its best to escape from the winter wolf.
Lyla shivered as she felt the same effects as the goblins, but her mind and body were strong enough to ignore the effects of this skill. She wanted to use her [Blessed Flame] skill to warm herself up but worried it would break [Cold-Moon Pressure]'s effects.
Wasting no time Chronos loped towards the army.
The goblins between him and them scrambled to get out of the way before they became the next victim of the winter wolf.
Magar was walking at the back of his army. When Chronos passed him, he took out a small axe and chopped into the ground.
With a rumbling the ground split open creating a massive chasm between them and the goblins until it completely separated the ribbon they were standing on from the other side.
"That was close." Magar said.
Canceling his skill Chronos turned towards him.
"Indeed, why didn't you do that earlier?"
"I can only use this axe once a day and I was planning to use it on the core's guardian." He replied, regrettably storing the small axe in his clothes.
"Hm, unfortunately we weren't able to find any trace of the core region. We'll head back out to search again once the army has recovered."
Magar nodded, "Alri..."
Flash!
A brilliant flash of sunlight appeared in the distance to their left.
Chronos and Magar glanced at each other before running towards the light. Whatever that was, was important.