Science/Magic

That afternoon, five people left Academy City.

They were five humans, four girls, and one boy. The five of them had common features and black hair and black eyes. They seemed like normal students of Academy City.

These five people were Bloed, Regina, Liu Ying, Princess Elwha, and Eres in disguise.

They had dyed their hair black and used nano masks created by Bloed to change their features. Right now, they were as unassuming as possible.

After all, a group composed of a human princess, an elf princess, a demon princess, an exiled prince, and a beautiful Valkyrie was extremely eye-catching. If they dared to use their original identities to travel towards the Boerner Forest, they would be discovered before they could leave Academy City.

This disguise helped them to resolve this problem. Plus, Bloed's high-tech nano masks were almost undetectable. Unless it was an extremely powerful being, it was almost impossible to see through their disguise.

The group left the city as quietly as possible. Only a limited number of people knew that they had left the city, and their departure did not attract any attention.

After the group left the surroundings of Academy City, Bloed took his metallic wolf, Leto, out of his storage device. The group then boarded Leto as the wolf took flight.

Thanks to the increase of Bloed's strength and his growing mastery over technology, Leto's flight ability had been greatly boosted. Right now, it could fly at high speed for as long as three hours every day. It allowed the group to decrease the amount of time needed to reach the forest greatly.

According to Bloed's calculations, if they followed the route planned when they were in Academy City, they would arrive at the Boerner Forest in around half a month.

Of course, there was a faster way to travel. If Regina did not mind using her abilities to carry them and flew at high speed, they could arrive at the Boerner Forest in six or seven days.

But it would consume a lot of Regina's strength to do that, and if they were intercepted in the middle of the way, the Valkyrie would not be in top condition.

In the end, the group opted for using this slower but safer way of travel.

Around four hours after the group left Academy City, the group arrived at a city called Uerna.

It was a big city located one thousand kilometers away from Academy City. According to the plan, it was the first stop of the group.

When Leto was a couple of kilometers away from the city, it descended to the ground. The group jumped off it before Bloed put it back inside his storage device.

"Let's go. We will spend the night here."

The girls nodded.

The group did not have any trouble entering the city. They decided to search for a hotel to spend the night in and continue with the travel the next day.

"How many rooms?" The receptionist asked with a smile.

"Three rooms, please," Bloed replied. They had already talked about it before, Regina and him would sleep in a room, Liu Ying and Princess Elwha in another room, and Eres would sleep alone.

Actually, the group did not need to sleep inside a hotel. Among Bloed's belongings, there was a 'portable house' equipped with everything from rooms to a kitchen. Bloed used it when he left the Exiled Lands.

However, they decided to sleep inside the most important cities in the way. This way, they could recollect information about the development of the situation.

Just at that moment, a group of seven people entered the hotel.

Bloed's group instinctively looked towards them. Immediately, Bloed's expression changed.

'People of the Church of the Sun God.'

Bloed recognized them instantly.

Moreover, Bloed knew one of them.

The man in the front was one of the demigods of the Church of the Sun God that showed during the battle for the mines in the Great Savannah.

Bloed quickly turned his expression back to normal before the group of church members could notice anything.

But all of sudden, the demigod of the Church of the Sun God looked towards them.

More specifically, he stared at Regina and narrowed his eyes.

One of the members of his group noticed it and furrowed his brows.

"Cardinal, is anything wrong?"

"… Nothing. I just thought that she was familiar, but I was mistaken."

"Is it so?" The man looked towards Regina before looking away in disinterest.

Bloed and the others took advantage of this opportunity to leave for their rooms. In the way, Bloed talked to Regina through their mental connection.

[Did he recognize you?]

[He didn't. But perhaps he found my aura familiar. It should not be a problem.]

[That is good.] Bloed sighed in relief. [The situation is worse than we thought. This is the seventh religious group that we met today.]

On the way to the city and after entering the city, Bloed's group had seen seven religious groups going towards Academy City, and every one of them belonged to a different church.

The situation right now was like a powder keg. It could explode with the slightest spark. Bloed could imagine that if the location of the Heart of the Forest was revealed, these churches would fight to the death for it.

Moreover, they would not hesitate to kill them.

In other words, these seven churches were potential enemies.

And it was just the start. More churches were going to send people to search for the Heart of the Forest soon. The situation would become worse as the days passed.

'We will be in a lot of trouble if we are discovered.'