A few minutes before Vilda's encounter with the unknown figure, a certain person was walking in the forest, .
"... I'm sure it's this way, I'd better hurry, lest Kai needs my help..." Nico said, following the way Kai had gone.
Although his words indicated that he was in a hurry, the reality was otherwise, with his steps having a slow and calm pace.
This could be understandable if one took into account that he had been running at full speed for quite some time before, as perhaps he was still recovering.
However, this theory was completely destroyed when one saw this person's face, which did not have a single drop of sweat on it, and in fact, appeared to be completely relaxed.
With this as proof, one would simply have to wonder how Nico's energy recovered so quickly that he was able to pull himself together in just a couple of minutes.
Even if one took into account that he was a super, being a mage, it was uncharacteristic of his class for him to recover at that rate, never mind the use of recovery spells, none of which should be available to a magician of his rank.
Therefore, his energy recovery was an enigma worth paying attention to, as it might even be something important to all other mages!
Unless of course... he hadn't recovered at all and instead had been faking it from the start.
"Maybe I'm going too slow...? The excuse of being tired may no longer be credible at this point..." Nico said, not even trying to hide the fact that he had lied to Kai.
This of course, had its explanation, which among other reasons, mainly there were two, the first being that he really didn't want this plan of Tom's to succeed, and the second being that... he didn't want to face Jay again.
Obviously, while he could have refused to help kidnap Vilda, and that even with Kai and Tom working together they wouldn't be able to pull it off, he knew that would bring almost zero consequences for Tom, instead giving him more information and time to come up with another plan.
Nevertheless, for the sake of achieving total disaster, he decided to help them... up to a certain point, doing the minimum of work to ensure that a certain person would come along so that chaos could be unleashed.
From his own experience, he already knew both Jay's and Vilda's strength, and knew that both, as enemies, were a serious problem to consider, which is why he wanted them as allies.
But this, of course, was information Tom and Kai lacked, who simply thought Jay and Vilda were a bit stronger than normal.
Thus, it was just a matter of drawing up a simple plan, helping them and pretending to be nervous before disengaging from them at the right time, with Jay starting a game of cat and mouse being the golden opportunity.
Now, although he didn't know what Tom or Kai's situation was like, he was confident that even if Tom woke up, they wouldn't be able to catch Jay with the incredible mobility the latter possesed, let alone defeat him.
Therefore, it was only a matter of time before this plan failed completely, something Nico was looking forward to, as this meant that the odds of him regaining his position as group leader would increase considerably, if not regain it right away.
"...Ah, maybe I can cast a couple of spells to damage them, at this point, worsening their image is improving mine." Nico said, his mood having visibly improved.
Pushing those thoughts aside and putting a worried expression back on his face, Nico resumed his walk, not taking long to reach a certain area of the forest where he had to stop.
"...?"
Although nothing could be seen in the surroundings besides trees and darkness, what made Nico stop was not physical, but something more intangible.
As a mage, he belonged to the class with the highest sensitivity to all kinds of energy, and what he was feeling right now was as if there was a spotlight in the middle of the forest, giving off a large amount of energy.
'...These energy fluctuations I feel... what is it...?' Nico thought, not understanding what it was that could be causing this.
His confusion stemmed mostly from the fact that he couldn't recognize this type of energy, not belonging to any of the people present in the forest.
It was not similar to Kai's, Tom's, Vilda's or even Jay's, nor was it the kind of energy that a monster gave off.
Faced with this unexpected situation, instead of moving closer so he could find out what it was, Nico looked for a particularly large tree and hid behind it before sitting down on the ground.
This didn't mean that he wasn't interested in that energy source and wasn't going to investigate further, but that he had other ways of investigating which didn't require him to be on site personally.
Pulling his wand out of his pocket, the tip of it lit up as Nico began to draw a magic circle with strange patterns on the ground.
After a few seconds, the circle was finished, and all that remained was for Nico to make direct contact with the circle, which he did by placing both of his hands in the middle.
The next moment, on Nico's forehead, a small glowing circle appeared.
"Fuu..."
Letting out a breath, Nico then activated the magic circle.
Immediately, the mage felt each of his senses greatly diminish, leaving him with only a faint feeling that his body was still there.
Simultaneously, as if in a trade-off, while he lost his body's sense of belonging, his ability to feel energy improved exponentially.
'...Argh, it's as unpleasant as ever...' Nico thought, making it clear that it wasn't the first time he felt like this, and despite that, he still wasn't used to it.
This was a peculiar spell, belonging not to the branch of light magic that Nico practiced, but to the branch of general magic, meaning that any mage could make use of it.
Normally, due to this characteristic, these spells were as rare and difficult to obtain as a high-grade martial technique, but thanks to a certain contact for whom he worked, Nico had been able to learn it for a relatively cheap cost.
As for the spell, its name was "Third Eye", the reason for this, rather than having to do with the physical effect it had with its user, was due to the effect of the spell.
In exchange for almost completely cutting off all of the user mage's senses, the spell enhanced the ability each mage had to sense energy, getting to the point where they could use their 'third eye' to see their surroundings without actually having to move.
With such a spell at his disposal, Nico didn't have to take any chances and could quietly stay hidden while he began his research.
Now that he was immersed in this strange mode of energy vision, Nico then focused on the energy he was sensing coming from that particular area of the forest.
Little by little, his vision moved until it reached the place from where those strange waves of energy were coming, and the moment it did, Nico was surprised.
'...This ...what is this...?' he thought, not quite understanding what he was seeing.
Normally, when using the 'Third Eye' with people, he could see their energy in silhouette form, with the silhouette greatly resembling the person it belonged to, and although there were differences depending on the rank of the super target he wanted to observe, that only happened with rank (C-) supers or higher.
However, what he was seeing at this moment was different from what he could feel.
In front of him were the energy silhouettes of two people, both sitting on the ground but with one of them holding the other's head with both hands.
Now, if it was just that there would be no problem besides the fact that the energy waves from these silhouettes were somewhat strong, but it didn't end there.
But even though he was seeing that they were two different silhouettes, Nico could feel that? somehow, they were both one.
The level and type of energy he felt coming from these two silhouettes was so similar between the two, but so unfamiliar to him, that he didn't even know where one silhouette started and the other one ended.
Thus, instead of getting answers, he only ended up even more confused.
'...This... is this a link...? No, it can't be, even a link does not have this effect...' Nico thought, trying to get to the bottom of this.
It was at times like these that Nico's mage-like curious nature came to the fore, unwilling to simply give up on the matter without at least coming to a basic conclusion.
Still maintaining the spell, Nico, now having forgotten the original reason for why he decided to investigate or his mission in the forest, motivated by his curiosity, decided to bring his vision even closer to the silhouettes.
It was a risky thing to do as the spell could be cancelled if he lost concentration, plus it would consume more of his mana, making him unable to maintain it for long, but despite this, Nico had already made up his mind.
In a matter of seconds, the closer he moved, the more distant the sensation of having a physical body became, an effect of using the spell to such a degree.
Earlier he was seeing them from almost the same distance his physical body was at, but as he moved closer, the two silhouettes became sharper and sharper.
'...Ugh, this is starting to hurt...' Nico thought, feeling how the closer he got to the silhouettes, the harder it was to maintain the spell.
Fortunately for him, it was only a matter of a couple of meters before he could make contact with the silhouettes, so this would be over soon.
While he wouldn't be able to interact with the silhouettes, a close observation in his pure energy visualization mode would be enough for him to get to the bottom of this.
'Just... a li...ttle more...!'
By this point, even Nico's thoughts began to be affected by the tremendous effort he was putting into using the spell.
'Get...closer...!' Nico thought, his body a sweaty mess.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he gritted his teeth and decided to ignore the immense pain in his forehead before moving forward.
This lasted barely a couple of seconds, but for Nico, it had been a much longer and torturous time.
But fortunately for him...
'At last... I've finally arrived!' Nico exclaimed happily, relaxing slightly, though being careful not to break the spell.
It had undoubtedly been a task of high difficulty, causing Nico to make a note to practice this spell even more in the future, so he wouldn't have to go through so much difficulty if he had to use the 'Third Eye' to such a degree again.
'Now then... let's see-'
However, before he even finished thinking that sentence, Nico stopped dead in his tracks, standing completely still.
Because he had been totally focused on getting closer to the silhouettes, it had caused him to take his attention away from other things, which added to his little celebration, had caused him to miss something important.
And that was, nothing more and nothing less, that while he had been approaching... one of the silhouettes had turned and was staring at him.
Although it was only one of the silhouettes, for some reason, Nico felt as if he had dozens of eyes on him, causing shivers to inevitably run through his body.
Immediately, several things went through his head, such as the fact that it shouldn't be possible for someone below rank (B-) to detect him, or trying to figure out the reason why he felt so exposed at this moment.
However, all of that was left behind as a simple emotion filled Nico's mind and body, forcing him to abruptly deactivate the spell.
And that emotion was... fear.
*Bam!*
Abruptly, Nico's concentration was interrupted, causing the spell to be forcibly cut off.
"Haa...haa..." Breathing heavily as he tried to stand up, all of Nico's senses returned to his body, albeit temporarily more clumsy than normal, causing him to barely be able to lean back against a tree.
What was more, thanks to the use of the spell, his forehead was under a great deal of pain, almost feeling as if he had suffered a stab wound.
However, that wasn't what had Nico gasping, not by a long shot.
The real reason was nothing more than the silhouette of energy that had detected him, looking at him with eyes that felt so cold, so strange, so distant and unfamiliar to him.
Although they had only made contact for a very short time, a certain thought stuck in Nico's mind.
"W-was that... a human being...?" He said, still clutching his chest.
Remembering that moment, Nico then began to move, his mind being occupied by the sole intention of fleeing and getting as far away as he could.
*Cruch*
"!"
Unfortunately, the sound of bushes moving behind him reached his ears at that moment.
Apparently.... he wasn't the only one who had decided to move.
