Earth's Greatest Magus

"Master!"

The exact person Emery had been so worried about the past few weeks appeared before his eyes, thus he couldn't help but shout when he confirmed that what he was seeing was in fact real.

"Sshh… Not so loud. Are you trying to get us all killed?"

"master.. h-how… why..?"

The magus briefly explained how he had received a mission assignment from Headmaster Delbrand to investigate suspicions regarding his own master, Grand Magus Zenonia.

That investigation eventually led to him obtaining some clues from the other disciples until he finally managed to reach this abandoned planet located on the other side of the realm.

However, he was found out and was in fact almost killed. It was at that moment that he luckily encountered the Wolf bloodline Patriarch Lucius.

Since then, he has been helping by getting information about the planet. Thanks to his high comprehension of the Law of Shadow, Xion managed to stay hidden from the many terrifying Nightwalker creatures roaming the planet.

"If only I had known that they were actually planning to attack the academy, I would have put in even more effort to stop them then," revealed Magus Xion to Emery and the others, the expression on his face clearly showing his regret.

Either way, Emery was extremely glad that his master was still alive and well.

A smile was similarly shared between the two of them as the master and disciple reunited.

"I just haven't seen you for half a year and you have grown so much, Emery." With a fond smile on his face, Magus Xion said to Emery. "I'm proud of you."

Unfortunately, they have no more time to spend reminiscing as the man turned to the group and asked, "Anyone have something to give to me?"

Hearing the question, Eeshoo quickly took out the box he was previously entrusted with and Xion brought the group for a short walk into another locked storage room. "Come here. Look, do you know him?"

Inside the dark room, the group could see a figure, a Nightwalker with chains all over its body and mounted to the wall. On second glance, they realized that the creature was actually wearing a torn Magus Academy uniform.

It was Eeshoo who quickly recognized the Nightwalker was actually a Magus Academy acolyte. "That's Abrafo."

Before they departed, the group had been told in the briefing that the Nightwalkers possessed a terrifying ability where they could infect their victims and turn them into abominations like them. Hence they finally see the proof of it right in front of them.

Seeing the group was paying attention, Xion quickly explained, "I managed to save him two days ago. He told me he knew a way inside the compound before he gradually turned into one of those abominations."

Apparently, this Abrafo was the one told by the wolf patriarch on the briefing, and as he was in fact managed to escape the compound and also an expert in the earth's element formations he really could help them enter the compound.

Without speaking any further, Xion opened the box he received from Eeshoo and took out a serum before decisively injecting it into the creature that was once the young acolyte.

"Let's hope this will work."

The serum was not a cure to the Nightwalker's ability, as they had no prior information about the creatures. However, it was a high-dosage anti-toxin stimulant that hopefully would be able to suppress the infection from progressing further.

The moment the serum was injected, the infected Abrafo immediately let out a deafening scream of pain, so loud that the group had to gag him lest his scream lured the Nightwalkers wandering outside.

In the meantime, everyone also focused on seeing if there was any reaction to the serum. After a while, there was a slight change on Abrafo as his face regained its healthy hue slightly, but nothing else. It seemed that the serum was not enough to bring back his sanity.

"Is it not working?"

"Let me give it a try," said Emery as he stepped forward.

Being an expert of apothecary, Emery decided to analyze the content of the serum, and more importantly the infected acolyte. Hopefully, he would be able to see through the situation they were in.

[Analyze]

[Toxin Cleanser - Tier 5]

[Nature Blessing]

The moment his root-like spirit energy entered Abrafo's infected body, Emery could clearly sense the ferocity of the toxin that had been clotting in his blood and gnawing throughout his entire body, and from the nature of it, he can tell that it was related to the half blood gene, and most probably the bat bloodline.

Fortunately, Emery was somewhat of an expert in the field of toxins. Not only that, his experience in creating his own bloodline gene serum would certainly be useful in making a more potent serum to overcome the Nightwalker toxin. The only problem was that the process to create the improved serum would take some time.

"How long?" Eeshoo asked, wanting to know exactly how much time it would take.

"I am not sure, but give me Twenty, thirty minutes at most"

A frown appeared on Eeshoo's face when he heard Emery's answer. The mission was on a tight schedule where they might not have a minute to spare. However, Abrafo not only had the key for them to enter the compound, there was also a possibility that an effective serum to combat the Nightwalker toxin was needed in this mission.

Eeshoo heaved a sigh and decided "We will wait. Just do your best, 20 minutes"

Nodding his head, Emery quickly went into action. Even though there were hundreds of ingredients in Emery's spatial space, they were only normal quality and thus wouldn't be enough to create a new serum that was better than the universally acknowledged Tier 5 they injected Abrafo earlier.

Fortunately, Emery was not an ordinary apothecary apprentice.

To begin the process, first he used his [Fragmentation] skill to separate the essence within the serum. After that, he began casting [Photosynthesis] to increase its potency before adding a little bit of his own [Cleansing Potion] recipe.

He quickly created five doses of serum with different concentrations. While he worked, the other acolytes caught five Nightwalkers to test on. After injecting the Nightwalkers with all five created serums, Emery observed the result and swiftly made the one that showed the most positive result.

"It's done," said Emery, giving the serum to Eeshoo. "This is the best I can come up with the limited time I have."

Within twenty minutes, Emery successfully created a dozen serum, and a minute after the injection, Abrafo finally regained consciousness.

"Huh, you are indeed something else." A word of affirmation came from Anzi the Inhuman, who had just seen another side of Emery as he saw the result.

On the other hand, while Abrafo regained consciousness, he was still unable to speak clearly. Remembering the limited time they had for this mission, Emery said, "I can treat him on our way to the compound. He should be recovered by the time we arrive there."

The chains binding Abrafo's body were quickly released, and Emery held the dark-skinned acolyte onto his back. Agreeing to Emery's words, Eeshoo once again took over, "Alright. Let's do it as planned."

The plan was to separate into two groups, where group A headed towards one of the barrier gates to let Delbrand's team in. Then, while the enemies were distracted by the commotion, group B would sneak into the compound to free the captured acolytes.

Eeshoo chose Olivier and Anzi as group A, while the rest went to group B together with Magus Xion and Abrafo. Understanding that group B would be the most likely to be in danger, such a decision was quickly accepted.

Before they took off, Anzi walked up to Eeshoo and said, "Promise me that you will look for my master, Shatter Cross." to which the Nephilim genius replied, "Yes, I will."

Eeshoo said those words with a nod, but then Emery noticed that there was a slight change in expression given by the young man. Before he could think what it was, the two suddenly pounced towards the unprepared Mahinder.

In a split second, Anzi grabbed hold of the monk while Eeshoo took out a bracelet like artifact and immediately clasped it onto the monk's two arms, preventing the monk from casting any skill to break free. As if that wasn't enough, Anzi picked up the chains previously used on Abrafo to lock Mahinder onto the wall."

"What are you doing?!!"

Since Emery had someone on his back, he wasn't able to react fast enough to do anything, and seeing how Atlas and Olivier weren't doing anything, it seemed that they knew about Eeshoo's plans beforehand.

Turning to him, Eeshoo calmly said, "This is my order. I can't trust him enough to let him remain in the team. His job is done. We'll come back for him later when all this is done."

Emery was trying to protest, but Silva stopped him and shook her head. Even Mahinder himself did not choose to fight back. The man had his eyes closed as he started chanting mantras as if he had already accepted their decision.

"Let's go. We don't have much time."

Saying those words, Eeshoo asked Emery to give each person two doses of the Nightwalker serum, and they quickly moved out.