Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"Hehehe, messing with the enemies is so much fun," Rain said as he used his remaining mana to make the boxes slide on the ground toward him. Then he opened them, finding a ton of spiritual potions.

Joanis probably spent dozens of platinum coins to buy so many. In any case, Rain drank some and then continued the tunnel to the side, and it connected to another dungeon. Rain soon stopped since he found a presence there, though.

"Where are they?" Seadir asked.

"Beyond this wall," Rain replied and then took a deep breath since he stopped breathing to drink so many potions. "There is a guard there, but I will get rid of him soon and instantly."

"I can do that," Seadir declared.

"Not without leaving a lot of blood behind and making some noise," Rain said.

After Rain finished his preparations, he soon opened a hole in the dungeon, and then he found a man wearing the armor of a royal guard sitting on a staircase while nodding. The guy only had the chance to blink once after seeing Rain… in the next moment, he sank to the ground without leaving a trace behind.

The shock that seized Seadir, Sirenus, and Coraline when they witnessed Rain\'s display of power was nothing short of profound. It was as though they had stumbled upon a realm of magic and abilities they could barely fathom. Rain\'s control over the elements, his ability to make a man sink into the unyielding ground as if it were quicksand, left them utterly bewildered.

What was even more unsettling was the fact that Rain\'s actions left no traces, as if the very earth had swallowed the evidence of his power.

However, the initial shock soon gave way to an even more potent emotion: pure, seething hatred. As they surveyed the dungeon, their eyes fell upon a heart-wrenching sight that stoked the fires of their anger. Innumerable cages lined the chamber, each containing a captive sea folk lying on wretched beds.

The seafolk prisoners were emaciated, their forms skeletal and frail, a stark testament to the inhumane conditions in which they had been kept. Chained and shackled, they bore the marks of their tormentors\' cruelty.

The sight of their brethren, suffering and deprived of their freedom, intensified the burning fury within Seadir, Sirenus, and Coraline. Hatred coursed through their veins, a determination to bring an end to this cruel injustice and to liberate their fellow sea folk from their nightmarish captivity.

"Wait, I will free them… silently," Rain declared.

Out of sheer reflexes, Seadir and his friends had planned to destroy the cages and the chains, but soon they realized that Rain had a point. They had to be cautious now.

Rain created keys to unlock the cages and chains using his earth magic. During that time, he found out that the prisoners had Needle marks on their bodies… he assumed that they had been drugged to keep them unconscious, and needles had also been used to take their blood.

After connecting all the pieces of information, Rain couldn\'t help but assume that the anti-magic substance was probably made using the blood of the sea folk. He had no idea why their blood could do that, but he could think about it later.

In any case, it seemed that most of the prisoners had been unconscious for months since they were pretty dirty. Seadir and his friends looked truly enraged… it was a relief that their people weren\'t being used like sex slaves, but that kind of situation was, in many aspects, worse… They were basically tools in the hands of humans.

One by one, Seadir and his friends moved the prisoners to the tunnel, and Rain made some carts using earth magic to move them with more ease. There were thirty of those there… and it seemed that a lot more people had been kidnapped than they had expected. Among them, there was a little girl that Seadir kept hugging during the whole time while biting his lips until they began to bleed.

When they finished the job, and Rain closed the tunnel and erased all traces of his actions. Three hours had passed, and in one hour, the sun was going to rise. Still, there was more work to be done.

"My friends work in an orphanage, and the enemies might be using them to make them betray me, so you will have to help me bring them here and move them to somewhere safe," Rain declared.

"We will help," Sirenus declared since Seadir was still trying to control his anger.

Come to think of it, Sirenus and Coraline didn\'t say anything until now. They only whispered among themselves during the trip. Still, they looked more serious and determined to truly help now that their people had been secured.

While drinking potions like there was no tomorrow, Rain dug a tunnel toward the orphanage and then readily connected it to the rooms of the kids. He couldn\'t believe that he was basically kidnapping kids to avoid them being used against his friends, but he didn\'t have time to think about that kind of thing.

Even more so when he confirmed that the place was being watched by a bunch of people outside in dark alleys.

"Man, they sure know how to be a massive pain in the ass…" Rain thought and then sighed.

In the end, Rain didn\'t have a hard time making the kids move while they were asleep. With a lot of potions at his disposal, literally hundreds of them, Rain just covered them in wind and made them fly to the tunnel. When they all woke up, he had sealed the holes and was far away from the orphanage.