Alpha's Rejected Mate Returns as Queen

321 Teleportation

Selma Payne’s POV:

Although the wanderers were brutal, they could not do much after years of attacks, and their methods were even worse. As soon as Dorothy and Master Kevin entered the elf forest, they detected an extremely obvious evil aura. This was not something that the wanderers could have left behind. The only explanation was that they had colluded with an organization like a cult, witches, and wizards.

This was not good news. Children were traditional and popular ‘materials’ for them, be it a cult, an evil witch, or a wizard. Once the missing orphans became sacrifices or experimental materials for the evil sacrifice, they would be in danger.

“This group of b*stards.”

I couldn’t help but curse at the wanderers who took away the orphans. I scoffed at their hypocritical words and despicable actions.

Attacking packs today, assassinating nobles and officials the next day, and bombing hospitals or schools the day after tomorrow were how the wanderers did things. They said they wanted to overthrow oppression, demonstrate to the rulers, and awaken the people’s consciousness. Wasn’t the flowery excuse just a disguise for his behavior of accumulating wealth and power?

What kind of demonstration would require the cooperation of cults, evil wizards, and witches? What kind of awakening would require the sacrifice of innocent children?

“Step up the search,” I ordered my team members. “Find these hidden wild dogs and make them pay for what they have done!”

Following the evil aura, we easily found the first clue. It was not even noon yet.

On a ramp outside the elf forest, Master Kevin found a sacrificial array drawn with blood. From the runes on the edge, it pointed to an old acquaintance of mine – the deep sea demon, Leviathan.

Not only that, but the blood used for the drawing was human blood. Through the test, there was a high probability that it came from ‘an innocent and pure individual’.

Which meant children.

Fortunately, we did not find any bodies of children in the surroundings. Master Kevin and Dorothy did not find death energy on the array either. This meant that the wanderers were most likely only taking blood and not killing.

As we continued to venture deeper, what I saw and heard along the way made me feel that something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

At noon, the search team took a break. The team members were on high alert, disguising themselves and preparing lunch. Everything was in order, but there were still some traces of chaos.

Wait, traces?

I quickly recalled what I had seen and heard along the way and suddenly realized what was wrong. It was too clean and too calm. The traces we found from the wanderers were mostly scattered and small.

However, when he thought about it carefully, how could a team of Motley troops lead a group of undisciplined children running for their lives in such a hurry? They couldn’t clean the place as they walked, even restoring the grass and flowers to their original state. If that were the case, they probably wouldn’t be more than a kilometer away.

A certain thought formed in my mind, and I immediately asked for confirmation. “Master Kevin, have you figured out what the formation is for?”

Master Kevin shook his head. “I’ve never seen an array like this. It seems to be a combination of several evil sacrifices. I still need time to crack it. But so far, I’ve managed to separate a few more obvious elements related to exchange and space.”

“Exchange and space, what does that mean?”

“The former is an element that exists in most evil sacrifices. As the name implies, it is to use sacrifices to exchange for some reward with the pointed evil god. Some ancient runes would use them to form a magic circuit that exchanges space. In layman’s terms, it’s similar to the ability to teleport and retrieve objects from a distance.”

It was exactly what I thought!

The wanderers had obtained some teleportation ability through Leviathan, allowing them to travel at high speed without leaving any traces. But at the same time, there should be more harsh conditions and cooldown time. They could not always rely on this ability, as the subtle traces left along the way were proof.

This was bad news for us. We could no longer use common sense to predict the escape speed of the wanderers, let alone plan their route. They might have even left the elf forest.

I immediately informed my father of this possibility and asked him to step up the search in the werewolf territory. In addition, we must continue the search in the elf forest. At the very least, we had to confirm that there were no wanderers here.

Over the next few days, we discovered a few more evil sacrificial arrays identical to the first. It seemed that it was not easy to deal with the demons. At least, judging from the distance between our formations, Leviathan’s appetite was growing bigger.

We thoroughly searched the elf forest on this side of the border but didn’t find anything. After extending the range for a while, there was not even a trace left, which meant that the wanderers had fled, either taking the risk to advance into the elven territory or fleeing back to the werewolf territory.

No matter how unwilling I was, I could only helplessly announce that the team was leaving. However, an unexpected problem suddenly occurred before we could get far.

The elves had discovered our tracks.