A few hours passed and the group still rode as fast as they could towards the Secluded Valley. Krimisha was no longer visible, and one could hardly spot any animals wandering in that desolate place.
"Luna, use Alteration magic again and see if they're following us," Sariel said, using that opportunity to give her real experience with Alteration.
"Alright."
Focusing, the princess sensed around for a long time.
"There are about ten people about a mile and a half behind us."
"Do any of them have the Alteration element?"
"No."
"Excellent, you're doing well, but there are eleven people in total," Sariel said. "Now, let's discuss our plan of action."
"What are we going to do?" Ashoka asked. "The people might become hostile towards us if we try to stop the ritual."
"That's why we'll do everything stealthily. Of course, we'll have to interrupt the ritual so that people don't lose their souls, but we'll do it in a way that they don't suspect us."
"How will we do that?"
"I'll decide that once we assess the situation there, so let's focus on the most important part of all this."
"Finding the Sect behind this," Raymond said.
"Exactly, it's impossible for a small group to have done something so grand, so there's definitely a large Sect operating in the shadows, manipulating Sharaad and the entire kingdom."
"But how will we do that?" Ashoka asked. "The soldiers will protect the identities of these people with the utmost caution."
"Fortunately, we have the two necessary elements for this: with Alteration, we identify those who possess the Conjuration element, and with Illusion, we sneak among them."
"And what will we do after finding this Sect?"
"We will destroy it without letting anyone escape." Sariel's tone demonstrated conviction.
After this brief discussion, everyone continued the journey, focused on their objectives, when Luna noticed something.
"Those people stopped following us."
"Looks like we're getting close then."
A few more hours passed, and the sun eventually set. The moon began to rise higher and higher in the sky, when they finally spotted lights in the distance.
The terrain was even more rugged there, and it would be almost impossible to travel by horse if it weren't for the roads.
As they approached, they saw a crowd forming a long line on a staircase of hundreds of steps, at the end of which was a large temple carved into the rock of a hill.
They decided to stop a kilometer before the temple to analyze the situation from afar. Despite the distance, everyone there, except Ashoka, was able to perfectly see a rabbit hidden kilometers away.
At the entrance of the temple, it was possible to see several armed and alert guards, as well as some halfway up the climb who were frisking the people, but what drew the most attention were the people they were protecting, the performers of that ritual.
All wore relatively short clothes, revealing arms and legs full of paintings with purple ink. The content of the paintings resembled letters, but the language was completely unknown.
Some even had snakes coiling around their bodies, while others tapped a kind of wooden drum in a slow rhythm, accompanied by a ritualistic melody from a kind of flute.
However, there was a special figure among them. It was a bald and old man, so thin that his bones were clearly visible, and with a long, unkempt white beard. He wore only a loincloth and sat cross-legged on a kind of square altar made of dark stone, with purple torches illuminating each corner of it.
On his forehead, there was a circular purple stone that glowed almost like a third eye, and the paint that covered his body was entirely dark.
To his left and right, there were large wooden chests with hundreds of Conjuration stones.
The people approached him and knelt with palms joined in prayer. In response, the elder also joined his hands and whispered indiscernible words to the person kneeling before him.
Afterwards, a man beside him, likely an assistant, approached, picked up one of the stones, and placed it in the person's hands, who held the stone and prayed.
After a few seconds, the person opened their eyes with surprise and tears, thanking the sage for converting them and Shiva for answering some question that had always plagued them, or for curing some illness that magic was unable to cure.
"Luna," Sariel called.
"There are some people with the Alteration element, but they're not very strong. There's no one with Illusion."
"How powerful compared to Shiina?"
"She is much more powerful; it's like comparing an elephant to a mouse."
"Shiina, I need you to use Illusion magic in my place; make us invisible," the traveler said.
"Alright." The assassin concentrated for a brief moment. "Done."
Then the traveler closed his eyes and remained still for a few seconds. No one noticed at that moment, but Luna could clearly see the pink color of his Magical Power gradually changing to brown.
'So that's what it looks like when he changes elements…'
"Hold on tight." Sariel opened his eyes, which were now brown.
"What do you intend to do?" Ashoka asked.
"I'm going to shake things up a bit."
"Wait, don't tell me that..."
Then, a sudden tremor caught everyone by surprise, making them lose their balance and fall to the ground, searching for anything to hold onto.
"EARTHQUAKE! HOLD ON TIGHT AND AVOID STAYING UNDER ROCK FORMATIONS!" the guards shouted.
With the force of the tremor, rocks detached from the valley and fell forcefully to the ground, causing a risk of being buried.
After a few seconds, the earthquake became even stronger and a huge fissure opened where the sage was, and all the Conjuration stones near him fell into the abyss. The guards and assistants ignored the sage, who managed to survive thanks to his slow reflexes, and tried their best to prevent the stones from being lost, but only managed to save a few dozens.
After that, the tremor gradually subsided until it ceased completely.
Luna looked at Sariel again and noticed the color of his Magical Power, as well as his eyes, returning to pink.
"This will buy these people some extra time, but it's not a long-term solution." The traveler looked at the chaos in the distance. "Let's see how they'll react, and then we'll decide our plan."
After the initial shock, the guards quickly took control of the situation and instructed the people to be careful and wait, as another earthquake might still occur.
Shiina, invisible, approached the temple entrance while the rest of the group waited.
While they waited, the guards and sages discussed what they would do. As no other tremors occurred, they soon made up their minds and issued orders.
The group saw the people being guided by the guards to a path somewhat away from the temple.
Shiina returned shortly afterward to report what was happening.
"They decided to perform the ritual tomorrow. There's a path to the right of the temple entrance that leads to a campsite with some very simple houses, built exactly for that purpose."
"What shall we do?"
"We'll blend in with the people; it's possible that the guards in Krimisha informed the guards here about us. If we don't show up, they might become alert."
"I don't recommend that," Shiina objected. "Even though they don't have people with high Alteration power, they can still detect our disguise."
"That's why we'll use a trick, watch." Sariel closed his eyes again, and when he opened them, they were silver.
Luna tried to see his aura with Alteration, but noticed that his power was thousands of times weaker; she could only see a faint silver from his aura.
"Sariel, you..."
"Time to introduce you to the Sealing element, Luna." The traveler looked at her. "This element is the hardest to detect. Think of it this way: Illusion is the perfect element for physical disguise, while Sealing is perfect for hiding your Magical Power."
"Don't tell me you intend to seal us." Aegreon didn't seem happy at all with the turn of the conversation.
"Only partially, Raymond; I'll use him as a guinea pig." Sariel approached him.
"What? Wai—"
The traveler, however, held his arm firmly.
On his arm, silver words in an language unknown for everyone, except Luna, appeared on his skin, like a tattoo. Then, these words spread to his hand and, surprisingly, began to mark Raymond's skin, climbing up his arm and covering his entire body in what looked like silver chains.
Then, the words disappeared, leaving no marks.
"Luna, look at Raymond's power."
"I... I can barely see anything."
"Exactly. One of the things this element does is seal a person's Magical Power. You're not 'destroying' or anything like that; think of it as closing a faucet. You just prevent magic from flowing, and magic is like water: if it's moving, it's easy to detect, but if it's still, it's hard to detect."
"That's why we didn't know you were so strong, Your High- Luna."
"I understand, but... if this seals our power, then does that mean, like me, you won't be able to use magic?"
"Yes, that's why I'm going to partially seal your power, Luna, Raymond, and Aegreon, that way you can still use magic if things go south." Sariel looked at the assassin. "Shiina, use Illusion and alter Raymond's appearance."
"Ah... now I understand your plan, quite ingenious." The assassin quickly grasped the idea and did as told. "Little princess, look at your knight's power again."
"He's... wait, what? Pink, like Illusion?"
"Since Raymond's power is sealed, and Shiina is covering his body with her magic, then to the eyes of someone untrained or with low magical power, it appears that his element is Illusion."
"I see... it really might work..."
"Aegreon." Shiina looked at the Pillar. "I know what you must be thinking, but..."
"So be it..." He glared at the traveler with animosity, but, apparently, agreeing.
Sariel quickly partially sealed the power of Aegreon, Raymond, and Luna, then the group approached the temple and merged with the people.
Thanks to the confusion caused by the earthquake, the guards didn't notice them, nor did they try to confiscate their weapons, which were hidden with Shiina's illusion.
Following the path shown by the guards, the people and the group crossed a narrow passage surrounded by high stone walls on both sides.
The crossing lasted about half an hour, as there were many people moving along a narrow path, and the campsite was relatively far from there.
Finally, the narrow passage opened up and revealed a circular area the size of a village with houses built of brown stone. The walls of the passage still rose very high around that place, like a wall, so it was not possible to see what was nearby.
"This way! Choose where you want to stay in an organized manner." The guards patiently guided the people, when they finally noticed Ashoka and the group. "Ah, Your Majesty, I didn't expect your presence here. Who are they?"
"Ah, they... are here to see Sharaad," the King Emeritus said nervously.
"I understand. Indeed, Shiva's knowledge is something many desire." The guard seemed to have understood something completely different from what Ashoka said. "Will you also convert, Your Majesty?"
"Er... yes!"
"Oh, this will greatly please your wife and son. However, I must apologize, there are no appropriate quarters for Your Majesty."
"No need to apologize; what matters is that it serves as temporary housing."
"You are very kind. Why don't you stay in one of the closest houses? That way, you'll be the first to convert tomorrow." The guard pointed to one of the houses nearest the passage they had come from.
"Yes! Of course! Thank you very much," Ashoka thanked as he walked to where the guard pointed.
Following the King Emeritus, the group headed towards the small house and left their horses outside. As soon as they entered, they realized it was a small dwelling with only three rooms: the entrance hall, the bedroom, and a bathroom.
Any furniture or decorations were knocked over or out of place due to the earthquake caused by Sariel, but there was no apparent damage there. The bedroom could only fit three people, so some of them would have to sleep in the living room.
Or so Ashoka thought would happen, but the traveler had other plans.
"Luna..."
"We are being constantly watched."
"So, they'll make sure we don't leave... They'll probably even check during the night to see if everything's alright."
"That means we can't leave, because even if we leave with an illusion, they'll eventually come in here and realize we're gone," Raymond said. "What will we do?"
"There's only one option." Sariel looked at Aegreon. "I can use the Illusion gem that Aegreon possesses and, with Sealing magic, create an automatic illusion that will remain active even with everyone outside."
"Wait, an Illusion gem?" Raymond asked. "How did you get that?"
"Yaxun gave it to me as thanks for the help he owed me years ago." He looked at the traveler with an irritated gaze. "Do you really think I'll fall for your trick and waste my Gem?"
"It will remain active for only a few hours; it won't be depleted."
The Pillar stared deeply at the traveler, then finally pulled a large pink gem, slightly larger than his hand, from under his cloak and tossed it to the traveler.
"Luna, time to learn about the second use of Sealing, which I personally find more interesting." Sariel walked to the bedroom, followed by the others. "Activating magic on its own."
"Sealing, besides being an element difficult to detect, is excellent at interacting with other elements, being most widely used in the creation of magical diagrams.
"The way Sealing works is through stones. For example, with a Sealing stone, a Fire stone, and an Alteration stone, it's possible to create an explosive magic that activates once someone is nearby.
"The way this works is as follows: The Sealing stone is the brain that dictates orders to the other stones. When the Alteration stone detects a magical aura from a person nearby, the Sealing stone forces the Fire stone to explode, all of this is completely automatic and without the need for the oversight of the creator of this arrangement, as long as the diagram was properly created.
"That's why Sealing is represented by words, because words dictate the necessary orders. However, these arrangements can be deactivated; if a person deciphers the words used, they are able to break the magic without the Fire stone exploding. Therefore, there are numerous ways to encrypt Sealing magic, making it difficult and impossible to deactivate an arrangement."
"A Magic Gem is nothing more than a stone with more concentrated power, therefore it works the same way." Sariel extended his open palm, and an intense silver glow concentrated on his hand. "Since we don't have a Sealing stone, I will create one now."
The silver light in his hand condensed, almost as if it were something solid, taking on the shape of an octahedron, the shape every refined magic stone has.
The glow ceased, and on the palm of his hand was a silver Sealing stone about three centimeters in size.
Then, holding the Illusion gem on his left hand and the Sealing stone on his right, silver words covered both for a few seconds with a chain connecting both, then the stones returned to their normal appearance, with no sign of the silver words.
The words were unknown to everyone but Luna who, without knowing how, understood their meaning.
Some of the words the princess saw included assidue, semper, incantio, alucinatio, obiectum, stabilis, and somnum, but there were so many words she couldn't see all of them.
But there was something special about the word somnum, for each letter that formed it seemed to be made of other words, so small that it was impossible to read them.
"Those are words in the Angelic language, right? I don't think anyone here will be able to decipher them, but..." Shiina was cautious about Sariel's setting.
"The simpler the 'code' the faster to finish it, if I were to encrypt it, it would be almost impossible to decode, but it takes quite some time, and, although we aren't exactly in a rush, the faster we solve things the better."
He concentrated for a few more seconds.
"All set." He placed both the gem and the stone together under the bed. "As you could see, Luna, the words still exist on the stones, but you cannot see them, not even with Alteration."
"You're right, it really is undetectable." She then remembered something from earlier.
"Let's sneak out and look for Sharaad. The gem's magic is already active; anyone who enters will see an illusion that we are all sleeping, and there's no one with Alteration nearby, now." Sariel headed to the entrance.
"I'll handle our invisibility." Shiina approached the traveler. "We can go without problems, as long as we ignore anyone with Illusion or Alteration, but since you and Luna can see that for us, then we are completely safe."
"Can we really just walk around without being seen?" Ashoka was insecure.
"As long as you stay with us, let's go now."
Upon leaving, they noticed that only a few people were arriving at the camp; most of the people had already settled into a house.
Then, with Shiina's illusion, the group returned without difficulty along the path they had come to the Svarga temple, undetected by anyone.