Chapter 194: Learning the Truth (2/2)

However, Naiads were rare and the few that existed were hard to find. They were powerful beings that could live forever as long as they were connected to any life source which meant they did not necessarily need their original source to survive.

Because of this, it seems one of the Great Five families had wanted her for something and had destroyed her lake in an attempt to capture her. It would seem that those two that had sneaked into the castles must've been from that original family. This meant the Brimstone family were the ones responsible for this as Tyler had confirmed their involvement in this attack which meant Mammon did not move completely on his own.

Still, their attack hadn't succeeded in Erin's capture as she was rescued by Albert who then performed a soul-binding ritual that connected their souls and made him her temporary source because, without any part of her original source, she would be unable to make a new natural connection.

In essence, they became somewhat of a married couple since he was a kid because they needed to regularly be near one another every so often. While Tyler found that weird. It was still mighty impressive for a kid like that to be so willing to make such a sacrifice in order to save someone's life.

Converting his age in human terms he would be around 12 or 13 and Tyler couldn't remember what he was doing around that age but he surely wasn't m going around sacrificing his future for people.

Indeed, what he had done was a sacrifice as it rapidly drained his own life force and hinders his growth. He was a Tier 5 Magic swordsman but his strength even after all this time was still lacking. This was because he could not reach his potential when supplying energy for two living beings.

Due to the soul-binding effect on his mana, he had been unable to learn any high-tiered spells and even high ranking skills as his mana would instantly run dry if he did that. In order to become as strong as he was now he had solely relied on just Secret Techniques.

His determination had allowed him to master more than 10 when even more powerful demon lords couldn't master one. However, for some reason unknown to him, their souls that were bound to each other had been severed and since then, Erin's life force had been too weak for her to regain consciousness.

”Why do you think the connection was broken?”

”I'm not exactly sure sire. At first, I thought those two had attacked her soul directly and she broke the connection to protect me but that is impossible as it requires the permission of both parties to break such a bind.”

”I see.” Tyler contemplated the issue. It would be incredibly bad if he allowed Erin to die as not only was she a valuable member of his little faction but she was also their only healer. He needed to figure out a way to get her to regain her life force but it didn't seem like a soul-binding ritual would be possible in her current state.

Plus, he couldn't use Potential Break on something like her lifeforce so the only way to save her right now was to find her a new source. However, without any amount of water from her previous lake, she could not make a new natural connection.

”If I may sire.”

Tyler raised his head and saw Z standing there almost as though he had the solution.

”What's up. Do you have an answer to this?”

”Well not exactly. From what Sir Albert just explained I can infer that the connection between them broke because the two that attacked her most likely had a sealed portion of water from her lake and in the presence of that, her lifeforce would have no choice but to be retired to its original source.”

”I see... that makes sense.”

”However, I've had the entirety of the main hall searched but it seems like it may have been destroyed during their death.”

Tyler frowned, if that was the case, didn't that mean he had been the one who destroyed it. Realizing this, Z tried to explain himself properly as Rain glared at him but Tyler just waved him off. There was no need to sugar coat it, his anger hadn't let him give those two the chance to speak as the Dark Garuda had promptly dispatched of them.

'Wait.'

A thought suddenly flashed in his head as he thought of that monster. At some point during the battle, it had handed something over to him before it charged in to kill one of Mammon's generals.

Tyler then reached into the air and pulled out a small bottle that contain extremely clear liquid. ”Is this it?”

There was no mistaking it, this bottle contained dense amounts of nature's essence so Tyler had originally thought it was some kind of potion although he hadn't put much thought into why the Dark Garuda had given it to him at the time.

However, looking at Albert's reaction, there was no doubt this was part of Erin's source and if the Dark Garuda was just another mindless summon, it would've surely destroyed it alongside those two. That monster must've realized what it was after a single glance at Erin while Tyler had failed to make such an observation.

What a frightening creature. This just meant he had much to learn.

”So... What do we do with this?”