Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

The very thought sent shivers down his spine, and he hesitated to delve too deeply into it. The implications of the king\'s motivations were deeply unsettling, and Rain knew that letting his mind dwell on them would only stoke the fires of his anger. He couldn\'t imagine how much worse it must be for Seadir and his friends, who had even more personal stakes in this situation.

For now, Rain resolved to keep his focus on the immediate challenges ahead, but the unsettling mysteries surrounding the king\'s actions continued to gnaw at the back of his mind, a dark cloud hanging over their already precarious situation.

"You are right… you should look for them; try to check the places that Joanis will head to," Branden said. "You also need to check your sisters and friends as soon as possible. After that, checking the orphanage where your friends lived is the best option. They will probably try to use the kids there to make your friends betray you."

"Well, I considered all that already," Rain said. "Are you certain that you don\'t want to escape?"

"Yes… this is for the best," Branden replied.

"All right then… until later," Rain said, and then he closed the hole.

Before long, Rain was back in the tunnel with the others. They studied him for a moment while he was deep in thought.

Instead of following Joanis, it would be much better to just use all of his magic in the city. He still had some potions left, and now that he was basically at war, Rain didn\'t have to hold back anymore. It was a civil war, and he was planning to use all of his options.

Rain touched the ground with both hands and then began to focus. Before long, he used all of his mana to check the whole city. Everything that was made of earth, he was able to sense things around those things.

Rain felt his head being overloaded as he felt the presence of every single person in the city; it was like trying to read hundreds of books at once in a small window of time. Still, he persisted, and his hard work paid off… Rain found some presence of those that had similar auras to Seadir and the others.

"What are you doing?" Seadir asked when Rain got up.

"I found your friends, let\'s go," Rain replied.

"You could have done this from the very beginning?" Seadir glared at him.

"Yeah, I could, but that would leave me a bit exposed," Rain said. "I don\'t have time now, so I will take my chances of fighting you now that I have low mana. What are you going to do?"

It had become painfully evident to Seadir and his friends that the humans, particularly their king, were now their enemies. The rage and frustration building within them urged them to take drastic measures, to exact vengeance upon those responsible for the kidnappings and the king\'s ominous plans.

In their minds, they believed that the humans had to be held accountable for allowing such a ruler to continue unchecked, making them complicit in their crimes. The desire for retribution burned within them, yet they were also aware of the complexities of the situation.

Amidst their anger and thirst for justice, Seadir and his friends understood that not all humans were their enemies. They recognized the importance of not acting recklessly until they had secured the release of their fellow seafolk prisoners.

If Rain was genuinely on their side, it made little sense to engage in hostilities against him, as he could prove to be a valuable ally in their pursuit of justice and freedom. The delicate balance between vengeance and rationality hung in the air, a decision they would have to make as they navigated the treacherous path ahead.

"Our pact still lasts… we will cooperate with you as long as we rescue the prisoners and find the culprits," Seadir said after a long sigh.

They already found the culprits and things couldn\'t end in a peaceful manner anymore, but there were other things that they could do to get what they wanted. In the end, Rain nodded since they weren\'t that stupid and that it was rare to find people like that who weren\'t brainwashed by wars and the desires of their authorities.

After using his remaining potions. Rain began to dig a tunnel to another part of the city and while he would soon be out of mana and without potions, that wasn\'t a problem… because the sea folk prisoners were also quite close to a large concentration of mana potions and Rain focused on finding the location of those as well.

"I was planning on leaving some money behind to pay for the potions, but it seems that I will have the chance to make Joanis lose a lot of hair," Rain thought while smirking. "He probably bought all the spiritual potions in the capital to make sure that I wouldn\'t have the chance to use them in case his traps didn\'t work on me… what a cunning bastard."

It was nothing but amazing the speed that Rain could work while digging with his magic. He used his hands to save some, and in order to help their friends faster, Seadir and his friends used water magic to make the ground wet and softer. That increased the digging speed even more, but Rain ended up covered in mud.