Liam, under the direction of the organisation, continued doing trivial work like patrolling the area or ensuring that the cave was uninhabited for a while. In exchange, he would receive books—a few about the tales of elementalists and their adventures, others about the geography of the continent, etc.
For Liam, these books were a route of escapism on an otherwise barren island. Lia, on the one hand, seemed to possess knowledge way beyond the scope of a mutated beast, but at the same time, she was ignorant of the common culture and ways of the world; thus, even she would take a keen interest in the books.
To the Crimsons, Liam was a prodigy, achieving the status of a level-1 elementalist on his own in a barren land. Thus, they started brainwashing him via propaganda books and speeches.
Eventually, they inducted him into the organisation and started sending him books on Earth elements. Liam was fascinated by the idea of attending the university and dreamed of one day attending the best university, along with Lia.
After several years, the organisation started sending him nefarious missions involving interrogation and murder. Random people weaker than him would be sent to the cave, and Liam was tasked to either kill or torture them for information.
In a way, Liam had come to terms with the assignments given to him and, with Lia's help, would easily complete the tasks. Today, he was contacted by the organization to kill a certain paralyzed kid who would be arriving in the cave using their usual method.
Liam was excited about this assignment as he had been promised by the organisation that he would be sent to the academy after this particular task.
In his excitement, Liam stayed awake the entire night as sleep eluded him. He talked about his life with Lia and how much they would enjoy each other's company in the academy at length, but due to his overenthusiasm, he was late for the same task.
He was currently running at full speed towards the cave where Axel had just had his encounter with Lilith. Axel was unaware of the looming threat that he would soon face.
As Liam reached closer to the cave, Lia warned him of the elemental particles at unrest near the cave. Lia could not see the elemental particles like Lilith, but the chaos in the elemental energies was evident to her.
Liam, too, noticed something amiss but could not pinpoint the exact problem at hand. As he went near the entrance of the cave, he and Lia were constantly monitoring the surrounding area.
They were alarmed by the elemental unrest and the feeling of danger that they had never experienced before.
Liam, still careful of his surroundings, made his way to the only narrow entrance of the cave. The vibe was eerie, but still, he knew this was a task that he had to complete. His days of joy and fulfilment were waiting for him, and this boy was the only one in his way.
While carefully entering the cave, Liam noticed a ringing sound coming from within the cave structure.
'Liam, be careful, someone might be intentionally creating those sounds. You need to....' Liam could hear Lia's sweet but alarmed voice inside his head.
But before she could complete her sentence, a bright light shone onto them, immediately blinding them out of nowhere.
Taken aback by the sudden light, Liam closed his eyes and started feeling the earth, trying to pinpoint the intruder and understand his surroundings using the powers of his element.
He felt a subtle vibration coming from his left and started waving his hands, forming symbols to manipulate the earth. A small cone of land about 15 cm in length started levitating from the area nearby and, within moments, shot at incredible speed towards the area from where Liam had felt the vibrations.
The cone-shaped arrow struck its intended target, and a small explosion was carried out in the vicinity. Liam stopped feeling the vibration, but still was not sure if the intended culprit had been dealt with.
But he soon realised that the culprit was still there, as the beam of light was still on them. Liam then tried moving out of the way of the light, but the beam of light followed him. Liam decided to separate from Lia in an attempt to find and hunt the one causing them the trouble.
As Lia started getting off of Liam, the beam of light suddenly stopped. Liam and Lia opened their eyes at the same time, and suddenly, a shadow leapt onto them. Liam was extremely surprised as he expected Lia to at least sense if someone or something was nearby, but the shadow had come out of nowhere and looked threatening.
Liam immediately used his skill and constructed an earthen dome all around him to defend against the shadow attacking them. The usage of skill was instantaneous, unlike the hand-weaving gestures that he used to conjure the earth bullet, but his skill was a defensive earthen dome; thus, he had to resort to other ways to use his element.
After a few seconds, he noticed that the shadow was nowhere to be seen; thus, he let go of his skill, and the earthen dome shattered. Liam, still reeling from the assault, again tried to use his element to detect the vibrations nearby, but to no avail.
Suddenly, an intensely blinking beam of light assaulted their eyes once again, which irritated Liam and Lia extremely. Seeing that they were once again in a stalemate, Liam prepared to use one of his lethal moves and took a wide stance, waving his hands in long and wavy patterns.
Before he could finish his move, a shadow again emerged and attacked from the front. Again, a wave of bewilderment passed through him as Lia was unable to detect the shadow once again, but instead of changing his stance, he continued to execute his move.
Lia, sensing Liam's feelings, was annoyed and intercepted the shadow by whipping her tail at the shadow.