Near the start of Kayn's battle with Grog, Sevrin had just finished sweeping over the western area and was flying south. This was to check in with Mo and also scan the area for himself. There was plenty of life to the south, but none of it interested him nor was it his target as far as he could tell.
He attempted to use his mental connection to reach out to Mo, but when he didn't receive a response, he assumed that he wasn't close enough yet. He pulled out his communication crystal which was connected with all of the others and tried to connect with Mo through it, but again there was no response.
"Hmm, did he sniff out a village we haven't located to feast on or something? Well, whatever. As long as he doesn't take long, and the research material doesn't escape it's fine." Sevrin shrugged his shoulders as he continued scanning the southern area.
While he was in the western region, he noticed a large storm front pick up in the eastern area where Elvira was, but since it was just a weather system, she would be fine. However, he then decided to only glance over the southern area in order to check on her quicker and make sure she was okay.
It wasn't that he had feelings for her, but she was a treasured subordinate who had been with him longer than all but Jova. He also enjoyed 'rewarding' her, so if in the off chance that something did happen to her, her loss would be felt.
As he made his way to the western region that Elvira was searching, he began hearing noises in the distance. The sounds of trees being destroyed one after another while the occasional menacing roar erupted resounded throughout the area. Sevrin shook his head as he knew that Grog was an imbecilic brute, and that it was probably just chasing some rune beast that had provoked it.
He was hundreds of kilometers away from Grog, so he could only sigh at how loud he was being. He might even receive complaints from the 5th and 6th stage 'allies' who were stationed adjacent to his area of control. Noting to scold the hulking idiot later, he tried reaching out to Elvira now that he should be within her region.
He again received no response, not even on the communication crystal. However, unlike Mo, he decided to use the tracking function this time that he installed in all of the crystals he gave out to his commanders.
What he found caused the flames of undeath to burn with rage in his eye sockets, completely erasing the fleshly eyeballs he usually wore. In front of him was the semi-melted body of Elvira. She looked far worse than when Kayn left her to drop to the ground as she fell directly into a puddle of water that formed from Kayn's storm.
Upon inspection, she also had a hole straight through her chest. He expected to feel disappointed at losing such a faithful commander, but what he didn't expect to feel was rage at her death and sorrow for her loss. Did he actually care for her? They were both among the unliving and he had long discarded useless emotions, so why did he feel this way?
He could reanimate her body once more, but she wouldn't be her, and he knew it. The flesh may be living once again, but the soul was spoiled. One of the most important aspects one needs to know to ascend is having a basic understanding of the soul, their own specifically. As an undead and a lich, the soul was a major topic of study for him.
Over the years he learned that after death, a soul could potentially linger around its old body for thousands of years before dispersing. However, the stability and sanity of the resurrected soul depended on how strong they were in life and how long they had been dead.
Jova had been dead for thousands of years before Sevrin stumbled upon his tomb, but he was formidable when he was alive. He was a powerful and intelligent undead now, but he didn't speak much and was emotionless, only having said a single phrase since coming back to life. "Yes Master."
Jova's mind was there, and he was aware of his surroundings and situation, but he had lost his ability to form words and speak. Elvira on the other hand had been dead for only around a decade, and her rage and desire for revenge brought her back many folds stronger than she was when she was alive, even retaining her memories and emotions.
However, Sevrin knew that a soul could only be brought back once, but he didn't know why. This was one of his major topics of research and he had spent millennia trying to learn the secrets of the soul.
Realizing that perhaps he made a mistake in his assumptions about Grog, he launched into the sky in the northern direction while calling Jova and ordering him to head north towards the sounds of battle.
Grog had been making noise for several hours now and had even traveled quite far north chasing whatever was making him angry. Sevrin didn't think Grog would actually perish to anything out here, but he didn't expect Elvira to be killed either.
He also assumed that whoever killed her had probably killed Mo as well. His commanders were being systematically assassinated right under his nose! This was unacceptable! Had he become too relaxed at how easy things were as of late? Was he too distracted at getting his hands on such a prime material that he threw all caution to the wind?
Just who was killing off his commanders? Surely it wasn't the material as they were too weak. It wasn't able to put up any resistance once it was spotted and only just barely escaped. Then who?
Was it the spear bitch? Yes! It had to be her! She was the only one he knew of that wasn't tied up inside of Palatine and would have the patience to wait until his commanders separated from him in order to methodically kill them off.
Fortunately, she wouldn't be able to kill Grog anytime soon. Even if she was at the peak of the 6th stage, killing his monstrous creation was no easy feat. Not even he himself was positive of killing Grog on his own without cheating.
He had to admit that Grog was weak to the light element, and he knew that the spear woman was a light element wielder, but she used it more for illusions to compliment her spear techniques. It wasn't offensive light that injured his abomination either, only healing light spells could harm him, and he didn't think she could use the light element in such a manner.
As he was nearing the battle in the distance, he became close enough to utilize his life sensing spell and immediately noticed that the person Grog was chasing was indeed the material he was after. Fortunately, Grog wasn't being targeted by whoever had killed Elvira and Mo, but he was just chasing down the target in which he was sent to find.
Finally, something was going his way! Until it wasn't.
As he was gaining distance on the battle, to his horror, a massive pillar-like beam of ominous golden-black light descended from the sky and created such a massive impact that he could feel the blow back from his position.
Not long after the impact, he heard a loud thunderclap noise and the material he thought was weak ,but unique, vanished from his senses faster than he could track.
He decided not to pursue it right away though as he didn't know which direction it went, nor did he think that he could catch up with the speed at which the material launched off. Plus, he was too flabbergasted by the scene in front of him to think properly. In all his hundreds of thousands of years, he had never witnessed something like what was in front of him now.
The area around the impact was destroyed, trees uprooted and blown over, boulders the size of houses moved from the spot they had sat for centuries, but that wasn't what stunned him.
Inside the area that he expected to be devastated, life was abundant! It was as if magical rain had fallen only on this circular zone, creating a haven for the living. From plants to animals to insects, anything that had life was thriving. Even if all of the animals were currently not moving due to relishing in their new renewed life, Sevrin knew what was happening. Every animal glowed brightly as if they were being reborn according to his life sensing spell.
There was no trace within this circular perimeter of anything dead. No dead animals, no dead plants, no dead trees, not even a single dead insect! It was like everything which was alive when the beam struck was healed to the maximum, and anything dead was erased from existence. Like being dead or decaying within the beam's zone was a sin, all of the taint was purged.
"Just what was that spell?" Sevrin asked out loud. Despite his knowing that Grog was most definitely within that beam and is now long gone, he became even more determined to catch his prey.
If he could only capture this one material, it would make up for the three he lost by far! If he could force it to retain its memories and abilities when he converted it, then all that knowledge, all those secrets, would be his!
"I must have it!" Sevrin clenched his fists in excitement. He doubted that it could use such a devastating spell again anytime soon, now was the time to capture it!
He quickly gave mental commands to Jova and his best guess to the target's direction before flying off in that direction as well. Surely, it would have been drained from that attack and then subsequently using a spell to escape, and he would find it before it could recover!