CHAPTER 123: ATTACK ON FREEHOLD (2)

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but in this case, it was still very possible to be found. This was especially true if their pursuers had a standardized method for tracking the coordinates they had already searched. It would only be a matter of time. Without a way to move around— without a way to change their position without triggering a disturbance their pursuers would detect, they were bound to be found eventually.

She looked at Zephyr staring at her intently before the question he’d previously asked replayed in her head again.

"Oh! Yes. Yes." She nodded. "I can’t handle those spell models myself, but father created a translator? kind of...? that talks with the advanced spell models holding this space up," she said with a slight tinge of pride to her voice.

"A translator...?" Zephyr was a bit taken aback. "You mean he created a spell model that can take the calculations and translate them into instructions for the advanced spell models to follow?!"

"Yes." Komi replied a bit smugly. "This is his greatest achievement... My father is a genius..."

’Isn’t that like a CPU somewhat?’ Zephyr sent a query to Aegis immediately, but Aegis seemed to be in a world of its own, doing its own thing. It didn’t reply for the time being.

’Aegis...?!’

’Dammit, Aegis, this is not the time for this. You know we need to correct the calculations soon—’ before he could even finish his train of thought, Aegis immediately sent the corrected calculations directly into his brain.

’Tch...’ Zephyr shook his head slightly. There were times like this that Aegis would just decide to hold out on him.

He turned his attention back to Komi who seemed a little bit down after talking about her father again. He could understand her distress, but there were more pressing issues at hand.

"Komi," he called her attention. "You know all this would be for naught if there is no sufficient mana to power this pocket space, right?"

"Oh... that’s not a problem," she pressed a hand against a small section of the shelf, and immediately, a cloaking spell model dismantled visibly before their eyes, revealing a small, golden crystal in a socket on a small pedestal. It deformed the space around it visibly, glowing with a pulsing intensity that weirdly made Zephyr feel very nostalgic and safe, like he was right at home.

He shook off the feeling, taking a wary step back and observing the crystal carefully.

He seen this before...

.

.

Back on the outside...

The residents of Freehold had rallied themselves into groups and teams of fighters. So far not a single higher-up had shown up since the chaos started, so even for the dumbest of them, it had become apparent that there was some serious ploy at play.

They stormed the city hall, attacking anyone that looked suspicious on sight. The whole ground floor devolved into a chaotic mess of people killing each other left and right. Even a few innocents were caught in the crossfire.

But before things could get even worse, they were all stopped by the intense shakes of the building. Dust and debris began to fall from the higher floors and sounds of an intense battle were heard. Suddenly, a woman crashed right through the ceiling with a sickening thud on the marble floor, leaving a bloodied crater below. Dead on impact.

"Administrator!" A man from the crowd subconsciously cried out in disbelief before he was flash burned by an intense fire spell as someone else burst through the hole in the ceiling.

It was Veronica.

She landed in the ruined, barely recognizable ground floor with a murderous look in her eye, scanning the crowd like they were prey.

Within a short moment, four more people were flash burned within the crowd, barely able to let out a scream before they were dead.

"Madam Veronica, spare us! We’re on your side!" the crowd yelled in fear. Was she attacking people randomly?!

"Calm yourselves, the traitors are still—" She started to say, but abruptly dodged to the side just as an ice spear that was intended to skewer her on the spot, hurtled past, grazing her side slightly.

Before she even landed, she had activated a concealing spell model and returned a flurry of attacks, disappearing into the fog she’d created.

Within that short exchange, twelve bystanders died instantly from being run through by the ice spears being flung around at blistering speeds.

"Oh? You dodged it... Well I guess you’re not called a talent just for nothing..." her attacker, Lionel, squinted at the obscuring fog in search of where she hid.

"Elder Lionel!" one of the bystanders who was feeling particularly indignant roared in pain and anger, "You’re one of them?! You’re one of these traitorous bastards?!" he charged at Lionel who looked flabbergasted, trying to place the young man’s face to remember if he was actually someone he knew.

"I LOOKED UP TO YOU!"

"Oh... you’re the baker’s boy..." Lionel scoffed in realization, readying himself to meet the young man’s stupid but brave dash. He sidestepped like an experienced fighter, weaving under the young man’s swing, and catching his side totally open. Within that split second, the young man braced for the blow he was certain to receive, but instead of a blow, he only felt a light touch. "Huh—"

Poof

His body instantly blipped out of reality like he never existed in the first place. It was sudden and immediate. Without any build up whatsoever. Almost like he’d been deleted from existence.

The other brave onlookers who were spurred on by the young man’s mad dash and had charged right behind him skidded to a stop and fell immediately in terror, trying to scramble back to the safety of the crowd behind them.

But it was too late for them.

Within the same movement, Lionel lunged straight at their prone figures, slapping each of them out of existence, striking further fear in the crowd behind which had scattered in a mad haste.

All previous anger and bravado had been replaced by absolute terror and a will to just survive. Some people fell and were stomped on without care, dying in the most humiliating way possible.

Lionel stopped his dash after taking out five more people. He simply stood watching them flee in panic and disorder.

He spread his arms wide, grinning at the display before his eyes. "This is what you are! This is what you all truly are! Animals that need to be led by—"

Whoosh

He tilted his head slightly, dodging a spell directed at him.

"Shut your mouth you fucking bastard! Nobody wants to hear you blabber your fucking pious crap!" Veronica spat, locking her gaze intently on Lionel who had turned to face her squarely.

"Tut tut tut, I thought you had escaped," he shook his head lightly, laughing. "You do know you can never win against me, right?"

"But I can hold you here till help arrives." Intricate spell models began to materialize in the air around Veronica, stacking on each other as she readied herself for a fight to the death.

"Help?" Lionel guffawed. "Ahh, hope... what a beautiful but dangerous thing" all traces of his previous smile suddenly vanished from his face and he stared at her with a chilling look, "No help is coming for you Veronica. Not from the Old One, not from Maximus, not from any Elder or even the Overseer..." he walked towards her domineeringly. "Right now, only you are the last strongest person left in the whole Freehold Sanctuary! Do you think I did not take everything into consideration!" he roared. "The whole of Freehold is fully under my control!!"

As if to further make the situation worse, it was at this moment a terrible might descended on the whole of the Freehold Sanctuary. Every single person felt a tyrannical oppressive might press on them, sending an intense feeling of certain death and helplessness through their bodies.

A calamity had arrived.