CHAPTER 124: ATTACK ON FREEHOLD (3)

The feeling of death pressed down on every single inhabitant of Freehold, halting every movement totally. But after a split second, the feeling disappeared as abruptly as it had come.

Lots of people, especially the non-combatants hiding in safeholds, fell to the ground gasping for breath in terror. Even the fighters had a hard time standing, as they tried to steady their rapid heartbeats.

It had been only a split second. They’d all felt that aura for a split second, and yet they were all this shaken.

Lionel, who was about to finish off Veronica after his speech frowned in shock, before a realization dawned on him and he made a short spatial jump out of the building and into the open, staring up at the sky above.

Every single person out in the open was doing the same as he was. They all stared up at the figure that floated in the sky beyond the barrier that had just relieved them of that oppressive aura.

Without a doubt, this figure was the source of the earlier oppression. His figure looked tiny in the sky because of the distance, but that tiny figure struck a deep fear in their hearts as they watched.

Exalted.

The word crossed the minds of everyone watching.

This was an Exalted in the flesh. It was the natural conclusion that they all came to without needing to be told.

They all watched the sky above him darken rapidly, turning the previously bright midday basically into dusk.

"An Exalted One..." Lionel whispered lightly with a soft gaze in his eyes as he stared up above. "After so long... I can look upon an Exalted One again..." tears flowed down his eyes.

Veronica, who had come out to see the source of the earlier oppression, heard his whisper and sank to her knees in despair, clutching her bleeding side while staring up at the sky.

A massive pillar of what looked to be pure chaotic destruction formed rapidly with the wave of the man’s hand, growing larger until it reached a terrifying size.

With a drop of his hand, the man sent the massive pillar of chaos at the barrier that was swirling with advanced arcane symbols.

A cry of panic filled the whole sanctuary as everyone from wherever they stood, saw the impending destruction heading right towards them. Even Lionel’s pious expression flickered and he frowned, teleporting out of the area.

Veronica, who was left behind, replayed Lionel’s earlier words to her over and over in her head. No one had actually come out till now. All the powerful mages. The Old One. Sage Maximus. The elders...

Even the lower council that had Grandmaster Oswald, Jon, and the others...

Where were they all? Why had it been so easy? Was this what the Freehold Sanctuary amounted to? Was this how all the centuries of work so many great minds had poured their life into would be destroyed...?

She cut a lonely figure, kneeling on the ground amidst ruined buildings and debris, looking around at everyone running for cover like hiding under a building was going to magically save them from the terrifying spell incoming.

She sighed, resigning herself to fate as she stared up at the sky, watching as the spell made impact on the barrier.

The barrier itself glowed and shook violently from the intense might the spell carried. On the microscopic level, the chaotic spell violently shredded at the space around the barrier, making it extremely unstable.

The only reason the barrier held was because it was being reconstructed at a rate faster than the destruction that was occurring on the microscopic level.

Veronica stared up at it with blank eyes. A part of her marveled at the display of power. This was one Exalted against the millennium of their own knowledge and power... one man against their thousand years of knowledge and power... and they seemed to be losing.

Maybe this is inevitable. The thought crossed her mind...

.

.

As the spell ate at the barrier, Lionel appeared in another room. It looked like a control room of some sort, with a massive glowing geode at the center that extended even deeper inside the ground.

"How long till the barrier goes down now?!" he asked immediately when he appeared, but he was met with no response. The room was empty, with the door fully ajar.

Two young men quickly scrambled inside as they heard his voice call out. "There—There’s a massive spell incoming sir!"

"I know that!" He barked at their trembling figures. "The barrier will hold! But not for long anymore! Check how fast its power is being depleted now!"

The two young men were startled into action immediately, carrying out his order.

He had just finished speaking when the other council members on his side burst into the room in a panic. "That’s an Exalted on the outside, firing at us Lionel! I thought you said they were on our side!"

"Calm yourselves. The barrier will hold for now!" Lionel snapped in frustration. "Do you think Freehold would be that easy to break into?"

"But what happens when the barrier doesn’t hold any longer?" One of the men asked hurriedly. "How is the Exalted to know that we are here and does not incinerate us along with the others?"

"The Exalted One!" he corrected with a sharp reprimanding tone. "The Exalted One already knows we’re here. He’ll hold back immediately the barrier is down... he surely has that much control over his spell" Lionel said simply and turned to the two young men who were analyzing the readings from the geode that powered the barrier.

The three Elders looked unconvinced, clearly still a bit unwilling to leave things to the Exalted’s skill, but Lionel couldn’t care less.

He looked at the distortion around the geode itself and couldn’t help but marvel at the ingenuity it took to create such a thing. It was a closed loop system where the large, naturally formed geode of raw origin and mana, powered the extremely advanced spell models that protected the whole Sanctuary, and in turn, this barrier itself was also routed to protect its source of power too.

So the barrier that wrapped around the entirety of the geode, all the way inside the ground beyond their view, was just as powerful as the one holding against the Exalted One’s attack.

The two young men continued to analyze the readings coming off the geode. They were both specialists brought up by Lionel specifically for this purpose. He had used his power and influence to give them jobs in this restricted area that only very loyal and diligent Freehold members could even get to know at all.

They scribbled down a lot of numbers and symbols, calculating different parameters as they got feedback from very specialized spell models interacting with the frequency of energy radiating from the location of the geode.

"If things continue like this, the barrier will be down within..." the men suddenly gasped, "fourteen minutes?!"

The other elders behind Lionel frowned in shock. They looked at each other, partly in relief and glee that they seemed to have made the right choice, but also with a tinge of unwillingness in them at how easy their millennium of heritage was being destroyed by the Exalted One.

"It seems the current Exalted One is even more powerful..." Lionel muttered with a smile before turning to face the elders behind him, intending to give them more orders. But he frowned, "Where’s Dana?"

The elders looked around before one of them answered with a chuckle. "After carrying out your order, she went to check on the Crestwood estate..."

Lionel frowned, "Alone...?"

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