Chapter 402: The Eques Plane
Hermione stood outside a magnificent temple. Chevalier created this place for her to wait and even permitted her to walk a few meters outside the temple. She had a few magic objects floating in the surrounding, measuring data.
‘There is mana in the environment, which is a few times higher than the entire Milky Way Galaxy. So, is this a magic-based civilization?”
She continued observing. “The environment’s gravity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and air quality varies from Earth but still enough for normal humans to live.
“The artifacts have detected water and other factors that indicated humans or similar species can survive in this place.”
Hermione gathered a basic understanding of this plane. “Now, let’s see their power system and society.” She did not wait long before three lights flew from the distance and landed a dozen meters away.
The three natives kept their distance as they observed her. A few minutes ago, they received troubling news from the Planar Will that required their attention. But after seeing Hermione, they frowned, each with different reactions.
‘The energy inside her body is odd, but it’s only on the level of a Grand Knight, not even a Mystic Knight. So, how could she threaten the plane?’ thought the Golden Knight and the Silver Guardian had similar thoughts.
‘A human?’ thought the Warbeast Lord.
“I can guess your thoughts about my power. But our civilization is more focused on Artificer,” said Hermione in their language before revealing the Tier 10 energy canon of the Floating City, making these people’s faces change with terror.
Luckily, they were people with high Willpower and took a moment to regain their bearing.
‘In terms of Willpower, that beast-like race seemed the best.’
“My name is Hermione Granger, Queen of the Arcane Empire, Tier 7 Arcanist,” she saluted.
“The name is Marcus De La Croix, Paladin of the Holy State, a Legendary Knight,” said the Golden Knight in a refined manner.
“Elaine Silverbow, guardian and protector of the Ehre Empire, also a Legendary Knight.”
The Warbeast hesitated for a moment before introducing himself. “Fury, Leader of the Warbeast Federation, a Legendary Warrior.”
‘The Tier System is a universal method used by most planes when interacting with foreigners, but they appeared to not know of it, meaning they have little to no experience with foreign planes. Their civilization has not developed proper Planar Dimensional Travel,’ analyzed Hermione.
These Legends should be able to leave the plane since they reached the ceiling of power and explore the Astral Realm. However, this is the worst to travel since it could take millions of years before finding another plane.
All advanced civilizations will have ways to send problems to find planes or have methods of calculating coordinates.
‘The Warbeast race’s relationship with humans seemed to be tense. I don’t know if there are other races,’ continued Hermione. ‘Their power system is not mana; it resembles Aura but is different.
“Can I know your purpose in coming to our plane?” asked Elaine. With such power, it was easy to conquer this plane, and no one could resist.
“Our Empire does not believe in senseless violence. We are a civilization that pursues knowledge and the truth, believing in the fundamental truth of equivalent exchange. So, instead of invading this plane and causing destruction, I would like to take a more peaceful approach: Exchange.”
“Exchange what, exactly?” asked Marcus.
“Anything. For example, I can see that despite being Tier 9 Powerhouse, all three of you have less than five hundred years of life span remaining. I can exchange elixirs or potions of immortality. I can exchange process lifespan: that would be cheaper. I can exchange a power system that grants a higher lifespan. Or, maybe, a body exchange surgery that transfers your soul into another body to have another life and have more life span.”
The heart of the three trembled. However, they did not know if she was telling the truth. But if she was, this was too tempting.
“Your highness, is your exchange also applicable to our race?” The other immediately gave Fury a subtle look.
“You don’t have to worry about being left out. The Empire is multi-racial. We currently have 156 different races and counting–including some that look like you?”
“Does the Warbeast race exist in your plane?”
“They are collectively called the Fur Race, but we do.”
Fury felt relieved as he no longer worried about the human race benefiting from this exchange, leading to the destruction of their race.
“Your highness, I have no problem with the request,” said Elaine.
“But?”
“But I want to see the strength of a higher civilization.”
“It seems you guys have a very military culture. Fine,” replied Hermione before taking a magical artifact that looked like a cube. “Before then, we’ll use this.”
“And this is?”
“We will enter the Mirror Dimension to fight.” Hermione then saw the confusion on their faces. “Think about it as a world that mirrors the real one. You can fight with all your strength and destroy the world. But the real world will not be affected.
“Such a thing exists?” muttered Marcus. One of the reasons that the world remained in a three-way stand-off is because they knew a battle between them would be catastrophic for the entire plane and all creatures living in it.
“Please, do not resist.” Hermione activated the artifact, and the group entered the Mirror Dimension. Immediately, Hermione linked to the Floating City, accessing its core and the Tower Spirit’s processing power.
“Are you ready?” she asked, looking at the readied group. “Then, let’s begin. I promise to go easy on you.” The three were not affected by her words.
Golden lights suddenly appeared on Marcus’ body, and his stats seemed to be drastically boosted. Then, he rushed toward Hermione with his sword. Fury’s body suddenly grew to three meters, and his eyes turned red before also rushing forward. Elaine pulled her bow, and an energy arrow appeared before firing it.
Hermione calmly held her magic staff. Marcus was the first to arrive, and before he could slash her body, a terrifying jet of flame that resembled a light beam pushed him backward. He reacted in time and condensed a golden energy shield to protect himself. Unfortunately, this was a combined spell.
Hermione placed a bunch of curses inside the fire spell. So, when he dealt with it, curses hit and instantly weakened his previous boost. Marcus tried his best to use his light power to combat the effect, and he was frustrated. He had never met a curse he could not deal with; he was known for being the nemesis of anyone who used Curse, Poison, or Dark-attribute Battle Qi.
Hermione uses two spells simultaneously to deal with Elaine’s arrow and Fury’s attack. An Ice Spear came from the Warbeast’s back, traveling at an undetectable speed to pierce him. Oddly, he avoided the attack with little movement.
‘A sixth sense?’ thought Hermione as she could see how he moved as if he could predict things from his back. Immediately, she also noticed another anomaly. Her Repulsion Spell did not push the arrow away. Instead, it suddenly appeared right before her face.
‘The power of space? Perfect for an archer.’
When the arrow was about to pierce her neck, a small black hole appeared and swallowed it. At the same time, thousands more spheres tried to turn Furry into a shishkebab with no success.
Hermione moved her hand to cast more spells. A terrifying gravity suddenly appeared in her surroundings, rendering Fury immobile. Additionally, thousands of elemental arrows surrounded Elaine.
At the same time, Marcus had dealt with the curses and appeared behind Hermione at a speed faster than light.
‘Good tactic,’ she thought. The weakness of her low Tier is a drastically slower thinking speed and reactions. At least, that’s how it should have been without the Tower Spirit.
Marcus swung his sword and cut Hermione into two. However, he soon saw the two halves vanish before him.
‘Illusion? Since when? And where is the main body?’
Meanwhile, Fury mobilized all his Battle Qi to surround his body to protect against the surrounding gravity. Although he sensed danger, his senses indicated it would come from such a vast area that he did not have time to evade it.
Bam!
With the protection, he could continue fighting, with his speed drastically reduced. So, he rushed forward, leaving the environment devastated. Meanwhile, Elaine waited until the spells reached him before using the Void Steps, using some level of spatial movement to evade.
“Not bad. But let’s end this fight,” declared Hermione.
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