110 Escape
The control room was much smaller than Emilia had expected. It was just a 10 square meter room, with a stone plinth in the center. There was a mana sensor just like the one on the door, but Emilia ignored it and tried to corrupt the pedestal, but it was an arduous task.
The runes on the pedestal were connected to the runes around the wall, so there was simply too much energy to corrupt. Emilia tried to move the entry point to the top of the pedestal, just as she heard Treevor explain to Athos, but it was in vain.
The pedestal was not only used to control large-scale spells, but also to deposit magic stones to feed the runes. The enchantment on the pedestal absorbed Emilia’s corrupted mana and spread it across the walls evenly, rendering the process useless. It was like pouring a bucket of black paint into the ocean.
“Well, if it’s not going to be the easy way, let’s try to be a little rougher!” Emilia screamed before pointing her wand at the top of the pedestal and conjuring a corrupted mana spear. The spear hit the top of the pedestal and turned like a drill. sending spark through the air.
As expected, the runesmiths who made the enchanted pedestal improved its overall toughness, but Emilia’s constant attack caused cracks across its surface and caused the runes to flicker erratically.
Stone splinters began to fly as the pedestal runes crumbled. The pedestal was finally broken and the runes controlling the barrier were lost forever.
‘The barriers and detection spells are still standing, but without the control room to power it and activate the barrier, it’s just very sturdy stone walls. Our mission here is accomplished.’ Emilia thought, before running out of the control room.
“Finished?” Caio asked outside, peering intently at the dark fog in the hallway, along with his new skeleton mages.
“Yes, we can go now-” The ceiling collapsed under their heads, interrupting Emilia. The four of them jumped back in reflex, the ceiling stones falling right where they were.
.....
A man in silver armor and carrying a spear of the same color descended, before immediately attacking Caio. The spear’s blade was forked and aimed precisely at Caio neck, but he blocked with wooden sword precisely between the forked blades, stopping the attack inches from his neck.
Even successfully blocking the attack, the enemy’s sheer brute force pushed Caio until he hit his back against the wall. Caio was already using skills to improve his physique, but the enemy was doing the same and he was clearly superior.
Emilia jumped up and tried to stab the unknown enemy at the base of the neck, but the enemy’s armor flashed and a shield of light appeared on its back. The dagger opened a crack in the shield of light, but it failed to penetrate.
Still, Emilia smiled inwardly and inserted her wand into the crack, conjuring up a smokescreen of darkness. Caio took advantage of the moment when the enemy’s vision was impaired to kick his knee and throw him off balance. The kick was imbued with the heavy strike skill and forced him to kneel despite his silver armor.
“Your pests!” The enemy screamed angrily, swinging his spear and flinging Caio away. His spear flashed and he swung it over his head, scattering the smokescreen. He glared at Emilia and Caio, but the attack came from the opposite direction.
One of the mage skeletons conjured a ten-foot fireball while the other fed it with pure mana, increasing both the intensity of the flames and its explosive power.
The fireball flew towards the enemy’s back, but the latter just reversed the spear and pierced the fireball without turning around. The fireball exploded in his back, but the enemy didn’t even blink.
“General!” Mages descended from the hole in the ceiling and began to cast spells against Emilia and Caio.
‘Remember what I said about earth magic? It’s time to use.’ Emilia spoke through the mental link. His mana was already below half after so many spells, so the only choice left was to flee.
‘Working on it.’ Caio had taken his wand the moment the general sent him flying, certain that it would be impossible to kill him with his current power. The stone turned black and rose like a wall, blocking the general and his mages.
“They won’t run away!” General Astrus Mifar yelled, hurling his spear like a javelin and shattering the earthen wall, before continuing to fly and slashing into the wall. With a flick of his hand, the spear flew back and the general grabbed it again. “Split up and go after them!”
The general was the first to run, but he headed towards the mist of darkness on the stairs instead of down the hole. In his head, the hole in the ground was just a feint and the skeletons fled into the dark fog where humans couldn’t chase them. The general even sent some mages downstairs, just in case.
The mage skeletons left behind did not try to fight like the mages, but entered the control room and detonated the cores themselves. They were only on the first layer and Caio considered them expendable, so he preferred to further damage the control room to make sure it would be unusable.
The general turned the corner, but black fog had spread from the stairs and invaded the corridors. Court mages with an affinity for light were on the upper floor and managed to contain the advance of the black fog, but it spread unchecked through the lower floors of the fortress. The energy released by over 100 cores was by no means small, after all.
“Shit, don’t get in the way!” The general shouted and hurled his spear into the mist. The spear glowed white, dispelling the darkness as it passed and clearing the way for the general.
The spear quickly returned to his hand and the general ran until he reached the stairs and descended, using the armor’s enchantment to protect himself.
The general was furious at the moment, but it was with himself. The day before, he had received a call from the country, informing him of a mage attack on the small town of Faltra. The reason was still unknown, but apparently a mage drove part of the city mad and killed the noble who ruled it, causing immense damage in the process.
The wizard’s whereabouts were still unknown and it took the messenger about two weeks to reach the nearest large city, so it was possible that the wizard had infiltrated the fortress disguised as a merchant.
The general thought it unlikely that the mage would come to the fortress, but nodded and ordered the merchants to be kept in the fortress until they were verified. In his mind, it was inconceivable that someone would infiltrate the fortress without him knowing.
Large-scale spells used the element of air to detect anything around the wall within a radius of up to 1 kilometer and the element of earth to detect underground. Anything passing through would be detected, even small birds were detected, just ignored.
Even breaking in with a teleport crystal was useless. The teleportation crystals created dimensional corridors where the mage was and where he thought, but one of the control room enchantments would detect the dimensional corridor and forcibly change its coordinates to the outside of the walls, where the soldiers would be ready to deal with the intruder.
The only reason Athos was able to successfully infiltrate was that teleportation using the corrupted mana tore through space instead of creating a stable corridor, so the full-scale spell didn’t detect it.
The general berated himself for being careless and swore to capture the mage who was probably on the run now. The information didn’t say anything about him being a necromancer, but he would have been able to get all the answers he needed after capturing him.
As he descended, Emilia and Caio climbed the stairs to the upper floors of the fortress. They knew that the general would pursue them, so the priority now was to lose him.
‘Master, did you successfully escape?’ Emilia asked for the mental link, hoping inwardly not to hear an answer. If Athos had already fled he would already be out of reach.
‘I’m working on it. The slime acid has run out and I cast a drill made of corruption to dig a way out, but the soldiers on the wall noticed me and tried to shoot arrows from the ballista installed on the wall.’ Athos replied calmly, despite his precarious situation.
He was currently in mid-air, jumping onto air platforms to avoid the countless arrows flying towards him. That would have been impossible while he was alive because of his weight, but his magic had improved and his weight had dropped considerably, so it was a simple task now. The other skeletons in the sewers were destroyed in the first volley of arrows, so Athos had only the hawks hive around him now.
‘I’ll need the teleportation crystal to be able to escape, can you send one of the hive hawks to take you to the top of the fortress?’ Emilia asked.
“No problem, he’s on his way. Athos spoke as he handed the teleport crystal to one of the hawks and watched him fly towards the fortress.
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