Gael emerged from a shadow of a giant oak tree a hundred miles away from Tracomill. The tree was located in the deep part of the forest, separating the west of the empire from the center.
As soon as he appeared, he spat a mouthful of blood and fell face-first on the ground. His complexion had turned deathly pale, and his breathing came in short gasps.
Because of Kyran's 'controlled' punches, several of Gael's lower ribs had been shattered. This explained why he had difficulty in breathing. Apart from this, most of his internal organs were beaten to black and blue.
With great difficulty, Gael got up slightly and crawled toward the oak tree's thick roots. The action nearly made him lose consciousness. After a gruelling five or more minutes, he finally reached the tree root and leaned on them.
After catching his breath, Gael took out two high-gread healing potions and downed them. Then he closed his eyes and relaxed his body to let the potion circulate in his bloodstream properly.
Truth be told, it was quite a feat for Gael to survive after receiving such a ruthless beating from Kyran. He even managed to activate his Shadow magic's Shadow Travel ability, and escape.
But Gael knew better. He had a feeling that Kyran held back his punches. After all, Kyran's goal was not to kill him immediately but to torture him to death.
If Kyran did not hold back, Gael would have died after a couple of punches.
Apart from this, Gael had devoured several army soldiers. With their magic energy and stamina greatly boosting his own, Gael managed to withstand Kyran's punches.
Unbeknownst to Gael, while Kyran did hold back, if his control of the Draconic magic's energy in his body deviated even a little, Gael's body would have exploded.
When Gael's body absorbed more than half of the high-grade potions' effect, his bones finally started to mend by themselves.
As soon as he could move again. Gael went back to the Royal Army's HQ.
It was quite unfortunate that Gael could not see the huge golden net hovering in the sky. If he did, he would definitely not go back to their HQ.
*
Although Ruin was feeling indignant toward Nolan, he could only reign in his emotion after seeing the Sovereign's Cradle in the sky.
Nolan immediately struck a palm out toward a nearby fissure in the sky.
Black, gold and silver particles suddenly converged above. It was then followed by crackling sounds, as they closed out the fissure.
Ruin's eyes narrowed after seeing Nolan's action.
It was impossible for a mage, apart from the plane's Sovereign to fix fissures caused by another being from outside the plane. After all, these fissures were distortions in the plane's zone, which only a Sovereign could access. They were not physical cracks that anyone could fix.
Once again, Ruin could not help but scrutinized Nolan. Then again, they were in the Human plane, which was known to be very special.
What was impossible in other planes might be possible here. Nolan was a living proof of that. In other planes, there could only be one Sovereign. If a plane's Sovereign was close to their death, it was only then that the plane would birth a new Sage that had the potential to become a new Sovereign. However, the Human plane's Sovereign was clearly still alive, but it already had a Sage.
'But where is the Human plane's Sovereign? Why has he not show up and fix the cracks himself?' Ruin wondered as he sat cross-legged in midair while watching Nolan worked on the fissures in the sky. 'Simply relying on the Sovereign's Cradle to fend other Sovereigns is impossible.'
CRACKLE! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thunderous sound reverberated above as more fissures appeared compared to the ones Nolan had fixed.
Suddenly, an ominous aura leaked out from a three meter thick by eight meter long fissure in a distance. As the aura leaked out from it, the fissures around connected with it, accelerating the speed at which the fissure expanded.
"This is getting f*cking annoying," Nolan muttered through gritted teeth. He summoned more Elements to deal with the huge fissure.
"Oi, c*cks*cker, don't just stand there!"
Ruin raised his brows and said with a scary-looking innocent eyes, "'I'll help you hold back those three,' is what I proposed. I never said anything about preventing them from entering."
"You f*cking c*cks*cker. Wait until I get my hands on you and I'll skin you alive!"
Ruin erupted in laughter as he looked at Nolan in amusement, "You know some interesting words. Do you always give other people such interesting petnames...."
His voice trailed off as his skin began to crack. Instantly his expression turned ugly as he glared at Nolan.
"F*ck. That's right, I don't need to free my hands to skin you alive," Nolan continued, a rune on his neck glowed bright blue. "I only need to rouse the rune I placed into your body."
"You really dare...!" Ruin growled, his magic energy erupted at once.
In the next second, he struck a punch toward the biggest fissure in the sky. A beam of red light flashed out of his fist, and shot through the fissure.
The ominous aura leaking from it retreated at once. It was then followed by a guttural roar from the other side.
Apparently, the Sovereign who emitted that aura got hit by Ruin's attack and got pissed off.
"Wait until you leave this plane," Ruin growled at Nolan. "I'll show you how I skin humans alive."
Nolan snorted, "Go f*ck yourself."
While the two were busy keeping the three Sovereigns out of the Human plane, while also threatening each other, more and more people had noticed the anomaly in the sky.
None of them could see the golden net. But they could see the fissures. It was hard not to see them as they have blotted almost half of the sky. Apart from this, the cracking noise they made was deafening, it was hard to miss.
Those who could see the fissures were not limited around Meliora's vicinity.
All small and medium cities around could see the fissures. With the Meliora closer to the northern part of the empire, most of the people who noticed the fissures were from there.
At an ancient castle in the north, three female mages wearing cream-colored robes rushed inside the south tower. Stiched on the back of their robes was an emblem of the Aureole faction, several swords in a circular formation, the tip of their blades facing outward like a flower.
"Lady Olivia," the three mages knelt on one knee as soon as they entered a large hall.
Standing close to the window was none other than Olivia, who had been observing the Sovereign's Cradle since earlier.
"How's the situation in Noser?" Olivia asked without looking at the three mages.
The female mage in the middle raised her head and looked at Olivia. She replied, "Our people stationed there had just send in their update. When they received news about the fissures appearing in Meliora, and saw what they looked like, they confirmed that a similar fissure had appeared in Noser. Which is why they strongly believed the mastermind behind the surprise attack in Noser is not from the north as initially reported. "
Olivia frowned after hearing about the fissure in Noser. If it was a similar fissure with the ones in Meliora, then the Sovereign's Cradle must have appeared there as well. Unfortuantely, ordinary people could not see it, thus, she was unable to confirm it.
"When did the fissure appear in Noser?"
The female mage looked at the other mage to her right. The mage on the right stood up at once and delivered a white recording orb.
"They had transported a recorded feed of what happened. Judging from the sky, it was close to dawn when the fissure appeared in Noser."
Olivia took the white orb and inspect its content with her magic sense. Her brows furrowed when she saw the recording was somewhat distorted. The distortion was not caused by a malfunction in the recording orb but a veil. Since the person recording the orb had no knowledge of the world outside the Human plane, it only showed things that the person could understand.
However, Olivia was different. Soon, the distortion in the recording vanished and she saw the Sovereign's Cradle in the sky. Soon after, a huge finger trying to enter through the fissure. It was then followed by an image of a young man in black punching the fissure.
When Olivia saw the young man, her eyes widened in shock.
'This young man... could it be...?'
When the three female mages saw Olivia's surprised expression, they could not help but glanced at each other.
"Lady Olivia?"
Olivia took a deep breath before returning the recording orb to the female mage. The latter bowed in respect before receiving the orb. She then returned to the other two mages and knelt.
"How is Noser now? The army dispatched more people there, correct? Have the Templar Code made a move?"
The female mage in the middle shook her head, "The Templar Code has remained silent. It is unknown if any of their leading figures are present. But if they are, it is impossible for them not to make a move."
"It is under normal circumstances. However, they had only received a huge blow after the Shaiha Ruins got destroyed...." Olivia's voice trailed off as she recalled the information her people found regarding that incident. Once again, the young man in the recording flashed in her mind.
Somehow, she had an inkling that all of these events were tied together.
"As for your other questions, Lady Olivia," the female mage continued. "Apparently, the battle in Noser escalated, resulting in the army retreating to Tracomill."
"To force the army to retreat... Who is it?" Olivia asked no one in particular.
The three mages could only look at each other in wonder.
After a few seconds of silences, Olivia finally made up her mind as she said, "Prepare my chariot. I want to see the current situation with my own eyes."
"Yes, Lady Olivia."
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