"We could not find her, Lady Lauren," the female mage, who was leading the team of four that was following Olivia, reported to Lauren the moment they lost track of her.
Lauren, whose silhouette was projected on the communication device, frowned slightly.
"What do you mean you can't find her? Did they discover you're following them, and they made a different turn to lose you?"
The female mage lowered her head both in shame and respect, "They may have noticed us. But they did not change their route or use any spells to throw us off their track. They just suddenly vanished from our radar after entering Autumn Reach."
Lauren's frown deepened after hearing about where Olivia and her team had gone. She asked, "They did not go to the Western Patten but to Autumn Reach?"
"Yes, Lady Lauren. There might have been a hidden message in the letter that we failed to decipher. And that message likely asked Lady Olivia to go there," the mage replied, feeling a little helpless.
Lauren fell silent after hearing her guess.
What the female mage said made sense. However, Lauren personally checked the letter and the memory orb and did not find anything amiss. Her mage level made it impossible for her magic sense to miss anything.
Unless the person who wrote the letter and created the memory orb had a higher mage level than her.
But Lauren was already a Magus. Who else could surpass her level within the empire?
'No,' Lauren's expression turned grim as she thought of an old rumor. Since there was no evidence, she did not take it seriously. But now that something like this had happened, she was reminded of it and felt anxious.
The rumor only circulated among the medium to large factions, and it was about who was the most powerful mage in the Ylfaen Empire. There was also a survey at that time, and Lauren did not participate because she believed it was all nonsense. She also felt the survey was being manipulated by the army behind the scenes to see if names would appear on the list, which was not in their database. In any case, the Aureole did not submit any— at least, none that Lauren was aware of— and mostly the ones who participated in were from medium factions.
When the survey was out, the result was sent to all the leaders of the medium to large factions. It did not matter if that faction did not participate in the survey. They still received the result.
The result showed not only one name but three. This caused some commotion in their circle for some time. Apart from that, they did not recognize their names. When the leaders saw the result, most tried to find out who they were. Ultimately, none of them found anything. They did not even know who submitted their names and what was the reason they were named as the most powerful mages in the empire.
But then an anonymous person commented that these three were named as the most powerful mages in the empire because their mage level far exceeded that of a Magus. When they tried to find who made that comment, they could not trace it. Thus, they all believed it to be hogwash.
Lauren clenched her fist as she recalled this and could not help but feel an incoming headache. If that rumor was true, could Lauren have made contact with one of those three mages? For what reason?
'She did not get herself in trouble, did she?' Lauren wondered anxiously.
After contemplating the situation for a few more seconds, she finally decided.
"Give me the exact coordinates of your location. I am going there," Lauren told the female mage.
"Yes, Lady Lauren."
*
All clan members of the Regis had already been evacuated. Some of the Regis family members had also been transferred, and only a few were left outside the Inner Wall.
Most of the ones who were transferred first were the little ones, the younger generation and older people. As discussed with Emperor Euan and the Conclave, all of them were transferred to the Ravenpass.
Callan, Noir and Sigma were in Ravenpass, getting them to settle down. Euan and Malek were also there to ensure that even if a problem cropped up, someone with a high enough mage level could respond to the emergency as soon as possible.
The people who also went with Kyran earlier were already in Ravenpass and were dispatched to different sides to guard the area. In any case, the feud between the Emperor and the Crown Princess had yet to be revealed, but there was no telling if the latter's camp was already making a move and dispatching people in every part of the empire.
As a matter of fact, the Ravenpass being a Royal Family property, was a risky place for a hideout. But Euan, Malek and even Kyran thought hiding right under their enemy's noses might be more effective than hiding in a completely isolated space. Besides, their setup was only temporary. As long as the Regis Grand Array in the estate was activated, Kyran said he would warp everyone to a much safer place.
When Malek and the others asked where it was so they could already make preparations, Kyran kept mum.
Seeing he had no intentions of telling them, they were not offended. They even believed it was a good call. At least, if any of them were captured and Haylee tried to look into their souls to get information, they would not be able to leak anything.
As far as they could tell, Haylee had something big planned for the Regis Clan. Because of this, Euan and Malek wanted to keep them safe.
"There are less than a hundred members left to be transferred," Jared reported to Aron while looking at a flat transparent magic device in his hand.
Aron and Jared stood outside a huge tent where a large transmission array had been created, connecting it to the transmission array in Ravenpass.
The device on Jared's hand showed all the names of the Regis family members, and the box beside a few of these names was already checked. "We'll be able to transfer everyone in less than half an hour."
"Alright," Aron nodded and looked at the remaining members staying in another tent behind them.
Mannick walked out of the tent with a grim expression and joined them.
Aron and Jared immediately noticed it and felt somewhat anxious. They wanted to ask what was wrong, but after Kyran told them not to expect anything from Mannick, they were unsure if it was alright to do so.
As if reading their minds, Mannick gave them a bitter smile and said, "Don't worry. It is nothing serious. However, it is best if we speed things up."
"We're replenishing the magic stones for the transmission array. Then we can transfer forty people over. After replenishing the array again, we only need two more transfers, and we should be good," Jared told him.
Mannick's brow furrowed, and his gaze subconsciously looked at the sky above.
Aron and Jared, who had previously trained in the Tower of Tribulations, could see the Sovereign's Cradle. They knew Mannick was also looking at it but did not ask why he looked worried. It was not because they feared they might ask something they should not but because they more or less guessed why the latter was looking anxious.
The two already knew that Kyran had gone there with Myst and Raya. Tritus had told them before leaving. They would not have been worried if Kyran had gone there only to investigate. However, he actually asked Tritus to come. This meant something big was happening there.
Their guess was soon answered when they witnessed a red light with lightning piercing through the fiery ball. After which, a blinding light descended from it. Along with the blinding light's descent were powerful magic fluctuations that Aron and Jared felt even when they were a distance away.
They wanted to go there and assist Kyran, but they also knew their priority was to evacuate the rest of the Regis members to safety first. Ultimately, they stayed and tried to get everyone to safety as soon as possible.
"We don't have much time," Mannick told them. "Even after master reinforced the cradle, it can only hold for another ten to fifteen minutes. After that, it will collapse."
"That's not good. If the cradle collapses, the outsiders can enter the plane freely," Jared said in fright.
Mannick agreed, "That's right. But it's not all bad. Because once the cradle collapses, it means Master Cade's trial will be on its last phase."
Although Mannick did not elaborate on the details, his statement already gave Aron and Jared an idea of who the Sovereign of the Human plane was and who Mannick might be.
This realization gave them a fright.
No wonder Kyran told them not to expect anything from him.