Layla had her people attack not four but five locations: the Tower of Conclave, the Lumley Family Residence, the Templar Code Headquarters, the Regis Estate, and lastly, an abandoned town north of Meliora, Autumn Reach.
After agreeing to deal with the mole in the Aureole, Lauren did not dally and ordered her people to detain every mole with them.
A battle ensued with the resistance of the moles. The Aureole was then taken by surprise when fifty High Master mages appeared out of nowhere and assisted the moles.
The Aureole's side would have been reduced to a small group if not for the timely assistance of Byron and Silas. Seeing the latter two made Lauren and the rest of the Aureole wary, but with Olivia declaring that they were with her, they willingly accepted their help.
Although Byron and Sials were only Master mages— with the latter advancing only recently— their strength was good enough to restrain the enemy's movements while Lauren, Olivia, and the three High Masters among their ranks moved in for the kill.
Apart from this, with Lauren and Olivia leading the attack, it was impossible for the fifty or so enemy mages to really gain the advantage. The former two were Magus and had far more offensive power and their magic could easily deal with multiple targets— Lauren with her Lotus Fire magic, and Olivia with her Sword magic.
However, before they could clinch victory, more enemy mages arrived, forcing the almost concluding battle to enter a second round. The only difference was, the enemy now had the advantage in mage level with them having several Grand Masters.
The Aureole faction was put at a huge disadvantage even with Lauren and Olivia.
Apart from their side only having three High Masters with the rest at Adept and High Adept levels, they were already exhausted. Their potions and pills were running low and the number of their wounded mages kept piling up.
Lauren and Olivia ordered the dispatch of the Aureole's main legion long before the arrival of the enemy's reinforcement. But with the restriction of transmission array usage, it would take three to four hours before the main legion reach Autumn Reach.
Before then, Lauren and Olivia had to do everything to stay alive.
A huge fiery lotus bloomed behind Lauren as she roused her magic. She charged toward three Grand Masters as the petals of the lotus behind her scattered and attacked.
The Grand Masters waved their staffs and summoned barriers to protect themselves from the incoming attack, but they underestimated the penetrating power of the fiery lotus petals.
The lotus petals were like blazing fireflies that lit up the surroundings while performing a beautiful massacre. They danced around the Grand Masters, easily piercing through their barriers and slicing up their bodies.
Not far from Lauren, Olivia also attacked several Grand Masters at once. The twelve golden swords circling behind her, flew out, slicing every enemy combat mage along their way.
"Guaaah!"
"Aargh!"
Pitiful cries of pain echoed throughout the forest, which was now covered with flames and burnt or mutilated bodies.
From the shadows, Byron and Silas continued to provide assistance.
Using his magic, Byron summoned several thick vines that curled around the enemy mage's ankles and wrists. Silas would then mold ice swords and cut them up.
Cutting them up took quite some time because their physical and magical defenses were far stronger than the penetrating strength of Silas's magic.
It was quite reasonable because Silas was only a Master mage while their enemies were Grand Masters.
"There is no end to them!" Lauren growled as she landed on the ground and looked at the incoming enemies.
Olivia waved her hand and the twelve golden swords flew back and circled behind her again. She also looked at the enemies upfront with a scowl.
"There are far too many Grand Masters among them... no, they are basically an army of Grand Masters. Where did they come from?"
Lauren shared the same sentiment. As far as they were concerned, the Ylfaen Empire did not have that many Grand Masters. To be precise, their headcount should be about the same number if every faction's Grand Masters were added together.
"There is nothing really surprising about their number," Byron told them after restraining a few High Masters nearby. "The army has been researching a way to force a mage to advance two levels at most."
Silas landed on the ground after killing off a few High Masters that Byron restrained. He also said, "That's right. As a matter of fact, the Templar Code already succeeded in creating a pill that can temporarily advance a mage's level by one. If they can do it, then the army who had far more people and resources can do it too."
Lauren looked at them while waving her arms, sending several fiery lotus petals toward the remaining High Mastesr being restrained by Byron's vines.
"I've heard about the Templar Code researching a Red Pill that can force a mage to gain a level during battle. But I did not know they already succeeded," she commented with a frown. "Where did you get that intel?"
"Does it even matter right now?" Olivia interrupted them. "The Templar Code is not our enemy but these guys."
"How do you know they are not our enemy? Some of these mages may be from the Templar Code," Lauren reasoned.
She pointed this out because she remembered Emperor Euan put the Templar Code as the leader when he created the Elite Team that was supposed to upgrade every magic detector in cities and towns. The Templar Code might have already agreed to work for the Royal Family.
"You don't have to worry about that," Byron said, sounding a bit haughty. "The Templar Code's Commander is already my master's loyal subordinate."
Lauren gaped at him in shock, "What did you say?"
"Can we not talk about this now?" Olivia interrupted them yet again. She looked at them in exasperation and said, "Focus on the enemy before us!"
After saying this, she dashed forward to meet the approaching combat mages.
Lauren sighed inwardly. Everything that was happening was beyond the things she knew. She wanted to understand the current situation, however, Olivia was right. They had to deal with their enemy upfront first.
"Rest assured, Lady Lauren, we will explain everything after this," Silas assured Lauren with a smile. "We will assist you with everything we can until then."
"Alright. I will take your word for now," Lauren replied looking at Silas thoughtfully, before adding, "Young master from the Svell Family."
Silas was taken aback. He did not expect someone to recognize he was from the Svell Family. Although Ice mages were few in the Ylfaen Empire, they were not limited to the family in the north— nor were they limited to the Svell Family.
Seeing Silas's surprised reaction, Lauren only smiled slightly and said, "Let us talk more later."
With that, she also dashed toward the approaching enemies.
Silas too reigned in his surprise and joined them along with Byron.
*
A slight frown appeared on Layla's beautiful face as she looked toward the Regis Estate at a distance.
"I don't sense Ruin anywhere," she said to no one in particular. "Did you not tell him my arrival?"
A middle-aged man with long flowing auburn hair and light green eyes in a white robe lowered his head respectfully toward Layla and said, "We sent a message to sir Ruin's vassal Fye, your Highness. However, we don't know if he already delivered it."
"Sent a message to Fye?" Layla asked, her frown deepened. She looked at the man beside her and added. "Why send it if you can tell him in person?"
The truth was Layla could send a direct message to Ruin. But for some unknown reason, she failed to get through to him. So she ordered the man to have Fye deliver the message to Ruin.
"We don't know where he is," the man answered hesitantly. "We tried to summon him by calling his name but he did not appear."
"Fye," Layla tried calling Fye.
Just as the man had said, nothing happened when she called for him.
Layla suddenly had a bad feeling as she turned her gaze toward the hole in the sky. Haylee had been busy with the Macabre Glacier when the hole appeared, so she did not know if Ruin was drawn by it and left the plane to check. But even so, she should still be able to sense him if he went outside.
Recalling the reason Ruin returned to the Human plane and proposed to work together with Haylee again, Layla had a bad premonition.
'Don't tell me he went back on his word because Haylee did not allow him to go to Noser when that kid appeared there? Tsk.' Layla wondered and could not help but click her tongue in annoyance.
So far, there were so many things that had deviated according to her scenario. It was all due to Haylee's inability and naive thinking.
Frankly, Layla knew everything Haylee thought of her. Especially on how she failed to make full use of Caelan's feelings toward her or her relationship with Zane.
However, Haylee only discovered a layer of what happened back then. Haylee did not know what Stella had done to hinder Layla's plan.
In the first place, if not for Stella's first attempt to change what happened in the past, Caelan and Zane would not have devised a more foolproof plan to counter Layla's. Layla would have succeeded in amassing her army and preparing for the War of the Sovereigns.
"Forget it," Layla said after a short pause. "I'll deal with the Regis Family myself."
"Your Highness, you can rely on us in handling them," the middle-aged man said.
Layla laughed derisively at him and said, "On you and the rest of these people?" She looked behind her where the rest of the Boyd Family members and the newly joined members from several noble families were kneeling on the ground.
Layla looked back at the middle-aged man, her expression losing any mirth it had, "Don't make me laugh. Even if you are an Archmagus, it is impossible for you to subdue the Regis Family. If you guys really joined in, it will only result in a bloodbath. It's either them or you."
The middle-aged man frowned slightly but did not refute.
"You don't look convinced," Layla remarked but did not dwell much on it as she looked in the direction of the Regis Estate. "It doesn't matter. If you guys want to come, then kill the rest of the Regis clan members. However, capture their family members. I will deal with them myself."
The middle-aged man knelt on one knee, "Yes, your Highness."
*
Meanwhile, Aron and the rest of the Regis combat mages had arrived outside the Regis Estate's Inner Wall gates.
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