Chapter 847 Crevice
Three weeks after the joint Neo Armakea-Eidum conquest started, a disturbance finally surfaced.
The main reason there had been no leak with regard to Achim and Nahir's movement was because Gael's Shadow Minions had been cleaning up after their trail.
Between Achim and Nahir, the latter did not know about them. Achim, being the same as Gael— Kyran's Servant, was somehow aware of the latter's minions following their trail and ensuring no loose ends were left behind, yet he did not know the full extent of their job.
Unlike Achim and Nahir, Gael was an ambitious and cunning man before being reborn through Kyran's Void magic. Thus, he knew it was impossible for every complete being who surrendered and sided with Achim or Nahir to have done so wholeheartedly.
While it was true that most indeed surrendered willingly, a few remained loyal to the King of Armakea, which was why Gael's Shadow Minions observed these people from the shadows. Once they found someone wanting to send a report to the capital about what was happening, the Shadow Minions would take care of them.
Gael's Shadow Minions did not have the capability to turn these people into minions. But they could trap them inside the shadows, after which, when Gael checked in on them, he would absorb them and turn them. However, he would only turn officers. If a knight were caught, he planned to keep them in the shadow for Kyran to deal with once he woke up.
It was not because Gael did not have the capability to turn a knight because he had already done it once. Rather, those newly joined knights were very capable, and he found it a waste to turn them into minions when they could be of better use as a Servant or a subordinate to Kyran.
Fortunately, no knights had yet to betray Achim. Even Nahir, who was said to be Kesiah's representative, managed to win the trust of every knight in his group.
Because of this, there were instances wherein an officer would suddenly go missing. Achim did not heed this because he knew it was the Shadow Minions' doing but not Nahir. The latter grew concerned about it and kept a close eye on it.
It was good that Nahir did this because if not, he would not have noticed the telltale signs that the capital had already gotten wind of their movement.
When Achim learned of this, he discovered that the Shadow Minions stopped following after them. This alerted him and the rest of Kyran's Servants.
Achim had Haji check the Shadow Minions' route, and what the latter discovered did not bid well.
The Shadow Minions were missing, which meant something had happened to Gael.
With the threat of the King mobilizing his army from the capital, Achim decided to let Haji and the rest of the Servants with him to deliver his message to the rest of the fort leaders they had yet to conquer.
Of course, Achim made sure to let Nahir know of his intentions to avoid discord between them. The latter did not oppose. With their current strength, the King's army could easily trample on them. Not even Kyran's almost invincible strength could offset their lack of manpower.
Fortunately, Nahir did not know that Kyran was in a coma at that moment because if he knew, there was no telling if he could retain a calm demeanor amidst the impending confrontation.
After Haji and the rest of the Servants left to deliver Achim's message, Achim and Nahir decided to reinforce the fort they had recently acquired.
Initially, Nahir suggested retreating to the borders, but Achim thought doing so would allow the King's army to gain momentum. When that happened, they could only retreat to the Eidum's border once they were overwhelmed at the Armakea's borders.
They had to keep the King's army away from the border as much as possible.
Unbeknownst to Nahir, Achim had another motive for suggesting this other than providing a strategic move against the King's army— Kyran was still in a coma, and at the moment, he was at the Armakea's border.
Achim would not allow any disturbance to hinder their Master's recovery.
Kesiah also received the news from Achim and immediately informed True Void.
Upon hearing this new development, True Void felt his non-existent brain throb in anxiety. He was starting to regret forcing Kyran to drink the Elixir! He should have given him half a portion instead of forcing Kyran to drink all of it. Maybe then, Kyran would have already woken up.
Meanwhile, Gael— whom Achim and the rest believed to have gone missing— had followed the familiar presence he sensed in Howling Pass and found himself in front of an inconspicuous crevice beneath a hundred-meter cliff.
Frankly, anyone who chanced upon the crevice would have noticed it, given its width was large enough for two huge adults to fit in. However, none seemed to notice it. Not even some those beasts that randomly passed by noticed it— except Gael.
Gael's eyes narrowed as he sized up the crevice. The familiar presence he felt did not come somewhere inside the crevice but the crevice itself.
'This array formation... is not native in this plane,' he thought while observing the array calculation written around the edges of the crevice.
Gael's Array knowledge was only passable. But after becoming Kyran's Servant, he had a sudden boost of insight when looking at arrays. He became familiar with the energies within an array formation and could more or less distinguish the core elements used in creating it.
From the energy he sensed coming from the array formation around the crevice, it had a combination of Air and Earth magic. The Air magic energy in the array formation mainly consisted of the offensive formulas, while the Eary magic energy were focused on transformation and defensive formulas.
While the Array formation was only a High-tier and could be easily decipher by an Array Master, complete beings were incapable of such a task. This answered the question why no one noticed it. But even if they did, it was impossible for them to know it was an Array formation. After all, Array was a lost technology in Somuli. Moreover, the energy supplied in this particular array formation did not make use of the principle of mana or magic energy of Somuli but that of the Human plane. From this, it was not wrong to say that it was created by a human.
Gael entered the crevice, without hesitation.
The array calculation around the crevice's edges lit up the moment he passed through. But the offensive formula in it was not triggered because it only targeted beasts, beast-likes, and complete beings. Gael did not know that, however, but he more or less guessed that since the array formation was created by a human, he or she would not aim its offensive attack on humans. Besides, there were few humans in Somuli. And as far as Gael was concerned, all of them lived in Howling Pass. Nevertheless, Gael had not seen any human living among the beast-likes or complete beings at the residential areas. This gave Gael the idea that maybe humans found a hidden location wherein they could live in peace.
As Gael entered the crevice, his sight was immediately robbed off because of the darkness. But it did not take long before his eyes adjusted. Beside, the dark walkway was not entirely dark because there was an abundance of glowing stones sticking on the walls.
However, that was unimportant. What was important, and actually surprised Gael was discovering the abundance of magic energy in the surroundings. Looking at the walls again, he realized that apart from those glowing stones, there were also rare herbs scattered all over them and realized why it was so.
Whoever found the crevice, made it into a safe haven for humans to live in.
In the Human plane, the reason for its abundance in magic energy stemmed not only because of its special nature, but also because of the abundance of plants, and spirit stones. These two could store up magic energies, and some could even circulate them.
Unfortunately, that was not the case in Somuli. Although there was an abundance of plants, and stones everywhere, the former could only store enough magic energy to allow itself to grow, while the latter could only absorb minimum amount of mana in the earth. Moreover, with how thin the magic energy circulation in the surroundings were in Somuli, plants and stones did not inherit an innate quality wherein they could absorb them naturally.
Gael relish at feeling magic energies entering his body and filling his magic core naturally. He could not wait to tell his Master, about such a method in creating an artificial environment with abundant magic energy in Somuli.
Still, Gael knew that the plants and stones here were not native from Somuli as well. If it was, then it would not possess the quality to absorb and circulate magic energies.
Pushing aside his thoughts, Gael ventured deep into the crevice.
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