Chapter 328 Hightower Judgement
Seeing this, Daniel immediately rushed toward the parking lot nearest to the executive meeting room.
Pride also rushed after him, curious about what he was going to do next and hoping to offer some assistance.
She saw Daniel produce something that looked like the hoverbike she had seen in sci-fi movies out of thin air. No, it should come from the space storage artifact that he used to store many of his tools of war and various artifacts.
"Let me go with you!" Pride called out, and Daniel nodded.
"Hop up!" Daniel gestured, and Pride jumped onto the passenger seat behind him.
The hoverbike quickly sped off, flying past the gap in the ceiling and the railing of the parking lot before ascending into the sky. It rushed toward the burning Daimyo castle.
—
After a brief moment, both Daniel and Pride arrived at the scene.
The castle was still intensely burning, but the strangest thing was that both guards and the servants around the castle seemed to still be in a trance.
They were frozen in motion, as if time had come to a standstill. If it weren't for the flames still burning hot and the birds able to fly, Daniel might have thought that this was the result of magic capable of stopping time.
"Do you know any spells that can douse the fire? Water magic? Ice Magic? Perhaps?" Daniel asked Pride, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
"No, I can't. This fire is a type of cursed fire; it will not stop until everything, including the castle, burns to the ground," Pride explained.
Hearing that the fire was some sort of curse, Daniel quickly sank his mind into his mindscape and immediately used one of the cards that could destroy enchantments.
As Daniel activated the card on the target, a bright light shone from his hand, and the residue of the spell structure was obliterated, as witnessed by Pride.
The power of the curse or the enchantment within the fire disappeared, leaving only natural fire that could easily be extinguished with a simple spell.
"Pride! The curse's power has disappeared! Do it! Douse the fire!" Daniel shouted.
Though still startled and disbelieving at the scene where the power of the curse within the fire had been obliterated by Daniel, Pride quickly forced herself to calm down and immediately used her magic to extinguish the fire.
As a large waterfall cascaded from the sky, all of the fire quickly subsided. Daniel then drove his hoverbike to the castle, got off, and began checking the damage that the castle had incurred.
Daniel quickly used his gadgets to check the well-being of the people there. What he saw both relieved and horrified him.
He felt relief knowing that the family and all the concubines of the former Daimyo were safe. However, he felt horrified witnessing many servants, both men and women, burnt to a crisp while their bodies remained frozen in place, unaware of what had happened to them.
Pride knelt on the ground to examine the burnt corpse of one of the servants. She observed a lingering spell inside him.
"This!?" Pride was a bit startled as she used her eyes to examine the lingering spell structure. "It's a time magic, a very weak time magic, but still time magic," she said.
"Do you know how many people can use time magic in the Hightower?" asked Daniel.
"Many people in the Hightower can use time magic because there's a dedicated department that researches time magic and its applications. But if you ask me how many can use time magic well enough for battle without preparing any lengthy ritual, there are only a few," Pride answered before continuing.
"I just hope it's not the one whom I think it is," Pride uttered to herself.
Booooom!
The thundering sound of an explosion suddenly resounded in the middle of the mountain. The flames flashed as a figure was blasted into the sky by the explosion. The lingering magic shield flashed as another figure in white robe and battle armor jumped up and blasted that figure down to the ground.
Boooom!
Smoke and dust exploded, and the white-robed figure followed suit into the bamboo forest below.
Daniel and Pride looked at each other for a few seconds before rushing toward where the two people were fighting.
In a few minutes, they arrived at the scene where the two figures were locked in combat.
The once serene bamboo forest now bore the scars of an intense magical clash. The tranquility of the towering bamboo shoots was shattered, as if an unseen force had unleashed its wrath upon them. The ground, once covered in a lush carpet of greenery, was now disrupted, with bamboo stalks snapped and uprooted.
A portion of the bamboo forest had been transformed into a clearing by various magical blasts and clashes between the two mages. It now resembled a stage in the midst of the bamboo forest, with all the animals residing in it having fled for their lives.
In this battleground, another figure lay motionless and breathless, his chest cavity blown to pieces as if struck by a cannonball. Clad in Japanese samurai armor with facial features resembling the Daimyo, he had met a gruesome fate.
"That should be Yarimasa, the one we are looking for," Pride commented while observing the ongoing fight.
The first combatant was a man in a white robe, wearing mage battle armor that seamlessly mixed modern Kevlar technology and artifice techniques of the mage.
His mask featured a black and white scale icon, half black and half white, with a red visor covering the eyes section. It was evident that both his bracer gloves and greaves were designed for pure combat. Two others, attired similarly, accompanied him.
The other combatant wore a black suit and a brown leather jacket, his hair turned white not due to age but because of the side effects of his magic.
"Cyrus Ashborn!? And another one… Golden Scale!? No… that's not Golden Scale; it should be The Goldenscale Faction Enforcer," Pride identified, relaying the information to Daniel, who observed the scene with sharp eyes.
Both of them are his enemies, and he desires nothing more than to sit on the sidelines and watch them tear each other apart.
"Magitek!? And... Pride!?" One of the Enforcers noticed Daniel and Pride, visibly startled and losing his composure.
Considering that the most wanted mage of the Hightower and the most combat-strong witch among the 7 deadly sins are together, the Enforcer panics, realizing that if Pride is allied with Daniel and they fight together, their lives would be forfeit.
"Focus! Finish our mission first! Echo-2! Go block Magitek! Give us 5 minutes!" One of the Enforcers commands his comrade, who was spooked by Daniel's appearance.
"Sir!" The Enforcer, still recovering from the shock, steps forward to block the path. He raises his magic power, preparing to defend the path and prevent Daniel from interfering.
"Pride! Favor for a favor! Help me fend off these people! Quick!" Cyrus shouted at Pride, immediately throwing the favor deal at her.
Upon hearing this, her initial reaction was to jump into the mess, but she stopped herself, glancing at Daniel, who was looking at Cyrus with a cold expression, as if observing a Deadman.
"Nah… Don't wanna, I'm lazy," Pride said with a smirk.
"We appreciate your cooperation, Ms. Pride," one of the guards against Daniel expressed gratitude.
"Fuccccccckkkk! Magitek! I know that you hate me, but this is larger than our petty squabble! Help me!!" Cyrus roared at Daniel while defending against the magic blasts from two of the Enforcers.
"Turning an entire capital city into a second hell and killing more than half a city in the process is a petty squabble!?" Daniel retorted, recounting what happened to the capital in the Tessia Kingdom.
"Goddamn it! You stupid oaf! They are planning to deal with you next! Didn't you know!?" Cyrus tried to reason with Daniel while maintaining distance and defending himself as best as he could.
"I think I'll take my chance," said Daniel, indifferent to Cyrus's warning.
"You FOOL!!" Cyrus got agitated, leaving his guard open and receiving an ice shive at his abdomen, slowing his reaction slightly.
At this moment, a powerful punch covered with penetration magic came toward his head. Cyrus quickly parried it, but the injury in his abdomen made him twitch a little, and his reflexes slowed by a split second.
That was enough for the Enforcer to take advantage of the opening.
Another Enforcer used his magic to slip from front to back like a ghost and immediately skewered Cyrus with his right arm.
Splashhhhh!!
Blood, organs, and bone pieces splattered around as Cyrus breathed his last…
"Damn… you…" Cyrus uttered, and no one knew whom he cursed. Was it the Enforcer who killed him? Or was it Pride and Daniel, who remained indifferent to him before his lifeless body was discarded to the ground like a used rag.
"Is he truly Cyrus? This guy died too easily. Isn't Cyrus… what? One of the three Hightower Grand Councilors?" Daniel asked Pride, who was standing beside him.
"The Golden Scale Enforcers never take down the wrong target. Besides… Cyrus is the weakest of the Three Grand Councilors; a few Golden Scale Enforcers could easily take him down," Pride explained.
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