When Hazor, Meredith and Luke finally reached the bottom of the stairs, they were met with a large, closed iron door. The door was at least four meters high, and just as wide. In the center of the door, there was the symbol of a circle with a triangle inside. A heavy door wouldn't be enough to stop the half-wolf, so he advanced.
"Hey, wait a minute, Luke." Hazor said just as Luke was about to knock on the door.
The half-wolf could tell from his tone that something was wrong with the door, and he took a step back.
The old man took a step forward, gripping the sword's hilt firmly as he stared at the symbol. Illuminated by the purple flames of the torches on either side of the door, he sighed and touched the door with the same mother who was holding the sheathed sword.
Suddenly, a single glow lit up the entire empty room and a black magic circle appeared in front of the symbol on the door. However, Luke and Meredith noticed that this magic circle was different from the ones they usually saw in the times of the Oukiwa Noble Academy, or even during practices with Alexis. The clearest difference for people who didn't understand much about magic circles, like these half-beasts, were the runes and the central symbol.
Normally, runes must be well-designed so that the spell does not have a reverse effect against its user. In this case it was different, the runes were crooked and misaligned, but amidst so much confusion there was order, in a way. The symbol was also weird, because being a magic circle it was common for the symbol to be a circle too, but the one in front of them was a six-pointed star.
Luke Lange perfectly remembered reading in a trivia book that magic circles were shaped to be stable and prevent explosions.
"What is this, Hazor? You who made this… thing?" Luke asked after the sudden glow had passed, leaving only the faint glow of the magic circle.
"No, I didn't. This is a magical seal of protection, probably made to buy the Bishop more time. I will destroy it in a second." He answered and picked up the sword hilt again.
Then he drew his sword so quickly that Meredith didn't even see the blade come completely out of the scabbard before the blade was hidden again. The magic circle split in half and exploded into shimmering white particles.
With both hands on the door, ready to push it open, Hazor turned around, looked at the two half-beasts, and asked, "Are you ready?"
Meredith took an arrow from the quiver that popped out of her back when she summoned the Bow of Panspermia, then she nodded confidently.
The half-wolf already had the Behemoth Ax in his hand, and he didn't seem to mind the fact that he was shirtless. He didn't react to Hazor's question, and that lack of reaction was what indicated to Hazor that Luke Lange was indeed focused on the battle to come.
Then Commander Hazor opened the great door, revealing a large hall with a high ceiling and many pillars. On each of the ten pillars was a different statue, whose faces were different, clothes were different, and even the races looked different, with statues with pointed eyes and others with a more, shall we say, devilish appearance.
The atmosphere was warm, almost cozy. There were thousands of candles scattered on the floor and the smell of common tavern liquor, which certainly surprised the trio that invaded it.
Further back in the common room, past the hall of statues and pillars, there was a small staircase and above that staircase was a stone throne.
However, the throne was not the thing that drew the most attention, but the man in black on the stairs. Sitting on a step in the middle of the stairs was the Bishop, this time without a mask. His hair was curly and big, his skin was horrible, his nose was huge, and he had almost no lips in his mouth. Somehow, he was even uglier without a mask than with a mask on.
His staff was naturally in his left hand, his most confident hand, and in his right hand was a bottle of alcohol, which he drank in long gulps. His face was red from the amount of alcohol he had already ingested, and beside him was another bottle of liquor that was completely empty.
"OH! You have finally arrived! I was waiting for you!" said the Bishop when he saw the three people who had entered the hall. His voice echoed through the room, and his diction was as normal as ever.
"What do you think you are doing?" Luke Lange asked, slightly irritated. He'd killed dozens of people a few minutes ago, so he wasn't in the best of moods, let alone taking bullshit from a drunk man.
When the Bishop was questioned in this way, the light expression on his face disappeared. "Ah, get out of here, be disgusting!" He responded angrily.
At that moment, Luke Lange was lifted off the ground by a mysterious force and flung several meters to the right and only stopped when he collided with a stone statue. The impact was so strong that the five-meter-tall statue completely cracked, and the head fell to the side where Luke was lying.
He got up without difficulty and lightly patted his hair to get the dust off the concrete. "That's what I was talking about..." Luke smiled excitedly. "Guys, cover me!"
The half-wolf started to run towards the stairs and meanwhile he threw the ax towards the Bishop.
"Oh, what a bummer... What the hell did I do to you?" The Bishop spoke and stood up with the help of his staff.
The ax continued heading towards him and at no time had its trajectory altered. Luke wondered how the Bishop would be able to stop the Machado. Maybe he used a dark magic, a magic circle or even an ability of the staff itself, however, what really stopped the ax was the fact that Amara had entered in front of him to save the Bishop's life.
The ax plunged deep into her chest, and together they fell to the ground. The Bishop looked to the side in confusion and, his face reddened, began to laugh beside his best lackey.
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