Chapter 171: Difference[Fixed]
The massive courtyard of the guild headquarters erupted into a flurry of sudden motion. The moment the shadow of the giant avian blocked out the midday sun, the seasoned adventurers loitering in the open training grounds looked up, their experienced eyes instantly locking onto the majestic creature.
"Oh... Lord Ayu is back!" One shouted, his voice cutting through the ambient noise of clashing practice swords.
The name spread like wildfire through the crowd. Dozens of high-ranking magi and veteran mercenaries quickly turned toward the landing zone, their expressions turning to ones of immediate respect.
To the members of the headquarters, the sight of those midnight-black feathers and the distinct golden-furred neck was unmistakable.
It was the personal mount of one of the top arch magi in the entire organization, a symbol of absolute authority and overwhelming power.
What caught their attention next, however, completely derailed their welcoming thoughts.
As the majestic eagle descended lower into the courtyard, the wind pressure shifted, drawing everyone’s gaze to the heavy-duty deployment rope trailing far behind the creature’s left leg.
Attached to the very end of that rope was a massive, glittering block of reinforced ice. It swayed slightly in the air, casting a chilling, refracted light across the sunlit stone ramparts.
The sight sent a wave of profound confusion through the watching crowd. The adventurers whispered frantically among themselves, gesturing toward the frozen mass.
They certainly knew Ayu wasn’t an ice magus; the arch magus was renowned for a completely different elemental affinity. It made absolutely no sense for him to be transporting a magical structure like that.
They openly wondered how the ice structure came about, their curiosity piqued by the sheer impossibility of the display.
At a first glance, the object seemed just like a long, standard rectangular ice shape, perhaps some sort of rare crystal cargo or a frozen magical artifact retrieved from a distant frontier.
But as Goldie Neckie glided closer to the stone floor, the details became terrifyingly clear.
Upon closer look, the gathered adventurers could see that something... or someone was actually stuck inside the deep blue frost.
It wasn’t cargo at all. It was a living being, perfectly preserved and tightly bound within the suffocating, unyielding element.
The crowd pressed forward slightly, squinting through the thick, translucent layer of ice to identify the prisoner. The murmurs died down instantly, replaced by a heavy, suffocating silence.
It was a strange, monstrous figure. Three sharp, prominent horns protruded from its head, curving aggressively toward the sky.
Its face was an unnatural, porcelain pale, entirely devoid of human warmth. Even worse, thick, broken scales ran down his hands, glinting darkly beneath the frost where his tattered black cloak had pulled away.
The horrifying figure in the ice shocked them all to their very core. The veteran adventurers, who had fought countless mana beasts felt a primal instinct screaming inside their minds.
The sheer pressure of the creature’s suppressed nether aura, even while frozen solid, was unmistakable.
The crowd instinctively shifted back in fear, a collective shudder passing through the ranks of the adventurers.
The casual, relaxed atmosphere of the courtyard vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by a tense, combat-ready alertness.
Nobody wanted to be anywhere near that three-horned abomination, even if it was securely encased in reinforced magic.
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the crowd quickly cleared a wide, spacious path.
They pushed themselves against the walls of the courtyard, leaving a massive, unobstructed landing zone directly in front of the huge, fortified door to the main guild building.
Goldie Neckie executed a flawless, sweeping banking maneuver.
Her massive wings beat hard against the air one last time, generating a powerful gust of wind that sent loose dust flying across the cleared courtyard.
With a soft, heavy thud, her talons gripped the stone ground, her golden neck tilting back as she came to a complete halt.
Behind her, the heavy block of ice slammed onto the pavement with a loud, resounding crack, dragging Yaroth into the dirt at the end of the rope.
Ayu didn’t waste a single moment. He tapped Goldie Neckie’s neck gently, silently thanking her for the swift flight, before shifting his weight and jumping down from its back to the solid ground.
His landing was completely silent, his traveling cloak settling perfectly around his shoulders as he turned back to face the guild entrance.
Right behind him, Noah, Varis, and Yuan did the same.
Noah slid off the feathered back with practiced, detached grace, his mask concealing any emotion as his boots hit the stone floor.
Varis stretched his aching muscles, glad to finally be away from the proximity of the demon’s nether aura, while Yuan scrambled down a bit more frantically, his feet finally touching the courtyard.
The moment Yuan stood upright, he froze in his tracks. The young guildmaster was very shocked as he looked around, his mouth slightly agape.
His eyes widened in pure, unadulterated awe as he took in the sheer majesty of his surroundings.
The towering white-stone spires, the massive interconnected fortresses, and the sheer number of high-ranking, legendary adventurers staring back at them was entirely overwhelming.
For someone who had spent his entire career in the small, quiet frontier post of Eidbale, standing right here, at the literal apex of the adventurer world, felt like stepping into a myth.
The contrast was staggering. The grand adventurer headquarters was entirely different from the little, rundown branch Yuan managed back in Eidvale.
That frontier post was nothing more than a quiet, cramped wooden building where low-tier mercenaries drank cheap ale and complained about minor mana beasts infestations.
Here, the sheer architectural scale alone was dizzying, resembling a sprawling kingdom built solely for the elite.
Not only was the complex infinitely bigger, but the adventurers merely moving about the courtyard were a lot stronger also.
In Eidvale, seeing a high magus was a rare event that would turn heads for a week. But here, just glancing around the crowd, Yuan could feel the thick, suffocating pressure of dense mana radiating from almost everyone.
These were seasoned, battle-hardened veterans clad in rare armor and carrying weapons that practically hummed with energy.
