They confirmed these five were traitors, what Lara said was true, and they knew they were in a very tight spot right now.
The two crystals would unleash a hellish wave of monsters, and two monster tides would appear here. And they were right in the centre of it!
"Retreat!" without the need to say anymore, the two groups in the heart of this instantly retreated, and moved as fast as they could. But soon enough, the crystals got crushed, alongside the vicious laughs of the two leaders who did it.
Through spirit sense, masters in the other three locations could see what was going on there. "Hehehehe, you are all going to die, hehehehe," one of the traitors said, before starting to fight back fiercely.
"You won't make it out as you dream," but the response he got from his ex-friends and allies was unexpected to these three. They thought the monsters would run away as fast as they could, like how the other two did. But they didn't, "we already came prepared for such a scenario… Release everyone, let them try to contain the incoming monster tide…"
The city leaders already sent lots of forces outside, acting as early alarming beacons for the city. Yet the main goal was to first separate the high-end masters following these five traitors, and provide aid and support if monster tide appeared like now.
As they got here, they already spread orders to gather the dispatched teams closer. And when the monster tides showed up, they gave the order for these masters to intervene.
"As for you, you'll come with us," the city leaders and the high-end masters on their side surrounded the traitors, and forcibly dealt with them, ending up capturing two. The third was quite a fierce master, at the pinnacle of power, and capturing him ended up in killing him instead.
"We'll have to search far and wide for those damn crystals," the city leaders totally believed Lara now, and they realised how truly grave the city's situation was.
"How about their masters?" one asked, and then they agreed to proceed on the same plan they agreed before upon.
"Let's show them the recording crystals, show everyone in their forces. If any tried to stir up trouble, then we won't show mercy to any," this was the decision they all agreed on right on the spot. Yet there was still one problem left.
"That fort… This force… I got a bad feeling about it!"
"It's too close to the city, and it's well fortified… Do you think they wanted to drag us into a long war of attrition war, to make us shift our gazes away from the city and leave it defenceless?"
"I don't think so, you heard them, they were trying to make us stay away from there. I bet there is something big going on in that place…"
"Let's be cautious, let's send part of the masters back to protect the city. After all, we got two monster tides to handle."
The two monster tides were the real problem here. They were sure whatever they did here would only delay their advance, not stop it. And without the need to read the future, they were sure these monsters would march towards their city.
Just one monster tide gave them a headache already. And there weren't only two, but three uncertain tides if they didn't find the crystals as fast as possible.
Right at this moment, they regretted not listening to Lara's words, regretted not acting that fiercely against such a possible threat before when they got time to do so.
They wasted much time and effort when they could have done much better. And slowly, all of them asked themselves this simple question: Since when did we deteriorate to such a low stage?
As they tried to control the explosive situation there, they did three extra things. First, they warned the ones in the city about the upcoming disaster, asking them to do everything in their power to prepare. Then they warned Lara, asking her to convince William to send back part of the masters to protect the city. Then they sent back the captured two traitors to the city for further interrogation.
In fact, the interrogation started the moment these two got caught. They got sealed by many arrays and got to suffer horrifying torture to force them to spill out the beans and tell everyone about where they hid their crystals, speak about everything else about this treason and dirty scheme.
As for the other two traitors, they ended up in a miserable fate. The moment they released the monsters, the latter didn't differentiate them from any other human, ending up getting mercilessly killed and eaten by the endless monsters.
"When this is all over, you owe me an apology," Lara said this in an icy cold tone. She didn't like how her city's leaders treated her warnings like they were lies and trash. And yet she didn't focus on this as there was a grand disaster heading their way.
She knew this was the act of that mysterious man and the five traitors who got played in his hands like puppets, but the city leaders had their share of the blame as well. If they listened to her and acted a bit sooner, things would have been much different.
Luckily the two monster tides appeared tens of kilometres away, giving them time to prepare and ready themselves for the incoming impact.
They got hours, up to half a day at most if the high-end masters managed to pull a miracle out there. But it was enough to rally everyone and prepare themselves for the incoming hit.
The only and main problem now wasn't in the city or its preparations, wasn't in the number of masters ready to fight, but in this weird fort and force lying within.
So far they didn't get much to tell William about their identities. These masters kept their powers hidden, carefully moving things using little of their spirit power.
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