Chapter 66: Tempest Reinforcements [2]
The biting chill of the northern night did nothing to slow the two figures darting across the vast, rolling dunes of the Hudeii Desert.
Under the blanket of absolute darkness, the sand shifted silently beneath their boots.
Alisa and Eurenia moved like twin ghosts, their slate-grey Mandraxx battle suits absorbing the faint starlight and rendering their spiritual signatures completely invisible against the barren terrain.
"Hehehehe so this is how fast a cultivator could go eh?" Alisa chuckled. They were traveling ten times faster than when they were mere mortals.
"Should make a bet?" Eurenia asked, she leapt high, soaring through the sky before descending at lightning speed.
"What bet?" Alisa ran zig zag across the canyon. Eurenia landed beside her, "A race bet...."
"Let’s see who’ll get to Norona City faster, between you and me" she grinned.
"I see....so what will we be staking?" Alisa asked. "I’ll give you a dozen crusaders if you win"
"If I win, you’ll let me spend seven days alone with Master Jarden" Eurenia giggled.
"Huh?" Alisa’s eyebrows furrowed, "What nonsense are you spouting just now?" she growled.
"Then let’s do it like this, whoever wins will spend seven days with Master Jarden alone" Alisa stated.
"We have a deal then" Eurenia’s eyes flickered for a second. She vanished into thin air, but Alisa wasn’t left behind.
As the endless expanse of sand gradually gave way to jagged, ice-rimed stone, the colossal silhouette of Norona City loomed before them.
They both halted few hundred meters away from the city. Not wanting to expose their presence, they arrived at the same time.
Making it a draw.
Eurenia was physically stronger, having evolved into a Martial Master, while Eurenia, despite being a Martial Warrior.
Still possessed the strength of an S-class Void-Stalking Rabbit.
The city was a fortress of black iron and permafrost, but tonight, it looked like a hornet’s nest.
Huge, burning brass braziers lined the high parapets, casting a harsh, flickering orange glow over the frozen walls.
"It seems we have a problem" Eurenia whispered as they sneakily approached the city, unnoticed by the watchmen.
"This ain’t enough to be called a problem tho" Alisa whispered back, "We can easily evade them"
Sentries were posted at every single gap, gate, and crevice.
Atop the wooden watchtowers, elite watchmen stood rigid, their eyes scanning every angle of the approach while heavy frost-arrays pulsed along the battlements.
The entire city was on an absolute, suffocating lockdown.
"They’re tight," Eurenia whispered, her voice barely carrying over the whistling desert wind as they crouched behind a frosted boulder.
"It doesn’t matter," Alisa murmured, her long rabbit ears twitching as she calculated the patrol intervals. "The Apostle gave us the blind spots in their layout. Follow my lead."
With the fluid grace of seasoned operatives, they moved.
Alisa led the way, utilizing her natural agility and the specialized shadow-silk of her suit to melt into the darkness whenever a watchman’s gaze swept their way.
Eurenia followed seamlessly, timing her breaths to the rhythmic clanking of the distant guards’ armor.
They slipped through a narrow, unmonitored drainage grate at the base of the western wall, bypassing the entire Master-tier perimeter without triggering a single rune.
But the moment they cleared the inner courtyard and slipped into a secluded, stone-walled alleyway.
There was a problem.
Four towering Ogre guards, carrying heavy spiked clubs and smelling heavily of raw meat, turned the corner.
Their flat, yellow eyes locked right onto the two intruders.
"Hey! Who goes—"
The Ogre’s shout was violently cut short.
Before Alisa could even draw her daggers, Eurenia vanished from her side.
A cold, terrifying burst of mana erupted from her forearms as her concealed mana cartridges flared with lethal, compressed energy.
The deep-seated hatred she harbored for the brutish race—the monsters who had tormented her people for generations—boiled over in a split second of pure, silent execution.
SPURT. CRACK.
Two precise, blinding beams of kinetic force punched straight through the throats of the front two Ogres, shattering their windpipes instantly.
Moving with terrifying speed, Eurenia spun, her legs sweeping the third Ogre off his feet while her palms slammed directly into the chestplate of the fourth.
The raw mana pressure imploded inward, crushing his heart before he could lift his club.
The third Ogre crashed to the ground, only for Eurenia to drive a compressed mana spike straight through his skull.
"Ah I had totally forgotten about your unending hatred towards this filthy Ogres" Alisa chuckled.
The entire encounter lasted less than three seconds.
The four massive brutes lay in a silent, bloody heap in the snow, their lives extinguished before they could even sound the alarm.
"I can’t forgive this bastards" she clenched her fist, "Especially that bastard who butchered my father..."
Her eyes darkened. "Who is he?" Alisa calmly asked.
"I don’t know" Eurenia shook her head, "What I do know is that they called him General...."
Eurenia stood over the bodies, her chest rising and falling slightly, her eyes cold and unforgiving as she wiped a stray drop of dark blood from her sleeve.
"Clean," Alisa whispered, giving her a sharp nod, though her ears twitched at the raw intensity of Eurenia’s strike. "Come on. We need to move before the patrol checks this sector."
"Don’t let emotions ruin the schemes of Master Jarden" Alisa warned.
Following the location map, they synchronized with the exact coordinates Roy had sent to Tempest City.
Turning away from the blood-stained alley, they plunged deep into the lower, crumbling districts of the city, navigating the labyrinth of freezing slums until they found the yawning mouth of the hidden transit tunnel.
They slipped into the dark, moisture-dripping corridor, their weapons drawn just in case.
But as they rounded the final bend into the vaulted cavern, the tension in their shoulders finally dissolved.
The dim purple light of the mana cores revealed the entire cell gathered together.
Nurex stood tall, his newly forged Martial Warrior mana core humming with power, flanked by the alert forms of Ivon and Yuri.
Standing in the center of the dark cavern, his long golden hair cascading down his waist and his dual-colored eyes reflecting the faint light, was Roy.
Alisa’s eyes lit up, a brilliant, excited smile finally breaking through her serious director persona.
"Apostle Jarden! The Tempest reinforcements has arrived."