Chapter 63: Roland, the Stone Knight II
"There are three of us here, and we’re all strong! We can take care of one stone golem without any problem!"
Galen spoke up with a frown, and Lyra almost slapped her in anger. Did Galen not know anything about Domain Magic!? Even if they were all more powerful than the golem, they were currently inside its territory, so they had no idea what sort of spell or technique it could use in there. Trying to fight a mage in their own Domain was no different from committing suicide!
The stone knight went silent after Galen gave an answer, but then the knight spoke up in a final voice.
"Name not recognized. Activating elimination protocol."
DOON!
An insane pressure suddenly pressed down on everything around the lab, and Lyra cursed as both Galen and the other soldier who came here with them were immediately overpowered by the mana! The pressure in the room was as high as the aura from a Seventh Realm mage, so the two fourth realms couldn’t withstand it at all, and they lost consciousness. But before the two of them could even fall to th ground, the stone knight flashed forward in an unbelievable burst of speed and swung his claymore in a perfect, deadly arc.
Slash!
Splurt!
Two heads were taken off cleanly, and blood burst out and splashed across the ground as both Galen and the man were killed instantly! Lyra backpedaled in fear as she realized that they had awakened something unbelievable, and she quickly turned and dashed towards the exit to try and escape.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The sound of footsteps echoed from behind, and Lyra could feel the imposing aura of the knight on her heels. Lyra was only a few feet away from the exit, but it felt like that door was on the other side of the world, and Lyra knew that the Knight would get her before she escaped! Lyra quickly tried to reach for her mana to teleport, but Lyra cursed when she realised she couldn’t activate any spell!
’Domain Magic! He blocked anyone else from using mana!’
The entire room had been covered in a spell that Percy had woven into the magic of the Stone Knight Roland. The spell was called [All Men Born Equal], and it gave Roland the ability to spread his mana across his domain in a way that interfered with the magic of everyone around him and made sure that they couldn’t use their spells at all! The entire downstairs research lab had been given to Roland as his domain, so whoever entered here would have to prove that they were not intruders by giving their names. Once their name or magic is not recognised, then Roland would activate the elimination protocol!
BOOM!
The ten-foot-tall homunculus slammed his foot into the ground, and the entire lab shook from the impact. Lyra was thrown forward as she missed her footing, and she turned around to see Roland raising his sword to take her head off! At that moment, Lyra saw her entire life flash before her eyes, as she realised that there was no way she was getting out of this alive, and Lyra immediately made a desperate choice!
Lyra reached for the pendant around her neck and yanked it away, and Lyra was suddenly pulled out of this time and returned to the future! Once she vanished, Roland stopped his swing, and he looked around to see if there was anyone else in the room! Once he was sure that all intruders were either eliminated or gone, Roland deactivated his ability and moved towards the massive hole in the wall where he had come from! Roland entered the hole and lay back while holding his sword to his chest before becoming dormant once more.
....
[The Aquinas Valley]
A massive delegation of Aquinas City Guards made their way towards the Aquinas Valley on horseback. Just earlier, the city guards had gotten a tip from one of the Pillars of the Kingdom that there was a dangerous army hiding in this valley, and the guards had wasted no time before coming out to capture them!
At the front of the guards was the large lion-human hybrid, Augustine, and he had a scowl on his face that showed just how angry he was at that moment! This was not the first time that the guards would be coming out to this valley! They had come here earlier due to a massive surge of mana that showed up on their radar, and they scanned the entire valley to try and find the cause of it, but even after a thorough search, the guards had all come back to August claiming that they didn’t find anything, and August had foolishly believed them.
’It was compulsion magic. How could I have been so stupid!?’
August couldn’t believe he had taken the words of his men at face value. It was obvious that the invaders had all used compulsion magic to trick the officers into thinking that there was no danger in the valley! And the fact that the compulsion had worked so well meant that these invaders were a lot more dangerous than they initially thought.
The moment he received the tip from the pillar Sylvester, August had rallied every available guard in the city, and they were on their way to the valley to take care of the intruders before this could become a problem.
"Sir, over there!"
August turned to see Viva pointing at an area beyond a large valley, and August quickly shouted for the guards to all follow him in that direction! August had been surprised when Officer Viva offered to come along for the raid, even though she had already been working hard at her job in the library all through today. Her dedication to her job was admirable, and August already made up his mind to promote her after this current mission was finished. But that wasn’t important for now, and August focused on the mission as he led the army down to the valley.
There were already a few city guards who had arrived earlier waiting at the bottom of the valley, and August stopped his horse a few meters away from one of the men and spoke while looking around.
"What’s the status?"
August scanned the area quickly, and he didn’t even need to use his [Magic Scanner] to know that someone had been here. There were signs that a large group had camped here just a few minutes ago. Firepits that were still smoldering, and meals that had been left behind. It looked like they had abandoned everything and simply run away! One of the guards saluted August and spoke up.
"Sir, we arrived at the scene just in time to see a large magic illusion barrier going down. Inside it were close to a hundred vampire soldiers. But before we could confront anyone, all the soldiers vanished as well."
August’s brow furrowed.
"They vanished? Do you mean they used illusion magic to turn invisible?"
The soldier shook his head.
"No, sir. They simply vanished. Our Magic Scanner did not pick up any irregularities in mana around this area, so we are certain they didn’t use illusion magic. We don’t know what could’ve happened to them."
August felt his annoyance growing even more once he was done hearing all this, and he began to wonder what in the world could’ve possibly happened here. People didn’t simply vanish into thin air for no reason! Something or someone must’ve taken them away from here.
Gallop! Gallop!
All of a sudden, August heard the sound of a horse galloping away quickly, and August turned to see that it was Viva riding away from the valley.
"OFFICER VIVA!"
August shouted out towards Viva when he saw her leaving so quickly, and he wondered what had gotten into her. Did she figure something out!? All the guards also looked at Viva curiously when they saw her riding away, and Viva shouted back at them.
"I’ll be back soon! I need to confirm something for the investigation!"
....
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