Chapter 692: Destroyed Rock Towers (4)

"The mana has stabilized!"

"I know."

This underground area seemed to have been created without caring about the aesthetics. Bear King Sayeru was receiving a report from his subordinate as he looked around this area that was located underneath a regular home in Puzzle City.

'It stopped.'

The mana that had been extremely chaotic until just moments ago suddenly returned to normal.
Sayeru did not specialize in aura or magic, but even he could feel the flow of mana as an extremely strong individual.

'Shit!'

He could not stop frowning. His pale face was full of wrath and chaos.

'What the hell is going on?'

It was because he could not figure out what was going on.

'…Sure, we did not anticipate a mana disturbance tool, but it is an acceptable variable.'

The mana disturbance had suddenly struck Puzzle City.
Sayeru could tell that Cale's side had realized that they had abducted Deruth Henituse as soon as he felt the mana go awry.
Furthermore, it was understandable that Cale's side was using the mana disturbance tool to prevent Duke Deruth's abductors from teleporting away with him.
However, there was something else he did not understand.

'…Figuring out that Duke Deruth is abducted means that they found out that our liege has disguised himself as Duke Deruth.'

Sayeru was hiding away underground but sent his subordinate to stealthily check the situation above ground. Of course, he put the Dark Elves he kept alive instead of using them for the summoning ritual at the forefront.

'He said that they saw our liege's power in the sky.'

His subordinate had reported that they saw an ancient power with the sky attribute looking ready to be used in the night sky. Furthermore, Sayeru had been able to feel the White Star's power that covered the sky over Puzzle City while remaining underground.
He may be underground, but the door heading down was open.

"…Something is weird."

However, that sky power was not used and just disappeared.
None of the White Star's powers showed up after that.
Bear King Sayeru was saying that it was weird while having ominous thoughts on his mind.

'…Perhaps.'

Was his liege, the White Star, defeated?
The White Star was completely balanced now that he got an earth attribute ancient power. He was so strong to the point that Sayeru would fear for his life if they fought.

'But he could still lose.'

Sayeru's experiences until now made it impossible for him to ignore the potential that the White Star was defeated by Cale.

'That is why it is even weirder.'

According to his subordinate and the Dark Elves, all of Cale's friends were fighting against the monster. The only ones not visible were Cale Henituse and the White Star.

'That means that my liege fought against Cale Henituse, who had no help…. But my liege was defeated without much uproar?'

Sayeru had predicted that over half of Puzzle City would have been destroyed, not by the monster but by the White Star, even if he ended up losing in the end.
However, the White Star had disappeared quietly without much happening other than by the monster.

Yes, the White Star had quietly disappeared.
He was sure it was because of Cale Henituse.

Sayeru commanded the Bears and his subordinates to hide underground as soon as he realized that fact.

'Hide!'

He told them to at least thoroughly hide themselves during the mana disturbance.
He told them to only leave the Dark Elves out to stand guard.
He himself laid low after giving the order as well.

"What should we do?"

The mana was stable once again.
Sayeru looked toward the cautiously asking Bear subordinate, as well as the mage and the black mage behind him. The mage and black mage had stiff expressions on their faces as they commented.

"We cannot continue staying here like this."

"I agree. We need to do something with this opportunity."

"Either that, or we can activate the teleportation magic circle-"

The mage turned to the side. Deruth Henituse was glaring at them while completely bound.
The mage turned back toward Sayeru and continued speaking.

"We need to activate the teleportation magic circle and retreat with the hostage."

"I agree. I believe we can retreat and wait for our liege to contact us at our stronghold."

Sayeru knew that the subordinates spoke more relaxed around him than the Lion King or the White Star, but the mages and black mages were stating their opinions even stronger than usual.

'I guess the mana disturbance was burdensome on them.'

Those who were more sensitive about mana would have found the earlier situation much more burdensome.
However, he could not blame it all on the mana disturbance, as they weren't wrong about what they should do.

'We need to do something.'

They had no idea how long the mana would be stable for.
Furthermore, they needed to quickly do something as they had no idea about the White Star's current status.

"…I guess we should do SOMETHING."

Sayeru mumbled as if to convince himself, and stood up. He turned toward Duke Deruth, who was glaring at him.

"Alright, you will have to come with us."

Smirk.

Sayeru smirked and quickly gave orders to his subordinates.

"Mages and black mages immediately activate the teleportation magic circle! Tell the others to gather here as well!"

The Bears in the other underground passages needed to all come here as the teleportation magic circle was only in this building.

"I will go above ground for now."

There was a kitchen just outside this underground area and the living room that was connected to the kitchen was the teleportation magic circle.
Sayeru started moving and the faces of the subordinates lit up. They became energetic because there were signs of getting out of this burdensome area.

"Yes, sir!"

"We will quickly prep-"

The mages and black mages suddenly flinched and stopped talking.

"Hmm?"

Sayeru turned toward a direction as well.

"…Move!"

Sayeru pushed his subordinates aside and quickly headed for the exit.

"Huff. W, what the hell?!"

"…Hurry!"

The mages and black mages followed behind him. There were large beads of sweat on their foreheads.

'Fuck!'

But Sayeru didn't have time to pay attention to that.

'…How could there be such a power?!'

He suddenly felt the power of a large amount of mana.
This was different from the flow of mana that only those with magic, aura, or a special power could feel.

Normal people were unable to tell when a typhoon would start, however, they could see and feel a typhoon coming and fall into fear.
People had no idea when there would suddenly be a downpour, but they could see the dark clouds in the sky and tell that it would rain soon.

That was the case right now.
There was such a strong power of mana that even those who did not know much about mana or aura could feel it. It was inevitable that strong individuals like Sayeru would react sensitively to it.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Sayeru felt his heart beating wildly.

'I should have realized it when the mana disturbance tool suddenly stopped!'

There would have been a reason for the meticulous Cale Henituse to suddenly turn off the mana disturbance tool.
Sayeru was certain that this mysterious gathering of large mana would be that reason.

Slam!

Sayeru slammed open the half-open door heading above ground and walked out.

"…Sayeru-nim!"

He ignored his subordinate and the Dark Elves that were up here and headed for the window. The Dark Elves were already blankly staring in the direction of the power.
Sayeru turned toward the direction of the large mana as well.
He then saw it.

Swoooosh-

A strand of wind blew past him.
That was the only sound he could hear.
However, Sayeru definitely saw it.

He saw the monster that was covered in red fog.
Then down at its waist to its feet… There were what seemed to be an unlimited number of black threads holding it down.
Then there was the rock shield that was being destroyed as it blocked the black light shooting out of the monster's eyes.

Finally, there was a black and red mana orb that was headed toward the monster with a strand of wind.

Cale Henituse shouted toward the individuals who were already retreating.

"Watch out!"

He then gathered the remaining rocks to create a shield that headed toward the Lion Dragon.

The Lion Dragon moved its body after seeing the black and red mana orb approaching it.
Although this monster was slowed down by the red poisonous fog and the black threads… It still raised its shield that was said to be unbreakable, slowly but thoroughly.
It was trying to block the black and red mana orb that Rosalyn and Raon had shot out.

Cale ordered in a low voice as he watched.

"Block it."

The remaining shield moved quickly and arrived at its destination as he had calculated.

Bang!

The crude rock shield was in place to stop the monster's white shield.
Cale's rock shield pushed down on the rising shield.
The Lion Dragon's gaze moved. The black light shooting out of its eyes followed its trajectory as the monster turned toward Cale.
The moment Cale and the monster were about to make eye contact…

Baaaaaaaaaang—–!

The dark red mana orb slammed into the Lion Dragon and caused a large explosion.

Plop. Plop.

Rocks fell to the ground as Cale leisurely activated his ancient power, the Indestructible Shield, with a thick smile on his face.

Creak—

It was falling.
The monster's body was slowly falling back.
It wasn't actually falling slowly. It just seemed extremely slow in Cale's eyes.

The monster was actually not visible because of the explosion from the dark red mana orb, the red poisonous fog, and the black threads surrounding its body.

"…But it is falling."

He was sure that the monster's thick skin would not have been damaged greatly by this one attack.
The monster still had its fourth and fifth stages.
However, that was not the important part.

Boom!

The monster seemed to almost be flung away after being struck by the large mana orb.
This was the first time that the monster had fallen.

People who slowly raised their heads opened their eyes in shock as they watched.
Cale then moved for the first time in a long while.

– Human! Did Rosalyn and I do well? I think we did very well! We are great and mighty! Hehe!

Cale could see Rosalyn, who was leaning on the window ledge as if she was tired, and Raon who was waving his front paw in excitement.

"Time for stage four."

The thirty minutes that the Lion Dragon could maintain stage three… That time was now over.
Stages four and five that should come now should not be that difficult.
A crown prince who will thoroughly rip apart the fallen enemy was Cale's ally.

There was someone else who also predicted the monster's defeat at that moment.

"Hurry!"

The moment that Bear King Sayeru saw the monster falling after being struck by the dark red mana orb… He badgered the mages and black mages to hurry up.

Ooooooooong-

His urging made the teleportation magic circle slowly start to activate.

"…Sayeru-nim!"

"Shit!"

However, the mages soon looked toward Sayeru with shock.

"The mana, the mana is starting to go chaotic again!"

The mana disturbance tool activated throughout Puzzle City again.

"Fuck!"

Sayeru couldn't help but swear.

'I shouldn't have been standing there idly!'

He should have thought about escaping regardless of whether that dark red mana orb attacked the monster or not.

'If it keeps going like this… We're done for if they find us! Before they find us-'

Sayeru suddenly flinched and stopped moving.

"…Before they find us?"

His eyes slowly headed toward the window.

"No way...?"

Sayeru could see Cale, who moved away from the barrier, quickly moving with the two Cats.

He was headed toward them.

'…There's no way that we've already been found, right? They figured out where we are? Is that it?'

As Sayeru's eyes subconsciously shook…

Knock knock knock.

They hear someone knock on the door, followed by a benign voice.

"Anybody home?"

The former assassin Ron had stealthily arrived outside the door to knock.
A cold smile was on his wrinkled face, different from his warm voice.

"I will be coming in since I know you are inside."

Along with his benign and extremely polite voice…

Baaaaang—!

The door was destroyed.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]