'Something is not right.' The claymore was an inch away from Kinoya but Fret hesitated. He tried to move away. Alas! It was too late and was sent flying with a gust of wind.
"Boy, don't give up on living, so easily."
"General." Looking at Akai, a sigh of relief escaped Kinoya.
"Cut the formalities." Akai threw him a bottle of potion, "Drink this, it will help you to dispel the mana."
'A potion is not something one would carry, even in war! Or mana poisoning is such a common thing?!' Kinoya was surprised while he received the potion bottle from Akai, but drank it without hesitation. It wasn't long before the system confirmed that the mana had been dispelled.
"I will handle this guy. You do what you have to do." Akai said without looking back.
Not many people knew about the mission of the enemy, but Akai was one of them. After receiving the arrow from Kinoya, he was surprised. And when he saw the magic knight, he felt that Kinoya might be right after all.
'They are here to blow up the city. How vicious.' Even as a veteran general, he couldn't help but shudder at the thought.
Kinoya stood up, the new mana was flooding through his body healing the wounds. With the assistance of the system, the smoke had started to come out again and Kinoya vanished in a flash.
He could feel another outburst of mana behind him. Kinoya wanted to look, but he had an important job.
"No, you are not going anywhere." With the scream from Akai, the wind picked up behind him, and Fret was forced to stop.
He moved towards the centre of the Chararch. A big tunnel leading underground was in his view but it was well guarded. They weren't much of a threat to Kinoya and fell under the claw without much resistance.
The whole path of the tunnel was littered with dead bodies. Poisonous arrows, acid, deadly traps, everything was there, along with mutilated, deformed bodies. Those were still hot and the stench of blood was strong.
Kinoya didn't know how to disconnect these types of traps. But lucky for him, those entered before him had rendered most of them useless. Still, he moved while cladding his whole body with black smoke.
He was careful, yet as his feet touched the soft ground and it caved in. The wide hole, with poisonous spears at the bottom, tried to swallow Kinoya up.
The impaled body and the stench of blood and piss reminded the effectiveness of the trap, yet it failed to affect Kinoya. He moved across in the puff of black smoke.
No matter how fast he moved, he couldn't bypass the leftover traps. Few arrows missed him by an inch, a sharp axe cut off a good chunk of black smoke. However, no matter how many traps were activated, all of them had failed to do real damage to him.
After moving for half an hour he was standing underneath an arch. It was littered with dead bodies and broken golems. The smell of blood and metal filled the air but the light that was coming out of the open metal door frightened him most.
"How can there be such condense mana here?"
Mana, the catalyst of magic, was different from the elemental energy. The mana was the only key that can tap into the elemental sea. The only difference from a magic-user from a non-magician was that they couldn't sense or wield the mana.
He had felt an enormous amount of elemental energy from that Fret. However, it was different, It's pure mana.
Tyrannical amount of mana was gushing out of the door and was corroding his black smoke armour at a visible speed.
His blue flame eyes, that project the image of mana and elemental energy around him, had become his biggest weakness. It was blinding white in front of him. He couldn't see anything until he opened his left eye.
Even then his skin continued to sizzle. With each step, the feeling of being poked by thousands of needles was increasing. All he could do was grit his teeth as he walked in.
There were around five people inside the room and in the middle of it, there was a crystal, about 3 meters tall. It was floating in the middle of an inactive magic circle.
When the people saw Kinoya they were surprised at first, yet at the next moment they laughed it out.
"No matter what you do, it is already too late. There is nobody who can stop the explosion now."
Kinoya didn't know whether they could see it or not, but the mana flow was clear in front of his eyes. The turbulent mana had continued to assault the inner-shell of the mana crystal. Mana was already leaking through the crack.
"You have 2 minutes to tell me how to stop it." Even before he completed the sentence he had already beheaded one, making others stupefied. He had already removed the head of the second one, even before others could understand what had happened to the first one.
The bodies sprayed blood in the air, the stench of blood was spreading. One screamed and ran towards the gate yet it was too late. He died even before he could reach the gate.
"Now, the one, who will tell me how to stop it, will get to live." Even if he wanted to talk with a smile, it was not the time. With the little time he had, violence was the only path he could take.
"Aaa… A wizard can stop it." One of them shouted and soon he was crying in pain. His left hand was already severed from the body. Kinoya tore it off with his black claw.
"You have to pay for the wrong answer. Do you see any wizard here?" Kinoya had thrown away the hand.
"If there is something that could absorb the excess power of the crystal, then you can stop it."
"Something that could absorb the mana?" Kinoya couldn't think about such a thing but… 'System, can Varytita absorb the energy?'
[Varytita could absorb the energy. The host needs to guide the energy continuously, otherwise, it will explode along with the crystal.]
With a smile on his face, "That is what I want to hear. Now the last question. How did you overload the crystal?"
"Using this" Both of them shouted at the same time, taking out a small crystal with a tube attached to it and there were 8 spider-like legs at the end of the tube. Kinoya could see two of those things attached to the big crystal.
"Leave those here and go." With the words. They compiled without any hesitation.
'Leave an enemy so he could create more problems in the future?' Kinoya had no intention of doing it. Before they could leave the room, they had left the world.
He didn't waste any more moments and the talwar in the crystal without hesitation. 'Worst come worst I could just wake him up.'
***********
At the city centre, the situation was turning in favour of the empire, as expected. The elite soldiers had tried. Yet when Akai had destroyed their momentum they had failed to recover.
Soldiers behind Akai were the best of the Red front and they didn't miss the opportunity. Not many, other than Fret had survived.
On the other hand, Fret was a different problem. There was not much Akai could do against a magic knight. Even if a general grade skill could be effective against Fret, it was not fatal. On top, there is a limit of how many times he could use it.
"It looks like it's time for me to leave. It would have been great if you had survived, but, alas! that is not going to happen. Only if you can go out of the third wall you might survive." Fret put back the claymore, took out a bead.
The blue aura around him vanished in a blink of an eye. All Akai could do was watch. Fret crushed the bead, a magic circle appeared under his feet and he vanished in the mid-air along with those around him.
Akai was panting heavily. If Kinoya hadn't injured Fret, things would have been very different. It was due to this he could escape with just injuries. Otherwise, he would have died by now.
'How did Kinoya was able to hold his ground against that monster?' Akai shouted as someone brought his horse to him. "We are moving right now."
"General, others have left the city."
"What about the commander-in-chief?"
"They had already left. Only the corps of general Riyasu is left."
"Let that idiot suffer. We are leaving now." Without hesitation, they ran towards the gate. But, even before they could reach the gate a quake shook the whole city.
Small quakes continued to rock the city, while stronger vibrations tore down the wounded houses throughout the city. Even Riyasu's soldiers could feel the coming danger and broke into utter chaos. Alas! It was too late.
"Move faster. We have to leave now." Akai continued to shout as he led his soldiers through the city and passed the second wall.
It felt like, inside the earth, an angry dragon was struggling for his freedom and it's growling was like thunder to the ears of the soldiers. The helpless cries in the city increased too, yet the tremor continued.
Akai continued to move until they could see the others. First one to greet them wasn't a general but the Vishnugupta. Akai was a little surprised to see what was behind him. Not just the troop of Kinoya, numerous women were present too.
"Welcome general." Chanakya greeted him.
Before Akai could say anything the whole land rocked in a thunderous boom. All the horses of the cavalry were neighing in fear. It was hard for them to calm down, the woman and children were second to react.
But it didn't stop with just one or two quakes. Little did they know this was just the beginning. It continued for a whole day before the city stopped trembling. Even if the city had stopped, the city centre continued to rock for months to come.
Soon the report was sent to the capital, reporting the loss of almost 35,000 soldiers along with a young captain, Kinoya Arviga.