Arthur quickly snuck into the room, his anti-detection device did its job, so unless he activated his magic power it would be impossible for the elemental rats to discover him with CC-1 keeping them out.
"This is cruel ..."
Sighing, Arthur disabled his stealth mode and couldn't help shaking his head when he saw the status of his guards.
They were hung with thick chains, their clothes were in tatters and there were several deep wounds on their bodies, their tails and ears were cut off, and there were signs of torture on their arms, neck, and face.
There was no doubt that these women went through hell.
[Aurora]
Suddenly a small light lit up in the room, causing the rats that were next to their guards to panic and quickly search for the cause.
Unfortunately, it was too late, the third mark on Arthur's fan was activated, causing colored lights to fall on the rats and they fell to the ground.
Aurora was a simple, but very useful Artifact, it caused hallucinations, sleep, and finally dementia, at this time these rats fell due to excessive sleep.
Sighing, Arthur looked at his fan, fortunately, his fan has a large mana reserve, the rats did not put up resistance and gave in after all Margareth had injected her mana.
"Young Master? You ... shouldn't be here ....."
Slowly opening her eyelids, his guards flinched at the sight of a familiar figure.
"Don't worry, I've come to get you out of here ..."
[Snow Drop]
Opening his fan, Arthur activated the third mark on his fan, thus causing the chains to be frozen at extremely low temperatures.
* Creakkkkk
Shattering like glass, the women fell to the ground with a thud.
[Restoration]
Likewise, the fourth mark on his fan lit up and one of his guards was completely healed.
His guard that was healed instantly knelt, as Arthur passed on to the next woman ...
"I appreciate his kind attention, however, Young Master should not waste his precious consumable Artifacts on beings like us, we failed our mission, we deserve this fate ..."
As someone whose purpose was to protect their lord, their needing their lord's help to escape from this prison was the worst thing that could happen to them as guards.
The other women lowered their heads, their wounds on their bodies were nothing compared to what they felt emotional, however, Arthur did not stop.
"Fail? You are wrong, they have done a good job, I am still alive, so I need them by my side more than ever ... Besides, this fan is not comparable to even a lock of their hair"
As a doctor in his previous life, Arthur loves life and those who fight for it, hundreds of patients died because he could not save them, likewise, hundreds of patients lived by his work.
"... !!"
Smiling, Arthur continued to heal his guards, however, his words were like knives piercing the hearts of shadow element foxes.
They as elite guards of the shadows have been trained since childhood to protect the nobility, their emotions were denied to them and they are the knives in the dark.
However, in the depths of their being, they are women with desires ... The desire to serve a worthy lord.
And for the first time, they felt that this wish of theirs came true, Arthur, contrary to the rest of the nobles, did not abandon them and return to save them, whose purpose of existence was this.
Even going to the extreme of facing the rats and exhausting all the magical power of his fan, Arthur's fan is an Ancestral Grade Artifact that was gifted to him by Margareth, whose power was divided into several marks, that each mark was comparable to a Legendary Grade Artifact.
The Door of Four Directions is one of these brands, unfortunately, every time Arthur activates a brand, the magical power that Margareth left storing, is being exhausted, each use is limited and consumable.
But in this situation, where the concept of space is sealed and the Artifacts are limited, Arthur did not hesitate and used it in them.
This touched them deeply, because of this a small tear ran down her eyes, while in her heart her loyalty to her young Master was taken to greater heights.
(Whatever happens ... We won't let Young Master suffer)
With this promise in their hearts, they clenched their fists and smiled towards her Young Master.
------------
The leader of the group frowned and looked carefully at the battle zone, this was very strange, this guard was the only survivor who managed to escape with the aim of her, that this in this place was very strange ...
She likewise thought of asking for reinforcements, however, she stopped.
"It's possible..."
Suddenly a crazy possibility crossed his mind, CC-1 couldn't leave Arthur and there was no way they could have managed to get out of the barrier in such a short time.
So most likely CC-1 is following Arthur's orders,
and quickly ran to where the prisoners were.
"If I can catch it... My merits will be the greatest"
With this thought in mind, the Leader increased her magic power, greed was visible in her eyes.
* Bang, Bang
Several mana bullets were fired towards her, however, this elemental rat evaded them with great agility and continued her journey.
And just as she thought, when she arrived she found a cute fox, trying to free the prisoners.
"Hahaha, this is the best! It's my lucky day! And to think that our goal will come knocking on our door"
The leader was ecstatic, they had failed to capture Arthur, she never in her wildest dreams thought that the shadow guards they captured on a whim, would make her target come to save them.
She now she was happy that she had not killed these guards ...
"...."
Arthur didn't even look at her and continued to heal his guards, the leader frowned, this child wasn't scared and he didn't seem to want to run away either.
This was too strange, however, she got her answer when she saw that a shadow guard was missing.
[Eternal Darkness]
"Hm ?!"
Suddenly her magic power began to fluctuate and the shadows around her rose, the leader panicked, however, it was too late, her spell activated, swallowing her in the dark.
"Good job"
Arthur attended and continued with the treatment, his fan lit up and his tails swayed, healing his guards was more laborious than he thought, his core was locked, thus preventing his guards from using their spells to heal and to unlock it requires a Magical power superior to the seal, if not for his fan possessing a large amount of Margareth's magical power, it would be impossible to break the seal.
"Allow me, Young Master ..."
Fortunately, his guard that I heal at first didn't let Arthur continue to spend his precious Artifact, so he used to break the seal.
Arthur stood up, spread his fan, and frowned, his eyes shifted to the eye of infinity and thousands of calculations were processed in a second.
"Here it comes..."
The real enemy had arrived ...
-------------------
* CLANG
The sound of swords clashing continued, CC-1 gritted her teeth and her speed did not slow, there was only one opponent left, the corpses of the elemental rats lay on the ground, while the strongest of the group continued to exchange blows with her.
Fatigue was killing CC-1, her magic power was at the limit as was her body, she urgently needed a rest.
(No, I can't fall ... I can't disappoint young Master ....)
However CC-1 could not stop, thinking about the consequences of letting this elemental rat pass and interrupting the young Master's plans of hers, she made the shadow under CC-1's feet rise.
"I'll get this over with ... in one fell swoop ...."
Perhaps the elemental rat felt that the end was approaching, she took the distance from her, and likewise, her katana was illuminated in rays, the same happened with CC-1.
CC-1 was the same, she looked at her opponent and her magic power was pushed to the limit.
"[Slash of the Eternal Shadow!]"
"[Raikiri!]
* Biri-Biri ~
* Shiiii
The light and shadow were pushed to the limit, the speed of these women created friction causing the tunnel to catch fire, the surroundings shook and the tunnel began to collapse.
* CLANG
A single blow, fate was decided on this, CC-1's sword broke causing the elemental Rat's lightning to crash into her body, CC-1 closed one eye and entrusted everything to her barrier, however, the shadow of her sword was not destroyed, like a poisonous viper, she broke through the elemental rat's barrier successfully hitting the elemental rat's defenseless chest ...
"Ha... Ha... Ha ..."
Resisting with difficulty, CC-1 fell to her knees and did not turn her gaze as the elemental rat's body fell to the ground.
"Young master ..."
CC-1 patted her lips and dragged her body to the room where Arthur was, she was badly injured, however, she could not leave hers alone protected from her.
* BOOMMMM
Unfortunately, she couldn't take two steps when a shock wave hit her body, sending her flying.
"Hmmm, here is the little fox hiding ~"
"Guh!"
Spitting blood, CC-1 opened one eye, likewise, her body could not help but tremble at the arrival of this new enemy ...
"A ... Transcendent ...."
That's right, Veronica had arrived, walked slowly through the tunnel, while the 'Pirate's Map' located Arthur.
---------------
"The gravity pumps are in position Your Highness, we must evacuate ...."
"Yes...."
Receiving the report from his guard, Carter could not help turning his head into the distance, Arthur remained inside the tunnels, with him and CC-1 as bait, his travel through the tunnels was smooth, with his guards digging and leaving bombs, Carter finally reached his destination.
However, Carter was reluctant to leave Arthur, this was his savior but now this same savior asked him to run.
He didn't know what Arthur had in mind, but if his hypothesis is true, then he will face a Transcendent ...
Hatsumi was in the same position, she bit her lip and I hope, facing a Transcendent is insane.
[Master, she can count on the system, due to the emergency, the system will loan her origin points, please be free to choose between all the artifacts in the system ...]
"Hey?"
With Lupeta pulling her out of her thoughts, Hatsumi's eyes lit up, if she could pull out a powerful world artifact from the system, defeating a Transcendent would be so easy.
"Wait ... Lupeta, doesn't the system have a world-class Artifact?"
Unfortunately, her hopes were broken, seeing that the most powerful Artifact belonged to the Divine class.
"Master, World-Class Artifacts are limited in the world and they are too powerful to change the laws of the world, the System can't have them in its inventory."
World-class Artifacts are in the possession of the world's greatest powers, as well as the most powerful families.
An example would be the 5 great families of this continent, these families are called protectors of the continent not only because they have a high-level Transcendent in their ranks, but because they have world-class Artifacts.
It is because of these Artifacts that the other noble families have not been able to replace their position, these World Artifacts are not artificially created, but were given birth by the world, so their numbers are few.
The Seymur own only 3 World Artifacts, of which Maria has a contract with one.
It is due to its rarity and power that the system cannot obtain one of them in its inventory, in addition, the World Artifacts have their pride since they select their contractor and in addition to activating them it is necessary to pay a price, it is different for everyone the Artifacts, however, the price to pay is high.
Hatsumi still remembers that in the light novel, the price Arthur had to pay each time he activated the World Artifact from him was very large.
"Grrrr ~"
Thinking of this, Hatsumi could only grunt in disgust.
* BOOMMMM
Suddenly an explosion was heard, causing both Carter and Hatsumi to turn their heads, likewise shuddering at the thought that it was another group of rats.
"Your Highness Carter, they are the princesses"
Fortunately for both of them, what was causing all the fuss was Lilian, Ludi, and Charlotte.
"My sisters! Arthur was right, quickly take me to them!"
Clenching his little fists, Carter's tail turned from side to side, he had never before been so happy to be with his sisters, especially Lilian ...
At first, he had doubts about him, Arthur told him that if he followed this path he would meet his sisters, Carter thought that he told him all this so as not to involve him, however, Arthur told the truth.
(If it's Lilian ... she Maybe she can save Arthur)
If his older sister finds out about the danger that her fiancé is in, she absolutely will not let it pass and she will be the first to go to save him, of this Carter was sure ...
After all, Lilian was obsessed with Arthur.
Running enthusiastically, Carter didn't stop and followed the sound of the explosions.
------------------
Author Note: For those who are still not clear, this is not a novel with multiple protagonists, Arthur is and will be the only main protagonist.