In the great plains of Fray'r, a point of light was flying through the sky rapidly, leaving hardly any time for those below to catch a glimpse of Zachary inside.
He was in a hurry, excited and happy. A huge smile decorated his face. He wanted to finish the preparations to return to the capital as soon as possible.
He had so much to show his new colleague. Although the latter had refused his offer to become Archmage of the Court, that was not going to prevent him from making a friend of him.
A true friend who shared what he had been through. Someone who could understand him better than anyone. An Archmage from Earth!
Today was a beautiful day. Nothing should spoil it.
That was what he was thinking when Erivia came into view. Immediately, the Magus sensed that something was wrong. The city emitted a strange feeling.
Immediately he activated his mana vision before suddenly stopping. Around the city, an energy line had been placed blocking mana from entering and causing it to exit from within.
It was not the first time he had seen such a phenomenon. After all, he had also experimented with mana before. But never had he been able to do it on such a large scale.
His eyes then fell to the closed city gates and the ramparts upon which archers stood.
Zachary didn't know what to think and decided to approach to find out. Just as he was about to land on the walls to ask the soldiers what was going on, the archers turned and fired a volley of arrows.
Immediately, a wind barrier appeared in front of Zachary and shielded him from the arrows which were deflected to the sides. Zachary stood still for a long moment. Did they just attack him? Why?
- "What's going on?! Why did you attack me?" he asked immediately.
He didn't understand. Why would soldiers from the kingdom shoot at him? They knew very well who he was.
- "I'm asking you the same question!" a voice yelled.
Zachary turned his head to the origin of the voice. On the walls was Raphael Cortez armed with his sword.
- "Excuse me?" Zachary asked in dismay.
- "Don't act like a fool. Your soldiers attacked us first!" Raphael replied sternly.
Why would they attack the city? Something was wrong. Zachary could not approach the ramparts without his powers being drastically reduced or even completely nullified by the rune traced around the city.
He also had the option to turn off the rune which didn't seem like an easy thing to do. From what he could see, it was probably the work of Isaac.
The task would have been easier if there were no inhabitants inside. He could have simply thrown a huge fireball or caused an earthquake to break the traces of the rune.
But at present, this scenario was not possible without risking the lives of hundreds or even thousands of people.
Without saying another word, Zachary got down to the ground and approached the line surrounding the city before opening his hand.
Moments later, the atmosphere around him stiffened before lightning formed.
Electric arcs appeared between the ground and his hand then came together to form a sphere. A few seconds later, all the arcs were heading towards the ground in the direction of the runic pattern.
As soon as the lightning struck the ground, a blast swept around and forced Zachary to back away. Dust rose in the air, preventing anyone from seeing what was going on below.
For his part, Zachary was able to observe the runic traces being disintegrated and then rapidly regenerating in front of his eyes.
- "Raaah! Isaac, we need to talk! Your runes are too well done" he yelled before taking flight.
Once high enough to be able to observe the whole city, Zachary proceeded to watch what was happening there by increasing his vision with mana.
All over the city, soldiers evacuated civilians to barracks or ramparts. At the gates of the castle, the royal guards were in close formation around the two Master Mages.
The two of them were barely standing, sweat beading on their cheeks. Their breath was irregular and pronounced. Their skin looked pale.
- "I can't cast any spell!" one of them said.
- "Me neither," said the other.
They didn't know what was going on. Whenever they tried to expand their circuits, their mana flowing through their bodies was absorbed forcing them to retract their mana vessels.
Without their circuits to gather the elements, they couldn't cast elemental spells. All they could do was increase their own body.
But with the mana they had lost trying to cast their spells, they weren't quite capable of that anymore.
Beside them lay the totally empty mana crystal as well as the elder inspecting the object.
His face was puzzled. What sorcery could drain a crystal's mana so quickly? He didn't have time to think about it. They had to leave as soon as possible.
Sure, they had a lot more equipment and better trained and experienced soldiers, but they weren't in the right environment.
The surrounding walls provided ideal cover for archers. What is more, they were surrounded by a few hundred soldiers. After a while, they would lose due to exhaustion.
With their mages out, they were much less likely to survive. Just as Jules was about to give the order to retreat, a volley of arrows was fired from the top of the walls.
- "Shields!"
All the soldiers took out of their sword's pommel what looked like a small gold plate about a foot in diameter. They placed the object in their other hand before pressing a strange mechanism.
A moment later, the plate expanded and took the form of a shield about three feet high and 70 cm wide. Without waiting any longer, the soldiers placed their shields above them, creating a roof as the arrows bounced off the metal.
A few seconds passed before the sound of arrows stopped, then the sound of swords being drawn echoed all around.
The castle soldiers drew spears, shields, and swords before advancing cautiously towards the royal guards.
- "Retreat!" ordered Jules.
The escort then began to retreat little by little. Among Erivia's soldiers was Franck armed with a longsword, his eyes flickering with rage.
Although he wanted to fight the Royal Guard and retrieve Jules for what he had done, he also had no intention of keeping them in the city.
The garrison was far too under-equipped to fight against the Royal Guards. Even without their mages, they were veterans and extremely well-trained soldiers.
Franck did not want to waste the lives of his soldiers. Moreover, if they had to fight, it was possible that civilians could be injured during the battle. They hadn't finished evacuating the area and the risks were too great.
Although he was enraged, Franck knew how to control himself. He was a Commander for a reason. He had to let them go. Franck raised his hand and motioned for the soldiers to step back to make way for the royal guard.
He had thought about the potential risks. If they were to fight here, civilians would suffer greatly. If he let them go and their mages attempted to retaliate, the rune protecting the city should take over. In any case, he hoped so.
His greatest fear, however, was the Magus of the Court. He wasn't sure if he was part of the Queen Mother's plot. If so, their chances of survival were extremely low or even nil.
He never thought he would do that after what happened, but he thanked Isaac for the rune he left them. The punishment of his father seemed to be a small compensation compared to the rune's worth.
Several tens of minutes passed during which the tension in the streets was at its height. The royal soldiers slowly retreated under the constant watch of the garrison until they reached the open city gates.
By the time they got outside, the doors immediately closed. The escort continued to walk away before reaching enough distance that the town's archers could not shoot them.
Immediately, the tension eased before the voices of the soldiers rang out.
- "What a bunch of bastards!"
- "What happened?"
- "How does a city have a rune capable of hindering mages?!"
- "I'll make them pay next time"
- "Can you explain to me what just happened?"
Silence fell suddenly on the group. Then all looked up to where Zachary was floating in the air.
Immediately, the soldiers' faces filled with joy. This town was going to be reduced to ashes after what they had just done. But just as they were about to raise their voices to welcome the Archmage, a sudden gleam appeared in his eyes.
"Huh?" they all thought.
A moment later, everyone lost control of their bodies and remained completely still. They were all paralyzed and unable to move.
- "I hope you have an explanation for the mess you just made. I really don't have time for this" Zachary said with annoyance.
He wanted to prepare for his departure with Isaac, not manage an argument between his escort and a border town. He wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
- "M-Monsignor, we only followed your orders!" one of the soldiers replied with difficulty.
- "My orders?" Zachary asked. "I told you to meet me at the castle, not to start a civil war damn it!"
- "But… Venerable Montgroux informed us that you had asked him to erase the memory of the city to cover up the affair" replied the soldier.
Zachary turned to the motionless Jules. The latter didn't seem to want to answer or say anything which gave Zachary an idea of what was going on.
- "Who do you work for?" Zachary asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Immediately the soldiers understood. They had been duped by the old one. But why? Even if he had managed to erase the memory of the city, he could never have hidden the case when Zachary returned.
Just then, a revelation came to them. Jules had no intention of simply erasing the memory of the city. He also wanted to erase the memory of the Royal Guards, maybe even Zachary's too.
Suddenly, rage arose in the hearts of all the soldiers. If they could have moved, they probably would have beaten the old one by now.
How dare he pass himself off as the Magus of the Court? How dare he use the royal guard? Everyone waited for Jules to answer.
But no answer seemed to reach them. Jules had a worried look which seemed logical, but something was strange on his face. The elder then came to sigh.
- "I was reckless. I should never have revealed so much," he said before raising his eyes to the Magus then smiled. "You will understand one day," he finally said before closing his eyes.
Zachary's eyes widened before charging mana into his hand. He formed a barrier around Jules just as the old man's body emitted a powerful golden light.
- "Divine energy! All of you! Run!" Zachary yelled.
Without waiting, Zachary flew quickly away. All the soldiers were released. Reflexively, they ran as far as possible from the elder before an explosion sounded.
Most of the blast was absorbed by the barrier erected by the Archmage, but the rest managed to break it and formed a crater of ten meters.
The ground was charred. There was not a single ounce of life left. Zachary had observed what had happened during his escape. An elemental bomb.
The elder seemed to have activated an object that had converted his entire body into mana before absorbing the surrounding elemental particles. The result was easy to guess: an unstable energy mass. Then, an explosion.
Zachary couldn't believe his eyes. Neither could the soldiers and Master Mages. It was the first time they had seen such a suicide. The elder was ready to die to protect his secret.
- "Prepare to leave and send an order to the capital. Arrest every member of the Council!" Zachary yelled.