"You won't be able to stop me after that display at all. Let me see what secrets they are hiding right now" and the door opened with a loud bang.
There were a lot of things Xiao Lan would have expected to find in there. Ancient and dangerous weapons, an ancient array or even a monster sealed inside. However, the room looked normal.
Well, as normal as a burned room could look. The inside surface of the room looked as if it had been torched and renovated. However, the remains of the fire were still obvious to a curious eye.
"What a disappointment. Were they trying to hide this blank room from us?" Xiao Lan could not help the disappointment that bleeds out into his voice. All that fuzz for an empty room? He had expected there to be something grand here.
"Not quite. I think they hid the array so that common people cannot see it. Either that or we accidentally broke it right now" For Detective Song both reasons sounded sound.
There were no obvious signs that someone had hidden that array at all since this room had been initially locked so he wanted to rule that possibility out. Then there was the fact that Xiao Lan had used a lot of magic to brute force his way in here.
There were some arrays that were sensitive enough to break at the lightest of the touches, never mind this strong of a magic explosion.
"What should we do now? Find Fu Hua?" Xiao Lan asked, his voice uninterested. Their first lead was a bust so they needed to regroup and plan once again.
"There is someone coming. Should we hide?" Commander Yuhan asked, his body tensing up for a confrontation. It was a useless question to ask because their presence here had been exposed anyway.
"No need. Since this first lead is a burst, then we need another one to replace it" Xiao Lan knew how to play this game of information. If someone was coming to check up on this place then they could take advantage of it.
"I'll stand behind then. I'm useless here anyway" Xiao Lan ignored Detective Song's babbles in order to pay attention to the incoming threat. He could feel two energy signatures which was just the right number they could take on.
"I knew you people were not normal at all since I've never seen you before. I should have killed you at that time" the familiar guard entered with a very familiar child. The child looked shocked still with a frozen look on his face.
His eyes held no light of recognition in them and he might have come off as dead to most.
However, the wave of magic rolling off of him was too thick to not notice for Xiao Lan. The kid was under a spell that controlled him.
"What is the purpose of all this? Who is behind all this? Tell me and you might live to see another sunrise" the guard broke out into tiny giggles, her voice breaking into a melodic front.
"Y-You kid thinks he can take me on? Well then, let's find out shall we" Xiao Lan saw the other come but his underdeveloped body could not keep up.
That was not the case for commander Yuhan who intercepted that blow and pushed the other back. Xiao Lan could not take his eyes away from that battle. He did not want to miss any moment of that performance.
"P-Prince? L-Look" however, the same could not be said for Detective Song who had other priorities. His gaze had zoned in on the noble kid ever since the pair had arrived here. The kid was oozing a lot of magical energy and it was just intensifying.
"Huh?" Xiao Lan could only let out that word before the room flamed up into a scorching fire. Even the burning marks that were on the walls glowed up and a horrifying realisation took over everyone.
Those had not been the burning marks but a summoning array itself. It was the deity array laid underneath an illusionary array. The upper one was active and hid the real nature of the array beneath itself.
But now both of them were activated and the flames were forming a shape. Avery familiar shape.
"Hinoe uma" detective Song's terrified voice reached out all over the establishment which was void of every kind of life except them all. The guard let out a small laugh full of joy and wonder.
Then her face turned into a serious frown as he looked at them.
"I would have liked to preserve you all in case this attempt failed but we might as well allow you all to perish here and now. It will only speed up things for us anyway" as she spoke, the form of Hinoe uma stabilised fully.
It was a beautiful horse, just as majestic as when they had first seen it. And then he neighed which caused a cloud of smoke to appear.
'No, it is not him who summoned this smoke. He is just a victim of the smoke' the realisation came to Xiao Lan as the smoke attacked the holy beast and the flames started changing their colour from the traditional blue to a saturated green of the dead.
The holy beast was being contaminated.
"STOP IT IMMEDIATELY" Xiao Lan knew his words would not work at all, but he was still tried anyway. The other guard just laughed at him and broke the stalemate that they had reached.
Commander Yuhan dodged the attack but it caused him to land in the flame's range which was really hot to one's senses.
"I'll give your regards to your companion then. He'll meet you in the afterlife, hopefully. Depends on how much of a problem my lover has with him" her words sounded confident and careless. She was sure her lover would not lose under any conditions.
Especially not to these 'noble scums' who did not care about anyone else but themselves. It was already a wonder that they had come here to help at all but she knew it was a selfish quest on their part.
They were just going to crash and burn after all and she would enjoy it all, the downfall of the nobility that would pave the way for a just nation where she would never have to suffer as she did.
Her master would pave the way for a nation where the slaves were no more and they were all equal. They had promised it after all and the pieces had already fallen.
Besides, this empire could not get any worse than what it already was for them. After all, if even Fu Hua could be killed after all his good deeds and the help he provided the poor and the rich alike, then what did it leave for them?
"Attack Hinoe uma. Kill them and then the rest of those noble scums so that we can all live happily" the horse attached but not because of her words. She was far away to be out of its range of attacks so she was safe.
She could finally relax and closed her eyes to let out a small prayer for her soul. A lot of people had died for a good cause and she wanted their souls to pass on.
Detective Song saw this as the perfect opportunity for a counterattack. It was unlikely that all of them would live through this and he did not want to lose any of his own people.
So he needed a scapegoat. Hinoe uma was attracted to death and their souls and he saw the perfect opportunity. His arrow was held at ready and he fired at the unsuspecting body.
Xiao Lan was the only one to notice, his eyes going wide at the display.
"Detective Song, what are you doing? That is not honourable battle tactics" In that one moment, Detective Song really felt like Xiao Lan was a kid in many ways. He had been sheltered and had not really felt any backlash before Fu Hua.
In many ways, that had been a good experience that had aged him but he was still a kid at heart and mind. Even the way he behaved with Fu Hua right was like a kid who wanted to hold a grudge but could not because he did not know how to.
He was hurt but not really angry. The love and appreciation was still there and Detective Song understood the other's perspective even when that person himself did not.
He envied him and pitied him in equal parts because Detective Song had also gone through something similar but opposite. In the end, he had not been able to put it all aside before the other had died and he was left alone.
And since he knew that much, he also knew the other would come around eventually. So he shot the guard who cried out as the arrow hit her.
In the very next seconds, Hinoe uma had changed its targets.