Chapter 55: Illusionary Bird
On the other hand, the elite soldiers dispersed in different directions and started doing their work.
Bang! Creak!
Every fort gate was locked down within a few moments, and multiple soldiers encircled every side, leaving no place for Hemarc to escape.
Abium was startled by the sudden change and moved further away from the secret gathering.
At that moment, Hemarc lazily stretched his hands and muttered calmly.
"Well, I didn't expect that my 'disguise artifact' would be ineffective against Light Magic." He clicked his tongue and then added.
"I know you guys want to kill me immediately, but I can assure you it will not be that simple," Hemarc said with a smile and uttered a word in a strange language.
A short sword appeared in his hand out of nowhere a second later.
"We will see about that! Kill him!"
Margrave's angry roar echoed as he pulled his weapon to confront him, but Holy maiden stopped him from charging forward and replied in a grim tone.
"You're no match for him, Lord Margrave. He may be just a third-tier warrior, but something is off about him."
While talking, Jeanette flapped her holy wings and leaped towards Hemarc at an incredible speed.
She flew about him, descended slowly while holding a sword in her right hand, and slashed at his head in a blink.
Meanwhile, Hemarc raised his short sword and blocked it.
Clang!
Clanging sounds resonated in the yard as their swords collided against each other. Fire sparks appeared whenever their swords clashed and gave off a glow like stars.
Hemarc calmly parried against the Holy maiden's attack as a professional swordsman and stealthily threw a few seeds on the ground.
A moment later, a few plants sprout from the spot at an incredible speed and slowly take an identical shape similar to him.
'He is a Druid!' Abium looked surprised and became more curious about this guy's identity.
Meanwhile, Hemarc also took out a tiny white crystal ball from his spatial ring and smashed it with his left hand.
Nothing followed after that, but Abium thought it might be some backup signal.
On the other hand, everyone noticed that a total of ten Hemarc appeared in the courtyard.
At that moment, Hemarc moved closer to them and blended with the group of clones.
Following that, each one of them fled in separate directions!
When Holy maiden noticed his plan, she quickly chanted in an unusual weird language.
It appeared eerier but holy.
Abium soon sensed an invisible power around Jeanette's body, and it released strange ripples in all directions.
After a few moments, she finally ended her chant, pointed her forefinger upward, and released a large amount of invisible power toward the sky.
The next moment, everyone saw that a transparent barrier appeared around the fortress and isolated the whole fort from the outside world!
"Give up your futile attempt, Mortal. I locked this fortress using the divine power of our beloved God Welos. So, there is no way for you to escape from here." She said mockingly, but Hemarc didn't lose his calm.
Noticing this, Jeanette showed an angry face and added coldly.
"If you changed your faith and approved a contract, I may spare your pitiful life."
On the other hand, all those Hemarc's clones suddenly stopped running, turned their gazes towards Jeanette, and raised their right hands in unison.
They then showed their middle finger and shouted.
"F*ck you!"
After that, they all turned around and started running once again.
Meanwhile, everyone's face went scarlet red.
They soon chased after those clones and started butchering them one by one.
At the same time, Holy maiden also found Hemarc's original body among the clones and smirked.
Simultaneously, she cast a unique spell to conceal her light elemental power, flapped her wings again, and few towards Hemarc.
In a few seconds, she arrived behind him and kicked him away.
Bang!
Because of that sudden attack, Hemarc was blown away and collided with the fort wall.
But this time, a change appeared on Hemarc's face that caused everyone's faces to stiffen up.
Hemarc's outer appearance suddenly changed and soon transformed into a 12-year child's appearance!
His wavy blonde hair turned into a straight one, long eyebrows soon returned and became thin, fair skin turned olive, and even his square face turned into an oval one!
He also had a small scar near the left brow and appeared leaner.
Everyone got shocked as they saw the appearance of a young boy and rubbed their eyes in confusion.
A moment later, Margrave and other nobles identified the person and shouted in a panic-stricken tone.
"Y-Your H-Highness!"
Meanwhile, Abium also showed a dumbfounded look on his face and soon uttered in disbelief.
"This is absurd!"
The young boy was the same person who gave him the Royal Sword technique and even helped him many times in the past!
It was Prince Raollet!
'I've to help him.' That was the first thought that appeared in his mind. If it were Prince Tybost or some other Royal Family member, he would have quietly walked away from here.
But the one who appeared in front of him was a person he respected most.
'He is a smart and a cunning person. His smartness exceeded all the strategists of this kingdom.'
He thought of moving towards Prince Raollet to defend him but soon restrained himself from doing any rash action.
'I'm no match against these peoples. I will try to intervene when he needs my help.' He thought inwardly.
"Ugh, that hurts. So, are you still going to confront me?"
A young voice emerged from the Raollet's mouth as he spat a mouthful of blood and slowly looked at the Nobles vigilantly.
"Y-Your Highness! You overheard something which you shouldn't have. So, we have no other option but to apprehend you. We are sorry, Your Highness!" Eliot said in an apologetic tone.
"What kind of apology is that? F*ck! Damn bastards! Okay, I will have my way then. Beautiful Lady, haven't that old bastard Pontiff Philip inform you not to involve yourself in other's business?"
A silence answered.
The next instant, Jeanette looked enraged and sprinted towards Prince Raollet again to strike.
But before her sword could arrive closer to Prince Raollet, a transparent green forcefield appeared around him and blocked her sword attacks!
Alas, Jeanette imbued mana into her sword, created a reddish aura around it, and attacked that forcefield madly!
It was the Advanced Sword Aura!
Cracks appeared on that green forcefield in seconds and soon shattered into many pieces.
Like minute glasses, broken crystalline particles fell onto the ground and disappeared from everyone's eyes.
'Damn women! What the hell was that just now? I have to find a way to escape. Why is he taking so much time?'
Muttering under his breath, Raollet backed away and started panting heavily. Then, he glanced at the surrounding nobles and looked upward at the dark sky.
He didn't anticipate that this simple reconnaissance mission would turn out like this.
He then shifted his gaze towards the Holy Maiden Jeanette and observed her every action. After a short ponder, he thought that going all out was the only possibility of escaping this situation.
"I never like to use this, but you gave me no other option." He spoke while licking the trail of blood flowing from his lips and touching his right wrist.
Then, he took a deep breath and muttered.
"Incarnate!"
A tiny illusionary reddish bird appeared on his wrist the next instant and gradually grew. Its form resembled more like a phoenix bird, but there were only red illusionary feathers instead of flame. It soon appeared more than five meters tall and quickly bolted towards the barrier with its massive body while flapping its two crimson wings.
A heartbeat later, it smashed directly into that divine barrier and caused the ground and the surroundings to shake a little.
Although that bird didn't seem to have possessed any physical form, it managed to damage the invisible barrier!
Cracks started to appear after that smash.
As Abium watched this scene, he couldn't help but show an impressed look on his face.
'No wonder he roams freely. But what is the origin of this strange bird? Incarnation?' He had never seen such a mystical bird in the past and got startled inside.
During this time, Jeanette also didn't stay idle either.
She flapped her holy wings forcefully, flew up in the air, and blocked the red-feathered bird from clashing against that barrier. But the bird flung its wings, causing crazy winds to spread in every direction. Like sharp knife attacks, the air rippled and caused damage everywhere.
A few soldiers also got caught in that attack and turned into many pieces!
Meanwhile, the Red Bird responded with an angry cry and attacked Jeanette using its claws.
On the other hand, she gripped her sword tighter and blocked that bird's claws with full strength. Simultaneously, three long feathers from that bird's tail moved towards Jeanette's body and started to bind her up in the sky.
Jeanette coldly snorted and sliced those three scarlet feathers using her sword upon seeing this.
The bird shrieked in anger and soon noticed it wouldn't be able to bind her.
It then flapped both of its scarlet wings and gave another loud cry.
A massive fire elemental energy gathered in front of its transparent red body and formed into a gigantic ball of fire in a blink. The scorching heat emitted from that fire made everyone's throat feel dry.
With another cry from the scarlet bird, the massive ball of fire split into hundreds of smaller ones and spread in every direction.
Each one of the fireballs appeared more like First-Tier Spell and looked destructive!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...
Like a shower of flames, those fireballs fell on the surrounding areas and started destroying the fortress walls and nearby buildings.