Jalren had already made up his mind; his priority had changed. It was abundantly clear that the threads of fate had been greatly altered. He had come to this place with specific instructions of what was going to happen. They were supposed to have full control and perfect information of the situation. He had been told of what was going to happen in the future; he had been told every detail of what he had to do.
'None of what they told us happened. They never mentioned to us that that thing was going to appear in this place.' Jalren was thinking complicated thoughts as he walked towards the silver-haired girl. She had the statue tightly gripped in her small hands. Without a doubt, she seemed to understand that it was not just any statue; after all, he had heard what she had said. That this girl understood what that was made his hair stand on end. Aris intervened:
"I'll be supporting from a distance. If I see that you're about to die, I'll help you. Don't let your guard down; I'll try to get your attention from time to time to make you lower your guard." Aris was announcing that he wouldn't be getting into close combat. He decided that he would be supporting from a distance. With everything he had seen so far, he knew that if he got close to that girl, she would easily split him in half. According to the analysis he had made, it was impossible to defend oneself properly when that girl grabbed a weapon; after all, they saw how she broke the shields of the adventurers and mercenaries like it was nothing.
"I'll be pressuring her with my halberd. From what I could analyze, her weakness is in melee. She's clearly not very experienced; we can take her by surprise if we overwhelm her," Igroxith declared. He was confident that she wouldn't die easily in a one-on-one.
"Leave the heavy attacks to me; I'll bounce them off my shield," Mostrug exclaimed confidently. He was a tank with a lot of stamina. He was confident that he wouldn't go down easily; his defenses were second only to Jalren. Seen from that perspective, he was no simpleton.
"Leave the support and healing spells to me," Brozgathan said. He knew that it would not normally be a good idea to cast spells that boosted physical abilities, as they would likely be learned by that girl, so he warned his group:
"You mustn't give her time to learn my spells. You must push her and not let her concentrate properly, otherwise she won't stop learning everything." Brozgathan didn't like the idea of a child just casually using other people's spells. After all, it usually took wizards years to learn how to use spells properly; the fact that she was casually using them felt like someone was spitting in her face. The group nodded in agreement.
Jalren kept staring at the statue the girl was holding in her hand. After contemplating it for a bit, he warned everyone:
"No matter what happens, don't attack that statue," Jalren said with a serious face on his face. Noticing how serious he was, the others nodded at his statements; they knew that if he had become serious, it meant that things weren't that simple.
No one had dared to ask why he didn't want them to attack the statue, since they had seen the face he had at that moment: it was a face that said that whoever asked more would die.
"Let's finish this job once and for all," Jalren declared. Not a trace of emotion could be felt in him; it seemed that the desire to fight that he had before had disappeared. He usually liked battles and enjoyed facing his enemies alone, but he no longer had that kind of excitement; all of that had disappeared the very instant he saw that statue.
Jalren, Igroxith, and Mostrug went to the front, slowly walking towards the girl who was just a few meters away from the four who had survived. Aris had circled around the girl and positioned himself behind her, at a safe distance; it was more than clear that he was going to attack her when she let her guard down. Brozgathan had stayed in the rear, right behind the leader, at a safe distance of more than 20 meters, as had Aris. Right after everyone took their positions, a certain change in the atmosphere could be noticed, and the words of that girl resonated throughout the place:
"The combat style will be changed from this moment on," the silver-haired girl said as she looked at the leader of the group. Without a doubt, something had changed in the girl; that was easily noticed by Jalren. The silver-haired girl turned to look again at the four individuals who had bought their lives with that statue and said to them:
"Since you have purchased your lives with that statue, I have determined that your presence in this place is no longer necessary; therefore, you will be sent back to the place you previously used to teleport."
Priscilla and her group didn't have enough time to react to the girl's statement; everything happened so fast. They only saw the girl snap her finger and a teleportation circle appeared beneath their feet; the circle easily covered the area where their group was. Seeing the magic circle, she immediately knew that it was a teleportation magic circle; she knew it was a teleportation magic circle as it looked similar to the same magic circle they had used to get to this place, but at the same time it was different. It only took an instant for her entire group to be teleported. Fortunately, her group reacted in time and managed to close their eyes; if they didn't, they would have been blinded for life. Once they opened their eyes, Priscilla's group realized that they were no longer in that place; they had returned to the Marquis' mansion. Realizing this, Priscilla blurted out in surprise:
"Impossible! She even learned the teleportation spell." Priscilla was very surprised by what had just happened; that girl had used the teleportation spell that was supposed to be unusable by any magician, unless this spell was recorded on a special magic paper that made it easy to use, but it still required at least an A-rank magician to activate it.
Priscilla and her group were quickly surrounded by the many guards who were on the scene; they were quickly taken into custody until a certain figure arrived who commanded respect with his mere presence.
At the same time, a certain girl was surrounded by multiple people; the tension in the place was palpable. No one had moved a single finger; everyone was in their positions waiting for the other party to make their first move. Jalren, Brozgathan, and Aris had witnessed how the girl had activated a teleportation circle. Without a doubt, it was not just any teleportation circle, as this one was extremely fast; it was so fast, they couldn't even react; they had missed the opportunity to kill that group of four people. The three of them knew better than anyone that this could not be done; the girl did not have any paper on hand to be able to do such a thing, but nevertheless, she had somehow done it. This left the three who understood the situation the best perplexed.
"This is definitely going to be a pain," Aris said, as even if they won against her, she would most likely teleport away to save her life when she was on the verge of death.
"Brozgathan, keep up your efforts to prevent her from using that teleport," Jalren said. He was worried that the girl would get away from them when she felt cornered; the last thing he wanted was for her to run off to find her royal guard. Another thing to keep in mind was that there were two royal guards watching who would undoubtedly intervene the moment they were about to kill her. Though it was strange that they hadn't intervened yet.
"I'll do my best, though I make no promises; I'm not very good at using the 'magic interference' spell. That's hard to maintain and the mana consumption is insane," Brozgathan commented. He knew better than anyone how difficult it was to cast that spell; that spell in particular was the hardest to use; after all, he was left unprotected when he used it. That statement was heard by the silver-haired girl, who upon hearing it replied:
"There's no need for you to go to that trouble; after all, I don't need to escape from you; your deaths are inevitable; you won't live beyond today, so your worries are unfounded; you should be more focused on defending yourself than attacking."
Once the girl said those words to them, the statue lying in her hand disappeared in an instant; everyone noticed that the statue had disappeared and could not be seen anywhere on the girl's body.
"I'll put this statue away for now, since the thing inside seems to be stimulated by the energy of the atmosphere and it would be a hassle to have to take care of it right now," she said with an indifferent expression. After saying those words, the girl proceeded to look up at the sky; she almost seemed to be signaling the five guys surrounding her to attack her, but no one dared to do so. After all, the very instant the girl raised her head to look at what seemed to be the ceiling of the place, an absurd amount of mana had appeared that seemed to come from within the little girl; it was an insane amount of mana that easily surpassed that of the five of them. Once the girl turned her gaze back to them, the five of them were petrified in their spots; no one had dared to speak, much less dared to move. The five of them could only hear a barely incomprehensible whisper that the girl let out:
"Mund-"
The little girl, with that single whisper, made the world tremble uncontrollably. All five of them could feel the tremendous force that was produced; a strange pressure hit them in an instant and disappeared along with the imposing energy that had suddenly appeared within the girl; all of that manifested and disappeared quickly as if it had never existed in the first place. Jalren was stuck in place; he didn't dare to move. Mostrug, Igroxith, Brozgathan were the same; the only one who didn't seem to be completely overwhelmed by that strange force that had suddenly hit them was Aris, who was able to utter a few words in fear:
"An authority!"
When he heard those words, Jalren went cold; he knew what those words meant: it meant death. The five of them were not the only ones who felt the tremendous pressure that was exerted throughout the place; Naida and Keijo had also felt the overwhelming pressure; they were not the only ones; that strange pressure had spread hundreds of kilometers away at an incredible speed; the strange wave of invisible and intangible power had flowed hundreds of kilometers and reached countless people, causing them to faint in an instant in the different elven cities. After several seconds of silence, a voice could be heard in the silent place; it was none other than the person who had caused this silence:
"You are insolent."
The girl said as she looked towards a place where there was nothing; she seemed to be looking at a wall, but she wasn't looking at such a thing; she seemed to be looking beyond the wall and beyond the mansion she was in. The girl's eyes shone a deep green as she looked at a certain existence that was in a library.