After flying upwards, he was about to cast a spell toward the three Clairmont King-class mages, when he saw out of the corner of his eye, the masses of Clairmont Kingdom soldiers scaling into the city.
The enemy soldiers were so numerous, they clearly outnumbered the soldiers of the Reiniad Kingdom. Even worse, as they were “behind” the soldiers of Lumient City, if the battle progressed as it was, the defending troops would be pincered with no way out.
It would be a complete massacre with no possible escape - even if the armies of the Reiniad Kingdom were on their way to Lumient City, by the time they arrived, the city would be clearly in the hands of the Clairmont Kingdom.
He began racking his brains, midair. What could he do? Who should he help?
There were two things that were very obvious - he had to warn Lumient City’s soldiers against the incoming Clairmont Kingdom soldiers, and he needed to make sure that, at the very least, Christopher Lumient didn’t lose again the three King-class mages of the Clairmont Kingdom.
After a split second, he made up his mind. He had a duty to the people first, his friend, second.
…
Fortunately, when the soldiers had appeared, the Reiniad Elementary Insitute’s team’s escort had just arrived at the city walls - if they’d gone further, they would have crashed headlong into the Clairmont Kingdom’s forces - as it was, however, escape looked rather unlikely.
The students couldn’t help but feel woozy at the amount of soldiers they saw - a truly mind-boggling number.
“Aunt Cin…”
“Don’t worry, darling. If we were to want to fight them head-on, that would be impossible, but if it’s just escaping, we can fly overhead. Even if the enemy’s advanced mages see us, it wouldn’t be worth it for them to chase us.”
Cassandra couldn’t help but speak up. “What about the city, though? My-” She looked around her teammates, who looked as worried as she felt.
“Er, our families are still in the city… and…”
Aunt Cin looked at Cassandra, then the rest of the students. For a split second, her countenance softened, but then she steeled herself.
“My current mission is to escort Kate and Wesley to safety. It is within my ability to assist you as well, but returning to the city to save and escort your families is far beyond my mission’s scope.
“However...please do understand that once we have completed our current mission, we are to return to the city to help in the battle.”
Cassandra was about to speak up again when her teammates pulled her back - this Aunt Cin of the Lumient family had already given them a concession - to demand for more would be irresponsible.
Jake spoke up for the group. “Thank you, Mrs. Cin.”
“Mm.” Aunt Cin looked at her subordinates. “Grab the kids. We’re heading out.”
“Copy.”
With that, each of the kids were picked up, and the mages calmly flew over the Clairmont army until they were several miles behind the enemy’s forces, where they descended into a clearing.
As the landed, several tens of people walked out from the trees. At their head was Arthur, who ran forward and hugged Kate. “Kate, thank god you’re safe! Are you hurt?”
“No, dad. I’m fine. Wesley’s fine too, thanks for asking. By the way, these are my friends, not that you’ve ever met them before. Shall I introduce them?
“Here’s Tony, Ryu, Jacob...hey Alex, May, stop hugging each other and come over here. Oh yeah dad, if you couldn’t tell, they’re a couple. Cass…”
As Kate rattled off introductions, Wesley cast his eye over those who’d come out of the woodwork behind Arthur. Although he hadn’t seen them before, most of them were clad in white and gold garments, in designs he’d learned to be iconic of the Lumient family.
These were members of the Lumient family not part of the main branch. Wesley felt awkward seeing them, as he technically wasn’t part of the main branch either, as his mother had married out of the family, but… the patriarch had still deemed him worthy to live at the main estate, and he’d clearly benefited from the patriarch’s attention.
He could clearly see jealousy in the eyes of many of the youngest generation behind Arthur as they observed him.
Well, whatever.
Gust wouldn’t have minded it, so why should he?
After the introductions finished, Arthur motioned for them to re-enter the forest. “Although the Clairmont Kingdom’s forces are focused on Lumient City, you never know if they have a few powerhouses scouting around the city looking for prime targets to assassinate. Let’s get back to safety.”
He then turned to Aunt Cin. “Melissa, thanks for bringing the kids over. Do make sure to keep yourself safe.”
Despite Arthur’s warm words, Aunt Cin’s countenance stiffened as he addressed her.
“Understood.”
With that, she and the other who had escorted the students from the city flew back into the sky, headed back for Lumient City.
Meanwhile, Kate, Wesley, and the rest followed Arthur into the forest.
Wesley walked up to Arthur, and couldn’t contain his curiosity. “Hey, is it really that much safer in the cover of the forest?”
Wesley hadn’t spoken too quietly, and those around him could all clearly hear his words. Upon hearing them, some of the younger generation snickered.
“Uncultured brat.” One of the teenagers spat out.
“Peter, hold your tongue!” Arthur glared at the offender, then turned back to Wesley.
“We have a… secret hideout of sorts not far from here. Actually, it’s right in front of us.” He smiled.
At the same time, those around him spread out, almost as if they’d met an invisible wall that forced them so.
“Can you see it?”
Wesley frowned, and squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“Take two steps forward, and raise your hand.”
Wesley took two steps forward, then raised his hand.
“Stone?” Wesley’s hand had clearly passed through thin air, but he could clearly feel that his hand had brushed up against stone.
“Right-o. Watch this.”
Arthur took out a golden key, then walked next to Wesley, “placed” the key into thin air, then turned it.
By some miracle, an invisible door swung open, and from where he stood, Wesley could see the inside of a dwelling.
As the door opened, Arthur stepped to the side, and those behind him briskly made their way inside the building.
“Not bad, right? It’s almost completely impossible to detect. It really takes a lot of energy to keep up all the spells that make it so, though. Come inside.”
After the two entered, Arthur led Wesley through some hallways - it appeared that the “dwelling” was actually a fortified castle of sorts. They quickly made their way into a room where a purple rock brightly shined.
“This is the power source for all the spells concealing the castle. Unfortunately, it’s a one-time use, and it’ll only last a month at most. The rock cost a fortune, too… but it’s worth it to ensure the family’s safety.”
Wesley’s head was reeling, though. “Wait, wait. So you mean, it IS possible to engrave seals into a stone and activate it later?”
Arthur frowned. “I know where you’re going with this, and...well, it’s theoretically possible, but nobody has been able to. Any time someone tries to engrave a seal into any type of matter, it has proven unstable - the seal either won’t work, or it casts immediately, destroying whatever the seal was engraved into with it.
“This stone...however, is the one exception that has been found - and yes, found. This stone was discovered in some ruins, and was proven to work by some researchers, after which we bought it. Our Lumient family studied it for a few decades, but no progress was made. Still though, the stone is proof that what you’re thinking of is possible.”
Arthur shrugged. “But even so, this seal can’t be turned off after casting, making it a one-time use item.
Only after the rock, its fuel source, has been depleted, will the spell stop.
“Well, that’s enough of a lesson. Come, let’s get upstairs. This castle is kept fully stocked with food and wine. I guess you can’t drink wine, but the food here’s good. We have several chefs on staff.”
Wesley couldn’t help but chuckle. Even in a hideout, the Lumient family still had chefs and a fully stocked food storage.
Still though, he couldn’t help but worry about the situation at Lumient city.
Chapter 28
Seeing the change in Christopher Lumient’s aura, the other three King-class mages tensed up. How couldn’t they?
Christopher Lumient was a legend, a premier genius of the Magmont Continent, an existence that had reached the King-class realm, well, before Tora was even born. Even then, Jaques and Katarina had only been intermediate and elementary mages, respectively, at the time.
Clearly, he’d had time to progress. Only, with the world at peace for the last few decades, nobody was quite sure how strong he was. Why else would they have risked so much, expended so much effort into creating the current scenario?
The Clairmont Kingdom’s three King-class mages, all against Christopher Lumient, trapped and alone, with all of the other Reiniad Kingdom’s mages preoccupied on the ground, or not in the vicinity at all.
Jaques, Katarina, and Tora would have at least thirty minutes to an hour to kill Christopher Lumient before any backup would show up.
They would have to make use of it.
But the question was… even with all of the preparation, they still didn’t know the most important factor - just how strong was Christopher Lumient?
Well, they would have to do battle to find out.
They each pulled out their supportive items, and began to draw seals, as Patriarch Lumient did the same with his staff.
Thousands of metal spears materialized out of thin air in a formation surrounding Patriarch Lumient, then flew toward him.
At the same time, bolts of lightning flew out of Katarina’s hands - she’d chosen to go with a spell that she could use to continuously shoot bolts of lightning in order to continuously pressure her opponent.
At the same time, Tora finished her own first seal, which greatly boosted the efficiency of her teammates’ spells - the metal spears all grew in size, and the speed at which they hurtled their way toward Patriarch Lumient increased greatly as well.
The bolts of lightning coursing out of Katarina’s hands sped up and expanded as well and flashed so brightly, that even those fighting in the city streets did a double take, and looked to the sky.
As lightning flashed overhead, Wesley couldn’t help but glance upwards - and suddenly felt as if he were on that desert battlefield again, watching his mentor fight in the sky…
And eventually fall.
He couldn’t help but worry.
“Kate, is there anything we can do to help gramps?”
Kate, alongside the rest of the Reiniad Elementary Institute’s team, had looked up as well, unable to help themselves.
“No...maybe Headmast-uh, Major General Farhir can? Or maybe our own forces… I don’t think our Lumient family has any other King-class mages other than gramps, but maybe we’ve been hiding one?”
She didn’t sound hopeful, though. Each time a mage progressed to the King-class level,
“Hopefully…”
But the Major General himself had his doubts - although the children couldn’t, he easily recognized Patriarch Lumient’s opponents…
Against monsters like those, he didn’t stand a chance.
But then again, looking around, how many people did stand a chance in this city? There were only a handful of mages in Lumient City who were stronger than he, Farhir, and none of them were as close to Christopher as he.
Hell, a few of the stronger mages would love to see Christopher Lumient fall - it would be the fall of an era, and a chance for them to grab onto the next.
After grumbling a bit, he finally shook his head, then turned to a mage next to him.
“Colonel, take command here. I’m going to help with the situation above.”
“Yes, sir!”
With that, Farhir headed toward the skies - even if he couldn’t handle fighting directly against one of their opponents, he could still try and help from a distance, right?
After flying upwards, he was about to cast a spell toward the three Clairmont King-class mages, when he saw out of the corner of his eye, the masses of Clairmont Kingdom soldiers scaling into the city.
The enemy soldiers were so numerous, they clearly outnumbered the soldiers of the Reiniad Kingdom. Even worse, as they were “behind” the soldiers of Lumient City, if the battle progressed as it was, the defending troops would be pincered with no way out.
It would be a complete massacre with no possible escape - even if the armies of the Reiniad Kingdom were on their way to Lumient City, by the time they arrived, the city would be clearly in the hands of the Clairmont Kingdom.
He began racking his brains, midair. What could he do? Who should he help?
There were two things that were very obvious - he had to warn Lumient City’s soldiers against the incoming Clairmont Kingdom soldiers, and he needed to make sure that, at the very least, Christopher Lumient didn’t lose again the three King-class mages of the Clairmont Kingdom.
After a split second, he made up his mind. He had a duty to the people first, his friend, second.
…
Fortunately, when the soldiers had appeared, the Reiniad Elementary Insitute’s team’s escort had just arrived at the city walls - if they’d gone further, they would have crashed headlong into the Clairmont Kingdom’s forces - as it was, however, escape looked rather unlikely.
The students couldn’t help but feel woozy at the amount of soldiers they saw - a truly mind-boggling number.
“Aunt Cin…”
“Don’t worry, darling. If we were to want to fight them head-on, that would be impossible, but if it’s just escaping, we can fly overhead. Even if the enemy’s advanced mages see us, it wouldn’t be worth it for them to chase us.”
Cassandra couldn’t help but speak up. “What about the city, though? My-” She looked around her teammates, who looked as worried as she felt.
“Er, our families are still in the city… and…”
Aunt Cin looked at Cassandra, then the rest of the students. For a split second, her countenance softened, but then she steeled herself.
“My current mission is to escort Kate and Wesley to safety. It is within my ability to assist you as well, but returning to the city to save and escort your families is far beyond my mission’s scope.
“However...please do understand that once we have completed our current mission, we are to return to the city to help in the battle.”
Cassandra was about to speak up again when her teammates pulled her back - this Aunt Cin of the Lumient family had already given them a concession - to demand for more would be irresponsible.
Jake spoke up for the group. “Thank you, Mrs. Cin.”
“Mm.” Aunt Cin looked at her subordinates. “Grab the kids. We’re heading out.”
“Copy.”
With that, each of the kids were picked up, and the mages calmly flew over the Clairmont army until they were several miles behind the enemy’s forces, where they descended into a clearing.
As the landed, several tens of people walked out from the trees. At their head was Arthur, who ran forward and hugged Kate. “Kate, thank god you’re safe! Are you hurt?”
“No, dad. I’m fine. Wesley’s fine too, thanks for asking. By the way, these are my friends, not that you’ve ever met them before. Shall I introduce them?
“Here’s Tony, Ryu, Jacob...hey Alex, May, stop hugging each other and come over here. Oh yeah dad, if you couldn’t tell, they’re a couple. Cass…”
As Kate rattled off introductions, Wesley cast his eye over those who’d come out of the woodwork behind Arthur. Although h
e hadn’t seen them before, most of them were clad in white and gold garments, in designs he’d learned to be iconic of the Lumient family.
These were members of the Lumient family not part of the main branch. Wesley felt awkward seeing them, as he technically wasn’t part of the main branch either, as his mother had married out of the family, but… the patriarch had still deemed him worthy to live at the main estate, and he’d clearly benefited from the patriarch’s attention.
Memory Seal- Volume 2 Page 13
