Alicia's excitement did not fade; instead, her interest grew even more.
“Is this the magic item that caused us so much trouble back at the academy?”
She turned her head to look at an attendant beside her.
The attendant, dressed in a guard's coat, replied in a low voice.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Staring intently at Setis, who was enveloped in golden light, he quickly added,
“According to our intelligence, it automatically activates when the holder suffers a fatal injury or is about to suffer one, forming an indestructible mana shield that lasts for about five minutes.”
Alicia nodded.
“Five minutes, huh...”
She stared at Setis inside the golden light, seriously considering whether she should wait here.
This item was indeed troublesome; if she hadn't relied on a sneak attack, things wouldn't have gone nearly so smoothly.
She then tentatively threw a dark dagger, which shattered into pieces the moment it contacted the golden barrier.
Seeing this, Alicia let out a soft sigh.
“Let's go. There's no need to waste time here.”
She withdrew her gaze and smiled cruelly.
“She won't survive anyway.”
As she spoke, she looked up toward the palace.
“Let's head to the Magic Tower first and free Ignatius.”
Alicia cast one last look at Setis enveloped in the golden light, a trace of regret on her face for not being able to fully enjoy herself.
“What a pity, Anna.”
With those words, she turned and left, quickly disappearing around the street corner with her entourage.
...
Meanwhile, on the east side of the Inner City.
A patrol squad led by high-level professionals was inspecting several streets connecting the noble district and the outer perimeter of the palace.
But just as they passed an intersection, the lights at the very front of the squad suddenly went out.
In the next instant, violent explosions erupted on both sides of the street.
Several dark spells rained down from above, precisely striking both the front and rear of the squad.
Just as a Rank 6 knight in the squad was about to draw his sword to counterattack, two City Guard members behind him suddenly turned on him. One stabbed him in the lower back, while the other hurled a pre-prepared explosive magic crystal toward the mages.
Screams and explosions instantly tore through the night.
Similar incidents were unfolding continuously in every corner of the royal capital.
Traitors had emerged within the patrol squads across all areas, dealing them devastating blows.
For a moment, various noises echoed one after another, causing the already extremely tense royal capital to completely lose order.
The squad Napa was leading also encountered a sudden backstab.
He had been leading his men along the streets surrounding the foreign embassies. Accompanying them, besides several high-level instructors sent by the academy, were elites drawn from the Kingdom's Imperial Guards and the City Guard Station.
Upon hearing the explosions in the distance, Napa, who had originally intended to go support them, sharply detected something unusual behind him.
He dodged sideways almost on instinct, but a short sword still stabbed into his lower back, its blade laced with faint traces of dark green mana.
Had he not reacted quickly enough, this strike would have pierced straight through his heart from behind.
The attacker was a City Guard Captain who was traveling with them, but strangely enough, this person had never shown any abnormalities before.
Yet at this moment, the man's face bore an extremely eerie and stiff smile.
“Lord Napa.”
The City Guard Captain twisted his wrist, attempting to slice Napa's waist horizontally, but Napa grabbed his wrist directly.
“Your reactions are truly fast.”
Anger flashed in Napa's eyes as his fire-element mana erupted instantly.
The flames in his palm exploded with a bang, instantly burning the sword-wielding arm to ash.
Yet, as if he couldn't feel any pain, the attacker quickly pulled an explosive magic crystal from his waist with his other hand and slammed it hard against Napa's chest.
The magic crystal shattered, and the explosion sent Napa stumbling back several steps. Though he had deployed his shield in time, he was left in a disheveled state, with a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
At the same time, several surrounding patrol soldiers also suddenly defected, drawing their blades to slash at their companions.
“Enemy attack!”
“We have traitors!”
“Protect Lord Napa!”
The chaos lasted only for a few brief moments. After all, this squad was composed mostly of elites, and the well-trained soldiers quickly organized a counterattack.
Foring down the sharp pain in his chest, Napa suddenly opened his right hand.
Flames expanded outward like a ring of waves, precisely avoiding his own allies and completely swallowing the suddenly rebellious City Guard members.
As for the City Guard Captain who had ambushed him, up until the second before he collapsed, that bizarre smile remained plastered on his face.
Clutching his wound, Napa pulled out the short sword and knelt on one knee.
A nearby instructor rushed forward to support him.
“Lord Napa!”
“I'm fine.”
Napa stood up through gritted teeth, his face terribly pale.
A strange mana lingered in the wound, continuously corroding his body. This was highly similar to the condition of the wounded from the empire.
Then, he suddenly realized something and looked up toward the palace.
“Something's wrong—”
Just as he spoke, several more beams of warning light shot up into the night sky in the distance.
In the royal capital tonight, calls for reinforcement were coming from almost every direction.
Elsewhere, Angela was lurking on a rooftop, staring down at the street.
An Intelligence Department operative tasked with assisting her stood not far away, holding a clipboard.
“Lady Angela, the third squad has already passed the intersection. The next squad is expected to arrive in seven minutes.”
“Mm.”
Angela gave a lazy response.
But in the next instant, she suddenly heard a slight change in breathing behind her.
Cold killing intent erupted behind her in an instant. Angela's eyes turned cold, and she lunged forward.
A slender dagger grazed the back of her neck. After a few flips, she rolled off the edge of the roof and landed on the ground, then turned back to look.
The Intelligence Department operative stood in place, clutching the dagger, his face entirely expressionless.
Angela narrowed her eyes.
“You've got some nerve.”
The operative didn't respond. His body began to contort as if pulled by some external force, and black lines surfaced beneath his skin.
In the next moment, he lunged fiercely at Angela, his speed far exceeding what a normal intelligence operative should possess.
Angela raised her hand, and a silver dagger instantly appeared in her grasp.
“I was already in a bad mood today, so consider this your bad luck.”
With a flash of white light, the operative's body was instantly pierced, sending him flying backward off the roof.
But before Angela could catch her breath, the roof beneath her feet suddenly split open.
Several black tentacles shot out one after another, lashing toward her from all directions.
Angela's expression shifted slightly, her body instantly turning into an afterimage as she retreated at high speed.
Though she managed to avoid a vital strike, one of the tentacles still grazed her calf.
A wave of numbness rapidly spread.
“Tsk.”
Angela gritted her teeth and cast several spells with a backhand sweep, blowing the entire roof and whatever was hidden beneath it to pieces.
Standing on the half-collapsed eaves, she stared grimly at the writhing dark mass below and ground her teeth.
“These things... could they be—”
...
Continuous explosions echoed from the distance.
Yet the most bizarre part was that almost all the issues were stemming from their own ranks.
Members of the City Guard, the Imperial Guards, the Intelligence Department, and even some of the palace's own guards and attendants had suddenly turned traitor tonight.
The defensive lines the kingdom had previously set up had instead become their most fatal weakness at this very moment.
For no one knew if the companion beside them was still truly a companion.
From the direction of the palace, the bells representing the highest level of alert began to toll.
These bells would only ring when the royal capital faced a large-scale invasion or when the palace itself was under a devastating threat.
What lay ahead was entirely predictable—the kingdom's troops stationed nearby would march directly into the royal capital to take full control. Until the King himself ordered an end to the martial law, this place would become an absolute battlefield.
The resonant tolling of the bells continued to echo through the night sky as several military units mobilized overnight, heading straight for the royal capital.
Meanwhile, at the entrance to the Magic Tower's underground dungeon, not a single guard could be seen.
Rate on N.U.
