Chapter 970: Ominous Presence
Kitsara took point, her movements fluid and deliberate as her woven illusions materialized around her. Her eyes scanned every angle, every floor tile, while her fingers traced illusion sigils across the walls, checking for embedded glyphs or hidden spell formations.
Blossom moved right next to her, complimenting the fox’s skillset with her own, with nose twitching, ears swiveling. <Something enchanted is here... Blossom senses it two meters ahead, left side!> she decreed while her eyes glowed with unnatural magic as her Void Sight peeled through hidden mechanics. <The floor tiles beyond it look sketchy to Blossom! Don’t step on them!>
Kitsara responded without a word of mischief, her hand immediately fluttering through the air to overwrite the nearest detection artifact with an illusion of its own state. Blossom gently flicked a pebble into the air, disarming the next ward with a minute Void pulse that muffled the trigger mechanism.
Behind them, Quinlan’s eyes shone brightly as she watched the professionals at work. He didn’t give any orders or even words of guidance. He didn’t need to. Their synergy was perfect.
The squad advanced in this manner for minutes through the corridor’s narrowing end... until they reached it.
A final gate.
Thick as a castle wall, reinforced with swirling formation glyphs and suppressive enchantments powerful enough to kill most intruders on proximity alone.
But none of that was what made them stop.
It was her.
Standing motionless before the great doors like a statue carved of living steel was a woman of deathly poise. Her figure was tall, statuesque, armored in a mastercrafted blend of green silk and steel-plated form. Her long halberd leaned casually against the wall beside her, feeling more like an afterthought than a weapon her life depended on.
But none of them were foolish enough to assume it wasn’t within reach.
There was no anger in her face, surrounded by her green hair. No threat. No posturing.