Chapter 139: The Plan In Motion(III) (Bonus)
Both Lucien and Martina, who had been in one of the manor’s rooms suddenly felt the powerful spell being cast over their heads.
They glanced at each other with alarm on their faces.
"What was that?" Lucien asked, quickly moving toward the nearest window.
When he looked out across the property, he saw multiple figures who had only just crossed through the front gate and were now advancing toward the house in a loose formation.
Then his gaze settled on one figure in particular who stood out from the rest.
A young man dressed in formal royal attire, with a sword strapped at his side. That distinctive style of clothing, that bearing... that had to be royalty.
"The Imperial Guard?" Lucien said, genuinely uncertain as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
Were these members of the King’s elite force? He knew the prominent faces but not these ones, and was that even the Prince himself leading them?
It didn’t even make sense. How had they found this location?
Martina’s eyes widened just a bit as she heard Lucien mention the imperial guard.
"Shall I begin the spell?" she asked, already raising her staff in preparation to activate her signature relocation magic that would transport everyone inside the manor to one of their backup hideouts instantly.
Lucien raised one hand toward her in a gesture that meant wait.
He needed to assess the full situation and decide whether to engage the incoming group or initiate an evacuation that would effectively cede the location to their enemies permanently.
But then his eyes caught movement from another figure in the advancing group.
An older man had stopped several meters away from the building, standing apart from the others with an air of absolute menace radiating from his very presence.
The man held a sheathed sword in his right hand, and with his left hand, he calmly reached up and removed the glasses from his face, letting them fall to the ground.
Then, he raised his head slowly and stared directly at the window where Lucien stood, his eyes glowing with a reddish-amber hue.
Lucien’s eyes narrowed even further, but in that exact moment, Eduardo’s reddish aura suddenly erupted outward from his body in a violent burst.
The sheer magnitude of magical energy pouring off the butler was staggering. Then Lucien’s eyes widened in recognition; the League, in a different composition of members, had once faced that man.
Martina had also felt it and felt her soul shudder with fear. "Who the hell is that?" She asked with widened eyes.
Lucien sighed and turned to Martina. "Start the spell. I hardly think any of you would survive the man out there."
Martina immediately began channeling her relocation spell, stomping her staff against the floor.
A magic circle began gathering and materializing beneath her feet as the relocation spell built toward activation.
But just as the circle reached full brightness and was about to trigger the mass transport, it suddenly just dispersed.
Martina stared down at the floor with disbelief.
"What?" she whispered.
Then she turned toward Lucien "My spell is being blocked."
"What do you mean?" Lucien asked, looking at her strangely.
She looked upwards and replied, "It’s the spell above. Its blocking mine"
Lucien sighed again, then pulled off his coat. "It’s no use then, Gather the rest. "
He starts taking the stairs down slowly. "After all, we have unfinished business with that man"
—
It was all part of Ethan’s plan. Joe had been instructed to wait for any mage to come out and check on the failed anchors.
By destroying the vases, they had deliberately triggered a situation that would force one of the League’s casters to step outside and investigate.
Especially since the detection barrier had registered no unwanted breaches or intrusions before suddenly going offline entirely.
This left open the possibility of other malfunctions that weren’t necessarily caused by intruders at all, perhaps the anchors had simply depleted their mana reserves faster than expected.
Either way, someone with magical expertise would need to come assess the situation personally.
And the bet was on Greta to be the one who walked out, since Joe had confirmed Martina rarely if ever left Lucien’s side.
By taking Greta out, they had effectively removed her problematic mind-casting spells from the equation. Spells that could have served as a difficult obstacle when the rest of the assault team finally moved in to engage.
-
In this world, no single class of awakened was inherently superior to the others when all things were equal.
Each had their own strengths and weaknesses that balanced out in different combat scenarios.
Then there were also the various racial differences that further complicated any direct comparisons.
Human casters, for instance, had bodies just as frail and vulnerable as those of ordinary, non-awakened humans and could bleed just the same.
With no extraordinary physical senses like werewolves or vampires, or the various other supernatural beings, human casters were particularly vulnerable to long-range gunshots from a skilled marksman if the caster had no warning it was coming.
Of course, a few smart and cautious casters who understood this fundamental weakness would set up protection spells around themselves constantly as a precautionary measure.
However, these passive protection spells were mostly effective only against mundane bullets fired from standard firearms.
They were far less reliable against projectiles that had been magically enhanced or formed entirely from mana, especially those carrying additional effects and traveling at speeds well beyond the sound barrier.
Joe’s ammunition was precisely that kind of threat. Greta had been doomed the moment she stepped past those doors.
—-
A/N:
PS goal last week ✅
I’m not going to lie, I’m completely exhausted out of my mind. But i’m glad i don’t owe much bonuses anymore.
Anyways, uh.. tell me what you think of the Chapters so far. Are they nailing for you? I’ll do my best to conclude all of these in two or three Chapters as I don’t want them to drag on for more than necessary.
We are also drawing closer to the end of the first volume, and after that we get into this book a bit more properly.
Thank you for all the support!