Legacy of Hatred

The complete darkness, despite the perfect awareness, continued for minutes on end, but Liam didn’t panic. He didn’t even move, believing that his companions were hard at work to save the day.

Truth be told, Master Vermillion’s actions hadn’t been part of any plan. The agreed-upon battle strategy had ended after the army had gotten out of the encirclement. Everything that had followed had been nothing short of pure improvisation.

Yet, Liam had kept track of Master Vermillion during the fight, especially due to his unique choice of a location for his laboratory. Liam had even taken a glance at the pill he had concocted, and the current effects matched something in his knowledge.

Alchemy was truly a broad field, with many applications that seemed to have nothing to do with the noble art, at least on the surface.

It was possible to create disposable products that resembled magical items through alchemy, proper trump cards with wild effects. Liam had never needed to do so because he had his poison and his collection of tools, but he had studied them nonetheless.

Besides, despite being another imitation of inscriptions, those disposable products had some advantages, namely the alchemist’s ability to tune them to the specific situation.

As a branching expert, Master Vermillion had access to far better talismans, allowing him to set up a laboratory even among the Master’s Pride’s deadly smoke.

Moreover, the Merchants Guild had been backing Master Vermillion in that desperate situation. Colleen had given him access to all the stashes she had brought to the alchemical contest, enabling him beyond his individual means.

Lastly, alchemists were known to have peculiar trump cards. Liam had already shown two of those with the Master’s Pride and the rank 3 Poisonous Cloud pill, and Master Vermillion had unveiled his now.

’This should be the Silent Sleep,’ Liam thought in the darkness of his perception. ’But this range is odd. Master Vermillion must have destabilized it on purpose.’

The Silent Sleep caused a sort of sound attack that turned the Qi in a small area into a hindrance. With how perceptive cultivators were to that energy, it basically blinded all their senses, leaving them immersed in complete darkness.

Since the very Qi became the enemy, there was virtually no escape from the attack. It was harmless, but the caster was bound to be caught in it, too. The Silent Sleep was basically a perfect smoke screen, albeit one that could only buy time.

Also, the Silent Sleep’s range was quite poor, but Master Vermillion had to have tinkered with the original recipe. The ominous aura that had preceded it said as much, as well as something else.

’He must have had the pill already,’ Liam realized. ’He couldn’t have finished so soon otherwise.’

Concoctions became longer at higher ranks. Rank 2 ones already needed over two hours, so creating a rank 3 product during the short battle would have been impossible.

The only explanation was that Master Vermillion had thrown a complete Silent Sleep into the cauldron, adding something to it while everyone was fighting, increasing its power and range.

The issue was the next step, which Liam had no power over. His body worked, but he couldn’t feel it. Running in that condition was simply impossible, and everyone on the battlefield should have fallen prey to the same predicament.

Still, there was someone who might have been outside all that, and, eventually, Liam saw exactly what her machinations had led to.

Everything suddenly returned. Liam felt his body again, as well as the night sky and the cold air blowing under his hood. He was flying on quite the curious item, and he wasn’t alone.

A giant carpet of at least three hundred square meters was cutting through the night sky. Its speed wasn’t great, but it belonged to the realm of branching experts, and it had more than its incredible size to it.

The entirety of the army was on the giant carpet as well, but many were trapped in tendrils that had come out of it, preventing them from inadvertently walking off or falling down.

’We actually got the chance to use this,’ Liam thought as everyone began to recover, most showing confusion, but a few wearing the same understanding as him.

The huge flying carpet was actually part of the plan, Colleen’s plan to be precise. The rank 3 item was her multi-purpose transportation tool, which she usually used to move containers around.

Of course, the carpet had never been the main goal. It was something Colleen had revealed, planning to use it when the escape truly started. However, the group had still set it up beforehand, relying on a few easy conditions.

Since Grace would be the only one formally outside the battlefield, she was currently the one using the item. Moreover, while the carpet wasn’t as smart as Liam’s fan, it still had a few useful functions.

One of those involved recognizing the goods the carpet had to carry. Usually, Colleen used the Merchants Guild’s emblems on the specific containers, but she had moved the requirement to Whispering Wind’s mist.

Basically, anyone who had crossed Whispering Wind’s mist had been flagged as goods, so the carpet had managed to retrieve everyone despite their indisposed status.

It had been messy, full of unexpected twists, and hopeless, but Liam’s group had successfully escaped the Church’s encirclement. Yet, they weren’t out of the woods yet.

Liam stared beyond the carpet’s back, looking past the many confused faces, his superhuman senses picking up clues far in the distance. The complete darkness might have lasted for a while, but he could still spot traces of gold.

The Church’s group was still too close for comfort. The fearsome formation was no more, but those troops were bound to catch the carpet’s trail soon enough.

With how widespread the Church was, it was also unclear from where the next attack would come. Colleen had safe houses, but they might not suffice.

It was time for the group to live as enemies of one of the greatest forces in the Kingdom, and Liam knew what he had to do there. He had already decided to do so. The battle might be over for his companions, but his had just begun.