Chapter 200: Transport
"Wisely said, my lady. Sitting in an airship, watching the land and mountains roll past below — that's a pleasure in its own right," Evan said, offering a compliment.
"How high can these airships fly?" Lagrov asked.
"Their ceiling sits around five thousand cubits. They were originally developed as a companion piece to the floating city — meant as an escape option, should anything ever go wrong up there," Evan said.
"Isn't the floating city occupied entirely by mages?" Lagrov asked.
"Not entirely. There's a whole street up there set aside for magical merchants, and merchants inevitably bring along assistants of one kind or another — people with little magical skill, sometimes none at all — along with goods to move, or passengers needing transport up to the city itself. That's exactly why we developed this," Evan explained with a smile. Xiaoshuang sat idle on his shoulder, thoroughly uninterested in the dark elves. Lagrov's handmaidens found her fascinating enough, but had the good sense not to bother her.
The hundred-odd miles passed quickly, and soon the massive inverted structure came into view, magnificent in scale, standing upright on its six hundred stone pillars, already alight with flickering magic — clearly running through its final checks, waves of light pulsing through it in some intricate rhythm.
They disembarked, and everyone couldn't help marveling at the sheer scale of the thing. Cardinal Kenyon gazed up at it, genuinely awed himself, though the thought crossed his mind that this represented a real challenge to the Church — if any institution deserved to own a floating city, surely it should be the Church alone. Unfortunately, the Church lacked the technical means for it. However much the Church's elite forces outmatched Hollingburton's own, this particular field simply wasn't their strength — a genuine marvel of magical engineering. Still, the moment it rose into the sky would also be the moment it came crashing back down. The thought sent an excited shiver through him.
He glanced around at the surrounding peaks, wondering how Tony Shulman meant to slip in at all — no conventional method could hope to bring down a structure like this from outside. Only sabotage from within would do it.
He had no idea that all around those very peaks, magical detection arrays were scanning constantly. Hollingburton had poured enormous resources into this floating city, and they'd certainly considered the possibility of sabotage — confident enough, in fact, that within a ten-mile radius, every inch of ground lay under their watch. Not even a fly was meant to slip through.
The Fox Mage Tony Shulman waited just outside that perimeter. He and his team had worked through any number of approaches, even managing to bribe a student into smuggling a small object inside — no small feat given the tight security. But it was nothing more than a locator, with no other function at all — anything more elaborate would surely have drawn attention, and bribing anyone above a student's rank had proven all but impossible. He coveted this floating city dearly, though he had no wish to see it destroyed — his real aim was to seize it for himself, with the Church's own strength as his lever.
It struck him as almost comical that the Church had come to him for this at all — did they have any idea what kind of opportunity they were handing him? An opening like this didn't come twice, and Tony Shulman had never been one to let such a chance slip by. Ranked forty-second on the heretics' list for a reason, after all. From his position on a distant peak, he couldn't even see the floating city directly, but he'd already learned exactly when it would launch. The instant of ignition would send out a massive magical shockwave, creating a brief blind spot in the detection arrays — and in that exact window, the knight's hidden device would activate, throwing the whole scene into chaos.
That would be his moment. The locator would trigger in that same instant — activate it any earlier, and Hollingburton would surely catch it first. He'd teleport straight onto the floating city itself, along with his brothers-in-arms, moving quickly to seize the core control chamber. Even a legendary mage would find their hands tied at that point — either abandon the floating city entirely, or accept that keeping it meant conceding the field.
He'd already confirmed no legendary mage would be stationed in the core chamber itself. Take that room, and the floating city was theirs. What came after hardly mattered — with the floating city in hand, the whole continent would be theirs to roam freely, and if things turned difficult, they could simply move it closer to the Barbarian Continent instead.
They called him the Fox Mage for good reason — every angle calculated. The fools at the Church actually believed he'd simply follow their instructions. An Arcanist and Great Knight both, he'd have reached legendary rank himself long ago if not for his humble origins. He'd heard rumors, too, that Hollingburton held some method to advance an Arcanist to legendary rank. He hadn't believed it at first — but forty years had passed since, and he remained stuck at the peak of Arcanist rank, no progress at all in his magic. He'd started believing that some of the great institutions really did hold a special method for reaching legendary rank after all.
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If such a thing existed, why not strike a bargain? Hollingburton wanted its floating city back — fine, trade the secret of advancing to legendary rank for it. The Gate of Legend, or the Path of Legend, whatever they called it. He'd built his whole career on boldness — doing what others didn't dare. Behind him stood twelve men, each carrying senior mage or knight-level credentials. He turned to them. "Get ready. Our teleportation array is about to activate. It will send you directly onto the floating city."
Before the floating city, the assembled guests, students, and faculty watched, waiting for the launch. The floating city had already undergone test flights before this, and on the five magic towers, five legendary mages were currently monitoring the readings. Everything ran normally. Ordinarily, no legendary mage's presence was even required — but today marked the floating city's official public debut, so each tower carried one for the occasion.
"Everything's normal." Heathermere sat at the central tower, all systems reading clean, every data point across the surrounding ten miles showing nothing amiss, no anomalies reported by any of the patrol teams. Hollingburton had treated this like facing a genuine threat, and she felt reasonably satisfied with the ten patrol teams' performance so far.
Few people remained aboard the floating city itself for the launch — every department had been cleared out beforehand, leaving only a handful of essential personnel. The city's own high degree of automation meant that was more than enough.
"Beginning ascent. Countdown initiated. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." As the count proceeded, the watching crowd fell into total silence, the magically amplified voice the only sound cutting through the stillness. At "one," the floating city blazed with light, a massive tide of magical energy surging through it as it began to rise, slow and steady.
In that exact instant, one of the knights standing beside Cardinal Kenyon suddenly went rigid, a ring of light bursting outward from his body in every direction, his form silently spreading and dissolving at the edges. Not good — holy light flared around Kenyon at once, though it did no harm to anyone nearby. The knight himself had already vanished without a trace. The crowd felt time itself seem to stutter for an instant as a powerful shockwave collided head-on with the floating city's own magical energy. In that same moment, a tiny component buried deep within the floating city's structure sent out a powerful locator signal, punching through every barrier and shooting skyward.
Not good at all. Heathermere, monitoring the ascent closely, caught the locator signal at full strength — someone was attempting to teleport directly onto the floating city. She had no time to report it, acting on instinct at once, and the five magic towers sprang into action, a protective barrier beginning to form.
The crowd below froze. Evan, deeply familiar with the floating city's design from his own early involvement in the project, understood the instant that Church knight vanished exactly what was happening — someone was making a move on the floating city. Without a second thought, he triggered a short-range teleport and appeared aboard the city itself.
But in that same moment, space rippled violently, and a dozen-odd figures teleported into the marked location one after another. An instant later, the floating city's spatial barrier snapped shut, sealing off all transport in or out — a moment too late, unfortunately. Had it closed even slightly sooner, it might have stopped Tony Shulman's group entirely.
On the ground, the instant Evan teleported away, Lagrov's fist clenched, as though ready to act, before she lowered it again, a smile spreading across her face. Quick reflexes, she thought, wondering idly who exactly had set their sights on the floating city, and decided to simply enjoy the spectacle unfolding.
Below, a Hollingburton strike team led by Professor Damire had already surrounded the Church's delegation, though none of them offered any resistance. Cardinal Kenyon kept his men in check and said to Damire, "I have no idea what happened here myself. One of our own suddenly flared with light and vanished. He must have fallen victim to some scheme. Your security here leaves a great deal to be desired — I reserve the right to lodge a formal protest."
Casten alone showed no sign of alarm, his eyes searching out Cynthia. He found her, and she found him in turn, offering a faint smile. His heart settled at once — seeing her smile at him felt like nothing short of pure happiness, with no idea at all that Cynthia had already reported everything about him to Lagrov, who'd found the whole affair delightfully entertaining — seducing a Church knight counted as a genuine feather in her cap, even carried out through her own handmaiden's hand.
At the same time, Boniface's patrol team reported back — they'd found a transport array just outside their patrol perimeter, and had detected a massive surge of magical energy moments earlier, estimating a dozen-odd people had teleported away from it.
The other delegations exchanged glances, faces arranged in expressions of sympathy while their hearts sang with private delight — every one of them secretly thrilled at the trouble unfolding, careful not to let it show.
Ortlando's face had gone grim. The legendary mages present rose into the air at once, though none could breach the floating city itself — its outer barrier had sealed completely shut, the massive energy field blocking not just spatial transport but ordinary physical access as well. For now, all anyone could do was watch from outside.
The Fox Mage Tony Shulman had teleported into a spacious stone chamber, the locator hidden behind a cluster of magical items within it. The moment he appeared, his men didn't wait for orders, sprinting straight for the core control chamber.
They'd already studied the blueprints thoroughly. The core chamber, given its critical importance, had its space locked down entirely even under normal conditions. His men moved quickly to install a Magic Overcharge Ring — also called the Ptolemy Ring, an alchemical device that, once triggered, would reduce everything within several dozen cubits to nothing at all. Once it was in place, a satisfied smile crossed his face.