Mystical Journey

As time passed, the black smoke started thinning out, as though it had run out of steam.

Delouse’s scorpion tail protruded slightly, its tip aiming right at Avic, in front of her.

"Delouse, you have followed me for about 10 years, no?" Avic suddenly spoke, his voice was deep, with a hint of regret and pain.

Delouse lifted her head, and coincidentally the final trails of smoke went back into her head.

Suddenly, she was faintly aware that there was nobody around her, not even the three ministers who were standing behind her, they just vanished without her knowing.

The original guards have disappeared too, the entire Blood Jade palace was left with only her and Avic.

"Your Majesty, you….!"

Avic raised his royal staff and looked at Delouse. " I never wanted to do this…" his eyes were mixed with clashing emotions, labyrinthine thoughts, bitter betrayal, so much such that it was impossible to etch all of them on his face.

Delouse’s face turned mildly black. She also suddenly started to choke on her throat, started coughing involuntarily.

"This….this is…!?"

"I gave you a chance…" Avic lowered his staff as he saw the woman struggling in front of him.

As the staff was lowered, Delouse followed slowly, without a sound. Her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears started oozing black blood. Little black bugs started crawling out of her nostrils, and then dissipated as clouds of black smoke.

At this time, a ray of red flashed past.

Jii!!!

Avic’s pupils dilated in that instance.

************************************

Floor Palace

In the White Silver Palace, Edin was gently polishing the silver longsword on his hand.

On the longsword’s body was a silver circle, but they weren’t attached. Rather it was as if they were once the same entity.

The moon outside the hall shined bright with a hue of silver. The lights in the hall were sufficiently bright, rows upon rows of Royal Elite Guards stood quietly on the flanks of the palace.

"Then, His Majesty brought an illusion of us to the inner palace?" Edin said quietly.

In the shadows, a tall silhouette walked out slowly. It turned out to be Garen, who was donning dense, heavy armor.

He was well equipped; unlike other Black Fire armors, there were two fangs protruding on both of his pauldrons, giving off a sense of intimidation.

The armor made him look like a large monster over two meters tall. Oddly, even though he was wearing such heavy armor, Garen seemed to be walking with ease, as though this were his everyday attire, weightless and mobile.

"I had originally disagreed too, but His Majesty insisted. The choice wasn’t mine to make. Even Sir Veska cannot persuade His Majesty." Garen answered coldly.

"Just for the little bugs outside?" Edin frowned slightly.

"Those aren’t just regular bugs…" Garen frowned too. "If you carry such an underestimating attitude.."

"I don’t need you to tell me that." Edin interrupted coldly.

Garen’s expression calmed down as well. He then snickered.

"Go back to your own Black Fire Palace." Edin mocked.

Even though he felt that Edin never liked him, to use such a tone to an expert his own level, Garen felt belittled and angered, and he showed a hint of murderous intent.

"I hope you don’t disappoint His Majesty, otherwise…" Garen did not bother covering up his murderous intent anymore.

Edin did not answer, but instead, he lowered his head to continue polishing his sword.

Garen retreated into the shadow and disappeared without a trace.

The curtain nearby suddenly was drawn suddenly. A sudden gust of black wind suddenly blew past the window and quickly disappeared into the night sky.

Edin stood up from his throne. As he gazed up, he looked at the female silhouette which had been standing outside the palace for an unknown amount of time.

He extended his hand, his pale white fingertips were suddenly greeted with a white rose.

"I have been waiting for a long time." Edin walked down from the throne and walked towards that person.

*****************************************

Black Fire Palace

Garen didn’t know what kind of expert awaited Edin, but that aura had been intense and violent, it faintly felt like it was comparable to Edin, but was obviously an expert hired by Obscuro. He originally prepared to assist Edin by combining forces, but Edin brushed him off with such an attitude, which angered him and turned him away.

Tonight was the night of the assassination, but Garen felt that Edin’s behavior was odd.

He sat on that throne, gently stroking the shiny sphere on his armrest, his mind shrouded with the feeling of unease. It’s too bad that he had too little information now that the main branches strategizing had been left to Veska, while Garen only controlled territory.

Bam!!!

Suddenly, a deafening explosion was heard from outside the palace.

That direction, it was none other than White Silver Palace!

Garen shuddered.

"Edin! To think that it’s you!!" no wonder he always thought that Edin felt off. He secluded himself from communicating with anyone, always shut training in his own palace. He lacked the lust, the desire for power, even his dining etiquette was incomparable to a regular noble. Such a man with no desire should never have existed!

The White Silver Palace controlled the entire Palace Tactics; core pivot, and that was a sound was obviously of the pivot’s explosion.

"Men!"

Suddenly, Black Fire Guards rushed into the main palace like streams of black river merging into one. The rushed footsteps were oddly in sync, and there was no sense of panic.

Garen stood up.

"Four guards, follow me, the rest of you, kill all the palaces intruders!"

At this point, he did not plan to go underground to assist Avic, but instead set his sight on the Eleventh Palace opposite him.

Avic was infallible, if there were no incidents, he would never be killed. Then, the catalyst of the accident has to be...

******************************************************

Inside the Eleventh Palace

Tina bulged her eyes as she was caught speechless, looking at the underground passage’s sudden appearance.

"You….How did you avoid the underground defense array??"

Beckstone brushed off the soil off himself, pulling another bearded man out as the two men tunneled out of the ground.

"Just a little special technique, if it weren’t for Obscuro’s attack, we would never have had the chance. Alright, no more nonsense, let’s get out of here."

"But… aren’t there Black Fire Guards outside?" Tina turned around and looked outside. The Black Fire Guards had vanished without her realizing it. She was completely speechless.

"I’ve promised, I will definitely rescue you with complete preparation." Beckstone spoke calmly, "would this count as returning you the favor?"

"You’ve indeed remembered clearly." Tina can’t help but laugh.

"Since we are friends, I shall not take it that you violated by that beast without doing anything." Beckstone seemed hurt, from the look of his eyes.

"But…" Tina suddenly got nervous, "I don’t know why, but I always feel that my heart would keep pounding, things can’t be this simple…"

"No buts, let’s go, we’re running out of time!" Beckstone frowned as he said.

"Alright…."

The three people packed up, but the maids surrounding them were oddly asleep on the floor.

They were about to get into the underground tunnel and go back where they came from.

Bam!!

The deep tremor of an explosion was heard.

The tunnel’s entrance had a gush of air outwards, some black soil was mixed in the gust.

The three of them looked at each other.

Beckstone took out a small purple ball, and gently shook it next to his ears. And his expression changed.

"It’s the underground inner palace...the tunnel…..caved in from the tremor." Beckstone looked at his partners with a sobbing voice.

"To the secret passage!" Beard said decisively, leading the way and rushing towards the exit of the palace. "Right now, the Obscuro and Royal Alliance are duking it out with each other, I heard about this from the old fart, all the elites of Obscuro were dispatched, while The Royal Alliance had activated their tactical arrays. The entire palace has been covered in a layer of huge illusionary arrays. We wouldn’t make it if we delayed any further!"

Beckstone looked at his party, then carried Tina and caught up with Beard.

"It’s so late, Your Eleventh Highness, where are you heading off to?"

The cold voice of a man came suddenly.

What followed was the sound of quick, heavy footsteps, and the Eleventh Palace was suddenly surrounded by Black Fire Heavy Guards. The densely lined guards did not utter a word and completely surrounded the trio in the palace.

In front of the trio, at the palace doors, a tall armored silhouette was slowly walking out, it was indeed the handsome young man with a blood red mark between his brows.

His eyesight was locked onto Beckstone.

"I’ve said before, never appear in front of me again… looks like you took it for a joke."

Suddenly, Beckstone’s breathing became close to hyperventilating, and his eyes turned slightly bloodshot.

"Garen…!"

"Go!!" Beard suddenly pulled him and tossed him behind.

He suddenly opened his mouth wide and out came a giant python.

Tssss!

The python flew out was only as thick as an arm, but halfway through its trajectory, its diameter became bigger and it grew larger in size. By the time it reached Garen, it had already reached a diameter of over two meters. Its mouth was filled with poisonous green mist, its jaws lined to the brim with teeth. It opened its jaw wide and shot towards Garen.

The entire palace was covered with a thin layer of suffocating poison mist.

"Trying to use poison in on me?" Garen flicked his left hand. His index finger was followed by a series of afterimages, landing right on the python’s jaw.

Bam!

The python exploded immediately and turned into a cloud of black mist that was scattered in all directions. The smoke effectively disabled the vision of everyone in the palace.

Garen lifted his head and took a deep breath.

Fuuuuuuuh….!!

A large vortex appeared out of nowhere, and the cloud of smoke was sucked into Garen’s lungs like streams flowing into an ocean, and was all gone in a single suck.

The poison mist in the palace was cleared by Garen in an instant.

At this point, Beard had already taken both persons and flew out of the palace, almost landing onto a giant white bird’s back.

"Running, are we?"

Garen snickered, he extended his right arm towards the trio from afar in a grabbing motion.

Jii!!!

Suddenly, a translucent body flew towards the trio.

Suddenly, a silver ring appeared in a flash and chopped off the three blood-colored dragon heads with cold precision.

Roar!!!

In the instant the dragon head and silver ring clashed, both of them disappeared.

A silver-white silhouette flew towards Garen and blocked him from advancing.

"Move!!" Garen roared in anger, his mark turned blood-red and the Nine-Headed Dragon appeared, attacking the opponent by fluttering towards it like nine blood-red mares while letting out a deafening roar.

"Ring of the Moon."

A clear sound rang out suddenly.

A silver hemisphere suddenly appeared in front of that man, and the giant ring completely halted the advance of the nine dragon heads.

At this time, Beckstone and two other people have already arrived at the giant white bird and were ready to flee. The bird began flapping its wings.

Garen had released boundless killing intent. His irises faintly turned vertical, just like the Nine-Headed Dragon, giving off an unusually violent air.

"Edin… you’re courting death!"

"Unfortunately, you can’t do it." The man turned his round silver ring sword upright, with no changes whatsoever in his intonation.

"Then let’s try it!" the silhouette of the Nine-Headed Dragon suddenly appeared behind Garen.

Roar!!!!!

The nine dragon heads roared fiercely.