When A Mage Revolts

When the soldiers standing guard at the city gates saw what had happened, they had thought of holding back the crowd for inspection, but the situation was really too chaotic. On the streets which were now ablaze, residents were running around screaming for help; the crowd was in complete disarray, rushing about and causing the soldiers to be disorientated.

The guards were lacking manpower and were totally unable to control the situation.

"Hey! You guys... You guys, wait...!"

Suddenly, the captain of the City Guard attempted to pull at the mages who were rushing in.

"Wait for what? The fire is already so big, focus on the main threat instead!" Varys immediately pushed a wooden bucket into his hands and scolded him fiercely.

Temporarily shocked, the captain of the guard merely stood there dumbfounded as he watched them continue to run into the city.

Meanwhile, inside the city, the fire really did look as though it was growing in size. Because of this, the city guards looked at one another before also rushing into the city together to help put out the fire, hugging the wooden buckets that the mages had given to them.

Meanwhile, the mages pretended to be firefighting as they smoothly entered Amber City.

After entering the city, they were greeted by an extremely chaotic scene - there were black smoke and flames everywhere.

"Quickly! Where is the well? Quickly, get water to put out the fire!"

While shouting loudly, Varys signalled to the mages around him discreetly. There were quite a few wells in the streets nearby; the guards and civilians subsequently spread out amidst the disorderly crowds and started sprinting for the wells.

In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed that this group of people who had been carrying wooden buckets had suddenly disappeared in the crowds.

Meanwhile, in an isolated street in Amber City.

"Took you long enough."

Miles looked at the mages who slowly started to gather and shrugged casually.

"You’ve set the fire a little too big." Frank turned his head to see billowing black smoke in the sky; the fire still had not been put out yet.

"If the fire wasn’t big enough, how would you guys get in?" Miles shook his head and chuckled.

"Let’s not talk about that." Varys sighed, "Have you checked the abandoned hospital Teacher Benjamin talked about yet? Are there really mages trapped inside?"

Miles nodded his head.

"I am also quite surprised at this." He rubbed his chin and spoke, "The Church has kept the place hidden very well; it has now been rebuilt and turned into a strange school. There seems to be some Divine Arts protecting the place. I had never heard of its existence before this."

"Well, it doesn’t matter now. Let’s wait until everyone is here before heading over."

The mythical place where mages were apparently being detained, was the true reason why they had expended so much energy and effort to get into the city.

Varys was actually very surprised when Benjamin first told him about it.

To hear that the Church was capturing some of the mages of Carretas and locking them up in some building in Amber City, making them undergo some form of brainwashing, before finally turning them into undercover mages who would serve the Church… what kind of story was that?

But, this what Benjamin had told them, so they could do nothing but take his word for it.

As far as Varys knew, Benjamin and his team had been trapped by the Church and were unable to leave. Because of this, he was tasked with rocking the boat from somewhere else while the Church was occupied with hunting down Benjamin.

They had to draw the Church’s attention upon themselves.

"Right, how are your preparations for the disguises?" Miles asked.

"All ready." Varys nodded.

They had thought up a little plan for how exactly to draw the Church’s attention.

First, they had found a mage who was better at water-based magic, with a height and build similar to Benjamin’s. Then, they had specially prepared to put him in disguise and make him look like Benjamin to hopefully lead the Church astray.

If the Church could make a fake King, why couldn't they make a fake Benjamin?

If this fake Benjamin brought a team to attack the place where the mages were being detained, the Church would surely think that they had been fooled again. They would feel that Benjamin had slipped out from the siege, and that it would be meaningless for them to continue to surround the place.

And thus, the people under siege would be rescued!

It was a rather simple plan and it would be difficult to get anything wrong while executing it. This was a detention centre where mages were being held, so it surely must be important to the Church. If it got attacked, the Church would not simply turn a blind eye, they would send people to help out. And when that happens, the siege would end, or at least lessen in intensity.

"Hope that what we are doing is useful..."

After everyone had arrived, they walked towards the detention centre.

Since it was a place used to detain mages, the area was quiet and isolated, with very few passersby. As they drew close to the place, Varys turned back to look back at his team before pulling the mage who had been disguised as Benjamin to the front.

"Merck, it’s up to you now."

Merck nodded his head and walked forwards.

From the outside the place looked like an ordinary school; it was very quiet and dimly lit inside. However, as mages, they could sense a faint magical oscillation emanating from this place.

That should be the Divine Art power protecting the place, right?

Benjamin had told them before, that to get in and out of this place, they needed some sort of key. They did not have a key so all they could do was to forcefully break through.

Merck chanted an incantation.

He could not emulate Benjamin and create a sky full of ice arrows with an ice-breaking spell. Therefore, he chose Intermediate Magic— an ice blast spell. He suddenly conjured a huge stretch of sharp icicles right above the school.

Mimicking Benjamin, he clapped his hands and the icicles fell like heavy rain on to school.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Right before the icicles hit the school, a golden shield suddenly appeared above the school, blocking the icicles damage.

However, the once quiet school was now stirred up.

"How is it possible? Are mages attacking?"

"Guards? Where are the guards?"

Very quickly, a few figures appeared at the huge doors of the building. They were a group of teachers wearing black robes; however, judging by their sharp spiritual energy, one could tell that they were all priests.

At the same time, a group of Holy Knights wearing ordinary cavalier clothes rushed out from the side of the building, looking anxiously and doubtfully at the few hundred mages surrounding the building.

"Well? Are you surprised?" Merck imitated Benjamin’s sly look as he grinned at the priests and the Holy Knights who had rushed out. He was a carbon copy of Benjamin as he tilted his chin upward in arrogance.

Seeing this, Varys could not help but mutter to Frank who was beside him, "Do you think that the acting is a bit overdone?"

Frank replied in a low voice, "It’s alright. Teacher Benjamin is usually very melodramatic. It this isn’t unusual at all."

"Alright..."

Well, the priests seemed to have been tricked by Merck’s performance.

"How can it be you?" They were shocked and took a few steps back whilst staring blankly at Merck, "You... why have you appeared here?"

"Why not? If you think about it, this should come as no surprise." Merck raised his eyebrows and replied indifferently; But suddenly, his tone became cold, "But this also means not one of you will make it out alive today."

Hearing this, the faces of the priests darkened and they started to show exceptionally grim expressions. By the looks of it, Benjamin’s notoriety had caused them huge trauma.

The mages behind Merck felt slightly helpless.

"His look, his tone... He’s really acting so well. Almost identical in fact." Varys was silent for a moment but could not help but murmur.

"He’s so arrogant I kind of want to hit him." Frank took a deep breath and maintained his confrontational stance in front of the priests; however, he was smiling right at the corner of his mouth.