A moment later however, he spotted his chance, as a few of the guards exchanged positions. He could see the directions that their faces were turned, even in the dark, and he knew that he had a few seconds to move.
Jonathan raced towards the wall, not pulling out any stops, and winced halfway there as his body began to ache. However, he made it just in time, ignoring the burning pain spreading throughout his form. His body was covered in microtears and fractures from his supercharged Smite skill, and he would not be able to use his full power until he either leveled up some more, or healed naturally. In his current state, there were certainly no levels to be had.
Jonathan found himself standing under the wall, protected from above by the battlements. Nobody could see him down here, and he began to edge his way around the fortification, heading for the nearest gate. He didn't know how he was going to get in there, but he would figure that out when he got there. Leaving his companion behind was not an option, as it would show the falsehood of his own quest. How could he save everyone if he could not save a single person?
He was beginning to become conscious of a burgeoning savior complex etching itself into his brain, a problem that he would have to address sooner or later. If his motivations were too simple, then he would be vulnerable to attack, and manipulation. None of these thoughts would have ever occurred to him without his enhanced intelligence, and he found that he was much more prone to distraction than he had used to be.
As Jonathan contemplated his path going forward, he reached the gate, and sidled under its shadow, making sure to look up in case any of the guards could see it. However, the battlements ringing the wall prevented the guards from looking down effectively, which was quite a design flaw. However, Jonathan suspected that barely anyone would even make it close enough to the wall for this to matter. He had been hard pressed to make his way over to the wall, having to rely on all of his advantages to do so. His enhanced sight had allowed him to detect a lull in the watchfulness of the guards, and his strength and speed had allowed him to make use of it. If anyone else of a lower level had tried that, the guards would have spotted them almost instantly. Now that he was at the gate however, the most glaring question remained. How was he supposed to get in?
The wall stood in front of him, an monolithic edifice of dark metal and wood, banded with studs of even denser metal. It looked imposing, standing at almost 30 feet, and it certainly was in reality, as even Jonathan had no idea how to get past it. He was too weak to break it down fully, and that would simply draw the attention of the guards. No, he would need to find a different means of entrance.
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The only way to get in was to break through the gate, as all of the other avenues of entrance were occluded, whether by the guards or by other factors. However, he still had his own secrets, and he decided on trying to use his mana and void energy to carve out a hole for himself. As he had been through the gate before, he knew just how wide it was, which was in line with his own power. The gate was about three feet thick, which, while quite thick for a gate, was thin enough for him to burrow through within a few minutes, as long as there were not any magical defenses at play.
Jonathan summoned a blade of mana to his hand, using his new skill, and thrust it towards the door, condensing it as much as he could. He wanted to see if he needed to add his Void energy as well.
The blade stopped a millimeter away from the surface of the gate, held there by some unseen force. It seemed that he could be needing the power of the Void after all. Jonathan drew upon the mysterious orb of energy that he forced his power over the element from, and dark purple light filtered into the mana sword, causing it to grow in power. A moment later, there was a light ping, and the field of energy stopping him from touching the gate shattered, and his sword sunk into it. It made almost no noise, which was perfect.
Jonathan started to carve upwards through the gate, elongating the sword as he did so. Seeing as there was open air on the other side, he was able to simply make the slimmest sword that he could, rather than having to excavate as much material as possible. Still, it taxed his mana pool to maintain a grip on mana that far from his body, as while he did a similar thing with his Touch of Decay skill, this one required his conscious control, rather than simply impetus and willpower.
It took him the better part of five minutes to create a hole large enough for himself to fit in, and he quickly pushed the wood and metal in, causing the outline of his hole to fall into the street beyond, with a low thud. He heard someone shift on the battlements above, and he quickly raced through the gap, heading for the nearest patch of shadow that he could find.
As he made it there, he heard a raised voice behind him.
“We have an intruder!” One man shouted, presumably having found the piece of wood and metal resting on the street.
“Shit! Do you think it’s the target?” A woman asked in response, causing Jonathan to go very still. A few seconds later, the other man confirmed his decisions.
“That Harlowe bastard isn’t stupid enough to show his face here again, is he? The whole might of the Crimson Sect will come crashing down on his head if he does so. Even I wouldn’t want to be on their bad side.”
“Even you? Jakob, those mages wouldn’t even bother with you. All they would have to do is snap a finger, and you would be dead.”
Sensing that the usefulness of the conversation had come to a close, Jonathan strode off into the alleyways, able to somewhat remember the paths that he had taken within this place to get to the palace before. He knew that Edgar was somewhere around here, but he did not know if the man was dead or alive, or if he had been taken prisoner.