"Initiate the plan." I said to Dexter who was watching the destruction before him through the communication crystal in pure shock, with Titus who had is mouth wide open by the side.
*Boom* The remaining stable ground above the grey zone collapsed and fell down filling up the void that was under it.
"This changes everything. Come back to the capital ASAP!" He cut the communication crystal off in a hurry, while I could feel the questioning gaze of everyone around me, amidst the heavy dust clinging onto the air.
"Let's go." I said as I got back onto the board after wiping the dust off me.
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As we entered the capital the royal bodyguards hurried off to report to their superiors about the events taken place so far, as all forms of communications on them had to be taken off when travelling with me.
I presume no one would want to hold off onto a report like someone who is not even a rank 1 magi vanquishing a grey zone and coming out unscathed.
Kristof alerted me that quite a lot of agents were watching me, while a few were being restrained. I now knew we had to hurry to Dexter's residence.
It seems like the lord of that area had informed the emperor that the grey zone has been vanquished.
This means all of the upper hierarchy is itching to know how I did it and wants to capture me if possible before I take something like the Test of Will.
The trio must have spent quite some effort trying to restrain any agents from leaving the capital and coming close to me during my travel here, along with stopping all agents outside the capital as well.
As we were about to move, a weary and tired Archer appeared before us and nodded. The four of us moved towards the residence as quickly as possible.
I could hear and occasionally witness a silent battle raging behind the ordinary life of people, as agents fought with agents, very quietly while trying not to alert or disturb the daily life of citizens.
We still needed roughly 2 minutes to reach Dexter's location amidst the silent chaos in the background as we avoided wind blades, mud traps other forms of attack from agents occasionally on the side, who were later taken care of by Archer.
As Archer disposed of another agent, who was trying to freeze us, and we were about to move forwards a man clocked in black similar to Archer appeared to stand in front of us.
"Do we have to do this?" The man opposite us asked Archer lazily.
Archer smiled before saying "How is that most of you guys under him are so lazy yet you do one the most strenuous jobs? Let's move the location to the side, shall we? Don't want to disturb the people after all."
The man nodded and both of them disappeared.
"Let's move!" Ordered Kristof as he ignored the disappearance of Archer.
We roughly were about 200 meters away from our objective when suddenly a woman in maid uniform appeared before us. She bowed slightly as she said, "Your highness please don't make my job any harder than it is."
Kristof and Ellis went on their guard as they observed the calm maid in front of us.
"I must inform you that all commandment have been ordered to not interfere to not escalate the damage caused by their fight. So even if you were to be right in front of the gates of Lord Dexter's residence, as long as you don't step inside the residence he won't come out to help you. And right now, all agents under your faction lords have been deployed to keep you safe from our agents. In simple term you are ..."
"Outnumbered." I finished her sentence off.
"I understand that the man Archer is fighting right now is someone from wonky old man's division. So, looking from your clothing you must be from the café owned by Steven, therefore sent by him."
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She nodded in reply as she smiled "Your intelligence is not overpraised, your highness. But knowing who sent me will get you nowhere, so it's better if you come back with me without any resistance. His highness has given us permission to use force if necessary on royal blood."
"Oh, but that's where you are wrong mam. Know your enemy and you will win the battle. If I am one to understand Steven, he is someone who won't underestimate his enemies, especially someone like me. So that means your rank must be somewhere between rank 3 or 4." I said as I observed her expression calmly for any minute changes.
"Don't try and stall for time, there is no point. Everyone who can help you is occupied your highness." She said as she slowly unsheathed her sword, while Ellis started casting boost on both him and Kristof. The people by the side seeing 3 people standing off against women quickly cleared the streets for us and left it empty, knowing a fight was about to erupt.
"So, you are a rank 4, now the trick is to find which group you belong to? Magi? No, you seem too confident unlike your calculative master so that means an award user." Her expression for a slight moment changed to that of shock and disbelief that I was able to find she was an award user along with her rank.
"Attack award? No, your posture suggest you are confident in taking any attacks thrown at you. That means either a defensive award or a support kind of award." I observed her to find any form of weakness I can use against her.
She quickly put up a stoic face, to not reveal any information to me as she started walking forward. "You are quite a terrifying person. No wonder I was told not to underestimate you, guessing my strength and type of power within seconds of seeing me. I guess it is true that the deities cursed you to be soulless otherwise even they would find it troublesome to handle someone like you."
"How long do you think you can hold her off?" I asked as I turned to look at both Ellis and Kristof, while activating the communication crystal.
"2 seconds for me." Kristof said as he looked at the approaching battle maid.
"1 second at most with my 1st stage of Repelling sword art. But that only if she takes the initiative to attack."
"Hmm, 2 seconds plus or minus 0.5 seconds. That's fine. Dexter open your gates and get ingredients ready, also get ready to start emergency first aid." I informed Dexter as he answered my call with a worried face of Titus and Maximus behind him, as I activated my board.
Seeing me planning to start my board to run off she started running towards us.
"Everyone except his highness won't move." Kristof activated his award as I moved past her in the first second.
By the time the next second was over, I was 150 meters away. I could hear Ellis trying to attack her as Kristof's rule was forcibly broken by her raw strength.
2.5 second and I was 100 meters away from my target.
3 second and 50 meters away.
I could hear her trying to catch up behind me as I slowed down to a stop.
"Give it up your highness. I told you even if you are 1 step away from the gates they won't be able to do anything, as long as you are outside his residence. And you won't be able to outrun my with that board." She smiled as she stood opposite me 10 meters away.
"You know you should have never told me that." I smiled back as I pushed the board forward to her.
She looked perplexedly at the board for a second while I started running away from the board. As she got ready to chase after me a sudden shockwave pushed her back.
*Boom* My ears started ringing while the shockwave from the explosion of overcharging of the crystal battery in my board carried me forward.
The shockwave from the explosion crushed my organs inside me while carrying me forward. Soon the shrapnel's caught up with me due to their lightweight and many of them embedded themselves deep in many parts of my body.
The fire from the explosion very quickly started running after me. I knew I wouldn't be able to outrun the fire and was prepared for the baptism of fire as it slowly enveloped my whole body while I was rag dolling through the air.
Fortunately, I moved far away to dodge the vacuum created by the explosion therefore to dodge the pull of void being refilled.
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As soon as the call from the crystal disconnected Dexter, Maximus and Titus ran off in 3 direction.
Maximus to prepare the ingredients while Titus to get the resident magi healer to the gates.
Dexter opened the gates just in time to witness how crazy their sponsee could be to get his ways.
*Boom* A beautiful mushroom of yellow and orange grew in the distance while he saw John flying through the air towards the residence.
"Madman!" Dexter stated as he caught him mid-air while slowly travelling with him to reduce the momentum he was travelling to stop further damage from the impact.
Dexter slowly laid him on the floor as Titus appeared with the rank 4 magi who was the current resident doctor.
"What a crazy bastard!" Titus exclaimed as he looked at the severely burned and bleeding body of John. His face was so badly burned that they could see the inside of his mouth through the gaping hole in his cheek.
Some of his bones in his limbs were visible while part of his stomach along with other organs was severely burned and easily visible through the abdomen.
Dexter turned to look at the women at the entrance of his residence that had part of her clothes torn and still being burned from the fire from the explosion. The minor burns on her body unlike John, however, were being visibly healed at a rate apparent to the human eyes.
She looked at her target lying inside the gate that she so proudly thought he won't get past.
"You lost. So, reign you killing intent in before you force my hand." Dexter warned her.
She nodded and bowed her head before walking away.