CHAPTER 77: THE TWILIGHT WITCH

Hermes sat on the floor and mediated. Turns out, having your mind injected with new information rapidly wasn't a very healthy endeavor. It had been a few minutes since he had returned from his trance-like state. Hermes sighed to himself and picked up the Ring of Avoidance. He peered inside its glassy form; the Fate-type cosmic force within it had seeped out in its entirety. The only thing left was the Dream-type cosmic force that gave it its invisibility.

'It seems that whoever made this artifact intended for it to only be used once...' He observed the threads of cosmic force swimming slowly inside. Although the ring had lost its ability to provide prophesies, its ability to cast [Psychological-Invisibility] remained the same, albeit slightly weaker than before. 'He smiled to himself. I can definitely use this for what is about to come next...'

After a few more minutes, his body returned to its usual self. His injuries were still a big concern to him, but he was grateful to at least still be able to fight. He picked up the communication device Lance had given him and activated it.

"Lance, I have completed the task. Come and meet me at the same place. Also, I have a message I would like to provide Merlin."

It took a few minutes for him to get a response.

["Roger that. Ill be on my way."] Because of the fact that John had tragically passed away, all trust in their communication devices was gone. The chances of someone wiretapping them were extremely high. Before Lance had time to arrive, Hermes decided to focus on preparing himself for what was to come. He sat down on the floor once more and began reloading both his gunblade and hand cannon. Afterwards, he took off his armor to check on his wounds.

Seeing nothing serious, he nodded to himself. Suddenly, a voice entered his ears from his left.

"Yo. Did you figure out what's up with that ring?"

Hermes turned to face Lance and nodded at him. "Yes."

"I see... So what exactly is this secret that it holds?"

Hermes looked at the floor for a second before looking back up at him. "I can't tell you."

Lance raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"It is exactly as I said it. I cannot tell you what that secret is; that will compromise the entire mission. Please trust me, Lance."

Lance narrowed his eyes. The two stared at each other for an entire minute before he finally relented with a sigh.

"Fine... So what should we do next?"

Hermes' lips curved up into a smile. "It's simple. Tell Merlin to change the coordinates of her spell to the Marcia Imperial Court."

"What?!" Lance's eyes widened. "The Imperial Court? Are you sure?"

Hermes nodded. "Yes."

It had to be noted that the imperial court was an enormous castle which existed as a symbol of the empire's judiciary branch. Calling it a historical monument would have been an understatement. However, what truly made it significant was its location. It was positioned exactly right below Librarium Celestium. The holy relic which levitated magically on its own held a colossal amount of significance to the empire. Because of this, many of the most important landmarks in Astrum Aeternum were placed in the royal district, which was directly below the colossal artifact.

The Imperial Court, The Magistrate's Spire, as well as the Royal Palace all existed within this district. Not only were there significantly more Inquisition Knights there, Guardians were also present. If Merlin's teleportation spell transported everyone there, the chaos that would ensue would most likely consume the entire capital.

Lance looked at him once more, "Hermes, how exactly will this help us...? I understand that Merlin wants to use the people who attacked us here as bait during your infiltration mission, but the location doesn't add up... Isn't Elizabeth Lysange being held at Librarium Celestium?"

Hermes polished his hand cannon with his coat to remove the grime covering the barrel. He examined his reflection in it and smiled.

"The Imperial Court has a teleportation pad that leads to Librarium Celestium directly. The commotion we are going to create with these Inquisition Knights is honestly not that helpful if we simply dropped them in the middle of our battlefield. At the end of the day, it would simply give the enemy a chance to regroup with its forces. If any unexpected delays occur, those same distractions we brought in would have enough time to clear the misunderstanding and cease the friendly fire happening. Besides, although Elizabeth is being held in Librarium Celestium, her trial had to take place in the Imperial Court. Majority of the jury preceding this case are high-ranking nobles who had probably decided to stay there for the night, anyway. We can use them as leverage as well."

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Lance crossed his arms. "I see... You wish to still create a distraction, but also weaken their forces at the same time... The Imperial Court is a sacred landmark, an attack on there would force them to split their units... At the same time, you want to utilize that same teleportation pad to enter Librarium Celestium and then destroy it, preventing anyone from following us directly..."

"Bingo," Hermes snapped his fingers.

Lance rubbed his chin. "Still, there are still a few things left unanswered... For one, Lord Lucien had ordered us to protect the mirror. That job still hasn't changed. If we were to go with your plan, we would be abandoning our role... There is also the problem of not knowing where that teleportation pad will take us; Librarium Celestium is colossal, we could get lost and never make it to our target destination..."

Hermes smiled. "Lord Lucien did order you to protect the mirror, but did he really specify which one?"

"Huh?" Lance furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

"Your job won't change. You will still be protecting the mirror. Just its sister instead. The Boundary of Two Worlds is a pair of mirrors, after all."

He looked down at the floor. "Certainly, there is some truth to that... Lady Jessica did say that the 'Boundary of Two Worlds' had changed locations, but she never specified that to be our mission... She also could have told us the new location directly instead of waiting for the Ring of Avoidance to activate..."

He looked back up at Hermes and nodded. "Alright, I will notify Mason. Though, I still have my doubts about that teleportation pad... How did you even know that they had a teleportation pad in the first place?"

Hermes picked up his fedora, which had fallen to the floor, and brushed off the dust. "The Ring of Avoidance told me."

"It told you?" Lance tilted his neck to the side. "Are you messing with me?"

Hermes chuckled, "Not at all... Nothing is beyond the power of a Halcyon-tier artifact. How else did you think I was going to uncover the secret hidden with in it?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Fair point..."

...

Merlin swam in the air while holding down her hat. Like a snake, she weaved through rounds of ammunition and spells blasted in her direction. From fireballs to massive ice-spikes, the Inquisition Knights were no longer holding back. In between their attacks, she would weave her Ethyria inside her stave, forming more and more deadly mystical formations in the air that hid their ethyric-signatures. To keep up appearances, she would occasionally fire back at a few of them with deadly precision.

A man with a stoic face held onto his sword as he gazed into the skies, watching Merlin's magical dance. A large ravine was formed across his face; It was a scar that no mere sword could create. His silver armor garnished with a crimson cape that fluttered in the wind revealed his allegiances. Explosions rang out in the sky, but he continued to observe Merlin's every move with an unflinching resolve. Suddenly, a person next to him spoke up, breaking him from his trance.

"Sigh, I knew Lady Merlin was powerful, but this is insane... Didn't the records show that she was only Stage 7? Even Stage 8 Mystics don't have this much cosmic force... Could she have ascended?"

The stone faced man continued to stare at the sky. "Nicholas, how many has she killed so far?"

The man who was standing next to him, Nicholas, pushed up his glasses. His blonde hair cascaded down to his shoulders as it swayed with the incoming breeze. He was garnished in a crimson robe and was holding a large stave donned with vibrant crystals at its apex. Bright flashes of light drowned out the lens of his glasses as he shifted his attention back to the stoic man.

"According to what's been reported so far, 232 casualties have occurred so far. She has destroyed a bunch of our Gear Mechs as well... I don't know how she is still keeping up with us..."

The stone faced man gripped his sword tighter and pummeled the blade deeper into the concrete. "Too low..."

Nicholas tilted his neck. "Pardon?"

"The casualties are too low. This is Merlin, the Twilight Witch we are talking about. Her spatial magic is an entire tier above the rest. No one is more skilled in the Space Element than her, except for the Angel of Repose. I have a bad feeling about this..."

Nicholas nodded, "I suppose so... However, that notion is still ridiculous. She is a Knowledge Domain Celestial just like both of us. A stage 7 Celestial's cosmic force capacity is fairly massive, but it still can't be to this degree... Even the most talented mystics in the empire won't be able to handle this many opponents at once..."

The man with the scar shook his head. "I don't think she is a stage 7, not from what I'm observing."

"I think so as well, but how did she ascend without reporting it to the mercenary guild? Did she use an illegal Elysian Monolith? That's a crime punishable by death if she was ever discovered! What exactly is she gaining from this?"

"..." The stone faced man continued to witness Merlin's aerial acrobatic skills without responding.

Oblivious to their discussion, however, Merlin herself was far more relaxed. She smiled playfully while dodging every projectile sent her way. With her stave at hand, she weaved her Ethyria into magic circles that quickly disappeared the moment they formed. After a few minutes of this charade, she waited for a gap in their attacks to form and took advantage of it immediately.

She snapped her fingers, and immediately an array of magic circles formed in the air. Nicholas tried to hold his jaw from dropping as he observed every single one of them. He used [Augmented-Comprehension] to tally them all and quickly analyze their formation. "Fi-fifty eight... Fifty eight concurrent spells?! Is she trying to kill herself?!"

But that was only the appetizer. Merlin had a grand banquet of sorcery planned. With a surge of her will, the circles lurched into a dizzying spin. Ley lines, those unseen arteries of magic, erupted from their edges, crackling with power as they connected the circles in a luminous web. Suspended in the air, shimmering like ethereal jellyfish, were threads of pure Ethyria. What appeared to be 58 separate spells were actually all part of a bigger magical formation.

Nicholas poured waves of cosmic force into [Augmented-Comprehension]. Hundreds of thousands of simulations and magical observations took place, as action potentials raced to fire off at the quickest speeds possible. It took him a bit, but he had finally figured out what Merlin was casting. Sweat poured out of his forehead as he desperately yelled out to his platoon of mystics.

"All of you! Form a barrier immediately! Everyone else, take cover!"

End of Chapter