Chapter 53: Chapter 52: Hostages
Year 5, Day 73
Today is a great day for the young lady and me.
The Thousand Swords Sect, which had been silent for more than twenty years, has finally decided to open its doors.
It is literally the strongest sect in our region. It is said to be based on one of the few four-star upper worlds.
According to the elders of the Bai family, the entrance test is extremely difficult and only those with celestial tier or higher spiritual roots are eligible to even take the entrance test.
Fortunately, the young lady and I both meet this initial requirement.
The second and final condition to be met is to have reached the golden core before the age of 20. The young lady is already at the pinnacle of the golden core, while I am at the confirmed stage, so this condition is also fulfilled.
Tomorrow, the imperial family will escort everyone in the empire who meets these conditions and take us to Valerian, the capital of the Blue Dragon Kingdom.
It is the largest empire in this world, and also the most powerful, with several cultivators in the transcendent realm. It should be noted that even our emperor is "only" at the peak of the divine sea realm.
In any case, this city is the only one with a teleportation gate to other worlds, so we don't really have a choice but to go there.
…
"Kill them all!"
"Death to the traitors!"
"Kill those bastards!"
Roars of anger echoed from every corner of the student camp.
If usually, everyone occupied their own quarters and went about their business, today's scene was utter chaos as all the races mixed and raged in the air.
About twenty meters above the ground, Sylvera stood with his great lance in hand ; three purple beings whose arms had two elbows knelled in front of him.
These three beings were quite tall. Standing, they would be even taller than Sylvera.
However, they were currently kneeling and looking at the angry crowd with fear and resentment.
As the crowd grew more and more agitated, Sylvera reveled inwardly.
Even though it was unfortunate that such an event had taken place, he managed to turn things in his favor.
In fact, he had even asked some soldiers to make as much noise as possible to rally the crowd.
"Now, all the races will unconsciously feel closer. At the same time, this will serve as a warning to those who might still have bad ideas." He thought.
He let the crowd rage for another quarter before finally raising his hand, quickly bringing silence to the place.
"As you all know, three members of the mountain dwarf tribe were murdered yesterday. After some investigation, we discovered that the culprits are these two Kasos right here." He said, pointing to the purple being in the middle and the one to his right.
"However, they did not act alone. In fact, they are merely executioners commanded by war chief Subana, present here." He pointed this time to the Kasos on his left, who had clearly reached the absolute pinnacle of lower existences.
At that moment, the crowd became tumultuous again, and the saint let them vent for a few moments before restoring order.
"When we arrived in this world, we all agreed, as our gods asked us, to set aside our differences and unite to carry out the collective mission. However, these three individuals disobeyed this divine order and dared to go against the gods. This goes beyond a mere murder; it is a direct betrayal against all the gods; an attempt to spark a war between gods!"
Sylvera's voice was naturally amplified by his spiritual energy and resonated throughout the camp, allowing everyone to hear him clearly.
"For this reason, the divine envoys have decided to banish the Kasos tribe from this world and forcibly close the portal leading to their world."
Again, the crowd lost its calm and murmurs resumed as everyone turned their heads and tried to spot the tall purple beings.
However, they were destined to fail as all had disappeared since this morning, except for the three currently floating in the air.
"Finally, regarding these three individuals present here." Sylvera took a slight pause, and his tone became slightly menacing, sending shivers down the spines of all the spectators.
"As the president of the allied armies' war council, I sentence them to death for treason. The sentence will take place immediately."
Before anyone could react, he made a long swing with his lance that effortlessly decapitated the three traitors and then tossed their headless bodies to the ground.
…
Meanwhile, about forty kilometers to the south.
The detachment of the three main armies had set up a camp and Alice used several fog spells to hide it.
She also received support from other mages of the Great Army and several treants skilled in magic from the Wylrach killers, allowing the thick gray fog to cover the entire area and slightly restrict spiritual senses.
In the largest building of the camp, the four rank 4s stood around a crude model of the village.
"This machine is really amazing, it's quite precise in terms of relief and everything!" James said with a laugh as he affectionately looked at the huge device at the end of the table connected to the model.
"James, stop acting like a kid for two seconds!" Alice roared, making him unconsciously shrink his head into his shoulders.
"That detector is nonetheless very practical," the treant commanding the Wylrach killers said. "It has a much better range than our spiritual senses, and only those at the pinnacle of rank 4 can detect its use."
"Tell me, commanders, do you have any excess that you could sell to us? Of course, we would offer a fair price." He said, smiling.
Contrary to the calm appearance he showed, he was internally very disturbed.
"You'd have to be blind not to see the usefulness of such a device." He thought. "As long as we get one, our future planar invasions will be much smoother."
Seeing the turn the conversation was taking, the orc chief slammed his fist on the table and spoke in his deep voice.
"The troops of Yvengoth would also be interested in buying one!" He roared.
Alice could only display an embarrassed smile, while James simply didn't care about the conversation.
"Sorry gentlemen. If you're really interested, you'll have to discuss it with Marshal Nagaïa or Guardian Luminara. I'm just a commander and I don't have the necessary accreditation to discuss the sale of strategic equipment with you."
The two war chiefs seemed a bit disappointed, but they didn't waste time brooding and inwardly swore to do everything to obtain them upon returning to the camp.
"Now, let's focus on the mission!" she said, showing the model of the village made of sand.
"From what we can see, this village is not very big, with barely 5000 inhabitants. However, there are about thirty rank 3s, around 500 rank 2s, and the rest are mostly rank 1s. Even though it's quite weak compared to our forces, it's very unusual."
James could only agree.
"That's true, especially since we're relatively close to the edge of the world. There shouldn't be more than a few rank 3s."
"Look at the shape of the village," said the treant. "Straight streets, wide avenues, structured neighborhoods, and even a twenty-five-meter-high perimeter wall, although not very thick. It's nothing like an ordinary village. If the scale were larger, it wouldn't surprise me if it were a important city."
The orc chief again slammed his fist on the table and jumped up, dominating the room with his nearly three-meter height.
"We can just go in and question them. They'll never stand a chance against us!"
This instantly earned him three strange looks, and Alice couldn't help but sigh at the orc chief's enthusiasm.
"It's clear there's something fishy about this village. But we can't just walk in during the day and break everything. It worked with the monster camps because no one cares about them, but it's very likely that this village has connections with an organization that is still unknown to us. Even if we can kill them all, it wouldn't be a good idea. It would only alert the one hiding in the shadows and make our job more complicated later on."
The loud orc chief could only sit back down with a sad look, frustrated at not being able to crush skulls.
"In that case, what do you suggest, Alice?" James asked, stopping fiddling with the detector.
"Well," she said with a slight smile, "I have an idea."
…
The large village gate slowly opened, and a team of about fifty people slowly exited the enclosure.
Some were nearly 2 meters tall, while others barely reached 160 cm. They were relatively humanoid, and all had scales of different colors covering their entire bodies.
Their faces were rather elongated and fierce, while their yellow slit eyes observed the surroundings with vigilance.
For some, the description stopped there, but others also had a thick tail coming out from the base of their backs, a long pair of wings, or even horns.
One of them, who seemed to be the leader of the expedition, even had all three.
Even though they concealed their aura and did their best to be discreet, James, Alice, the treant chief, and the orc chief kept their spiritual senses active and quickly discovered them.
"Do we move now?" the orc chief asked impatiently.
"No, we wait a little longer until they move away from the village. We capture them as soon as they are more than a kilometer away," Alice said, watching the rapidly moving group.
…
Even though there were several great Warriors and even one at the pinnacle, the group did not dare to be too noisy and moved cautiously.
As they passed a group of flowering Ohia, one of the ranks 3, sporting a pair of wings and a tail with small horns, moved towards his leader.
"Captain, why did the elder suddenly ask us to go check the outside?" He asked hesitantly.
The large being in front of him shrugged.
"I don't know, but it's quite strange. I've never seen such a dense fog appear overnight. Even with my vision, I can't see beyond a hundred meters." The captain placed a reassuring hand on his subordinate's shoulder and continued.
"Don't worry, Kernt, the elder is much wiser than us and sees things we don't. We just need to get out of the fog and see how far it extends, then come back. It would be even better if we could catch some lava lizards along the way."
Kernt nodded but, before he could continue, he felt his eyelids grow heavy, and his consciousness faded as he fell unconscious on the volcanic rocks.
…
"§/é$.... *%53p8g'%*µ"
"7!&#$0"
Slowly, Kernt regained consciousness.
He heard people talking in a language he didn't understand and tried to open his eyes but was suddenly blinded by the intense white light in the room.
" %3¨H29#)ç'ç'éàfhàù&)"
"2lé, K*2#*£"
He felt a small hand on his head and tried to struggle, only to realize his limbs were firmly chained to a chair by strange chains, covered in small glowing patterns.
He felt gentle warmth emanating from the hand of the person in front of him and finally managed to look ahead.
There was a female of a strange race, about 170 cm tall. Unlike him, she had almost no scales, revealing smooth beige skin.
She had two long pointed horns and a thick tail covered in fine purple scales that stood out against her long white hair and sapphire eyes.
"Well, that should have worked," she said with a smile, looking at him.
"Are you sure about that, Alice? He looks completely dumb."
Kernt abruptly turned his head and noticed another figure, different but not unfamiliar.
It was a naga, though the musculature, size, and scale patterns seemed very different from those he knew.
"James, we just captured him, and he finds himself in a strange room with two strangers. I've even force our language in his head: it's perfectly normal for him to be disoriented." The lady in front of him replied.
Kernt's brain was working overtime, trying to understand what was happening.
However, he felt the world spinning again as he grew increasingly tired.
"Oh, looks like I overloaded his brain," the young woman said as she knelt in front of him and pulled back his eyelids to check his overly dilated eyes.
"It's okay, we'll talk again when he wakes up. In the meantime, go get the others! The elder will come soon."
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