Half an hour earlier.
Vera was inside the carriage, heading to one of the critical locations of the array the army had set up. The orb she read indicated that Mika and the rest of her team were already there.
The truth, her team was not aware that she would be joining the operation today because her injuries had not fully recovered. However, she could not stay idle, knowing that her team was out here.
While reading through the contents of the mission, she realized that the array they had prepared was very complex, and the whole operation was not what she had expected.
She thought her role was to amplify the magic array, the same way she and Dior did with the Four-colored Ruin array during their operation to capture Kyran.
Vera’s brows knitted at the thought of him. Her blood started to boil, and her heartbeat rapidly. She had never hated anyone like this before. She would never forgive him for attacking her members mercilessly and leave them to die.
An idea popped into her mind as she looked into the orb Jax gave her and rechecked the mission.
Her expression turned solemn, and her eyes glinted malevolently.
Initially, she planned to return to camp and rest once she completed her part. But now that Jax had presented an opportunity for her to attack the Regis, she now decided to join the infiltration team.
‘An eye for an eye,’ Vera thought.
Since there was no chance to vent her anger at him directly, then she would have to settle with taking down a minimum of three Regis members in today’s operation. When she and Kyran met again, she would gloat before him for running away and leaving his clan to die.
Her lips formed into a sinister smile.
“We’re here, Captain Vera.” An officer who was at the helm of the carriage announced after a few minutes.
“Good,” she nodded.
The carriage stopped at the location where an earlier squad of six army officers had set up one of the key corners of the array formation.
Suppressing the murderous intent brewing inside her, Vera finally stepped out of the carriage.
Once outside, she surveyed her surroundings.
A good 30 meters away from the Regis Inner Wall, an elaborate seven-meter wide triangular shaped array with rods struck on its corners was drawn by the army on the ground. Two circular arrays were drawn overlapping the triangular array with runes written at the borders.
The six army officers were seated inside the circular array forming a round position.
One of the officers inside was Mika.
At the moment, all officers inside were meditating as they supply magic energy inside the array.
Vera knew that there were five similar arrays located in different points all around the Regis Inner Wall.
The array they created was called Heaven’s Rupture. Its effect was to break a defensive array that was two-tier above it. Of course, this could only be possible if the array points around that defensive array were enough.
Normally, six points were not enough to occupy the whole Regis defensive array.
However, with Vera’s magic, she could distort the space between each point to make the array work.
Doing this would put a great strain on her mind, and Jax was aware of it. Thus, Luka’s speciality would come into play.
Luka was a support type mage. His innate magic was called enhancement magic. But his magic’s limitation was he could only use it on magic items. And these rods were prepared by him to enhance the effect of the array.
Creating all 18 rods was not easy, and it took him almost two days to complete all of them.
It would also lessen the strain Vera needed to connect each point.
But this was not the only crucial part of their operation.
Vera sneered as she thought of Jax.
‘To think that Major Jax could come up with such a plan. No wonder the Grand Marshal entrusted him with this mission,’ she thought.
Yes. The most crucial point of this operation was not the array they prepared to destroy the Regis defensive array.
It was the infiltration part where Jax would lead.
“Get everyone ready! After I activated the array, we will rendezvous with Major Jax.” Vera announced.
“Yes, Captain!” The officers replied.
====================
At another point of Heaven’s Rupture Array, Luka and his team were waiting for the signal to start the operation officially.
It did not take long when they saw the rods lit up, and the two circular arrays that overlap the triangular one started to rotate. The runes around its borders hovered above and circled the rods.
Magic fluctuations filled the air.
A huge triangular light violet array appeared after a couple more minutes, high above the sky within the Regis Inner Wall. After a few seconds, another triangular array appeared just above the first array but in red color. It combined with the first array and formed a six-sided star.
A bolt of red-violet lightning struck the rods on the array coming from one point of the six-sided star above.
BOOM!
An explosion occurred, and a violet veil emerged from the six-sided star and spread above the Regis Inner Wall.
The Regis’s defensive array activated soon after and formed a light golden half-sphere barrier protecting the Inner Wall.
Luka sneered.
‘Now, it starts.’ He thought.
“Let’s go!” He told his team and signalled for them to leave.
Same with Vera, their next stop was to rendezvous with Major Jax and the rest.
====================
Jax looked up as soon as the six-sided star appeared above the Regis Inner Wall.
He was at the rendezvous point with the rest of the army.
Already, he noticed the tension and excitement of the officers with him when the Regis’s defensive array showed signs of crumbling.
However, he was not thrilled because he had some reservations about destroying the Regis’s defensive array.
When the officers researching the Regis’s defensive array had proposed using the Heaven’s Rupture Array to counter it, he expected the Grand Marshal to disapprove because such an array needed many resources.
But Jax still prepared a proposal and went back to headquarters to report to Gael personally.
However, it was unfortunate that Gael was not in the mood and approved his proposal without reading the details.
Jax did not understand why Gael’s mood took a sudden turn when he was very lenient the night before. Still, he had to explain all the materials and manpower they would need to proceed with the plan.
Gael still approved everything.
However, when Jax requested at least one Master mage be included in the operation, Gael did not say anything and only handed him three Summoning Tokens.
Jax knew what the tokens were. And it was the very reason why he had mixed emotions in today’s operation.
Once they used these tokens, there would only be a massacre.
His conscience kept nagging him. So he decided not to conceal the army’s movement to give the Regis’s time to prepare.
Hopefully, the Regis Patriarch would be wise enough and not retaliate too much. If not, they would really have to use the Summoning Tokens.
“Get ready!” Jax announced as soon as the violet veil started to cover the activated Regis’s barrier.
“Yes, Major!” All officers saluted at once.
A quarter of an hour later, Vera and Luka’s team arrived.
Both teams had consumed several teleportation tokens to arrive at the rendezvous point as soon as possible.
Then they all proceeded to another makeshift camp the army built.
All of them entered a huge tent.
Once inside, Luka and Vera could not help but exchange glances as soon as they saw three transportation arrays on the ground.
“You both know where this array leads,” Jax started and looked at Luka and Vera.
The two saluted, “Yes.”
“The Regis’s will be occupied in dealing with the Heaven’s Rupture Array and will not realize that this here is our real intention.”
Every large-area defensive array had a flaw. And that was it could only cover the ‘outer’ premise it could reach. Of course, there were countermeasures to cover even ‘hidden’ areas, but they already confirmed that the Regis did not have any of them.
After Gael approved the operation, Jax returned to the camp and ordered several selected officers to dig below the Regis’s Inner Wall in secret. If ordinary humans did it, it would take them weeks to complete. However, the officers Jax selected were all earth mages, and digging had been easy. Still, it took them a couple of days to dig three areas because the Regis’s Inner Walls’ foundation was deep, and its walls were thick. They were only able to create three holes with a diameter of three meters. Still, they did not dig further in because they might alarm the Regis’s scouts if they did. There was still a good fifteen meters before they could reach the above-ground going inside their land.
After this, Jax planted the transportation arrays near the end of the path of the areas they had dug. These transportation arrays were an army exclusive artificial array.
And those transportation arrays were connected to these transportation arrays before them.
Jax took out two of the Summoning Tokens and handed each to Luka and Vera.
“Used it only when needed,” he told them. “If you encounter a problem, contact me at once.”
The two took the tokens and nodded, “Yes, Major Jax.”
Jax nodded and finally said, “Move out!”
Luka and Vera’s teams each entered a transportation array.
These transportation arrays would automatically activate once the number of people inside met the required quantity. It could transport twelve people at once.
Luka and Vera each had a total of twenty-four members, including them. They would have to use the transportation array twice.
Jax waited until both of their teams had been transported before his team also moved to the last array.
However.
Light-gold arrays appeared on the ground and parallelled above it. Magic fluctuations filled the air as the space inside the array twisted.
The remaining officers, as well as Jax, stopped short in shock. All of them gaped at the array that appeared before them.
“What in the-!” Jax exclaimed as a silhouette formed within the space.
His eyes widened as soon as he recognized who it was.
“This Heaven’s Rupture Array is a very bold move. To think you have a space mage with you, really unexpected.”
A tall, handsome man with shoulder-length black hair and dark gray eyes clad in black armor appeared before them.
The light-golden array disappeared, and the man looked at Jax.
“Heaven’s Rupture Array is a tier five counteroffensive array that could destroy a defensive array two levels above it,” the man was saying.
His eyes slowly glowed silver, and with a slight smile, he said, “I’m a little offended.”
Jax gritted his teeth and growled, “Cade Regis.”