After being transported through the array, Vera and her team appeared inside a small round, poorly lit working area underground. Its only source of light was a faint glow coming from small magic orbs mounted around the walls.
Once their eyesight adjusted to the dim room, they noticed a small opening leading to a tunnel most likely connected to the entrance from their left.
Vera also noticed that the size of the tunnel could only fit two people at most. She roamed her eyes and found another opening above them where an intricate array formation hovered in the air.
The array formation above was round, and at the moment, it was not active. It had several layers of smaller arrays inside with complex rune writings along its borders.
Vera recalled the details of their operation in her head.
After phase one of their operation, where they needed to activate the Heaven’s Rupture Array, the next phase was the infiltration. They would have to go to three different locations during this phase to enter the Regis Inner Wall premise. Once each team arrived at their respective locations, they would need to activate the array formation prepared beforehand. The array was an attack array that, once activated, would emit a ray of concentrated energy in a straight line. Using this attack, they would blast a hole on the ground above them. Because right above them was the inner premise of the Regis Inner Wall.
“Alright, take out the spirit stones and we’ll activate the array at once.” Vera ordered her team at once.
“Yes, Captain.”
All members get to work as they took out different types of spirit stones from their space storage. Since they had to conceal the activation of the array, they could not use their own magic energy and infuse it into the array formation. Thus, they would use the energy of the spirit stones. To do this, they need to use low-grade spirit stones to build up the formation’s energy. If they used a high-grade spirit stone at the start, the formation might get out of control and backfire on them.
Their target time to complete the array’s completion was a quarter of an hour. So far, they still have plenty of time left.
‘Good, we’re on schedule.’ Vera thought as she looked up at the array formation.
Eight army officers positioned themselves below the array and activated the low-grade spirit stones they had. Soon the outer runes inside the array lit up as it started to absorb the energy of the stones. When the array formation almost absorbed all the energy of the stones, they took out new ones and prepared to activate them at once.
The rest of the officers were on standby.
When the eight officers started to use high-grade spirit stones, the runes around the array finally moved. It rotated within the circles and activated the smaller arrays one after another.
Vera smiled. Her heart started to beat excitedly. She rarely got excited about starting an operation, but today was an exception since she could get even with Kyran by targeting his own people.
However, before the array could fully activate, she suddenly felt the token Jax gave her grew warm. She took out the token to inspect it, but there was nothing wrong apart from it getting a little warm.
‘Is this normal?’ Vera wondered.
She knew this was a Summoning Token. But it was her first time to see and touch it.
Shaking her head, Vera shoved the token back inside her pocket and continued to observe the array above.
Just then, she noticed her communication device lit up.
====================
For a couple of minutes, Cade and Jax only stared at each other.
Both of them were trying to gauge what the other might be thinking and what he would do next.
Finally, Jax was the first to break the silence.
“The Regis blessing is indeed formidable,” he said.
Once again, Cade was surprised at Jax’s attitude. He did have an idea of what Jax might be up to and decided to remain silent.
“As expected of a Regis. You really keep to your principle of not attacking an unarmed person,” Jax continued to make conversation.
A faint smile appeared on Cade’s face as he raised both of his brows. He replied, “Unarmed? I doubt a mage can really be called an ‘unarmed’ person.”
Jax chuckled and slightly nodded his head, “Point taken.”
Silence.
Cade’s expression remained unreadable. However, his initial suspicion of what Jax was up to become more apparent.
‘He’s buying time,’ he thought. ‘Is he trying to contact the others to return?’
Thinking back, the officers with Jax were too few compared to the number he initially expected. However, Cade already knew what they were up to and made Raya and Myst wait at the locations he expected them to appear.
Unbeknownst to Jax and even to the rest of the Regis Elders, Cade was already aware of the army’s plan in digging their way inside the Regis Inner Wall. After all, he knew the weakness of his defensive array. Unfortunately, he could only wait for the day the army made their move to act as well.
Because of the Regis Clan’s delicate situation, Cade could not initiate the attack against the army. If he did, the army would exploit what they did and turn the public opinion against them after they revealed the truth of their situation.
He suddenly hoped Kyran would also keep a low profile. Knowing his son, and judging by the army’s suddenly aggressive move, however, he probably did something that angered them.
If this situation were happening in another clan, they would probably condemn their clan member for acting rampant.
But to Cade, no, to the whole Regis Family, the more Kyran acted rampantly, the more they would feel reassured. Not that they tolerate such behavior. It was just that Kyran rarely acted out. And that worried them. Because whenever he did, he ended up hurting someone and himself.
Kyran would definitely grow as a person because of this.
“Lord Cade,” Jax’s voice broke Cade’s thoughts.
“Major,” Cade replied.
“Should you really be wasting your time here?” Jax asked.
Cade smiled, “Why Major? Is my presence boring you?”
“Not at all. I prefer it to be honest. But aren’t you worried while you’re idling here your defensive array will be destroyed?” Jax replied and looked behind him where the Heaven’s Rupture Array was still trying to destroy the Regis’s defensive array.
Cade lifted his gaze and looked at the violet veil spreading over the Regis barrier. He said, “I am actually more worried about what you’re plotting right now-.”
BOOM!
The two transportation arrays near Jax exploded, and two enormous monsters suddenly appeared.
One of the two monsters was a ferocious-looking ogre with dark green skin. His head was full of scars, and his height and build were the same as the minotaur. In his hand, he held a huge club with spikes. The other one was a seven-meter tall cyclops wearing two flaming gauntlets. He was not buffed compared with the minotaur and the ogre, but his height could already threaten any mage.
“Rawrgh!” Both of them roared, spitting out saliva in the process.
Another explosion occurred behind the two monsters, and a whirlwind appeared.
The minotaur, looking as if he did not suffer earlier, appeared from the whirlwind. He did not roar, but his menacing eyes were looking at Cade.
Behind the two monsters, he saw two silhouettes of humans.
“I suppose, you did not expect there to be more of these monsters.” Jax’s voice came from behind the minotaur.
Cade’s eyes narrowed as he saw the monsters. He watched as Jax came in front of the monsters. The other two silhouettes stepped out from the smoke and joined him.
‘A captain,’ he thought after recognizing one of the two people who joined Jax, from the records their scouts were able to collect on the army personnel.
The man was wearing a green uniform and was looking at him indifferently.
Cade turned his attention to the girl who was wearing a similar green uniform.
He did not know her, but he knew she was also a captain based on the bronze badge she was wearing.
Unlike the man, the woman was glaring furiously at Cade. However, he had a feeling that she was not really looking at ‘him’.
“I already know you’re trying to buy time. So you actually called for reinforcements,” Cade replied.
He observed the monsters and noticed they were docile.
When Jax summoned the minotaur for the first time, Cade had the impression that summoned monsters were hostile.
“Well, since my minotaur can’t deal with you alone, I reckoned more hands might do the trick.” Jax replied.
“Don’t worry. These summons are tamer than you think. Since they come from the same group of Summoning Tokens, they will listen well to orders.”
Cade smiled, “I see. No wonder they’re acting docile.”
“You are very strong, Lord Cade. But today, we will do everything in order to succeed in this operation. We cannot fail,” Jax said.
“What a coincidence. I can’t fail in this operation as well,” Cade said.
Before Jax and the others could react, Cade already made a move.