NOVGO.NET Chapter 1653: Sent to Check
Chapter 1653: Sent to Check
“Daughter, place one more crystalline rock!”
Marquess Darius’ authoritative tone thundered, his eyes darting downward to his daughter, Althea.
His power covered the entire sky in water, like an inverted ocean.
Inside the bottomless inverted ocean that was filled—with the pressure from his life energy, Marquess Darius contained a soul, the White Mask’s soul. He was currently the anchor who was holding the White Mask in place.
As for the other nobles, including Princess Davina, they were the net.
Each of them unleashed their own abilities, utilizing their unique Soul Artifacts and Echoes to pin down both the White Mask’s physical form and the Voidal Prince’s serpentine body. Until the knights cleared the obstacles, the nobles had no choice but to remain stuck in this position.
All of them needed to keep their focus solely on the White Mask.
A Voidal Monarch is a lot stronger than any of them, so there’s no room for a mistake.
Nodding her head, Althea flew upward and took out an ocean-blue gem from her spatial mark.
It’s a luxurious mark that could be shaped like anything, able to store items in it with ease.
Once the ocean-blue gem entered the inverted ocean, it turned into a string of energy that swam like a fish, wrapping around the White Mask’s soul. The gem was something invaluable—produced naturally and exclusively in a special place within Marquess Darius’ water territory.
An incredibly powerful binding item.
It feeds on voidal energy, gradually becoming stronger the more it feeds.
For Marquess Darius to instruct the use of five of them showed how powerful the White Mask really was.
He wasn’t planning to use this much, expecting that one was more than enough.
Since the gem, the Marin Prison Gem, was newly found, this was the first time Marquess Darius used it on a Voidal Monarch. All the years he held onto it, no voidal monsters were able to break free from the gem’s binding.
It was also the reason why he even dared to make a move before reinforcements came.
Knowing that if things go south, he could use the Marin Prison Gem.
But he had been putting too much credit on it, as it takes five gems to bind only the White Mask’s soul.
Compared to the White Mask, the growth rate of the binding was far too slow—it would have snapped instantly if Marquess Darius hadn’t reacted quickly and used more gems. Even so, he was still struggling, barely holding the White Mask’s soul in check.
Empress Morgana was the one separating the White Mask’s soul from its body.
Had it not been for her, keeping the White Mask would’ve been almost impossible.
Or at least, it would be significantly harder to do.
“Check the string!” Marquess Darius said through gritted teeth. “See if it’s changed now.”
Althea wanted to say something.
It hadn’t been that long since the nobles restrained the White Mask.
Barely five minutes from the moment they realized the horde was getting left behind, there was no need for her to check the string. It would still be red. But Althea didn’t argue; she knew that from Marquess Darius’ position, it had been an eternity.
He was straining himself to lock the White Mask in place, after all.
Hovering back down, she checked the Voidal Prince’s end-tail.
On the tip of its tail, there was a piece of leather parchment, the symbol drawn on it was glowing, emanating a string that reached into the distance. It was the string Marquess Darius was talking about. It would change color from white to blue, and then red, depending on how far the horde was.
White means very close, blue means at the perfect spot, and red means too far.
And the string now was dark red, so they had to stop or the voidal monsters would go crazy.
“It’s still red!” Althea stated in a shout, informing everyone about the string.
Almost instantly, the nobles’ faces fell as they couldn’t possibly hold the White Mask forever.
Not to mention, another marquess who was close to Marquess Darius’ power was hurt by the blunder earlier. He wouldn’t die, but his wounds are going to gradually decrease his power with time, leaving only the viscounts and barons.
“What in the world is happening back there?”
“Our knights are beginning to disappoint us more and more lately; we should punish them.”
More and more nobles began to complain as their lives were literally on the line.
On one hand, they could die should the White Mask break free from their encampment and unleash its Spirit Genesis. On the other hand, if they chose to flee when that moment came instead of fighting, their retreat would be deemed an act of treason against the Empire.
A crime that would strip them of nobility and mark them as fugitives.
In the end, they would die too.
So, their lives were literally on the line in this mission.
“Althea…” Empress Morgana called her name—she too was struggling to keep the White Mask’s body and soul separated. “Go check on the knights and see what was happening. In fact, go help the knights. We can’t hold on for long.”
Instead of heeding her request, Althea turned to look at her father.
The House of Seawyn hasn’t acknowledged Empress Morgana as their empress, and that shows.
Despite that fact, Marquess Darius nodded his head, giving her permission.
But before Althea could answer, another voice rang.
“I volunteer,” Princess Davina said decisively. “I can be the one to check, Your Majesty.”
“No, Her Majesty asked me to check. You keep doing what you’re doing, princess.” Althea refuted.
One could see the tension connecting the two evidently.
Hearing this, Empress Morgana looked at Princess Davina and shook her head, “I can’t send you there, Davina. Let Althea do it. We still need your suppression power to keep the Voidal Prince’s Soul Artifact inactive. Losing you would only burden the others more.”
Princess Davina was reluctant inside, but she didn’t show it.
’I don’t trust her,’ She thought inside, suspecting that Althea would be using that time to also mess with Rex. Perhaps, she might even hurt him—since she doesn’t approve of him becoming Princess Davina’s fiancée. ’I can even use this opportunity to take our Sir Haxel silently.’
Recalling what Rex said to her earlier, Princess Davina doesn’t want to waste this chance.
But even before the words left her mouth, Empress Morgana already raised her hand.
“Focus on your task, Davina,” She said with a calm poise. “I know you’re worried about your fiancée, and it’s only natural, but the mission takes priority. I suggest you listen to my direct orders, or your own actions might cause a loss for your fiancée.”
Hearing this, Princess Davina tilted her head, her eyebrows dipping into a frown.
She didn’t know what Empress Morgana meant by that.
Just then, she remembered that Rex was actually aiming to go to the Sky City through Empress Morgana.
’Even though father is dealing with it, there’s a chance he’ll fail.’ She thought helplessly.
Princess Davina turned her gaze away, focusing on what she was doing again.
Her hands are tied.
Pushing further would not make right on her image too, so she decided to leave it alone.
’Tch, I hope April didn’t do something stupid.’ She clenched her hands hard—recalling that April was there with Rex. ’For her own sake, she had better behave herself in front of Althea. If she doesn’t… you’ll force my hands.’
Seeing Princess Davina backing away, Althea smiled inwardly.
It somewhat felt good to win against her on something.
“Make sure to check on Sir Rex and bring back news about him in exchange,” Empress Morgana said.
“I’ll get going.” Althea bowed politely and flew away.
Channeling her Soul Artifact, she blasted away in a burst of bubbles, soaring into the sky—and exiting the Seeker Flare surrounding them. It didn’t take long before she reached where the horde was supposed to be, about a mile from where the White Mask was.
From a bird’s eye view, it was total chaos.
Soldiers collapsed into disarray, scrambling to assemble even the barest semblance of formation. Men shouted, shoved, and stumbled over churned earth as they tried to hold the remnants of the horde’s body together, yet they were slowly being overwhelmed.
Althea could tell that this incident started from a blast that came from underneath.
Just from the jagged fissures across the ground and black pits was enough for her to deduce that.
’Is it because of Marquess Raka earlier?’ She recounted, remembering that Marquess Raka was thrown away earlier from a direct attack that landed solidly on him. He pierced the air, and the crash thundered in the distance, telling her that he must’ve crashed hard. And unfortunately, crashed into the horde. ’But he didn’t say anything about the horde earlier.’
Upon thinking that, Alteha scoffed.
’I didn’t think he was this type of person,’ She thought, assuming Marquess Raka to be too embarrassed that he didn’t mention anything about crashing to the horde. ’I should tell father about this. He should have had a good laugh.’
Darting her eyes downward again, she noted that the ground was too broken for a blast.
’I understand that Marquess Raka’s impact can be devastating, but the aftermath looked like it was made by multiple blasts. Odd…’ Althea’s eyes narrowed, but her mind was pulled away when she noted the formation around the horde was fractured.
It was riddled with holes that gaped like open wounds, bleeding discipline and cohesion.
And the horde itself was significantly smaller than before.
Each gap screamed for reinforcements that were nowhere to be found.
To make matters worse, voidal monsters prowled the breaches in the formation, their twisted shapes darted through the chaos nimbly, scattering men and unravelling what little order remained. Packs of soldiers gave chase in desperation, abandoning their duty to hunt the creatures before they could reach the glowing fracture of the Vinarkin Bubble.
’The Vinarkin Bubble was breached…’ Althea thought in surprise. Not once did he—or the other nobles expect the bubble to be breached like this. Perhaps only Empress Morgana expected this, as she was the only one who thought about everything about the mission. ’How can this happen? The bubble should be impenetrable from mere Voidal Knights.’
Shaking her head, she fixated on a spot where the fiercest battle raged.
Sir Haxel stood at the breach’s edge, a lone anchor in the storm.
His legion, battered and broken, rallied around him as he drove them back step by step, cutting down any voidal monsters that drew closer to the breach. His movements were sharp and unyielding, and the weapon in his hands tore through flesh and blood amid the chaos.
Every swing and every command bore the authority of a knight.
Althea’s eyes narrowed from her vantage point above.
She veered to the right side, descending towards where Sir Haxel was.
“Sir Haxel,” She called, levitating above with the grace of a noble. “What are you doing? Why didn’t you go inside and drag the voidal monsters out? If the Emperor knew about this, it’s going to be really bad for us.”
“Sir Rex is dealing with the main problem inside,” Haxel answered—with a level tone. “I am the one in charge of keeping the voidal monsters out. We’re trying our best. Just wait a minute. The soldiers should be recovering the formation about now, and the horde could move again.”
Hearing this, Althea’s eyes darted to inside the Vinarkin Bubble.
It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t interested in seeing Rex in action.
Especially since Haxel said that he was handling the real problem.
’I’m going to see how strong the fiancé of Princess Davina really was. To see if he was really worthy,’ She thought inside, eyes narrowing at the clash of auras coming from beyond the wall. However, she glanced over her shoulder instead of entering. ’But first, I need to help them.’
Just as she said that, the sound of marching steel boots could be heard.
Althea looked to the side and was surprised to see hundreds of soldiers rushing back.
“Hmm…? Where were they coming from?”