The Conquerors Path

Chapter 978: Chapter 976-Reckoning Has Arrived.

”What the hell is this!?”

The young human male screamed as he looked at the barrier, his eyes filled with confusion as he tried to hit it with his attacks, not even causing a scratch on it.

”Young master, this is something else.”

The Imperial stepped in as he spoke, his eyes trembling as he looked at the barrier in front of him. No way should an attack be able to handle the level of an Imperial’s power. If that were possible, then what was the need for people to work until they became an Imperial, if a single device could handle an Imperial’s attack power?

”This is a powerful barrier. Even from my side of things, how it can even fit into something impossible for me to see...”

As the man spoke, he started using his domain around it to attack the barrier. The barrier stood tall and powerful, yet to the naked eye, they could see that it was waning, like its power was decreasing bit by bit. Seeing that, the eyes of the young men relaxed slightly, but those of the older ones only grew even more grave.

When a barrier like this was started, it was guaranteed that some kind of notice or warning must have gone out to others.

”Young master, I will start using most of my power. We need to break this before any kind of attention focuses back on us. It’s best if we move as fast as possible.”

The words of the Imperial made the two young men feel the pressure. The situation had changed into something beyond what they were interested in. They had accounted for everything, even forcefully closed off the mana all around, yet some kind of protective artefact still came into being, working against the logic they had set up.

”Tillian, it seems something has gone wrong.”

The lion beastman said, to which Tillian, the young human student, smiled.

”So what? No signal can even break out of this place, and even if it did, by the time anyone could even reach here, we would have erased everything and be long gone.”

”This scenario has already gone against what we had planned. We still have to be careful.”

Imin, the lion beastman, spoke. To his words, Tillian looked at the covering that was protecting Elda, which was quickly losing its power and getting smaller and smaller as he spoke.

”Do you really want to give up on that? The taste of that? The power we will hold when we have it, just when we are this close?”

To Tillian’s words, Imin looked at Elda, his eyes flashing with the same lust and desire as Tillian. Such extreme beauty, the like of which he had never seen before, was something he could not seem to let go of. Though beyond lust, there lay a deeper reason why they were trying to take this girl away. Her bloodline would be the rise of their faction’s power beyond anything.

This was a plan they had put into motion some time ago, since they confirmed what could be done with fairy blood, the power and reach that waited. This was a plan that came along a long time ago, and the moment was right to execute it; the whole academy was shaken and burning with excitement from the battle that was won.

The right moment, when the whole attention was twisted away. Focus, heat, excitement, and a situation filled with blood-pumping chaos made the perfect opportunity, when mistakes could happen, when focuses were wasted away. Not to mention, the very mysterious Austin Lionheart was just pulled away, too.

A moment of clarity to take action, the plan is put in place. If they failed now, the consequences would be far too dire for anyone to handle. So when this plan was put in place, it was a ride-or-die moment. Imin also understood it as he turned to look at Elda within the protection. Meanwhile, the other two teachers, Kovick and Mansi, also looked on with worry and tension in their eyes.

They had stacked everything on this moment. The two of them were put in by the families and the powers behind Imin and Tillian, so this was also a ride-or-die moment for them. Failing here and not covering everything up correctly, like planned, would result in death being the best of the worst options.

So it was a moment of tension for everyone, but that tension slowly faded away in seconds as they saw how the attacks from the Imperial were quickly melting away the golden barrier. The Imperial named Obion had a small frown on his face as he used his domain power around the barrier, causing it to fade away.

”I never expected there could exist a barrier that could withstand such a time of powered attacks from an Imperial. We need to study this.”

Obion’s words even lit up the eyes of the teachers, who looked closer at the hairpin on Elda’s head. The design itself made it look normal and minimalistic, but the power it held was far beyond their imaginations.

”I think it has something to do with leaning more towards the ancient era. From what we could gather, Austin Lionheart travelled all across the world during his time. One can only hope and understand what he would have gathered.”

The greed and knowledge burning within Kovick were for all to see, though hidden away was the fear the same man held for the student, one who came to the academy like a shooting star. From a name barely whispered within the world to one that had become the star of it, a meteoric rise so fast that not even the War Council’s hidden elders, those who see the stars and worship fate, had felt it.

A disturbance so powerful that the words of the world seemed to be gathering around him, his power and even his background were not ones to be messed with. Thus, as the excitement grew and the tension faded, they watched as Elda was within their grasp, just a few moments left, and just as everything was about to set in place...

The world froze.

In a more pressing way, it looked as if the world froze for them. Like the situation you feel when the adrenaline pumps all through you, excitement and full being around, and then the world kind of slows down for you. That was the situation, except this time, a feeling of extreme dread also came with it.

The feeling was as if a predator of untold horrors had placed its eyes on you. That was the feeling that was being spread all around them. Their bodies froze, their domains withered away, and they couldn’t move even a muscle, as if the space of the whole world split apart as a floating, majestic figure shining in golden tattoos appeared in the room right beside Elda, floating a few inches off the ground.

None of them could even breathe, all of them forgetting how to do so. To them, the world felt like it ended, but for Elda, it felt like the warmest hug in the world. She only knew one person who gave her such a feeling, and even with all those tattoos and everything around Austin, it only took Elda one moment to understand who had come for her.

”Brother...”

Elda whispered, and within the silence the world had fallen into, it was no different than yelling those words to the world. For a single moment, the blood of all the members in the room ran cold, the ones most affected being the Imperial Obion and the half-step Imperial Quax. Both of them felt it more powerfully than the others did. They felt the jaws of death tightening around their necks and pulling them deeper into death’s embrace.

”Ho–How...?”

That was the only word that could tremble and fall out of Obion’s mouth, his body shaking where he stood. Even he could not move an inch. Time seemed to slow away from them as Austin looked at Elda, a gentle smile coming to his face as the barrier faded away. He floated next to Elda, looking her over, seeing that she was alright as he asked,

”You alright?”

”Um...”

Elda shyly nodded her head, all her worries fading away without any hint of tension. Seeing that, Austin smiled and placed a light kiss on her forehead as he spoke.

”I can’t even let you go for a single moment.”

Saying so, he booped her nose. Elda shyly swatted it away, and with that, Austin turned to look at the ones gathered in the room. He didn’t have a lot of time left. In seconds, his power meant the terror he showed would fade, not to mention the whole barrage of attacks and power that would land in this place, since he had violently broken through the spatial restrictions of the place to arrive here on seconds’ notice. He wasn’t wasting any time.

Which meant every power figure with authority had gotten to know that within this area, a being of supreme power had torn through restrictions to arrive here, which meant backup would arrive soon, too. But those few seconds were more than enough for Austin.

And so, Austin moved. In the blink of an eye, he was back in the same position. To those with sharp eyes, all they saw was Austin flicker for less than a second before standing back at Elda’s side, but the things he did started to spread around like clockwork.