Days after Leonel's escape, Camelot finished its preparations.
Unfortunately, due to the demons taking the initiative, Camelot had lost its footing around the Merlin Trial grounds. Without a choice, their only method of gaining entry was to fight to reclaim the land they had once lost.
However, this matter wasn't so simple at all. Since Camelot knew what it had to do, how could Modred's army not also be aware? Long before Camelot began their march, waves of Demons had already begun to assault the Red and Yellow Rings of Camelot. Not only were there large numbers of humanoid demons, but the number of beast demons far outstripped even them, placing Camelot on the precipice of disaster.
In such a situation, the elites of Camelot were hardpressed to address everything. At this point, King Arthur no longer had the luxury to continue thinking about Leonel. Even without Leonel, it seemed that their Kingdom might be on the brink of collapse.
The truth was that Modred didn't have the ability to take down Camelot so easily. But, the root of the problem was that Camelot's elites all wanted to enter the Trial Gates.. And, even beyond that, from a certain angle, they had to.
If the Demon Elites entered, but Camelot could not, the disparity in their strengths would grow exponentially. Like this, Camelot's advantage of quality over quantity would disappear and their days would be numbered.
However, it was impossible for all elites of Camelot to enter. If they did, who then would defend the common people? If they sacrificed the common man, so what if they came back more powerful? Would they even have a Kingdom to return to by then?
The Trials could take upwards of several years to complete. In such a situation, how could they possibly leave Camelot undefended for so long?
So… Some had to stay behind… but, the question was who?
The internal strife of Camelot only grew worse as a result. The battle for quotas reached a fever and those who were forced to stay behind no doubt had resentment buried deep within their hearts.
However, the troubled times had not come to an end. Even after those who would stay and go were decided, those who would go didn't have an easy path waiting for them.
Not only had the demons invaded the lands of Camelot, forcing a portion to stay back and defend. But, there were also waves of demons obstructing their path forward.
With the best teleportation formations of Camelot only being able to take on ten people at once, at most, the only option was to march on foot. However, this left them vulnerable to bloody battle after bloody battle… By the time Camelot returned to the Border Region and approached the entrance, their numbers had been significantly waned and those who survived weren't in the greatest of condition…
**
The worries of Camelot had nothing to do with Leonel. As a lone traveler, and with his overwhelming Internal Sight, Leonel hardly found trouble making his way back to the Border Region.
Leonel chose to continue on foot rather than setting up a teleportation array. The accuracy of long range teleportation arrays was lacking unless two were connected over a distance. Obviously, Leonel didn't have the luxury of doing so or else what would be the point of using one at all?
There were short ranged Mage Arts among those that Leonel knew. However, not only did they consume a large amount of Spirit Pressure, even for a person like Leonel, but they also took a long time to cast. It took a normal Magus upwards of half a minute to cast one such Art. As for Leonel, it would take at least ten seconds.
Such Arts were best used by skilled mages who could dual cast — meaning preparing one Art while casting others to stall the enemy. Leonel had yet to need to do such a thing, especially since even with his Spirit Pressure, he could at most use such Arts about ten times in a single battle.
Luckily, Leonel had already made his way through this region once before with Lionus. Though it was through teleportation stations, he still had a general idea about the direction. All he had to do was make it to the Border Region and he was certain he wouldn't miss that massive pillar of light.
As expected, before even leaving the Red Ring, Leonel could already see the pillar in the distance. In fact, even without using his eyes he could sense the massive Force fluctuations in the air. All he had to do was follow his senses toward the region of highest concentration.
"[Light Refraction]."
Reaching this region, Leonel became more cautious.
[Light Refraction] was only able to hide him from sight. It was a One Star Magus Light Art that refracted light around a subject. Since vision relied on the feedback loop of light, doing such a thing essentially made one invisible. The attack Arts of Light Magic might have been rare, but there were countless auxiliary Arts just like this.
Unfortunately, it couldn't fool Internal Sight. But, for Leonel's current uses, it was perfect. Since the Border Region was exceptionally bland, [Light Refraction] worked particularly well. It might falter in regions with complex terrains, but the Border Region was just a vast expanse of grey, cracked lands. There was nothing to worry about here.
Leonel rapidly closed the distance toward the pillar of light. The closer he got, the denser the population of demons became. It was obvious that Modred was casting a tighter and tighter net around the Trial Gates.
Eventually, the encirclement of Demons became so thick that Leonel no longer dared to move forward normally.
"[Earthen Road]."
Leonel sunk into the ground.
[Earthen Road] was a Three Star Magus Art, it took a while for Leonel to cast. However, when he had time to prepare and could use it in conjunction with his earth escape treasure, he could travel through the ground as though walking on land.
Leonel approached slowly, keeping his movements measured so as not to alert those above him. When he felt that he was about half a kilometer away from the location of the Merlin Trial Gates, he came to a stop.
Even without extending his Internal Sight for fear about being noticed, he could still feel the dense demonic energies above him. It was no surprise that the elites of Modred's Demon Army were located above him at this very moment.
'I doubt that Modred wants to wipe out Camelot now. It's likely she simply wants to weaken the force entering the Gates… It's seems she's quite a calculating person…'
Camelot and Modred weren't the only two Leonel was worried about. He was also thinking about the 11 others who entered with him in addition to the potential interference of the higher Dimensional beings. Nothing about the next few years would be easy.
Leonel covertly deployed a vision array. Though it was quite low level, this was actually a good thing. It was less likely for those powerful entities to detect such a low level spell. Since Leonel didn't dare to use his Internal Sight, he had to observe the situation some other way.
Finally, Leonel buckled in. He knew that a major battle was about to be fought above him. In the meantime, he might as well put some finishing touches on his trump cards.
However, Leonel never expected to find the scene he did within the Lab Setting of the Segmented Cube.