Slice!
Shadows shot up from the ground and sliced the ropes that tied Condel up. The ropes were infused with mana, but they weren’t enough to contain Condel’s strength and he raised his arm. Shadows climbed across his body and wrapped around his arms. Then, he swung his arm.
Crash!
Windur was hit by Condel’s attack. It was a considerably heavy attack. Hans and Snoc immediately attacked Condel. Light shined from Estellade and sharp mithril pieces rained like meteorites.
Crash! Crash!
Something jumped out from below Condel’s feet and blocked the stream of attacks. It was another shadow. A couple more jumped out. Since people knew how strong these shadows were, they were fearful. Joachim backed off and commanded the troops. In contrast, Zich, Hans, and Snoc took a step forward; Lyla and Elena poured mana into their staffs.
The shadows’ characteristically amorphous bodies wiggled and attacked. Zich, Hans, and Snoc checked to make sure they didn’t head towards the normal soldiers. More shadows popped out. Remembering their past ambush, Zich and his companions knew that this was going to be a difficult battle. Yet, they had brought a bunch of support troops with them this time.
“Sir Count!”
“We came to help!”
“Glad you could make it!”
Elite knights specially chosen by the city arrived on site, and Joachim welcomed them. “Condel Siede was really the culprit! Please help Mr. Zich and his companions right now to help with the arrest!”
“Yes, sir!” The knights pulled out their swords. A large amount of mana whirled around the sword. As the knights joined, Zich’s side began to gain the upper hand. Yet, Zich didn’t let down his guard at all.
‘I’m sure that guy can bring out way more shadows.’
If Zich thought about the number of shadows that had run away from them before, there should be much more of them; above all, Condel wasn’t making the shadow humans yet.
‘I don’t think he is playing around. Is there a reason why he can’t use all of his strength?’ However, if that was the case, this was to Zich’s advantage. Zich didn’t hold such a foolish thought like having to defeat his opponent when they were in their best condition.
Condel scowled a bit more as more knights joined. He glared at Zich like he wanted to kill. Zich also stared back; he had a smile on his face like he couldn’t contain the happiness he felt from seeing his opponent look at him with pure hatred.
“Where is Sir Zenard!” Joachim shouted and one soldier responded.
“He went inside the secret passageway we found to search what was in there!”
Condel flinched. His menacing face twisted even more like the devil.
‘It seems like there is something inside the secret passageway.’
The shadows that were all over the place suddenly backed away. One of them thrust its body onto the floor.
Crash!
A huge hole formed on the floor.
‘Is he trying to run away?’ Zich hurriedly swung Windur. However, the shadow in front of him intervened. “Hey, you should reply to my question! I asked you if you really loved her!”
Condel’s blood-chilling eyes shot towards Zich again. However, he didn’t fall for Zich’s provocations and disappeared into the lower floor. The shadows continued to thrust themselves onto Zich and his companions.
“Lyla!”
“Yeah!”
At Zich’s signal, both Hans and Snoc backed off. Zich also backed away, and seeing his response, Joachim ordered the knights to do the same. Lyla let out an enormous amount of mana from her staff and cast a spell. The shadows rushed towards her, but she finished her spell faster than them.
Whoosh!
The surrounding air vibrated. The air swirled with the shadows in the center. The accelerated air whirled and turned to fierce winds. The air separated into different floors and swirled in different directions until it could shred apart anything within its reach. Yet, anything outside of its reach wasn’t affected at all; there wasn’t even a light breeze to shake people’s hair strands, much less a strong whirlwind or whistling of the wind. However, the people outside of it could clearly see what was happening to the shadows; they exploded, were sliced, and ripped. Without even the sound of wind or destruction, only the sight before them showed viewers what was happening before them.
Soon, the soundless destruction was over, and the shadows completely disappeared.
“…Amazing,” Elena murmured. The more and more she saw Lyla’s magic, she couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. On the other hand, Lyla calmly took back the staff as if she hadn’t done much.
“Let’s go too.” Lyla tapped Elena on the shoulders and pointed towards the lower floor. Zich, Hans, and Snoc had already gone down the stairs to chase after Condel.
“Y-Yes!” Elena hurriedly followed behind Lyla. Joachim also ordered his troops to chase after Condel. Knights and soldiers steadied their steps to walk down the stairs; while they did this, they stole furtive glances at Lyla. They were shocked about the magic that had wiped away the strong shadows instantly.
It wasn’t very difficult to chase after Condel. All they had to do was find the noisiest place in the building. There were also injured soldiers or corpses of those who had tried to block Condel scattered in places. Lyla and Elena passed by them to arrive at the basement of the casino where there was a large hole.
“This seems to be the secret passageway.”
“Y-Yes…” Elena answered weakly because of the horrifying and gruesome sight of what happened nearby. A considerable number of soldiers were dead or injured. Elena wasn’t used to these types of battles yet.
Lyla lifted her body slightly and stared at Elena. Her face still looked a bit pale.
“Do you want to stay behind?” she asked. Elena looked around her. She gulped, shut her eyes tightly, and clenched her fist.
“I will go!”
“Yeah, that’s the way.” Lyla smiled slightly and lifted Elena’s body. Like that, the two disappeared into the entrance.
* * *
Zich was running through the passageway with Hans and Snoc. He could see Condel’s back from a distance away. Condel was running away at a fast speed—almost at the same speed that Zich was chasing after him.
‘Hans and Snoc won’t be able to catch up to him,’ Zich thought. As Zich predicted, the distance between him and Hans and Snoc was slowly increasing. However, it wasn’t as if Zich could slow down to match Hans and Snoc’s speed. ‘If we miss him right now, it’ll be impossible for us to track him.’
Condel’s shadows could perfectly escape Zich’s sensing abilities. It also seemed as if Condel could use it on himself since Zich could barely sense where Condel was. If Condel moved a bit further away, Zich would no longer be able to sense him just like the shadows.
‘Well, since there’s only one path in this tunnel, at least I won’t get lost.’
Zich told Hans and Snoc behind him to try their best to catch up to him and maintain his speed.
Slide! Slide!
Two shadows popped out from beneath Condel’s feet. Zich clicked his tongue. ‘This is going to be troublesome.’
Zich could no longer afford to increase his distance from Condel; he tightly clenched Windur and increased his speed. In an instant, he approached the shadows. The shadows changed shape as Zich approached them; one of them became sharp enough to pierce through Zich and the other spread wide like a net to crush him down. Zich used all his strength and swung Windur.
Slice!
The shadow that had spread itself like a net was cleanly cut into two. However, since Zich had used a lot of strength to swing Windur, his body was defenseless now. The sharp shadow immediately pierced through Zich’s body.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
With a chilling sound, blood spurted out of Zich’s body. The shadow had split itself into three sharp daggers and pierced through Zich’s body. However, Zich did not even let out a groan; his eyelids just twitched once.
Slice!
Zich swung his sword down against the shadow and put a large amount of mana into Windur.
Bang!
The shadow burst with the explosion of mana. When the shadow disappeared, blood came pouring out of Zich’s injuries; anyone could see that he had taken serious damage. Yet, Zich paid no mind to his body and continued running. Then, he took out a potion.
Zich had protected his vital organs like his heart; he gulped down the potion and poured it over his injuries. His injuries began to patch up like magic. People would have said that Zich’s methods were insane, but by sustaining heavy injuries, Zich was able to shorten his distance from Condel. He was now able to also clearly sense Condel’s presence. Zich also saw that Condel glanced back at him, and Condel gritted his teeth.
Zich loudly shouted, “Who are you trying to meet? Are you perhaps going to lay down flowers for your dead lover? I don’t care whether you’re going to cry or jump in joy in front of her grave, but you should go after answering my question! Did you really love Sia Rubrent!”
Slide! Slide! Slide! Slide! Four shadows popped out this time; it seemed as if Zich’s provocation worked. The shadows crawled on the ground. ‘It would be a bit difficult to defeat four at once.’
However, Zich did not decrease his speed. Before he collided with the shadows, he fused an enormous amount of mana into Windur and gave a large swing.
Ziiiing!
Air filled with mana hit against the shadows like a hammer. The shadows halted, but it didn’t seem like they sustained serious damage. However, what Zich wanted was that short opening.
Tap.
Zich pushed off his foot. He jumped to the top of the ceiling and used the ceiling to jump again and land behind the shadows. The shadows quickly attacked Zich, but he expertly manoeuvered past them and chased after Condel. The shadows rushed after Zich, but they slowly grew further away from Zich.
‘Hans and Snoc can take care of them.’
Soon, Lyla and Elena would also join them. On the other hand, it seemed as if Condel really planned to get Zich off his back. Shadows began wriggling out from beneath Condel’s feet again. Zich thought about how to defeat them when he suddenly sensed a new presence.
‘This is.’ Zich felt a presence in front of Condel; the presence seemed to belong to a human.
‘Is another person here to support Condel?’ Zich thought this for a moment, but he recalled a person who came into this tunnel earlier than him.
‘Glen Zenard!’ Did Glen catch up to Condel? Or was he waiting to ambush Condel at the right moment? ‘But this doesn’t seem like Glen Zenard’s presence?’
Condel seemed to have also sensed the presence in front of him as he recalled the shadows that were about to come out. He also slowed down a bit; it was clear that Condel was raising his guard. Zich saw that someone was blocking Condel’s path—a woman with long, flaming red hair.
‘Lara Browning?’
Now that Zich thought about it, it wasn’t strange that she was also inside the tunnel; she always stuck close to Glen Zenard. The strange thing was that she was by herself. No matter where he looked, Glen Zenard was nowhere to be seen; Zich couldn’t even sense his presence.
Zich saw that Lara Browning was shouting something to Condel; she told him to stop. However, there was no way Condel would listen to her. In order to remove the obstacle in front of him, Condel began releasing his shadows again.
‘Would she be able to fight him?’
From what Zich knew, Lara Browning was not that strong right now. Her skills were incomparable to the times when she blocked his Demon Lord self like a huge fortress. Zich didn’t think that she would be able to block Condel in her current state.
Crasssh!
“Ugh!”
As expected, Zich saw Lara Browning gulp down a groan as the shadows surrounded her and attacked all at once.
‘Should I save her for now?’
She might also be a pitiful victim of Glen Zenard. Zich jumped into the battle.