Chapter 72: City Lord's Might

Knowing what's at stake here, Cedric can't be expected to just ignore everything and leave it up to them.

Sure, he didn't want to be directly involved since he was protecting his identity but at the very least, he could watch as the operation occurred.

And wouldn't you know it, paying attention paid off...

He saw how the seemingly smooth operation had gone to hell because of one small mishap.

The root cause of everything came from one simple thing. And that's due to the squad, whose task was to secure and guard the Control Center, removing their hoods after taking down the cultists they met there.

See, the hooded cloaks that they're wearing aren't just any ordinary equipment, they are enchanted to lower their presence and visibility. It also masks their scents and obscures their facial features.

However, for the effect of the cloak to be in effect, the user must wear the hood at all times. Should they remove it, the latter half of its purpose will be removed. Simply put, the moment the squad removed their hoods was the same moment they allowed their scent to be discovered.

...and one particular cultist caught a whiff of their scent and alerted the others. That's the start of the chaos inside the underground base.

After alerting Arishem of what happened, Cedric was already moving fast. Inwardly, he's panicking too. While I might've grown a lot during these past few months, he is admittedly too weak to participate in this kind of operation. It's also the reason why he didn't join in the first place because he will just hold them back.

But now that shit hits the fan, he can't stay out of this. Now that the cultists gained control once more, the rest of the disaster will surely follow.

Using his speed and what little art of stealth he knew, he ran around the street, carving symbols wherever he left. His hands blurred with how fast he carved.

His mind was going through numerous simulations as he ran around while also counting how much time he had before the chaos erupted. Additionally, he was also calculating if he had enough energy to support what he planned to do.

Thankfully, he was able to formulate a way to support the team without exposing or exhausting himself.

Thousands of runes were carved into metal disks before being installed in several areas of the street. Given how fast he's moving, nobody managed to catch him doing something at all. Even if they would, Cedric would just ignore them anyway.

'I hope this works.' Cedric prayed inwardly as he installed the last array disk before activating the entire formation.

A huge curtain of light suddenly erupted, covering the entire street in the process. People were shocked at the sudden eruption but before they could digest what was happening, they felt their perceptions warping for a brief moment.

When they came to, they discovered that they were no longer within the bubble. Instead, they were outside of it, which was surprising since none of them knew how that happened.

As it turns out, Cedric was the one who did that. He activated his skill: 『Lightspeed』, transporting civilians out of the mouth of chaos. Later, they'd be grateful for him because of this.

***

Erica already noticed the bubble surrounding the entire street once she regained her center. While the City Lord engaged the Demons head first and her team automatically formed a circle around her, she was busy analyzing the formation around them.

Some would argue that this is stupid since she has to focus on the fight but in this case, analyzing the formation around them was more important since she could tell that it would help a lot.

Whoever made this formation left instructions for them...maybe her specifically. Using Symbols, the creator wrote the way how to utilize this formation to their advantage completely.

At base, this formation was already tremendously helpful. Not only did it isolate the entire street and minimize the damage, but it was also created with the purpose of trapping demons. Not that that's unique or whatever, however, this one was more potent than the ones she had seen before.

What's even more amazing is that this formation could do more than just those.

Without wasting any time, she instructed her team to go to a certain part of the street. Thankfully, nobody argued with her. Upon arriving there, she used her senses to locate the Control Core of the formation and successfully located it.

Supplying it with her energies, she was immediately assaulted with the instructions on how to use this thing. Not wasting a single second after gaining those instructions, she activated the main function of the formation.

As soon as she did so, several golden chains appeared from magical circles around the formation. They then flew toward the demons, piercing their flesh and causing them agonizing pain much to everybody's surprise.

The City Lord was shocked. The Tier 5 Demons were left weakened by those chains. It didn't just hurt them, the chains curled into their flesh and siphoned their energy to weaken them and strengthen the formation even further.

It only took half a second for the City Lord to notice this, and a grin appeared on his face. He quickly lit up his cigar and clenched his fists before diving towards the group of weakened demons.

The chains didn't just target the Demons though. They also came for the cultists and gave them the same treatment.

And if that wasn't enough, Erica supplied even more energy on the Control Core and used her support spells.

As it turns out, the Control Core was also a powerful medium for spells. Erica's support skills were already potent on their own but with the core at hand, their potency practically doubled. The healing power of her skills also increased by several notches with this!

Everybody was amazed by what was happening and felt their confidence returning. With their enemies weakened and those powerful blessings supporting them, suddenly the entire situation doesn't seem so bad now.

"Kill!!!"

Nobody knew who screamed this but that wasn't important. What matters is that they have a chance now and it's time to counter-attack.

Meanwhile, Cedric who was watching Erica discovering the clues he left behind, felt relieved. However, that was short-lived because he had sensed another headache incoming...