Chapter 280 16

"Miss, that person is...." Fornius and Aghares saw a fully armored figure that had split the castle and the surrounding city in two. Their bodies couldn't stop shaking after feeling the pressure from the armored man's strength. He seemed to be deliberately releasing his power to restrict their movement.

In addition, Azalia and the others could also hear the screams of the soldiers and mages of the Rubelia Kingdom, who looked panicked at the sudden situation. Those people never expected that the castle would suddenly split into two, and many victims fell because of it.

"If he can give off this terrifying feeling, there's no doubt that the man in full armor is one of the guardians of the continent, and his name is Archaic Knight." Azalia explained in a slightly trembling voice. She knew the name of the continent's guardian because Ziel had told her all the information he knew.

Ziel did it because Azalia was one of the targets of the guardians of the continent, and he hoped that the information would be helpful when Azalia was confronted by one of them.

Azalia could sense that the Archaic Knight in front of her was stronger than the Sacred Demonel she had fought before. They had been cautious in their every action lately. But Azalia didn't expect it to be in vain because they still met the guardian of the continent in the end.

"So, what should we do, miss? Should we fight against him?" Fornius asked. He had been silent and rarely spoke to them these few days but suddenly actively asked Azalia. His eyes were filled with fighting spirit and vengeance.

Azalia fell silent after seeing Fornius' expression. Even though Fornius didn't say it, Azalia knew that he felt guilty for Oillet's death, and the cause was the guardian of the continent. Azalia thought Fornius wanted to avenge Oillet against the Archaic Knight who suddenly appeared before them.

"Why do we have to fight him? We've got what we're looking for here. So we'd better get out of here immediately while the Archaic Knight are still far away from us." Azalia said seriously. She saw that the Archaic Knight were slowly approaching them and thought it was their chance to escape from that place. Azalia didn't want Fornius to act recklessly by fighting the continent's guardians.

Even if the three combined their full strength and attacked simultaneously, Azalia was sure they wouldn't be able to inflict a fatal wound on the Archaic Knight.

They didn't need to purposely fight such a creature as doing so was unnecessary and would only be a waste of their strength. Of course, the main reason was that they would never win against the guardians of the continent.

"But..." Fornius couldn't accept Azalia's orders at this time because his chance for revenge had appeared before his eyes. He had no intention of involving Azalia and Aghares in what he was about to do. Even though Fornius knew that he wouldn't be able to win, at least he tried.

Fornius was helpless when the Sacred Demonel possessed Oillet, and he could only escape at that point. He regretted that he couldn't do anything and could only watch Oillet die. After that incident, Fornius continues to be haunted by his guilt.

Therefore Fornius wanted to atone for his sins by dying in his struggle for revenge. He thought that might wash away his feelings of guilt towards Oillet and her mother. But Fornius was disappointed after hearing Azalia's orders.

"I know what you're thinking, but this is an order from me, and you must obey it! I don't want to see people of my race die anymore. What's more, you two are my closest people left right now. You have been with me long, even since we were still in the divine realm. Therefore I will never let you die at the hands of that creature!" Azalia said with a bit of anger as well as sadness.

Azalia felt the need to be more strict with him. Otherwise, Fornius would not listen to her orders. Fortunately, Aghares was on her side and had no thoughts of helping Fornius' revenge. Azalia would have a headache if Aghares did that.

"I understand." Fornius answered weakly and could only obey Azalia's orders after hearing her words. He felt touched because Azalia considered him the closest person to her. Even so, he couldn't forget his revenge.

"Use all your strength! We must immediately leave this territory and avoid his pursuit!" Azalia used her full strength and flew away into the horizon.

"We got it!" Fornius and Aghares did the same and followed behind her.

[Lightning Rhythm]

Right after they left the place, a voice echoed in the sky. Azalia and the other two trembled and then looked behind them. The man in full armor suddenly disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared not far from them. He moved at a terrifying speed and closed a distance of several kilometers in the blink of an eye.

(Fast!)

Azalia was shocked when she saw the sudden movement of the Archaic Knight and his speed.

"Raise your speed to the max!" Azalia shouted at Fornius and Aghares beside her. Then her figure blurred and disappeared. Fornius and Aghares followed Azalia's orders and also increased their speed. However, the Archaic Knight also did the same and slowly closed the gap.

Azalia gritted her teeth and lamented their current situation in her heart. They fled from their home world to escape the pursuit of the primeval gods. But after leaving their world and coming to a new one, their situation was almost no different. Right now, their race was the target of extermination from the guardians of the Clorius continent.

***

The atmosphere in Oriana city has calmed down and is back to normal. But security in every corner of the area is getting tighter. The soldiers and mages were on standby like they were ready to face the enemy at any moment. They are afraid that yesterday's incident will happen again today.

Meanwhile, the Five Kingdoms Conference on the second day went smoothly. Their discussions yielded satisfactory results until the conference was stopped for a lunch break. The participants racked their brains aloud and were finally able to come up with the ideas they needed. It was the realization of the city guardian battle platform.

After the lunch break ended, the conference immediately resumed. The participants wanted to realize the idea of a city guard battle platform as soon as possible because they knew how important the military security system was in a situation where monsters and people from outside the continent could invade anytime.

The city guardian's battle platform was a gigantic artifact consisting of various small artifacts to use in attack and defense. The artifacts were melee and ranged attacks, large-scale attacks, and barrier magic to protect the entire city from invasion, be it monsters or people from outside the continent.

All those small artifacts worked systematically under the control of the city guardian battle platform. Of course, humans were the ones who controlled most of the systems within the artifact. They couldn't fully control the battle platform automatically by magic. It might cause malfunctions and make all artifacts active simultaneously even if there were no enemies. The worst possibility was that the artifacts would attack the surrounding area indiscriminately.

"So, to make this happen, we need King Raghnall's help? Is that what you mean?" The one who spoke was King Leonida. He looked at the kings and the participants in the conference room. After learning that they would be creating artifacts to strengthen the defenses in each kingdom, the first person that came to mind was King Raghnall.

"Yes. That's right, Your Majesty!" A noble from the Aurelia Kingdom answered.

"Yes. We hope that King Raghnall can help us realize this artifact." The participant from the Neigal Kingdom added.

All conference participants had the same thought. Regarding artifacts and magic tools, there wouldn't be anyone in the room who would dare claim to be the number one researcher if King Raghnall was number two. Of course, that only applies in the human region.

"Hmm... I'm sorry that I had to crush your expectations. If you give the task to my team and me from the Cirlus Kingdom, I can only refuse because we won't be able to do it." King Raghnall replied calmly. His answer shocked everyone in the room, including Princess Cordelia.

"So you turned it down because you couldn't? If you can't afford it, then who can make it happen? Did our discussion end in vain and just produce a fantasy?" King Gustave sighed heavily and sounded very disappointed.

"I'm sorry. With our current knowledge, we wouldn't be able to create a gigantic artifact at the saint rank level or maybe even god-rank." King Raghnall smiled bitterly at the realization of his helplessness. But then his smile changed slightly. Before either of them could speak in return, King Raghnall continued.

"However, I might be able to make that artifact if I get help from the Dwarven Kingdom. You must know that the development of magic tools and artifacts in the Dwarven Kingdom is far more advanced than any other kingdom on the Clorius continent. With the help of their knowledge, my team and I were able to create a city guardian battle platform." King Raghnall ended his explanation. He waited for a response from the other participants about his proposal.

"But... wouldn't it be detrimental and dangerous for us if we asked for help from the Dwarven Kingdom? They would know the design of the city guardian battle platform. They might find the weakness of our new artifact or maybe copy it and use it to their advantage." King Gustave was the first to voice his objection to King Raghnall's proposal.

"That's right. If they saw the design of the city guardian battle platform, wouldn't they study it? In addition, they will also definitely charge us for their help. Isn't that the same as giving them multiple benefits? If they purposely sabotage the artifact, won't we suffer double the loss?" King Elrick agreed with King Gustave's words.

"Could you have thought of a way to prevent that?" King Jonathan was the only one who was optimistic about King Raghnall's proposal. As a magic tool researcher, King Raghnall would not be so stupid to show his magic tool designs to others for free.

"Of course. I won't hand them the artifact designs we've made together for free." King Raghnall smiled and nodded in response to King Jonathan's question.

"So what exactly is your plan, Raghnall?" King Leonida asked impatiently. He was curious as to what King Raghnall would do.

"Like my original plan, we must ask the Dwarven Kingdom for help. I'll give them the city guardian battle platform design. Of course, I will replace some important parts in the design. I'll make it as convincing as possible, so they don't suspect it. At the time of artifact construction, I worked on the important parts myself so that they wouldn't find out." King Raghnall smiled widely and explained his plan to everyone in the place.

"Then, what about the sabotage problem that the people of the Dwarven Kingdom might do?" One of the nobles from the Neigal Kingdom raised his hand and asked.

"It's easy. We will use mages or knights who are good at hiding and infiltrating to keep an eye on them secretly. In addition, we will also hide the magic tools where they are assigned to monitor them from afar. Suppose they sabotaged the artifact or committed some other fraudulent activity. In that case, we already have the evidence that we can use to pressure the Dwarven Kingdom so that we can use their resources more cheaply." King Raghnall replied smoothly. He seemed to have thought about it before the question arose.

The kings and the rest of the conference participants fell silent in awe at King Raghnall's plan. They didn't think that he had secretly thought about using the Dwarven Kingdom and had also provided countermeasures if they cheated.

"So, what do you think of King Raghnall's plan? If you agree, then the other kings and I will discuss this matter with the King of the Dwarven Kingdom." King Leonida as the leader of the conference, asked the participants. Not long after, the participants answered one after another until they all agreed.

"I agree!"

"I agree too!"

"I think that's a good plan!"

"Alright. If you agree, we will move on to the next topic...." King Leonida intends to continue the conference on the next issue. But the castle suddenly trembled. No, to be more precise, the entire Oriana city was shaking.

Novel Top1.OR G

"What else happened this time?" King Leonida's face sank. Then a soldier entered the room in a hurry.

"Report, Your Majesty! Oriana's city barrier has been attacked from a distance. After we checked, the attack came from the dragon horde!" The soldier reported while panting.

"What?" King Leonida and everyone in the conference room was dumbfounded after hearing the soldier's report. They didn't expect that there would be a follow-up incident on the second day of the Five Kingdoms Conference.