"Interesting," Kyran muttered as he observed Freya's domain spread to the lands below.
Only a Magus could summon a domain. The reason behind it was the enormous magic energy required to maintain it, not to mention, the amount it needed just from summoning it. For this reason, Exalted could not learn it until they become a Magus.
From these two, it was clear that it was impossible for Freya to summon a domain right after jumping a level to a Magus. In the first place, her Magus state was only temporary.
Meaning she had an opportunity to be in a Magus state long enough for her to learn how to learn about her domain.
Kyran recalled how the Templar Code had several Exalted and only one Magus. He did not find it strange before, but now he did.
The Templar Code did not lack resources to ensure their Exalted members be promoted to a Magus. Kyran was aware that most of their resources were allocated to the Research Department. He did not think much about it, after all, even the Royal Army put a lot of their resources into the Research Division.
This fact Kyran had confirmed from the records he got from the storage pouches of the three Special Ops he killed.
The Royal Army was experimenting on a lot of things to enhance their 'special force.' And it was the same with the Templar Code.
They were not exactly creating a special force, but they were researching how to suddenly create a team of Magus!
Promoting one or two Exalted to a Magus would likely reduce half of the Templar Code's overall wealth. There was also a chance that the promotion would fail. Instead of wasting their resources like that, they chose to invest in creating a pill that could grant a mage the ability to move up a level.
Having several Exalted among their ranks would not pose a real threat to the Royal Army, or the Royal Family for that matter.
Because of this, they did not do anything to prevent the Templar Code from promoting their members until they reach the level of an Exalted. Besides, their overall number was too little.
The Templar Code did not have any reason to cause a rebellion too. Or maybe, the Royal Family's decision in giving the Shaiha Ruins rights to them was to keep them in line.
Regardless of the Royal Family's intentions, the Templar Code was not deterred and was secretly preparing. What they were preparing for, only they knew and even Kyran had not given it some thought. He had too little information at hand.
Nevertheless, the Templar Code might appear to have an ordinary military strength that the Royal Army could subdue. But the truth, once their Exalted took that red pill, they would then be promoted to a Magus. And a team of Magus, even if they could only be in that state for a few minutes, was more than enough to deal with the Royal Army.
Kyran shook his head, clearly bemused at the idea.
'I never imagined the Commander of the Templar Code to be such an insidious person,' he thought. 'Now I have more reasons to deal with them now.'
Kyran's initial plan was to cripple the Templar Code's force. That changed after learning about the red pill.
If internal strife happened within the Royal Family's Elite Force and the instigator was the Templar Code, there was no guarantee that the latter would succeed. If they failed and the Royal Family ended up getting the information about the red pill, then that would become a big problem.
Though the Royal Family's move in employing outside help to deal with Kyran was only his assumption, he did not want 'those people' getting a boost in power as well when the Royal Family got hold of the Templar Code's red pill.
Kyran sighed inwardly.
He really needed to make his move soon. If not, it would be hard for him to gather enough force to deal with the Royal Family.
'At times like this, I really want to have a human essence,' he thought as he recalled Nolan.
The real Nolan was out there looking for Azaloth's Inheritance, while his human essence was in Starhorn doing... whatever he thought was worth his time.
Too bad Kyran did not know how to make a human essence. If he could, he could have his human essence deal with this woman, Freya, while he checked on Zephyr.
If Freya knew what Kyran was thinking at that moment, she would probably explode with anger.
Not only was Kyran looking down on her, he actually considered having a human essence deal with her!
It should be noted that a human essence possessed only half of the original's strength. And Freya's current state was more powerful than a Magus. She took three Red-Demon Pills, for goodness sake!
As soon as Freya's domain was completed, motes of translucent golden orbs flew up in the air.
Crackle!
The air crackle as the magic energies in the surroundings were attracted to these golden orbs.
"Arise!" Freya shouted and a golden aura burst out from her.
BOOM!
All the golden orbs exploded and turned into soldiers wearing full-body golden armor, with long golden staves on their hands.
The golden aura that covered Freya also shifted and converged at her hip, helmet, and back. The golden aura on her back turned into a translucent golden cape. As for her hip, it turned into a translucent golden fauld. Lastly, the golden aura converged in front of her helmet and turned into a translucent golden visor.
Her golden stave also glowed, its blade which was made of the Quilin's horn sparkled as it attracted different colored magic energies.
'That blade...' Kyran's eyes instantly narrowed as he recognized the blade on Freya's stave.
He had not paid attention to the soldiers that suddenly appeared. He had already guessed what kind of domain she had after thinking about her magic.
Since her domain covered a huge area of activity, and she chose to summon it in an area where there were members of the Templar Code who had died from Kyran's attack, then her domain likely dealt with 'restoring' these members.
However, because the body of these members was destroyed, Freya would use the magic energies to form a somewhat corporeal form to give them a new 'body.' This was likely made possible within her domain. If they left, then they would vanish.
Because they were not revived. Only their will and ability had been restored, and Freya would use them to let them fight and vent their anger!
"March!"
Freya commanded all the golden soldiers inside her domain.
"RAA!"
All the soldiers roared while stomping their staves on the ground.
RUMBLE!
The whole ground trembled from the powerful momentum from their staves. A powerful force erupted from them as they took off and went toward the masked man.
Kyran, on the other hand, still ignored them. He was only interested in Freya's stave. To him, the existence of the soldiers meant nothing to him, what mattered was the stave.
To be precise, the blade on Freya's stave!
"You really dared," Kyran said.
He had not spoken loudly.
However, his voice shook the whole surrounding.
The edges of Freya's domain even showed signs of crumbling!
Kyran only said those three words, and the next moment, the sound coming from the incoming soldiers appeared to have been muted!
Kyran took a step.
As soon as he did, an unimaginable power erupted from his feet that swept out in all directions.
Silver-white force swept over the incoming soldiers and all of them crumbled without even a fight! All of them turned into golden specks of dust!
Freya's scalp turned numb as she watched her summoned soldiers turn into specks of dust. Though she was not sure what level she was in right now, she was at least two levels more powerful than a Magus! For the masked man to still deal with her attack with such ease, was completely out of her expectations!
She really believed three pills would be enough to buy time for their Commander. Yet, not even a minute had passed after taking the pills, using her domain, and even summoning the golden soldiers, the masked man had effortlessly taken out almost half of them.
"RAA!" Freya roared and charged forward.
It did not matter that the masked man could deal with them. Their offense was at most at a Magus level. However, their defenses were non-existent. After all, they were only made of magic energy and were made corporeal by her domain.
But Freya was different, her defenses could withstand the masked man!
As she thought of this, the masked man's attack reached her. True to her belief, the silver-white force was unable to destroy her defense. However, her armor did suffer a few scratches.
If the masked man unleashed more force, then her armor would probably not hold for ten minutes.
But that was fine.
From the time she had received the message from the Commander, a good four minutes had already passed.
She only needed six minutes more!
Kyran's slitted eyes flashed silver as he stomped on the ground and blasted toward Freya.
He did not use the Dragon step.
From the time he had dealt with Max, he had not used the Dragon steps.
His reason was simple.
As much as he wanted to deal with Freya as soon as possible, he had to make sure she get the right punishment this time. Earlier he did not know to what extent her 'sin' was and destroyed her in an instant. But now, he was glad she did not die immediately.
Knowing that she not only supervised in hurting Zephyr, and gave him a fatal injury, but also had his horn turned into a blade for her weapon, Kyran would not let her off easy.
He had once regretted killing someone too fast.
It was the woman who had hurt Cyneah.
This time, he would not do the same mistake.
"Raa!" Freya whirled her stave as a vortex of different-colored magic energies formed at the tip of her blade.
As soon as she arrived within three meters of the masked man, she unleashed a powerful concentrated attack by slamming the stave toward the latter.
BAM!
Kyran lifted his right hand and caught Freya's stave.
"I'll have to make you suffer," he muttered and deftly broke the stave in the middle. He waved his hand the blade disappear.
Before Freya could react, Kyran stepped forward and slammed his left fist on her torso.
"Guh!" Freya coughed out a mouthful of blood as she flew back from the force, the torso of her body armor destroyed into pieces.