Even the grandmaster-level Knight Captain and Senior Knights temporarily lost their footing, but they quickly balanced themselves while spreading their auras out reflexively to scan for the source of the sudden earthquake.
They were even able to surround Evan's group in a protective formation with their swords drawn, but in spite of their quick response, the boy had a frown on his face as he spoke.
"For goodness' sake. Did I not tell you all…to Step Back?!"
Long tendrils of darkness burst out from his shadow and wrapped around the bodies of the knights, lifting them up and pulling them behind him.
"Also, the earthquake was not the reason why I told you to brace yourselves."
The moment Evan spoke, the eyes of all those in the room widened as they sensed the enormous amount of energy that was rapidly concentrating at a single point in front of Evan.
'Flashy, much, Artemisia?'
[The goddess 'Artemisia' states that a barrier has been deployed to prevent energy fluctuations from leaking out of this estate.]
'That'd be useful.'
*BOOM!
A small omnidirectional wave of energy spread out across the room, passing through the bodies of all those present as for the first time in some of their lives, they witnessed the formation of a spatial gate.
Like it was puncturing a hole through the fabric of space, a portal tore open right in front of their eyes, rimmed with an arched obsidian spatial gate and a strange liquid that shimmered with a myriad of colours within it.
'WHAT THE FUCK?!!'
The knight captain cursed internally as he felt an amount of energy capable of insta-killing every living thing inside the estate burst out of the arched spatial gate.
The accompanying shockwave sent his body flying and he nearly slammed into the wall, if it wasn't for the barrier that Eliza put up at the last moment to shield him.
As for the weaker servants, they were fine as Eliza had protected them from the shockwaves, but the pale expressions on their faces showed that they were still capable of sensing every bit of the energy being emitted.
|Adjusting Spatial Gate…|
Evan gazed at that notification with a nonchalant look on his face, as him being the 'Host' meant he was not subjected to the immense suppressing feeling of the dense spatial energy that was pressuring everyone else present.
After a whole minute, the gate stabilized and the energy that flowed out receded back inside.
Then the space within the gate lit up dimly with multi-coloured lights, twisting and turning ever so slightly.
|Entrance to Event Dungeon: 'Tower of Trials' has been spawned successfully. |
|Only the 'Host' of the 'Reincarnated Hero System' and his Party Members may be allowed entry. |
"Seems there were no problems."
"Oh no, there's one VERY big problem called a 'Lack of a Fucking Explanation'!"
Eliza instantly countered Evan's statement as she released her barriers that were shielding the servants, before storming over to where Evan was and chiding him for an explanation.
"From the start! What the heck is that thing?!"
"The Entrance to the 'Tower of Trials' I told you about."
"You most certainly didn't tell me that the entrance was going to manifest out of thin air!"
While Eliza was drilling Evan for answers, Pride walked up to the spatial gate that was floating a few centimetres off the ground and studied it closely.
She walked around it to the other side and saw that it was blank, just like the back of a mirror. Holding up a palm to it, she activated a slight trace of her idiosyncrasy, pouring demonic energy into her eyes to closely scrutinize the changes to the gate as she did so.
'This…?!
It's just like my ability…'
[The goddess 'Artemisia' says that although what you consider your 'Idiosyncrasy' is 'special', it is only that way because you are still a Mortal-type existence.
She further states that although rare, it is not impossible for other beings to achieve the same effect as your ability simply because of their deeper understanding of what you know as 'World Law Doctrines'.]
The notification that appeared right in front of Pride's eyes confirmed that although little, part of what Artemisia had used in manifesting this spatial gate, was something similar to her Idiosyncrasy.
Of course, the goddess also felt it was not necessary to inform Pride about how nigh impossible in the universe it was for anyone to be born with Pride's powers.
Anyway, her little Idiosyncrasy activation caught the attention of both her contractor, Evan, and her brother Greed, who instantly turned their heads in her direction with questioning gazes.
"Nothing much. I was just testing out something."
"Hmm? Okay, then.
Anyway, that's about it.
My companions and I would be using this spatial gate to go to our destination. Your job Is to prevent anyone from coming into the room and messing with it, especially people like Court Mage Jenson who possess high-level spatial prowess."
"You plan to enter that?! With all due respect, young Lord. I cannot allow it!!"
The knight captain sheathed the sword he had drawn earlier as he objected to Evan's words, but his actions only seemed to annoy Evan who was used to being very unrestrained with his movements.
"It's things like this that made me leave the Ducal Mansion the first time…"
Evan's small mutter was picked up by the ears of all those in the room and the Knights instantly went pale as they remembered how furious the Duke and the Emperor were the last time Evan went 'missing'.
"B-but young lord. We do not know where this thing came from or where it leads to, we cannot just let you enter it like that.
We do not know how safe the other end is."
"I know where It came from and I know where it leads to.
And in terms of safety, would you believe me if I said it's a lot safer than your Emperor's Palace?"
Evan questioned the knight with a raised eyebrow, but from the expression on the man's face, the boy could tell he did not really believe his words.
With a sigh, Evan gestured to the spatial gate and spoke.
"If you want to see how safe it is, be my guest."
Seeing how strangely cooperative Evan was being made Eliza and Pride narrow their eyes as they felt he was up to no good.
As for the knight captain, the poor man was not familiar enough with Evan to figure this out.
He carefully walked over to the spatial gate and tried to make his way inside, but the moment he took a step inside the portal, he was overwhelmed by a sense of repulsion.
The harder he tried to enter, the more he seemed to be pushed away.
He then roused his aura and tried to use it to resist the repulsion, but that turned out to be a bad idea.
**BAAM!!
Faster than anyone in the room could perceive, the man's body was flung out of the portal by the spatial gate's defence mechanism, crashing onto the wall with a loud noise and with enough force to make weblike cracks spread out on the magically reinforced walls.
"Have it in mind that you're not dead because you are a grandmaster…"
Of course, that was a blatant lie, but Evan just said it to mess with the Knight Captain a little bit.
"Now then, I'm the one who put this gate here, and if anyone that's not me or my companions tries to enter, you'd get flung out like that.
Still, I do not know what would happen if the person trying to enter is one with spatial magic capabilities, hence the reason why I told you not to let anyone near here. Even the Emperor; because he has spatial mages in his guard detail."
Evan walked up to the man and pulled him up, healing his light bruises with his paladin's limited healing, before turning around and saying.
"Anyway, include this in your report to the Duke and the Emperor who seem to have taken a fancy to watch my every move recently.
I am going to a dungeon, and as for how long? That depends on how long it takes me to clear the floors I plan to."
He finished his statement with a shrug of his shoulders before telling Eliza and the rest that he was gonna wait for them on the other side.
Right after he said that he entered into the spatial gate without hesitation, leaving the stunned group of knights and servants.
Pride and Greed followed right behind him, along with Amy, Milena and Kayla.
As for Eliza, she only sighed and walked up to the Knight Captain before saying.
"I understand you guys are just doing your jobs, and Evan does too. But he's not the kind of person you can restrain easily. He also does not like being placed under constant watch, it'd annoy him and he might decide to go off the grid again.
And this time he might already be on the other end of the Continent by the time you guys find out where he is."