I didn’t bother hiding as I summoned a fake air elemental, not too far from the school. It looked counter-intuitive to do so while the enemy this time was clearly doing their best to pull the forces outside the school.
[-2190 Mana]
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have started attacking the towns farthest away from the school. Even the involvement of their spies preventing the guard force from gathering supported that, despite looking contrary to it at the first glance.
I spent quite a bit of mana on the construct, more than necessary, giving the spies the impression that I prioritized speed over anything else.
And if they believed that I was already suffering from a lack of mana after such spending and it was a good opportunity to ambush me, it was even better. A miscalculated ambush was often more dangerous than a direct battle.
A strategy that I expected them to launch at some point. Especially since their aim was to clearly render the guard force unable to send out a functional expedition, which would force the headmistress to send her elite forces instead.
Forces like a mysterious mage that singlehandedly prevented Zokras’ invasion.
It was the reason I made a spectacle out of my departure. I wanted the spies to inform the mysterious enemy that the first stage of their plan was a success, so that the enemy would reason the first stage of their plan was a success.
The only problem, I didn’t know what would be their next move. If I were them, I would have attacked the school directly without bothering the peripheral attacks, but the problem was I had no idea of their priorities. I only knew they wanted to target Mariel and Janelor ultimately, but I had no idea other than that.
I still left the school, because I was ready to return. I had prepared three hidden teleportation arrays I could use to return — which was not permanent, but would last for a few days — and both Janelor and Mariel had magical means to communicate with me in case of an emergency.
Not to mention, I set Oeyne as the bodyguard, and the companion node she had would work wonders to alert me if she fell into danger.
And the same applied to Titania and Marianne, as well as Helga and Cornelia, their proximity giving me a useful teleportation destination in case their target wasn’t limited to current warriors stuck at the school.
I continued moving toward the destination, but not without another little detour. Rather than pushing directly, I moved in a spiral for a while, casting a wide number of detection spells to see if there was any buried surprise near the school.
I still remembered the buried undead armies that had been prepared as the last step of a deadly trip, one that would have been enough to force Mariel between defending the school and letting it fall — which would have been a dangerous choice with the struggles she had been having with Divine Spark at that time.
I shook my head after three spirals and started moving toward my destination directly, wondering whether they didn’t bother setting a similar trap, or they prepared one but managed to hide it well enough to keep it away from my attention.
Risky, but I decided to trust Mariel after the great boost she received as she started to sublime her Divine Spark, especially with all the hidden cards I arranged for her — both Janelor and the Princess.
Not to mention I could already feel the girls moving back to Silver Spires, giving her another impressive weaponry she could raise.
She had all the weapons she needed to resist anything less than the full force of the Eternals — a full force that I certainly didn’t expect to come at this point. After all, why would Eternals push forward aggressively when they had the perfect tools to maintain their position.
But, soon I realized that assumption wasn’t correct.
Pity that little lack of information was reached in the form of a huge, oppressive ward with a rotating structure, locking me in place.
A familiar ward structure, one that I remembered vividly from Mount Doom, when I worked hard to save Janelor.
“Okay, I might have miscalculated,” I murmured even as I checked my mana.
Mana: 8422 / 9000 ]
Luckily, it was already mostly recovered, enough to give me a fighting chance. More than enough to punch through the wards, especially since it was only the blocking ward I could feel, and not the detection ward that had been accompanying it earlier.
Unfortunately, rushing toward the wall and breaking out was not an option, not with the presence I could feel all around me, their mana flaring to show their willingness to fight, their numbers as impressive as the strength they displayed.
“Not a great prediction,” I murmured even as I pulled my sword, waiting for them to get closer even as I tried to come up with a way to escape. The presence of the fake elemental was nice, giving me the necessary mobility, but I wasn’t willing to rush toward the edge.
Despite being confident that I could break the wards faster than they could hit me, I waited for them to approach.
I needed to understand why they were targeting me, which I had no idea about.
Or, more accurately, I had many ideas. They could be targeting me for a myriad of reasons. Maybe revenge, as they had many reasons to hate me. I had destroyed their plans with Zokras and apparently killed him, I saved Janelor from their ploys, I intervened with their plans with the Empire by saving and empowering the princess, and I directly assassinated their members.
Together, they created compelling reasons to make me pay, but the problem was most of those were supposed to be hidden, with no way to trace them back to me.
But revenge wasn’t the only reason to target me. If they got a true sense of my capabilities and my growth trajectory it would make sense for them to target me as well. Just my incredible leveling speed might be enough to mark me as an anomaly.
Yet, it wouldn’t be enough for them to target me considering their own capabilities. But my ability to level up others, without suffering from the obvious horrible side effects they had been dealing with in terms of going berserk, was a different story.
And, I realized despondently as my opponents flew closer, not impossible to deduce if one explored the great change in Helga and Marianne.
Of course, there was also the biggest reason, the true nature of Tantric and its capabilities on Divine Spark, but I hoped that wasn’t the case. Because the others marked me as a target of interest…
While that one marked me as a great trouble, one that needed to be either controlled or destroyed.
Ironically, I didn’t expect that last one to be the case, because of their limited assault — even though terming an unbreakable ward and dozens of high-leveled combatants, each strong enough to be an absolute overlord outside as limited was ridiculous.
But everything I learned about the Eternals suggested that it didn’t even count as a true response from their true forces.
And I was confident that freely manipulating Divine Spark certainly earned a greater response from them.
Still, even a minuscule response was dangerous, as I was the target. I could escape successfully, but it would be nothing but highlight me as an even greater threat against Eternals, to be hunted down with their full force.
A force that I certainly didn’t want to face at its full potential.
But fighting and defeating them was hardly better. It would awaken an even stronger response, though there was one great advantage, as it would keep my full strength a mystery for the moment, making them hesitant.
As the auras came closer, I faced a dangerous choice…
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 63
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 8753 / 9000 ]
SKILLS
Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Master Craft [85/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (0/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Titania - Level 35/38]
[Cornelia - Level 22/26]
[Helga - Level 22/26]
[Marianne - Level 21/29]