It wasn't until that dangerous individual used his teleportation skill to leave that the old emperor finally allowed himself to relax, his nerves unwinding like a taut string cut loose.
There was no formal contract between him and that individual, only a verbal agreent of cooperation. Either party could break it at any mont without consequence. Ordinary contracts held little sway over either of them. Even third-party pacts, which could bind more effectively, were only useful when dealing with beings from the Third World.
There was no point in engaging in a self-destructive conflict. It was better for both sides to retreat, each content with what they had gained. After all, both had achieved what they desired.
Yet, even now, the emperor's heart raced with excitent. People often say that once you've faced death, you no longer fear it. For so, however, it's quite the opposite. Experiencing death once makes one cherish life all the more, and fear death even more intensely. The emperor was precisely one of those people.
As for the remaining riffraff, he hardly spared them a thought. Once the defensive tower was activated and half his guards were dispatched, the situation would soon stabilise. He would then publicly announce that a monster had attacked the palace, leading to his apparent death. The prince, fighting valiantly, would be credited with reopening the defensive tower.
This would greatly elevate the prince’s standing, smoothly paving the way for him to beco the next beloved emperor.
His only concern had been Babron causing trouble. Yet, to his disappointnt, the man had made no move, leaving the emperor feeling oddly unsatisfied. He had hoped Babron would stir things up, giving him an excuse to act against him.
The emperor stepped toward his forr body, his hand forming into a claw. With a swift motion, he plunged his hand into the old, frail form, extracting a glowing crystal orb from the abdon.
The orb floated in mid-air, radiating a warm light that swiftly enveloped the entire palace. From the palace's centre, a shield expanded outward, covering the entire city. The rat-monsters, previously running rampant, evaporated in an instant.
Even the remaining creatures found themselves suppressed.
The black-robed figure had been teleported outside the city by the defensive spell. Strangely, as he was expelled, a crooked smile ford on his lips.
From his vantage point, he watched the barrier—a sight that had been impossible to behold for many years.
Those who had survived the onslaught fell to their knees, so imdiately, others slowly sinking to the ground in exhaustion and despair. Tears streaked many faces—so wept openly, while others shed silent tears, their eyes vacant, as though their very souls had been drained. Their bodies trembled slightly, still gripped by the terror and hopelessness they had just endured.
The scene was eerily silent, broken only by the occasional sound of sobbing.
Yet the powerful, holy barrier lasted only a few fleeting seconds before it began to flicker, then shattered before their eyes into countless fragnts, which dissolved into the air.
For the people gathered outside the palace, the brief surge of hope was swiftly crushed, plunging them into a deeper despair than before. The monster attacks had beco a regular occurrence, but none had ever been as severe as this. Still, the blow to their spirits was not caused by the attack but by the shattering of the barrier they had always relied upon.
The once-old emperor, now in the form of a prince, felt the orb in his hand tremble violently. The scene within the orb showed the barrier enveloping the entire imperial city, yet the next image shook him to his core.
The city’s centuries-old protective barrier shattered just as quickly as it had appeared. Imdiately after, cracks ford along the surface of the crystal orb. In re monts, it shattered in his grasp, leaving his hands bloodied as he tried in vain to gather the pieces.
Staring at the shards on the ground, he didn’t even feel the pain in his hands. His mind was a blank haze.
"Impossible! Who could possess such power? If those monsters had the ability to do this, they wouldn’t have been held at bay for a hundred years!"
What in the world was happening?
The crystal orb was no counterfeit—no one even knew that he had hidden the defense tower within his body. And if the tower had been fake, how could it have activated the barrier in the first place?
His frenzied cries alerted the guards outside. A squad rushed in to find the prince, furious beyond words, pounding the ground with his fists, desperately trying to reassemble the broken pieces.
None of them understood what had happened. Even outside, confusion reigned.
Except for one man.
The black-robed figure gazed at the dissipating barrier and calmly took a step forward, crossing into the city’s boundaries with an air of inevitability, as though everything had unfolded exactly as it was ant to.
anwhile, Babron stood before the crowd, his eyes glinting with a hidden smile as he witnessed the shattering of the barrier. Slowly, he stroked his cane, his expression betraying nothing of his inner satisfaction.
But when he spoke, his voice was one of deep anguish, a sorrowful cry to the heavens. "My friends! Our last hope has been destroyed. Those monsters have shattered our sacred barrier!"
Babron tapped his cane lightly against the ground, motioning for him to continue forward.
The people, paralysed by despair and shock, stood frozen, their gaze blank. Yet deep within their eyes, a faint glimr of hope flickered.
Athena arrived before any of them, now standing within the withering garden.
Monsters blocked her path, while behind her, palace guards hurried towards the commotion. She had been pursuing the ratman, but upon realising they were heading towards the palace, she had quickly attempted to destroy the sewer entrance. Though her arrows had missed their mark, they embedded themselves in the surrounding stone walls.
In an instant, the rat-monsters vanished, and the ratman's speed slowed dramatically.
She had succeeded halfway—the passage had been destroyed, and the ratman lay on the ground, barely clinging to life. But just as she prepared to leave, more creatures crawled out of the sewer.
Still, she loosed another arrow, this ti striking one of the ratman in the abdon. Had it not struggled, the shot would have pierced its heart.
She spotted Ilinaya, though it was clear the woman hadn’t recognised her in her altered form.
With the added wounds, the power of the lunar energy would corrode the rat-man even more fiercely. The poison embedded in her arrow—a potent purple dream buds toxin—though no longer inducing sleep, had beco an inescapable death sentence.
The rat-man wouldn’t survive.
Athena had no intention of lingering with these creatures, lest she be surrounded. She was ready to leave, confident they couldn’t hold her.
Yet, to her surprise, the monsters didn’t attempt to detain her either. Instead, a mysterious formation appeared beneath their feet, and in the blink of an eye, they all found themselves within the garden.
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