VOLUME 15: CHAPTER 15

VOLUME 15: CHAPTER 15

[Blackstone City]

Anisphia, the Wandering Sage, had been trying to enter Blackstone City for quite some time now.

What she initially expected to be a quick task had turned into a waiting game of several months.

“Should I just destroy it?”

Due to the nature of the barrier set up by Lark Marcus beforehand, she couldn’t enter the city to ‘borrow’ the bloodstone fragments safekept inside.

“This is so annoying. Hey, old man, what do you think?”

A thread of life force, stretched thin due to the distance, started forming words. The thread looked so feeble, it seemed as though it would disintegrate at any moment.

[Don’t break it.]

[And besides…]

[…Even if you try, I don’t think you can destroy it.]

“Haaah? Say that again, old man?! Are you daring me right now?!”

Anisphia couldn’t help but grumble as she stood at the boundary of the pinnacle-grade barrier, Heaven’s Dominion.

Although the Voiceless One sounded as though he was mocking her, she understood there was basis to his words.

Although they were the same spell, unlike the barrier enclosing the Dwarven Mountain Range, the barrier protecting this city was several times denser. This was primarily because the territory it was protecting was hundreds of times smaller.

The Wandering Sage could easily tear a small hole to pass through the barrier of the Dwarven Kingdom, but she would need to go all out to penetrate this one.

“Seriously! This is pissing me off!”

The Wandering Sage sat angrily on the ground and glared at the barrier before her.

Who would have thought that these damn humans would put such a restriction on this barrier?

She noticed that even elves could come and go as they pleased, but a sentient automaton like her was barred from entering.

“Old man. It doesn’t make sense. I understand the Dwarven Kingdom’s restrictions, since they basically forbade anyone aside from dwarves from entering, but…”

The Wandering Sage touched the barrier, and she felt its bubble-like texture harden instantly the moment she reached out for it.

“…this thing here. It allows elves, humans, and probably even beastmen to enter the city. But why won’t it let a golem like me enter the territory?”

Although she was sentient, the Wandering Sage was aware she could be classified as an animate object instead of a living being.

She was no human, but a sophisticated golem created during the ancient era.

The Runebound Sentinel.

Strategic weapons created by the Black Mages of the Magic Empire over a millennium ago.

During the Cataclysm and Descent, the mana within the world was quickly siphoned through the void, and the magicians realized they needed to create soldiers capable of fighting the demons without overrelying on external mana sources.

And the Runebound Sentinels were the result of that project.

They were golems whose bodies were made of mithril, steel, and a decent amount of adamantite. They utilized pinnacle-grade mana cores as an energy source, and the numerous runes and formations engraved on their bodies allowed them to instantly cast powerful spells without chants.

These golems had been created using a certain Black Mage’s modified body as the model.

Of course, due to the sheer number of golems mass-produced back then, they couldn’t help but skimp on some of the materials—especially adamantite.

Although the Runebound Sentinels turned out to be far weaker than the original model they were based on, they still proved useful during warfare, especially after the mana in the world had been nearly depleted by the Cataclysm.

For numerous years, the human race frantically struggled against the demons. Unable to cast powerful spells due to the lack of mana, they resorted to summoning the Elementals, seeking help from the Savages, and deploying the Runebound Sentinels to repel the enemy’s advance.

And true to recorded history, even the Empire of Magic eventually collapsed.

After the fall of the human race, the demons retreated, and the remaining human survivors used the few remaining Runebound Sentinels to seal the summoned Elementals inside Ist’ Tamat.

Sealing the Elementals was no easy feat for the surviving humans. By the time they succeeded, only a couple of Runebound Sentinels had managed to survive.

For centuries, these surviving golems remained dormant in Ist’ Tamat, and it was only a few hundred years ago when Anisphia finally opened her eyes.

Fortunately, when she regained consciousness, a group of humans who called themselves witches had already taken upon themselves the role of guarding the ancient underground city.

Feeling responsible for the Wandering Sage’s current predicament, the Voiceless One conveyed a message.

[Anisphia, since I’ve already found a successor, I can return the—]

“—Not a chance. I already gave it to you, so don’t even think of returning it, old man.”

Even without the Voiceless One completing his words, the Wandering Sage already knew what he was going to say.

After finally finding a disciple, the Voiceless One probably felt that it would no longer matter if he died sooner. He probably planned on giving back the bloodstone fragment that served as the power source of the apparatus keeping him alive today.

The moment that fragment was removed, the Voiceless One would shrivel further and die within days.

Of course, the Wandering Sage would never let that happen.

Although she was merely an automaton, she truly considered the Voiceless One her friend.

She would rather make an enemy out of the entire Kingdom of Lukas than let her only friend die.

In order to prolong the life of that stupid old man, she wouldn’t hesitate to crush anyone and anything blocking her path.

[But Anisphia—]

“—Enough. Besides, why return the bloodstone fragment when I can just break this barrier and steal another one?”

The Wandering Sage believed that the humans had no real use for those legendary crystals.

If they weren’t going to use them to prolong someone’s life, then it would be far better for her to take them instead. That way, they would serve their true purpose instead of rotting away in this city in the middle of nowhere.

“I’ve wasted months studying this barrier. If I still can’t destroy it by the end of this month, I’ll just forcefully tear a small hole in it. Huh? Wait… the compass…”

The Wandering Sage noticed that the hand of her treasure compass, one of the artifacts she’d plundered from the tomb located in Ist’ Tamat decades ago, had started trembling.

It meant only one thing.

“The bloodstone fragment. It’s moving.”

For some unknown but welcome reason, the bloodstone fragment inside Blackstone City was being moved somewhere.

As for its new location, that no longer mattered.

The important thing for the Wandering Sage was the fact that the bloodstone fragment was being moved outside Blackstone City. This way, she would no longer be hindered by the stupidly strong barrier enclosing it.

The Wandering Sage laughed.

“It’s my lucky day today.”

Immediately, she stood up, dusted off her cloak, and flew up.

She looked at the compass in her hand. Slowly, the compass’s hand twitched, pointing toward the eastern gate of the city.

From the eastern gate, several carts and carriages escorted by soldiers were coming out, one after another.

“That caravan.”

Without a doubt, among the numerous goods the caravan that had just left Blackstone City was transporting was the bloodstone fragment.

The carts were guarded by dozens of soldiers carrying the banner of Blackstone Town and several knights clad in full plate armor, but the Wandering Sage believed none of them would be able to stop her from taking the bloodstone fragment once she took action.

Until now, the only thing that had been preventing her from ‘borrowing’ the bloodstone fragment was the barrier enclosing the city. But now, that hindrance was gone.

It was the perfect opportunity.

“That direction. The road leading to the elven kingdom, huh?”

As a close friend of the Voiceless One, the Wandering Sage was naturally aware of the recent happenings on the continent. She knew of the elven kingdom’s existence and its cooperative relationship with the Kingdom of Lukas.

She also knew that the elven kingdom was located in the heart of the Endless Forest.

Although she didn’t know why the humans were heading in the direction of the elven kingdom while carrying the bloodstone fragment, she couldn’t miss this chance.

If she allowed the caravan to return to Blackstone Town, she would be forced to break the pinnacle-grade barrier—and even that had no guarantee of success.

She had to act now.

The Wandering Sage grinned.

Patiently, she followed the group. She waited until the caravan was several kilometers away from the city before deciding to act.

An hour after the caravan entered the Grand Road created by the Scylla, the Wandering Sage attacked.

Still flying in the sky, she activated the magic formation engraved on her back. Her black hair fluttered, and azure mana seeped out of her body and quickly formed several overlapping magic circles.

They were all high-tier gravity spells meant to suppress the soldiers.

“Ugh! What’s this?”

“What’s going on!”

“I can’t move my body!”

The horses neighed, and metal clanked as the soldiers desperately tried to move. Within seconds, the entire caravan came to a halt as an invisible pressure pressed down on the group.

The Wandering Sage floated down and landed right in front of the caravan.

Even the merchants could tell with a single glance that this woman, whose face looked unnaturally old, was the perpetrator of this phenomenon.

“As expected, that kid is an anomaly.”

Unlike the kid she’d met in the port, none of these people could see through her real identity. None of them had enough skill to see through her illusion magic.

“W-Who are you?”

“Do you understand what you’re doing?”

“Look at the banner! We’re from the Kingdom of L-Lukas!”

The Wandering Sage smirked.

She found it amusing that these pathetic soldiers, who could hardly move a single muscle, were using all of their strength just to blabber.

Instead of muttering nonsense, they should have used their energy to charge at her instead.

They even went as far as pathetically using the Kingdom of Lukas’s banner to threaten her.

Did they really think she would cower in fear if they mentioned their affiliation?

How ridiculous.

Even if that so-called Lark Marcus came here himself, she wouldn’t back down and would still continue with her theft.

“Be grateful, stupid humans. If not for the old man, I would have crushed all of your heads right now.”

She didn’t really care if all of these people died.

But since the old man from the Principality would be greatly upset if she committed unnecessary slaughter, she refrained from massacring them.

Well, if they overstepped their bounds, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.

“Now, I’m going to borrow an item from you—hm?”

She stopped midway through her speech upon noticing that the knights clad in plate armor had started moving.

Their armor creaked, showing that they were clearly under the restrictions of the gravity spells, but amazingly, they managed to move their bodies.

Slowly, the eight Blackstone Knights assigned to escort the caravan walked toward the Wandering Sage. They unsheathed their swords, and the eyes from within their visors glowed.

The Wandering Sage stared at the Blackstone Knights for several seconds.
She eventually understood how those knights were able to move within her domain.

“I see. Those are the living suits of armor that have been gaining fame recently.”

The Blackstone Knights.

A famous knight order composed entirely of living suits of armor, capable of fighting without rest. Each of them was said to be as powerful as several adult men. They did not tire, were absolutely loyal, felt no pain, and did not know what fear meant.

They were unstoppable weapons of carnage controlled by the king.

Well, they were unstoppable for normal people, that is.

For the Wandering Sage, whose body was created using superior metals, these Blackstone Knights were cheap imitations of the Runebound Sentinels.

No, they weren’t even worthy of being called imitations.

They were straight-up garbage that couldn’t even cast the most basic spells.

The Blackstone Knights growled.

After mustering their strength, they charged toward the Wandering Sage. Due to the influence of the gravity spell, each of their steps was heavy, sending rocks and dust flying with every movement.

“Stop roaring.”

The Wandering Sage pointed a finger at them, and the gravity spell inside her domain concentrated its force toward the living suits of armor.

“It’s annoying.”

Helplessly, the Blackstone Knights were rendered immobile, unable to take another step forward. More than half of them were even forced to kneel, then prostrate on the ground.

The Wandering Sage controlled her gravity spell again, and the remaining Blackstone Knights that had managed to stay standing were also pushed helplessly toward the ground.

The Blackstone Knights growled and twitched, but they couldn’t stand.

“Now, that’s better.”

Honestly, even without the gravity spell, these Blackstone Knights wouldn’t be able to scratch her body.

The materials used to create them were simply worlds apart.

The Wandering Sage believed that even if she faced a hundred of them at once, it wouldn’t change the outcome.

“Hmm… where is it?”

The Wandering Sage, amidst the immobile merchants, soldiers, and Blackstone Knights, started rummaging through the goods in the caravan.

Her treasure compass could tell the rough direction of her target object, but it couldn’t pinpoint the exact location.

While she was searching for the bloodstone fragment, a fat merchant inside a carriage spoke. His uneasy expression was visible through the open window.

“I don’t know who you are, but,” said Big Bun, “if you turn back now, I’ll pretend this never happened. This is your last chance.”

The Wandering Sage was amused when she saw the fat merchant.

Out of all the people here, he was the only one who didn’t have fear in his eyes. He looked wary and uneasy, that’s true, but there was no hint of terror.

“You don’t even know what I’m looking for,” said the Wandering Sage. “So shut up and just watch. If you open that stinky mouth again, I’ll snap your neck, you understand?”

Big Bun opened and then closed his mouth. In the end, he swallowed the words he was going to say.

For some reason, he felt that the old woman before him would really follow through with her threat.

“Aha! It’s here!”

And finally, after searching through numerous goods in the caravan, she found the item she’d been looking for.

And to her surprise, there was not one but two of them in the chest she’d opened.

She whistled.

“Wow, jackpot. Seriously, I can’t believe it. Two fragments? Maybe I can awaken one of them if I feed them the fragment?”

There was a total of three surviving Runebound Sentinels aside from Anisphia. Unfortunately, only she had managed to regain consciousness until now.

The three Runebound Sentinels were currently lying dormant in the palace of Ist’ Tamat.

Seeing the item the Wandering Sage had taken, Big Bun’s eyes shook. For the first time, he looked truly terrified.

“No… anything but that… please!”

Although the Wandering Sage had threatened him to stop speaking, Big Bun couldn’t help but plead earnestly.

Big Bun had heard from his brother how precious those crystals were.

According to him, those crystals were so rare that you couldn’t exchange them even for several kilograms of adamantite.

It was also those very same items that allowed them to form a monopoly over their trade with the elven kingdom.

Due to logistics limitations, they had been transporting those crystals to the trade hub near the Kingdom of Aerith only once a year.

They even went as far as to deploy several Blackstone Knights and elite soldiers to protect the caravan en route.

The existence of the crystals was top secret.

Even among King Lark’s trusted vassals, only a few knew of their existence.

Who would have expected that someone so powerful would suddenly ambush them on their way to the elven kingdom?

Even the escorts they’d prepared were rendered helpless before her might.

“Please don’t take that!”

Big Bun fearlessly continued pleading. He didn’t know how he could face his brother and the king if that item was stolen right under his watch.

The Wandering Sage took the chest containing the two bloodstone fragments.

For a moment, she deliberated whether she should just kill the fat merchant. The damn pig kept blabbering even after her warning.

Fortunately for Big Bun, the Voiceless One sent another message just in time.

[Anisphia. You’re already stealing something precious from them. Although I can’t stop you, please do not kill them.]

The Wandering Sage clicked her tongue upon seeing those words.

“I’m not stealing. I’m borrowing,” she muttered. “Haah. Fine. I’ll spare them. Happy now?”

The Wandering Sage slowly flew up.

She waved her hand, and a circle of lightning surrounded the caravan, forming a wall. This spell would disappear in a few minutes, but it should be enough to deter them from immediately chasing her.

She glanced at the people below one last time.

The Kingdom of Lukas would probably issue a bounty on her after this, but that no longer mattered.

In the first place, it was impossible for any of them to know her identity.

And even if they did, what could they do?

The Wandering Sage was confident she could repel any assassination attempts thrown at her by her enemies.

She’d witnessed the rise and fall of numerous monarchs.

And she’d seen the destruction of countless organizations.

A mere kingdom was no match for her.

Without uttering another word, the Wandering Sage left the Endless Forest and flew toward the direction of the Principality.

Before feeding the extra crystal to the other Sentinels, she wanted to visit the old man first and share a few stories.