Legacy of the Dark Sage

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Fiona did not rebut Lira. To be precise, she did not have an argument because that was something Emperor Euan would do. His temperament was the reason her family did not support him. Although Princess Haylee was said to take after her mother, the late Emperess, said to be the embodiment of goodwill, they were confident that if she awakened the will of the Soul Emperor, she would become an ideal ruler.

"Anyway, you were there when her Highness gave her orders," Lira ended. "She gave her consent to let me act upon my judgment when the emperor does something that will hinder her plans."

"Very well," Fiona replied. Though she still felt they had rushed in attacking the emperor while he was in the company of Deputy Marshal Mannick, she had little say on the matter.

Lira spared Fiona a side glance. After seeing the latter had no intention of pursuing the subject, she turned her attention back to the battlefield.

"Any news from our forerunners?"

Before Lira engaged Emperor Euan's army in battle, she ordered three soldiers to scout ahead. Initially, she only planned to let Vera and two High Masters go. But recalling that Ganza and Kairo were with them and knowing they were placed there by Deputy Marshal Imman as moles, Lira had them go with Vera instead. Her reason was simple; she wanted to limit their involvement with her Highness as much as possible. Imman was overly ambitious like Gael. However, unlike the former, Princess Haylee had complete control over the latter. Anyway, one ambitious pawn was enough.

Kairo, Ganza and Vera had left almost an hour ago, and should have entered the Regis Estate's premises. However, they had not heard from them.

Fiona looked at the communication device in her hand. She did not have any magic, thus, her device was an ordinary one. After checking the messages inside, she shook her head and said, "None."

Lira looked at her and frowned. It was her decision to have Fiona handle the relay of information. Though using the communication devices of mages were far more convenient because it only required the use of magic sense to enter coded-messages, there were still risks of having their message viewed by the wrong people because they all used the army's private channel. Lira did not have the authority to make a new channel. Even if she could make one, to have more than one hundred thousand soldiers switch to that channel was time consuming. In the end, she decided to use an ordinary communication device for the forerunners and let Fiona handle the relay. Besides, an ordinary communicatication device used a static system, thus, messages were sent one-way and would not be easily traced.

"They should have entered the Regis Estate's Outer Walls minutes ago," Lira said.

"The Outer Walls has been deserted after the Regis Clan moved to the Inner Walls. There is nothing much to see there because the army outside the Inner Walls left hours ago."

"How long would it take to reach the Inner Walls from the Outer Walls?"

"Putting to consideration their speed, twenty to thirty minutes."

"I never expected the Regis Estate's Outer Walls to be huge."

"Many said that the estate is comparable to a medium or probably the minimum size of a large city in the empire."

Lira frowned but did not reply anymore. She was not concerned about the size of the estate but the abled fighters of the Regis Clan.

The Regis Family used to be one of the Three Noble Families in the empire, possessing military strength that could rival the Royal Army. The information was probably exaggerated especially when the Regis Clan's overall population was only equivalent to 10% of the army's population. Apart from this the Regis Family only composed less than 10% of the whole population of the clan and all non-combatant took up more than 70%. Looking at these numbers, it was impossible for them to rival the army.

Nevertheless, the rumor about the Regis Blessing still worried Lira and she wondered if the army she took with her were enough if a battle broke out.

Lira sighed inwardly. She would not have this problem if she could contact Ruin directly and understand the situation inside the estate. Unfortunately, even the Crown Princess had to go through Fye to send messages. Lira did not know where that guy went. But Fye was one of Ruin's men and probably joined the rest going to Noser.

'But why did Her Highness decide to let Ruin handle the work alone? Is that guy really enough to deal with the whole Regis Clan?' Lira wondered. Her doubts were reasonable. Her knowledge about the power of a Sovereign was nonexistent. As a matter of fact, most human, Lira included, believed that the highest level of a mage was a Magus.

"Inform me at once if they made contact with Ruin," Lira told Fiona.

"Okay."

*

Ganza's eyes turned red with anger, his aura rising with murderous intent.

"YOU'RE DEAD!" He shouted and rushed toward the mysterious man.

Without looking at Ganza, Kyran used the Dragon Step. He blurred for a second before arriving in front of him.

"No!" Vera immediately roused her magic to distort the space between them. But because of her almost depleted magic energy, she spat out a mouthful of blood.

That delay had been enough for Kyran to brandish his left sword and sever Ganza's head.

Blood spurted out of Ganza's body like fountain as his head fell to the ground.

Vera's eyes widened in both shock and fear. Witnessing this mysterious man kill Kairo, she had blamed herself for not properly conserving her usage of magic energy. When she saved Ganza earlier, she still had enough magic energy to distort space around Kairo, letting him gain some distance from the mysterious man. However, she had been too eager to deal a fatal attack on the latter that when she saw a chance for Kairo's flames to burn him, she distorted the space path of Kairo's flames and redirected it to the man. Who would have thought the man could easily divert the flames with just the use of his swords? What kind of sword could deflect Kairo's flames? After that, Vera followed up by throwing her dagger. Yet, the man still avoided it. Vera immediately thought of drinking a magic energy replenishing poition but before she could do that, the man launched a relentless attack on Kairo.

In the end, Vera failed to save Kairo and now Ganza too, because her magic energy was not enough.

Kyran did not spare a look at Kairo or Ganza's corpses and instead turned his attention to Vera. Five years ago, when he was running away from the army, he spared this woman's life. Nolan told him he was too soft. But at that time, the only reason he did not kill her was because she did not have any killing intent. Nolan did not say more, but Kyran knew he did not approve his action. After experiencing many things in the Tower of Tribulations, Kyran now understood why Nolan was disappointed.

Vera might only be following orders and did not emit any killing intent, but the mere fact that she had chosen to serve the army, regardless of her reasons, already made her his enemy.

Vera might have a noble reason by joining the army. But what did that matter to Kyran?

Nothing.

Thus, by letting Vera live that time, Kyran gave her a chance to grow sand come after him again. There was also the report that the people he left for dead and eventually dying, were her men. She might even come after him with revenge in mind.

In any case, now that Kyran had a chance to meet her, and seeing how troublesome her Space magic was, he would not let her go.

Vera tensed as the mysterious man made his way to her. Her initial thought was to send a coded message to Lira and tell them they encountered a mysterious and powerful person outside the Regis Estate. But recalling her communication device was only an ordinary one, and she had to input the code manually, she rejected the idea and chose the next thought that crossed her mind.

Run!

Using the remaining magic energy she had, Vera roused her magic and distorted the space between her and the man. When she gained an additional ten meters, she took out a magic energy replenishing potion and smashed its cap, downing its content in one gulp. Then she roused her magic once more and distorted the space between her and the man. With more magic energy to consume, she was able to gain more distance- more than a hundred and fifty meters.

Vera did not want to take any chances because she had seen the man's strange movement technique- it was not magic but pure physical ability- so after she gained that distance, she took another magic energy replenishing potion and roused her magic.