Summoning the Holy Sword

The violent storm seemed to have no intention of stopping. The surroundings sank into a deep darkness with occasional lightning bolts exploding to light up the area clearly. Right now, Marybelle apparently couldn’t keep her cool any longer. She knitted her brows and flew ahead. Shortly after, through the curtain of rain, Rhode spotted a huge stone door erected on a plain.

That was the Door of Akasha.

Judging from the scattered objects around the door, it was obvious that the door was heavily-guarded. But the strange thing was that there was no one at all, not even corpses or blood. Apart from the overturned tents and supplies, no living person was in sight. Five tall and huge stone columns surrounded the Door of Akasha. The dazzling magic crystals on them emanated a bright radiance that formed a circular barrier. It could be seen that ample preparations were made for this. Although there weren’t any visible threats, Marybelle and the others activated the defensive enchanted field to protect this important facility. Besides, Rhode found out from the earlier images that Marybelle and the other four agreed to send elites to defend this place, which should have been absolutely foolproof.

But what happened?

Marybelle strode ahead while Rhode followed beside her closely, scanning everything in detail. He wasn’t a fool. This place was heavily guarded with an enchanted field, sentries, and a high number of elites under the five Creator Dragons. He would never believe that the dinosaur-like monsters that couldn’t defeat Mini Bubble Gum and Canary would be able to destroy them. The patrols were under attack when Marybelle received the report and this meant that the guards by the door were eliminated before they could even shriek. Then, the enemies started expanding outward and met the patrols on the periphery. Rhode had to admit that Marybelle was indeed meticulous. The layers of defense she designed were highly effective. But this made Rhode increasingly dubious as he didn’t think that the monsters that attacked the patrols were the same group that slaughtered the core guards. This was because if that happened, the patrols couldn’t possibly hang on long enough for Marybelle’s arrival.

Rhode felt nervous right now. He yearned for a clear answer! Those monsters had an overwhelming victory over the guards standing by the Door of Akasha, where the guards didn’t even have time to send out emergency signals? No. Rhode suspected whether the guards were even aware that they were attacked.

While Rhode pondered, he saw Marybelle striding toward the enchanted field, extended her hand, and held gently on its surface. Shortly after, circular runes appeared one by one from within, arranging themselves in an intertwined formation. Marybelle twitched her brow slightly and laid down her arm. Even though she didn’t say a word, Rhode knew that the enchanted field was working fine and nothing seemed to be an issue.

Rhode continued to follow Marybelle as she spent a few hours examining the entire camp inside-out. In the end, there were no signs of battle just like before. The campsite was operating normally. The only ones missing were the hundreds of people stationed here. Apart from them, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

During Marybelle’s investigations, no one ambushed her. The entire campsite was silent as though no one were present. Her investigations weren’t disrupted at all. But even so, she didn’t look great. After her investigations ended and she left the place, her expression had already darkened.

Rhode knew why she put on such a grim expression. Frankly, he was just like her; he would rather face ambushes during his investigations. Perhaps the situation would turn out critical, enemies would be more powerful than he expected, or he would face life-threatening dangers, but at least he would be able to meet them face-to-face. At least he knew who he was facing even if he were to get hurt and face life-threatening dangers. As long as he was able to escape, there would be a chance for him to start afresh.

Days passed and the scenes flashed by before Rhode. He couldn’t find any useful clues. Even though Marybelle conducted investigations several times herself, there was no development to what happened around the Door of Akasha that night. Same went for the elite troops who disappeared as though they had vanished entirely from this world.

But not only was Marybelle not feeling assured, but she also became increasingly worried. She felt like this peacefulness was a sign of danger that was arriving. She raised her guard and stopped patrols from leaving faraway from the sacred palace.

And the danger erupted without any signs.

At the time of the countdown of 50 days for the Door of Akasha opening, Marybelle received news that contact was lost with the Dark Dragon’s representative’s campsite!

This news shook everyone.

This time, even the twin dragons’ representative joined in the discussion as to whether they should activate the Door of Akasha. This was because the other four representatives were similar in strength and Marybelle was the strongest. And now, they had lost contact with the Dark Dragon’s representative all of a sudden and this raised their guard.

This time. Marybelle quickly gave an order for everyone to move into the Void Palace, at the same time requesting the remaining three representatives to head to the Dark Dragon’s camp to conduct investigations. This, time the three representatives had no hesitation at all. They executed Marybelle’s orders and transferred everyone into the Void Palace. Fortunately, as only elites were here, the palace was able to contain all of them.

The situation became critical.

Shortly after, Rhode witnessed a bright flash. Then, he realized he was standing in a spacious meeting hall. In the middle, Marybelle and the three representatives were having an urgent discussion. Two of them were white elves clad in robes who were apparently the subordinates of the twin dragons. On the other side, a battle angel donned in armor listened to their words sternly.

“I think we need to change our plan since we have lost the support of the Dark Dragon. I think we may be facing an enemy we have not seen before. No matter what, we need to be more careful in our actions.”

“But Your Highness Marybelle, the timing to activate the Door of Akasha is approaching. I think we should seize the opportunity to open it and let the majesties resolve this critical issue. We didn’t manage to come up with any conclusion after long investigations, but the enemies are apparently closing in. I think the situation may be out of our grasp.”

One of the white elves knitted her brows and said in uncertainty. Facing her rebuttal, Marybelle pondered in silence and shook her head.

“We can’t risk it. What if the enemies attack us after we activate the Door of Akasha? Since they were capable of assassinating our companions, I think in this predicament, our situation may not be anywhere better than theirs. If we forcefully activate the Door of Akasha, we can’t be sure of when the enemies will strike. Perhaps this will bring forth more unprecedented threats!”

“But I think…”

Before the white elf completed her sentence, ear-deafening explosions boomed all of a sudden.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The palace shook and loud explosions disrupted their meeting. They exchanged stern looks with one another, spotting the uncertainties in their eyes. At the same time, the locked doors burst open and a flustered soldier rushed into the meeting hall.

“Reporting, Your Highness Marybelle. We’re under attack!”