CHAPTER ASHBORN 416: WRATH OF A MEJAI (MAIYA)

Maiya might have allowed the royal family to escape, but that didn’t mean her work was done here. Not by a long shot.

The best that Sai had were dug in at the castle—the most defensible position in the entire city. Among their ranks were Talent wielders and capable mejai, and while Maiya doubted they’d see anyone else on the same level as the two Altani she fought, the Saians would make up for that with quantity.

Not to mention King Dilber Sai himself, said to boast a Balar rank of 450. Andros might’ve gotten all the credit for being the strongest Talent Wielder in the realm, but King Sai wasn’t that far off. Any fight against him would be a disaster, regardless of outcome.

No, storming the gates where Dilber and the others could bring their full might to bear would be suicidal. Maiya had to find another way.

The issue wasn’t so much locating a way to bypass the castle wall—she’d already succeeded in that. The problem was the narrowness of those passages, some of which were too narrow to admit armored soldiers even single-file. Even if they did fit, it would take hours to shove Riyan’s troops through. The Saians would notice their presence within the castle well before then, annihilating anyone who made it through and blocking their exits.

Maiya swept one last glance around the empty royal bedchambers and returned to the passage the Saian royalty had just fled through. The Saian royals were a hardy bunch. They would find their own way out. They had to, as Maiya had more pressing concerns to deal with.

Taking a turn at one of the passageway’s many junctures, Maiya edged closer to the outskirts of the castle.

Most castles featured a secret passage system, both for ease of servant access and for escape, should the royal family ever be endangered. Thankfully, Sai’s was more expansive than most. The castle was ancient, dating back at least a millennium. Plenty of time for prior kings and queens to expand the castle and embellish the routes of the original network, making the system ever more complex, its routes more convoluted.

Which was, of course, an advantage. Only the royals knew the way in and out, and invaders who rushed in would find themselves lost, wandering aimlessly in the dark labyrinth.

Thankfully, Maiya’s handmaidens were unrivaled scouts. She would not be getting lost today.

The trapdoor at the end of the passageway led to a hallway, one that was under heavy patrol. Motioning via hand signal to her handmaidens, Maiya burst out into the hall, firing three C Grade Wind Blade spells in quick succession.

Of the six soldiers, five dropped dead without a sound, their bodies having been cleaved by Maiya’s razor of wind, two of which had passed through multiple soldiers. The remainder fell a moment later when thrown daggers severed their throats.

Almost before their hearts had stopped, Maiya’s handmaidens were already at work seizing their bodies and dragging them soundlessly into the secret passage. Two others dabbed up any blood that stained the stone floor, ensuring no trace of the dark act remained.

A mere thirty seconds after the act, all evidence of the murders had been erased.

Their absence would eventually be missed, but until they checked in with their commanding officers, Maiya surmised. By then, they’d have far more to worry about than a half-dozen missing guards.

Maiya moved with haste, seeking the proper halls that would lead her closer to the castle walls, her handmaidens dispatching any Saians they came across without a sound. For all she knew, there was a passage that led right there—as good as her handmaidens were, they hadn’t had the time to map out the entire system.

They eventually found their way to the door that led to the courtyard separating the castle from its walls. Some two hundred yards in width, the area was jam-packed full of archers, spearmen, and shield walls aimed at the lone gate. The ramparts, needless to say, swarmed with yet more archers, mejai, and soldiers.

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There were no shortcuts here. No easy backdoors that would allow Riyan to bypass all of this. The castle was well-designed, with only a single main gate large enough to admit an army, surrounded by an enormous dry moat. Riyan’s men would have to enter via the lone drawbridge separating the castle from the rest of the city…

But that didn’t mean Maiya couldn’t sow some chaos—or, a lot of it—first.

Maiya had swapped out her depleted A Grade orbs with the spares she had her handmaidens carry. As such, she now boasted two A Grade Blizzard

orbs and two more Tempests, of the Wind Affinity.

She couldn’t know how much her exchange battle with the Altani mejai had depleted the prana in this area, but it was far enough away that she doubted it would’ve been affected much. Sai was closer to the Ash than Hiranya—it had more prana to spare. That would no longer remain the case after her next barrage, however.

With no one the wiser, all four of her orbs activated all at once.

There was a reason why the moats that surrounded towns—whether dry or wet—were so wide. Hiranya’s Grand Moat was especially vast, impervious to all but S Rank magic, but the need to distance themselves from mejai plagued all cities. Countries went to great lengths to ensure they were defended from powerful magic.

And this was why.

The chaos of her earlier battle was nothing when compared to what Maiya had just wrought. Doubling up on the same type of spell didn’t simply add to the devastation—it multiplied it. Furthermore, Ice and Wind had always been a brutal combination, the brittle cold synergizing with the torrential wind to form brutal ice storms that raged at terrifying speeds.

As with all A Grades, the spells began slowly, at first, then grew progressively stronger. Once unleashed, there was no stopping this destruction—another reason powerful mejai were so feared.

The ground froze, and the air thrashed. People were picked up off their feet, and when they fell back to the ground, they’d been frozen solid, encased in ice. Their rigid bodies shattered, sending shards flying in every direction.

Even the castle’s stone took a beating, being frozen and carved away, bit by bit.

Maiya didn’t dare watch it all unfold—despite being the spellcaster, she was no less vulnerable to its effects than anyone else, and so she hid in the secret passage with her handmaidens, tucked safely away. Only the tremors under her feet and the sounds of wind battering rock gave her any indication of the carnage that roared just outside.

By the time it was over, the heavy door that concealed the passage was all but gone, leaving only jagged splinters that Maiya kicked down.

Despite fully intending on ignoring the devastation, Maiya found herself transfixed by the carnage. Carnage that she

had wrought.

It was as though nature itself had raged against the castle, intent on reclaiming the works constructed by mankind, reforming it in its own image. Not a single wooden structure had survived, and the courtyard that had only moments ago been filled with soldiers now lay silent.

Only a few bodies remained, the rest having either been shattered or scattered by the wind. The ramparts were similarly empty.

In a daze, Maiya forced her feet to move. She’d wasted too much time already. She didn’t dare waste a moment more.

Having heard the commotion, reinforcements were already pouring in through the halls, and while her attacks had annihilated a fair number of defenders, Sai had many more. To say nothing of King Dilber Sai himself.

She rushed across the courtyard to the mechanism that anchored the gate. Her worst fear was that either the drawbridge or the mechanism supporting it had been destroyed or destroyed, and the terrible cuts across the chains made her stomach fall out… Until she realized the chains on either side of the bridge weren’t dangling loose, but taut. Which meant it was still intact.

With the aid of Lighten Load, Maiya and her elites bounded up to the rampart tower that housed the controls. The tower had thankfully spared the machinery from much of the damage, and Maiya quickly located a massive wooden beam that triggered the bridge’s emergency release.

Janak be with me, Maiya thought as her handmaidens put their shoulders up against the bashed the bar, sending the chainwheel spinning.

The bridge fell away from the castle wall, slamming heavily onto its supports.

Maiya rushed down to find Riyan leading his troops across the bridge.

The massive man stopped short when he saw Maiya, a wicked grin plastered across his face. “It would seem you do not disappoint. Why couldn’t you have been this good when infiltrating Kin’jal?”

Maiya narrowed her eyes. “It was the Kin’jal who taught me to be this lethal. Not you. Now, let us not tarry. We still have a king to kill.”

“A king?” Riyan said, eyes falling to the ravaged battlefield behind Maiya. “Do you perhaps mean that king?”

Maiya turned in confusion, tracing Riyan’s gaze to a frozen corpse some paces away. She hadn’t especially paid attention to the fallen—she’d been in too much of a rush.

Maiya’s frown deepened as she approached the dead man, kneeling beside him. Though he wore no crown, nor even especially fancy armor, Maiya recognized his face immediately.

“It would seem you’ve not only delivered me the castle,” Riyan said, walking up to her, “you have given me Sai, as well.”

For the first time in a very long while… Maiya didn’t know what to say.