CHAPTER 121: CHAOS

Immediately the fog disappeared, the inhabitants of the Sanctuary noticed the difference immediately. The artificial sky above them vanished immediately, replaced by the normal sky in the enclave of the mountain they inhabited. The spell models that lined the inner walls of the mountain, enabling the various platforms to float, groaned and flickered violently, causing a few of the platforms to drop slightly before stabilizing.

That short drop was not without consequence.

Buildings shook like they were about to fall, and everyone lost their footing at the sudden jerk. The tallest building in the sanctuary—The Central Tower—was only saved by its magical nature, else it would have snapped in half and caused catastrophic damage to the surroundings.

Mass hysteria and panic set in among the residents of Freehold immediately and they stood rooted in shock and disbelief at what was happening.

It wasn’t until a sharp siren sound pierced through the air that they all jerked back to attention, rushing to do what protocols dictated in this scenario.

The small city moved in a flurry. People were running about here and there. Non-combatants were being herded inside dedicated compartments inside the solid grand statue at the center that still stood strong despite all that was going on.

Combatants and able bodied men and women on the other hand, were at high alert, safeguarding the non combatants while readying themselves for any attack that might come.

"Futile," the two elders watched people stream past them hurriedly as they walked to their destination—the elder council. The man pushed open the doors to the elder meeting hall with a slam and saw two elders from the council who were on his side, picking up smaller, but similar looking prison cubes off the ground.

Only one of the cubes they carried looked exactly the same as the Invariant Matrix that held Sage Maximus.

"Looks like everything went according to plan here." He stretched out a hand as he was handed the other Invariant Matrix Prison. It held the Old One inside. Just like Sage Maximus, he was the only other person who could’ve posed a serious threat to their plans.

"Lionel! You bastard! You should have handled the Old One yourself...!" One of the surviving elders snapped. "Three people died!"

"Yeah? Well five died on our side!" Lionel snapped.

That shut the other elder up.

They had all been pressuring Lionel to take on the Old One just to be safe, but he insisted on handling Maximus instead. Now the result was clear... It seemed Lionel had been right in his decision.

For five elders to be dead... the man shivered.

Lionel looked at the cube in his hand. He had put his second in command—code named: Chameleon—in charge of capturing the Old One.

Chameleon had succeeded... but not without great cost. He, along with two other elders had perished at the Old One’s hands before he was successfully sealed.

Lionel looked at Chameleon’s body on the floor and sighed softly before turning his gaze away. It was an occupational hazard in their line of work, so there was nothing to feel remorseful about.

Besides, he had only known the man for four decades...

"How long till the last barrier is disabled?" he asked the two surviving elders while storing the cube that held the Old One away.

"Still around thirty six hours..." they reported. "The spell models you gave us cannot breach past the remaining defense in less time."

"Tch!" Lionel hissed. "At least we’ve taken down the scry-scrambler. Messages should be able to go through easily now, right?"

"Yes. The fog is down and Freehold is out in the open," one of the elders said glee.

"Good." Lionel turned to the woman behind him. "You need to find Pascal. He entered Maximus’ estate the other day so he might know another way to enter."

"He’s not in Freehold at the moment." The woman shook her head.

"Not here?" Lionel frowned.

Why now? It was a detail that immediately stood out to him and made him slightly unsettled. Had Maximus expected this and given Pascal a heads up?

But then why would he allow himself to be captured and also put his daughter in danger too?

It’s impossible, he calmed himself down. Maybe Maximus might’ve suspected something at some point... but there was no way he could’ve predicted all this.

"Send word to the capital. Let everyone know that the Freehold Sanctuary that has eluded us for generations is now open to all!" Lionel roared to the two elders who nodded with burning gazes, leaving the hall immediately to carry out his order.

"Do the same Dana..." he ordered the woman behind him, "and also... send word about Pascal. He needs to be found before the barrier is disabled."

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"The Freehold Sanctuary has been found!" A Shadow decoded an urgent message with intense shock coloring his face. He immediately scrambled to follow the instructions in the message as well, disregarding the standard protocol to carry such important messages straight to the capital.

The reason being that this message was sent with a very old, archaic standard, and on top of that, it was also signed with a special codename... A codename that had not been seen for more than a century... A name that he had more trouble believing than the fact that the Freehold Sanctuary had been found.

Cipher.

That was the only thing that lent a bit of credibility to this news. And it was the only reason he was willing to disregard proper protocol. If this was truly the legendary Cipher they all knew, then it was only he who could perform such a feat.

The shadow immediately encoded the message in their present day format and sent it forward to the capital.

And it wasn’t only him.

The same thing was happening everywhere. Every single shadow within the region where Freehold was located received the message and sent it straight to the capital immediately, while the Sentinels in charge of these shadows also acted on the new information, deploying shadows en-masse to the location specified in the message.

The shadows in question eagerly carried out this mission. This was monumental. If it turned out to be true—which it most likely was—they were on the crux of a massive event!

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After about an hour, a spatial tear suddenly opened right above the Freehold Sanctuary and a man stepped right through, floating in the air like a God.

He looked down at the large mountain and the city that was right at the center of it and a smile slowly spread on his face.

All of a sudden, the sky around the whole area began to darken and a tyrannical might immediately descended on the mountain itself...

But it was blocked by a thin barrier of spell models that glowed and spun with extremely advanced arcane symbols and logic. It looked like an ever evolving spell model that defied the common conception that spell models were fixed.

The man tilted his head, staring at the barrier before a light scoff escaped his lips.

He waved a hand, conjuring a very massive pillar of unstable spatial chaos that shredded and rebuilt the space around it continuously, destabilizing the whole surrounding area. Cracks began to open at random places, sucking and shredding trees and debris into the void.

After a slight pause, he immediately waved his hand down, sending the massive pillar of chaos hurtling towards the covered sanctuary.