Chapter 15: Old Allies
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The sensation of weightlessness and dizziness gradually faded, and Cynthia and Azathoth returned once more to the central hub of Star City.
The moment Cynthia touched down, an arrow shot straight toward her.
Azathoth reacted with astonishing speed. He scooped Cynthia up in his arms and dodged aside.
The arrow struck the ground with a crisp clang. As the crowd realized the danger, panic erupted, and the mechanical peacekeepers responsible for the central hub’s security sprang into action one after another.
“Warning! Warning! Fighting is prohibited in the central hub. For the safety of Star City, cease fighting immedi—”
Before the mechanical peacekeeper could finish, an arrow descended and pierced straight through its head.
“Hand over the Eternal Holy Grail!”
The voice sounded vaguely familiar. Cynthia followed it with her eyes and found herself looking at a dark-haired elf standing beneath the carved archway in the central hub’s hall. The bowstring of the longbow in his hands was still humming.
“If you still refuse to surrender the Grail...” The elf sneered as he nocked another arrow and drew the bowstring back once more. Emerald-green magical energy gathered at the arrowhead.
“Then I’ll destroy you along with it!”
Just as the arrow was about to leave the bowstring, an alarm suddenly rang out throughout the central hub.
The shrill siren tore through the air, and the domed ceiling of the central hub was instantly bathed in blinding red light.
The blue glow in the mechanical peacekeepers’ eyes shifted to scarlet, and their synthetic voices turned cold and harsh.
“Dangerous individual detected. Initiating Level Three Defense Protocol.”
The elf’s arrow paused ever so slightly against the bowstring, but it was already too late to withdraw it.
The emerald magical arrow flew free—not toward Cynthia, but straight at the nearest mechanical peacekeeper.
With a thunderous explosion, the peacekeeper’s upper body was blown to pieces, scattering metal components in every direction.
Yet more peacekeepers were already flooding in from all sides. Their mechanical arms transformed and reassembled, revealing pitch-black gun muzzles. Beams of energy wove together into a deadly net and swept toward the elf’s position.
The elf leapt lightly backward, his figure weaving through the dense web of fire so quickly that only a blurred black shadow remained.
He fired arrow after arrow, each one striking a peacekeeper’s core with unerring precision. The central hub had become a stage for the dark-haired elf’s dazzling display of combat.
“My queen, what should we do?” Azathoth asked Cynthia quietly as the chaos intensified.
Cynthia’s gaze swept rapidly across the disorderly hall. Mechanical peacekeepers continued to pour in, while the dark-haired elf moved through the hail of gunfire like a phantom, leaping and counterattacking. Every arrow carried devastating precision.
“Don’t confront him directly for now. We need to leave as quickly as possible. These machines won’t be able to stop him.”
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Cynthia spoke in a hurried whisper, her voice nearly drowned out by the shriek of the alarm.
Azathoth nodded, his golden eyes warily tracking the elf’s movements.
“My queen, there’s a maintenance passage in the eastern section of the hub. It’s usually unattended. We can escape through there.”
At that very moment, the elf fired an arrow that pierced through three peacekeepers forming a circle around him. The resulting blast wave overturned several nearby information terminals.
Amid the flying debris, he abruptly turned his head. Those pitch-black, icy eyes locked onto Cynthia once more.
“Go!” Cynthia barked.
Azathoth moved at once. Holding Cynthia in one arm, he used fallen ornamental pillars and the panicked, fleeing crowd as cover while making his way swiftly toward the eastern side of the hall.
The elf had clearly noticed their intentions.
“Trying to escape?” he sneered, ignoring the energy beams that struck the ground around him as he drew his longbow to its full extent once again.
This time, the magic gathering at the arrowhead was no longer emerald green. It transformed into an ominous dark violet, as though it could devour the light itself.
The arrow left the bow without a sound, yet it carried a terrifying pressure. Wherever it passed, even the air seemed to be annihilated.
Its target was neither Cynthia nor Azathoth, but an ornate pillar less than thirty feet ahead of them, one that supported part of the domed ceiling.
“Not good!”
Azathoth instantly understood the elf’s intent. He tried to force a change of direction or take the impact with his own body, but the dark-violet arrow was moving far too fast.
Boom—
The violent explosion did not come from the arrow striking its target directly. At the critical instant, a colossal black shield suddenly appeared before the pillar and slammed into the dark-violet arrowhead, erupting in blinding light and a fierce surge of energy.
The shock wave sent several nearby peacekeepers tumbling through the air.
Cynthia and Azathoth staggered as the blast pushed them back, then turned around in astonishment.
As the light faded, they saw a figure clad in silver-white armor standing before the pillar, holding a massive shield as tall as herself. Intricate runes on its surface were slowly dimming.
The figure turned her head, and a clear, composed voice came from beneath the helmet.
“This way! Quickly!”
A friend, not an enemy!
Without the slightest hesitation, Azathoth unfurled the demonic wings on his back and carried Cynthia into the eastern maintenance passage.
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The dark-haired elf in the distance clicked his tongue in fury, apparently not expecting a third party to interfere.
He immediately tried to draw his bow again, but more peacekeepers with scarlet eyes threw themselves at him without regard for their lives, briefly obstructing his line of sight and firing path.
“Damn these iron lumps!”
Cynthia and Azathoth had already entered the maintenance passage, with the silver-white knight close behind. At the entrance, she brought her enormous shield to a halt. Some kind of mechanism activated, and a massive metal gate rapidly descended, completely sealing off the deafening alarms and explosions behind them.
Only the faint glow of emergency lights embedded in the walls remained within the passage.
A brief silence descended. The only sound was the trio’s somewhat hurried breathing.
After steadying herself, Cynthia looked toward the person who had saved their lives.
“Who are you? Why did you help us?”
The silver-white knight raised a hand and undid the clasps of her helmet. When she removed it, a young woman’s face was revealed. A pair of horns unique to the Abyssal race grew from her head. One was completely intact, while the other had been broken halfway off.
“My queen, it has been so long!”
As she spoke, the female knight dropped to one knee before Cynthia.
“Rhea?” Cynthia called her by name, her voice carrying an almost imperceptible tremor.
A radiant light instantly ignited in the female knight’s eyes, and she bowed her head deeply.
“Indeed, it is your loyal knight, Rhea Blackblade. When I learned of your return, I came at once. Fortunately... I arrived in time.”
She glanced toward the gate that had sealed shut behind them. The faint explosions from beyond it made it clear that the elf was still fighting.
The dim light within the passage outlined Rhea’s heroic features. Her gaze was pure and fervent, touched by a hint of fanatical loyalty.
Cynthia had already confirmed Rhea’s identity. All members of the Abyssal race shared the same deep-rooted trait: absolute devotion to their queen. Their fervor toward their ruler was something no other race could ever convincingly imitate.
Cynthia’s eyes lingered for a moment on Rhea’s half-broken horn. She raised a hand and touched the broken tip, then asked angrily, “What happened to this?”
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