Sylas had thought out every meticulous detail, but he knew that this would be among the most dangerous situations he would face. However, he seemed to have an icy coolness to his gaze.
The feeling of his body being under his complete control was intoxicating, and he seemed to step beyond a limit.
His body came to a sudden forceful stop just as a blade sliced through where he would be.
He spun to the side, pressing a foot against the ground with such forcefulness that the thin ice caused by the earlier
His toe made contact with the solid ground beneath, eliminating all the slippage in a single instant as he burst forward.
A green glow covered his body, and his weight dropped drastically. He practically glided through the air, moving like a shadow as he stopped, jerked, and accelerated in movements that were far too smooth to be natural.
Sylas’ weakness had always been his movement. He didn’t have any sudden teleportation abilities, and he lacked any Speed-related Skills that could bolster him in a timely moment.
But at that instant, it seemed as though he had become his own Skill.
His body moved like a well-oiled machine, and he took into account every aspect within a small five-meter range.
If he kept it to 50, it would be impossible for him to scan the entire region. But when he limited it to just five, it was as though he had a bird’s eye view of his entire area. Everything was in the palm of his hands, and the world was his oyster.
He ducked and rolled, slipping out of the way of a stomp by a General’s steed’s hoof. Reaching out with a strong hand, he grabbed onto the reins, swinging himself back up to his feet and knocking the General off thanks to the horse being shaken off balance.
The sounds of his feet hitting the ground were practically like the delicate pitter-patter of rain, drowned out by the roars and clangs of the battlefield.
Then, with another step, he accelerated past the last wave of attacks, entering the portal with a final stride.
…
Off in the distance, not long after Sylas had entered the portal, a group caught up quickly after, their expressions changing.
If Sylas had been here, he would have recognized them as Sylphs. However, for some reason or another, they hadn’t participated in this battle.
That said… this was also within Sylas’ calculations.
The Sylphs that acted outside the city weren’t under the same rules as City Lord Orciulius. They weren’t part of the city’s military, and they also didn’t have Noble Titles. The system would never allow that. At best, they could enter the city, but if they tried to participate in the battle, the Generals, Nobles, and other officials would react much the same way any other military would react to civilians trying to join a battle.
As expected, they had hardly appeared when a shout came from a certain General Sun.
“Why the hell are there civilians on this battlefield?! Get them the fuck out of here!”
“Detain them! They might be the secret masterminds in the dark!”
The words of the officials made the Sylphs curse under their breaths. This was exactly what they were worried about, but they couldn’t hold themselves back when they saw Rolland being schemed against. Now it seemed too late to do anything.
“Retreat.”
“They’re trying to escape!”
“Dammit! The army’s in a mess!”
Hidden on a building rooftop opposite to where Sylas had originally hidden himself, Sunniva watched this with rapt attention.
Sylas had given her a task, and thanks to the bindings of Nosphaleen, she was still following them. Her only task was to see if she could pick off these Sylphs should the opportunity present itself.
Of course, it was a low-risk sort of task. Sylas didn’t really care if she succeeded or not. In fact, his goal was something entirely different…
If she succeeded, then good. If she didn’t… then good.
As for what his thoughts were, only Sylas himself knew.
…
The world flashed around Sylas, and he found himself spiraling out.
‘Great Celestial Wall…’
Sylas recognized where he was immediately. However, the instant he did, he had another huge epiphany.
Why did he know the name of the Great Celestial Wall, but not recognize the Mountains of Giza? They were both wonders of the world…
He didn’t have the time to think about it.
He found himself falling from the skies and realized that the fact the portal appeared here had helped him out a great bit. He was ejected from the portal far enough that he was falling down the side of the Great Celestial Wall.
This must have been what happened to Rolland as well, making it difficult for him to make it back to the portal in short order.
But that was only the first part of the problem. That was because there was an army. In fact, there might as well have been two… one on the side of the hordes of beasts rushing in this direction, and the other coming from the government of this region.
That was when Sylas realized something else as well. There must have been so few Generals on the battlefield in Orciulius City because the rest were stationed outside of it to stop beasts from overrunning their walls.
Sylas analyzed all of this before he landed on the ground.
Snow crunched beneath his feet before a white tiger lunged at him. It was a beautiful creature, and far more regal and powerful than its pre-Summoning counterpart.
Unfortunately, it was facing off against Sylas.
Sylas leapt backward, his body still enveloped in a green hue as his telekinesis made him lighter.
He pushed off with both feet, then landed past the tiger’s claws and onto its head.
BANG!
The tiger’s head was driven into the ground as Sylas leapt up and back to the wall, grabbing onto a crack and pulling himself up the rest of the way.
He landed on the wall just in time to see both the chaos and City Lord Orciulius about to make it to the portal once more.
