Chapter 430: A close call of the first kind


    Alice looked nervously out of the helicopter’s windowas she rememberedwhathappenedin thest few hours.


    Right after theynguished that corpse dragon, the dungeon was considered conquered, theywere thrown back to the arena where Tolin activated that talismanandeverything returned to normal immediately except for the Von Weise Archipgonowhaving an extra ominous-looking ind.


    After that, as they took some time to rest and be debriefed about what happened, many reports came pouring in about what happened in the outside world during this period.


    “Who could have guessed that all these events would happen in just a couple of weeks!” Theodore sighed as he flipped through the elder’s briefing report.


    After getting the news of someone finding Victor floating in the sea, he hurriedly left the ind together with Alice to gocheck on him. Ann who seemed a little worried, sent the head butler f with them to officially take Victor’s statement about what happened after he was sucked into that ‘Dungeon’.


    “Indeed master…” fwhowas sitting oppositehimsaid. “Thankfully, the emergency family councilwas able tokeep things controlled while the ind was involved in a dungeon… I even had to get discharged early and work despite my injury…”


    “You don’t need to show off how pivotal your role in the family was… we all know!” Theodore interrupted, making Alice raise one eyebrow, herfather clearly didn''t like f.


    “Ah… I am sorry if I offended you, Master Theodore, in any way… I was not bragging at all, savingthe family was my duty, and the effortof itgoes to all of the surviving elders and the other butlers and staff who did their jobs perfectlytoo!” f quickly rified. “ If not for their timely response, the family would now be in a mess like what is happening in Rosen City,” he said, professionally changing the subject.


    “True… Any news aboutthem?” Theodore asked with a frown, flipping the report in search for the relevant information.


    “Just that the entire Von Rosen family base and all the area around was engulfed in an Unranked dungeon,” f said. “Apparently, almost all of the elders were there for some kind of a grand ceremony, so with them all missing at the moment, the family was left headless…”


    “This shows how wise our family’s strategy of leaving some elders stationed around the continent just in case…” Theodore nodded. “Any news on who is behind this?”


    “We suspectthat itwas the same person who did it on our main ind… ording to Mistress Ann, it was the Poison lord!” f rified. “That guy stole our entire secret vault, so I suspect he is after something allofthe families had…” he added. Throwing baseless usations.


    “Indeed…” Theodore sighed. “At least there is some good newsing out of all this mess… With the tournament being dyed and such, we will have some time to prepare!”


    “What? The tournament was dyed?” Alice, who never heard about that, asked.


    “Yes… With two of the high council members getting attacked, they had to,” Theodore said. “It just came in before we took off, but it will be dyed for another month or so…” he sighed.


    “Oh…” Alice nodded.


    “With this, we can reassess our participating team!” Theodore said, looking out of the window at the expansive sea outside.


    …


    Meril was sitting nervously in the living room, biting her fingernails and eyeing the elven horse when, suddenly she heard the manor’s door open.


    She quickly hurried out of the living room to meet Macil who had just returned. Other than her, he was the only one who had the key to unlock the mansion’s magical array... Victor seemed to have entered somehow without triggering it, but that was not important at the moment.


    “Young master!” She quickly bowed as soon as she entered the hall.


    “Meril! You may raise…” he said. “My luck is super great!” he chuckledhappilyas hehurried andpatted her head, ashealways did when he returned home.


    “What happened?” she asked with a smile as she quickly helped himtake offhis coat.


    “My stupid sisters… They turned out to be really hiding an artifact from the lord! The bitches really did have a secret SSS-ranked artifact, and they hid it from his lordship, the Sun Lord!” he said. “How dare they!” he spat angrily.


    “Oh… So what will happen totheirhighnesses?” Meril asked. Once those royal bitches weregoneshe would no longer need to worry about Macil and would be able to go with Victor in a clear conscious.


    “They were taken to the pits!” Macil sighed.


    “WHAT? Can a noble sun elve be taken there?” she asked in shock. The worst that could ever happen to a sun elf was getting banished.


    “Ah… I don''t know… But it was the lord’s directmand!” Macil said. “This matter must have something to do with disturbing his grand will... He might alsobeming them for all the damage, theywere the ones who brought the demon hereafterall!”


    “How do you know this…” Meril didn’t continue as someone entered the hall. It was an elven general dressed ina gaudyshiningelven gold armor. He was apanied by four knights in golden armor that covered their entire bodies, including their faces. They only had dangerously looking eyes visible from within their golden-winged helmets.


    “Ah, General Zendo, you are here!” Macil eximedin an excited voiceas Meril bowed politely as a maid should.


    “Prince Macil… Where is that shape-shifting human?” Zendo asked, as Meril shivered, frowned, andthenwithoutraising herheadsecretlyscowled at Macil.


    What the fuck did her young master do now?


    He smiled at her.


    “This way please…” Macil quickly began guiding the way. “Meril, you follow us too. General Zendo is averytrustworthy man who works directly for the lord!”


    “Aha…”


    “Yes… You are little Meril, right? The one who upgraded her bloodline…” Zendo said, inspecting her with his eyes that had a strange glitter in them.


    “Yes, she is the one!” Macil smiled. “It''s all thanks to the pill Victor gave me! He is a really great guy…”


    “Fabulous…. “ Zendo said, turning to Meril again and not even sparing Macil a nce. “When Prince Macil told me about your poor brother who risked his life toe see you then got his head hurt due to that demon, I had toe and see him by myself….” he said with a smug smile as they entered the living room where the Elven horse was sitting like a king, enjoying some hay after he finished his carrots.


    “Thank you for yourpassion, my lord…” Meril said, as she followed from behind with a frown.


    What the hell was going on here?


    How could her young master tell Victor?Fromthe wayhe was acting, it was like this generalwhomshe had never seen before was closer to him than hisownmother!


    Victor’s n that he told her was tosimplytell Macil that she would take the elven horse and try to find her motherwhomight know something about turning him back. This wasa very goodexcuse. She only had to say that after upgrading herbloodlineshegained the ability tofeel out their direction!


    But who would have guessed that the n was ruined before itevenstarted?


    “As you see, General, he is actingpletely like an elven horse…” Macil said.


    “Oh… It is so perfect… Yet there are signs for those with good eyes…Hisdragon bloodline can’t be hidden!” Zendo said as he slowly began to pat the elven horse… from his head, hemoved his hand until it reached its back. “Interesting… What kind of artifact is this?” he pondered.


    “Artifact?” Macil frowned. So did Meril. What artifact? What dragon bloodline? It was a fucking Elven horse!


    “Yes… The shape-shifting seems to be the effect of somekind ofartifact inhisstomach, itseemed to be damagedthough…” Zendo said. “I think I will need to take him with me to the pce to ‘cure him’… “


    “Can it be done?” Macil asked in surprise.


    “Yes…”


    “That would be fantastic…” Macil said with a smile.


    “And about you little Meril…” Zendo turend to her, “I think that it would be much better if you…”


    BOOOOOOOM!


    An explosion suddenly rocked the city and shook the entire manor.


    WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…


    All kinds of sirens began to ring likest time. A demon was attacking!


    Everyone quickly looked in the explosion’s direction, where, out of a nearby grandwindowthey could see agrand,smoke cloud appear right above where the center of the city should be.


    “What the…” Before Zendo could say a thing, the Elven horse moved, itonly jerked once, then as if it was a shooting stariunched toward the wall, not hitting it, but passing right through it.


    “FUCK! WATCH THEM!” Zendo yelled, flicking his hand before he sprung after it.


    Meril, who wanted to run to the window and take a look, found herself frozen in ce, andsowasMacil, bothof them had eternal golden chains appear around themlockingthem in ce.


    “Young master…”


    “Don’t worry… It must be to protect us!” Macil said with a fanatic look that she finally noticed.


    Wait… Could it be that Zendo was the…. An absurd thought suddenly appeared in Meril’s mind. Just thinking aboutit,sent a shiver through her spine.


    “Young master…” Before she could say a thing, the room shone with light.


    From its center, Zendo appeared again with the corpse of the elven horsewhichhe threw on the ground.


    “Absolutely pathetic…” he said as he grabbed a ck box from midair and opened it. “Get in!” he told his men.


    They frowned for a split second, then nodded and jumped in without asking questions.It wasas ifthe box was an emptyhole,whichdisappeared within.


    Closing the box, Zendo looked at Meril and Macil frowning. He took two pills and threw them at the couple.


    “Eat those!” he said. “QUICK!”


    Macil quicklyplied with a stupid smile.


    Merilwholooked at Zendo inshocknodded too and quickly took it. Justnowthe one who spoke to her was notZendo,but Victorwhowas in a hurry.


    …


    Seeing both Meril and Macil copse into aa thanks to the sleeping pill, Victor quickly activated a restriction-breaking talisman.


    The golden chains broke, allowing him to grab both of them and throw them inside the cauldron before using his newly cooled-down Space Fractureskill,to open a hole in space and jump in with a panickedexpression


    The entire processfrom his appearance here until he vanished, took no more than 73 seconds.


    10 Secondster, the real Zendo appeared with a burntsmokingcorpse of the real elven horse.


    It took him 3 seconds to inspect his surroundings with a shocked expression.Justto make sure he reentered the correct room.


    “Damn it! Space fracture!… COME HERE!” he yelled, pushing his hand into the spot where the space fracture closed moments earlier.


    It opened again, barely.


    Zendo pushed harder, extending his hand inside, erging the fracture while fighting against the space forcesthat werepushingit too close.


    Then…


    “AH… BASTARD! You think you are smart by hiding in the gorge? You think I can’t go there if I need to?” he yelled, ignoring the ck death smokingfrom the space fracture that clearly led to somewhere in the gorge.


    The moment it touched its skin, he began to weather, but momentster, as if somekind ofstrange energy activated within him, his skin began to reconstruct again, with what looked like embers of fire crawlingon his skin.


    “I swear I will…” he began to yell as the space fracture began to expandrger andrger.


    Then again…


    “KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA….”


    He screamed in pain like a sissy would before pulling back his arm. The space fracture copsed at oncebuthe didn’t care as he used his sword to immediately cut off his hand.


    It was all weathered upandin its center,a silver needle was inserted.


    The moment the hand fell to the ground, it turned into a green goo that began to melt the floor.


    “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!” the lord askedangrilyas he looked in acertaindirection toward the gorge. “BASTARD! “COME!” he demanded.


    No one replied….


    “Shit!” he cursed, grabbing the elven horse''s burnt corpse and turning to leave…


    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM


    The entire mansion exploded before he could do that… The explosion was sobig,thatits mushroom cloud could be seen miles away from the City, reaching the gorge where Victorat the momentcopsed onto the ground on its floor. Emirawhosat besidehimwas looking at the now copsed space fracture absentmindedly.


    “That was a close call… Damn, Sun lord…” he spat as he looked at one of his hands, it waspletely burnt to the crisp. The aftermath of him sticking that needle into the Sun lord’s hand. That guy was actively shooting mes from his hand as he tried to catch him, thisforced him to use his hand to deflect the fire from Emira and push that guy back! “We better leave this ce…” he said, throwing a couple of healing pills in his mouth asgrabbedEmira and began to travel north.


    Emiray motionless in his embrace as she watched his hand heal at a visible rate.Still, she seemed to be frowning as if she was trying to remember averydisturbing nightmare but couldn’treallygrasp it.


    Victor, who noticed her expression ever since she noticed Zendo through the fracture, sighed… As he expected, this girl, being at the gorge, might have something to do with the Sun lord.


    ording to the elf girls, she was a white moon elf, belonging to the noblest of the moon elves. ording to them, her tribe’snd was behind the gorgeandafter the demons struck, all white moon elves turned into wanderers without a home. They also told him that thest sighting of any of them was about 10 years ago, especially after many vers began considering them ‘Rare Commodities’.


    Hearing all of these,Victor was very curious about her story, but it was a little early to try to forcibly make her remember.It was far better to slowly let her heal.


    Now, he must focus on escaping Zendo. He was sure that neither the needle nor the explosion were enough to Kill that guy!


    Those things werejustmeant to dy him and distort all spatial fluctuations to stop him from reopening the space fracture again… And maybe hurt him a little as a revenge.


    That guy would definitely start a massive search campaign for them as soon as he recovers, so Victor nned to move as far as possible by then. Although that guy might be able to enter the gorge, it was clearthat hecouldn’t stay here for long and personally search for them!


    Victor also needed tomake adetour and retrieve his fishing rod, the one he connected to the donkey, and ce it near the edge of the gorge after tying it to a boulder yesterday.


    He was hiding in the city earlier, and the moment he felt someone investigate the storage ring he put in the donkey’s stomach, he quickly realized that his worst-case scenario was happening. He quickly activated the exploding talismans under the boulder, allowing it to plunge downward with the fishing rod, dragging the poor donkeywith it.


    Rest in peaceDonkey…


    He also needed to refill his stock of demonsin ceof the ones he released in the Sun Capital to divert the guard’s attention and allow him to freely use his powers.


    Victor sighed…It wasagoodthinghe promised himself to be carefulhavingmore than one backup n just in case.


    Now, all he needed to do was to stay hidden, traveling only at night, heading toward the west, the direction where his Great Aunt and stepmother were in… The human empire of Ishmar!