Novel Full Chapter 1269: Face to Face
Chapter 1269: Face to Face
Kaede answered with a nod.
She leaned over the map again, studying the small marker representing Reddholm’s estate. She memorized the surrounding ridges, the layout of the outer town, and the position of the keep at the center. She let the details settle.
She reached for her sword and wrapped her hand around the hilt. Then she closed her eyes.
The room’s noise faded behind the steady rhythm of her breathing.
Only two people on the continent could tear through dimensions on command: Quinlan and Kaede.
But their methods could not have been more different.
Quinlan needed a place he had already seen. His portals were quick, precise, small, and effortless. He could cast them over and over, a convenience that made generals lose sleep.
Kaede, on the other hand, cut through space itself; her method was much more violent, using less finesse and more brutality.
She did not need to have visited the destination.
She only needed to know where it was.
Her portals dwarfed Quinlan’s in width, built for armies, not individuals.
But every opening drained her. Twice per day was her limit before backlash turned her useless.
One might argue that she had the better spell.
In practice… she had to walk a tight line. Too low an aim, and she would open the gate beneath the soil and waste a cast. Too far, and she might as well run there instead.
Her breathing slowed.
Her fingers shifted position on the hilt.
She inhaled once, then snapped her eyes open with razor focus.
Steel brushed free of the sheath.
The blade traced a clean arc through the air.
“[Shinkai Mon].”
Space split open.
A wide tear stretched outward, glowing with raw distortion as reality folded aside.
Kaede stepped forward first.
The world shifted.
Cold air slammed into her face.
She was falling.
The sky spread beneath her feet, and the ground waited far below. For a heartbeat, it looked as if they were plunging toward certain death.
That was until Morgana emerged from the portal right behind.
Chizuru stepped out.
Lilith and the Scarlet Lilies followed.
Kaede’s twenty elite guards poured through in tight formation, descending in organized patterns despite the sheer drop.
None of them panicked.
After all, they had Morgana.
The queen raised her left hand, fingers spread. Her right hand drew a line through the air, and her delicate lips parted, forming her spell.
“[Winds of Crestfall].”
A gust built beneath their feet. The air thickened, catching their bodies as if unseen ropes were tugging upward. Their descent slowed, then stabilized. They drifted in a downward glide that carried them toward the burning estate below.
Kaede steadied herself midair, letting her hair whip across her face.
Lilith looked down with a predator’s focus and declared, “This is the place.”
Half the estate was burning. The main gate was shredded metal and splintered timber. Soldiers lay scattered around the yard in broken heaps.
Morgana’s expression twisted, no longer one of restraint, no mask, no courtly serenity.
Her eyes sharpened, lips pulling tight with a rush of wild anticipation.
She thrust her hand forward.
Wind roared beneath them.
The entire group shot toward the estate like a spear as the wind carried the strike team downward in a controlled descent.
A blast of rubble burst upward.
A single figure shot out of the wreckage and rose to meet them.
He wore armor black enough to swallow the light from the fires below, streaked with pulsing red channels that crawled across the plates like living veins. His cape tore in the wind, trailing behind him as he hovered in the air.
The moment Morgana saw him, her pupils tightened.
Lilith’s breath hitched.
Both women spoke at once, but their voices held opposite tones.
“You!”
The man tilted his head to the side.
He ignored Lilith’s hateful snarl and instead met Queen Morgana’s manic stare.
“We meet again, rabid dog of Vraven.” The pressure behind his words hit harder than the insult.
Quinlan snapped his fingers.
Wind exploded outward.
A sharp shockwave burst from his body, roaring toward them with enough force to rip tiles off roofs and send broken timber spinning through the courtyard.
They should have been thrown back.
But Morgana braced her hand, palm out. The wind struck her and stopped as if she were the crest of a cliff. The blast scattered around her, splitting apart in harmless streams.
Her hair fluttered only slightly, and her allies were not only left unharmed but weren’t even displaced, despite being stranded in the skies while facing a wind manipulator.
“Is this your best?” she grinned with condescension.
Quinlan’s visor glinted.
“No. I just wanted to see how I measure up to you as a pure mage. It appears I still have some ways to go.”
Then he lowered his tone as the air around him tightened.
“But make no mistake, woman. I am no mere mage.”
Behind him, the air rippled.
A saber floated upward, loyal and still until it tapped into his waiting palm.
The moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt, the pressure on the descending group deepened.
Blue fire burst along the blade’s length.
“[Awaken].”
The flames spilled out in smooth waves, licking along the steel before rolling off the edge entirely. The fire didn’t fall as gravity dictates it should. Instead, it curved, bending in the air like liquid, then split apart into multiple streams.
Chizuru stiffened instantly.
Lilith’s eyes narrowed.
They both recognized the spell. Quinlan had used it in their last clash to bring forth a handful of blue-skinned summons.
They reached for their weapons, preparing to dispatch his little necromantic army.
But the saber kept spitting flame.
More and more.
Each flicker solidified in the air.
Bodies with blue skin and determined expressions took shape.
One figure, then two, then five, then ten.
And the saber still poured fire.
The sky around Quinlan began to fill.
Dozens turned into a hundred.
Figures floated beside him, upheld by swirling wind magic that lifted them like puppets standing on invisible platforms.
They spread out, dotting the sky above Reddholm’s estate like an expanding swarm.
“What?!”
Morgana’s voice sharpened.
Lilith choked on a breath.
Chizuru’s old heart nearly stopped beating right then and there.
This was…