The Runic Alchemist

Several Minutes ago, the Phoenix City, Emperor Yong Sheng Long.

The crystal ball seated on the silk cushion glowed deep blue three times. The Emperor channeled mana inside and activated the communication link. The face of a fearsome priest, Lucifer, showed up in the ball.

“Five minutes, be ready.” It said, and then it was gone.

The Faerunian army still needed time to reach them. The fleet of Vearon had just crossed the northern empire’s maritime border. Both of which were being shown live on Sanctuary’s receiver tools.

The damned things had played a large role in swaying their civilians to migrate. But at last, they were being used against Sanctuary.

‘Such openness is a mistake. You will finally realize it.’

Such a revolutionary technology, and what did Sanctuary use it for? Mere entertainment! They were mocking the whole of the mainland. Only the people who had no fear of their neighbours would spend their time inventing things for fun. Fear they will now.

Honorable or not, sanctuary will be his.

In the dark of night, Vearon jumped into the sea, and the view of the window switched to the royal ship. But they only caught the last few seconds before Vearon submerged completely. The window did not show it, but from the edge of the armada, another man had jumped into the sea.

The priest. Lucifer.

A moment later, a purple, faint glow appeared deep underwater and disappeared in an instant. Then Yong Sheng heard the sweet sound of anticipated destruction. The plan was moving forward.

The priest had the same disgusting spell as Damian for opening waygates. Only the priest’s waygates, or more accurately, portals, did not require a target. He could go anywhere he had visited before. Right now, Vearon and the priest were working together to destroy all the floating devices of the Sanctuary network placed high above his army, in the sky.

The receiver windows still showed his resting camp, but the view kept changing as their floating web connection pieces kept breaking through the hands of Vearon and Lucifer. Finally, all viewpoints were lost.

The Emperor smiled and rushed out of his camp with his trusted guard, Sundering Blade, on his side, and shouted for the troops to form ranks. His generals and captains were waiting for just this signal; soon the order spread throughout the camp, and the troops readied themselves in a hurry.

While they prepared their men and weapons, Lucifer and Vearon used the portal again to send the Red Temple’s full army ahead of them, who knew where they had come from, and the Faerunian armada was transported to just a few kilometers from Sanctuary’s trade center, Meridian Keystone.

Then the priest arrived in his camp and opened a massive purple portal leading them straight outside the Sanctuary walls. If only the runic barrier had not activated so soon, they could have reached directly inside the Sanctuary. But apparently, the priest had never traveled past Sanctuary’s walls for some reason, so he could not take them any farther.

But this much was good enough. The empire had researched for many years how to get past Sanctuary’s defenses, and so did the Faerunians. Together, they had several ways to get past the barrier and break down the giant wall. The Sanctuary will no doubt use its waygates to escape from the overwhelming attack, but without their people and all their runic structures, without Damian, they won’t be a big enough threat, no matter where they go.

The anti-waygate measures Yong Sheng had prepared will alert him and his people of any surprise attack Sanctuary dares to launch.

———

Highland Reach, Sam.

The alarms rang loudly.

Sam had noticed the Faerunian king acting up and had already activated all alarms. Everyone was already in their position; the others were hurrying towards the attack locations.

They tricked him!

Who the hell was using those purple waterfall portals? Did the Empire’s runesmith truly manage to reverse engineer Damian’s runic tools? That should have been impossible.

‘This is just the start, brat. You will see far more impossibles before you die like a dog today.’

Sam ignored the voice. As he had a hundred times before.

The barrier will hold strong, but the portal changes things. He must get that guy somehow. The red temple priests were riding emperor rank monsters. They were attacking from two sides. The Faerunian ships from the north and the Empire and its red army from the southwest. Sam wanted to go to the wall immedietely but the scene before his eyes made his blood boil.

The seventy thousand men gathered in a large war camp near the wall between Towers 22 and 29 had started fighting chaotically among themselves.

They were supposed to be on the wall, fighting! Instead, with the weapons Sanctuary provided them, the pathfinders among them were crazily attacking each other, and the mundanes were trying to capture them and stop the madness. Fortunately, the runic weapons Damian had created only stored a little mana.

Why Damian made it like that was confusing Sam, but now it was clear enough. Even though they have to provide constant mana refills to their army, it was better than handing dangerous weapons to people they barely knew. Still, the refill supplies would also be in the hands of these controlled people, so Sam didn’t know how much damage, in truth, it was saving them from.

The mundanes were numerous and should be able to gain control soon enough if he and others took control of the supplies, but those precious moments would give the barrier-attacking force enough time to slip in. Not to mention thousands of people will die. In several other windows, Sam could see the whole Sanctuary suddenly come alive with riots.

The peaceful people sleeping in their homes who chose to stay were on the streets and attacking anyone they could. Some were barely dressed or armed or had any fighting abilities, and yet, like mindless monsters, they attacked the sanctuary army, Souldealer, and Evrin.

The most chaotic place was the city center of each major city, from which the refugees were leaving to seek shelter in other areas. Thankfully, the Farpoint and Malveria were not seeing such chaos.

It was the gods.

Sam knew but could do nothing about it. Once he had issued the necessary orders for wall defence, sent people to Meridian Keystone, and remotely activated the giant defensive mechanism of all the towers, he opened a waygate and reached the Sanctum tower in an instant.

This was the last thing Sam needed to do as a keeper before he could join the fight on the wall. Thankfully, neither the Sea Snake, Emperor, nor that teleportation man had started to participate in the attack actively. They were cautiously sending their men forward to bring out the Sanctuary defences.

Sam followed the several steps he was instructed to take by Damian and gave his intent to fully activate all the metal towers spread across the sanctuary region. He had no idea what would happen, but he was told to do this, and he had done his part.

The towers could potentially restrain all the people who were involved. Even the large numbers of mundane, unaffected by god’s control. But that seemed a better choice than just letting thousands get killed for no reason.

Sam activated a waygate to the wall and walked in, watching on his receiver window as large quantities of violet smoke poured from the giant towers, enveloping the sanctuary’s people present all around. He was caught off guard by even the wall towers releasing the thing. It didn’t block vision; the violet smoke was very transparent, barely visible in large quantities. Sam could still see his surroundings clearly.

‘What is that? What the hell is happe—’

Sam’s eyes widened. Did that really happen? Sun God’s voice disappeared?

The fights all around the sanctuary stopped as well in the receiver window. A wild smile replaced the expression of shock on his face.

‘That bitch! Even without being present, he is solving my issues! Beautiful man!’

“Bring them all on the wall, right now!” Sam shouted the order into his receiver, and all the tower speakers repeated it loudly and clearly.

The giant monsters controlled by red priests were continuously hurling fire at the barrier. A few of these monsters were trying to team up with each other, but the giant laser cannons shot from the wall were hindering their efforts. These main defences were given to mundanes for control, and Sam was very glad for whoever suggested that.

But these machines, too, needed to be refilled. Einar and Souldealer were right. Damian took safety a bit too seriously.

While flying above the wall, inching closer to the barrier to get a better look, Sam noticed that in the last second, the rate of fire from both the giant laser cannons and the individual runic guns handed to each soldier had increased significantly.

That shouldn’t be just because more people were firing now, released from God’s control. No.. it was the gas. The weapons were automatically powered by it.

It was that thing! Damian had made that in Pigman war! The mana-filled air!