216 Gambit of the Diamond Princess (1/2)

Mia glared at Gustav with an extreme desire to stab his heart stamped in her face.

”How did you get past my soldiers??” she demanded to know.

”I walked...” Gustav bluntly replied.

”...”

Mia snapped her finger and pointed her index at the blond man. Suddenly, several of her servants appeared and aimed their staffs at him.

Gustav gently placed Daren, who was on the verge of passing out, on the grass so he could recover himself and vanished in thin air.

”What!!!??” Mia gasped.

She tried to search him and saw a blur moving across the field and getting behind every single one of her mages.

Every time the blur came close to them, a blast of blessed energy would be released and they would start to expel the spirits that were taking over their bodies.

The blur finally stopped moving and reappeared close to Daren, revealing that it was Gustav himself.

”Looks like Marcus gave you quite the present...” Detra whispered while still being under Eclipse's paws.

”The best kind...” Gustav replied.

He then removed the red robe he stole from one of Mia's mages and revealed a pair of silver bracelets and silver greaves under it. Holy metal, blessed material capable of boosting one's strength and speed.

Mia glanced at him again and then watched at how the imprisoned souls kept coming out of the mages she had gathered.

”I see... You were the guy from Evlin's team that had a blessing with the power of purification...” she commented.

”Ah! You know about me! I don't know if I should be flattered or not...” Gustav smirked, ”while your army kept focusing on going after the heavy hitters of our side, I just kept sneaking around here and there and slowly continued to rescue the souls you captured!”

Gustav then looked at Detra and used his power of telepathy, the ability that granted him the position of being in charge of communication on his old group, and started to send messages to her.

[Can you still fight?] he asked.

Detra glared at him, [... I'm fine by the way... thanks for asking... I still have some energy left, but not much... I need to get some absorbing crystals to recover my power...]

[I'll give you my bracelets... You take Daren and get to the other side as fast as you can... I'll distract her...] Gustave continued.

Detra noticed that the blond man was trying hard not to look directly at her. She assumed that he was still not fully happy with the two being on the same side due to their history.

[Very well...] she finally replied.

Mia kept watching the two standing still in absolute silence and at last understood why Detra was so calm until now.

”I see... So you can exchange information through your minds...” she commented.

Mia just glared at him even more, ”You can free my possessed mages, trade crucial data with your allies, and move around the field with great speed... You're too dangerous... I need to get rid of you now!”

Mia snapped her fingers and Eclipse and a couple of monsters and golems started to go after the telepath.

Detra used this opportunity to rush towards Daren. Gustav saw that the two were together and quickly rushed to hand over to her part of his armor.

[Well... Looks like you will have no trouble with getting her attention...] she commented.

[Just go!!] he shouted in his mind.

He still had armor for his legs, and making use of it, began to run away from his pursuers.

While Detra carried Daren away from there, Mia ordered her mages to keep their distance from Gustav and to start attacking with ranged spells.

”All of you... KILL THIS MAN!! KILL THIS MAN RIGHT NOW!!!!”

Part 2

Claire was finally done with her treatment and had managed to get her shoulder healed. The girl still didn't have any strength to continue fighting so she simply opted to watch the progress of the war.

A large number of mages trying to contain waves of demons and beasts on one side, a couple of injured warrior coming back to the other side of the portal to get treatment from the medical team of healing mages, diamond golems getting shattered only for more to appear from the ground, and a large hydra made of water and ice strolling through the area and facing a group of spellcasters that were trying to contain it with lightning magic.

Among the chaos, she spotted her mother in the middle of the war, wearing a red robe and carrying a pair of swords made of diamonds and stabbing some of the east followers.

The scene made Claire want to jump out of her improvised rescue stretcher and go after her mother to bring her to her senses.

She also noticed that Ellie's parents were there as well, and glanced to see how her friend was holding up.

Ellie was about to tear up while grabbing her own shoulder. It seemed like she was fighting back against her desire to enter the battle.