Chapter 41: Awakened (1/2)

Tyler couldn't think for much though as the carriages came to another abrupt halt, they had reached the red river. Looking at the way the group moved around and whispered to each other, it seemed they didn't have any creative way of crossing it. Tyler had thought the Six-eyed bulls would be able to jump across, taking the carriages with them. He might've actually been looking forward to it, but unfortunately for him, there was no such spectacle.

They had planned on having Erin take the kids across with water movement as the river was too deep for them. While everyone else swam across and Albert using gravity walk on the carriages and having the chief carry them across one by one and with the additions of the trolls they could get the carriages across quicker.

The six-eyed bulls could swim so it was, well, it was an idea... but Liz felt like it would be a waste of time and just froze a large section of the river making them a very sturdy ice bridge. The jaws of the ogres were practically on the ground at this point. Not only was she able to use a Tier 5 spell so easily, she still had enough mana to be able to use an Over Tier meta magic.

With that done they all boarded the carriage again and it was now smooth sailing to the castle, Tyler asked a few more questions but didn't get any more useful information. He soon gave up and decided to relax and enjoy the rest of the journey. He could also get the so-called famed blacksmith to make him a nice weapon like Albert's Miao Dao.

The trip was almost over, they had been on the road for almost the entire day, only taking on breaks mainly for the kids onboard. There were about a hundred and fifty kids which was a lot, but they were surprisingly all well behaved. Maybe it was because most of them were still mourning the deaths of their parents. It could also be the effect of having Erin and Liz ride with them, Tyler knew it was also helping Liz feel better.

They had come across several monsters that despite the presence of the troll atop the carriage still built up the courage to attack, this had made their journey a bit longer but they no longer had to fight the monster themselves and just retrieved the corpses when the trolls had made quick work of them.

Tyler was starting to get a little interested in the usefulness of the trolls, they were the perfect tanks giving their overwhelming regeneration ability and brute strength.

The ogres and beastmen in his carriage all chatter away and he tried his best to listen in on any conversation that would provide him with any more information but unfortunately, all they talked about was idle chatter.

They traveled for another hour before the carriage started slowing down, at this point the sun had already set, it was already dark now and only the crescent moon illuminated the sky. The clouds had blocked out all the stars, Tyler peaked out the window and could finally see the castle in the distance, he felt a lot of anticipation right now as he couldn't wait to check in on the library, maybe him being away from the castle for a while would help.

All four six-eyed bulls soon came to a stop some distance away from the castle. Tyler then came down and went to the front of the carriage to ask Albert why they had stopped, he noticed Liz was already out and was also wondering the same. ”Well, my Lord... Um... the barrier is still active and Azar's carriage was unable to pass through,” said Albert looking at Tyler weirdly.

Tyler on the other hand was confused. ”Barrier?”

”Yes sir”

He thought to himself if he had encountered a barrier there before, Azar was driving the carriages at the front of the group and Albert's was at the back, this was because they were the two strongest people who could drive the carriage, and it was a way to protect themselves from attacks from both directions.

Tyler looked ahead and saw Liz looking back at him also clearly confused, she had also not encountered the barrier when she was here, she had assumed Tyler had somehow disabled the barrier and was one of those few individual demons the noble families feared.

A behemoth with power that rivals leaders, maybe not the leaders of the five great families but still a feat that earns them respect from all 70 families. There were Seven such known individuals in the continent and they ruled their own regions making a total of 77 regions.

These seven regions had remained the same since the beginning, not even the great five had bothered them. Whenever any of this behemoth dies another would rise to take his place by way of a tournament, winning the rights to rule the region.

These people valued strength and never bothered with noble polities. Most of them were of common birth and a few were not even demons. Still, they have granted a rank the same level as a demon lord and given regions to govern.

Although there were more than seven such individuals, some of them valued their privacy and had refused to show their identity to the public. The only people aware of these individuals were the leaders who only show them respect on the surface and of course disdain the idea of commoners attaining the same rank as them.

Most times lower-ranked families would often try to recruit a behemoth into their fold, in other to boost their strength and rise through the ranks. Due to the fact that she had found him in the castle able to enter a part of it that was impossible even for the great five, Liz had considered Tyler one of those and had tried to be as respectful as possible without trying to pry into his past.

It was the reason why she had never ask for his name which was probably the same as the others. After all, it was common knowledge that unknown behemoths were very secretive. It was why they worked alone and didn't bother creating a family of their own, of course, there were a few who just didn't want the responsibility that came with a family.

Azar and the others in front felt similar emotions, clearly, Liz and Ty had said they came from the castle, so why was the barrier still active. It was very important to know that the barrier surrounding the demon king's castle was a five-layer barrier, and a layered barrier wasn't as common as a fold. Most casters, to strengthen their barrier would use multiple folds on them, creating a two-fold barrier was common in Neon.

Fold barriers were ways to multiply the strength of any barrier, the more folds you wanted the more Mana is needed, because it was a relatively simpler method to strengthen any barrier and was the popular choice for casters, folds could go all the way to 10 as long as the casters were of a high enough level, they could even surpass this. Whereas layered barriers were insanely more complex, they didn't necessarily increase the strength of a barrier but would make it more impossible to break.

Layered barriers would combine any barrier with another and even add elements of different forms of Magic, the highest level of layered barrier ever achieved was 3, a Grand sorcerer had managed to create a 3 layered barrier several thousand years ago. This grand sorcerer was a high elf, a race that was known to be gifted in magic. It was believed that no one would be able to achieve that level again, but that record was shattered by the demon King one thousand years ago.