235 Heated battle. (1/2)

'How long will those things be up for...' he thought as he looked at the Palace just a short distance away from him.

Jinx had disappeared and made it look as if she was the reason for the false alarm, and no one knew that he was inside the estate.

However, what kept him hiding in a tree was the fact that Mana had formed a thick layer of shield all around the Palace, and he also guessed that all of the defensive formations were active at the moment.

Though they didn't know his presence, he would still have to wait here until the formations are put back to sleep again.

'Hurry up!' he muttered in his mind as he saw the guards run around all over the estate in search of the intruder.

The fact that they hadn't found him already proved the fact that the formation could indeed only locate people with Mana.

'Heh... Everyone relies on Mana too much...' Ozul muttered. Though he wasn't complaining because the situation had also become favorable to him because of that.

After all, no one expected someone to get so strong and infiltrate their territory without a speck of Mana.

In the end, he decided to just wait and hope that whoever had the 'controller' of the formations quickly shut them down.

. . .

Another hour passed by, and Rufus had enough of it. He had all of the guards mobilized, and they had searched the whole estate more than twice!

And because of the formations near the Palace, the intruder had no chances to pass through. Even if they were somehow able to, it would create noises that would be hard to ignore for even normal people.

By now, he firmly believed that it was really just because of the black cat, and some sort of problem must have occurred in the formation this time for it to give a false alarm because of that small cat.

Since they didn't find anyone, he entered the Palace to report this to the Empress.

'The formations are up for a couple of hours now, they must have used quite a lot of resources already,' Rufus thought as he walked inside the Palace. For some reason, none of the active formations attacked him.

”Only she can stop them…” he muttered as he made his way to the throne room.

In the absence of the Emperor, the man himself had declared that everyone, be it the Ministers or the Military Commanders, all of them had to listen to the orders of the Empress, who herself was a peak Rank-8 Mage.

Unlike other kings, Emperor Luthien had only married once and there were no concubines in the Royal Palace whatsoever.

When Rufus entered the throne room, the Empress sat at the very end of the room, on a seat just next to the Emperor's throne.

It was a giant hall and Rufus walked halfway through before he knelt on one leg and uttered, ”Your Majesty,”

”Your Majesty…” Rufus began to explain the situation in detail and briefed the Empress with his speculation as well.

The Empress calmly listened to his every word and did not speak until he had finished.

”Continue your search, Sir Rufus. I don't doubt your assumption, but the formations have never given a false alarm in decades. Protecting the Palace is our priority, and we have enough resources to burn a little without worrying.”

Emperor Luthien had strictly told them to not let any outsider get in the Royal Palace at all costs. And being the Royal family, they had enough resources to have the formations active for much longer than this.

'Still, they need to quickly find the culprit. Even when I can allow wasting all these resources for now, it cannot go on for long or we might really run out when there is a real emergency,' the Empress did not show all of these thoughts on her face.

Being the Empress of such a large kingdom, she not only had the authoritative aura but also the ability to keep up a poker face in desperate situations.

Rufus did not question her decision and only solemnly nodded his head before taking his leave. Being the Chief Leader of the Silver Knights, he was aware of many things and could guess that the Empress was worried as well.

*Sigh…*

'Why now?!' Rufus had been planning to spend this time training his granddaughter, and now he had to run all over the estate to find someone who might not even exist. The situation had truly managed to annoy him.

In the end, Ozul was again left hanging with the Royal Palace not deciding to take down the formations even after so much time.

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While all of that had happened in the Silverbird Kingdom, the people in the Neutral City all talked about the ongoing tournament.

Two separate platforms were set for the battles and since the other middle-stage Rank-8 was assigned to Raven's ring, there were two initial stage Rank-8 in Blaze's ring.

One of them was Clara from the Church of Light, while the other person was from the Ashin family. Leaving the rest of the people on the platform, Blaze didn't even pay attention to these two.