Chapter 483 - 483: Invasion [49]

I turned toward her.

She looked at me apologetically, and despite her condition, she still seemed more concerned about what had happened than about herself.

"Sorry I couldn't hold the enemy off."

"What are you apologizing about?" I responded, a slight edge of anger slipping into my voice. "I'm the one who should be sorry for not being here in time."

I wasn't angry at her.

I was angry at myself.

If I had arrived sooner, she wouldn't have been pushed this far in the first place.

"I'm the commander. I should be able to hold the fort."

"And you did great. I feared the clan might have been destroyed, but you and all the goblins here are still alive. You did well. Just leave it to me and focus on recovering."

"The graveyard..."

"I know it's in danger."

"I had to kill Kharos to protect it."

Sheera froze for a brief moment, her hands hovering over Zarah as the words registered. Kharos had been her friend, after all, and hearing that she had killed him clearly wasn't something she could not react to.

But she didn't stop.

After that brief hesitation, Sheera continued her healing, forcing herself to focus on the work in front of her.

I didn't respond immediately either.

I was still struggling to understand why Zarah had made that decision, especially since killing Kharos meant removing one of the people protecting the graveyard.

Then, a few seconds later, it clicked.

My expression changed.

Of course.

There was a reason she had done it.

I mean it wasn't an ideal plan. But it was a plan regardless.

With the graveyard constantly shifting its location and its entrance changing directions, it would take the enemy some time to find it, even if they had somehow managed to figure out that it existed. That should have been enough time for Kharos to return to life.

The only problem was whether he would be sane enough to remember what he had to do after resurrecting.

I wasn't so sure.

Still, it was better than doing nothing.

"You did well. Don't worry. I'll handle the rest."

I said it reassuringly, and Zarah gave a small nod before allowing herself to relax and leave the rest to me.

I walked away from her, and Caius approached a moment later.

"Chief." He bowed.

"Caius." I nodded. "Tell me everything that happened. Why were you all separated?"

"Three portals suddenly appeared, spilling orcs into the clan. Myself, Commander Zarah, and Shaman Narg each took one of the portals ourselves, while the rest of the goblins focused on leading the evacuation."

He spoke quickly, clearly understanding that there was no time to waste on unnecessary details.

"I see. And where were you headed before I got here? I saw you heading somewhere."

" I was going to Granny Flogga's workshop. I saw a vision of Granny Flogga getting killed by Raghul. But I ran into the undead orcs on the way. I dealt with them and continued, but then you arrived."

I nodded at his response.

The enemies had deliberately split us apart, spreading our forces thin and forcing everyone into isolated battles where they could be overwhelmed. If we had been together from the beginning, things might have turned out very differently.

If I had been here before we accepted goblins we knew nothing about...

I shook my head, refusing to dwell on that thought.

There was no point in questioning decisions I had already made while the battle was still happening. What mattered was that the enemies were now trapped, my people were still alive, and I had finally returned.

Now it was time to make sure they regretted coming here.

"Flogga is alive and well. She's in another spatial layer. I'll dismiss this layer and return you to the real world. Protect the graveyard, and find out where Narg is, because he's not in the clan at the moment."

Caius raised a brow at that comment and responded:

"Yes, Chief."

"I'll return when I've finished off the enemy. Hold the fort."

"By enemy, you mean?"

"Raghul and his orcs. They're in a separate layer."

I responded, and Caius nodded in understanding.

I dismissed the spatial layer, causing the space around us to collapse and sending Caius and everyone else inside it back into the real world.

I then did the same with the layer where Granny Flogga and the other goblins were, making sure they were safely returned before turning my attention toward the layers where I had separated the enemies.

The enemies were split between two strata.

One contained Raghul and the goblin who had nearly killed Zarah, while the other contained the undead orcs.

I went to the undead orcs first.

*

Raghul stood in a strange blue space, staring ahead with a stunned expression.

Just moments ago, he had been standing in front of the old goblin, ready to kill her and everyone hiding behind the barrier before raising their corpses as his minions. He had already reached the point where victory seemed inevitable.

Then, without warning, strange blue lines suddenly spread across the space around him.

Before Raghul could even react, the world seemed to shift.

And in the next instant, his targets were gone.

"What the hell?"

He looked around in confusion, slowly turning his head as he examined the unfamiliar surroundings. The barrier was gone, along with the old goblin and the terrified group of goblins who had been waiting for him to tear through them.

Only an endless blue space surrounded him.

"What was this?"

He turned again, his instincts immediately warning him that he wasn't alone.

A figure had appeared some distance away.

Raghul's body tensed, his attention locking onto the newcomer as he prepared himself for another attack. But then he recognized the familiar face, and the tension in his body eased slightly.

"Wes."

He called out.

Wes turned toward him, and the expression on his face mirrored Raghul's own confusion.

He looked around the strange blue space, clearly trying to understand where he had been taken and how he had ended up there.

"Chief," Wes responded and hurried forward. "What the hell just happened?"

Raghul had already been thinking about it, running through everything that had happened in his mind, and only one answer made sense.

"Their chief... Their chief most likely has escaped the prison we trapped him in."

"What?!" Wes exclaimed, his expression changing immediately. "That is not possible. No one should be able to break out of that. No Chosen should. It's SS Rank. This is something else."

Raghul didn't respond.

It wasn't that the [Folded Prison] was completely impossible to break out of. Its description never claimed that nothing could escape it. However, it had clearly stated that the prison could not contain an immensely powerful being.

At the time, Raghul hadn't thought much about that particular limitation. There had been no reason to.

But now...

Could it mean Eli was one of those immensely powerful beings the description was referring to?

Raghul's expression darkened.

If that was the case, then the implications were far more serious than he had initially imagined.

Eli hadn't simply escaped an SS Rank prison.

He had broken through something that was specifically designed to contain beings of their level.

Which meant Eli was far more powerful than an SS Rank prison was ever meant to handle.

That made no sense.

No Chosen in this world should have been capable of reaching that level of power. It simply wasn't possible.

Unless...unless he wasn't...No.

Raghul immediately dismissed the thought. That couldn't be right either. Eli was participating in the King's Game, and only Chosen were allowed to compete.

But then...

He remembered the first time Eli had broken into their clan back when Caius was still chief.

The barrier had been powered by multiple garnets, yet Eli had torn through it.

Raghul had thought it was absurd at the time, as he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes.

Then there was Caius.

Eli had defeated him inside his own domain, where Caius should have possessed an overwhelming advantage. That alone should have been enough to make Raghul reconsider just how strong the goblin chief truly was.

He didn't like the conclusion, but the feats Eli had displayed made it difficult to argue against.

Then Raghul sensed something, and his expression changed instantly.

"So what do you think this place is?" Wes asked, looking around at the strange blue surroundings, but Raghul didn't respond.

"Is this a prison or a domain?" Wes continued, glancing around uneasily. "You know, if it's a domain, I'm screwed, right?"

Raghul didn't respond.

"Right?" Wes asked again, but there was still no response.

Wes turned toward Raghul, only to find the goblin standing completely still, his jaw slightly slack and his eyes wide with disbelief. Whatever he had sensed had clearly shaken him, and for someone like Raghul, who rarely allowed his emotions to show, that alone was enough to make Wes uneasy.

"Chief... you good?" he asked.

Raghul didn't look at him.

Instead, he remained focused on the strange sensation he was receiving, as though he were trying to understand something that should have been impossible.

"In a flash..."

Wes frowned, completely confused by the words.

"In a flash, what?"

Raghul finally turned toward him.

His expression had become grim.

"In a flash..." He paused, his voice noticeably quieter than before. "All of the undead orcs I created have been destroyed."