Chapter 25: In the Palace (3)

A brief introduction followed before he stepped closer to them. They instinctively took a few steps back, keeping their distance from Vaelcryst Frostbane.

"Are you scared? Come on, don’t be like that~"

Despite his playful tone, they continued retreating, sensing something terrifying emanating from Vaelcryst.

"Where is King Arcane?!" Haruki demanded in a harsh voice.

Vaelcryst raised an eyebrow slightly before answering Haruki’s question.

"Huh? That foolish king?~"

Vaelcryst slowly turned his head to the right as if looking at something. Haruki and the others followed his gaze.

What they saw left them utterly shocked.

King Arcane was no longer a king, but a corpse. He sat lifelessly upon his royal throne.

"Hey! What the hell did you do to King Arcane?!" Aelin shouted furiously, preparing to unleash her Root Magic.

Haruki, Philip, and Magnus clearly weren’t particularly concerned about the king’s death. However, shouldn’t they at least be wondering why the king had died and what Vaelcryst’s true intentions were?

"Wouldn’t it be better to tell the truth in a situation like this?~" Vaelcryst’s smile felt like an arrow piercing straight through their chests.

"I’m the one who killed the king and his guards~"

Hearing this, they grew even more shocked. It was hard to believe that he had killed all those guards by himself.

"You killed them all by yourself?" Magnus asked with an extremely serious expression.

"Obviously~"

After hearing Vaelcryst’s answer, Haruki and the others swiftly moved to attack him. However, just as their attacks were about to land, Vaelcryst vanished without a trace.

"I’m behind you~"

Vaelcryst’s sudden appearance behind them startled everyone. Fortunately, Aelin reacted quickly and used her magic to protect them from an attack from behind.

"You’re pretty fast, aren’t you, woman~"

Vaelcryst retreated a few steps. A brief silence followed before a chilling aura spread throughout the area around them.

"This feels just like fighting those ice soldiers..." Haruki muttered.

"So those ice soldiers belonged to you?" he asked.

"Exactly! But this time, things are different."

A massive block of ice formed behind Vaelcryst. Slowly, the ice began to crumble piece by piece, as though something was taking shape within it.

Philip, who had a bad feeling about the situation, immediately rushed toward Vaelcryst to attack him. However, something long and massive suddenly struck him, sending him flying.

"Philip!!"

Haruki shouted before turning his attention back to the front.

There, he saw something enormous.

It was an ice dragon created by Vaelcryst.

"Let’s play~"

Haruki immediately used his Gravity Magic to force the ice dragon to the ground. However, his spell seemed to have absolutely no effect.

"Such weak magic."

The dragon immediately lunged at Haruki, who managed to block its attack with his dagger, though he was gradually losing the strength to hold it back.

Aelin and Magnus rushed forward to attack the dragon simultaneously. Magnus climbed onto its head, while Aelin attacked from below.

Magnus attempted to plunge his sword into the dragon’s head, but its skull was far too hard to pierce. Meanwhile, Aelin was also struggling to fight the dragon from beneath it.

*Everything here is interesting, I suppose... I wonder how Azrath is doing right now?*

Far away from the battlefield, Lukas had already fallen, unable to continue fighting Azrath.

He was unconscious.

Azrath then crouched down and grabbed Lukas by the hair, tightening his grip before lifting Lukas’s head slightly.

"An unsatisfying battle... Lukas Kline."

He threw Lukas back onto the ground before slowly standing up. Azrath then glanced toward the palace.

*It seems the battle over there has already begun.*

Azrath leisurely began walking along the road leading to the palace.

"I’m coming, Vael."

Meanwhile, at Arcane Academy, the protective barrier remained intact, showing no signs of damage. Vila stood near the academy gates.

"Haruki, where are you going?"

Those were the words Vila spoke when Haruki was about to leave the academy.

"Vila, I don’t want to drag you into this, so... stay here at the academy."

Vila could only remain silent after hearing Haruki’s words. She knew just how dangerous the situation outside had become.

*Please come back soon, Haruki.*

Back at the palace, the battle against Vaelcryst’s ice dragon continued.

Haruki, Philip, and Magnus kept attacking the dragon, while Aelin fought Vaelcryst directly.

"A beautiful woman who’s also fierce. How interesting~"

"Interesting, you say? Just die already, you idiot!"

Vaelcryst felt slightly offended by Aelin’s words. He retaliated by attacking her with a sword made of ice.

Meanwhile, the ice dragon grew increasingly violent as time passed, making it harder for the three men to fight it.

The dragon became even more aggressive before releasing an intensely freezing breath from its mouth, hitting Philip directly.

"Philip!"

However, Haruki knew that Philip wasn’t that weak. He could still sense Philip’s magical aura.

Suddenly, a crack appeared directly above the dragon’s head.

The crack shattered into countless pieces, and Philip emerged from above, dropping down toward the dragon’s head.

Magnus was slightly confused, wondering what Philip was planning to do.

Philip then plunged his dagger into the dragon’s head, using it to anchor himself and prevent himself from falling. He subsequently placed his hand against the dragon’s head and began channeling his magic.

"Rift Magic: Rift Gate!"

Slowly, a black gate tinged with purple began to materialize on the dragon’s head.

Philip then pulled out his dagger and quickly descended to the ground.

Gradually, the dragon began to be pulled into the gate, as though some unknown force were dragging it away to a place no one could identify.

Aelin and Vaelcryst momentarily stopped fighting as they felt the immense magical aura emanating from Philip’s spell.

*Heh, I almost forgot that he’s the protagonist of this world.*

A slight smile appeared on Haruki’s face.

The gate began pulling in everything nearby. Even the king’s lifeless body was being dragged toward it.

Everyone immediately moved away, desperately trying to avoid being sucked into the gate.

Vaelcryst was forced to retreat as well to avoid being pulled in. All he could do was watch as his summoned creature was swallowed by the gate.

...

The ice dragon was now completely inside the gate, yet the gate remained active, continuing to pull in everything around it.

"If this continues... even the entire palace will be swallowed by that gate..." Magnus muttered.

Aelin then ordered Philip to deactivate his spell. However, Philip couldn’t do so because he hadn’t yet figured out how to close it.

They had no choice but to run, but the gate continued pulling them toward it.

Then, Vaelcryst reappeared to tell them something.

"Thanks for playing with me~"

"As a reward, I’ll declare a ceasefire~"

He said this directly to Aelin before casually leaving, gliding away with his Ice Magic.

Now, the four of them were left with no idea how to escape the palace. Aelin tried using her magic, but she still couldn’t withstand the gate’s pull.

Haruki, however, came up with a clever idea. He used his Gravity Magic to force himself and the others downward, attempting to keep them on the ground.

Even so, the gate’s gravitational pull was still overwhelmingly powerful.

*The only way is...*

"I’m sorry, Philip."

"Why are you apologizing, Haruki?"

Haruki then struck the back of Philip’s neck, knocking him unconscious.

As soon as Philip lost consciousness, the spell began to shrink before slowly disappearing altogether.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief before collapsing onto the ground, lying there as they took a few more deep breaths.

"Lucky you knocked him out, Haruki..." Aelin remarked, staring up at the ceiling.

Magnus followed up with a question.

"How did you know that would work?"

Haruki remained silent for a moment, turning his gaze toward the ceiling before answering quietly.

"I’m Philip’s roommate, aren’t I? I know everything about him, including his magic."

Magnus immediately believed him.

At that moment, Haruki recalled the details of Philip’s magic from the novel *TWBTAT* and remembered how Philip had once deactivated the spell by drinking a sleeping pill.

That spell had only been used once in the novel.And now, it had been used for the second time.