By Zephyria As one side of the barrier collapsed, one of the members standing in the second row on the right, who was close to the citizens, fell to the ground. The member in the back row was also about to fall but barely managed to avoid it as the members next to him grabbed his arm tightly.
But the real problem was elsewhere. As the barrier collapsed, a small space temporarily opened up in that area, and taking advantage of the chaos, someone threw a glass bottle.
“Oh, oh no—!”
“Please don’t come closer!”
Amidst the people pushing and the members holding their ground, the glass bottle flew towards the iron bars at high speed. Seeing this, Hugo instantly reached out and grabbed it right in front of the bars, then glared sharply in the direction the bottle had come from.
Those nearby hesitated at his chilling gaze and looked around for a moment. Then, another glass bottle flew from the crowd, and a member reflexively knocked it away.
The deflected bottle shattered in mid-air, scattering shards in all directions.
“Kyaaah—!”
People nearby screamed as sharp objects fell on their heads. At the same time, a fragment must have hit one of the horses in front of the bars, as it neighed and suddenly cried out in surprise.
Then, the other horses connected to it also became agitated and began to buck. Andreas shouted with a noticeably flustered expression.
“What’s wrong, why all of a sudden!”
“Commander, the horses seem startled!”
One of the elites tried to calm the horse, but it wouldn’t listen and struggled, kicking its hooves.
That was the beginning. That movement felt like a whip to the other horses, and the excited ones suddenly sped up and started running.
Flynn, who was holding the reins, briefly lost his grip due to the rapidly running horse, then quickly flew up and climbed onto the horse at the front to calm it down. Then, he turned around and shouted to Hugo.
“Captain!”
As the horses picked up speed and ran madly, the connected iron bars rattled and shook violently. The members in charge of guarding also flew up, surrounding the bars as they flew at the speed of the horses.
Hugo also followed closely behind, urgently shouting to the elites surrounding him.
“Cut the links connecting the horses!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than one of the elites from the 4th Division drew his sword and struck the link connecting the horse and the iron bars with all his might. Another member also struck the opposite side with his sword. The link was cut at once, and the excited horses continued straight ahead and ran forward.
Since the charging horses could injure the citizens, Hugo looked at Flynn, who was clinging tightly to the horse, and said.
“Flynn, lead the horses straight to the main building!”
“Yes, I understand!”
Even in the urgent situation, Flynn, who answered bravely, tightly gripped the reins of the running horse and struggled to raise his upper body. As he barely managed to keep his balance and started driving the horse straight ahead, Hugo immediately turned his eyes to the iron cage.
The connection with the horse was severed, but the iron wheels, once accelerated, were still spinning rapidly.
Hugo, who had no time to relax, immediately sped up and flew in front of the direction the iron cage was rolling. Then, he gathered cold air in his hand, grabbed the approaching iron cage, and gradually applied force in the opposite direction to prevent it from gaining speed.
As he touched the iron cage, the ice rapidly vaporized upon meeting the high temperature, making a sizzling sound. At the same time, steam filled the surroundings, blurring the vision.
Thud!
Amidst the chaos, Hugo felt a growing sense of unease as he heard a suspicious sound of something colliding inside.
While he was struggling to block the huge mass of iron head-on, a green light intensely rose from under the ground and quickly expanded its range. Andreas, who was behind him, had placed his hand on the ground and deployed a magic circle.
In the area where the green magic circle was spread, thick tree trunks began to spring up through the fine cracks in the split ground. The trunks quickly intertwined, creating a solid net, and Andreas manipulated it to instantly entangle the rolling iron wheels.
At that moment, the wheels tangled in the trunks abruptly stopped rotating, and the iron cage shook violently as a result. In the precarious situation, the elites of the 4th Division tried to help Hugo by moving to the front of the iron cage, but Hugo, gritting his teeth, urgently stopped them.
“Don’t touch the iron cage. Help Andreas from behind!”
“Yes!”
Immediately turning their direction, the 4th Division members grabbed the rough tree trunks created by Andreas and pulled back with all their might. As a result, the friction between the wheels and the ground became stronger, making a deafening sound, and people covered their ears with painful expressions.
Screech!
Hugo, who was holding the bars and trying to minimize the impact, also frowned at the sharp, nerve-wracking sound. Just as he lowered his head to try to endure it somehow, his eyes flashed sharply as he looked down.
Whether it was because Andreas’s tree trunks and the addition of the elites were quite effective, the things passing before his eyes were gradually slowing down.
Sensing the clearly changed speed, Hugo seized the opportunity, planted his feet on the ground, and pushed the iron cage in the opposite direction with all his might. Then, friction occurred where he placed his feet, and smoke instantly covered the area. The ground, unable to withstand the pressure, was pushed back as it was, digging deep.
Hugo’s two legs, which had been holding out, were buried in it, and the iron cage, which had been tilting to one side due to the tree trunks, made a loud noise and finally came to a sudden stop.
The fervent cheers disappeared without a trace, and only murmuring sounds were heard around.
The plaza road that the formation had passed through was a mess, with the stone pavement broken and the soil exposed. At the same time, dust swirled chaotically, indicating that there had been a great commotion on the road they had passed.
Hugo, who briefly exhaled a long-held breath, paused to catch his breath and looked at his palms, from which cold steam was rising.
Even though he had touched the iron cage with the durable white gloves of the Council, covered with ice, the gloves were burned, and the skin exposed between them felt hot as if it had suffered a slight burn. The surface of Andreas’s tree trunks, which had wrapped around the iron wheels, was also crackling and burning, falling to the ground.
Hugo, staring silently at the embers, immediately regained his senses and raised his head to examine the condition of the Magic Stone and the seals surrounding the iron cage.
Soon, his face gradually hardened. Before long, a short sigh escaped from his lips.
“Oh, no….”
The seals that had been wrapped around the surface of the iron cage were shaking, and their positions had changed a lot compared to the beginning due to the impact. Andreas, who had quickly flown to Hugo’s side, also noticed his hardened expression while examining the situation and asked.
“What’s wrong? Shouldn’t it be over if it stops?”
“The seal is disturbed.”
“What?”
The energy felt right nearby was unusual. Hugo, narrowing his brow, said to Andreas without taking his eyes off the iron cage.
“Evacuate the citizens immediately.”
It was true that the seal had been slightly disturbed by the aftermath of just now, but even so, the sealing stones in front of him were not at the level of child’s play. Literally, even a Dragon wouldn’t be able to move a finger with this level of restraint. Andreas, unable to understand why Hugo was making such a serious expression, just stared blankly.
And then.
Creak! Creak, creak!
The iron cage began to shake even more violently than before, making sounds. As Andreas flinched and turned his head, a chilling energy that overflowed from within slightly flowed out and brushed against his skin.
However, before he could properly feel it, Hugo once again shouted fiercely at Andreas.
“Hurry!”
At Hugo’s voice, he seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation, nodded, and instructed his subordinates.
“Evacuate all the citizens and put up barriers in all directions. It’s an emergency!”
“Yes, I understand!”
The elites of the 4th Division, who immediately scattered, deployed stronger barriers than the general members, securing a wide space centered on the iron cage. Seeing this, the other members also drove away the citizens around them, making them move away from the scene.
“It’s an emergency! Everyone, step back!”
Amidst the serious atmosphere, at the word emergency, the people who were watching suddenly screamed and began to retreat urgently.
Even those who had been rushing at Leonardo with the momentum to kill him until just now seemed to have sensed the unusual atmosphere and hurriedly turned around and ran away, trying to save themselves first.
They were panic-stricken, as if the lion they had been watching had escaped from its cage. In the midst of this, as citizens pushed and fell over each other, causing injuries, the plaza, which had been filled with a unified voice, was filled with chaotic screams and became a scene of pandemonium.
Hugo pushed Andreas back due to the different energy felt from the iron cage and also moved away from the iron cage himself. Then, he chanted in a low, cool voice.
“Ice Wall.”
As he chanted the spell, a large blue magic circle shone and instantly spread across the vast land. As the ice wall rose high, cutting through the ground above the huge magic circle illuminating his feet, the people who were running away stopped and exclaimed as they saw it.
Hugo and Andreas simultaneously flew up and climbed to the top of the ice wall. Perhaps because of the magnificent ice that was higher than the surrounding buildings and cast a shadow over the plaza, a cool air circulated around the plaza, which had been warm.
Since there was hardly any chance to see this scale of magic power in the Imperial City, people seemed to think they would be safe and looked up at it with their mouths open, cheering again.
However, Andreas, who had been worried about the aftermath while dragging the tree trunks from the ground and seeing the ground being dug up, was speechless as he looked down at Hugo’s magnificent ice wall that cut through the ground in the middle of the Imperial City and rose up.
“H-hey, Commander. Are you sure this is okay? This is the Imperial City. Do we have to go this far?”
“Go this far?”
Hugo looked at Andreas and chuckled.
“Andreas, you’re underestimating him.”
* * *
When the iron cage had passed through its long journey and just reached the gate of the Imperial City, Leonardo, trapped inside, was lying spread-eagled with his arms, legs, and neck all bound.
He was bound by restraints made of Magic Stone, which were wrapped around every joint of Leonardo’s body, firmly fixing him to the floor of the iron cage.
The bars of the iron cage also contained ingredients that weakened the energy of magic power, as it was designed to confine powerful demon beasts, and the outside of the bars was also tightly wrapped with black cloth that blocked light and sound to some extent, fixed with all sorts of Magic Stone nets and sealing stones.
In short, he was in a state where he was completely suppressed by the energy of suppression and could not even move a finger.
However, even in the midst of this, Leonardo, who was very angry, emitted heat from his body to the point where the iron cage became very hot. If the place where he was confined had not used special materials, it would have all melted away in the heat long ago.
Until now, he had been guessing where this place was only by the shaking that traveled up from the floor and the small sounds he could hear, with his eyes and ears covered and a gag in his mouth.
However, the moment the slowly moving iron cage passed through the teleport zone of the last gate.
He realized with his instincts, not his five senses, that he had entered the Imperial City, which he so despised.
A strong anger, as if blood was rushing backwards from deep within his body and his internal organs were twisting, was felt. As stimulating cheers and accusations against him were heard from all directions, piercing through his blocked ears, each of his cells was engulfed in a raging fire and seething.
‘I dedicated everything to the Empire.’
It felt as if his whole body was burning hot. Like that morning when he was blamed for everything, he felt like he was falling into an endless abyss.
‘The fact that you guys can live comfortably in this Imperial City right now is all thanks to me.’
His body trembled with anger at the humans who knew nothing. He felt wronged and enraged by the ignorance of the public.
‘Just die.’
‘Why did you come back alive?’
Various hallucinations whispered in Leonardo’s ear. His body twisted at the whispers that drove him crazy. At the same time, the sound of people cheering outside pierced his heart and brain as if they were cheering for his defeat.
Was a single act of disobedience so heavy a crime that he had to hear the words to die from the people he had risked his life to protect?
Why do they cheer so much, why do they resent so much, and why do they hate so much?
‘Murderer.’
Leonardo’s breathing became rapid. His head ached extremely, as if it was being pierced with an awl by the sounds ringing in his ears. Although his eyes were covered and he couldn’t see anything, it felt as if hands reaching out to him were lurking before his eyes.
Everything was futile.
Remembering past glories, resenting those who knew nothing, and being hurt by their words were all futile acts.
But why did the world keep dragging him, who was trying to endure, back into all the things he wanted to get rid of and throwing him into the mire? Why was he being made to suffer like this? Why were they so eager to tear his flesh apart? He couldn’t understand at all.
While Leonardo was fighting against the hatred that was strangling his neck, suddenly the iron cage shook roughly with a thud, and he felt the shocks rising from the ground getting bigger and bigger. Following that, the violent cries of the excited horses were sharply embedded in his ears like an ominous premonition.
Soon, the shaking iron cage quickly gained speed and moved so fast that he could feel it from the inside, and the urgent voices of the Council guys were heard around him.
As the hallucinations whispering in his ear faded, his mind was gradually becoming clearer.
Leonardo, who opened his eyes in the darkness, sensed Hugo’s magic power flowing in from the blocked outside with his skin, even while his whole body was bound. The fact that he was emitting magic power to the point where it could be felt beyond this iron cage, even in the Imperial City, clearly meant that something was wrong.
As the iron cage swayed and the frequency of the shocks increased, the force binding his body gradually loosened.
At that moment, Leonardo sensed that an opportunity had come to him.