Chapter 254 - A Mysterious Castle
Arthur didn't care much about the next confrontations. He just hoped he would take much more of pillars before the clan would take note of his actions.
"If so, then I can fool them," he muttered as he decided to change the play –for a little.
He then let Tina kill the mages and warriors here before he took the pillar like usual. When he appeared on top of the dying black star, he had made up his mind.
"No, we aren't going to continue that way," he said, stopping Sara from moving towards the next star.
"Why?" Tina asked.
"Just a little change," he paused as he was checking the whole map in front of him, "to be much safer."
He didn't explain more, as he chose to go the opposite direction of here. The stars were grouped into major three, and he decided to attack a couple of each group, randomly and without order.
This was to inflict more chaos to his enemies, making them unable to read his next move, unable to fortify every single pillar, and if they did their support would be stretched out.
"This way," he said, moving out towards the distant stars in the opposite direction. The two followed his direction, while he rode over Tina's back, glancing over the whole map.
He was thinking of this map, all these stars and roads connecting them as a giant spider web, and he would be the spider to eat all of his enemies.
To do so, he was now visualizing the steps he could take, anticipating their actions and behavior, so he could choose his next step wisely.
"Spread, scatter, confuse, and conquer… that will be my strategy here," he muttered to himself while the two girls went to the star he selected.
"Like usual," he whispered to the two girls, as they moved to the side while he used the sealing runes to set up a formation around the portal leading to the main clan. Then he used a small fragment of the heavenly treasure, divided it to yield two small fingernails pieces, planted one in the warehouse, before leaving the place with the girls.
"This one," he selected another one, slightly away from the first star. He did the same there, before retreating and pointing to the previous direction of the twenty stars as he said:
"Let's go back."
The girls followed his instructions, despite not fully understanding what his real intentions were.
"Tina will come with me, Sara, you go inside and do as we agreed upon," he gave his instructions to the two, changing the order of their attack.
The two girls nodded, before Sara went towards the star he selected, and then Tina led him into the pocket world.
He did so to confuse the enemy about their ability to hunt down the pillars. He wouldn't set a definite pattern for his movements, so he wouldn't be anticipated.
Speed wasn't the issue anymore, pattern, deceiving the enemy about his abilities were the more stressing issues right now; and he was trying his best to make his enemy confused.
The moment he went inside the world, he was met with loud noises of battle. "Fly towards the portal," he said, and Tina took him towards there.
Throughout the journey, he didn't speak much with her, as he delved with his mind inside the heavenly treasure, making sure his two gained populations were safe.
What surprised him was that they didn't only stay inside safe and sound, they had the time to construct some villages and live there happily without any problems. Arthur forgot about the time difference between the two worlds, and it seemed during his hours fighting and moving from world to another, weeks or even months passed upon the villagers inside.
'As long as you are safe nothing matters,' he thought to himself when he checked upon the group of villagers he most cared about, those craftsmen who could make weapons.
Even inside the heavenly garden, they didn't stop looking for ores and made many weapons. Arthur was speechless as he didn't expect his garden to contain ore veins as well!
'Great, it seems I don't need to take all of them out.' He thought of the time factor inside the garden, making him consider leaving them inside, to make as many weapons as they could.
And for the ores and other materials, it seemed he didn't need to worry about these anymore.
"The portal is there," Tina said, disturbing his line of thoughts. The moment he glanced at the portal, he felt something was odd.
"Where are the reinforcements?" this wasn't only his question, but also Tina was thinking the same thing, as they both glanced from the distance over the completely still and silent portal.
"Were they killed by the monsters? We might have come late!" Tina muttered, however Arthur knew something wasn't right here.
"The portal is already sealed," he muttered as he sensed the portal and found it completely closed. "Who sealed it? you?" Tina asked, while Arthur just shook his head. "It seems they did," he said, as he glanced back towards the pillar direction.
"Want to go back and ask them nicely?"
"We don't need to waste time, we can simply ask those in the outside world," he then pointed to the ground, "take me there," he ordered.
Tina landed on the spot he selected. "It's a strange sealing formation," he muttered after observing the portal from different places for an hour. "It might be more than just a sealing formation then," he reached this conclusion as he sensed the fluctuation of energy around the portal, caused by more than one source.
He took his ores and tools. "No matter what, all will be weak in front of a fiery destruction formation, right?" he then started to make many groups of runes, each formed of nine ores grouped together to form one rune, and each nine runes were grouped together to form one group.
And he made eighty one group of such runes. The runes had the words Break, Fire, Destroy, and Unseal, making him produce eighty one group of each word.
"I'm ready," he said to Tina after distributing the runes into two intersecting nine headed stars, "we might face some angry folks here."
"Then let's fly and wait for them to calm down," she paused before adding in her ferocious manner, "or do you prefer for me to kill them?"
"Just rise," he said after burying the last rune underground, putting his blood over this last group, and then activating the formation.
"Rumble!"
As he jumped on Tina's back, hurrying her to rise, the portal shook massively, as a huge fiery wave erupted from it, taking the portal as a centre, before spreading for miles around it, killing any monster or tree in the way.
"Wow, your formation is so mighty!" Tina roared happily as she watched this devastation caused by his formation.
"It wasn't supposed to do that," he muttered, with some loss and confusion. his formation was supposed to attack the gate, crushing the formations sealing it, moving inward, not outward like this.
"There must be an explanation," he muttered, before watching the fire decreasing in intensity before gradually dying down.
It took half an hour for the fire to disappear and the ground to cool down. "Where are those angry little humans?" Tina asked in a frustrated tone, and Arthur just shared her confusion, not frustration.
"Take us through the portal to see what's there on the other side."
Tina took him fast towards the portal. the more he appeared next to it, the more he felt strange currents of energy flowing chaotically around the portal, sometimes flowing in, sometimes flowing out, like a breathing pattern.
"Is there a huge monster on the other side?" even Tina noticed it, asking him this question. "We will know the answer right away," he replied, while preparing himself for a grand fight.
The moment Tina passed through the portal, the two of them were ready for a brutal fight, however what welcomed them was a strange tranquility.
"Weird, where is the monster?" Tina asked, "where are the warriors?"
"…"
Arthur didn't reply as he glanced around him, sensing the energy flowing in the place. "Chaotic, angry, resentful," he muttered before glancing towards a distant direction, where a veil of white fog covered the top of a low mountain. "So they are trying to drain your strength?" he softly muttered as he was attracted to the distant mountain.
"What are you mumbling about? Huh?"
"Let's go back, there is nothing for us here."
"What about the monsters? What about the warriors?"
"Just go now, I will explain things later."
Unwillingly she returned back inside the pocket world, where she flew again towards the pillar. She kept asking Arthur about what was there, but he kept his silence.
What he felt out there was a disturbed angry flow of energy caused by the mighty clash of two titans; two grand formations.
He didn't know if the castle he saw was surrounded by pillars or it was sealed and they were trying to unlock the seal. "Either way this castle held something important for them, so it's only polite of me to come and claim all the pillars," he muttered to himself with shining eyes.
"Again?! Are you going to ignore me forever like this? I'm mad at you, if you care!"
He was jolted awake by Tina's voice. He just patted on her smooth scales on her back while saying:
"I do care, very much actually. Just be patient, a huge meal for you is on its way."
"Meal? What? Hurry and tell me… I like eating a lot!"
"Sigh!"
He sighed, while leaving her making a fuss over what he said, wrongly interpreting his words for another meaning.
What saved him was the appearance of the pillar, where he turned into a dragon, let Tina loose over the mages and warriors down below, before moving to obtain the pillar.
Once more the venerable being was summoned, and he just glanced, said nothing, and even Arthur felt a satisfying glance in the two giant eyes.
"Let's go," the moment he appeared in the map world he jumped over Tina's back and headed straight towards the next star.. At this point, Arthur decided to clear all the stars surrounding that castle first, before heading back towards the two stars at the opposite side.