"You know, it's rather rare for the King to personally take action. The times King Baal had bothered to personally fight can be counted on two hands, and even then it was only when it was absolutely necessary. Us Shadow Kings were really taken aback when it reached our ears that he would do so in that attack against Pandapolis." Starry Mood said and with a point of her finger, her frontline battle mages went in to disable the soldiers of Aljun City within the hanger.
Wyrstriker and his trusty wyvern did aid with the opening volley by shooting several fireballs at the entrances of the hangar as well as a few anti air defence installations before flying away. This allowed the Eld Enclave to enter into the battlefield without any casualties which allowed Rex to thank the Leader of Goblin Wyvern Knight and then looked at Starry Mood to answer her question.
"King Baal is King Baal, and I'm me. If this helps to earn the trust of one of the Shadow Kings, I see no reason to remain in the castle. Besides, I have trusted allies and aides overseeing the fight. Consider this as a sort of routine exercise before going back to work." Rex smiled as he raised his sword up and the chi energies within him transferred into it.
In a few seconds, the sword vibrated and multiple illusions of the sword emerged from the sword's hilt. Whenever an enemy soldier tried to come near the Eld Enclave's mages, his sword's illusion would quickly swipe him or her away from the battlefield.
"Still, you sure have created an interesting magic that I fail to comprehend. Heh, here I thought the new magical crystals of Aljun City were a mystery, yet I somehow stumbled into a bigger one." Starry Mood noted as she followed quietly behind Rex who he walked through the mages and into the frontline as if he was on a leisure walk and not surrounded by enemies.
"You mean the System? It's not exactly magic. More like a miracle from another world… or perhaps it would help you to think of it as a sentient Super Dungeon Core?" Rex mused as he used his chi once more and the flames emanating from the earlier fireball attacks dissipated momentarily for Starry Mood and him to walk through. "It did give you the information you needed to aid us, did it not?"
"Yes, but to have a compulsive kind of charm that forces the entire mafia under me to serve it, it is a world class magic in my opinion! Hmm, but for it to keep our minds and behaviour intact while merely limiting our freedom…perhaps world class is still a bit of an understatement. I think it could be an astral class tier magic instead." Starry Mood theorised.
Another bunch of soldiers came to intercept the duo through the corridors when they exited the hangar. They were cladded with armour and armed with large heavy automated crossbows.
Starry Mood believed Rex's sword illusions would be rendered useless against the enemies' armour and wanted to help by casting a spell of her own. However, she was once again amazed that Rex sauntered towards them with no protection spells or offensive magic at hand. Instead, she watched Rex raise his sword once more and simply point at them.
The soldiers didn't hesitate to fire off their arrows at him immediately once they saw him bring his sword up. They took him for a suicidal fool who had underestimated their arrows which were made from the same material as their armour. From the nock to the tip of the arrow, they had been tempered with iron alloy which could be used as the foundation of a brand new sword. So, in short, they were like Rex, shooting swords out from their weapons.
Rex found this oddly fun as the sword illusions above him went ahead to counter each and every arrow. He was surprised when he discovered that the illusions were only sufficient in stopping the arrows, unable to pierce through them. It was then he noticed that those crossbows weren't mere wood and iron. He could sense they were something similar to this particular ship. There was actually a crystal mechanism inside the crossbow which powered the limbs and wheels. It even provided magical energies via the flight groove of the crossbow, enabling it to be a magical shot.
"Hooo. Looks like their crystal engineering is of a certain grade right now. And for them to implement a crystal within weapons means their engineers know a thing or two about crystal imbuing." Starry Mood commented as she snapped her fingers. "At the same time it means that if they were to fight with someone who has sufficient knowledge regarding those crystals, it will actually be a bane."
At that moment, both their armour and weapons exploded. The armour suddenly became too heavy for the soldiers and they fell down since their body could not resist the weight. The crossbow weapons were broken and couldn't be salvaged.
"If you can do this, why not just break the crystal of this Flying Fortress?" Rex asked as he held his hand from attacking any further. After all, he had only been expending less than 1% of his chi energies to create those sword illusions. (Where was the fun in killing everyone before learning more of Starry Mood's abilities?)
"If they are indeed able to power this entire ship with just a single crystal, it would mean that they've found the motherlode of all crystals. To break that would be a pity. Also, my intuition is telling me that the crystal could be something else entirely." Starry Mood answered as she used her magic to raise the bits of crystals left from the devastation she created previously. The bits twinkled a little before Rex saw them flying into the crevices of the soldiers' armour.
The next moment, they started to wring in pain.
But that was not the end as the armour started to move on its own despite the actions of the soldier inside them and Rex realised that Starry Mood's Shadow King title wasn't in vain. She had enabled the crystal centric armour to move with her own powers.
"Why does it feel that you're way too familiar with the insides of the armour design?" Rex asked as he watched the armours line up in a straight file to give way for Starry Mood and him to walk through. After which they followed her behind like a pack of thralls even though the soldiers in them were screaming from the excruciating pain.
"I'm starting to feel that it was you who has secretly manipulated me and the System to assist you with some hidden revenge plot." Rex mused as he walked behind Starry Mood through the ship's corridors who seemed to be heading down a certain road.
"Would that be so bad? As long as our goals align, everything should be good, right? If not, you could call it a tit for a tat for all that commotion you cause earlier in Demopolis." Starry Mood smiled under her veil as she proceeded further into the Flying Fortress.
