Seeing the incoming fire breath, even Master did not dare to slacken. Another tool same as the one he used to block Leavemealone’s Fire God Barrage was in his hand again. The same prismatic shell enveloped his body. But due to that, his enhanced flame whip was canceled. Jack came free.
Without further ado, Jack and Leavemealone rushed to the silvery portal. Wilted Tree was using two guns in her hand to repel Motherboard from coming close. The second gun looked more like a miniature cannon, the shot was louder which Jack thought should be more powerful but with a slower rate of fire.
Mazin was protecting Wilted Tree from Master’s avatar. Jack’s Rock Golem was assisting Mazin but Jack ordered it to come and take care of the hellhounds.
Motherboard saw the precariousness of the situation and took something out. Jack assumed it was a throwing tool. Whether offensive or supportive, Jack didn’t want her to throw that thing in her hand. Jack’s Wind Slash shot out. The extremely fast energy wind cut at Motherboard’s hand which was holding the tool. Motherboard didn’t loosen her grip but she staggered as tremendous damage number appeared on her. She survived though.
“Let’s go!” Jack called out while Motherboard staggered. He took the lead and jumped inside the silvery portal, followed closely by Leavemealone. Wilted Tree didn’t dally, she jumped into the portal as Mazin reverted to a metallic ball and returned to her hand. Only Jack’s Rock Golem stayed back and continued to block the others.
After Wilted Tree disappeared into the portal, it vanished, just as one of the hellhounds jumped and attempted to follow in. The silvery portal was placed at the edge of the tower’s top, so when it disappeared, only empty space was there. The hellhound which tried to follow Wilted into the portal, plunged to the ground far below.
Jack’s rock golem stopped moving once the portal disappeared. It then crumbled into heaps of rocks.
Syndrillis, who saw her rescuers had escaped, stopped her fire breath. She stared at Master who was still protected by the prismatic shell.
“Hmph! I will deal with you and your lots once I fully recover,” She said and then turned back and flew away. Even with her current weakened condition, she could still easily take care of Master, but she didn’t know how many of those protective tools Master possessed. She also felt a couple of strong presence flying at high speed to their location. It must be those cult’s heavy hitters. She did not want to take the risk so she left.
Wong came up soon, seeing the devastation and the absence of Leavemealone, he could surmise what had happened.
“I’m sorry, Master. The dragon is too strong for us, we can’t hold her,” Wong said.
“It is expected. I’ve summoned the cult after hearing the dragon’s roar. They still took their sweet time here. I might need to talk with their God again,” Master said.
“I will head out again to chase that boy with the Fire God Blessing.”
“No. We have wasted enough time looking for them. Now with the dragon free, our time frame is limited. It will be difficult to trap her again now that she knows our intention. We should gain as much foothold as we can during the time she is recovering. Once this country is ours, we will proceed to the others. When this whole world is ours, there is no place those rebellious boys can hide. The divine treasures will still be mine in the end. The same goes for your traitorous student. Go and help the others in this nation’s conquest!”
Wong gave a respectful nod and went away.
In a deserted warehouse inside a city, a silvery portal appeared. Jack, Peniel, Wilted Tree, and Leavemealone came out of it.
“Phew, finally we are safe!” They turned to the voice and saw Carnelia appearing.
“You chickenshit! So you are hiding this whole time?” Peniel scolded.
“Of course I am! Do you think I am a familiar like you? There is nothing I can do anyway even if I come out,” Carnelia retorted.
Jack ignored the two fairy’s bickering. He asked Wilted while returning her orb of concealment, “Where are we?”
“One of the main cities in Liguritudum Realm,” Wilted Tree answered. “We are not out of the woods yet. As long as the two of you are still inside this country, you are at high risk. This is the World Maker’s turf after all. Unfortunately, my escape tool can only bring us this far.”
“Then let’s go to the Zone Portal. We can teleport back to Themisphere or Sangrod,” Jack said.
“I have no problem with that. The two of you, on the other hand, will have trouble.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
“Because of your races,” Peniel stopped her quarrel and came to answer. “Remember when I said Liguritudum’s political relation with Themisphere is not harmonious? The same goes for Sangrod. If the guards see any human or vampire on the street, they will be captured.”
“Oh, blast!” He then look at Wilted Tree. “I don’t suppose you have another of that disguise tool that allows you to change into that Ethereal woman? If we can use that to change our races, then we can use the portal zone.”
“I have, but only one,” Wilted Tree replied.
“You have? But I thought when you are still Motherboard, you said you can’t show me your real self because you won’t be able to change back? I thought it was because you no longer have another disguise tool.”
“I can change back, but I will lose the connection with Motherboard who was still in captive. I won’t be able to hijack her messaging device anymore. For the hijacking, I need to set the disguise tool with another device that I left near where she was held captive. If I use another disguise tool, it was not linked to that device.”
“Oh… but still, one is not enough. There are two of us.”
“That’s right…”
The three were silent as they tried to think of a solution.
“Sigh, too bad your Orb of Disguise is still rank 1,” Peniel said. “If it is upgraded to the next rank, you can use it to set up a second disguise. The second disguise can allow you to choose a race.”
“You have the Orb of Disguise?” Wilted Tree asked, surprise in her tone.
“Yes, but as she said. It’s useless, it is still in rank 1. I don’t have the material to upgrade it,” Jack said.
“None at all? Not even one magic crystal?” Wilted asked.
“I have not even seen what a magic crystal looked like, lady,” Jack answered.
Wilted seemed to be pondering, before she sighed and said, “Ah, hell… Just take it as a contribution to foil Master’s plan.” She then took out three shining crystals and one very brightly-lid gem. The gem seemed to be floating on her hand by itself.
“Are those…”
“Yes, it is exactly the materials needed to upgrade that orb of yours. Three magic crystal and one divine gem.”
“How the hell did you collect all these materials?” Jack asked with amazement.
“I have my way. Hurry up and upgrade it already before I change my mind!” Wilted ordered.
“… By the way, do you have another divine gem and ten more magic crystals? My Lightning God Blessing also need those.”
Wilted’s mouth twitched hearing Jack’s words, her eyes were giving him a hard stare.
“I apologize! Please ignore what I have just said!” Jack hurriedly said. He accepted the materials in Wilted’s hand and said, “Thank you, lady! I will pay you back once I get my hands on these materials.”
“I will consider us square as long as you don’t get yourself caught again by the World Maker,” Wilted Tree said. She then turned to Leavemealon. “As for you, take this disguise tool. Use it to set up a disguise. Remember to choose Ethereal race during the selection.”
“It’s okay, I will guide him,” Carnelia said and then gave Leavemealone the instruction on how to use the tool.
Jack took out his Orb of Disguise. He heard a notification telling him that upgrade materials were detected, He was asked if he wanted to use the materials for the upgrade. Jack confirmed. The four materials flew into the orb and dissolved into it.
He then heard another notification that his Orb of Disguise had been upgraded to rank 2. He could input a second disguise format, but he saw no interface appearing for him to do it.
Jack asked Peniel, “Do I have to use Magic Furnace again to do the disguise setup?”
“Yes, we have to go to a facility with a Magic Furnace,” Peniel answered.
Jack looked back and saw Leavemealone seemed to be doing the setting up. “Why can he do it here?” He asked.
“The one I gave him is a consumable where you can do emergency setup,” Wilted answered. “The variety of look he can choose is much more limited unless one has a base image to copy, like what I did with Motherboard. For a permanent disguise tool such as yours, a magic furnace is needed.”
“Do you know where I can find this facility?”
“The Mage Academy here has one such facility.”
“Shouldn’t that be a problem as well? I have a concealed coat to hide myself on the way there, but won’t the caretaker of the academy check my identity before allowing me to use the facility?”
“I am a member of the Order of Magi, I can plead for them to allow you the leniency… hopefully.”
“Oh? I am also a member,” Jack said, showing her badge.
“That’s great! This should make things easier. Mage Academy is operated under that faction, they should respect this faction’s members despite the political situation. We will go after Leavemealone finishes his setup.”
“I’m done,” they heard Leavemealone’s voice.. They turned and saw an ethereal standing there instead of a vampire.
