The grimoire remained afloat in front of Empress Carolina. Her long silky hair danced in the wind as she flipped the book open.
Ziiiiiing!
Out of the book came a ringing sound and multiple streams of purple light going in several directions across the capital.
Leon immediately charged at the Empress trying to stop her from whatever plan she had in mind.
However, the book glowed and covered the Empress with a spherical barrier ensuring that no one could interfere with what she was about to do.
Crash!!! Shiing! Upon receiving Leon's attack, the barrier immediately disappeared but it was immediately restored by the mysterious book in a blink of an eye.
"This is not good!" Leon mumbled as he realized that although the power shielding Empress Carolina could be handled by his S-level abilities, the power source seemed to be endless up close.
'Could it be that this has something to do with those purple light streams?' He wondered as he took a quick glance at the purple lights while deciding to continue to attack Empress Carolina and find an opening.
Back in the Vesala Estate, Duke Valentin was frustrated about the sudden turn of events. Their side was clearly at an advantage earlier and they even managed to severely injure the General.
He thought that upon the General's fall, their side would be able to wrap up the battle in a few moments, however, some uncanny reinforcement came - a doctor and an Astaze, of all people.
What's more, even as they tried to take whatever advantage they had because of the sudden loss of the other side's main force, they were once again distracted by the aerial display of Carolina's power.
"This is not getting any good!" He gnashed his teeth in agitation as nothing was going according to his expectations. "There's gotta be a way to finish this quickly…" He looked at his knights and ordered them to keep the pace up in the battle.
As for him, he decided to make this change and take the temple knight Joab. But before he could even take a step forward his body suddenly froze and his heart started to beat loud and hard.
Ba-dump!
There was an unbearable sensation threatening to come out from his abdomen. It was so painful that Duke Maxim's vision suddenly blurred and his body fell hard to the ground.
"Urghhhh!" He let out a groan as his face immediately drained in color.
The next moment a purple light stream approached his abdomen and seemed to penetrate into his body, "AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The purple light entering his body has brought him another wave of unbearable pain, so much that he rolled to the ground and squirmed in pain.
"Duke!" The cursed army worriedly rushed toward him; however, the imperial and temple knights immediately hindered them.
In the next moment, a black squirming ball of flame emerged from his stomach as his pain reached its peak. As soon as it was fully out, so was the Duke's consciousness.
He was not even able to see that the conditions he just experienced were also happening to Das and Visam.
"Father, did you see that?" Nathan rushed to where General Farauld was being treated and pointed at the three balls of black flame emerging from the bodies of Duke Maxim and the dark knights.
"Yes… It was exactly as I remembered. That is the angel-level spirit fragment!" General Farauld gritted his teeth and tried to stand up, ignoring the large wound on his back that was bitten off by one of the hell wolves.
"General, you must not move!" Kayden worriedly shouted.
"I do not have any choice, we would be doomed either way…" He said as his finger pointed towards the spirit fragment, if it was not for the fact that he still had a small flicker of hope in his heart, he would have not even attempted to stand and try to protect the people.
"Stand back several meters away from the spirit fragment!" He issued a command one after the other. "Temple knights, I ask you to put up a barrier, Caster assist!"
The cursed army was startled by the other side's sudden withdrawal, it was not until the next moment that they realized why.
The little squirming flame tongues of the spirit fragment extended to the nearest beings, which was the cursed army. It immediately sucked out all of their life force, leaving only a dried-up human corpse.
After absorbing a few, the spirit fragments attached themselves to the purple stream and flew away heading in a certain direction.
The same phenomenon also happened in the Empress Palace where Emperor Valentin was fiercely fighting the exhausted Callan.
It was also good that Keren was there to warn everyone and same as the first team, they were able to put a considerable distance and protect themselves from being the fragment's prey.
Fortunately, the residual forces from the undead and the hell wolves were able to satiate the spirit fragment's hunger before floating away in the direction from where the purple stream came from.
In the dungeons, the spirit fragments within the captives, Roman, Igor, and Orel were also fully extracted.
The spirit fragment tried to get a source of life around but since it was a dungeon it was unable to satiate its desire, so it had no choice but to eat and target its host.
However, because the dungeons were filled with high-level holy spells that protect the captive from doing self-harm, the captives were unknowingly protected by these arrays that were made to restrain them.
The spirit fragments knew that they had to answer the call and so, even without getting their fill, they started to charge at the weakest point of the array, simultaneously. On the other side, the purple stream also helped on the escape.
Soon all of the spirit fragments emerged and flew toward Empress Carolina's direction.
"One… two…" Empress Carolina looked at the spirit fragments with satisfaction, she gleefully counted them aloud. "Seven… True enough, one of them was eliminated, no wonder Lord Raven was angry…"
At the sight of the fragments, High Priest Enoch trembled and all of the temple priests, knights, and servants knelt down and prayed to the heavens.
Seven fragments at once!!!
The subject of the Oracle even lost her contracted spirit in order to eliminate one! How would they even manage to defeat seven at once!
"Ahahahaha! Look at your faces!" Empress Carolina observed everyone's reaction feeling a deep sense of satisfaction. "You were already that scared when I did not even show you how these could be used?"
She taunted as she waved her hands to beckon all fragments to come one by one to enter her body. While she was doing so, the book flipped again and Empress Carolina started to recite an inaudible series of chants from the book.
Leon immediately felt a grave sense of danger, sliced his palm, and immediately drew something in the air, "Spatial Spirit King! With the blood that flows in my veins, I implore you to heed my call!"
Voooong!!!
Suddenly a large diamond portal appeared in the sky, it was glowing with rainbow colors letting everyone peek at another world inside it. The giant diamond opened up like a gateway, letting a humanoid phantom figure step out and 'look' towards Leon.
"Contractor, your command?" The phantom figure was faceless, but everyone could tell that the ethereal voice came from him.
"Take every drop of mana I have… take these people away from the capital…" Leon's voice was hoarse and his eyes reddened in desperation.
Even if he fought with all he had, he could never avoid letting the people around him get caught up in the impending dangerous fight.
And what use would his victory be if his people died? For what reason would he still be seeking victory then?
"Not enough… I could only take half…" The Spatial Spirit king answered with a stoic tone. "Your opponent was too strong for me to also force the two of you…"
Leon took out all the mana stones he had in his spatial pouch, "How about this.."
"...enough for every civilian and people lower than the A-class…"
Leon gritted his teeth, he could not save everyone, even his father would not be taken out of the palace because of his rank.
"Third Prince, do not worry about us… We'll assist you…" The people below, especially the priests and the knights all heard Leon and the Spatial King's conversation. They did not mind getting left behind as they already saw that Leon took out everything that he had.
Kazimir also gave him a determined nod. It was ok for him to be left behind, as long as his family would also be transported to safety.
He closed his eyes and decided, "Then… take all that you can away… bring them to safety…"
"As you wish!" The Spatial Spirit King waved his hand and in an instant, the civilians, the knights, and every person inside the Empire below A-rank disappeared along with the Spatial Spirit King.
The only ones left were the key people in the land, as well as Eli, who was still situated underground. For some reason, the Spatial Spirit King left her behind and allowed her to continue finishing her task.