The two huge oak doors opened as if beckoning Kyran to enter.
From the King of Armakea's attitude, it was possible that he already knew Filren already informed Kyran about his hidden trump card, the Automatons, and beckoned the latter to enter if he dared.
Kyran could not help but sneer at the King Aran's arrogance.
Did Aran really think Kyran would not dare fight his hidden trump card? Though Kyran did not have first-hand experience in combating Automatons he was not afraid of them.
Kyran was not afraid not because his body had undergone a huge enhancement, but because he was an Array Saint.
lightsΝοvel.cοm Automatons are products of Array and Smithing, it is not a stretch to say that someone like Kyran, who possesses both knowledge, can see through their strengths and weaknesses. If given enough time, he can get used to fighting them as well.
Kyran's belief that he had never fought an Automaton was justified by the fact he was unaware that the person he encountered before falling into a coma was, in fact, an Automaton. He did know that person was different, but he did not know it was an Automaton.
[Please be careful, Master.]
Kyran only nodded in response, not minding whether Filren saw it or not.
Not wanting to delay further, Kyran stepped inside the castle.
The castle's main hall was huge, with a golden chandelier hanging above just before a stair that split into two, leading to the second floor. Apart from the chandelier, there was only a red carpet that covered the brick flooring.
At first glance, Kyran could sense how bleak the inside of the castle appeared, similar to the outside.
A chilly gust of wind swept down from the two halls upstairs and out the open oak doors.
Kyran could not help but frown as he sensed the wind carrying such potent killing intent. He looked toward the two halls on the second floor but failed to determine where exactly that killing intent came from.
It would have been easy to locate the person emitting such ominous intent using magic sense. However, when Kyran stepped into the castle, he realized there was an active array formation that prevented the use of any type of probing or scanning abilities or techniques.
'Armakea really lives up to its name as being a nation that loves to horde lost technology,' Kyran thought with a sigh. He expected the castle's Array formation to have multiple layers, but with the thin magic energy in the surroundings, he thought the King would not be able to maintain it for long.
Unless the King possessed spirit stones, which naturally stock magic energy, he should not have the means to activate the castle's array formation for long.
However, the castle's array formation did not seem to be bothered by how thin the magic energy was in Somuli. Apart from that, Kyran already destroyed the offensive formula— which were those lock-on targets— outside, yet, the array formation was still working.
It should be noted that once a part of the array formation was destroyed, it would start to crumble. That had been the case when Kyran destroyed the array formation in the Mercenary Hall, as well as the defensive array of the Tower of Conclave. There were plenty of other instances where Kyran dealt with array formations by targeting one of its formulas and they ended up getting destroyed completely.
Until now.
If the Armakea castle's array formation was still working even with a destroyed formula, it could only mean one thing: the formation's tier level was higher than what Kyran expected.
Kyran was not really surprised at this discovery because the tier levels of the borders' array formation were quite high. It made him wonder just who were the first inhabitants of Somuli to possess such advanced Array Knowledge. Moreover, how did they disappear and leave only their creations behind?
Kyran shook his head and pushed those thoughts aside. No matter how curious he was now, he could not allow those thoughts to distract him. He had to focus on the matter at hand. In any case, he could find the answers to his questions after conquering Armakea.
After clearing his thoughts, Kyran looked at the two halls upstairs. The killing intent coming upstairs did not come from the King nor his hidden trump card.
Automatons were still machines and would not be able to emit killing intent like humans do. They could imitate its sense, but it was not true killing intent.
Kyran recalled what Achim reported after using the parchment to check the whereabouts of the key figures in Armakea.
As per Achim, apart from the King, his eleven aides— which still included Filren, at that time—, the two hundred knights that protected the castle, ten or so knights that were imprisoned in the cellar, there were also five royal court officials there.
These officials were all at Legendary level. Unfortunately, Achim and Kesiah did not know their Divine Armaments, special abilities, and even innate magic. The only thing they knew was that the King kept them inside the castle because he did not want them mingling with the rest of the Royal Family, especially with their father, Ravan.
From this, Kyran guessed that the King valued those royal court officials. They probably possessed unique abilities and powerful innate magic and Divine Armaments. Nevertheless, the King did not seem to trust them completely. If he did, he would not have kept them by his side or stopped them from mingling with the rest of the Royal Family.
Of course, Kyran did not believe that those officials were powerful enough to threaten the King's aides. If they did, the King would have already planned to assassinate them just because of the threat they might pose in the future.
Achim and Kesiah shared Kyran's sentiments. They believed their uncle would have truly done that.
'Three officials reside on the left wing, while two are on the right,' Kyran recalled the locations Achim told him. If those officials did not move since then, then Kyran would go to the right wing and get rid of the two first. But if they already moved then, the likely place they would go to was there.
'The Throne Room is located at the innermost part of the castle, and the hall that leads to that room is the left one,' Kyran recalled as he looked toward the left. 'We go left, then.'
Kyran went up the stairs and turned left, all the while, he kept his guard, in case there were any trap formulas waiting for him.
In the end, Kyran worried about nothing because his journey to the Throne Room had been peaceful. Of course, he did not believe it was a coincidence, or that the castle's array formation did not have any trap formulas. The only reason he could think of why he did not encounter any problems was because the King of Armakea wanted him to come.
The King's attitude truly spoke of his unparalleled arrogance and confidence in his trump cards.
The castle's structure was pretty strange. Kyran made plenty of turns, and even went up a few floors, before going down two floors just to arrive in front of the Throne Room. Good thing Kyran's memory was pretty good and he remembered Achim and Kesiah's directions well.
Similar to the height of the double oak doors that led to the castle's main hall, the doors to the Throne Room were high, and similarly wide. But they were not made of oak. Instead, they were made of gold with rune writings embedded around their surface. What was more, the rune writings were made of spirit stones.
Kyran frowned after seeing this because thus far, this was the first time he would be seeing spirit stones in Somuli. But now that he saw this, it answered the mystery of how the castle's array formation could remain active for so long.
Fooosh!
Killing intent erupted from inside the Throne Room as the double golden doors opened.
"An Imon-spawn... working under my beloved nephew and niece. Even after seeing it for myself, I still have trouble believing it."
An old and hoarse voice fleeted from inside the Throne Room.
Kyran looked beyond the opened doors. The room was dark, but he could make out several silhouettes inside.
"Come in, honored guest. Let me witness the fabled strength of an Imon-spawn."
Kyran's eyes stopped at the figure he could barely see seated on a high-back chair.
It was impossible to see even the silhouettes of the people inside the Throne Room because of the darkness. But Kyran's eyesight and the rest of his senses improved after his body underwent enhancement, which was why he could at least see the silhouettes inside the room. Still, the improvement he received was only enough to differentiate him from above-average humans. It did not give him a huge advantage against the rest.
"Sorry to burst your bubble," Kyran replied as he stepped inside the Throne Room. "But I am not an Imon-spawn."
Inside the Throne Room, Aran's eyes narrowed at the Imon-spawn's words. He had been observing the latter since he appeared in front of the castle. While his appearance suggested he was an Imon-spawn, Aran had an inkling he might be similar to Layla instead. The way the Imon-spawn fought, moved, and used his magic was different from complete beings.
There was also the matter of him not summoning any Divine Armament.
Imon-spawns might be a mix of beast-likes and complete beings, which meant there was a probability he could not possess a Divine Armament, but if that was the case, he should have shown signs of absorbing 'mana' rather than utilizing magic energies.
Since Aran noticed the Imon-spawn did not do any of these, he supposed the latter was similar to Layla: an outsider.
"Alas," Aran sighed before waving his hand.
As he did, five of the figures inside the room moved.
Kyran immediately noticed something strange. Thus far, most of the Armakeans he faced would rush forward or release a long-range attack. However, these five simply raised their Divine Weapons and attacked.
Five different magic elements attacked Kyran from all sides.
Concentrated magic energies of Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Plant were aimed at Kyran. His guess was on point, these five were no Knights but Mages, like those in the Kingdom of Cretea.
How King Aran managed to employ them as his officials, and even hide the truth from the rest of the Armakeans was beyond Kyran. As a matter of fact, he did not really care. Since he wanted to know how strong a Noble was, he did not mind confronting Aran's officials.
Kyran's eyes flickered as they turned reddish-purple. He ignored the incoming magic attacks and continued forward.
SIZZLE! SIZZLE!
A meter before the magic attacks could touch Kyran, they sizzled and disintegrated into thin air.
The five figures were slightly surprised at what happened because they could not figure out what he did. But since they could not waste time pondering over every little thing the enemy did, they simply put their doubts aside and instead decided to change their strategy.
Since concentrated magic energy attacks did not seem to work against the enemy, they decided to make use of the nature of their magic when coordinating their attacks.
The one whose innate magic was Plant summoned vine-like plants directly under Kyran's feet to bind him in place. After which, the one with Fire magic imprisoned him with a wall of flames. The mage with Wind magic summoned a gust of wind that enraged the wall of flames, which in turn thinned the air around Kyran. The Earth mage summoned concrete walls outside the flames, trapping him completely. Finally, the Water mage summoned a water barrier outside the earth walls.
The Plant mage then controlled what was left of the vine-like he summoned inside to create a small opening above the earth enclosure. With the sudden opening, the air rushed inside further agitating the flames. In a matter of a few seconds, the earth enclosure could no longer hold the flames and a huge explosion occurred.
The explosion was followed by a powerful shockwave that forced the five to retreat a few steps back. Nevertheless, the water barrier managed to counter the explosion a little, thus, reducing the momentum of the shockwave.
"It's not over," Aran warned the five as a silhouette fleeted from within the cloud of smoke that came after the explosion.
The five officials did not need to be told twice. Most of them already moved and unleashed another series of magic attacks.
The Earth and Fire mages molded their magic into projectiles: feet-long knives, and arrows respectively, and willed them to rain down on the enemy.
Meanwhile, the Water mage used his magic to summon water barriers that would protect them against any sneak attacks from the enemy.
Then the Wind mage prepared to release another round of concentrated magic energy attacks. He planned to release it to the enemy if he survived the volleys of attack from the Earth and Fire mages.
While thinking this, a silhouette rushed forward amidst the bombardment. In that instant, the Wind mage released his attack.
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