Chapter 27: Power against time

< "Move out." >

Everything went according to their plan.

First they had one of the Elision members primed to attack the guest that was coming to the palace, then Snow Deliberately showed them the swordsmanship they were familiar with, and since she had made a deep impression on the princess, they knew she would not just sit still.

As things were in the eyes of those who had watched this whole thing, one of the Elision members had just tried to attack their princess while the guest knight protected her.

But, since none of the people aside from those of the Elision knew of the unique sword style, they all thought the assassin organisation had betrayed them.

Later on as they failed to deal with the royal, they must have kidnapped the person their princess was so worried about.

And now that the Red mage was on the move, it was only a matter of time before all of those belonging to Elision were put on the line.

Snow will escape their grasp, but while all of this was happening, the Parliament had two tasks: First, to use the palace’s hacked surveillance system to confuse the remaining people in the control room to buy more time and second, to look through the garden where the prince had disappeared from.

After finishing these two things, the entire group was to retreat to their unique hideout they had prepared over the last few days.

Snow will be saved by the red mage, but she will not get to the princess who looked up to her so much.

< "I’m at the location." >

The bigger plan was already in motion so by the time the red mage had moved, Spot and Andrew had reached the garden from where the prince had disappeared from.

There, with many security measures in place, navigation was not the easiest thing. However, the two who had arrived here once robbed the most secure bank in the world. A few spell circles or alarm traps were nothing for them.

< "Right left right right left right." >

< "Gotcha." >

Once Spot had figured out the movement pattern required, they were dancing through the garden as Spot looked around for any traces of elemental energy.

She was using a complicated device Barn had made a while ago to track the finest of the residual energy signals but there were no traces of elemental energy.

What they did find here, however, was something that could very easily be misunderstood as elemental traces.

< "Witchcraft." >

< "We might be dealing with another organisation if it’s a witch." >

Witches weren’t human. They were neither divine nor demonic. In the simplest terms, they were children of nature.

Those who had inherited the natural powers, beings such as Driads of the woods, mermaids of the water, Sylphs of the wind, or the Golems of the earth were all generally called witches.

Their powers are very similar to that of the elemental spirits since both use the same source but where one being is an entirely spiritual entity, the other is born in this world by mysterious phenomena.

They are some of the most vulnerable beings in the world as well, so, aside from the <Witch Hut> the global organization that looks after all the witches in the world, only the most shady places in the underworld have access to their powers.

< "I’ve collected the sample. We will be able to analyse it later." >

It wasn’t something a machine could do but this mage was able to reproduce the exact frequency pattern of any energy at any wavelength at a contained scale.

Even if the wavelength isn’t the same, the resonance of these energies would be more than enough to match them against their personal database.

< "We will check the prince’s room and the surroundings before retreating." >

< "What?! But that’s not what we-." >

< "If a witch is involved, she might very well be here. We have to make sure we aren’t missing anything." >

It often happens that the thing that would give them the biggest clue to their case is sitting right before them and they miss it because it’s so obvious.

They did not want to repeat that mistake this time.

The stakes had risen too high at this point.

If they aren’t careful... all of them may face something worse than death.