Chapter 483: Ninth-Grade Annihilation Array

The group had now left their camp behind, their armour clanking as they approached the foot of the mountain.

Aisha, walking in front with her wand ready, spoke in a low steady voice.

"Alright, to summarize again, by our estimate, there should be around two hundred members inside. The last scouting report confirmed the mountain has only one visible entry, but has several tunnels below that go all over. And also the one entry point hasn’t opened since yesterday. That means everyone is already inside."

Cassius walked behind her, his cloak dragging faintly across the dirt.

"That really is strange." He said thoughtfully. "Two hundred members inside one mountain? Even if they wanted the ritual to have more power, you’d think they’d leave at least a handful on guard duty. A few low-rank mages, a sentry or two. Anything."

He frowned, eyes narrowing toward the jagged cliffs in the distance.

"To have every single one of them retreat below ground feels too deliberate. Too clean. Something’s off."

Aisha nodded. "Yeah, that’s the thing. I’ve been scanning the area this whole time—for traps, proximity sigils, detection wards, even the faintest trace of a barrier—but there’s nothing. It’s clean. Completely clean."

Skadi, who was crouched low near a patch of rocks, lifted her head.

"And I double-checked for scent trails, Master." She said quickly. "There’s nothing weird here. Just the old, musty smell of those disgusting cultists who passed through. No blood, no decay, no hint of other mana."

Aisha folded her arms. "By all logic, we should be seeing at least something. Even a faint trace of their defensive barrier. But it’s blank."

"At this speed, we’ll reach the mountain’s base soon." Skadi pointed ahead, her tail flicking. "It’s wide open from here on, no obstacles. We can infiltrate easily once we reach it and beat up all the bad guys!"

"Exactly why we’re walking slowly." Julie, walking a few paces ahead said, her voice calm but sharp like she was fully alert. "If something happens, we’re ready to react. No surprises."

Cassius smirked. "Well, if we keep creeping like this, I half expect to find nothing but empty dirt ahead. I mean, wouldn’t that be funny?" He chuckled softly. "A group of elite knights, tiptoeing through the woods only for nothing to actually be there."

But then—mid-step, his laughter died. His body stiffened.

"Everyone." He said suddenly, his tone dropping like a hammer. "Stop right there. Don’t move. Don’t even breathe too loudly."

Instantly, all three women froze.

Aisha stopped in mid-step, Julie halted with her sword still half-raised, and Skadi froze in a crouch.

None of them dared question him, not when he spoke in that tone.

Julie was the first to whisper, her voice tense.

"Cassius, what’s wrong? Did you sense something? Are enemies nearby?"

Cassius didn’t answer immediately. His eyes scanned the clearing with the precision of a hawk.

"Okay..." He said slowly. "I want all of you to take three steps back. Slowly. Don’t move forward, not even by an inch. Back toward me. Now."

Julie nodded once and obeyed, moving carefully. Aisha and Skadi followed, their movements careful and quiet, until they stood just behind him.

Skadi then peeked over his shoulder, her wolfish ears twitching nervously.

"Master, what’s wrong? I don’t smell anything weird. Not even the scent of magic. What’s going on?"

Aisha frowned, glancing around as her fingers pulsed faint mana. "I don’t sense any danger either. No killing intent. No presence. Cassius, what did you pick up on?"

Cassius didn’t turn around. His gaze was fixed on the ground ahead, eyes narrowing slightly.

"I don’t know." He admitted. "There’s no killing intent, no noise, no distortion in the air. But something in me—instinct, screamed to stop."

"The moment I tried to step forward, it was like my body refused. Like it knew we’d get torn apart if we moved any closer."

He pointed ahead, toward a small boulder that sat half-buried in the soil.

"See that rock over there? Something about the area just beyond it feels, wrong. I can’t explain it. But if any of us step past it, I feel like something terrible will happen."

Julie tensed, her hand tightening around her sword.

"Then we check it before moving further. Aisha, see what you can find."

"Got it."

Aisha crouched low, walking forward cautiously until she reached the rock Cassius had pointed out.

She unhooked a vial from her belt, the faint blue glow of liquid swirling inside. Pouring a few drops onto the ground, she murmured an incantation under her breath.

The liquid sizzled faintly before forming glowing symbols across the soil.

"Let’s see what we’ve got here..." She muttered, reaching into her dimensional ring and pulling out a small pouch.

From it, she withdrew a few tiny bones, runes carved into them, and pressed them into the glowing soil.

Her magic pulsed, spreading like thin tendrils across the earth. She waited, silent, her expression focused.

Finally, she spoke again, her tone half-frustrated.

"Nothing. I don’t see or feel anything. I already scanned this whole area earlier, before we even got close to this point, and there wasn’t a single sign of mana residue."

"Whatever it is—if there is something here, it’s either invisible to detection magic or—"

...but just as Aisha was about to finish, her voice suddenly died in her throat.

Her eyes flicked downward, one of the tiny rune-carved bones she’d pressed into the earth had turned black.

Not charred, not singed—black, as though light itself had been swallowed from it.

Her face drained of color.

Slowly, almost mechanically, she pulled it free from the soil.

The bone was freezing to the touch. When she held it up, thin veins of shadow coiled and twisted across its surface.

"Oh no..." She whispered. "Oh no, no, no, no—this is bad! This is really, really bad. This is horrible for us!"

Skadi flinched at the tone of her voice, her tail puffing slightly. "What? What’s wrong, Aisha? Don’t just say it’s bad! You’re making me nervous!"

Julie’s eyes narrowed; even she looked uneasy.

"Aisha." She said carefully. "I’ve seen you face down a cereberus and not react like this. What’s going on?"

Aisha turned toward them slowly, the color still gone from her face. Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"It’s a Ninth-grade Annihilation Array!" She exclaimed. "They actually set up a mass ninth-grade annihilation field around the entire mountain!"

There was a beat of silence.

Cassius tilted his head slightly before saying,

"That sounds impressive and all, but you’re going to have to explain it to the rest of us who didn’t spend years practicing magic."

Aisha let out a long, shaky breath and steadied herself before answering.

"Annihilation Arrays are ancient, older than most of the structured magic we use today. They were created during the early eras, when magic was still chaotic and people were desperate to defend their kingdoms from beings they couldn’t fight."

"You use them when you absolutely must protect something. They don’t just ward off enemies; they erase them."

"Erase?" Skadi blinked, confused. "You mean like, blow up?"

"No." Aisha said sharply. "I mean annihilate. These arrays don’t destroy flesh—they unmake mana itself. Anyone, anything with mana in their body who steps into the field is instantly struck down."

"There’s no pain, no scream, just instant erasure. Gone. Not even ashes left."

"You’re saying they set this up around the mountain?" Julie’s jaw clenched.

"Yes." Aisha nodded grimly and pointed toward the slope. "The bones reacted because they’re sensitive to mana decay. See that point over there, just beyond the rock Cassius pointed to? That’s the border along with the ground beneath it."

"The moment we cross it, the spell’s core intelligence, what we call the Annihilation module, will activate."

"It’ll release a destructive ray, concentrated enough to vaporize a dragon in one strike. It doesn’t matter who you are or how strong your shield is—you won’t survive it."

The three of them fell silent, the weight of her words hanging heavy in the air.

Aisha continued, her tone shifting to one of grim calculation.

"And this isn’t some low-tier warding magic, either. A Ninth-grade Annihilation Arrray is nearly impossible to construct. You’d need years of work, a team of master-level mages, and mountains of rare catalysts just to stabilize it."

"Even the Royal Academy classified it as ’theoretical’, too unstable to be practical. But these lunatics actually pulled it off."

Cassius let out a low whistle. "So, if I’m getting this right, we can’t step forward without getting turned into stardust?"

"Precisely." Aisha said, still looking pale.

"That’s so unfair." Skadi frowned, ears drooping. "So the moment I take one tiny step, some big dumb beam just shoots from the sky and kills me? That’s cheating!"

"That’s exactly the point, Skadi." Aisha gave a nervous chuckle. "It’s not supposed to be fair. It doesn’t give you a fighting chance. That’s why it’s called an Annihilation Array. To kill you without even giving a chance"

Julie’s eyes were still scanning the horizon, thoughtful and tense.

"A array that powerful has to have a weakness right?" She said. "Something we can use."

Aisha nodded faintly.

"There are a couple. After it’s activated, it can’t distinguish between friend and foe. It reacts to mana, any mana. That’s why there are no guards outside. If they stationed anyone here, the spell would kill them too."

"The cultists themselves are all below ground, protected by the array’s natural inner shielding, while the rest of the area even the ground over their heads are dangerous places to be. That’s why they’re so confident, no one can breach it without dying instantly."

"So what you’re saying is, they basically turned the whole mountain into a death trap." Cassius crossed his arms.

"Exactly." Aisha said, her voice tight. "The only two ways to breach it are either to sacrifice an army—hundreds of soldiers charging through, dying one after another to exhaust the spell’s energy, or..."

"Or what?" Julie pressed.

"Or we wait." Aisha replied grimly. "The spell is incredibly draining. If we stay put for a couple of hours, it’ll naturally fade once its power runs out. Then we can move in safely."

Cassius frowned. "But the ritual’s under the blood moon, isn’t it? We don’t have hours."

"Exactly." Aisha met his gaze, her lips pressed into a thin line. "Once the red moon reaches its zenith, the summoning will complete. If we wait until then, it’ll all be over."

"So we can’t charge in, and we can’t wait either." Julie let out indignant smile at their hopeless situation.

"Yes. We’re cornered...They planned this perfectly."

Aisha looked between them helplessly.

"Even if we brought the entire Holy Guard, it wouldn’t matter. The moment they crossed the line, they’d be obliterated and we wouldn’t have any members to fight them.

"The cult...They’ve really gone all in. They’ve built a wall of death around their ritual, and unless we find some miracle, we’re stuck outside watching them bring their nightmare to life."