Time passed quickly. Soon, an entire year had gone by and Talaro was starting to worry that the barrier wouldn't last until Kayn was ready. If the worst-case scenario came to pass, they would all need to fight for their lives to escape, but the more likely outcome was that it would become their final hurrah before death.
Standing in front of a congregation of his closest friends and confidants, Talaro spoke. "My friends, my brothers, my sisters. If we all give every scrap of mana to the barrier, we can last for maybe another few days, but that will leave us exposed and helpless when it does fall..."
Talaro took a dramatic pause as he looked around the room, reading the varying expressions on the faces of his people.
"In this case, I propose that we prepare ourselves to fight! We take as many of those bastards down with us before we perish! When the dome falls, 28 hours from now, we stop hiding like rats and show them the hell and fury of Mancea!"
"YEAAAH!!!" All of the people in the room screamed aloud at once, and just as they were going to prepare for the inevitable battle, a voice spoke over the loud cacophony of self-motivation cheering.
"You're all quite rowdy today." Then a man with black garb and white hair was seen walking through the crowd towards Talaro as the people split like a tide. It wasn't out of respect that they were moving from him, but fear. The aura he was giving off was bloodthirsty, it seemed evil even.
"You've changed." Talaro stated as a matter of fact. The Kayn standing in front of him was a completely different person to the one who entered the Mana Gathering Room a year ago.
One year ago, even if Kayn was agitated and grumpy, he wasn't like this. The aura spreading from Kayn was intimidating and left no room for mercy. Talaro could also feel that Kayn was somewhere within the 5th stage now. How he had gone from the 4th stage to the 5th stage in a little over a year was mind boggling, but the power coming from within was easy to feel. Not even Talaro himself thought that he would have an easy fight against Kayn anymore.
The biggest change to Kayn aside from the aura and his core, was to his eyes. No longer did the young man have bright crimson eyes with golden flecks here and there. No, now where he once had white sclera was a deep violet and his once shining, honest crimson irises were like black pits of despair.
If one watched closely, they could see the purple sclera flaring into the black pits like the fire loops on top of the sun. Talaro swallowed nervously as Kayn stopped before him, staring at him with those menacing orbs of black and purple.
"Do you remember what I said before I went into seclusion?" Kayn asked without addressing anything else.
"Ah yes, something about bringing others here to teleport away?" Talaro guessed that was what he was referencing anyway.
"Correct, I'll be out for a few hours to retrieve them. Prepare the teleport formation. You'll all be gone from Palatine before the end of the day."
Talaro once again swallowed nervously as the instructions he was given left no room for argument and neither did the voice giving them. It was like a blade was pressed against his throat the entire time.
Kayn then began to walk away, letting Talaro feel some relaxation before he tensed up instantly when Kayn paused and turned back around. "One more thing, do you have a good sword in your armory?"
Talaro blinked in confusion for a minute before getting his bearings back. "We have a few swords. I can take you there before letting you out of the dome. If one suits your taste, I'll be glad to give it to you for your service to my people and I. Also thank you for reminding me, I need to collect the armory and treasury before I leave. Ah, the best swords are all within the treasury by the way, not the armory."
Kayn only nodded and followed Talaro as he led the way to the treasury. Once inside, a sight that would leave anyone with their jaw on the floor appeared, but Kayn was different. He looked around the room with zero emotion on his face, waiting for the emperor to show him where the swords were located.
The two soon arrived in front of a weapons case where not only swords, but also spears, bows, maces, and shields were on display. Kayn activated his Analyze ability and began reading through the weapon information one at a time.
To his own surprise, he ended up with two weapons rather than just the sword he came for. When Kayn read the info of one of the bows, he couldn't pass it up and asked Talaro if he could have it as well. Talaro only shrugged his shoulders before passing it along with its specialized quiver and arrows to Kayn.
Kayn strapped the bow to his back along with the quiver as it was meant to be back-strapped rather than hip-strapped. A sword in its sheath was equipped on his left side so that it could be drawn with his right hand.
Talaro had offered him anything else within the treasury or armory that Kayn wanted or needed, but Kayn declined other items saying that these two were all he required. It would be difficult to find something better than the Garments of the Shadow Phoenix, at least in this world. Even if the people he was fighting now could get through the set's defenses, the attached abilities and flexibility were ideal for how Kayn wanted to fight.
Finding the bow with special arrows even gave him an idea as to how he was going to kick things off, but first came retrieval of all the people he stashed away for later rescue.
...
Kayn swiftly moved through the city, extending his old concealment spells all around him and the group following him. He could use Shadow's Embrace on himself, but it wouldn't cover anyone else, and his current goal was to move groups of people back to the palace without being discovered.
He had to try his best to reel in the bloodthirst that he was naturally letting off, but the normal people could still feel something off about him. Some even initially refused to follow him until he said that this entire area was soon going to become filled with true hellfire.
The threat of being burned alive scared most people into following him whether they wanted to or not. Even Jack and his wife who Kayn had saved were cautiously following along, worried about what had happened to the kind man they once knew.
...
"Is this all of them?" Talaro asked with a frown as he opened the barrier at the underground passage, watching as Kayn escorted a little over 50 people inside.
"Unfortunately, yes. I believe the rest of your population are either now undead or have been moved outside of the city to other areas to work or be converted."
"Well, thank you for saving what little was in the city before we left it. I would hate to abandon my people even if I have been hiding away like a rat. When will you be destroying the sealing formation?"
"How long until the barrier falls on its own?" Kayn asked a counter question.
"It took you approximately 17 hours to bring this group here, so if the estimate I had before stands, 11 hours give or take an hour."
"What happens if you leave the barrier?" Kayn asked because he couldn't remember if he heard this information before. Usually, his memory was flawless, but lately, it seemed as if some things went in one ear and out the other. Small details that he had heard about in the last couple years were lost to him.
"Mmm, it will disperse, much like it would if it ran out of mana to sustain itself. The other side has definitely developed some type of artifact that lets them know when it is almost depleted. They have increased the ferocity of their attacks once again. I peeked outside and spotted essentially every 6th stage they have within the city attacking it." Talaro shook his head as he wasn't sure if Kayn could destroy the sealing formation in time.
"That will make things easier. Keep track of when the barrier is about to fall and teleport out at the last moment. I will take out the sealing formation and its guards within the next hour or two, after that we hope they don't notice. If things go according to plan, the mice will all be caught in our trap."
Talaro squinted at Kayn, wondering what his words meant. He assumed that after destroying the sealing formation, that he would leave the city, but that didn't seem to be the case. Also, why did they need to wait to teleport out? Just what was Kayn scheming?
Kayn could feel the doubt coming off Talaro and for just a brief moment, his expression softened. "Please just trust me Talo. I won't fail you or your people."
Talaro gave Kayn a very long silent look before nodding and leading the people away towards the teleport formation. He had a lot to prepare, and it would probably take him a few hours to get everyone situated with the formation ready to activate.
Kayn exited the barrier before Talaro closed it back up. He slunk back into the shadows and started making his way towards the area where the grand sealing formation should be set up. He wanted to assess the area before making any final decisions on how he wanted to go about the destruction of Palatine.