[Divine artifact 'Dragon Dome' has been activated!]
[Time remaining until the decimation of the city:]
[02:59:59]
Devisha and I stared at the notification window with troubled frowns.
"Serafina, this is…"
I turned my gaze toward the center of the city. To the shining ivory pillar jutting out over the Tamelan Square.
"The Dragon Dome. It's an artifact which was designed to unleash astronomical amount of destructive energy."
"That huge pillar is the Dragon Dome? Just how powerful is this artifact?"
Devisha asked.
"Once the Dragon Dome accumulates enough mana, which is in three hours, it will turn all of Tsuchi into one big crater."
I answered blatantly.
The Tsahanam woman's eyes could not help but widened over her veil.
"Surya help us. We need to escape the city before that artifact explode!"
I nodded to her words.
[Fina, something's happening with the trial. The city is about to get destroyed.]
Jonah's voice suddenly interrupted my mind. He was using the communication blessing.
"I'm aware. What about the prince?"
[His Highness is safe with us. We already got him changed out of his robe too.]
"Very well. I'll be back shortly. Be ready to move out of the safe zone."
I told him, ending the communication line.
I turned to our scout.
"Devisha, head to the Randopa canal right away. Quickly find a sewer gate our party can get into safely."
"Would you like me to go further and find a path leading out to the Third Wall district? Or maybe directly to the harbor?"
"No. We don't know what's waiting for us inside the sewer. We will tread the underground path together."
"Understood."
Seeing the Tsahanam mercenary leaped out of the watchtower and onto the rooftops of Tsuchi high-rises, I formed a dimensional rune and teleported back to the safe zone.
My comrades and the young prince were anxiously waiting as I arrived.
As Jonah said, His Highness had changed out of his simple white robe into woolen tunic and pants, leather boots, and oiled black cloak which perfectly covered his small stature and distinct silvered-black hair.
"What happened, Fina? What did you find with Devisha?"
The shepherd asked.
"The ways to the east and the landing port are blocked. There are too many enemies than we could handle."
I told him.
"So it's the harbor then?"
Shanny said.
"Is the place safe for us to go to?"
Darius asked.
I shook my head.
"We will still have to fight our way through. But it's the least fortified of our three escape routes."
"I assume Devisha can't get there ahead of us so we can just quickly cross over there with a portal."
Jonah pointed out.
I nodded to him.
"The city walls are heavily guarded by the enemies. The sewer is the safest path so far. But we will tread it together since we don't know how dangerous the underground space is."
The prince then stepped up and pointed to Jonah.
"This man said earlier that the city is about to get destroyed. What exactly did he mean? What is happening?"
That was right. His Highness could not see the notification windows like us.
"Our enemies just activated a high-level artifact which will decimate this whole city in less than three hours."
"What?!"
"Apparently someone really wants you dead, Your Highness. So you better keep your guard up until we're way outside the city."
Crash!
The sound of a building crumbling interrupted our conversation.
"What was that?"
Shanny asked while drawing her sword.
It did not come from the safe zone. Else I would notice my shield runes being dispelled.
So I turned to the window and saw a four-storied building at the end of the Ladian Street was being torn down by a huge horde of infected.
Once the building was demolished, the horde quickly moved onto the surrounding buildings, infiltrating the places, flushing out the survivors hiding inside, and tearing the whole constructs down from inside out.
Their moves were organized and calculated.
Someone was controlling the infected.
Likely the sorcerer who wanted to find us. To find the prince.
"We must get going."
I announced to my party.
It would not be long until that horde reached this safe zone of ours.
Once the sorcerer's controlled-undead discovered the shield I raised around this building, they would locate us immediately.
If only I was more well-versed with compulsion magic and had ample time, I would be able to read the mana waves of the compulsion spell used to control the infected and track the sorcerer responsible.
But I was not.
I then put a finger at the back of my ear and contacted our scout.
"Devisha, have you find us a way underground?"
[I just found it.]
She replied in whispering voice.
The former assassin continued.
[Try to be quiet when you're crossing over. I'm under a bridge in the Randopa canal and the spot is quite secluded, so no one will be able to see you coming here through a portal. But the infected on the bridge might still hear us if we make too much noise.]
"Understood. We will arrive there quietly."
Ending the communication line, I twirled my hands and tempered with my soundproofing runes around the room.
Now I completely blocked the sound coming from outside. The rumble of the neighboring buildings being destroyed by the infected hordes was totally muted out.
"Gather around and be completely silent."
I instructed my comrades and the young prince.
They did as I said and made a tight line behind me.
I then waved my hand and formed a dimensional rune.
As I was formulating the spell, I released my hold on the runes around the safe zone so they would dissipate and vanish after we leave the building.
['Serafina (★★★★)'s Multicasting has levelled up to level 4!]
The incoming horde of infected would not find the storehouse riddled with my magic. And the sorcerer tracking us would not discover our trace.
A circular glowing haze soon formed in the middle of the attic.
The sight of Devisha crouching beside a rusted iron gate manifested at the other side of the haze.
['Serafina (★★★★)'s Hands that Twist Space and Time has levelled up to level 6!]
With a hand gesture I instructed my comrades to escort the prince through the portal.
We all then quietly stepped outside the safe zone and joined our Tsahanam scout, making our party whole again.
While holding a finger over my lips to command everyone to remain quiet, I dispelled the portal and casted a soundproofing spell around us and the rusted gate.
I made the soundproofing spell to be similar with the one I casted on the safe zone initially. So we could sense our surroundings while nobody around could hear us.
It was then that I noticed we were standing below a large damp brick bridge. A narrow paved walkway was running across the construct's base, in parallel to a moderately-sized channel.
The growl and shrieks of infected echoed from above the bridge.
There had to be hundreds of them judging by the simultaneous voices they sounded.
"As planned, we'll walk through the sewers to get to the harbor in the Third Wall district."
I told my party as I grabbed a vial of my mana potion.
I had been casting multiple high-level dimensional spells, including a new branch of magic I was not skilled on, that I simply had to replenish myself.
Seeing that I had spoken in my regular voice, my comrades knew it was safe to speak up now.
I listened to them talk as I was drinking my mana potion and recuperating.
"Ideally we need to find a path leading right to the harbor."
Jonah said.
Devisha nodded.
"The sewers should have at least one waterway leading to the Great Katcha Lake. We'll find the harbor there."
"But isn't the harbor heavily guarded? Shouldn't we observe it from afar first instead of immediately infiltrating it?"
Shanny asked.
"In that case, we'd want to first reach Sagonda Plaza just outside the harbor. Or the Welena New Quarter beyond it."
Darius proposed.
I nodded to their discussions as I casted off the empty vial of mana potion.
"We'll make our way generally toward those locations. Once we're closer, then we'll decide where to go."
I began dispensing my detection field beyond the rusted gate, into the sewers.
My mist of mana started to detect the narrow walkways which extended deeper into the sewer's vast underground space. Trying to capture any presence of the enemies while locating the right path that would bring us to our destination.
[Time remaining until the decimation of the city:]
[02:46:27]
The window displaying our time limit for this mission was hanging disturbingly in the corner of my vision.
We were trying to get to the harbor which sat at the western side of the city.
From where we were located in the Second Wall district, which was the Randopa canal, the harbor was located southwest of our position.
I tried deploying and extending my detection field as far as I could toward the southwest so I could scout a considerable distance for us to tread on.
As I expected, there was nobody in the sewers. The infected had not infiltrate the underground just yet.
We could traverse freely and swiftly through the sewers as long as we make haste and do not get lost.
Eventually I found a path which would lead us into a catacomb with multiple intersections.
It would be a good point for us to stop and map out our next set of route.
['Serafina (★★★★)'s Mana Detection has levelled up twice to level 4!]
Having discovered a path, I turned to my comrades and escort target.
"Let's move."