Witnessing the scene, the Noble was utterly stunned. "Ah?"
But Olivia gave him no time to react. Raising her flaming longsword high, she decapitated him with a single, swift strike.
Her blade moved so quickly that the flames left a dazzling arc in the air, lingering for several seconds before dissipating in a spectacular display.
Immediately afterward, fully armed soldiers leaped from the Century Gate, their objectives clear: to swiftly subdue every guard in sight. These guards, caught completely off guard by the sudden appearance of enemy troops in their own stronghold, were utterly unprepared.
Despite their weapons and vigilant patrols, the guards' actual vigilance was questionable at best. Chatting, slacking off, and daydreaming were practically occupational skills in their line of work.
The core area of a military stronghold like a prisoner-of-war camp should have been guarded by the most elite soldiers. In reality, however, the opposite was true: guarding prisoners required little to no actual combat prowess.
The prisoners had no thoughts of escape. Their homelands had been devastated by the Kingdom of Ukel, leaving them completely helpless. No one would come to rescue them. In all the kingdom's history, there had only been one major prison break, over eighty years ago.
Guarding the prisoners required little more than someone standing watch. Thus, many minor nobles would bribe powerful aristocrats to secure positions for their children.
After all, even prisoner guards were soldiers, providing a safe and prestigious military experience. Meanwhile, the high nobles profited handsomely from these arrangements, creating a win-win situation.
Unsurprisingly, these weakling guards, who had secured their positions through nepotism, were utterly routed by the Grand Duchy of Augustus's soldiers during the surprise attack. With Princess Olivia, a ferocious warrior, leading the charge, the battle was never in doubt from the start.
The real game-changer was Tribios's deployment of troops through the Century Gate. It was even more absurd than the paratrooper special forces from her previous life. Unlike paratroopers, the Century Gate allowed her forces to strike and withdraw completely unscathed—they could come and go at will!
Tribios was the last to pass through the Century Gate. As soon as she entered, she began scanning her surroundings, spotting rows of cages filled with prisoners—slaves.
Since the Kingdom of Ukel's attack had targeted a Beastman nation, all the prisoners were young boys and girls with animal ears and tails. They huddled in the farthest corners of their cages, their faces contorted with terror as they watched the battle outside—or rather, the one-sided slaughter.
The guards of the prisoner camp were quickly eliminated, and soldiers from the Grand Duchy of Augustus swiftly opened the cages. Looking at the strikingly young faces inside, they couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy.
As previously mentioned, the Kingdom of Ukel's primary war aim was to capture slaves—laborers. Naturally, they wouldn't bother capturing the old, weak, or disabled.
Most of the prisoners here were young men and women deliberately abducted from Beastman villages and towns, while a smaller portion consisted of surviving soldiers from the battlefield.
For these children, this whole ordeal must have felt like an utterly unwarranted disaster.
But there was no time for sentimentality. The Augustus soldiers barked, "Everyone out! Move through that Golden Portal! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
By this time, the guards outside the prisoner camp had noticed the commotion inside. But as soon as they entered, they were met with a raging inferno.
"Divine Smite!"
Olivia, the Paladin, unleashed her signature Skill, single-handedly blocking the entrance and repelling all reinforcements. With a single strike, she incinerated the first wave of over a dozen guards who had come to investigate, reducing them to charred corpses.
Witnessing this, the remaining guards froze in place, too terrified to advance.
We're all just here for a gilded position, who wants to risk their lives? one higher-ranking guard muttered. "Hold this position and prevent them from escaping! I'll go inform Lord Ramsey!"
Another guard whispered, "But... didn't Lord Ramsey just go inside recently? If we want to notify him, shouldn't we go in and rescue him first?"
A tense silence hung in the air for a few seconds. The higher-ranking guard snapped, "Who went inside? I didn't hear about that! Anyway, first go to Lord Ramsey's mansion and find him! And call for more reinforcements while you're at it!"
It was the same guard who continued, "But Lord Ramsey isn't inside..."
Before he could finish, a group of men swarmed him, covered his mouth, and dragged him away. Olivia watched the group across from her, her expression one of bewilderment. "What are they doing? Are they going to attack or not?"
However, Olivia's mission was to stall for time. Since the enemy wasn't advancing, she remained rooted to the spot, standing guard.
Time ticked by. About twenty minutes later, all the prisoners in the camp had been rescued. Only then did Olivia retreat, using the Century Gate to escape.
Even after Olivia's departure, the guards outside the camp remained hesitant to attack. It wasn't until news of the assault on the prisoner camp had been relayed through multiple layers of command that it finally reached the General in charge of the city's defenses. By the time the General arrived with reinforcements, four hours had already passed.
The group cautiously entered the camp, only to find it completely deserted. The General nearly flew into a rage at the sight.
With all the slaves gone, had their entire war been for nothing?!
"Damn it! What the hell were you all doing?!" As he spoke, the General's gaze swept across the guards before him, only to find a sea of familiar faces—the children of various nobles.
Though the influence of each noble family was relatively modest, their sheer numbers posed a threat. If the General berated them too harshly and offended too many, their families could unite against him, virtually guaranteeing his dismissal.
Thus, despite the guards' egregious failure, he couldn't utter a single harsh word. He even had to find a way to excuse their incompetence!
The General nearly despaired. What in the world is going on here?! Some mysterious figures materialized inside the prisoner camp and then vanished into thin air, taking all the slaves with them? Who would believe such a ridiculous story?!
Reluctantly, he began surveying the surroundings for clues. His first glance landed on Ramsey's corpse, and his headache instantly intensified. This was a Marquis! Such a high-ranking noble's sudden, inexplicable death was no trivial matter.
Just then, the General saw a 'corpse' in the prisoner camp suddenly twitch. He immediately shouted, "Wait! A survivor? Where's the priest?! Hurry, save him!"
What had happened in the prisoner camp four hours earlier was completely unknown to the General. But if there was a survivor, they could recount the events firsthand—undoubtedly a stroke of good fortune!
A Forging Priest clad in full plate armor rushed forward to the survivor who had crawled out from the pile of corpses. The scene was undeniably tragic: all his comrades were dead, yet he had miraculously emerged from the carnage, a testament to survival against all odds.
However... after a moment, the Forging Priest turned to the General, hesitated, and said, "Uh... he's not injured. He doesn't need healing."
The General stared in disbelief.
In the next moment, another groan echoed from a different corner. Another survivor crawled out, even yawning. When he saw the General and his entourage of soldiers, the second survivor froze mid-yawn, his mouth stuck open in mid-gape.
"Ah!" The guard suddenly screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground.
The General froze, then barked, "Quick, Priest! Heal him!"
The Forging Priest rushed over and, after a quick examination, reluctantly announced, "Um... General, he is indeed injured, but it's just a minor scratch..."
One after another, two more survivors emerged from the cages. Seeing this spectacle, the General was speechless. It was obvious these men weren't survivors at all—they were deserters pretending to be dead!
To be fair, their combat skills were mediocre, but their ability to feign death was truly impressive. The Grand Duchy of Augustus's barracks focused heavily on training soldiers in combat and obedience but had never taught them how to distinguish between a genuine corpse and a deserter playing dead.
Normally, these deserters pretending to be dead would be executed on the spot. However, these were special circumstances requiring special treatment. Given the guards' noble status, execution was simply out of the question.
The General cleared his throat. "Light wounds? These are clearly severe! Treat them immediately!"
The Forging Priests were stunned. "Ah?"
"No arguing! Just get to it!" the General barked.
Forced by the General's command, the Forging Priests reluctantly cast Cure Wounds on the four survivors one by one. As the green Healing Light glowed, the General pressed on, "Now, what exactly happened here?"
The first survivor spoke up. "Lord Ramsey brought a merchant to buy slaves. Then a golden, triangular Teleportation Array suddenly appeared, and a horde of people poured out and attacked us! They took all the slaves!"
The General's brow furrowed deeply. "A Teleportation Array? Did they have Wizards?"
That very night, news of the incident reached the capital of the Kingdom of Ukel. The Ruler of Ukel and the four Grand Dukes gathered to discuss the matter.
The Kingdom of Ukel had five Dukes in total. With one absent, fighting at the front lines, the presence of the remaining four clearly demonstrated the Ruler's grave concern over the incident.
It's worth noting that as a traditional feudal kingdom, the Kingdom of Ukel's noble ranks are Duke, Marquis, Count, Viscount, and Baron.
Among these, the Dukes wield the greatest power beneath the King, each commanding vast territories and private armies. Astonishingly, a Duke's domain could even surpass the size of most Grand Duchies.
The King of Ukel was a middle-aged man in his forties, with greying temples and a deeply furrowed brow. "My esteemed ministers," he began, his voice heavy with concern, "what are your thoughts on this matter?"
Duke Moustache, a man of similar age with a distinctive handlebar mustache, spoke first. "In my opinion, the mysterious disappearances from villages last year were also the work of this same group. Someone is secretly draining our kingdom's lifeblood, continuously abducting our commoners. Now that the villages are nearly empty, they've turned their attention to the prisoners of war!"
The second Duke, a portly man with a prominent belly, frowned. "But what purpose could these abductions serve?"
Duke Moustache scoffed. "What else? They're taking them as slaves, just like what we're doing, only more covertly!"
The third duke, a bespectacled man with a scholarly air, spoke, "If that's the case, we can be certain that the attack on the prisoner-of-war camp wasn't the work of some organization or faction, but rather another nation. Could it be the Kingdom of Green Eagle? They've had numerous border skirmishes with us recently and have always been eyeing us with hostility."
The final duke, a woman wearing a Witch's Hat, countered, "I don't think so. Do you realize how incredibly difficult it is to maintain a stable Teleportation Array that allows multiple people to travel back and forth?"
The Second-level Conjuration School spell Misty Step allows for single-person teleportation, while the Fourth-Level spell Mass Teleportation, as the name suggests, enables a caster to teleport themselves along with a group of people.
However, both are single-use spells. Only the Sixth-Level spell Arcane Gate can create two stable portals for bidirectional teleportation, but these portals have a limited range of no more than one kilometer and can only be maintained for ten minutes at most.
According to intelligence from the prisoner-of-war camp, the Golden Portal remained open for at least twenty minutes, and its destination remained unknown. This indicated a spell of at least Seventh-Level Magic, possibly even Eighth-Level!
Duchess Witch's Hat stated, "The Kingdom of Green Eagle only has one Eighth-Level Necromancer, and no Summoner Wizards of such caliber. Therefore, it's unlikely to be them."
Bang! Duke Moustache slammed his fist on the table. "Regardless, this is a blatant provocation! We must retaliate with overwhelming force!"
A moment of silence followed Duke Moustache's declaration. Duke Glasses, the bespectacled nobleman, spoke up: "So, we don't even know who our enemy is or where they are. Who exactly are we supposed to strike with 'overwhelming force'?"
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PS: The Conjuration School's Seventh-Level spell, Planar Teleportation, can transport users to other planes. However, it's a one-time use spell with an uncontrollable destination. This highlights just how absurdly powerful Tribios's Century Gate is, capable of infinite range, indefinite duration, and precise targeting across hundreds of planes.