Chapter 87
“We couldn’t use our hands. I was too fast….”
“Does it make sense that you could not block a barrier put by a single person?!”
“I’m sorry.”
I heard a familiar husky voice and a lot of discouraged voices. Even when I opened my eyes, my vision was dark. I realized I had been blindfolded. I tried to listen to every little detail to make sense of my surroundings.
“If we break the barrier now…”
“What a nutcase! Are you saying that you can break that barrier when you could not even prevent it from being completed?”
“If we all try together….”
“And you didn’t do it all together earlier?!”
“You useless bastards!” No one could even squeal against Antares’ anger. The air was heavy with dread and silence.
“Tsk. What about communication? Is it still working?”
“It’s impossible.”
“Useless scums!”
Oh God! Antares had abducted me! But Kaichen had set up the barrier. Was it because I had requested earlier or he knew I was missing? Either way, I felt very grateful. He had even blocked communication! I could feel Antares’ frustration, it was so palpable. And I gloated in satisfaction. He deserved it.
Magicians had their own strengths. Most of them could do any magic when needed but they always had a specialty where they exceeded expectations. For Antares, it was potions and drugs. For Kaichen, it was making and breaking of barrier magic. I knew that and that was the sole reason why I had asked him to put up the barrier. No one would be able to break the barrier he had created.
Kaichen was also Julius’ right-hand man. In fact, I wondered if Julius was able to become the crown prince only because he had Kaichen’s protection. Kaichen was very powerful. Nobody dreamt of crossing him on the continent. It must be true. I read about something like that in the introduction in the book. I only vaguely remembered that Julius would become an emperor but hadn’t given enough attention to the protagonist’s friend, Kaichen.
The barrier shone in a translucent golden light. No one could doubt whose magic it was. Just as I had combined magic to gather the dirt and combine them in a place in Victor’s home, Kaichen had integrated all of the individual barriers and used them all at the same time forming a very strong, invincible barrier. It was very difficult. Sometimes magicians went mad when they overdid it while learning it. Maintaining one spell is difficult. Maintaining several at the same time is unthinkable.
He made it possible for the barrier to have defensive properties, reflective functions, stamina recovery, wound recovery, and blocked communication. I could only imagine how strong Kaichen really was. I had only read about it in the original novel. He had performed this on a large scale to engulf everything within sight in the novel.
When it was revealed that Julius was the long-lost prince, he was attacked by assassins from everywhere. But Julius was always with Kaichen. When Julius was injured by a sudden attack, it was Kaichen’s barrier magic that had saved his life. Kaichen had also put a spell on the barrier magic to help Julius recover and his sword to appear by his side automatically. The spell had, at the same time, blocked anything flying from outside, thus protecting Julius. The barrier also repelled the attack on the attacker a thousand folds more. The assassins had tried to breach the barrier and attacked to the point of self-destruction. Kaichen’s barrier stood till the end.
‘Julius, contact the teacher.’
‘It will take… time for him to come.’
‘I can handle it until then.’
‘I’ll just fight.’
‘In your current condition? Don’t be crazy. Just contact the teacher. Don’t hurt yourself more out of your stupidity and waste more of my mana. Contact him now!’
Julius had obeyed and contacted Matabju through communication magic. They could have run away with teleportation magic but their enemies were no fool, they knew how to use teleportation magic to follow. Until forces from Matabju arrived, they were on their own. Kaichen had protected Julius for four full days with his barrier magic.
It was why Kaichen was given the title of Archmage. He had proven himself more than worthy. Although people also called him The Mana Monster, he spent the next two days unable to get out of bed from exhaustion. It had turned from praise to curse. Magicians were jealous. No one ever spoke of that incident ever.
There are probably three possible options. It blocks outgoings, blocks incomings, and disrupts communication.’ Although the whole city was put under the barrier, there were only three possibilities. But Acrab wasn’t a very big city so this could still work in my favour.