Chapter 268: Rudely Interrupted

Julius watched as Rolus unsuccessfully questioned the woman, still a little peeved that the fight hadn’t gone the way he wanted it to.

On another note, they found out that Lyn wasn’t exactly a member of the Conclave, she was simply a person who her family lent over to them. Which explained her general uncaring attitude about the members of the Conclave.

She wouldn’t share who her family was or anything more important, but it would seem that she just didn’t know a lot of things.

While Rolus kept trying to get more information out of her, Julius took the time to keep an eye out for other enemies.

The woman had surrendered too easily for his liking and no matter the reason she chose to share with them, he believed it was because there were other people involved.

Apparently, Rolus had already tried to notify House Easten of the attack but it would seem that the enemies had some kind of item or skill that kept the beacon from working, which was why the other teams that had gotten attacked, hadn’t been able to call for help.

Items like these weren’t exactly uncommon, but they were pretty expensive and hard to use. This was how House Easten knew whoever they were dealing with were not just simple thieves.

As he kept an eye out for more enemies, he glanced at the man who was still lying legless in the dirt and who was now in shackles of some kind that resembled the ones he had in his storage ring, but a little differently.

These ones seemed a little less intrusive but they also had some kind of imprisoning enchantment that his didn’t have.

It was admittedly hard to feel bad for the guy. Julius didn’t particularly like assassins, which wasn’t shocking considering his history with them. Whereas he could already feel himself feeling more compassionate to the Lyn woman. Even though she was much closer to actually killing him.

What could he say, he respected people who could give him a good fight. That last attack could have potentially ended really badly if he hadn’t made the decision to give up his arm and a good portion of his chest.

He still hadn’t gotten his head chopped off, but that could have been the first time if he hadn’t reacted in time.

It was just too bad, the fight ended before it could really start. He blamed Rolus for being there. If the man wasn’t there, the odds were high that the woman would have continued to fight.

He sighed depressingly at the sadness of the situation. On the bright side, the rest of the fights were going pretty well. They were almost finished and most of the teams were still alive, taking fewer casualties than he expected going into this thing. Considering how much they had been outnumbered, he would say it was a pretty big achievement.

It helped that the four Tier 4s who came along with them weren’t able to join their fellow Tier 3s. If they had, it likely would have gone in a completely different direction.

Once he saw that the other teams were handling the end of the fight, he finally took the time to process the information he got from that Crane guy.

First of all, it was nice to finally get some confirmation that House Greyson was a part of the Conclave’s operations. That wasn’t so much of a surprise though. He had expected something like that. A scummy House like House Greyson was bound to work with people like that.

He also wasn’t surprised that this Crane person didn’t know the details about the relationship between the two. It made sense that a simple Tier 4 wouldn’t be privy to that information.

What was surprising, was the extensive list of names he managed to gather from the man about House Townsen’s involvement.

It was quite a detailed list, one he was honestly surprised to get from the man. Furthermore, he was pretty certain that the information was all correct. He had the man in such a choke hold with his aura, that it would take the man himself believing in the wrong information to fool Julius.

While he didn’t know every name on the list, he recognized a few names. Houses Hopley and Utman were one he had heard Richard and Rebecca discussing before. However, it would appear that only a few members of these Houses were truly traitors. Most of the people in those Houses were uninvolved.

Although Lord Townsen was almost guaranteed to be directly involved himself. Which was going to be an issue for Richard and Rebecca to handle. Julius had done his job and repaid the help he had gotten as well as getting something for himself.

He would have loved to get more information about House Greyson, but now he was pointed in the right direction at the very least and could start to work unraveling their operations.

If Crane was right, then House Greyson was a major player in the Conclave, though it was obvious considering their influence as a Ducal House. But if Julius could take them down a few pegs, he would be happy.

As he stood by and watched for any more incoming enemies, he decided to try to use his communication orb again. He removed it from his storage ring and tried to contact Richard. However, the field that was blocking communication seemed to still be up and he was unable to.

Shaking his head, he put it back into his storage ring and replaced it with a smoking hot hand pie.

His teeth bit into the buttery and flaky crust, crumbs falling everywhere. He mumbled in joy as he enjoyed the hot meal.

Fighting really worked up a guy’s appetite.

Just as he was going in for another bite, he was blindsided.

Somehow, before his perception could even detect them, a person appeared in front of him and jammed their fist into his chest.

Julius didn’t even get a chance to react or move as the person’s hand pierced all of his defenses like they were nothing. He could feel a distinctly powerful usage of mana cover this person’s limb as it made a mess out of him. Then once the person’s arm was deep into his chest, they detonated a mass of mana and blew Julius’s entire torso apart.

He tried to gather his mana and protect himself, but he felt something clamp down on top of him without mercy and all of his mana fell apart.

It didn’t help that the circuits within his body were torn to shreds either, which hampered his mana channeling.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Then he was blasted in the face with one last strike and was sent hurdling over a hundred feet off into the distance.

After he stopped rolling, he didn’t get up right away. He couldn’t.

He was too stunned and too injured to do anything.

The good news was that he wasn’t dead. Which he had every right to be at the moment. It was worth noting that he was missing more than half of his body. On the bright side, the pain was surprisingly not very present.

[Phoenix Renewal] was working in overdrive as it flooded his body with mana, trying its best to keep him alive some of his organs were splayed out in front of him, and the rest were scattered all around him.

The bad news was that [Phoenix Renewal] was having a difficult time healing him compared to normal. Usually, when he used the skill, he didn’t have a problem with overcoming any external influences.

But it would seem that this wasn’t the same case.

Whatever mana had pierced him and torn his chest apart was still there. And unlike normal mana, this mana had a sort of resilience to it that made his skill less effective than normal.

So instead of healing his wounds within moments, he found himself still struggling to stop himself from bleeding into the dirt and gurgling on his blood. He could feel his vitality start to slip as the damage was becoming too great.

What the hell just happened? He thought as he focused his skill on the most important parts of his body, trying to remain calm despite his dire situation.

Since the skill was severely hampered for the time being, he decided he needed to place his attention on the most crucial parts, things like his heart which was missing its lower half.

He struggled as the unknown mana fought against him. It almost felt like the mana had a will of its own and he cranked up [Sage of Savagery] and [Inexorable Aura of Ruin] to rise against it.