Legacy of the Dark Sage

Haylee's heart turned cold the moment she heard Neo's threat. She did not expect the latter to choose death over joining hands with her. It made her wonder why he was so adamant about rejecting her.

From the start, 'Tyr' did not try to hide his hostility towards her. At first, she thought it was because she was royalty. However, after discovering his identity, she believed it was just how he was.

But now, Haylee believed there must be another reason 'Tyr' would rather die than join hands with her.

"Why are you making things difficult?" She could not help but ask through gritted teeth.

Neo did not answer.

He could not give her an answer. After all, he was only a puppet substitute, and all his memories were based on the data his master entered into the system and information about his interactions with the Crown Princess.

In any case, Neo deemed that answering was unnecessary. It would even help establish that whatever reason he had, it was something far too important and deep-rooted in his bones to the point he did not want to tell her.

Haylee's brow creased as anger slowly formed in her heart. She rarely got angry, and when she did, it was never a good event.

She was usually a very tolerant person, but 'Tyr' had pushed her to the limits time and again.

If her conversation with him happened before taming the Macabre Glacier, she could easily come up with a way to convince him without aggravating the situation. Alas, she could not do that right now. Her brain's ability to think and come up with a solution was spent, and she had yet to recover from the strain of taming the Macabre Glacier.

The light golden light grew brighter by the minute, and if Haylee would not stop, Neo would blow up in less than a minute.

Haylee gritted her teeth so hard that she could already taste blood. Suddenly, she stopped short after realization struck her.

If others threatened her like 'Tyr' did while she was in a foul mood, she would have already lashed out. She would even challenge that person and let them do what they said they would do.

But then why was she acting differently toward Tyr?

Haylee's eyes constricted as she stared at 'Tyr', who was already covered by a blinding light.

Could it be that she had really fallen for him? That no matter how unreasonable he acted, she would eventually relent and match his pace? No, that should not be the case.

Apart from Tyr's looks, there was nothing worth mentioning about him.

He is a talented Array Specialist and invented a new way for support-type mages to fight. But he also has a foul mouth and temper— which would usually appear when someone stepped over his bottom line.

Like the incident in the Blacksmith Order. Or the Solo Competition against the Royal Army.

....

Why were all these reasons appear to be good qualities if one considers looking at them from a different angle?

BOOM!

An earth-shattering explosion from above forced Haylee out of her reverie.

The ground shook, and dust and small debris from the ceiling fell at her and Neo.

"What—?"

Haylee almost fell as she lost her balance from the fierce shaking of the ground.

On the other hand, Neo's eyes lit up as he realized the magic pressure weighing down on him had disappeared as soon as the explosion occurred. He immediately cancelled the self-destruct sequence he had activated and scanned the surroundings above.

BOOM! BOOM!

Before Neo could complete his scanning or Haylee find her balance. Two consecutive explosions sounded, and the shockwave that followed worsened the shaking of the ground.

"Your Highness!" A Boyd member guarding the darkroom rushed inside with three more people. With a panic-stricken voice, he continued, "The villa is under attack. Please follow us. We'll escort you to the Boyd's escape passage."

Haylee frowned at once as she looked at the Boyd members, "What do you mean we are under attack? Who dare attack the villa?"

Before any of the Boyd members could answer, one of them was suddenly lifted in the air by an unseen hand as he spasmed as if an insect had crawled inside his head.

Another Boyd member gasped as he noticed Haylee's hand raised and poised as if she was holding something invisible. It was not hard for the member to understand that she was the one who 'attacked' the other Boyd member. Most likely, she was using her magic to 'look inside' the latter's mind.

"W-We have not seen the perpetrator, your Highness," the Boyd member hurriedly explained. He was afraid that the more she pried into the mind of the other Boyd member, the latter would end up in a coma.

Hearing the Boyd member's words deepened Haylee's frown. She let go of the man, and the latter fell to the ground, retching.

The other two Boyd members helped him up while trying to inject their own magic energy into his body to help him recover.

Haylee's sapphire blue eyes glowed fiercely as her magic sense erupted.

Similar to Neo, she also wanted to know what was happening outside.

However, before her magic sense could even observe what was happening, one of the Boyd members gasped and exclaimed, "H-He— D-Disciple Tyr is gone!"

Haylee's mind reeled as she turned to look at the only area in the darkroom that was illuminated by a soft light, like a spotlight.

True enough, 'Tyr' was no longer there.

CRACK! BOOM!

Before Haylee could even react to Neo's disappearance, the ceiling caved in.

"Princess!"

Two of the Boyd members rushed forward and summoned a huge magic barrier to protect Haylee, while the third one protected the other, who had not recovered from Haylee's soul attack.

Meanwhile, when the Boyd members appeared, taking Haylee's attention away from him, Neo warped and left the darkroom. Since the warp ability was part of the Void's nature, he could use it as long as he circulated the Void energy in his energy core. However, he could not direct where to warp.

After warping, Neo ended up at the Boyd Villa's courtyard, where several high masters were gathered as they maintained the villa's defensive array.

Neo looked up and finally saw the culprit behind the explosions— actually, there were two culprits.

Two massive sea serpents— one bluish-green, the other bluish-white— were locked in a fierce battle, rendering everything around them smithereens.

A distance away, Neo sensed two familiar auras, and he could not help but smile bitterly.

These two auras obviously belonged to Osric and Tritus. Neo did not know why these two appeared here and seemed to be engaged in a deadly battle. But thanks to that, he managed to escape from the darkroom.

Honestly, he had thought his master had arrived to save him, but it appeared it was one of his Sigils. As a puppet, he could not feel disappointment, but with Tyr's program running in his system, it deemed his situation to be somewhat disappointing and, at the same time, gratifying.

"YOU!"

A call from behind made Neo turn. There he saw more Boyd members, and a few of them were looking in his direction.

Neo immediately took out a wooden staff— Tyr's signature weapon— from the storage ring and circulated his energy core. The color of the magic energy in his energy core immediately changed from purple to light yellow after retracting the destroy mode in his system. After that, he activated Tyr's magic and a series of Strengthening runes appeared around his body and the wooden staff.

The wooden staff then turned from a regular-sized staff into a huge hammer.

When the hammer was big enough, Neo slammed it on the ground.

BAM!

The ground exploded, resulting in a five-meter crater. The shockwave that followed also forced back the Boyd members who saw him and were running toward him.

"Argh!"

A cloud of dirt and smoke filled the surroundings, reducing their vision.

"Someone catch Disciple Tyr!"

"Don't let him get away!"

Voices from within the cloud of smoke shouted at the other Boyd members who were too far to be affected by the shockwave.

Before they could react, a soft yet powerful voice reverberated in the whole villa, shaking their soul.

"Disciple Tyr has escaped. Catch him at all cost!"

The Boyd members, who had not seen Neo, were alarmed at the voice's order. They obviously recognized that voice as the Crown Princess, and a few immediately took action.

That was right. Only a few heed her call. Not because they did not want to follow her but because the rest still had to maintain the defensive array of the villa, or else, the magic pressure coming from the two battling sea serpents would destroy the whole place.

The leaders of the Boyd Family split into two groups. The first group focused on maintaining the defensive array of the villa, while the second went after ' Disciple Tyr.'

They were getting into formation when suddenly, a blinding light fell from above and nearly destroyed the villa's defensive array.

"AAAARGH!"

"KEEP UP YOUR OWN MAGIC BARRIERS! HOLD IT DOWN!"

"Don't let go! Maintain the formation!"

The Boyd elders exhorted all their members who were maintaining the defensive array.

The blinding light continued to descend, boring down a powerful magic pressure that forced everyone under the villa's defensive array to their knees.

They had yet to recover their bearings when another explosion sounded from the northern part of the villa.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Boyd elders' faces turned grim.

An ancient saying crossed their mind after experiencing one sudden attack after another.

'When it rains, it pours.'