Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

The first magic circle I saw was located in an alley. I immediately got to work as the rest of my team find other magic circles or apprehend the attackers.

From what I could tell, it was a teleportation circle and from the looks of it, it was scattered all over the city for the intruders’ easy access. Just my luck when a figure just teleported in it just as I approached it.

I immediately sent icicle shots which impaled his (it was a guy) leg and shoulder. I headed to his direction and deactivated the magic circle.

“Where are you entering from?” I asked, as I secured the intruder. “The barrier around Azte shouldn’t let anyone teleport inside the capital.”

The guy only smiled. He suddenly looked like he bit something and his mouth started foaming.

-Damn it. Suicide pills huh. They have no intentions of getting captured alive.

Once confirming his death, I left the alley and proceeded to where Aunt Zaira was.

On my way there, I saw a few more magic circles, this time they caused explosions. I immediately sent a ball of energy towards the magic circles which destroyed it.

Minutes later, I saw Aunt Zaira incapacitate an enemy with a spell. I stood next to her and told her of my experience.

“Hmm… So they really are teleporting inside. You think we can reverse the magic circles and track where they’re coming from?” she asked wincing a little after another explosion happened. She then groaned. “The repairs after all this will be a headache.”

I only shook my head at her last sentence. She was more worried about the destruction of properties rather than our lives.

-Well, she is Aunt Zaira after all.

But my expression immediately turned serious which she noticed, since her face turned serious as well.

“Aunt Zaira, do you think Ferhusto is working alone?” I asked her after having suspicions with what was going on.

The fact that teleportation suddenly became possible inside Azte was what led me to ask that question. Those people from Ferhusto were outsiders. Even if they had a plan to bring havoc in the capital, it wouldn’t be fully realized without a helping hand.

I was suspecting someone from Azte who had enough knowledge about magic and the barrier helped them; an insider.

“We’ve been investigating Ferhusto Kingdom before the Grand Academy Games started. We were sure they will be causing the current event, I just did not expect they will be doing it too soon. As for who’s helping them, I’m not sure. We’ve confirmed their affiliation with demons bit other than that, we don’t have anything else yet.”

“What do you think is their goal for this? I mean, Ferhusto and Praiji have been in friendly relations since the previous emperor.” Aunt Zaira looked at me with an amused expression. “What?”

“And here I thought you don’t pay attention to things other than power and getting stronger.”

“That’s beyond the point Aunt Zaira.”

She sighed. “We don’t know. That’s what we’re going to try and find out if we apprehend someone from Ferhusto. But at the moment, our job is to stop the explosions as well as the infiltrations.”

I nodded my head in understanding.

All of a sudden, Professor Tresde landed not that far from us. She had a panicked look on her face.

“Mistress!” she yelled and dashed to where we were. “Bad news! There’s something happening in the city!”

“Yeah, it’s being attacked.” Aunt Zaira responded in a monotone voice.

“That’s not what I meant! Sir Wukong told me to let you see for yourself! He said to see the city from the sky!”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Professor Tresde’s statement. I saw the irritated look on Aunt Zaira and she immediately flew using flight magic.

-Huh. She’s not using her wings.

I shook my head at such thoughts. Aunt Zaira could do whatever she wanted.

“Vyfal!” I called.

Vyfal, who had been prowling in Azte as I asked her, arrived already in the size of a horse. I mounted on her back and she flew us, following Aunt Zaira’s trail.

Once we were high up in the air I saw Aunt Zaira looking grimly at the city below us. I also saw Sun Wukong, riding what looked like a sizeable cloud.

-Right, he had an ability called Cloud Surfing.

Sun Wukong had the same grim look as my aunt. I followed their line of sight and I gasped. Smoke was rising from different parts of the city. Other than that, pavements and roofs were painted in crimson, the color of blood.

-Why would they go as far as splatter the blood on roofs?

But then I noticed something. The smoke from the explosions seems to be in a circular manner, which spanned the outskirts of the city. A smaller ring seems to also be present consisted of glowing magic circles. Meanwhile the blood was the innermost circle.

-This is-

“A magic circle used for transport gates.” I heard Aunt Zaira breathe out.

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her words. A transport gate? It was a little too farfetched but knowing Aunt Zaira, her intuition and analytic skills were usually spot on.

“The attack isn’t just to distract us and give the demon army time to reach Azte, but also to complete a transport gate.”

“What are they trying to transport here?” I questioned.

Aunt Zaira turned to me. “Can you connect with it and see where it is the other side?”

“Huh? You mean, you want me to modify it? I’m not that good at modifying magic circles yet! I don’t even use them!”

“Give it a try. I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to destroy it now if we do it’ll just blow up on our faces. Whoever set this in motion got us good.” she sighed. “NOW!”

I had Vyfal settle me in the middle of the circle, hovering a few feet from the surface. I extended my senses using the surrounding energy and imagined them in the form of threads. I guided these threads on the areas where the explosions, smaller magic circles and spots where blood pooled, and pushed power in them. I could feel them connect as well as power surging through them.

In my mind, I could see two sets of images. One was a dark room where an image of Azte City was surrounded by eight mages with light brown cloaks. They were glowing and chanting spells, and the dots on the image corresponded on where my threads were connected.

The other image was outside, on a clearing. Four cloaked mages were chanting and dark violet vortex was churning in front of an army; a demon army. And from what I noticed, it seemed to be the one on the east.

I opened my eyes and immediately relayed what I saw to Aunt Zaira.

“Demons.” she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “They’re not trying to wait for the demon army to arrive they’re going to lead the demon army in the middle of the capital! Damn it!”

“Can’t you do something?” I asked.

“I can’t. Transport gates are complicated and always a hassle. If we try to mess with it now, something worse might happen.”

She immediately flew down and I followed her. When I finally caught up with her, she was talking to Kai who had a shocked look on his face.

“It’s changed. That’s- How is that possible?”

“I don’t know.” she replied grimly. “The capital will become a battlefield. Go to your uncle and tell him to evacuate everyone from Azte.”

“But-“

“Now Ao.”

-Ao?

Kai looked like he was hesitant but he bowed and dashed to the direction of Anatoli Stadium.

“Aunt Zaira! What’s going on?!” I hear Torii ask as soon as she arrived. I saw the rest of our team behind her.

Torii was studying incognito as well, but considering how her relationship with Aunt Zaira was famous already, I think people could already tell she would be calling her that.

“A demon army is on its way.”

“Then we should head to the city gates!” Senior Trent responded. “We should have the army intercept them and-“

“No. The army will be arriving via transport gate in the middle of the city.” Aunt Zaira took a deep breath. “Focus your efforts on evacuating all non-combatants! If you see any guards, tell them to bring everyone to the edge of the city, apart from the south!”

And so, the prologue of a nightmare had begun.