Earth's Greatest Magus

Now that they had succeeded in infiltrating the cells, their next objective was to get all the captives ready before the elves found out about them. With this, the probability of these acolytes getting harmed during the breakout would be minimalized.

Having successfully armed the captives in the first cell, Emery quickly proceeded to sneak into the second one. In the meantime, Silva and Atlas were also on their way to their next target cells.

<I'm going to cell number five.>

<I'll take cell number nine.>

In order to effectively utilize the time they had and simultaneously take less risk of being found out by the elven guards, all three of them tacitly headed to the cell closest to them.

Now that Emery no longer had to worry about carrying Abrafo on his back, he was able to move with more freedom and agility. As a result, he was able to get to the second cell without much trouble.

He then swiftly took out the palm-sized gadget like before. This time, however, to avoid alerting any elven guards with the device's sound, he surveyed the area in advance and waited until there were no other individuals in the vicinity.

After a few moments with a low whirring sound, the door of the cell was opened with a click. To his surprise, the number of captive acolytes in the cell did not even reach fifty.

Among the few acolytes, he spotted a familiar face, one that he was looking for. At the same time he spotted the man, the two's eyes met.

"Emery!" Thrax greeted him with pleasant surprise.

Upon seeing the condition of his gladiator friend, Emery felt relieved. Although his uniform was all torn and dyed with dried blood, the immortal gladiator himself seemed to be fine and was still as vigorous as always.

However, before the two could have a chat, a familiar-looking young man rushed to step in between them.

"Why are you here? You're involved in this, aren't you!?" the young man accused with certainty, glaring at him with unconcealed hostility.

The acolyte that greeted him with such fervent animosity was none other than the noble from the Cross faction, Shatter Cross.

Looking at the young noble's reaction to his arrival, Emery couldn't help but let out a sigh. Nevertheless, to waste as little time as possible, he tried to explain the situation as concisely as he could while distributing the content of the storage rings.

On the side, Shatter Cross's expression changed when from within the ring, they saw the equipment they needed to escape the compound. His eyes were especially fixed onto the black vest.

Still, not a word of gratitude came out of Shatter's mouth, and more complaints followed instead.

"Why can't they just teleport us out!? We should get out of here right away, now!!"

Hearing this, Emery glanced at the young man. He didn't have the patience to deal with whatever tantrum the Cross noble was throwing.

"Don't you dare jeopardize this plan," Emery said. "If you don't want to follow my lead, you're welcome to stay behind and wait for other people's rescue."

To add more impact, Emery told him how Anzi, his subordinate, also came representing his faction and how messing with the plan would endanger him as well. With this, Emery finally silenced the young noble.

As he continued to distribute the items to the acolytes in the cell, Emery took the chance to look around for other familiar faces. Unfortunately, he didn't recognize anyone there apart from Mera, Grand Magus Yvere's disciple who fought him in the tournament.

"Thrax, you'll be in charge of this group. Stay here and lay low until a signal is given."

Without waiting for any response, Emery swiftly went out of the cell and headed toward the next. Shatter Cross had already wasted enough of his time, he needed to catch up to the others.

<Cell number two completed.>

A moment after, a female voice sounded from his device, playfully replying to his report.

<Aren't you a little too slow? I'm already on my way to my third one.>

<Be warned, with each minute that passes, our success rate drops by 2%.>

<Robot, where did you get such a number!?>

Hearing Silva's surprised remark toward Atlas, Eeshoo quickly interrupted them.

<Focus on the mission. Group B isn't responding, they're most likely in a huge battle out there. We need to hurry up.>

The situation was tense, but Emery felt a little relieved when he heard their reports. Six cells had been secured successfully, with nine more to go.

Emery sped up his pace and continued heading toward the third cell. Following the same procedure he did with the second cell, he surveyed the area before swiftly unlocking the door.

However, the reception he received this time took him aback. As soon as he entered the cell, he was immediately approached by several agitated acolytes. One female figure even fiercely charged at him before she abruptly stopped upon recognizing him.

"You… why are you here!?" the figure who charged at him, Vida Temari, asked in surprise. Behind her, Emery spotted one of the top acolytes of the academy, Jai Strider, who quickly calmed the other acolytes upon also recognizing him.

As Emery'eyes scanned the acolytes in the cell, he immediately realized the situation these captives were in, which was far worse compared to those in the previous two.

Although they were larger in number with more than a hundred acolytes, half of them were lying motionless on the ground.

Jai Strider, the metal puppeteer, said to Emery after pacifying the other acolytes.

"I hope you came with good news, 'cause I don't think we can last much longer."

From the young man, Emery found out that none of the acolytes who could still stand had good enough proficiency in healing spells. While some of them had a certain level of it, they were ineffective under the spirit force restraint of the room, not enough to keep up with the number of wounded.

Emery hurriedly handed over a few of the storage rings to the metal puppeteer and the female half-blood so they could help distribute the items, hoping that the potions would be enough for the wounded acolytes to at least walk.

While he was distributing the items, a weak familiar voice reached his ears. It came from the corner of the cell, among the group of heavily wounded acolytes.

"E… mery…"

Emery looked in the direction of the voice to a shocking sight. The man's body was covered in wounds, and he was barely able to move or speak.

It was Anas, the leader of the Kaleos acolyte. The last time Emery heard about him, the man was accompanying Klea to stop Zenonia's plan before the academy attack started.

Emery quickly rushed to the dying acolyte whom he almost couldn't recognize.

"He's been heavily wounded since he arrived," said Jai as Emery checked Anas's condition. He seemed to be in extreme pain just communicating with him, but the Kaleos noble seemed tobe indifferent about his own condition.

"Klea… she was here… they took her…"

The mention of Klea promptly attracted Emery's attention, and he subconsciously paused to listen as Anas endured indescribable pain to speak.

"I failed… They… they killed… Aiko… Sigurd… Do not… let her die…"

Tears welled up in his eyes as he said those words, and Emery couldn't help but also feel emotional, the two were names were more than just teammates, they were acolytes he could called as friends.

"You should rest now.. Dont worry… I will defiently save her"

In hopes that it would at least be able to keep the man alive, Emery gave the Kaleos noble his [Reviving Pill]. After making sure that he had swallowed it, he gave another bottle to be share toward the most critically wounded acolyte in the cell.

"Do you have any idea where they took her?" Emery asked Jai.

With a faint smile on his face, the metal puppeteer responded, "I do."

He raised his hand and from the sleeve, several tiny spider-like creatures crawled out and he picked out one of them.

"This one followed her," he said, handing the tiny creature to Emery.

As the grained sized creature jumped onto Emery's hand, he realized that it was actually a mechanized metal spider. one of the metal puppeteer artifacts that he manage to hide and wasnt taken by the elves.

A moment after it landed on Emery's hand, it crawl toward his personal device and surprisingly a visual image was sent into his mind.

"She's kept in Zenonia's room. the bat grand magus seems to be questioning her privately" said Jai following the visual of the room and Klea who appears to be in chained.

With this new piece of information, Emery felt conflicted. At this moment, there was nothing he wanted to do more than immediately rush into the place where Klea was imprisoned, especially since Zenonia was currently away.

However, how could he do that?. Like everyone else involved in the plan, he had his own task to fill.