A thin black-cloaked skeleton stood at the royal palace's entrance gate and slashed its curved silver dagger skilfully at the three-meter tall metal gate. Instantly, a low hum echoed from the curved silver dagger. The metal gate was broken into multiple pieces a second later and fell like bricks.
Then, Rilos took the lead and started moving.
'Is this the power of second-tier necromancer's undead?' Abium muttered in shock and quietly followed others while crossing the outer gatehouse. The group walked into the outer court before moving towards the magical blue fountain installed before the gorgeous white palace.
The outer court was bustling with a crowd. On their right were stables and carriage houses, while on their left were full of ornamental trees for the outlook. At that moment, Nobles, knights, and servants stood under those trees, waiting for their masters to return from the gathering.
As soon as the people saw the Necromancers' arrival, they stopped talking and turned their gaze toward them. Confusion appeared on everyone's face.
Hundreds of Royal Knights, who stood on guards at the palace entrance, also noticed their sudden intrusion and unsheathed their swords to attack in alarm. A few holy knights from the Light Church also stood along with those soldiers, making the atmosphere tenser.
'No good. We are surrounded.'
With a quick scan, Abium analyzed the surroundings and frowned.
'A total of 100 plus third-tier Knights, eleven fourth-tier knights, two fifth-tier knights, 12 fifth-tier holy knights, and one Bishop of the Light Church.' Abium could tell that the whole place would be bathed in blood if a fight broke out here.
As he watched them anxiously, an unfamiliar royal knight, who was in control of guarding the palace, raised his hand and stopped the other royal knights from doing anything rash. He had blonde hair, brown eyes, a pale face, and was around 20 years old. But what made Abium frown a little was that he felt familiar when he saw that guy's face.
'He must be another spy.' Abium thought.
Meanwhile, Rilos gave a royal sealed badge to the blonde-haired knight and whispered something in his ears. Meanwhile, the blonde-haired knight took the royal sealed badge and immediately ordered those knights to let everyone in.
'Hmm? Why is he wearing a Knight Captain's uniform? What happened to lady Roysia? It seems someone replaced her with this guy.' Abium frowned for a moment and soon identified the blonde-haired knight's identity.
'Wait... isn't his face almost look like Viscount Gauvain?'
Abium's amber eyes widened at that thought!
'He must be Viscount Gauvain's first son Andrew!' He paused in surprise and soon nodded his head in understanding. After giving one in-depth look at the brown-haired Andrew, he hurried after Rilos and others.
As they stepped closer to the main building, a fierce elemental fluctuation appeared from the right side, causing everyone to fasten their footsteps.
'That necromancer lady Yalya must have already started her plan on distracting others. Hope Helena, Lady Tabitha, and teacher Zivior would stay safe and manage to save Prince Huggin.' Abium thought inwardly.
In truth, he had first considered casting the 'misfortune' spell on these necromancers but soon dismissed that idea. The main reason for that was because of the Fate Divinity Holder. After all this time, he hadn't found a clue about him and felt that guy might be tricker than these necromancers.
'I don't want to lose this Intellectual artifact.'
Although he was a little worried about Crown Prince's safety, he didn't put too much thought into it.
If Abium hadn't intervened, the outcome might be more disastrous. But now, the future might move in an entirely different way.
'The possibility of Prince Huggin being killed by those necromancers is slim. If he died even after I made all these preparation, then the one behind this whole conspiracy might be a terrifying being.' Casting those thoughts away, Abium looked ahead and noticed their group had arrived at the entrance.
At the same time, two Royal Knights who stood at the entrance bowed their heads towards Rilos and opened that enormous door while letting everyone in without further inquiry.
'Something feels off about them.' Abium suddenly noticed that those two Royal Knights moved more like puppets!
They are undead! Damn, Yalya and others must have killed these guys beforehand while sneaking in. But how come they manage to fool those Holy Knights' eyes? Wait! A few days ago, I heard from Necromancer Rilos that one of the 'Order of the Dead' organization's leader Lord Shade formed a temporary alliance with Light Church members.' Abium felt chill as he recalled those words.
'Sh*t, it seems the conspiracy is brewing very deeply.' Abium drew a deep breath.
'I don't understand these two groups' motives at all. To outsiders, it always seems that the Order of the Dead organization and the Light Church are opposites. But are they enemies? Or is it just that they are acting to fool the masses?'
'If my memory is not wrong, a battle will happen between a mysterious necromancer and the cunning Bishop of the Keris Kingdom a few months later, which will lead to the fall of the Keris Royal Family. If not for his evil plan in the past, the Keris kingdom wouldn't have fallen into Light Church's hand and then got completely wiped out by the Night demons.' Memories of his past life appeared in front of his eyes.
While he was in deep thought, the group entered the palace and passed through the corridor without glancing at the banquet hall. Although everyone heard screams, cries, and shouts of women and men from the other side, nobody showed a hint of emotion and hastened their footsteps.
Soon, they walked past many halls and soon reached the inner palace.
Only a few servants, maids, and a few regular soldiers stopped them along the way, but Rilos's white skeleton butchered all of them and made things easier for them.
Following that, they crossed a large spiral staircase to the next floor, then the throne hall, and finally entered a large garden filled with unique ornamental flowers and plants. The vast garden would be enough to hold thousands of people inside, and it looked more like a lustful forest.
Once everyone entered the garden, they all shifted their gaze toward the opposite wall and saw a large three-meter-tall metal gate.
"Watch out for any unexpected attacks," Rilos said in a cold tone and started moving towards the metal gate.
'I want to see how these guys will open the gate without the help of royal family members.' Abium thought curiously.
After a few seconds of walking, everyone arrived before the large metallic gate and waited for Rilos's further orders.
Meanwhile, Rilos didn't mind their curious gazes and took out a palm-sized metal disk from his spatial ring. The following instant, he uttered a strange incantation and activated the mysterious artifact.
A moment later, a bolt of purple-colored lightning came out of the disk and stuck on the metallic door.
Bam!
Like thunder, a loud sound echoed in the palace garden. Then, the whole three-meter tall, gloomy metal gate crumbled into dust, leaving everyone stunned.
"Let's go," Rilos said with a rough voice and stepped ahead into a gloomy dark path. Meanwhile, others soon snapped out of the daze and followed after him.