The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

As Anser passed by the headquarters, he brought Osborn and the other two along, leaving all the soldiers behind at the headquarters.

The moment the group entered Upper City, the holy symbols on Zahir's and Valera's foreheads suddenly lit up, echoing a beam of moonlight that shone from the Temples District in the distance.

Far away, Priest Evan, Archdruid Kristin, and a group of clergy silently watched them approach.

Fortunately, everyone had already been mentally prepared, so no one made a fuss.

Selûne, goddess of the moon; Tyr, god of justice; and Eilistraee, goddess of song and moonlight, were on fairly good terms, with no direct conflicts between them.

As the distance gradually closed, the two groups came into clear view of each other.

Yet Evan wasn't looking at the other Chosen. Instead, he stared at Anser in surprise.

To prevent information from leaking, Anser had only told Priest Evan, Osborn, and Queen Veronica the purpose of the operation. No one else on Bral knew anything about it, much less who would be participating or what the plan entailed.

Evan had never imagined that Anser would casually manage to bring in two Chosen, and that wasn't even counting Brunhilde, whom he'd met before.

Whatever else could be said about him, Anser's ability to call in reinforcements was downright ridiculous.

"Come on. Let's head to the Star Palace first." Anser beckoned to them.

"All right." Evan glanced around. With this many people gathered together, they were indeed drawing attention.

Mind Flayers were extremely perceptive, and they possessed spell-like abilities such as Plane Shift. It would be troublesome if they caught wind of what was happening.

Led by Anser, the group hurried toward the Star Palace.

The royal guards at the gate recognized Anser at a glance. Not daring to neglect him, they quickly called for their companions to open the gates.

Rumors had been flying everywhere these past two days. Whether they were true or false was another matter, but everyone knew perfectly well who the real boss was. Even the queen inside the palace had been put on the throne by him.

The guard captain led Anser and the others into the spacious council hall, which was already packed with people.

The moment Veronica saw Anser, she abruptly rose to welcome him, hurrying over with an eager smile on her face. The sight made the eyelids of her subordinates twitch.

Their own queen showing so little restraint made them feel embarrassed, but there was nothing they could do about it.

"I managed to borrow the Spatial Anchor." There was a hint of someone seeking credit in Veronica's voice.

"Then everything's ready." Anser smiled.

The Spatial Anchor was the inverted pyramid, more than a meter tall, that the royal family had used during the previous operation to clear out the crashed nautiloid. It was the Mages' Guild's most treasured possession, a Legendary item.

Its effect was relatively simple: it generated an enormous magical barrier that anchored the surrounding space, preventing all teleportation spells while forcibly revealing invisible creatures.

Its range depended on the strength of its users, and up to four spellcasters could activate it simultaneously.

If four Elite Wizards supplied it with power together, the barrier could reach a radius of over a thousand feet, or more than three hundred meters. Its coverage far surpassed that of the 6th-level spell Forbiddance.

That range would barely be enough. The Rock of Bral wasn't very large to begin with.

Anser swept his gaze around and found everyone looking at him. "Let me introduce everyone first..."

Once everyone had gotten acquainted, they sat down together and discussed the specifics of the operation.

The general consensus was that there were Mind Flayers in the city, but probably not very many.

With their combined combat strength, they had more than enough power to crush them with ease.

The greatest difficulties were identifying the Mind Flayers and preventing them from escaping through Plane Shift.

For the former, they had the 6th-level divination spell True Seeing. Anser, Evan, and Valera could all cast it, and they also had several magic items capable of the same thing, including the True Sight Ring.

Naturally, Anser would be doing most of the work. He could cast nearly thirty True Seeing spells in succession. Of course, there was no need to waste that much Magic Power, and he also needed to reserve enough for combat. There was no Spirit Net here.

Finding the Mind Flayers was easy enough. Keeping them from escaping was another matter.

For one thing, once fighting broke out, it could alert the others. For another, every fully developed Mind Flayer could use Plane Shift. Unless they had enough power to kill one instantly, stopping it from escaping would be extremely difficult.

After some discussion, the group drew up a preliminary battle plan:

Fight by sectors, strike simultaneously, and concentrate on priority targets!

It was similar to the method Durlag had used when dealing with the werewolves that had infiltrated it.

Using a map, they divided the Rock of Bral into four major combat zones—Upper City, Middle City, Lower City, and the underside—then further divided those zones by district into a total of twenty-one sectors.

Middle City was the priority. It had the most sectors, seven in total, and the Spatial Anchor would also be deployed there.

The underside of the Rock of Bral had the fewest sectors. It consisted of farmland, prisoner barracks, the army fortress, and the naval base. The area was relatively isolated, making it the least likely place for Mind Flayers to be hiding.

By that calculation, Anser only needed to cast twelve True Seeing spells, ensuring that the captains of all twenty-one teams had Truesight.

His True Seeing lasted two hours, which was more than enough.

Evan and Kristin would lead the clergy and church knights, working alongside Veronica's Royal Guard to handle Upper City.

The former was a Chosen, while the latter was the queen. Between them, getting the nobles to cooperate willingly would be easy.

Kristin was extremely powerful. The slightest hesitation from a Mind Flayer could cost it its chance to escape. Besides, those nobles all had their own guards, so there was essentially no chance of anything going wrong.

Zahir, Rand, and Osborn would lead the forces in Lower City. They had no Peak Professionals, but their combat strength was still considerable.

Among the dozen or so elites from the Church of Tyr were two High-level Professionals. Together with General Smokefire, the hill dwarf Bruno, and those two hundred elite soldiers, they had more than enough strength to sweep through Lower City.

Most of them were natives of Lower City and knew both the area and its people well. Once fighting broke out, their numbers might even grow as they went.

The underside of the Rock of Bral was assigned to Froidin, commander of the Astral Sea Fleet, and Sollfrank, commander of the army. Both were High-level Professionals with numerous Professionals under their command. Inspecting their own bases would hardly be difficult.

Anser would lead seven teams through Middle City, the most complicated and heavily populated area. The city guard, part of the army, and the court wizard corps would operate alongside him.

During the previous Mind Flayer disaster, Anser had inspected nearly half of Lower City but only a tiny portion of Middle City. Most people there weren't particularly welcoming about Paladins entering their homes, which made those areas more likely places for Mind Flayers to hide.

Anser, Delira, Valera, Stoll, Iris, Makaria, and Adolf would each lead one team of fifty to sixty people.

More than half of them were Professionals, with more Peak Professionals and High-level Professionals among them than could be counted on two hands.

Middle City wasn't large, with a depth of only a little over a kilometer. At Anser's flying speed, he could reach any danger the moment it arose.

"It's nine o'clock now. Have the soldiers move into position first and seal off the entire city. We all move at nine thirty." Anser snapped his pocket watch shut and issued the order.

"Yes..."

"All right..."

Anser gathered the team captains around him. Holding the Arcanefire Longbow, he focused and began casting. One True Seeing after another descended upon them, magical radiance flashing repeatedly.

Evan, Kristin, Veronica, and the others watched the scene with traces of shock in their eyes.

These were 6th-level spells!

What spellcaster could cast more than a dozen of them in succession without so much as changing expression, remaining perfectly calm and composed throughout?!

Even if someone had enough Magic Power, could their body, mind, soul, and sheer mental stamina possibly withstand it?

"Let's move. Stay safe."

Anser himself felt a little pained by the expenditure. He had less than two hundred points of Magic Power left, which would somewhat affect his killing efficiency.

'I'll have to rely more on Signature Spells and melee combat.'

His Antimagic Field might not be able to block a purely psionic Mind Blast, but it could stop Plane Shift. Its only drawback was its rather small range.

He still had his breath weapon and Extraordinary Strength, and fighting in melee was less likely to cause excessive damage.

After all, this was his own territory.

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