If one were to describe Lynn’s first impression of the Silver Moon Court, it would be magnificent and elegant.
It had been that way in the game, but seeing it in reality was even more staggering.
The entire structure was carved from white marble with such exquisite craftsmanship that it looked less like a prison and more like a lavish palace.
The entire building was fixed at the point in the sky closest to the moon, held aloft by the high-level magic, [Permanent Levitation].
At night, moonlight poured into the Silver Moon Court, draping the entire architecture in a layer of gossamer that made it look mysterious, elegant, and exquisite.
‘I wonder how much of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money was spent on this,’ Lynn thought, shaking his head slightly to pull his thoughts back to reality.
Ayan also reverted to her human form the moment they touched down.
“I say, are you sure you want to go in?”
Ayan tugged at the corner of Lynn’s sleeve, her small face filled with worry.
“If you change your mind now, I can still take you away from here, you know?”
“I can feel the aura of ‘Forbidden Magic’ here. If something happens to you inside, I might not be able to guarantee your safety!”
Looking at Ayan’s anxious expression, Lynn said teasingly, “I never thought the day would come when the Lord of Dragons, who was once known as cold-blooded and ruthless, would actually care about someone.”
“I… who said I was worried about you, you idiot! If you die inside, how am I supposed to carry your corpse back all by myself!”
Ayan seemed startled, as if her secret had been suddenly exposed.
She quickly crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head away, resuming her act of not caring about Lynn at all.
However, her flushed cheeks had long since betrayed her true feelings.
Lynn smiled helplessly.
He was naturally well-aware of what the Silver Moon Court was like inside.
There were indeed various magic circles and traps laid out to prevent Deling-Ge from escaping, and ‘Forbidden Magic’ was one of them.
As the name suggested, under the influence of ‘Forbidden Magic’, all mages who stepped into the Silver Moon Court could still use their mana, but they were unable to construct magic circles to activate spells or launch attacks.
Of course, Lynn was largely unaffected.
Firstly, it was because he did not have much mana to begin with.
Secondly, as a Chesspiece Engraver, he did not need to construct magic circles like traditional mages to activate his arts.
He played with chesspieces.
As long as he infused his own mana into a chesspiece to activate it, he could launch an attack immediately without needing to build a circle.
It was no wonder the Chesspiece Engraver was considered the most broken class in the game.
Lynn thought of this as he walked toward the main entrance.
The heavy doors were left slightly ajar.
Clearly, someone had entered before Lynn.
Was it Felica?
No, that did not seem right.
She possessed the authority over ‘Space’, allowing her to fold space or even walk through walls.
Entering through the front door would mean taking the long way around, which was completely unnecessary for her.
After thinking it over carefully, Lynn recalled that the plot mentioned a Platinum-rank adventure team entering the prison to reinforce the seal before Felica’s arrival.
Obviously, based on the final result, they had failed.
Otherwise, Felica would not have had to burn her own life force to seal Deling-Ge in the end.
But why didn’t this Platinum-rank adventure team temporarily deactivate the ‘Forbidden Magic’ when they entered? It didn’t matter to Lynn, since he used chesspieces, but for an ordinary mage, this was undoubtedly fatal.
As a Platinum-rank team, they could not have made such a rookie mistake.
Lynn had a faint feeling that things were not as simple as he had imagined.
He had to hurry.
“Hey, I’m not waiting for you.”
Lynn walked through the door and called out to Ayan, who was still dazed.
“Eh?”
Ayan watched Lynn’s retreating back and stamped her feet in annoyance.
“You… you arrogant idiot! Wait for me!”
Patter… patter…
A series of hurried footsteps echoed through the empty hall.
A brown-haired girl wearing the white uniform of a priestess clutched a silver staff.
She was gasping for breath, running as fast as she could with every ounce of her strength, not daring to stop for even a second.
Her clothes had been torn to shreds by something unknown, leaving only tattered strips of fabric to barely cover her.
The girl was running so frantically that she had even lost both of her shoes.
Her small, white feet repeatedly struck the marble floor, making her look incredibly pathetic.
As a priestess of a Platinum-rank adventure team, when had Evelyn ever been in such a wretched state?
But she had no choice.
Just moments ago, her Platinum-rank team, Caged Bird, had encountered the greatest crisis in its history!
Originally, the mission given to them by the Central Council was merely to reinforce the seal of the Silver Moon Court.
But who could have imagined that before they even got close to the seal, they would be suddenly ambushed by monsters that appeared out of nowhere!
If they were ordinary monsters, the Caged Bird team would have had plenty of experience dealing with them.
However, the problem was that these monsters seemed to have been strengthened by some kind of special power!
In just a single encounter, the team had been severely decimated!
Even worse, the ‘Forbidden Magic’ they had previously deactivated had somehow been turned back on, instantly cutting off all contact with the outside world!
Under the weight of one blow after another, even the experienced Platinum-rank team was scattered.
If Captain Karga had not stepped forward at the critical moment to buy her time to escape and seek reinforcements, she would have long ago died in the mouths of those monsters.
“It’s almost… I’m almost there…”
Evelyn looked at the doors leading to the outside world, and the light of hope was rekindled in her panicked eyes.
Once she passed through those doors, she would reach the entrance hall!
As long as she could get out and call for help, everything would be fine.
But just as she used the last of her strength to push open the heavy marble doors, she froze in place.
What awaited her was not the freedom she expected.
Behind the doors was another long corridor.
It was an endless corridor, no different from all the others she had run through before.
She only then realized that she was trapped.
“How… how could this be…”
It was as if all the strength had been drained from her body in an instant, and she collapsed to the ground.
Despair immediately shrouded her heart.
Right at that moment, a growl came from behind Evelyn.
A giant coyote with red light radiating from its body and black bristles covering its skin slowly stepped out from the door she had just come through.
“No… please no…”
Evelyn’s face was deathly pale.
In her extreme terror, she even forgot to get up and run.
The Netherwolf slowly bared its teeth, revealing crimson fangs.
Its fur stood on end, and its green eyes were filled with murderous intent.
Evelyn curled into a ball in fear, unable to do anything except watch in despair as the Netherwolf lunged straight at her.
At the very moment she thought her death was certain…
A thread of lightning, as thin as silk, drifted down from above.
It was like a spider’s thread cast down by a god.
The lightning landed precisely on the Netherwolf, building a bridge that connected it to the heavens.
In that instant, an unprecedented sense of death spread through the creature’s entire body.
Although the Netherwolf was a low-level monster with little intelligence, it could still sense the terrifying, murderous intent coming from the high heavens!
In the next moment…
BOOM!
A bolt of pure purple lightning carrying the weight of a thousand tons struck down from the sky!
Then came a second, and a third!
The lightning fell rapidly, and before the Netherwolf could even react, it was completely blasted into dust by the three strikes!
A moment later, the sound of thunder faded.
Evelyn sat where she was, staring in shock at what had just happened.
Then, a set of footsteps suddenly sounded behind her, pulling her consciousness back to reality.
Evelyn looked back and saw a figure in a deep blue academy uniform slowly walking toward the remains of the Netherwolf.
It was Lynn.
Lynn did not pay her any mind.
He slowly crouched down and carefully inspected the corpse.
It was strange.
Generally speaking, the physical resilience of such low-level monsters was very low.
One attack should have been enough to bring it down.
This one had withstood three strikes of lightning.
Something was not quite right…
Looking at the back of the thinking Lynn, Evelyn swallowed hard.
To be able to use such a terrifying, miracle-like move under the influence of ‘Forbidden Magic’, and to remain so calm afterward as if he had just swatted an ant…
‘Just what kind of god is this boy in front of me?’