Legacy of the Dark Sage

Tritus took out several potions, scrolls and talismans then placed them in every hidden compartment of his golden armor. This way even if his magic energy got depleted or its circulation was forcefully sealed he could still fight by manually replenishing his magic energy or using scrolls or talismans to summon premade spells.

After that, he sent a telepathic message to Kyran before going after Osric.

Osric knew Tritus would come after him and that was what he was hoping for. If they fought inside the Boyd Family's villa, he would have a home advantage. It would not boost his magic output. Instead, he could activate every array formation in the villa, which could inflict status ailments against intruders.

He just hoped that the battle between the two magic weapons did not develop to the point where they destroyed the formations.

Unfortunately, Osric's concern was on point. Except, the array formations were not destroyed because of the battle between the bluish-white and bluish-green sea serpents. Their battle indeed escalated, and because of that the villa's defensive array was on its last leg, they had not touched the formations for the status ailments.

The ones who destroyed these were none other than Neo, Owen and Hamish.

Their actions were not premeditated but done on instinct because as Array Specialists, their main objective was to look for arrays that might cause problems in their operation.

In any case, the three were moving separately. As a matter of fact, Neo had yet to rendezvous with them and was working alone.

While the three were busy dealing with the Array formations inside the villa, Styx, Dante and the rest of the mercenaries dealt with the small fries of the Boyd Family. They did not hesitate to kill if the Boyd family members attacked them with killing intent. However, they would also spare those who asked to be spared but they made sure they were tied and locked up.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Boyd Family met up with Haylee and led her to the safe room.

Haylee initially did not want to hide and also want to look for 'Tyr.' However, the sentient of the Macabre Glacier pestered her non-stop, making her feel light-headed.

"Find him no matter what it takes," Haylee exhorted the leaders of the Boyd Family escorting her to the safe room.

"We will, your Highness."

An elder woman in a white robe assured her, "We know how crucial he is to your goals and will do everything to ensure he is captured."

Haylee frowned slightly, sensing the unspoken threat to the elder woman's words. Knowing how the Boyd Family operates in such missions, she also knew that upon 'Tyr's' capture, they would definitely find a way to ensure he would not be able to escape the second time.

In any case, the only reason Neo managed to escape was because the dark room's ceiling caved in and Haylee and the Boyd family members had been rattled by the sudden attack they did not notice Osric's pressure on Neo had been lifted. If that did not happen, they would have taken Neo along with Haylee and had him join her in the saferoom.

"Capture him alive and in good condition," Haylee ordered them, her voice sounding threatening. "Hurt him and I will have your life to answer to it."

The leaders present could not help but warily looked at each other. Just as Haylee noticed, they planned to fatally wound 'Tyr' to ensure he could not escape a second time. But now that she openly threatened them if they hurt him, they had no choice but to throw the idea out the window.

"Your Highness, will it be alright to use a numbing poison just to make sure he— gah!"

Before the Boyd leader could complete what he was saying, Haylee shot him a look while raising a hand. In an instant, an invisible hand seemed to wrap around the Boyd leader and he slammed to the wall. He grabbed his throat and gasped for air as his eyes slowly turned bloodshot from lack of air.

The leaders felt their hearts turn cold as they watched from the side. They were unable to retaliate for fear they would meet the same fate.

"I already said to capture him in good condition. What part of good did you not understand?"

"I-I'm s-sorry, y-your High-highness...!" The Boyd elder choked out his apology.

Although he only wanted to use the numbing poison to ensure that 'Tyr' would not be able to retaliate, it was still considered a poison. Even a small dose could be fatal if they were unaware of their target's body constitution.

They did not know 'Tyr's' body constitution. If he ended up having a special condition and had low tolerance to poison, a small dose of numbing poison could be lethal.

Haylee lowered her hand and the Boyd elder fell to his knees, gasping for air.

The elder woman who had first spoken to Haylee helped the Boyd elder before looking at Haylee and saying, "Your Highness, I'm sorry for my lack of understanding. We will definitely capture Disciple Tyr without using any poison. However, we only want to set expectations. Knowing what he can do, it might take some time before we can accomplish your command."

"He can be a pain because his melee ability is one of the best I've ever seen," Haylee agreed. "But that is the only advantage he has at the moment."

"However, he is the first mage we've seen who successfully infuse his Array knowledge into his battle—."

"He can't use Array. At least, he can't make an offensive array because he did not have enough materials," Haylee cut the woman midsentence. "His stamina is supposed to have been mostly exhausted but he may have taken a stamina potion to ensure he has enough strength to retaliate and then escape.

"But no matter how many stamina potions he drinks, his body is the only one feeling invigorated. His mental strength will eventually tire— so, I suggest forming an encirclement to limit the area where he can move and wait until he is mentally exhausted. After that, close in and capture him."

"Yes, your Highness," the elder woman agreed and lowered her head.

Alas, the subject of their discussion was neither physically nor mentally exhausted. If there was one thing Neo was worried about breaking down, it was his body— in every literal meaning.

Neo had been working non-stop since the day before, going from one place to another along with Styx and the rest, targeting the army's warehouses. After that, he was attacked by Tobias and was captured. After retaliating he had to endure the bombardment of numerous powerful magic attacks from the Lumley mages while eradicating them while on Destroy mode. Finally, he was captured yet again, and this time it was the Boyd Family's Ancestor, whose magic pressure was enough to strain Neo's body to its limit. Neo was even made to endure Osric's magic pressure for almost half a day.

Basically, Neo's body was in shambles and although he could still move around and fight rigorously, he would not be able to endure another powerful attack similar to Osric's normal attack.

Neo already sent out a coded message to his master, but whether it reached the latter or not, he could not tell. While he was waiting for a response, he busied himself in destroying every Array formation he came across.

He was actually surprised that the villa was installed by so many formations. Based on Neo's knowledge, Array Specialists with high attainments were pretty rare within the empire. It did not even exceed twenty or twenty-five mages.

Of course, this was excluding every unregistered Array Specialist, which was discovered during the joint military exercises.

But that was unimportant at the moment. Because what Neo discovered was far more intriguing. Every Array formation he found was all advanced-tier arrays and their formulas could be considered 'ancient.' This meant that these were made a long time ago, yet, surprisingly, they were still intact.

Neo wanted to find more formations and record them in his system so he could show them to his master. He believed that Kyran could determine the exact time these formations were created and find the answer to who created all of these advanced-tier formations.

After destroying another array formation, Neo moved while avoiding every patrolling Boyd member.

After a few minutes of looking, he found another formation.

'Just how many Array formations does this place have?' Neo wondered.

"There he is!"

A hoarse cry echoed inside the room Neo had just entered.

Instinctively, or to be precise, Neo's programming immediately reacted.

Without waiting to see who those people were, Neo already tightened his grip on the wooden staff in his hand.

Earlier, he had it transform into a huge hammer but now it had returned to its original size.

Neo whirled the staff on his hand and swung toward the incoming Boyd members.