Fire Mage (Web Novel)

Chapter 661: Tension

"Why, Your Majesty? It's not that we don't trust you, but we also want to share the burden with you." Elre said after a short silence.

Meanwhile, Sage Heroes and the other three Guardians nodded in approval and waited for the Divine King Phoebe to speak up.

A deep sigh leaked out of his mouth.

"It seems someone has corrupted your mind." His words startled not only Elre and other Sage Heroes but even Charles.

'He found out with simple retaliation actions of Sage Heroes? This guy is sharp.' At that moment, his gaze coincidentally met with Divine King Phoebe. Although he only looked at Charles for a split second, he seemed to have sensed something and abruptly looked at Esim.

After a swift look, he returned his gaze toward Charles and revealed a faint smile.

"Interesting. I sense a trace of Esim's wisdom in your eye. Did you get his inheritance? Who are you? An outsider?"

"Inheritance? I never even took a personal disciple, Your Majesty."

A cold snort escaped from Divine King Phoebe's lips.

Then, he glanced at all other Sage Heroes and Guardians and spoke.

"We will discuss this matter again, so let's end the audience here. Everyone, except that young Karr, Esim, and Elre, can leave the Throne Hall now."

Although everyone was puzzled by King's sudden order, no one hurriedly dared to talk back and tried to leave the Throne Hall.

But before they could turn around, Charles cleared his throat and spoke.

"I'm the real Vesryn but had an opportunity to leave this confined dimension and see the truth with both eyes, Your Majesty."

Divine King Phoebe frowned and shook his head.

"It's impossible for you to leave this dimension. Moreover, your lies won't work on me."

'I know that too. But these words aren't for you to hear.'

Charles gripped the sword hilt and spoke again.

"I indeed got the inheritance from the Shadowed Sage Esim, Your Majesty. But he isn't the clone standing beside you but the real one who was poisoned to death eons ago."

"What are you talking about, Vesryn?" Elre asked in puzzlement and distanced himself from Charles and the Divine King!

Unknowingly, Elre felt that the trust in Divine King was becoming meager.

At the same time, Sage Heroes, the other three Guardians, and even the disciples backed away and looked at Charles and the Divine King in suspicion and confusion.

Instead of responding to Elre, Charles calmly took a black robe from his space ring and wore it over his linen-like gown dress.

"This is also another gift I got from Esim." As he spoke, he locked his gaze on Esim and asked.

"Does it look familiar, Mr. Esim? No, it looks more refined and elegant than you are wearing, right?"

"T-This... I sense my shadow essences and even wisdom essences in it." Confusion appeared on Esim's face.

A second later, he suddenly disappeared from where he was standing and arrived before Charles.

"Where did you get this, young Karr?"

"You should ask the person sitting on the throne, Mr. Esim." Charles smiled lightly and spoke.

At that moment, everyone turned their gaze and looked at the Divine King in silence.

Nobody spoke a word, but the tension in the throne hall peaked.

Finally, after a long silence, Divine King Phoebe stood up from his seat and gripped his scepter tighter while sharpening his gaze at Charles.

But before he could act, Esim released his wisdom power and stood before Charles, blocking Divine King Phoebe's spiritual attack.

Although he hadn't met this young Karr before, the presence of his shadow essences and wisdom essences proved that he had some connection with him.

"What are you doing, Esim? Why are you protecting him? He might be an intruder." A cold voice came from Divine King.

"Even if he is an intruder, I want to know how he got his hands on that robe and my inheritance, Your Majesty. Please allow me to talk to this young Karr and let this problem resolve peacefully. There is no need to harm him."

"What Guardian Esim said is correct, Your Majesty." Elre also took a step forward and arrived before Charles.

At the same time, the Sage Heroes in the throne hall also got closer to Charles and began to prepare for the battle.

A look of amazement appeared on Divine King's face for the first time.

"There has never been a time in the annals of history when a single Sage Hero dared to speak against me. But I'm amazed you protect an intruder instead of listening to my words."

"I'm not an intruder. But after hearing your earlier words, I suspect you might be the one." Charles said loudly and backed away two steps.

As his words resounded in the Throne Hall, everyone's heart started to waver. The trust they had put in their King began to weaken slowly.

'One final touch, everything will fall into my hands.' Charles muttered inwardly and patiently waited for Divine King Phoebe's next action.

At this moment, Divine King Phoebe lost his calm and shouted angrily.

"Celestial Guards! Arrest everyone. And kill that stupid puppet before he blabbers something else."

As he spoke, more than 50 Silver-armored guards suddenly appeared in the hall and encircled the group in seconds.

"Now it has come to this situation; I have no choice but to erase everyone and recreate from the beginning." He paused for a second and added in a serious tone.

"I don't want to let the situation out of control and lose myself like my old self."

Upon hearing those words, everyone in the throne hall felt that the person before him was not their true King but someone else!

"W-Where is our Divine King? What did you do to him?" Elre asked in a shocked tone.

"I'm your Divine King." Divine King said with a booming voice and gestured the guards to act.

Meanwhile, Charles activated his [Phantasmal Analysis] and scanned the surrounding guards.

'Only 25 of them are real ones. The rest are only realistic illusions created by the Divine King.' But Charles knew that even the illusion clones might have power equal to Legendary Rank powerhouses.

At that moment, he scanned the 'Divine King' and looked deeply at the status.

'He has six Dream-related skills, two unique skills, and three Divine Skills.' But what made him more worried was the artifact in his wrist.

'Due to some mysterious power, I can't scan it. If I'm not wrong, I feel the same divine energy when entering the Graveyard of Sinners.'

He pondered momentarily and decided to let the Guardians and Sage Heroes handle this situation.

Meanwhile, Esim and Elre finally chose to face reality and went into battle mode.

"You guys take care of those Celestial Guards. Meanwhile, we will stop this imposter and find the truth ourselves after defeating him." Elre spoke to the Sage Heroes and gripped the silver staff.

A moment later, mysterious wind essence enveloped the Throne Hall and approached all Sage heroes, Guardians, and other disciples.

Within a moment, a strange wind elemental streak infused Charles's and others' bodies and enchanted their body strength and speed two folds.

After that, Elre raised his silver staff and cast another spell called 'Airlock' to seal Divine King Phoebe's movement.

Simultaneously, he cast another spell and forcefully teleported [Divine King] from the palace to somewhere else.

Then, he tapped the staff twice on the ground and vanished from that spot.

At that moment, Esim cast the [Shadow Veil] spell and disappeared from there.

'Hmm? Elre teleported Divine King 30 kilometers away from this city. Nice move.' Charles instantly released his wisdom power and started watching everyone's next action.

Although Divine King and the other two disappeared from there, none of them lost their composure and focused on the opponents before them.

Within a second, the Sage Heroes, Guardians, and other disciples acted under the order of Elre and released different kinds of magic and divine spells toward the Celestial Guards. Some spells caused large-scale effects and destroyed walls, pillars, and ceilings.

But Charles widened his eyes because the Sage Heroes' disciples battled like kids playing with sticks. Although they cast their magic spells, their aims were far off. Also, their eyes didn't even have a hint of killing intent.

'Only the Sage Heroes are doing okay.'

On the other hand, the Celestial Guards looked more aggressive and ruthless. Within five seconds, they managed to kill three disciples of Sage Heroes and even wound a Sage Hero.

'Are they really battling? At this rate, they will be of no help.' Charles frowned deeply and decided to try something.

First, he focused on one of the Celestial Guards and noticed he was fighting a Sage Hero and an illusion clone.

He instantly cast the [Burning Thoughts] spell on the [Celestial Guard] and tried to erase his current thought.

The next instant, the Celestial Guard stood at the same place instead of evading the upcoming [Fire Tendrils] spell and was soon caught by it.

When he woke from the dazed state, the Sage Hero cast another fire spell called [Fire Storm], enveloping the silver armored guard in a dense flame, instantly burning him.

'So my 'Burning Thoughts' spell can indeed work on the Corpse Devourers.' Charles nodded inwardly and went into stealth mode by cast [Shadow Veil] spell and Shadow Stealth skill.

After that, he stealthily helped the others' battles and eliminated all the Celestial Guards in less than a minute.

'Now, let's focus on the main battle.' He calmly muttered in the shadows and disappeared from there.