"Don’t be so cocky."
Faced with the threat of the fake Benjamin, the priests were somewhat hesitant. But they still took out the God’s Eyes from their sleeves as if ready to use them to call for assistance.
Seeing this, the mages were quite pleased.
Up until now, everything had been going rather smoothly. If the priests did not call for assistance, they would have no way to lure the Church’s battalion here and help release the real Benjamin from his ordeal.
However, they could not express their delight.
"Go, we’ll not be so courteous towards them anymore." Imitating Benjamin, Merck’s face hardened and he waved his hands at the mages behind him, giving the cue to attack.
And the mages all started to chant.
Their main goal was to help Benjamin escape the siege, but it would also be a bonus if they could rescue some of the mages trapped inside at the same time. The majority of the soldiers within Amber City had been led away to the huge fire near the city gates and were temporarily unable to handle the situation here; now, the mages were free to do as they pleased. Furthermore, they had already travelled so far to face these people, like sheep put in the fields, they were itching to do something.
Soon, they summoned a hail of fireballs and shot them at the golden shield that was protecting the school.
As this was a fight within the city area, they did not dare be too conspicuous, so they had chosen a machine gun-like continuous attack— each wave comprised of ten fireballs, with the fireballs so close together that they almost formed a huge column of fire. They fired off wave after wave in rapid succession.
The fire column continuously crashed into the golden shield, causing it to flash holy light; the mages took this as a sign that the strength of the shield was wavering as they pressed on.
However, after watching the fire column and the shield for a little while, the priests hiding inside slowly started to calm down.
—This device was still unbreakable.
"There seems to be a bit of a problem..."
Varys and Frank gave each other a look and immediately stopped hoking around.
Benjamin had mentioned before that there was some sort of magical instrument here that helped beef up the security of the detention centre, but at the end of the day, it was still just a magical instrument... However powerful was it that it could withstand the attack of hundreds of men?
This device seemed to be much stronger than they had imagined.
If they could not break the shield, their whole plan would fall apart.
There would be no way that could lure the Church’s battalion over here if they attacked with all their might but still were to able to cause even the slightest bit of damage. After all, if the shield was effective enough at resisting the attack, why would they need the battalion?
To make matters worse, the priests within the shield were now also beginning to chant calmly.
"Challenging God’s power will be a decision you will regret for the rest of your lives."
They opened up their arms and grenades of holy light shot out towards the mages. Of course, the mages were still releasing fireballs; the grenades of holy light were very quickly destroyed by the torrents of fireballs and did no damage. However, this also meant that the fireballs were also nullified by the explosion.
Now, they couldn’t even hit the shield anymore.
Seeing this, Merck was slightly unnerved. He was, after all, only an ordinary mage with no ability to lead; everything was supposed to go according to the plan. However, the plan did not take into account this situation!
What should he do? Should he strike?
Although his expression was still poised, he was actually trembling in his heart.
Just as the mages were stuck between a rock and a hard place, the gigantic, golden shield that was protecting the school disappeared; it had not destroyed by the fireballs, but instead, had seemingly collapsed on itself. With a whoosh, it vanished - as though somebody had flicked a switch off.
At that moment, everyone on the scene was stunned.
The mages looked at each other, not knowing what was going on. But the priests and Holy Knights opposite of them… well, not so much. Without the shield, there was nothing to block the fireballs. In the blink of an eye, they had been completely disintegrated in the torrent of fire.
It had happened so suddenly that they were not able to summon shields. Not that their little shields would have been able to block the attack a few hundred mages anyway!
Their Life-Saving Crosses shattered, and in mere moments, they were turned into nothing but ash.
Seeing this, the mages quickly stopped casting. They had released enough fire today; they had better not burn up this renovated school with all the mages still trapped inside!
But, they were still suspicious of the situation and did not act in haste.
…...Was it a trap?
Why would such a good shield vanish by itself?
"What are you gaping around for? Come in quickly!" at that moment, a figure poked out from the doors of the school and beckoned at the mages.
It was Miles!
"You... How did you get in?" Frank felt his head spinning from the confusion.
"I have my ways, don’t you mind that. Don’t worry, the Church’s people are all dead. Come in, you guys." Miles seemed too lazy to explain; he casually waved away issue and continued to urge the group.
The mages looked at each other.
Just now, they were still in a really bad spot, but in the blink of an eye the shield had disappeared, and the whole situation was flipped on its head. Everything had happened so quickly that they were still very doubtful. However… it was Miles after all… so, there should not be any problems, right?
They slowly walked towards the school.
Walking through the big doors, they were greeted by the ugly corridors of the school; one could see elements of the previously abandoned hospital that were lazily covered over. The whitewashed walls looked like those of a mental hospital; with all sorts of slogans promoting the Church scribbled on them.
Miles walked in front and led them to a row of rooms.
"The detained mages are in here." He turned around and gestured to them.
Varys nodded and used magic to blow the doors open before looking inside.
They could see that the rooms were very empty, save for a few dirty mats messily strewn about. A few people were huddled in the corner, looking terrified. They wore old and torn linen clothes and on their hands were specially made gold shackles.
"No... Teacher Yi Ang, please don’t take me to be roasted. The Holy Light is the greatest, God is omnipotent, we… we are all sinful and wicked..."
The mages who were shrinking away in the corner started to tremble and stammer out a bunch of incoherent words at the sight of Varys and the others, as though their mind was no longer sane.
The mages glanced at one another in horror.
What sort of torture had they been through?
"Don’t be afraid, those bad people are dead.: Varys walked over and spoke in a gentle voice, "We are all mages, we have come to rescue you."
However, the prisoners seemed to be shocked by his actions.
"Mages... No! Mages are all sinful, we will never be mages again, don’t punish us..." They shrunk even deeper into the corner, not daring to even raise their heads.
Seeing this, Varys sighed.
"What now?" Frank asked somewhat awkwardly.
"Let’s get them away first." Varys shook his head before helplessly saying, "The fight just now has definitely gotten some attracted, we cannot stay here long."
The mages could only nod their heads at the instructions, their expressions heavy.
Because of the mages’ trembling and resistance, they were forced to knock them unconscious before unlocking the anti-magic shackles. After that, they grabbed the twenty-something unconscious mages and hurriedly left.