[You are being called upon for an Urgent mission to the restricted area. Will you accept?]
Emery reflexively turned to look at the expressions of the people around him and quickly realized that only the privileged acolytes received such a message.
Under normal circumstances, Emery would easily decide to accept such a mission, especially given how curious he was about the Primordial Wisp he would find in the restricted area.
However, the massive tremor that happened earlier and the tremendous aura that even now still lingered in his body made him reconsider his choice. The fact that two unusual events occurred at the same time as the horde of Abyss creatures grew in number naturally worried him.
Uncertain, Emery looked at Julian and Roran for opinion, "You two received the mission, right? What do you two think we should do?"
The Harlight Prince quickly gave his thoughts. "This message specifically adds the word Urgent to it, and this can't help but worry me. For the same reason, I believe that whatever it was, it happened beyond the academy's prediction, So if I can choose freely whether to accept or not, I'd rather not go and just focus on the task at hand."
Emery nodded at Roran's words because he could see the sense in them. However, Julian had a different opinion.
"I think the growing abyss hordes has a lot to do with what's going on in the restricted area, and the way I see it, the Commander needs an extra hand to assist him complete the task. Moreover, I believe it might become a problem for everyone if the Commander is to fail, hence we should send some to help"
Emery also nodded his head at Julian's words. Both inputs were useful to him in determining the choice they would make. Furthermore, as a commander himself Emery had to be decisive.
"Alright, I decided that we should at least send some of us," said Emery before turning to Julian. "I plan to go there myself; so Julian, will you stay here and take care of the survivors in my stead?"
Julian didn't seem to need time to think as he immediately nodded in agreement.
"I will also stay here and help him," said Roran calmly. He then glanced at Lyndell who was standing beside him and said, "You might need her help so take her with you just in case."
The blonde woman who always stood quietly next to Roran was surely Harlight's special bodyguard. She is number 32 in the privilege ranking and said to be specialist in healing, definitely someone important to have on a dangerous mission. Emery quickly accepts to the point of appreciating Roran to let her join.
Emery then saw that Annara, Atlas and Sigurd - all three - would join him. He naturally welcomed them with open arms because they were, after all, the upper tier of the privileged class.
With five people already on the team including himself, Emery felt that many people was enough and swiftly sent a message to the other captains, asking them to stay and help the survivors. This decision was accepted by everyone, except for one person - the one known as the Egyptian Queen.
"Huh! This is not fair, I want to join too!" Klea clearly expressed her dissatisfaction while looking at those who were going with a displeased expression on her face. Annara responded with her signature wicked smile.
Meanwhile, Emery could only smile helplessly when he heard her words. He felt bad that she had to be left behind, but at the same time, he actually felt rather glad that Klea wouldn't be joining.
Something about this mission had been worrying him quite a bit and even now he still couldn't shake off that particular feeling. Therefore, it would be best if Klea didn't tag along.
Emery was about to accept the mission when he suddenly received a message from a certain someone.
[Commander, I want to join too! Pick me up, I am deep under the shrine!]
From its content, it was clear that the message came from none other than Arcana who was currently still busy killing all trapped Abyss creatures in the shrine. Unfortunately for him, Emery had absolutely no intention to personally pick him up so deep within the Abyss nest.
But then, a thought suddenly popped into his mind, that he might need Arcana special ability. Eventually, the sudden thought succeeded in persuading him to let the child-looking acolyte come along.
Emery and the other 5 then accept the mission with their devices and a meeting location was given.
Hence, Emery cast the [Spatial Gate] and went to retrieve Arcana before proceeding to move towards the north side of the continent along with the other four people.
Along the way, his Spirit Reading found tens of thousands of Abyss creatures roaming the plains in large size hordes, and the closer they got to the north the bigger the hordes of Abyss creatures they encountered became.
"If all those hordes head to the base, I'm not really sure if they can defend it.."
At this moment, Emery suddenly regretted a little that he had brought all the strongest people with him. Alas, now that they had gone this far, there was no turning back. He could only hope that the task within the restricted area could be completed quickly.
After a dozen [Spatial Gate], the group of six finally arrived at the outskirts of the Sacred Mountain.
Looking at the majestic mountains with their peaks soaring above the clouds, Emery couldn't help but be blown away by the spectacle.
However, soon, as they approached the Sacred Mountain, Emery gradually found it more difficult to pinpoint the space with his Spirit Reading. As a result, the difficulty of casting [Spatial Gate] and the risk of failure increased exponentially, he even find it hard to simply sense things.
"There is a high fluctuation of energy within the air around these mountains" said the half machine acolyte after checking with his sensor.
Hence, Emery told the others to continue their journey on their orbiters, flying in the sky towards the mountain ranges with Arcana's eyes' ability on standby to help sense any unexpected trouble.
Half an hour later, Arcana finally found the energy signature of the Magus Alliance's group. The most prominent were obviously Commander Raynor's peak Full Moon Magus and two of his Crescent magus assistants. Along with the three of them, there were also around three dozen saint-level fighters and one striking figure, one of the strongest privilege acolyte - Zach Talon.
These people were standing on top of a sea of abyss creature corpses, and from the look of it, they just finished fighting a huge battle.