Sealing the Rifts

Upper North District's northern entrance. The Duke arrived at the upper wall and evaluated the situation. 

The defensive battle was intense and visible exhaustion could already be seen on the people's faces. From the current look of the situation, it did not seem like they would be able to last until sunset.

People could fight very long battles with adequate rest in between, but a battle like this left them with no rest at all and tested the limits of their endurance.

In the distance, the airship hovered over the rift at low altitude. A portion of the crawlers were attracted by the drumming noise of the airship and began to change direction.

"Damn, why are they flying so low?"

The guards and nobles, who didn't know the situation, took the airship to be filled with civilians. 

"I don't know but it works in our favor. The pressure on us has already decreased by half."

A palace guard said as he hacked away some crawlers with difficulties. In order to cover for these weaker nobles and aristocrats, the palace guards were forced to overuse their earth ability. 

There was a severe deficiency in adequate defenders. The nobles and aristocrats had made up the numbers and cultivation, but they had proven to be more burdensome than they are useful. 

These were people who had long grown use to ordering others and not others commanding them. A bunch of riffraff banding together would not be able to demonstrate the unity and discipline of a trained legion.

The defenders fought back the crawlers chaotically and a delicate love-hate relationship was formed between the palace guards and the upper district people.

"Look, the airship stopped moving. Why did they stop at the rift? Are they looking to die?" A noble said dubiously.

In his mind, such a move was stupid beyond imagination. Were they going to start tossing civilians off to feed the crawlers next?

The ocean of crawlers over at the rift began to form mountains as their climbed over each other to reach the airship. Duke Ignis knew exactly who was onboard the airship and understood their intentions. 

"They are trying to seal the rifts! Allow me to assist them in clearing the path!" Duke Ignis shouted with a dignified bearing.

A flame lance appeared in his hands before he tossed it into the far distance.

The flame lance exploded on a small mountain of crawlers. The area was immediately engulfed in flames and all the crawlers were burned to a crisp. 

The Duke soon leaped off the wall and dived into the sea of crawlers. An omnidirectional flame barrier protected him from all attacks and vaporized all that touches it.

His actions grew the attention of all crawlers and they charged at him like a moth in flying into the flame.

"Allow me to help also."

The general marquis dropped by and summoned another [Tempest] to wreak havoc on the crawlers.

"So, you have come, Hendrick. It seems you have also grown stronger." Duke Ignis commented with a hint of envy.

"Not much, just twofold." Hendrick downplayed his achievements, but a grin hung on his face.

When the Duke heard this, his face twitched, and he wanted to smack the person. Twofold is not much!?

The two continued to work together to sweep the area. Their abilities had great synergy as the size of the Duke's flames grew ridiculously large under the nourishment of Hendrick's wind.

The people on the wall all dropped their jaws at the sheer size of the flame.

The giant hellfire dropped into a section of the rift and reduced all the creatures in it to dust, making that patch of area temporarily devoid of crawlers.

"I thank you both for the timely assistance." Kasif's voice drifted over from the airship, before commanding his men, "Shadow Guards, go now! Take this chance to seal the rift!"

The Shadow Guards did not answer, but took action immediately, jumping off the airship towards the edges of the rift. The rift was closed at a visible rate under the manipulation of their earth ability.

Any new crawlers that began climbing out of the rift were flattened under the crushing weight of the earth after the Shadow Guards combined their strength.

After working hand in hand with the general marquis and Duke for a full hour, they manage to completely seal off the entire northern rift.

With that, the north side was finally brought under control. It was only be a matter of time before the Lower North District was completely eradicated of crawlers.

Watching this situation, general marquis and Duke felt proud of their accomplishment. They had played a large role in this success.

"The north is finally stabilized. I wonder if you two gents are willing to accompany this Old man in sealing the rest of the rifts?" Kasif asked.

Hendrick and Ignis looked at each other with sweat still trickling down their faces and smiled.

"Gladly!" They answered simultaneously.

…

Upper West District's western entrance.

 "The north and south has now been sealed. Good! It's just a matter of time until the west and east are also brought under control."

Leon floated in the sky and observed the happenings of the Capital. The situation in the north was not missed by him.

His mother must've anticipated that they would not last until dawn and sent people to seal the rifts. That was a great move. It was not realistic to defend until dawn. Even if they manage to pull it off, they would have no strength left to face the real enemy.

Leon watched as the billowing black smoke surround the Capital, finally start to die down.

From the timing of the explosion to the long billowing black smoke, he knew that the enemy was very knowledgeable about the underground spiders and had planned everything carefully.

How could the source of the black smoke not be snuffed out by the spiders after so long? Evidently, the enemy knew what type of fire the spiders avoid.

Some time later, the smoke cover completely dissipated, and the outside world was clear again, although this didn't matter to Leon, whom had good vantage in the sky.

Where was the enemy?

At he thought this, he could sense numerous eyes trained on him from afar. He immediately locked onto their location and wanted to laugh out loud. The enemies were either fools or very brave. They didn't seem like they were trying to hide at all!

Their gazes were completely sensed by him!

The enemy would have never thought Leon's senses could be so sharp as to sense them from miles away! Edric and Albert of the Grey family stood out from among the enemies. Was it time to collect old debts as well as new ones?

Leon's expression turned cold as he avoided direct eye contact. He did not want to alert them.

He took one last look at the Capital that had been devastated and thought it was fine this way. Without destruction, there can be no creation. But there will be great changes after this crisis was settled and his royal family will have to be the one to enforce it. They can no longer keep to their old ways. Times have changed.

He didn't agree with the royal family's conservative methods. If everyone had been awakened, their manpower would not be lacking against these arachnids and they wouldn't had to fight so hard.

…

At this point, his mother was still holed up in the palace. He didn't know what his mother was on guard against, but he could feel his mother's affection and concern for his unconscious father. The King was too vulnerable in his vegetative state and anything could happen. Thus, his mother had stayed in the confines of the palace grounds.

Since his mother remains passive due to his father, let the son clean up the enemy for them!

Leon dropped out of the sky and switched into his black attire before dashing out of the Capital. The crawlers ignored him like he was invisible and allowed their heads to be stepped on along the way. Each step was packed with power and would crush the crawlers head as he goes.

The personal palace guards lost sight of their prince and panicked. They began searching for him within the boundary of the Upper District.

They would have never thought that he was going out to seek the real enemy alone, or else they would have fainted from anger.

After leaping over the rift, he used his shadowy steps to make his way around to the enemy's camp without being detected.

He took the initiative because he was confident in his strength and also didn't want the enemy to escape one they found out the Capital was under control. He was fed up with these corrupted nobles.

He did not know the full extent of their strength so he wouldn't face them head on as such. To fight a head on battle based on blind confidence was being too arrogant and foolish.

He would first assess their strengths from the dark and act accordingly.

…

The four great families continue to wait patiently for the Capital to exhaust their strengths.

Edric and Albert had seen Leon floating in the sky. They weren't able to make out the contours of his face from such great distance, but still thought the figure was somewhat familiar to a certain someone they hated. They flashed the person at hateful look as they thought this.

The four great families did not know that because of this father-son duo of the Grey family, the other side was alerted of their location and was coming to pay them a visit from the shadows.

If they knew, they would have cursed the Grey family's nine generations. 

But If they also knew it was just one person, then they wouldn't care as much and think that person was a fool... except that one person would become their nightmare.

A blade in the open was easy to dodge, but a dagger in the dark was not.