Ch. 81 The City of Zan II

Nearing the gates, the trio still had looks of astonishment plastered across their faces. Gabriel's expression was slowly warping as he analyzed the entirety of the structures. Either they had stolen every one of their ideas from him, or Gabriel had been producing the exact same products without ever seeing this place. He knew the latter was more likely, but his irrationality was pushing him toward the former. (Those bastards that survived brought back enough information to make their walls, their lights, and their roads the exact same as mine! How dare they steal my ideas!)

Gabriel's eyes seemed to be burning at this point, his anger bubbling over causing him to continue to lose his rationality. Gala and Acorn didn't know what to do as they watched their benefactor's normally cool attitude devolve into pure anger. Acorn jumped to Gala's shoulder trying to avoid any potential lashing out from Gabriel.

"Guard! Where is the castle!? I must see Lord Irizan!"

"Pfft, only those with the seal of another kingdom may openly demand an audience with our Lord." Gabriel's anger had hit a boiling point, as they had made their way to the City he had come up with a plan to spend a few days checking the place out. Now that they had arrived and he witnessed their shameless acquisition of his ideas, Gabriel directly wanted to confront this Lord. Heading the response from the Guard, Gabriel grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him from the ground.

"You will lead me to the castle. You will get me an audience with Lord Irizan. You will do this without complaint or I'll read your throat out and feed it to the creatures of my Forest."

"...y-yes...." Dropping the man to the ground, Gabriel waited on him to lead the way. The man scrambled to his feet and began leading the way. He planned to lead them to the castle and then have the other guards help him to arrest this stranger. Little did he know that Gabriel was so angry that he planned to start destroying the castle as soon as they got close.

The city was quite spacious as the main roads through the city seemed to be 15m wide, enough to fit almost a dozen people shoulder to shoulder with plenty of space. Illumination Stone torches were everywhere throughout the city and upon Gabriel's closer inspection, it seemed they had only recently been installed. Taking an Illumination Stone out of the holder, Gabriel could see that the Path wasn't even well done, these could barely even be considered a Path Stone. (That's why they have so many torches, they can't make the Path Stones! Hahahaha!) The brick work of the various stores and homes also seemed to be relatively new, as they had passed a group of Earth Mages manipulating the structure into one of the older buildings, completely altering the look and durability of the building. Every building now looked similar to the walls of his home before he had covered them in molten metal. (It's too much of a coincidence and considering I've now seen them restructuring buildings to match, they definitely stole my idea.)

"How much longer before we reach the castle?"

"..See that large tower sticking up behind those stores there? That's the guard tower for it." It appeared they only had another few blocks to walk before they would reach the castle gates. Gabriel began to mentally prepare himself for a battle, but his anger had started to subside leading to a strange line of thinking. (It seems these idiots are constantly trying to advance this city.... they stole my ideas and brought them here.... maybe I could sell my inventions to them..... no no no, they need to pay for their transgressions!)

"Help! Help me arrest these assholes! They attacked me at the gates and made me bring them here!" As they got within 10m of the castle gates, the guard suddenly took off at a Sprint and started screaming at the top of his lungs. Within a minute 10 guards had shown up with swords drawn and shields readied. "WHAT BUSINESS DO YOU HAVE HERE!?"

"None. I have no business here, you forced my hand by attacking my home and now I'm here to administer punishments to those that ordered it. Either allow me into the castle to see your Lord, or you can die here and I'll leave a path of destruction while looking for him." Gabriel's normal calm attitude had finally come back when the guard ran off to get help. "Make your choice." He started to walk toward the group of guards without even bring out his weapon. Gala and Acorn were elated to see his normal attitude return and to help bring more threat to his words, Acorn dove off of Gala's soldiers bursting into a dark red mist that surrounded Gabriel before shaping up to look like illusory wings.

A few gasps of astonishment came from the group of guards before a man in full plate armor and a crown made of what seemed to be Obsidian stepped out of the gate. Raising his hand, the guards all sheathed their weapons and slammed their fists against their shields 3 times as they cleared a path for the man.

"WHY DO YOU COME TO MY CITY AND ATTACK MY GUARDS!?"

Looking at the man, Gabriel couldn't contain himself. He was very young, maybe still in his teens or just turning 20. The crown that had seemed to be sitting lazily on his head from afar, was actually just too big for his head and was barely able to stay on. The plate armor made him have an imposing stature, but it also seemed to be taking every bit of his strength just to remain standing in it.

"Hahahahahahahaha! You are Lord Irizan!? Seriously??? You're the man who kept sending soldiers to attack my home? You!? Hahahaha!" The king looked at Gabriel with confusion before realization dawned on him. He quickly stepped back behind the group of guards, telling them to prepare for anything as he did.

"Where are you going little boy!? You think you can just kill people and take what's not yours? All my work is being implemented throughout your home and yet you still think you can hide away from me?" The previously illusory red mist wings behind Gabriel suddenly disappeared as a black smoke began to come from him and condensed into wings. Gabriel's black straw hat dissolved as he condensed his Shadow Sword. Acorn's mist slowly swirled before taking his larger squirrel shape on Gabriel's shoulder, Gala had also activated her Crystal Nails and had arrived beside her benefactor with a look of pure pleasure on her face.

"We have done nothing wrong! It is an unclaimed dungeon within the kingdom of Torvazi! As I am the king of this city I am within my rights to claim that land!"

"First, before you even confirmed it was unoccupied, you sent 50 soldiers that attacked us unprovoked. When I let 1 live with a message to leave us be, you strapped him to a battering ram and sent him with an even larger group to attack me. Oh, I forgot about your cousin's group and her mercenaries. She's still shackled in my prison receiving her punishment. What must I do to make you leave us alone? That is my home I've painstakingly built by hand from nothing, it is no dungeon."

"Punishment? You dare hurt my family!? Guards, kill them!"

"Hahahaha, thanks for making this easier kid." Gabriel beat his wings hard propelling himself forward quickly closing the distance between them. His sword slashed through the air before his feet could even touch the ground, instantly decapitating the first soldier as he couldn't even raise his weapon to defend himself. Acorn had gripped Gabriel's shoulder hard and started firing Crystal Shards toward the enemies faces in hopes of blinding them. Gabriel spun bringing his sword at the waist of the soldier on his left side before it was blocked by the soldiers shield. Using the moment to his advantage, he retrieved his other weapon from the Tiny Dimension and flipped it onto the top of the shield, using it pull the soldier closer before sinking his sword into the gap between his plate armor.

Gala had taken off as soon as Gabriel took to the air. When the first soldier hit the ground and Gabriel began to fight the second one, Gala had engaged with one of the soldiers on his right. She leapt through the air using Deceive before digging her nails into the skull of the soldier, quickly pulling them out and deflecting an incoming sword. She spun in a circle while maintaining a low stance, kicking her leg out she knocked her second enemy to the ground and pushed her nails into the soft spot between his chin and neck. Seeing her nails pop out of the top of their fellow soldiers skulls, they all began to back away subconsciously looking at her as if she was the incarnation of death itself. The soldiers eyes had all been drawn to her, while Gabriel managed to drop another 2 soldiers bringing their count up to 6 of 10.

Acorn had managed to blind 2 of the remaining 4 soldiers and hopped from Gabriel to the ground. Darting along through the feet of the soldiers, Acorn managed to use his Crystal Tail Attack and break 1 of the blinded soldier's legs. Without stopped, he used another tail attack on the soldier's skull once he had collapsed to the ground. Of the 2 remaining soldiers who weren't blinded, 1 had swung his sword down on Acorn, but before the edge hit him he burst into a red mist that condensed into a smaller squirrel before the man's eyes. Using his Crystal Tail in combination with his Mist Manipulation, Acorn made it so as his body regained a physical state he was already mid spin and brought his Crystal Tail Attack down on the soldier's head, instantly crushing his skull.

The whole fight had taken maybe 5 minutes as Gala had used Deceive to finish the last soldier while he tried to attack Acorn. As they managed to regain their calm, Gabriel noticed the so called King was nowhere to be found. He tried to see if he was hiding anywhere nearby, but he couldn't find the boy. Releasing his wings, he nodded to his companions before strolling through the gates into the castle. (It can't be that hard to find a throne room, I'm sure he'll be cowering behind his guards there.)