An Intruder

"Ahhh!"

"Somebody help me. Please! Anybody." A young boy yelled in horror.

"Haha. Scream all you like, no one will find you." A boorish voice laughed as a muscly large hand grabbed the neck of the young boy

"What's wrong? Cat's got your tongue? Haha."

A man who looked more like a brawny barbarian ridiculed the young boy as he lifted him up with one hand grabbing his neck. There was a stark contrast in their sizes as the burly man looked to be almost three times the size of the young boy[1]. As a result, the young boy who could be said to be a bit above average in his age group in terms of height, now looked like a seven-year-old in the man's presence.

Facing someone both stronger and bigger than he was, the young boy was overtaken by fear. He couldn't help but shiver in terror as he accidentally peed his pants.

"Ugh. Disgusting."

The burly man snorted and crushed the boy's neck with ease. The way he had done it was almost as if he was crushing an insect.

"So weak." The man grunted in irritation.

"Lord, if I may. The vazīr ordered that we wait till he's done on the other side before we go on massacring the students."

A man walked up from behind and said. He had half his face tattooed with a circle that had one point just above his left eyebrow while the other point was just below the left edge of his lips.

"Hehe. Are you threatening me with the vazīr's name?" The burly man smirked.

"Don't worry about it. I might look like an idiot but I have a brain you know. Plus, I didn't get to my position with just my strength alone. The vazīr's plan was good but it had a minor loophole that might not be one. Maybe he knew about it but ignored it. However, I prefer to reduce any possible risks.

"While the vazīr goes after the kid, we might as well cause a disturbance here to prevent any reinforcements from reaching them. At the same time, by attacking the other children, even if the incident gets investigated, they would mistake us for one of the neighbouring kingdoms; most likely those Terreans by the west would be the one taking the blame.

"The vazīr had planned to do the same, but he had opted to do so after the mission has been completed, but that can be problematic, you see." The burly man said.

"Problematic?" The man with the tattooed face asked.

"In the end, I'm the one most familiar with how these people work and the vazīr still looks down on them. If a deep investigation takes place, they would easily realize that we went for the kid first. Even a simple dating-based necropsy spell could tell this. In turn, that revelation could harm our movement in the future. Even though the chances are very low, it's better to be safe than risk it.

"Also, we could force them to have their attention on us this way even if we are discovered. I doubt there are more than one fifth-stage Guardian mages here and so long as we keep him busy, the vazīr has all the time in the world to succeed." The burly man smiled.

"But wouldn't making such a commotion like this get us revealed faster?" The tattooed man was confused.

"...just shut up and follow me." The burly man snorted and walked away.

In truth, he had realized the blunder his actions had made but he wasn't bothered about them. In the end, the mages of the Great Dawn kingdom were nothing more than ants to their organization. Not just the Great Dawn kingdom but the other nine kingdoms.

'As I expected. He might be a bit smart, but he's still a muscle head.' The tattooed man sighed inwardly.

. . .

"It looks like we've arrived a bit late. If we wasted a second more, we might have lost you guys. How unpleasant."

A figure walked out of the tunnel that belonged to the last group. It was a man in a black trench coat with red trims. He looked like a young man, between the ages of 23-25 years old. He had a black long hair that partitioned to his left and right sides. With ink black eyes that looked as if he had been suffering from insomnia for a long while and an equally black outfit with gloves, the young man gave off a dark feeling just by standing there.

The only thing about him that wasn't black, excluding the trim on his clothing, was his pale white skin like that of a vampire, and the grey scarf that tied around his neck.

Even as he walked out calmly, the aura the young man was exuding made the bodies of everyone, including the protector mages, go cold.

"This power…" The leading fourth-stage Guardian mage, the one who was in charge of Aurora's team, widened his eyes in shock.

"Who, who are you?!" The other fourth-stage Guardian mage shouted.

"So noisy." The young man wearily replied as he waved a hand at the mage.

Bang.

The mage was tossed back by three metres as he puked blood in mid-air.

'Fifth-stage Guardian mage, and he's infinitely close to the sixth stage. He must be a peak rank.' The other fourth-stage Guardian mage thought with horror.

The fifth-stage of the Guardian realm, although in the same phase as the fourth-stage of the Guardian realm, was on an entirely different level. There was a reason why noble ranks began at the fifth-stage of the Guardian realm. Even the title of 'Knight' wasn't seen as a noble title but an honorary one.

Although most counts were usually of the sixth stage, exceptions could even be made for those at the peak of the fifth stage. From this, one could see how special the fifth-stage of the Guardian realm was, especially so for the peak.

At that level, anyone below the fifth-stage, and even those at the early rank of the fifth-stage, were seen as nothing more than insects. Even mages at the mid-rank of the fifth-stage Guardian realm were just bigger insects.

In lower stages, one could contend with a mage even if they were of different ranks, as long as their stages weren't different. For example, the fourth-stage Guardian mages were able to take on the Zeta which had the attacking power of a mid-rank fourth-stage Guardian mage despite being lower in rank. Although one could say that the Zeta was truly an early rank fourth-stage Guardian shadow beast, its attacking power testified that it could contend with those of the mid-rank and stand alongside them.

However, starting from the peak rank of the fifth-stage of the Guardian realm and above, pulling such off would be incredibly difficult and sometimes, impossible.

A good example was duke Sutton of the great Sutton family. Despite being at the peak rank of the eighth-stage of the Guardian realm, he was able to enjoy the honorary title of great duke, which was usually given to dukes at the ninth-stage and above. This was partly due to his family's heritage but also because of his strength. Even Elijah Arnhaunt, Darius' brother and Asher's uncle, despite being at the mid-rank of the eighth-stage of the Guardian realm, could not contend with duke Leo-Gothar Sutton.

This disparity in ranks truly began from the peak of the fifth-stage of the Guardian realm, and the opponent before them was someone under this category.

'Shit. Are we really going to die here like this?' The mage cursed inwardly.

Even someone such as himself was afraid of death, especially since he was still in his late 20s which was still considerably young.

"There you are, pagan." The young man glanced at Asher.

"Your ignoble is the reason why I had to depart on such short notice. That was very depressing."

Being stared at by the young man, Asher's body went cold; not out of fear but because the young man's aura was entirely focused on him, freezing him at the spot.

'What dogshit luck is this? Just when we thought this was all over, this weirdo showed up. And who the heck is he?' Asher couldn't help but be anxious.

Even if he was a former Celestial Emperor, facing a peak rank fifth-stage Guardian mage with only the power of a third-stage Guardian mage was suicide. In this situation, he could truly do nothing to change it by depending on his strength alone.

'But the mages here can't either. One is already down and the other looks to have given up on resisting. Even if they wanted to fight back, this world's techniques are far behind. They wouldn't even be able to take on more than three blows from him.'

"Your death would at least save me from this depressing situation, so please don't resist otherwise, I would be more depressed. How depressing it is for me to require my target's assistance. Sigh." The young man said with an exhausted voice.

'Wait a minute,' Asher stopped all his attempts to think of an escape plan.

'Why is he after me?'