Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age - Chapter 128

“Griffin!” William jumped to the side with his sword held high.

The hooded figure laughed.

“Come on, old friend, don’t you remember my name?” The figure asked.

“The moment you signed your soul away, I already lost my old friend,” William retorted.

“Tsk, fool,” The hooded figure removed his hood and revealed his face. An young looking man with a clear face, fair skin, pointy nose and long black hair like William.

“Don’t worry, I only came here to give you a warning,” He said while he rummaged through his cloak.

William was not going to fall into any tricks. He knew this man ever since he was a child, but that was before he surrendered his soul in exchange for power and youth.

William frowned and at him and readied himself.

“Here,” the man took out a scroll.

“You’re not fooling me,” William said.

“It’s just a normal scroll you dense knucklehead,” The man said.

“And besides, call me by my name, it makes me sad that you don’t call me by my name anymore,” The man said.

“You don’t deserve to be called by my friend’s name,” William said.

“Stubborn,” The man threw the scroll on the ground.

“Read it, it’s a warning from Lord Toris that I took from one of the messengers he sent,” He said.

William then reluctantly took the scroll and read its contents.

“An ultimatum?” William said.

“Yes, an ultimatum. He has the backing of the Imperial Government and if you don’t surrender, they’ll send in an army of 50 thousand to destroy you,” The man said.

William’s hands trembled at the thought of 50 thousand imperial soldiers and mages laying siege to their city.

But he was not out of hope just yet.

“I’m not afraid, and no, we won’t surrender,” William said.

“Huhhh? You aren’t in a position to decide that and besides, you’re not going to win, you don’t even have the slightest chance!” The man said.

“I will relay this message to our King, but I’m warning you, if you stay here any longer, you’ll be endangering your own life,” William said.

The man then laughed as if William told him a very funny joke.

For him, what William said was a funny joke.

“Me? In danger? You gotta be joking, not even your strongest mage can go against me,” He said.

William then shrugged and put away his sword.

“Huh? Why are you putting away your sword?” The man asked.

“I don’t need it,” William said.

“Eh-” The man then sensed a being behind him. Without a second thought, he leaped into the air before two energy blades could impale him.

“The heck!” He then landed to William’s right.

“Your laugh is annoying,” The man in black appeared, wielding his two energy swords.

“I-impossible, my barrier magic was tier 6, you couldn’t have possibly broken thro-” In a blink of an eye, the man in black dashed towards him and punched him in the gut before he could react.

“So, you only intended on spooking him earlier?” William said as the man fell to the ground, his barrier fading slowly before them.

“Quite,” The man in black said.

As the barrier around them fell apart, the man was immediately surrounded by ten fire mages and a dozen or so soldiers.

“Tsk,” The man then leaped towards one of the rooftops.

One had no intention of chasing after him. One sensed him before he could cast his barrier due to his high concentration of magic.

He followed him as he glided through the streets and when he cast the barrier to trap William, One was the only person that managed to enter while the soldiers and mages with him could not.

Possibly because he had no magic at all for the barrier to deflect.

The barrier was essentially a magic deflector. Since almost everyone in the world had a certain amount of magic inside them, the barrier would push them away if the magic they had wasn’t more powerful than the barrier.

But since One did not have any magic in the first place, the barrier did not have anything to deflect, and thus, his slipped through and listened to their conversation before appearing behind the man.

“Fools, the Imperial army Lord Toris was given will arrive here in a few weeks, I’m warning you because they have an exceptional archmage leading them,” The man warned.

One tilted his head.

“Name of this archmage?” His eyes glowed blue. The man then felt a chill run down his spine.

“Lecter, Archmage Lecter,” The man said before disappearing.

“Lecter?” The mages murmured to themselves.

“Who is this Lecter?” One asked.

One of the mages stepped forward and answered.

“Lecter is an archmage under the authority of the Empire. She is one of the thirty Imperial Archmages and although she is the weakest among other Imperial archmages, she has enough power to blow away an entire city,”

One then smiled and looked up into the sky.

“Interesting,”

“Bring that scroll to his majesty. I also want you to call a meeting with the soldiers before dusk,” One ordered.

“Yes, milord,” William knelt before One before running away with the scroll.

“All of you, return to your posts,” One said.

“Yes, sir,” Everyone then parted ways and the street was reopened to the public.

One returned to the fields. He was not really taking the impending invasion too seriously, yet.

Since he knew that they had time to prepare. A medieval army with magic vs a rowdy bunch  of knights was surely not going to end well for the rowdy bunch.

But One knew that reinforcements would soon come but it was a gamble.

He could sense his drones nearby but not too many of them. It was likely that Hailey has managed to pinpoint his position and was sending out scouting parties.

“Hm, we’ll enter the global stage in a few weeks,” One said.