Law of Space and Time

Chapter 79: Late Realization

Onean knew that there had to be a reason behind his words and actions, so she immediately did as she was told, issuing an instruction to the city guards around her. "All soldiers on the city wall, come with me! Hurry!"

The city guards nearby were very bemused to see this. In their eyes, Erwin seemed to have gone insane, and he had passed on his insanity to Onean as well. The Burmen army had been last sighed no more than five kilometers away. How could they abandon the outer city wall at a time like this?

Erwin didn't stay behind to wait for everyone to assemble. Instead, he hurriedly rushed down from the city wall, and only then did he notice that he had been running around with a bag of bread this entire time. Thinking back to how deranged he had to have looked with this bag of bread in his hand, he tossed it aside with disgust, wasting a perfectly good piece of freshly baked bread in the process.

After getting down from the city wall, Erwin climbed onto his steed before heading directly toward the eastern part of the city. At the moment, he was situated in the northern part of the outer city, and there was quite a bit of distance to be covered to reach his destination. Everyone had thought that the army of Burmen would attack from the provincial road in the north, so most of the soldiers in the city were gathered on the northern city wall.

Onean and Sherry rushed along closely behind Erwin, followed by the brigade of city guards.

"Where on earth are you taking us? Did you suddenly think of something?" Onean asked as she caught up to him before tugging on his sleeve.

"On the day you returned to Sarus, Lana took me to a place," Erwin said. "At the time, we went there to have breakfast, and I suddenly remembered that place just now."

"So? What are you trying to say?" Onean asked with furrowed brows.

"Perhaps she really did only take me there for breakfast, but thinking back now, perhaps there was some hidden meaning behind her actions. Maybe it wasn't even a conscious decision from her. Perhaps she was envious of you, so she wanted to show off the power of her family to me, to tell me that she won't be outmatched by you in any department, whether that be looks or status," Erwin said as he cast his gaze toward Onean.

"What the hell does that mean? What are you trying to say?" Onean was fuming at this point, and she was struggling to hold back the urge to give him a firm knock on the head with her staff. The situation was already extremely urgent, and Erwin's cryptic rambling certainly wasn't helping her keep her mood in check.

"Do you know why the True Light Church ruined so many families over the years?" Erwin asked as he continued to look at Onean.

"Why? Isn't it for money?" Onean was even more perplexed now. She couldn't understand why the topic of the conversation was suddenly being directed toward the True Light Church.

"I thought the same in the past, but I made a realization just now: things are not as simple as they appear on the surface," Erwin said as a grim look appeared on his face, following which he said something that made Onean feel as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning out of the blue. "Their goal was to dig out an underground network beneath Sarus."

"What?" Onean's eyes widened with shock as she stared at Erwin.

"The true objective of the True Light Church has always been to seize these people's houses. The underground tunnels in the eastern part of the city pass under the houses of these families, and they were worried that people would notice, so they could only extort these families on the basis of blasphemy to force them out of their homes before seizing those homes for themselves," Erwin said as he looked at Onean. "Lana once told me that Prince Lazaar owns a property in the eastern part of the outer city. If I'm not mistaken with my assumption, there should be an underground tunnel under the property that leads out the city."

Thinking back to the manager of the Old River Restaurant, who had the money to buy expensive spices, but didn't have money to renovate his storefront, a cold look appeared on Erwin's face as he continued, "That's most likely not the extent of it, either. There should be an extremely complex hidden underground network in the eastern section of the outer city. With that underground network in place, Aiden doesn't have to attack the city from the front. Instead, he and his troops will pop up directly inside the city. That must be why they're so confident that they'll be able to conquer Sarus even without the use of their flying dragons. As far back as several years ago, they had already hatched this plan with the True Light Church."

Onean could help but draw a sharp breath upon hearing this, and only after a long while did she utter the words: "How despicable!"

...

With a large number of people traveling together, there was naturally no way that they could take a series of minor paths that Lana had taken while leading Erwin to the Old River Restaurant. Instead, they were traveling south along Phoenix Street before turning toward the east after reaching the inner city. With barely anyone out on the streets, they were able to travel at full speed on horseback, but there was still a lot of distance that had to be covered, and by the time everyone arrived at the eastern part of the city, night had already fallen.

There was not a single person on the streets, nor any lights to be seen, and the atmosphere was extremely eerie. The wooden sign of the Old River Restaurant on the corner of the street was swaying back and forth in the wind, and the chains from which the sign was hanging were groaning quietly.

Erwin wore a wary expression as he pointed toward the courtyard that Lana had pointed out for him last time, then peered carefully into the dark courtyard.

"Everyone, dismount from your horses and be on your guard," Onean instructed.

The city guards had no idea why Onean had insisted on bringing them to this place, and most of them were detached and disinterested expressions, clearly feeling like this was a waste of time. From just a quick glance alone, Sherry could tell that these city guards were going to be completely useless in battle. They didn't even know the most basic of battle formations, and they were all standing around in a lackadaisical manner, displaying a clear lack of training and discipline.

All of a sudden, a projectile came flying through the air, following which one of the city guards gave a muffled groan. He looked down in disbelief at the arrow protruding out of his neck, then fell dead onto the ground.

As a result, his horse was also startled, and it reared up onto its hind hooves as it let loose an alarmed neigh.

Immediately thereafter, countless arrows came flying out of the darkness up ahead.

All of the horses were instantly startled, and a string of panicked neighs rang out, accompanied by agonized howls that were coming from the city guards who had been struck down by the oncoming arrows.

They were like complete novice dancers, twirling around without any semblance of grace or elegance before toppling onto the ground one after another.

"Raise your shields and retreat to either side of the street!" Erwin hurriedly ordered as panic began to spread rapidly through the ranks. "Protect Her Highness!"

The soldiers immediately did as Erwin instructed, condensing their formation before retreating from the alley back onto the street. At the same time, all of them had raised their shields and surrounded Onean in the center to form a protective ring around her.

"Look out!" Erwin cried out in an alarmed voice as he instantly arrived beside Onean with his space split technique, then conjured up his light shield to just barely keep out the oncoming halberd.

In the wake of the flying halberd laid the lifeless bodies of seven or eight city guards. Erwin's gaze followed the trail of bodies, and he discovered that the halberd had come flying out of the very same courtyard that Prince Lazaar had once lived in.

Onean also cast a cold gaze toward the dark courtyard in the night.

All of a sudden, a bright red flame was ignited, illuminating a pair of gorgeous blue eyes and an alluring figure. Lana was standing in the courtyard in a long black dress, and under the flickering light of the torch flame, the killing intent in her eyes somehow made her even more alluring, giving her the image of a dangerous femme fatale. There was a hint of a smile on her face as she watched Erwin from afar, and standing beside her was Aiden, who was also looking at Erwin with a curious expression.

"That Erwin really is an interesting character," Aiden said with an intrigued smile. "How did he manage to guess that this is where we would emerge from?"

"Go and kill that silver-haired vixen," Lana said as she took a glance at Aiden, trying to divert his attention away from Erwin.

"Just tell me if you're worried about that little lover of yours," Aiden jibed. "You know, now that I think about it, I don't think he's very interested in you at all. How many times has he saved that Onean now? Not only is he an unfaithful bastard, he's opposed us on more than one occasion. How about I just stab him with my halberd and put an end to his life?"

"No, you can't!" Lana protested with a displeased pout.

"Alright, alright, I'll make sure to keep him alive," Aiden chuckled with an amused expression.

While Aiden and Lana were joking around with each other, everyone on Onean and Erwin's side was extremely tense and apprehensive.

Erwin withdrew his light shield, and he noticed that the wound on his right palm had split open again and was bleeding profusely.

"I think we're in trouble here," Erwin said in a quiet voice to Onean.

As soon as his voice trailed off, Onean sprang up into the sky before bringing down the staff in her hand, and a scintillating ring of radiance began to spread over the night sky from the bottom of her staff. It was as if the sun had suddenly risen in the night, and the entirety of Sarus was illuminated.

Many of the common folk stuck their heads out their windows to see what was happening, and they couldn't help but be mesmerized by the sight of Onean, who was hovering in the night sky like a holy maiden who had descended from the heavens, basked in radiant and pure white light. The awe and veneration on the faces of all of the common folk were also illuminated by the incandescent light.

With Onean's spell lighting up the night, the city guards were finally able to see where their enemies were, and they were so alarmed by the sight that they were greeted by that they almost dropped their swords.

As it turned out, the soldiers of Burmen weren't just lying in ambush in the alley. Instead, many of them had their upper bodies extending out of the windows of the houses on either side of the street, and they were all holding crossbows that were aimed directly at the city guards.

Aiden reached out and made a grabbing motion with his hand, upon which his halberd returned to his grasp. He then cast his gaze up toward Onean, who was basked in dazzling white radiance, then rose up toward her with his halberd raised.

At the same time, Lana waved her staff through the air, and a massive eruption of fire flew out of the courtyard, then exploded right at the center of the city guards. With that, the attack of the Burmen soldiers on Sarus officially commenced. Immediately following the explosion, countless arrows were let loose at once amid the sound of thunderous war cries.

Erwin dodged to the side to evade the fireball, negotiating several arrows that were flying toward him from all directions in the process. He knew that if things were to continue like this, he would eventually be shot down by these storms of arrows, so he didn't dare to stay on the street any longer. Thus, he abandoned all of the city guards before rising up into the air with a space split technique.

Sherry also reacted very quickly, picking up a large shield to protect himself while slowly retreating back toward the inner city.