THE RUNIC ALCHEMIST

The plan, as they had laid it out, was simple.

Damian had decided to stay far back with Dreamlight and just watch from a distance. He had no interest in fighting high-level unknown monsters in case they came out of it. They would keep the waygate cube in the cage—one person, Runefather, would activate the waygate cube while another third-ranker with a large mana pool, Lifewarden, would activate all the metal cubes of the cage. If, after waiting a few minutes, nothing came out of the waygate, they would send someone in. Even if that person did not return, they would keep watch over the waygate and keep it powered up for as long as they could.

If monsters emerged, they would fight for a bit to see if Land Breaker was among them or not. If he wasn’t, Damian would get everyone aboard his ship, and they would all leave this dungeon level, closing the waygate and considering the attempt a failure.

Finished with his part of the job, Damian gathered all his friends in the Dreamlight early in the morning after breakfast, and they flew away. He was still within a kilometer’s range, though, and stabilized the Dreamlight in mid air to observe what would happen. Hopefully, that weird mana anomaly with the waygate wouldn’t repeat here.

Just to be cautious, he had warned the others about it. Inside the metal cage, they should control their aura and mana as much as possible.

“I can’t see anything at all..” Lumi complained.

The seating compartment’s door was wide open, and they were all looking straight at the massive sword. They should be starting anytime now.

“I can’t either..” Amy replied.

“They’re still talking.. They sent the second-rankers a bit away from them, Kamisen and others were with them.” Lucian informed them. With her newly acquired enhanced senses, watching from this distance was nothing to her.

Damian could also see Runefather and Worldscribe positioning their five section members while eyeing Sunkeeper and Hellseeker, who were doing the same. Lifewarden, the two women, and the beastman third-ranker—who looked like a pugilist—were trying hard to mediate between them as a neutral section and get them to focus on their task.

After some more discussion, at last, Runefather and Lifewarden walked together, heading straight toward the cage and the runic steel cube placed inside. Everything went silent. Other than the monsters roaring in the distance and below their ship, no one made a sound.

Damian could even hear the words spoken by the Highswords in the distance, carried by the downwind.

Worldscribe was muttering a chant, as were Sunkeeper and many other mages and spellswords. The mana in the area flared. Even though he had explicitly warned the dumbasses not to do exactly this.

Runefather was about to enter the cage while Lifewarden walked around it, turning on all the metal cubes, leaving only one side open for Runefather to activate after powering the waygate.

It was tense, but so far, everything was going as planned.

Just as Lifewarden activated the cage from three sides, Runefather placed two metal cubes aside to enter. But as he took one step inside, someone suddenly screamed.

“Runefather! Watch out!”

It was Mindseer.

Damian was confused—nothing weird was happening. What was she warning him about?

But the ones present didn’t waste a second questioning the warning. Suddenly all hell broke loose.

Runefather immediately activated one of his bracers, producing a large green shield covering his body, and started flying up. The moment he moved, a golden longsword shot out of the ground where he had been standing a second ago, launching straight at the shield with such force that it shattered the shield and sent Runefather flying.

At the same time, on the other side, Worldscribe unleashed a flurry of cutting-edge wind, swirling with sand, to thwart Sunkeeper. Another Sunkeeper follower jumped straight at Worldscribe, his sword charged with golden aura. Damian recognized him—he was called Shadecaster.

The beastman pugilist from the neutral section was suddenly pierced in the back—by one of his own section members. The esper woman and another woman beside her, wielding an orange-aura sword, quickly struck at the betrayer. Lifewarden also tried to go near Sunkeeper to aid her or Worldscribe Damian had no idea, but midway through flight, a sword clad in golden aura pierced his shoulder. The one who threw it was none other than Bloodedge himself!

What in the hell was going on?

Betrayal. Betrayal all around.

Who was fighting for which side?

Suddenly, Gravebreaker and two other third-rankers standing near Mindseer attacked her with aura-clad fists and swords. But Mindseer dodged them effortlessly—without even looking back once. Before Gravebreaker and the others could react to her weird insticts, the entire area they stood in darkened, becoming blacker than midnight.

Hellseeker rose out of it.

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He immediately impaled a spellsword with his massive, black aura-clad spear and engaged both Gravebreaker and another spellsword single-handedly.

Silverspell, of all people, stood frozen with another man from his section—Windcarver. They looked completely lost, their gazes darting around in confusion. But when Bloodedge and even Sunkeeper herself launched some attacks landing near them—along with one of their own section members missing an attack on Windcarver due to a sudden explosion from Worldscribe’s massive fiery spell—both of them abandoned all hesitation and started attacking anything that came close.

“What in the hell is going on?” Sam said, standing up beside Damian.

“What happened? What’s going on?” Alex suddenly asked.

“The Highswords.. they’re fighting. Killing each other,” Lucian said, her voice pained.

“What!?” the others echoed at once.

“This can’t be happening..” Einar muttered, her voice heartbroken.

The Highswords were truly done for.

No matter who won, several had already died.

“No.. It’s not infighting,” Damian said suddenly. “The second-rankers are killing each other too. And it’s not just one section. Everyone seems to be betraying each other—even their own companions. Something even more fucked up is happening here.”

Suddenly two of the highswords left the chaos and came flying straight towards Dreamlight.

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