Law of Space and Time

Chapter 111: Defector

Before the commander of Intelar's forces even had a chance to recover from the shock of seeing the magician who had just had his head punctured, explosions had already rung out on the city wall.

Never did he think that this group of roaming bandits would have such powerful martial artists among their ranks.

"Young Master Aike, we can't stay here any longer! We have to take cover!" Quinton reacted extremely quickly, grabbing Aike before rushing down from the city wall. From the arrows that had just been fired, he could already sense that those two archers were no lesser martial artists than himself. If Aike were to suffer the same fate as that magician, then all would be lost.

Aike nodded in a panicked manner in response, and he was dragged down from the city wall by Quinton in a daze like a puppet on a string.

With their leader fleeing for his life, the commander of Intelar's forces was also beginning to panic.

"Get all of the shield-bearers onto the city wall! Hurry!" This was the only countermeasure that he could think of for now.

However, he was severely underestimating the pair of enemy archers.

Their arrows were far too powerful to be stopped by shields alone.

The azure figure was flashing through the air in a wraith-like manner, and each time he raised his bow, a streak of white light quickly followed.

A series of huge holes instantly appeared on the shields, piercing through the bodies of the shield-bearers before slaying the magicians behind them as well.

As for Ewen, the destructive power of his purple arrows was something that the shield-bearers were completely unable to handle.

Agonized howls were ringing out incessantly as the explosions of purple flames sent the shield-bearers tumbling down from the city wall, leaving the archers and magicians behind them completely exposed. As a result, they were either severely disfigured by the flames or had their bodies blown up into pieces on the spot.

In the wake of such a terrible turn of events, the commander could only order the soldiers to duck down behind the city wall for shelter.

With no one guarding the city wall, the freemen troops charged forward in full force like a devastating tsunami, climbing to the top of Intelar's city walls using ladders.

The commander of Intelar's troops had just vowed that he wouldn't allow even a single enemy soldier to set foot atop the city walls, but the city walls were already swarming with enemies at this point.

Having said that, the commander wasn't entirely useless. Seeing as the enemy soldiers still hadn't managed to establish stable footing in the city wall yet, he immediately charged out from all of the staircases with his soldiers for a counterattack.

Thus, a fierce battle ensued atop the city walls.

...

Inside the city, there was a group of people that were listening to the sounds of the battle unfolding outside in a completely unfazed manner.

"Did you notify those people outside the city to attack?" Lana asked as she turned to look at Yuran.

"It wasn't me, I swear!" Yuran replied in a frantic voice.

However, all of the freemen outside the city were brothers-in-arms for Yuran, so it felt extremely unlikely that he hadn't played a role in this.

As it turned out, Yuran really wasn't the one who had tipped off Ewen.

In fact, he was astonished to hear that the city had been surrounded by the freemen.

Never did he think that Ewen would lead the freemen army here.

This was also a clear indication that Yuran had a pitiful understanding of Ewen's personality.

"What have they come here for?" Lana asked as she took a glance at Yuran.

"I honestly don't know," Yuran sighed in a resigned manner. "You are my leader now, I wouldn't dare to keep any secrets or lie to you. I swear they weren't called here by me, and I honestly don't know what they've come here for."

"Is that so?" Lana nodded in response, but the look on her face was still rather skeptical.

Everyone failed to notice that Lucian, who was standing in the crowd, was hanging his head with an ashamed look on his face.

The burly skeleton was clearly completely disinterested in the conflict between humans, and it was paying no heed to the battle taking place outside. In contrast, this was the first time that Perry was seeing a battle between humans, and it was extremely excited. If it weren't for the fact that its master was present, it would've already rushed out of the room and climbed onto the city wall to take a look.

At this point, the streets of Intelar were already completely deserted. None of the citizens of the city dared to show themselves in the midst of a battle.

"Ms. Lana, help!" Quinton had dragged Aike down from the city wall and was rushing into the city as quickly as he could. Upon spotting Lana and her group, he was so excited that it was as if he had spotted a guardian angel, and tears were about to flow from his eyes.

Even though Aike was also terrified, he couldn't bring himself to yell out to Lana for help, so Quinton had to be the one to do it in his stead. Even in the face of life-threatening peril, his pride as a noble still prevented him from calling out to a woman for help.

Ewen had already noticed these two fleeing figures, and he immediately abandoned his brothers, who were fighting on the city walls, choosing to set off in direct pursuit of Aike instead. It was clear that this was a very goal-oriented man, regardless of whether it was in his tactical planning or in actual battle.

A loud explosion rang out as a burst of scorching purple flames erupted right beside Quinton and Aike. If it weren't for Quinton's fast reactions, pulling Aike to the side just in the nick of time, he and Aike would've already been set alight.

"Save us, Ms. Lana! If Young Master Aike dies, there will be no one to help you look for Erwin!" Quinton yelled in a panicked voice.

Lana wasn't a fan of being threatened, but she had to admit that Quinton was right.

"Don't tell me you want to get involved in this mess," the burly skeleton said in a cold voice.

"You know, I was hesitating about whether to get involved, but I've made up my mind to get involved now," Lana said as she turned to the burly skeleton with a provocative expression.

As soon as her voice trailed off, a burst of azure flames erupted from her fingertips. In the blink of an eye, the azure flames transformed into several ice spears that shot forth rapidly toward Ewen.

Ewen had only just raised his bow, and he completely failed to anticipate that an attack would suddenly arrive at a time like this. He reflexively twisted around to just barely evade the ice spear that was flying directly toward his face, but a gash was still sliced onto his left cheek.

As for the other ice spears, those were kept at bay by his bow, but just like his face, the bow also sustained some deep gashes from the spears.

At this point, Ewen's entire body was already drenched in cold sweat. Never did he anticipate that there would be a grand magic mentor in the city.

"I can't allow you to kill this man," Lana said in a cold voice as she cast her gaze toward Ewen. "He still has to do something for me."

Ewen gulped nervously upon hearing this, particularly after hearing the second half of Lana's sentence.

Is she saying that the heir to the Fano Dukedom is only fit to act as an errand boy for her? he thought to himself with a stunned expression.

After taking a moment to observe the group, he discovered that there was a burly figure clad in a black robe, and the glowing blue eyes behind the figure's silver mask were extremely harrowing to behold. Even the figure's short lackey was looking at Ewen with no fear whatsoever.

What is this terrible luck? What are these monsters that I've run into? Ewen thought to himself in dismay.

"Ewen, it's me!" Yuran waved up at Ewen before hurriedly positioning himself in front of Lana.

"Yuran?!" Ewen was rooted to the spot at the sight of his comrade. "Why are you with this group of people?"

At the same time, Ewen took a subtle glance into the crowd. If he had a dagger in his hand, he would've undoubtedly plunged it straight into Lucian's stomach without any hesitation.

That idiot! He only told me that Aike is in Intelar, why didn't he tell me that there were also these two monsters here? What a useless piece of trash! Ewen was cursing Lucian internally with a furious expression.

Lucian was clearly able to detect the resentment in Ewen's subtle gaze, and he hung his head even lower, so much so that his chin was almost completely buried into his chest. He was already feeling extremely guilty for sending a message to Ewen behind Yuran's back, and his humiliation was exacerbated even further by Ewen's disdainful reaction.

"You're no match for my leader, Ewen. I'd advise you not to fight her," Yuran said to Ewen with a grim expression.

"What? She's your leader?" The fury on Ewen's face became even more pronounced. "Does that mean you're no longer a freeman?"

Only then did he realize that Yuran had already defected, and with that realization, he became even more furious at Lucian. Why was it that Lucian hadn't told him any of these important details?

Lucian was also in a very difficult situation. He regarded Yuran as his brother, so he naturally couldn't betray him. However, as a freeman, he also felt obligated to inform Ewen of Aike's whereabouts. Hence, he chose to omit some information, such as how they had defected to Lana's side.

In the face of Ewen's interrogation, Yuran was left unsure of how to respond. "I... I..."

He wanted to explain that he was only able to keep his own right hand due to Lana's generosity, and that during the time that he had been with Lana, he had developed a great deal of admiration for her character and wisdom, thereby convincing him to follow her, but he couldn't bring himself to stay that.

In fact, in Yuran's mind, it didn't even seem important whether he explained himself or not. What was most depressing to him was that he had even once tried to recruit Lana to the freemen organization, only to be rejected in a rather humiliating fashion.

Ewen was also partially to blame for this as the internal management in the freemen organization was far too lax. There was no clear hierarchy, and everything functioned off camaraderie, so the system was bound to fail at some point. Yuran had never actually regarded himself as a subordinate to Ewen, so he didn't feel like it was a big deal that he was now following Lana.

However, in Ewen's eyes, this was a complete and utter betrayal.

"That's enough! I don't want to hear your excuses!" Ewen said as he turned to Yuran with a cold expression. "If you've already made your choice, then there's no need to pretend that you still care about our organization."

Yuran had forgotten that the funding for his army in excess of 10,000 men had all come from the swindling operations of Yuran and his group. It could be said that without Yuran's conscientious, albeit unscrupulous, efforts, the freeman organization would've already disbanded long ago due to lack of funds.

"Do you intend to get in my way?" Ewen asked as he glowered at Yuran with a cold expression.

Yuran was unsure of how to respond, and he turned around to look at Lana with an inquisitive expression.

Lana crossed her arms with a lazy look in her eyes. "You heard what I just said."