Chapter 1697: Chapter 1697

As if a sudden gust of wind had swept through the room, the moment Jenkins's fingertip touched the king's head, Salsi II's hair and clothes fluttered backward. But it was only for an instant. When Jenkins withdrew his hand, nothing had changed, save for the king's slightly disheveled hair.

"Your father is fine," he said softly. "He won't die, at least not for another month."

He then settled back into his seat, his gaze returning to the unfolding situation in Ruen.

"But the High Tower Accord... doesn't it forbid..."

The eldest princess asked, her expression complicated. She was, of course, relieved that Jenkins was willing to save her father, but she couldn't understand his sudden change of heart. Yani Stuart knew her younger sister must have considered asking for his help before, yet he had never made any move to aid King Salsi II.

"In the last few hours, your father has violated more than enough articles of the Accord. What's one more? Besides, I haven't changed his fate—I've only delayed it." Follow current novels on nοvelfire.net

Scarcely had the words left Jenkins's lips when the scene in Ruen, laid out on the chessboard, shifted again. The pendant on Dolores's chest finally flickered and died. Faced with the black fog threatening to engulf them all, the princess seized her chance, pulling a bizarre metal object from her pocket and hurling it forward.

The object was a triangular frame, each of its three corners adorned with a dark gold metal disc. These discs were interconnected by metal rods along their outer edges, forming an even larger equilateral triangle.

The moment it left her hand, the recessed, dark gold patterns on its surface flared to life. As it met the black fog, the light sliced through the dense mist.

The consequence was staggering: the solid, seamless barrier of the material world was brutally torn asunder by the device's power. A breach appeared, spilling forth an endless torrent of white light. The entrance to a Mysterious Realm had been ripped open.

"B-01-1-2578, the Banisher's Rune Tablet!"

The demigod shrouded in black fog exclaimed in astonishment,

"Why in the world would you be carrying something like that?"

This was one of the spoils of war Jenkins had claimed after defeating the proprietor of Carmel's Junk Shop. He had given all the unidentified numbered items to Alexia for appraisal, and once their names and functions were known, he had lent them to Dolores and Julia for their protection, as their own power levels were admittedly quite low.

The entrance to the Mysterious Realm had been forced, and as it fully materialized, a powerful suction erupted from within, stripping away more than half of the black fog clinging to the demigod.

But the vortex didn't just claim the fog. The surrounding air, the swirling dust, and even Dolores's group, despite their distance, were inexorably drawn toward the rift.

The demigod from the Tree House staggered back, having no desire to gamble his fate inside a Mysterious Realm. But Dolores had thrown the Banisher's Rune Tablet directly in his path, and its bizarre attractive force held him paralyzed for a crucial instant.

The others, though farther away, were ordinary people. Caught in the pull of the portal, they could do little more than inch backward, fighting for every step.

Everyone shielded their faces from the stinging grit and debris whipped up by the chaotic winds. The air devolved into a maelstrom, a hurricane tearing across the small patch of land, its terrifying shriek vibrating in their very bones.

"You're not going anywhere!"

Seeing them trying to escape, the Tree House demigod lashed out with a black chain. Buffeted by the turbulent wind and the portal's pull, the chain quickly veered off course, missing Dolores and her companions entirely—but trapping them had never been his intention.

The chain whipped through the air in a wide arc, its tip just grazing the lingering patterns of the Banisher's Rune Tablet. An otherworldly glow, visible only to Jenkins, erupted from the chain. Its tip snagged the runes embedded in the fabric of space, and with a powerful upward heave, the demigod yanked the entire glowing construct high into the sky.

The portal on the ground snapped shut, only for a new one to tear open high in the sky, right where the runes now floated. The Banisher's Rune Tablet would keep this new entrance open for its full duration—a whole thirty minutes.

With the portal now high overhead, its pull, while still roiling the atmosphere, no longer posed a direct threat to those on the ground. The man in the black suit, wary of what other strange artifacts Dolores might produce, wasted no time. Having relocated the portal, he commanded his swirling black fog to surge toward the princess and her companions, giving them no opportunity to speak.

In Nolan, Jenkins shot bolt upright, his eyes fixed on a streak of sky-blue light that shot like an arrow from the edge of the chessboard, straight for the palace in Ruen.

The light streaked across the sky like a falling star, a spectacle witnessed by everyone in Ruen. It left a vibrant blue trail in its wake, as if a giant had casually scribbled across the heavens.

To Dolores and her companions, it was a blue meteor tearing through the sky, plummeting toward them. The Tree House demigod sensed the immense danger. Forgetting the fog, he launched himself into the air and threw a powerful punch skyward.

But within that descending blue radiance was Alexia Miller, who met his ascent with unstoppable force, slamming him back down to earth. Their impact—a cataclysmic fusion of raw physical power and erupting spirit—sent a shockwave across the small hill. It was a literal, surface-level earthquake, causing the palace complex behind them to shudder violently, visible cracks spiderwebbing across its walls.

Dolores cried out, her face still drawn with tension. Alexia emerged from the settling dust, offering the princess a reassuring smile and a nod before delivering a well-rehearsed line:

"Took me all night, but I finally made it from Nolan."

Behind her, the black chain struck, lunging for the back of her head like a viper. But as it neared, it slammed into a translucent, hexagonal barrier that shimmered into existence like a crystal pane.

The black fog surged from the dust once more, but Alexia merely pointed a finger. The spirit in the air twisted, converted by the unfurling logic of her Mathematical Principles into an alien set of rules. The fog instantly froze, suspended in mid-air as if it had turned to solid stone.

The demigod, who had just been smashed into the ground by the short woman descending from the sky, finally climbed out of the smoldering crater. He appeared unharmed by the collision, but the tremor in the hand he kept hidden behind his back betrayed a calm he did not feel.