The place was different than he had imagined! The guards… All of them were lying on the ground, unmoving! There was not a single droplet of blood on the floor, which made it appear as if they were simply sleeping.
It didn't make sense for all of them to fall asleep at the same time, which made Gabriel assured that either they were dead or they were unconscious.
He also noticed another person in the room—the only person who wasn't lying on the ground.
Lelin was standing near one of the Numens, holding the box that Gabriel wanted!
"There it goes." Lelin was slightly distracted by the box as if he needed all his focus to open the box. And surprised, he even managed to succeed in unlocking the box, which was said to be impossible to open.
Gabriel didn't know why Lelin was here, but he couldn't let Lelin take what was in the box.
Before Lelin could open the unlocked box to reveal what was inside, Gabriel attacked with a spell of light. A sphere of pure energy shot to Lelin. Sensing the attack, Lelin finally came out of his daze. He subconsciously stepped aside, without even looking where the attack was coming from. It was as if his battle sense was just so good.
Unfortunately, it appeared as if he had misjudged this time. Even though the sphere of energy missed him, it did manage to hit the wooden box.
The wooden box flew from the hands of Lelin, falling into the distance.
"You!" Lelin glared at Gabriel. "I told you that you mustn't create obstruction in my path!"
At the moment he was distracted, the box fell to the ground, opened. The items inside the box fell out, being two beautiful crystal orbs. However, one of the two orbs was white. The other one was pitch black.
Still affected by the impact, both the orbs went in different directions. While the white orb rolled to the wall in the back, the black orb seemingly rolled much farther.
By the time Lelin turned around, he saw the box, which was completely empty by now. His eyes roamed the entire surrounding, trying to locate something. He only sighed in relief as he saw the white orb.
Since the black orb was now behind one of the pillars, he couldn't see the black orb. It was as if he didn't even know the existence of the black orb and only cared for the white one.
Gabriel, on the other hand, saw both the orbs. He wondered if the orbs were what the Grimoire was after.
He ran toward the white orb as well while attacking once again. Unfortunately, it seemed Lelin was prepared for the attack this time. He raised his left hand.
"Shield of Purity!" He raised his left hand. A majestic white shield appeared before him, which blocked the attack of Gabriel.
For some reason, Gabriel had already slowed down by now. The closer he got to the White Orb, the more he realized that something was wrong. His Grimoire was reacting much less now. It was as if the Grimoire wasn't after the white orb.
He wondered if it was the Black Orb in the box that attracted his Grimoire in the first place. Despite this revelation, he still wanted to retrieve the white orb! Whatever it was, he believed it could be of use sooner or later, even if his Grimoire didn't want it!
At the same time as protecting himself, Lelin also cast another spell.
"Judgment of Light!"
Gabriel was close to the white orb when around ten floating swords made of light appeared before him. The light of the swords was so bright that it was blinding.
The ten swords flew to Gabriel like they were arrows that left a bow with the intention of killing the enemy.
"Shield of Undead!"
Gabriel had a weak shield of light, but he didn't use it at this point. He was sure that the low-tier shield of light couldn't stop the swords, which made even him feel like he was going to die if he didn't stop them.
Hundreds of Dark Spirits came out of his majestic ring, forming a shield before him within a fraction of a second! The screeching sound of the spirits was so loud that it should've been heard for a long distance. Despite that, even the mages on the lower floor weren't able to hear it.
As soon as Lelin arrived on this floor, he had already cast a spell on this floor to make sure no noise went out of this place.
The Unholy Shield of Dark Spirits gave the best layer of defense to Gabriel. It was the strongest protective spell that he had which blocked the attack of Light. Despite that, it didn't have an easy time. Gabriel didn't use his staff or his Grimoire to cast the spell, so its potential was quite limited with how he used it.
"As expected..." Lelin muttered, seeing the dark spirits protecting Gabriel. It was as if he wasn't surprised in the least. In the meantime, he also picked up the white orb that fit perfectly in his palm.
*****
Elora placed her request before Eliana and the Head Council Teachers. All she wanted was the right to use one of the Artifacts that the Academy possessed, and only for a little while.
The decision was for Eliana to take now. All Elora could do now was to wait. However, she was sure that they were going to agree. It wasn't as if she was permanently asking for the Artifact. She was going to use it here and then return.
"Can you excuse us for a minute?" Eliana left the room with the other teachers to discuss in privacy.
Outside the hall, she discussed with the others if they should give permission.
"I don't think there is any risk in that. The artifact she wants to use isn't a particularly dangerous one. I think we should take her to the Museum right now and let her use it for a few minutes so we can be done with it." Eliana suggested. "We will all be with her. I doubt she will do anything stupid."
