"But lord knight-" The eleven people standing in the formation had worried faces as they looked upwards, indicating their worries.
"Don't worry about it. Once this ceremony completes, I'll break through to the middle-stage three-star mage. It'll be easy to kill these intruders at that time, even if they have some three-star mages. So, hurry up and start the process lest they come down and interrupt us." The middle-aged man said in a hurry.
He understood that these people were worried because once they started the ceremony, it shouldn't be interrupted, or they would suffer serious injuries. However, the middle-aged man didn't want to stop now.
He had prepared for this moment for more than two months, and now that everything was fully prepared and the ceremony needed only a dozen or so minutes to complete, he didn't want to delay any longer, even if some uninvited guest had arrived to disturb them.
Once the ceremony was completed, his strength would improve to the middle-stage three-star realm, and dealing with them would become easy unless there weren't any mages in the middle-stage three-star realm or above, which was not possible in his opinion. After all, there weren't many three-star mages in this area.
"Yes, lord dark knight." Everyone nodded. They then each took out a stone similar to Mana stone, but they were more lustrous, and put them into the formation.
Weng!
The outline of the formation started to shine brightly before dimming again. After that, they poured their Mana into the formation while chanting some strange spell. The chains tying Rima and others on the pillars trembled as if coming to life and pieced their limbs.
"Ahhhh...!" Sharp pain coursed through their bodies, and they felt their life energy and blood leaving their bodies and being absorbed by the dark chains.
...
Meanwhile, outside the cave, Max's brows were knitted. It had been around two or three minutes, but no one had come out of the cave, which was unexpected.
The little elf girl beside him suddenly cried, and a terrified expression appeared on her face. "Danger. My family... danger."
Just as Max and company were confused by her sudden outburst, Max heard the faint pain cries coming from the cave, and his face went pale.
"Let's go!" He immediately charged inside the cave without a second of delay. He didn't want anything to happen to Rima if she was there, just because he was being too careful when dealing with these kidnappers.
"Little girl. You stay here, okay? We'll come out after saving your family." Belen said to the little elf girl and then followed behind with Leticia.
Whoosh!
Although the tunnel leading to the underground cave was long and meandering, Max had reached there in a short few moments.
The instant he stepped foot in there, the sight of nine people tied to the pillar and howling in pain appeared in front of him, and his expression became deadly as immense killing intent burst out of him, and his sapphire blue eyes became crimson in anger.
Whoosh!
He became so angry because one of the people was Rima, his woman. Seeing her state, he lost his rationality and charged toward her.
Boom!
However, before he could reach there, the large circular formation glowed with dark light and formed a wall of dark light wall. Max hadn't expected this and ran into the wall as a loud bang resounded. Following this, he was thrown away.
The middle-aged man, whose eyes were closed with a pained expression, briefly opened his eyes, and a mocking sneer appeared on his face. Did this brat think he wouldn't have anything prepared to tackle a situation like this?
The other eleven people inside the formation also looked at him in disdain.
Pu...!
Max spat a mouthful of blood and stood up, his eyes clearing slightly due to shock.
Ahhhh...!
However, just then, the cries of Rima and others made his blood boil. But this time, he didn't lose his mind and started to cast the [Calidus Brachium].
Whoosh! Whoosh!
At the same time, Belen and Leticia arrived there and immediately noticed Rima and the others.
"Dark mages!" When Belen's gaze fell on the black-clothed people, she exclaimed in shock and dread.
Hearing this, Leticia's expression froze while Max finally glanced at the people inside the formation, and seeing their disdainful expression, Max's killing intent became even more profound.
"Belen, Leticia, Use your strongest spells and break this defensive light. Rima can't hold much longer." Max hurriedly moved his gaze away from the dark mages and ordered the women by his side before rushing the completion of his spell.
"Okay!" Both of them nodded with solemn expressions when they saw Rima crying out in pain and her body becoming frail by the moment.
Immediately after, Mana around them was stimulated as they started to cast their spells.
Max's breathing had become hurried, and sweat drops started to appear all over his body as he continued to pour his Mana into the spell while his eyes remained trained on Rima's pitiful figure.
Right at this moment, he felt regret. He regretted slacking off when he had time to train and cultivate and simply lazing off. If he had put some more time into training his spell, he would've broken the dark light wall and saved Rima.
Weng!
Suddenly, his spell cast was complete, and his fist was ablaze with crimson fire. Immediately, he moved toward the formation and punched at the dark light wall.
BANG!!
The dark wall trembled when his fist landed on it, but nothing happened.
The black-clothed people laughed in disdain, seeing that his attack couldn't do any damage even after he wasted so much time preparing the spell.
"How could it be?" Leticia muttered in shock to see this. She clearly knew how strong this spell of their man was, but it couldn't do anything to this thin dark wall. How could it be possible?
Belen was also stunned, but after seeing the formation outlines, she shook her head, "These dark mages are very crafty. They have a grade three defensive formation protecting them."
The middle-aged man sneered from inside the formation, "Little kid. You won't be able to damage it. The moment this process completes, I'll kill-"
Crack~!
However, his expression froze the next moment when he heard a crackling sound from the dark wall, and his eyes widened as the crack originating from the point of impact spread out before the wall eventually broke into pieces like glass.
"Belen!" Max shouted and directly rushed inside the formation.
Shua!
The next Instant, he arrived in front of Rima, who was howling in pain. The dark chains had almost dug deep into her bones, and she seemed to have lost most of her vitality because her body had withered like a corpse. Her eyes were unfocused, and dark red blood was coming from them.
Seeing this, Max's heart ached as he grabbed the dark chains and pulled them.
Jing~!
As the chains were pulled and were about to snap, the dark smoke-like energy appeared on the chains and burned in his hands and, at the same time, strengthened the chains.
"Argh...!" Max gritted his teeth and endured the pain. His enhanced Mana surged out, and his strength instantly increased. Following this, he snapped all the chains one by one.
Losing the chains' support, Rima's withered body fell. Max hurriedly supported her. Seeing her condition, his eyes couldn't help but tear up.
After being freed from the chains, Rima's pained cries gradually stopped. She tried to open her eyes to see who it was that saved her from the torture, but she couldn't and immediately fainted. Her breathing was so faint that one would take her for dead without close inspection.
Max's heart trembled when he thought that if he were a few minutes late, Rima would have died. As he thought of this, his eyes seemed to burn with flames, and the thread of rationality he was barely holding on to snapped.
"Puh!" The moment Max broke the chains, the middle-aged man and the other eleven people chanting the spell spat out a mouthful of black blood.
"Continue the ceremony!" The middle-aged man shouted, his red eyes fixedly glaring at Max, who had carried Rima and walked out of the formation before gently putting her in one corner of the cave.
"Ahh, Save... us." Two of the four elves looked at Max with a begging expression and pleaded.
