GDK 880: Bait
Larikson, Hofs, and the experts they brought assembled before the Han Residence. Although they had been stalwart and zealous while marching to the Residence, they were worried and hesitant when they were at their destination.
A bizarre and eerie dark cloud loomed over the Han Residence that was shrouded under a thick dark fog. None of the experts gathered outside could peer through the fog to see what danger may lie ahead. Having eaten tons of destructive blasts of Energy Crystal Cannons, the divine guards of the Hushveil City had learned to fear the House of Han. They dared not charge ahead recklessly.
Even Hofs and Larikson immediately raised their hands, signaling their experts to halt upon seeing the peculiar situation ahead. They wore dark faces as they used their divine souls to probe the Han Residence.
After a long while, Hofs softly exclaimed, “Something’s wrong. My soul seems to be blocked by the thick fog. I cannot sense any life aura at all. This is impossible, I’m sure that they are inside. They must have blocked the sensing power of my soul somehow!”
Larikson nodded and said, “Indeed. I too cannot sense any life aura. But I’m certain that those of the House of Han had never left Fort Lasberg. From my intel, they have been defending the Fort all along. Those who left the Fort were all civilians.”
Hofs knew exactly where Larikson’s ‘intel’ came from. He smirked as he said, “Wallace really is intolerant of competition. But this is a good thing, hehe. After eradicating the House of Han, I’m going to spread the truth to the public. If Bryan is not dead already, he will know the role that Wallace played. By then, no matter if he was willing or not, he would have to fight alongside us!”
“Indeed. Wallace may scheme, but so could we! Hehe, we may be the ones doing the dirty work, but Wallace’s hands are no less bloody than ours!” Larikson obviously didn’t plan on letting Wallace play the role of an innocent bystander. He too had planned on dragging Wallace into the mud.
“I did not expect that the House of Han would take so much trouble. Perhaps we need to be more cautious,” said Hofs gravely as he stared at the Han Residence right ahead of him that was hidden under the thick dark fog.
“Let’s try ranged attacks on it, the same way we treated the energy barrier earlier,” proposed Larikson.
Hofs nodded and commanded his troops, “Make some distance from the Han Residence and start bombarding it! Let’s see if they can hold up to even a single wave of our joint attack!”
Those divine guards of Hushveil City did not hesitate. As their City Lord commanded, they sent out a dazzling swarm of divine energies into the Han Residence, hoping that it would reveal the situation under the fog.
Hofs and Larikson had been observing attentively as the divine energy attacks fell into the dense fog. It was like a stone being thrown into the bottomless ocean. They did not hear any shrieks from any beings, nor did they hear the intense explosions that should have sounded.
Something’s not right!
It was plain to all those gathered before the Han Residence that the thick fog was nothing as simple as it seemed. They were startled and started thinking about how they should preserve their own lives.
“You, you, and you, step inside and find the way in. It might just be a deceitful trick of the House of Han to keep us outside,” instructed Hofs as he randomly selected a few of his divine guards.
Those Hushveil City divine guards who were selected as cannon fodders felt terrified and wretched but they carried out their City Lord’s command. Very slowly and cautiously, they stepped into the fog. They immediately noticed that their senses were greatly affected with their eyes seeing no more than ten meters. Stepping on the flat ground felt like stepping on air. Everything around them seemed unreal.
Using their divine souls, Larikson and Hofs attentively observed the cannon fodders’ movements. They were somewhat glad to find that the cannon fodders did not suffer ferocious attacks as they anticipated. However, they did not lose their guard and continued to observe the two’s movements.
The few cannon fodders gradually made their way deeper into the Han Residence. They kept walking and walking but did not see a single structure nor sense any life signs. They could find neither their way in, nor their way out.
Larikson and Hofs put on puzzled looks. They had been observing those cannon fodders move around through the aura of their divine souls, estimating their location and movement. The two discovered that those cannon fodders had been going around and around a small region. And no matter how many circles they walked, they ventured no further into the Residence.
Hofs, given his temper, had long been screaming and cursing. However, it seemed as though those cannon fodders he sent couldn’t hear him at all. They continued to go around and around the same area. They could go no deeper, nor could they find their way back.
Soon enough, Hofs got impatient. He selected a few more of his divine guards and instructed, “You lot, enter from another side. There might be a space-folding type of barrier so be mindful. Don’t be as useless as those boobies who can’t even find their way back.”
“Don’t worry, my Lord. I cultivate the energy of space. If there is any space-edict barrier deployed in there, I can identify them and overcome them easily,” assured one of the selected divine guards before taking the lead to step into the fog.
Yet another bunch of cannon fodders attempted to intrude the Han Residence. Once they crossed a certain distance, somehow, they would all start walking in circles as though they had lost their sense of direction. It was the same occurrence as the first batch of cannon fodders.
Hofs knew that it was futile to send more cannon fodders into the Han Residence. He turned to Larikson and asked, “What do you think?”
“They must have some sort of space-edict defensive barrier in there, and the expert who deployed it must have a profound level of mastery over the energy of space. Otherwise, your men wouldn’t have been so clueless and be trapped,” said Larikson after thinking for a moment.
“And?” Hofs glanced at the experts Larikson brought before he said in a deep, slightly annoyed voice, “Don’t you think that it’s about time you bunch make yourselves useful?”
Although Larikson and Hofs came sieging the Fort together, only Hofs’ divine guards had been put to the frontline. Larikson and his experts had mostly been just supervising. It was easy to see why Hofs wasn’t so happy about it.
Larikson laughed mischievously, nodded, and said, “Very well.” He turned and shot a glance at a highgod of thunder standing behind him before instructing, “Kinu, go give it a try. The energy of lightning can disrupt the edict of space. I believe that with enough bombardment of the lightning energy, those space energy barriers will be destroyed!”
The highgod of thunder named Kinu bowed at Larikson. Without saying a word, he transformed into a bolt of thunder and shot into the fog. As he moved, thunder started to rumble while tiny electric sparks slithered among the dark cloud as the energy of lightning accumulated.
*** In the Han Residence, Bollands, wearing a scheming, cold face, commanded, “Activate the Illusionary Scene Projector and bait them in!”
“I’ll handle it! Hehe, let’s withdraw the mist for now and save that fella with the lightning energy some embarrassment,” said Gilbert excitedly before he went on to flip the switches.
Of all those in the meeting room, Bollands, Sanguis, and Gilbert were the only people familiar with the big and small demonic formations around the Han Residence. Before Han Shuo departed from the Fort, he had described to them the powers of the demonic formations and how to use them. As all three of them cultivated demonic arts with some of their knowledge overlapping with demonic formations, they were able to learn how to control the demonic formations.
Sanguis, Gilbert, and Bollands went on with temporarily disabling some demonic formations and activating the Illusionary Scene Projector.
“Ladies, Gentlemen, in just a moment, the mist will dissipate and the Illusionary Scene Projector will clearly project our appearances before the attackers. At that time, please act as though you are so terrified that you shat your pants,” instructed Sanguis as he set up the mechanisms.
“We got it,” replied Emily with a faint smile.
***After shooting into the mist, Kinu activated the energy of lightning that he had been accumulating above him. Lightning bolts fell from the sky and bombarded every corner of the Han Residence.
Then, as though someone had flipped a switch, the thick fog that shrouded the Han Residence suddenly started to dissipate. Even the dark cloud above the Residence began to sway as though it might dissipate at any moment.
Like a veil being lifted, the buildings in the Han Residence were slowly revealed to the attackers. They saw the members of the House of Han looking terrified, helpless, and full of despair. Some gazed at the attackers foolishly while others were frantically trying to flee. It was utter chaos.
The lifelike scene and perfect acting had deceived all the attackers, especially Hofs who had been waiting for the moment. They assumed that the highgod of thunder had managed to destroy all of the defensive boundaries in the Han Residence and they did not smell a rat.
Hofs put on a savage smile and howled, “Charge! Kill them all!”