Chapter 820: Betty Is The Fastest
Chapter 820: Betty Is The Fastest
“I know I teleported us all here but…” Betty who sat above the carriage mumbled, tilting her head to the side with a worried face. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“It’ll be a massacre if they tried to fight Arad.” Aella said as she looked at the carriage’s ceiling, “Arad isn’t that soft to let them live, and even if he doesn’t attack, they’ll die of the curse.”
“Mistress Doma wouldn’t let them go even if Arad did.” Betty sighed. “But I’m not sure if us trying to stop them would help.”
“I know how kingdoms work.” Isdis said, “The soldiers aren’t at fault, they are just following orders. If they were ordered to attack, they would do so without even knowing what awaits them. Unless we get some sense into the royal families of those kingdoms, hundreds of thousands of people would die to Arad.”
“Sir Gojo had gone to deal with that bone, isn’t he?” Flatail who was sitting with them inside the carriage said, “Shouldn’t we wait for him?”
“We don’t know how long it’ll take him and kingdoms act quickly in situations like this. It’ll be a disaster if they launch an attack at Arad before we stop them, we don’t have time to waste.” Isdis looked at him with a gentle smile. “Shouldn’t you be resting? Gojo just dropped you with us an hour ago.”
“For what I’ve seen from Lord Arad, I doubt Sir Gojo who is his older brother could fall short. The lord was a monster, far above anything I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Tempo rampaging.” Flatail looked out of the window at Tempo who was riding beside the carriage on a horse.
Flatail sighed, “I do agree, if anyone fought the lord, they’ll die. I’ve literally seen him wipe far more horrifying cities.” Flatail could remember as Arad blasted the abomination colonies one after another, to what those could do, a human kingdom was nothing more than a grass dam.
“I know Arad is strong. But is it really to that point?” Merlin looked at Flatail, “You’ve told us how large and scary those cities were, but I find it hard to believe.”
“It’s up to you to believe me or not. But it’s indeed wise to fear for the humans, Lord Arad would be fine.” He nodded.
“We aren’t worrying about them.” Aella looked at him. “If Arad killed them it could cause us troubles in the future. We want to avoid that.”
“By attacking them first?” Betty teleported into the carriage and fell on Aella’s lap. “I doubt it’s wise.”
“They aren’t listening to reason.” Isdis looked at her, “They want to get Arad’s power, but they refuse to believe it’s my husband. They think we’re trying to deceive them to take the power for ourselves.”
“So it doesn’t matter what we say, it’ll always be a trick to them so we should just protect Arad until he can move freely.” Aella turned toward Eris and Merida, “You two are our heaviest hitters, don’t charge in blindly. We’ll talk with them first; we’ll fight later if that is needed.”
“I’m better at magic and she’s better at swordplay.” Eris looked at Merida, “You’re our best- ranged attack. You can snipe people from kilometers away by using wind magic.” She then turned toward Aella.
“I’m starting to understand wind magic after studying what Zephyr said.” She looked at Merlin, “The freeing process?”
“Still need Arad to test the labyrinth and rule control. I asked Gojo, but he said that it has to be Arad to do it. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but we’ll have to wait.” She sighed, “He said he prefers to take a hands-off approach and will only help when he is the only possible option.”
“So if he went to check on Arad then it means…” Betty scratched her head, “He’s the only one who can approach him now. Won’t the armies just die?”
“They can try to blast Arad with large-scale magic from afar.” Aella replied, “Ritual spells done by several high mages at once, they could even summon a meteor swarm to wipe armies and small nations. If they hit Arad with one, he’s bound to fight back.”
“Spells of mass destruction… I doubt they would pull that. It can kill their mages and leave them vulnerable.”
Large-scale magic is an array of several spells intertwined together. Several high mages gather together to prepare and cast it over a large distance. It’s this world’s nuclear option, only pulled when it’s the last option left.
But, large-scale magic isn’t all for destruction, the elves were known to use it for terraforming deserts into forests, searching for lost people in the sea, or even conjuring massive barriers over cities as defenses. The dwarves also used it several times to dig mountains and lava from volcanoes to mine.
But the weirdest use of large-scale magic had to be given to the mixed nations of the far west. They’ve cast a spell that cut a mountain in the base, lifted it into the sky, flipped it upside down, and then built a city there. Sadly, the mountain fell to the ground two years later and everyone died.
“We’re almost at the border.” Betty stared out of the window, “I can see their outpost. This is the first obstacle.”
“If they don’t allow us in, we can just go in. They can’t stop us.” Eris looked outside.
“That’s starting a war.” Aella sighed.
“A war would start anyway if they attacked Arad. We have to stop this mess from escalating further.” Isdis looked outside in the desert’s direction. “Sadly, even we can’t use the desert as a route to reach all the kingdoms at once. We’ll need to pass them one by one. Hopefully, we won’t be late.”
“I can go check.” Betty said with a smile.
“We’re already going there with teleportation magic. Are you faster?” Merida looked at her with a puzzled face.
Betty pulled a map, “To go around all the kingdoms surrounding the desert it’ll be…” She roughly measured the distance. “It’s around a hundred thousand kilometers, that’s long.” “Teleportation magic works best,” Merida said with a smile, “Just rest, we’ll get there.” “No…teleportation magic isn’t the best. Mana travels at a third of the speed of light. I’m faster than teleportation magic by three times. It’ll take me about a third of a second to go around them all.”
Merida and Eris stared at her, “Wait, you’re that fast?”
“I can go east and come from the west in a few seconds. Sadly I can’t carry anyone or anything with me. They’ll disintegrate. I’m partially naked when moving at the speed of light and I do wear illusion clothes.” Betty said with a proud face. “I do switch to reach clothes the moment
I slow down.”
“How do you fight?” Aella asked.
“It’s just me and the light, that’s why I made this, a light sword.” She conjured a cylindrical blade of pure white light.
Betty climbed into the carriage’s window, “So, I’ll go see what they are up to and mess with them a bit to buy us time.” She jumped from the window, and the moment her feet touched the ground, she disappeared in a flash.
“I can’t sense her magic anymore…” Aella gasped, “And I can sense magic quite far away…” Out of everyone, Arad, Gojo, and Doma were the only ones who got a solid understanding of how ridiculously fast Betty was.
As if time stopped, Betty raced across the lands and reached the first kingdom’s desert border in the blink of an eye. Without stopping, she ran around their camps, counted everyone, and found they were almost fifty thousand strong. On her way, as she counted them, she extended a one-inch-long blade of light from her index finger and slashed the belts on their armor, stripping them one after another.
Two seconds had passed since she left the carriage, and she stopped at a mountain’s peak beneath a large tree. She panted; sweat rushing down her forehead as she stared at the army. It only took a flash and all of them stood in their underwear, confused, terrified, embarrassed,
and panicking.
She giggled, watching them with a smile. “Now that’s a sight to behold. I hope this keeps you busy and confused for a while.” She flashed again, heading to the second kingdom. After almost a minute, Betty returned to the carriage that had reached the border patrol. The carriage was about to pass without problems until the commander suggested to stop them. “We still didn’t get a word from the capital. Keep all trips locked until we get a reply.” He had heard that the kingdom was going through a crisis as the mages who were assigned to him suddenly teleported to the capital.
It was all caution; he should get a reply in a day or two, so that was his decision. “There is a village right after the hill with a large inn. We’ll guide you there to wait until we get orders from the capital.” The guard said to Tempo.
Inside the carriage, Eris was already about to walk out and punch everyone. They need to get there quickly, the kingdoms are about to attack Arad.
BLING! Betty appeared beside the carriage and walked inside, drenched in sweat. “I’m back.”
“You’re back?” Merlin looked at her, “How did it go?”
“Stripped them all, let the horses run away, cut any scroll that was unprotected and I even cut
the wheels on his supply carriages.” Betty replied, barely able to speak as she gasped for air. “It’s mayhem there.” She smiled.
“Sir, I said we can’t let you in.” The commander of the border guards approached Tempo who insisted they get in.
“What now?” Betty looked out, “They aren’t letting us in?”
The commander looked at her, “A kid? No, you’re a halfling. I can’t let you in as the kingdom
is in crisis, you’ll have to wait for clearance from the capital. It’ll be sent by magic, so you have to wait at least until tomorrow.”
“Listen, kid.” Betty looked at him with an exhausted face, calling him a kid even though he looked to be in his late forties. “I’m not going to hurt; no one here is going to hurt you no matter what. But this is a warning, let us in, or you’ll be the one to regret it.”
He giggled, “It’s not my responsibility. You’re staying here even if the kingdom burned to
ash.”
“I’m not talking about the kingdom. Kid.” She flashed but seemed to remain in her place. She extended her closed fist to him, “Here, this is for you.”
“I do not take bribes.” He growled.
“This isn’t a bribe.” She shook her fist, and he took what she held. A deep gasp escaped his lips as his hands started to shake. “You recognize them, don’t you? Can we enter?” “How did you get them?” He glared at her. She had handed him his wife’s underwear, even though his family was on the other side of the kingdom, hundreds of kilometers away. “Let them in. They are a bit of a special case.” The commander growled, clenching his fist on
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the underwear.
“Are you sure?” The guard beside him asked, he didn’t know what happened.
“Let them in.” The commander said, looking forward with an angry face.
“But we didn’t check their papers or cards yet… we were reserving that for tomorrow when we get the orders…” The guard said with a worried face.
“I said let them in! It’s already too late to inspect them, and we don’t need to.” He waved his hands at the other guards blocking the road. “Let them pass.”
After the carriages passed, the guard approached the commander. “Something was off about them, should we send someone to follow them?”
“Don’t. We better not get involved with them.” He looked at him, “I suspect that halfling is a world power. I can’t explain her any other way.” To a normal person, what Betty did seemed beyond magic.