Using my sixth sense, I scanned the whole fortress and there seemed to be around 5 floors. 2 floors underground where the hostages were kept and 3 floors above ground. 

Her mana signature was faint but I could feel it below; whatever they used to sedate her and the other powerful individuals like Miss Elena, I had to be wary of it.

There were about 200ish guards just on the ground floor. Thanks to the  S Grade invisibility Cloak I had bought a couple months ago, my presence was completely diminished. I sneaked past several guards whilst they talked and only stopped when I overheard some interesting information.

“Can’t believe our boss relocated this far for a mere girl. What a stupid guy, we lost over 80% of our forces cause he was a damn simp.” One of the guards mocked.

“Shut up. Stop talking rubbish against the boss. He has utmost power, didn’t he tell us he’s the Fire Candidate, someone who has the right to challenge the Fire Monarch and rule the upper realm. What’s a mere couple thousand soldiers’ deaths to him? If he wants something, you know how he is. He’ll take it by force.” The other soldier replied. 

So the guy behind this was the Fire Candidate? Sour memories returned to me making my blood boil. He was the one that tortured Malia and colluded with Blake Handmoore ( the light Candidate). Whilst kidnapped Sara, the other grabbed Malia.

I took in a couple deep breaths calming myself down. Killing the Fire Candidate would come after, I had to first save Malia and the others. Efficiently slithering past the soldiers on standby I managed to descend several floors until I reached the Entrance to the bottom floors.

I knocked out all of the guards there swiftly, tying them up and bunching them all in a corner. Without a second to lose I entered through the doors of the entrance and descended down the stairs to the first Underground floor of the large fortress. 

The underground first floor seemed to be a pocket dimension like a dungeon. It spread out for several miles covered by green vegetation and large trees. There was even an artificial blue sky. 

“So someone did finally arrive.” I heard a voice echo from the trees. Several dark figures swarmed out from deep in the large forest.

“It’s only one guy. HAhahahahaha!” One of the figures wearing the dark ninja attire laughed, mocking me. 

I knew going full power here would be a bad idea. This pocket dimension would collapse and the floor underneath may even break if something like that happened, placing the hostages in danger.

“Good, the boss didn’t have to descend here himself. It’s just one guy. Oi! Just surrender and turn yourself in. You can be our boss’s personal lap dog slave. Did you really think we wouldn’t know that you strolled into our fortress?” Another spoke. 

I removed the invisibility cloak and removed my eye patch. Loud noises of metal breaking echoed as I removed the dozens of metal rings around my arms. These dampened my mana pressure and hid my presence as much as possible but it seemed I wouldn’t need them anymore.

‘Voadhailis, Cambio Forma.’

A powerful wave of mana and killing intent spread across the pocket dimension dropping the temperature of the air by several degrees. The hundreds of black figures froze in fear.

“I’m in no mood for games. You courted death when you took Malia from me.” I pointed the flaming red short sword in my left hand towards them.

‘Godspeed.’

Time froze as I blitzed around moving close to the speed of light. I sliced down every single of the soldiers, killing all of them and levelling up 10 times. They couldn’t even flinch as their heads were decapitated and separated from their bodies. 

I quickly put all the stats I received into ‘defence/durability’ again building it up high to a  whopping 500!

Sprinting past the large trees I felt several powerful mana pressures nearing my position from all over the forest.

‘Grande Sole’

I spammed several large balls of flames, resembling miniature suns down across the dense areas of forest trees. They descended from the roof of the pocket dimension appearing in the skies and causing several large explosions shaking the floor. I levelled up several times again as the scattered forces died throughout the forest. 

In a matter of seconds, I had made it to the next entrance. 

I descended down the stairs in a rush. Several different prison cells came into view with hundreds of different girls all cooped up in the different cells all around.

“Please! Help!”

“Save us please!”

They began to scream and bang on the metal bars but I ignored them and frantically scanned around for Malia. For some reason her mana signature had disappeared when I entered the prison cell, making me feel anxious. The girls trapped in the cells wore ragged and dirty pieces of cloth, showing their skin. I felt bad for the poor girls but I had to find the others first.

“Zeref.” 

I heard a familiar but weak voice from my left making me stop running. Miss Elena gripped the metal bar, her body looking malnourished. What did they do to her?

She fell to the floor as her body couldn’t support her any longer. 

I used my monstrous strength to break the enhanced metal bars and enter the prison cell. 

“Miss Elena.” Crouching down next to her, I pulled out several potions from my dimension ring and her rapier; I let her drink the potions and watched as her pale complexion disappeared and her regular skin colour began to return. I felt several gazes of young girls looking at me in fear as they backed away from me huddling together. They must have been traumatised by their experiences here.

“Thank you. Zeref, you have to save the kids from the camp. They were taken to a separate facility. Leave these girls to me, go after the others.” She said, getting up from the ground and grabbing her rapier. 

“Take this portal. Round up all the girls and take them to safety, You may have to face off against several powerful mages, I can feel them coming down here-” I replied, handing her a portal device. I was stopped mid sentence as she hugged me in embrace. 

“I’m glad…” She hugged me tightly, wiping her tears. 

I gave her a wry smile before heading out of the prison cell. Our reunion was brief due to the lack of time but I trusted her abilities as a General of the Army. She would definitely survive against those C and B rank mages that were descending. 

I dashed down the large corridor and took a left to see a large portal waiting for me. Without hesitation I pounced into the circling murky blue.

“Malia, I’m coming.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep