Sementara Fudge bersenang-senang memanipulasi peristiwa di balik layar, Michael mengambil inisiatif untuk membebaskan warga Grafted Cluster, salah satu wilayah yang terisolasi dari dunia, dari kekuasaan tirani gabungan Bulren Inc. dan Flarecorp.
Ia turun ke dalam bayangan dan tiba di sudut terpencil sebuah jalan di kota pusat daerah itu. Ia menatap bola api yang menyelimuti seluruh wilayah itu, bahkan menghalangi burung dan awan untuk memasuki wilayah tersebut.
Kota itu terbagi menjadi dua bagian: satu dibangun dari kayu dan sumber daya alam, yang lainnya dari batu. Ini menunjukkan persaingan dua bersaudara, Barcus menguasai daerah kayu dan Bulren menguasai daerah batu.
Meskipun menjadi kota pusat Grafted Cluster, tempat itu terlihat sepi sebelum Michael tiba. Orang-orang bersembunyi di rumah-rumah mereka, hanya sesekali mengintip dari jendela.
Michael mengamati para prajurit yang berjaga di setiap jalan, masing-masing memakai baju zirah oranye dengan ukiran api di dada. Kekuatan mereka setara prajurit bintang 4, yang merupakan kekuatan langka di daerah terisolasi seperti Grafted Cluster. Ini berarti mereka mungkin berasal dari Flarecorp.
Seorang prajurit membawa peti berisi dendeng. Rumah-rumah penduduk dengan enggan membuka pintu, dan seorang wanita kurus keluar meminta makanan. Dua anak kecil mengintip dari balik ibu mereka, memandang makanan dengan penuh kerinduan.
Prajurit itu menyerahkan sepotong dendeng, lalu berkata, "Mana bayarannya?" Wanita itu dengan cepat mengeluarkan beberapa koin perak dari kantongnya. Setelah menerima bayaran, prajurit itu memberinya sepotong daging kering.
Michael menganggap perilaku itu sangat keji. Tanpa adanya pedagang lain yang diizinkan masuk atau keluar wilayah itu, semua makanan hanya bisa diperoleh dari Flarecorp.
Michael menggunakan [Fabric Manipulation], membuat saputangan prajurit itu melilit di kepalanya. Prajurit itu berjuang dan mencoba berteriak, tapi tidak ada suara yang keluar dari tenggorokannya. Saat ia mencoba melepas saputangan itu, ia tiba-tiba tersandung ke belakang dan kepalanya terbentur peti, membuatnya pingsan.
Wanita dan anak-anaknya memandang dengan cemas ketika Michael keluar dari sudut. Mereka waspada padanya. Kemudian, Michael memerintahkan bayangannya untuk melayang di atas pintu, menciptakan portal kembali ke markas mereka di Angora City. Lima peti berisi buah segar dan makanan jatuh tepat di hadapan wanita itu.
Wanita itu memandang dengan takjub, anak-anaknya langsung mengambil apel dari peti dan menggigitnya dengan lahap. Ia melihat simbol 'R' yang tercetak di peti, menyadari apa yang terjadi. Ia menoleh untuk mengucapkan terima kasih kepada Michael, tapi Michael sudah menghilang seolah tak pernah ada di sana.
Michael melayang di udara, memandang kota pusat itu dari ketinggian. Ia menggunakan [Supreme Skill] untuk merasakan aliran sihir di udara. Kubah api yang menyelimuti daerah itu dipenuhi mana Api yang agresif. Teori sihirnya disusun untuk menciptakan kekuatan tolakan yang paling besar.
Michael melihat benang-benang mana Api yang mengalir dari puncak kubah api. Benang-benang ini terhubung ke kediaman batu Bulren. Dengan kemahiran indra mananya, ia melihat tanda-tanda mana Cahaya dari semua orang di dalam rumah itu, termasuk lima penyihir yang tangannya terhubung ke benang api kubah tersebut.
Lima penyihir bintang 6 itu adalah sumber kekuatan penghalang. Mereka terus berkonsentrasi untuk mempertahankan mantra aktif. Michael tidak perlu mengganggu konsentrasi mereka secara fisik. Ia hanya mengangkat tangan dan memanggil aliran mana untuk mengalir kepadanya. Benang-benang merah itu tiba-tiba tertarik kepada bocah berambut emas yang melayang di udara. Mereka merasa terdorong untuk mengikutinya, walaupun sifat mereka seharusnya terikat pada penyihir.
Saat aliran mana itu berubah, para penyihir di bawah segera sadar. Mereka membuka mata dan saling memandang dengan tidak percaya. Konsentrasi mereka telah terputus tanpa kehilangan fokus. Mereka merasa kendali atas penghalang itu melemah setiap detik. Mereka segera keluar dari ruang bawah tanah dan berlari ke kantor Bulren.
"Kenapa kalian di sini?!" tanya Bulren. Mereka menunjuk ke jendela di belakang mejanya. Bulren menekan wajahnya ke kaca, kaget melihat kobar api yang berkedip-kedip sebelum padam. "Bagaimana ini bisa terjadi?!" teriaknya. "Di mana Hestu?!"
While Fudge was having fun manipulating the events behind the scenes, Michael took it upon himself to liberate the people of the Grafted Cluster from the tyrannical rule of Bulren Inc. and Flarecorp combined.
He descended into the shadows and arrived at a discreet corner of the street of the central town of the Grafted Cluster, one of the territories isolated from the world. He looked up and saw a flaming sphere covering the entire area, preventing even birds and clouds from trespassing onto their property.
The whole town was divided into two sections. One was made out of wood and natural resources and the other was made out of stone. This was indicative of the two brothers' rivalry against each other, with Barcus controlling the wooded area and Bulren controlling the other.
Despite being the central town of the Grafted Cluster, the whole place was as deserted as Neo Orcus before Michael arrived. People were hiding in their houses, barricading their doors and only peeking out their windows once every so often.
There were soldiers stationed in each street, each of them wearing orange armor with flame carvings jutting out of their chests. Michael noticed that they were quite strong to be locals. Each of them had the strength of a 4-star warrior, which could be considered quite rare in the isolated Grafted Cluster.
This meant that these soldiers were probably from the infamous Flarecorp.
"Lunch time!" one of the soldiers said, carrying a crate of dried meat and jerky.
The residential houses reluctantly opened their doors and peeked out. Michael saw a thin woman come out from the door and beg the soldier for food to eat. Two little kids peeked out from behind their mother and eyed the food with longing.
The soldier then took out a piece of jerky from the crate and motion brought it closer to the woman. But before she could pluck it out from his hands, he reminded her of something she completely missed.
"Where's the payment?" the soldier asked.
The woman hurriedly took out a few silver coins from her pouch and gave it to the soldier. Once the payment was received, the soldier gave her a handful of cured meat and beef jerky.
How despicable, Michael thought to himself. Without any other merchants allowed inside or outside the territory, all the foods can only be found from Flarecorp itself.
Michael used [Fabric Manipulation], making the soldier's own handkerchief to wrap around his head. The soldier struggled and tried to shout out loud, but found that no noise came out of his throat. As he tried to take off the handkerchief from his head, he suddenly tripped backwards and hit his head on one of the crates, making him unconscious.
The woman and her children looked on with worry as Michael came out from the corner. They were wary of him.
But then, Michael commanded his shadow to float above the woman's door. The shadow opened up and created a portal back into their headquarters in Angora City, allowing five different crates of fresh fruits and food to fall directly towards her.
The woman eyed the crates with wonder, with her children immediately picking up the fallen apples from the crates and taking a bite of each.
She looked at the symbol stamped onto the crates.
'R'.
Once she realized what happened, she looked up and tried to thank Michael for his kind gesture. But once she did, he was already gone. It was as if he was never even there in the first place.
…
…
…
Michael floated up in the air, looking down at the central town with a wide view.
He used his Supreme Skill to sense the flow of magic in the air.
The flaming dome surrounding them was filled with aggressive Fire mana. The magic theory was constructed in a way that created the most amount of repulsive force.
Michael squinted his eyes, seeing through the different dimensions of mana. Unearth the layer of reality, he saw small strings of Fire mana flowing down from the topmost part of the flaming dome.
These strings all connected down, near Bulren's mansion of stone.
With his masterful sensitivity of mana, Michael saw the Light mana signatures of all the people inside the house, including the five wizards whose hands connected to the Fire strings of the flaming dome.
These 6-star wizards were the barrier's source of mana. They continuously concentrated to keep the spell active.
Now usually, disrupting a concentration spell would require Michael to physically disrupt the wizards casting them. He had to disrupt their focus thereby changing the flow of mana into the magic circle above.
But he didn't have to do all of that.
He could see the invisible strings of Fire mana connecting the wizards from their spells.
He simply had to raise his hand and beckon the mana to flow towards him instead.
The individual fuzzy balls of red mana suddenly found themselves drawn towards the golden-haired boy floating in the air. They went through their life practically invisible from the eyes of humans, yet it seemed as if this boy could actually see them in real life.
They felt compelled to go towards him. Even though their very nature was linked to the wizards that summoned them, they couldn't help but disobey their own nature and follow the commands of this strange boy instead.
One Fire mana left the flow, then two, then four, and eventually, thousands upon thousands of mana strayed from the line.
The moment this happened, the five wizards below were immediately alerted.
They all opened their eyes and looked at each other. They saw all of them meditating in the same place as before.
Disbelief started to paint their faces as they realized what had happened.
Somehow, their concentration was broken without losing their focus.
They felt their control of the barrier weakening by the second, making them cringe.
It felt as if their own arms were getting ripped away by an invisible force! It was not painful…it was worse than that; it was shameful.
They immediately got up from their seats and exited the dungeon underground Bulren's mansion.
They were placed there as a matter of safety and security, but it seemed that all of these precautions were for naught. The spell was still broken.
The wizards ran up the stairs and forced themselves inside Bulren's office.
"Wha?! Why are you guys here?!" he asked them.
The wizards, still catching their breaths, pointed towards the window behind his desk.
Bulren turned to the side and peeked out the glass. His eyes widened. He pushed his face closer to the glass, smushing his face against it. But he didn't care. He wanted to see if what he was seeing was true.
The flaming barrier was flickering in and out of existence. The fire was turning into cinder before dissipating in the air.
It wasn't long before the flaming dome flickered out of existence permanently, brightening the entire town as the sun finally shone above it.
"How did this happen?!" Bulren screamed out. "What am I going to do?"
Bulren was at a complete loss. He never would have thought that Flarecorp's infamous barrier would suddenly disappear without warning.
He turned to the wizards. "Where is Hestu?!"
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