I became a legion lich

158 Tower fall

“Deactivate all other portals now!” The elder realized that the situation had just changed from something troublesome to a real risk. He was strengthening his body to the maximum to resist the suction of the anomaly, but everyone else who wasn’t in the control room was unable to resist.

The employees inside the control room obeyed his orders and all portals that were about to be loaded were cancelled, but those already active could not be deactivated until all their energy ran out.

The anomaly was growing by the second, its shape changing more and more. Dozens of staff and mages had already been sucked in and presumably killed. The nearby floor and walls were also swallowed up without resistance, although the runes should have made the floor as strong as adamant.

‘This can no longer be stopped. I need to get out of here before it’s too late.’ Elder Louis thought, trying to find a way to escape. There was no exit or entrance to the tower, the only way to enter the tower was through the portals and Louis didn’t intend to take chances in a portal.

“Is there an emergency exit? We need to evacuate the tower immediately!” Elder Louis grabbed the clerk beside him who nearly went flying.

“The only way in and out is through the portals. I don’t know of any other way out!” The clerk screamed desperately trying to grab Elder’s arm to save himself, but Elder just let go of him after confirming that he was useless.

‘If I can’t physically flee, I have no other choice but to take my chances in a portal. Let’s hope the exclusive portal is not affected by this anomaly.’ Elder Louis thought as he fled as quickly as possible towards the stairs. He didn’t try to save any of the surrounding servants or mages, considering them only encumbrances.

He sprinted up the stairs, running over anyone who was too slow to get out of his way. In less than a minute he was already on the fifth floor, but Louis wasn’t the only one who had the idea of escaping through the portals exclusive to elites.

The only problem is that the team had turned off the power to all of the tower’s portals to prevent any more from exploding, so no one was able to escape, creating a mob of desperate mages and employees on the floor.

.....

“Get out of my way!” Elder Louis didn’t have time to deal with all these desperate people and released his aura in full force, knocking all the mages and employees to the ground.

As expected of a mage in the seventeenth layer of life, his aura alone was enough to subdue all the mages on the floor.

Louis paid no attention to the fallen mages and walked to the gate at the end of the hallway. The mithril arc here was much smaller compared to the behemoths on the ground floor, as it was meant to carry only elites and their escorts, rather than troops or cargo.

He ran past all the fallen people and arrived in front of the mithril arc, before taking off the medallion bearing the order’s symbol and holding it up in front of the arch. Unlike the medallions worn by most mages, elders’ medallions were personalized and had their respective elements at the center.

The locket glowed darkly for a second, and the mithril arc did the same a moment later, as if recognizing the elder. The elite-only portal served as both an exclusive transport and an emergency escape for the elders.

the crystal arc had a backup power source of its own, which began powering the teleportation crystals the moment the mithril arc recognized the elder locket.

The portal would open and take the elder to the order’s headquarters in Makima’s capital. This would also send out an emergency alert and let the entire order know that an emergency situation was happening in the portal network, something so serious that even an elder needed to flee.

It would be a shame and a stain on the elder name, especially after it was discovered that the emergency was caused by him, but Louis chose to swallow his pride and run for his life.

“Charge faster, shit!” Elder Louis shouted impatiently, watching the crystals slowly charge. As soon as the crystals finished charging, he took a step back, fearing that the same thing that happened in the portal below would happen.

Lucky for her, the portal was normal and stable, the purplish-black hole nowhere to be seen. Louis smiled and was about to cross when a small squeal of happiness from behind reminded him that he wasn’t alone.

“An outlet!” One of the wizards shouted gleefully, but the elder’ icy gaze silenced him.

“I almost forgot to cut loose ends. Having you alive to report what happened here is going to be a risk I’m not willing to take.” Was all Louis said before unleashing one of the spells he’d been keeping at bay, unleashing a hail of darkness-filled stone bullets.

Despite darkness and earth being the two slowest magical elements, the black stone bullets moved at lightning speed and impaled the mages’ hearts before exploding like a shrapnel grenade.

‘If any one of them survives to explain what happened here, I will be doomed with no escape. But if I’m the only survivor, they’ll have no choice but to hear my side of the story. Even trying to read my mind is useless, as at my level my psychological defenses are so strong that mind reading spells are practically useless.’

‘I just hope the crystal records survive this incident. The mithril arches can be easily reconstructed, but the records of all the crystals would take months to re-record, needing to travel to almost every corner of the Adula continent to record everything again.’

The tower began to shake violently at that moment, reminding him that he wasn’t safe yet. Louis grabbed a small glass bottle and smashed it against the crystal arc before quickly stepping through the portal.

The broken bottle released a green gas that immediately began to corrode the mithril, making the portal unstable until one side of the arc melted and fell to the ground, collapsing the portal under itself. The corrosive gas did not disappear and began to melt the corpses, erasing the evidence of the elder’s murder.

On the first floor of the tower, the anomaly had grown and its edges had swallowed the other open portals, increasing its size to the point of engulfing the first floor and the walls of the tower, the anomaly expanding outwards.

The barriers that should have been able to withstand an ancient dragon’s attacks have long since disappeared, as the anomaly has swallowed the tower along with the runes that form the barriers.

Alarms were already ringing across the city as mages flew from a safe distance while surrounding the tower, but none of them dared to approach. The anomaly was sucking in everything around it with frightening force. A first group of mages had gotten too close and were sucked in, disappearing inside the anomaly.

The tower began to collapse, its structure unable to stand after losing half of its walls and the anomaly putting even more pressure on it.

Anomaly sucked in the falling tower until the void at its center was filled and unable to drain anything more, collapsing in on itself. It imploded, disappearing half of the tower and leaving a gigantic crater. The upper floors of the tower fell into the crater with a thud, raising a curtain of dust.

The surrounding mages were shocked, wondering what the hell had happened here and where did the first few floors of the tower go.

It took some time for a brave person to approach the wreckage of the tower and begin the search for survivors, although everyone already knew that the chances were minimal.

***********

In the fortress of the platinum fist.

“Hey, won’t this thing stop growing?” Athos asked, looking at the gigantic anomaly outside the walls.

The forced teleportation spell moved the portal approximately 200~300 meters away from the walls, at the limit of the range of ballistae and catapults. Thanks to this distance, there were no casualties among the skeletons, but the ever-expanding anomaly was making Athos anxious.

Athos, the skeleton mages, and the bone abominations had already returned to the fortress, bypassing the anomaly as it grew uncontrollably.

“Whatever it is, I doubt the enemies were expecting this to happen. If my guess is correct, it’s likely the same thing is happening on the other side and they must be panicking by now.” Treevor was nearby and spoke.

“I just hope this is over soon. We’re not in our best condition right now.” Emília, who was also nearby, joined the conversation.

The field of the dead had run out of power a few minutes ago, so the dome of darkness that surrounded the fortress disappeared. The skeleton mages had turned as many corpses as possible into new undead, but their overall power was still weaker than before the battle started.

Without the storm and barrier, they would have no choice but to face the enemies head on.