After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

The two sides met briefly, and the elves immediately halted the knights' charge with a volley of fire. They then cast invisibility spells on all of them and escaped amidst the billowing smoke.

The gunshots rang out like thunder, waking the entire Roman Palace. They had to hurry.

The head maid's face was ashen as she stared at the corpses beside her and the empty Queen's chambers. She cursed twice, then waved her hand to dispel her magical barrier. She immediately ordered the Imperial Knights to move towards the memorial hall and the dining hall.

"Once they get in, they'll only be able to escape using magic! Only these two places have enough space to prepare a mass teleportation spell! Send troops there immediately, and get the mages on the walls to come and support them!"

"But head maid, the mages on the city wall are fighting a black dragon!"

The head maid glared at the waiter, then added a sarcastic remark:

"You're wasting the mages' mana fighting a black dragon that's almost immune to magic. You might as well have them pick up their hammers and fight the black dragon hand-to-hand right now—order them over here immediately! And what about Priscilla?"

"The witch is on her way..."

"Make her come with us immediately."

The head maid ordered the Imperial Knights to split into two groups and intercept the fleeing invaders at two different locations. Meanwhile, the Black Dragon noticed that the mage towers were displaying "[Mage has left]" signals one after another. Furthermore, the garrison troops that had been following him around were also on their way to the palace.

Judging from the deafening noise we just heard, it seems that Yang Hao and his team have successfully completed their work.

"So next, all we have to do is wait for them to teleport back? I need to pretend to get hit here, so I don't have to leave them with a favor to owe me."

Black Dragon smacked his lips, noticing a group of people passing by what appeared to be the main street in front of the noble quarter, and that the area was indeed within range of the crossbows...

Nia roared down, ignoring the countless magical shadows following behind her, and unleashed a dragon's breath directly at the garrison squad supporting the palace and the nearby noble's residence—

Whoosh!

"Haha! I hate you Roman nobles the most!"

Wherever the dragon's breath touched, flames engulfed the area. Nia cheered, deliberately exposing her abdomen to the ballistae on the city wall. She had calculated that a single bolt wouldn't pose a fatal threat; it would only make her look more pathetic—but that was all.

The black dragon gazed expectantly at the ballistae already aimed on the distant city wall towers. She used magic to protect her head, wings, limbs, and especially her spine and back, leaving only her abdomen completely unprotected.

Not to mention she deliberately made the magic's power sparkle in front of the barrier! If you still don't know where to aim after that, then Nia can only say—trash!

Fortunately, the ballista operator wasn't that stupid. Nia was overjoyed and had even prepared herself for the pain.

She watched as the ballista, under the operator's control, pulled the trigger, and the menacing bolt flew toward her abdomen.

Her body was completely relaxed, and she was even starting to imagine how miserable she would have to scream when the crossbow bolt struck her so that the regent in the palace would hear it and make him feel even more ashamed of himself.

She had even prepared a plan for how to fake her dying state—and just as the crossbow bolt was about to hit her, Nia became excited all over.

Come! Connect with me!

Nia was screaming inside.

In her expectation.

This was clearly a crossbow bolt that was worn down to an excessively sharp point, which struck Nia's hard dragon scales on her abdomen.

Then, under Nia's stunned gaze, the arrow abruptly veered off course as it rubbed against the dragon scales, leaving a white mark on the black dragon scales.

...

It just fell down like that.

The black dragon hovered in the air, while the ballista operator angrily pounded on the outdated and overly small ballista.

Faintly, Nia thought she heard the other person say, "It's too far away, we need to fire again!" But more than that, Nia knew very well that it wasn't a matter of too far away or too short range...

"...Awoooooo?!?!"

She roared furiously.

Have your Roman siege weapons become so disgraceful?! It's not a matter of insufficient range! Even if I stood right in front of those ballistae, your bolts couldn't break through my defenses!

(A bunch of savages smugly using weapons from decades ago?!)

All good things were ruined, and before leaving, the black dragon could only vent all his anger on the city's ballistae.

Meanwhile, even through the thick walls, they could hear the black dragon's angry roar. Yang Hao muttered to himself, "Could it be that the black dragon got hurt?" as he and the others rushed into the memorial hall.

After the ranger and Natalia, who had been waiting there for a long time, blocked the entire gate, he ordered the masters to set up the Japa 1405 heavy machine gun in front of the gate and ensure that the gunner was ready to fire at any time. Then he handed the exhausted Anna, who had been crying in his arms, to the anxious judge.

"Take her with you, don't stray from our formation, we're about to leave." Yang Hao reassured her, then immediately turned to the Archmage and shouted, "Archmage! Can you take these two coffins with you too? Just our men, our machine guns, and these two coffins!"

He pointed to the two coffins displayed in the memorial hall—the coffin of his sworn brother Benjamin Roman and the coffin of his sister-in-law.

The Grand Master glanced at it briefly and said it was acceptable, but that might require a little more time to prepare.

"It's only gone from half an hour to 31 minutes, which is acceptable—now we just need to hold the only entrance and exit! Please focus on preparing for the teleportation!"

"Understood."

The archmage nodded and began to eloquently gather the magical resources of the capital region. Once a certain amount of magic was bound by elven magic, that portion could not be used by anyone other than elves—a testament to the elves' mastery of magic.

As for the Imperial Knights and Mages outside, after discovering that the tracking spells on the Chief Justice and the Little Queen had somehow converged in the Memorial Hall, they immediately understood that the Chief Justice was not the bait.

"Get to the memorial hall! Get to the memorial hall! We must stop them before they use teleportation magic to leave!"

Fully armed guards shouted as they approached the corridor where the memorial hall was located in the narrow passage, but the narrow terrain prevented them from using their skills.

Just then, Priscilla arrived. Leaning on her staff, she shook her head under the watchful gaze of the head maid, indicating: "If you don't open the door, I can't cast spells on the precise person inside."

"After all, this is the limitation of my night magic. So, what do you mean?"

"...broke open the doors of the memorial hall."

The head maid was helpless, as no one present was more skilled in magic than the witch. She could only order the imperial knights to use benches brought from other rooms as battering rams, letting them try to break down the door that was blocked from the inside, bit by bit.

Thump—! Thump—!

The heavy doors of the memorial hall shook off dust and debris with each pounding by the Imperial Knights, and just as they were preparing for their third ramming attack, strange noises began to emanate from within...

The head maid's expression changed drastically, and she instinctively cast a magical barrier on herself—while the Night Witch wisely hid to the side, behind a rock in the courtyard.

Bang bang bang bang bang-!

Thunderous sounds echoed through the memorial hall once again, but unlike the previous rhythmic and intermittent sounds, this time the gunshots were almost entirely fragmented.

The knight carrying the battering ram was caught off guard and hit by bullets, exploding into countless sprays of blood. Some bullets happened to hit the area around the head maid, but were ultimately deflected by her magical barrier.

"What on earth is this thing?!"

The head maid stared, her face ashen, at the finger-sized, cone-shaped objects that slid past her barrier. Seeing the cone-shaped weapons slide aside, she immediately understood that these were the culprits responsible for the Imperial Knights' horrific casualties.

But just because she can see these things doesn't mean that the guards and knights can see them!

For them, their comrades-in-arms were suddenly engulfed in a cloud of blood and mist with a loud bang. They couldn't see the arrows, the magic, or even the enemy. Their comrades died without ever knowing why!

All they could do was immediately move away from the main entrance. Once they moved away, once they became afraid, no one dared to risk carrying that bench anymore, and no one dared to risk continuing to break through the door that had already been punched with several holes!

The knights and soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment. Some tried to block the holes with their shields, but were killed again by the people inside with unknown weapons.

This dealt a further blow to the morale of all the warriors. The head maid turned pale, and she moved away from the range of the gate, then quickly ordered the Night Witch:

"Priscilla! Hurry! Now is your chance to cast your spell!"

"...yes."

The Night Witch nodded.

She looked at the hole in the gate in the distance and sensed that someone inside seemed to be searching for her with an unknown weapon.

She chuckled twice, then unleashed the magic she had prepared beforehand—

But this magic wasn't thrown into the memorial hall.

Instead, she smashed it directly in front of the surrounding soldiers.

In an instant, black mist enveloped the entire Roman palace.

The soldiers were thrown into chaos by the sudden darkness.

From the darkness came the furious roar of the head maid, who had also been affected:

"Priscilla?!"

"Sorry, I don't want to continue working with the royal family—my magic has already worked on everyone, so you can fight it out yourselves."

The witch shrugged, looking at the head maid who was completely disoriented by the black mist, and murmured a teleportation spell. The destination of the teleportation was none other than the location of Saint Cecilia.

Chapter 11: Roman's Ace is Gone 8K -3

To be honest, when Priscilla successfully unleashed her Night Magic, Yang Hao's first thought was to quickly have the machine guns fired at the gate while buying time to kill Priscilla—because, based on his understanding, if Priscilla was specifically targeting them with her Night Magic, then she would inevitably appear within the gate's firing range.

One awkward aspect of night magic is that when a spellcaster intends to cast a spell on a specific target, she must first see the target's location. In the current situation, this means that the Night Witch can only specifically target Yang Hao and the others after she sees their condition.

The Japa 1405 machine gun was capable of firing continuously in the dark, hoping to kill any witches who couldn't escape. However, Yang Hao ultimately didn't rashly order the machine gunner to fire, simply because he noticed that the Roman soldiers outside were also in disarray.

This is how the same thing?

"Your Majesty, what should we do?!"

The elves sought Yang Hao's advice in the darkness, while outside came the screams of panicked Roman soldiers trampling each other. After pondering for a while, Yang Hao came to a conclusion:

Priscilla did indeed cast a night spell on them.

But this madwoman is unleashing a night magic that works on everyone indiscriminately?!

In other words, the Romans are now in a state of blindness, just like themselves. However, their side holds the advantage of guarding the only entrance and exit; in other words, this is very likely something Priscilla did intentionally... but why would she do that?

Yang Hao fell into deep thought. It was at this moment that he realized the darkness magic the witch was unleashing seemed to contain something he had seen before...

(...I remember, it should be like this...)

"...Everything for victory."

He murmured these words, and with that chant, the spell was broken.

Light returned to him once more. He could see that the elves, though not panicked in the darkness, held their breath and continued to roughly aim at the direction of the gate. Through the gap in the gate, he could see countless soldiers outside, a chaotic dance of demons trampling each other.

Firing now would inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. However, machine gun ammunition was limited, and Yang Hao had to save it for the most difficult situation.

In this situation, what Yang Hao had to do was actually very simple—he whispered the command to the elves to remove the darkness and restore their sight, and then he searched for the backdoor program left behind by the Night Witch.

He found it quickly. It was a message left for him by the Witch of the Night, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, only he could see it. Although he didn't know what the witch's true intentions were, she had done him a favor for the time being.

...Let's see what the witch has to say.

Yang Hao frowned and began chanting the incantation again. As the incantation was recited, a familiar figure appeared before Yang Hao as a phantom.

"...Although you might think I'm hypocritical, I just want to apologize for what happened that day," the witch said. "I don't expect you to forgive me; in fact, I've already seen through my own true nature. Although I know this might just be my self-satisfaction, I still...wanted to tell you."