I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

"What's going on?!"

Enolia didn't even bother to straighten her deep purple velvet skirt, which had slipped down to her arms, revealing her bare skin.

"Wasn't her room equipped with the highest level of anti-magic array? Don't tell me you court mages, who receive the highest salaries in the kingdom, are all a bunch of good-for-nothings!"

On the other end of the communication crystal, Victor's voice was very panicked, with the background sounds of a rumbling collapse and the guards' terrified shouts, clearly indicating that the scene was in complete chaos.

"Your Majesty the Empress Dowager... the magic-suppressing array is indeed intact, without any signs of being damaged by external forces! But... but that's a blockade against space and elements! The ground... the ground is undefended! She... she didn't use any of the conventional magic we know of; she directly connected to the ancient ley lines beneath the palace!"

Viktor swallowed hard: "The entire stone slab beneath the bedchamber was overturned, and countless vines that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere pierced through the foundation! She seemed to have melted into the soil, slipping away directly from the life-giving source of the earth's veins!"

Hearing this, Lynn, who was leaning against the headboard, couldn't help but laugh.

Enoria turned her head sharply and glared at him fiercely.

Lynn shrugged, the Demon-Sealing Shackles on his wrists rattling, his tone full of schadenfreude and mockery: "Don't look at me like that, Your Majesty. I just feel that your palace's security system, like your psychological defenses just now, seems unbreakable, but in fact... it breaks with a single poke."

Enoria's chest heaved with rage. She forcibly suppressed the urge to kill Lynn right now and coldly ordered Crystal, "Where is Annihilation? Immediately notify Annihilation to capture her. As long as she has a breath left, it doesn't matter if she's crippled! Absolutely do not let her escape the royal city!"

Viktor on the other end of the crystal was silent for a few seconds: "Your Highness... have you forgotten? Three hours ago, you just issued an order for Lord Silent Annihilation to carry out a mission. He's... not in the palace at all right now."

Lynn raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise and drawing out his words: "Oh dear, what bad luck! A level 99 Kingdom Guardian isn't home? Where are the other Guardians? Quickly, send someone over, Your Highness. We can't just watch a sure thing slip away, can we?"

Enoria gritted her teeth and cut off the magical supply to the communication crystal, turning to stare intently at Lynn: "Did you already know she had this ability? You deliberately provoked me tonight just to buy time?"

"Your Highness overestimates me." Lynn lazily shifted into a more comfortable position, his gaze sweeping boldly over Enoria's disheveled skirt. "I can't even figure out what abilities she's awakened, how could I possibly have predicted that she could slip away through the ley lines? But I am quite curious, since Annihilation isn't here, how long will it take for the other Guardians to get here?"

“They are stationed in the kingdom’s major cities, and it will take at least half a day to get there,” Enoria said coldly, then suddenly realized that she was answering a question from a prisoner, and her face turned even more ugly.

She originally thought that with the permanent presence of the Silent Ones in the palace, plus the multiple layers of protective barriers, there would be no chance of anything going wrong.

Who could have imagined such an incomprehensible thing would happen? A girl with absolutely no magical foundation was able to directly manipulate the earth's veins!

Lynn mentally ranted: Good heavens, I've been tormented here for so many days—being trampled underfoot by this damned woman every day, enduring incredibly erotic interrogations that test a man's willpower, and finally managed to push this iron-fisted empress dowager to the brink of passion, and then this girl just ran away? Didn't all these days of me being taken advantage of for nothing?

Enoria took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her boiling emotions.

She quickly straightened her disheveled clothes, pulled her extremely thin black lace shawl back up, and covered all the exposed skin. When she turned around again, her face had regained its former haughty, cold, and ruthless iron-fisted empress dowager persona.

“You better pray she didn’t escape the capital.” Enoria walked to the cell door, her back to Lynn, her voice as cold as Siberian ice shards. “Otherwise, the moment she leaves, I’ll slice your flesh off piece by piece and feed it to the dogs. You better stay here and don’t even think about going anywhere!”

After saying that, she pushed open the heavy steel prison door without hesitation and strode out.

As the cell door slammed shut again, the pale blue soundproof barrier lit up once more, and silence returned to the cell.

Lynn closed his eyes, leaned against the cold wall, and quickly assessed the current situation in his mind.

Alice's escape is definitely a huge variable.

This not only disrupted Enoria's entire plan, but also put Lynn in an extremely delicate situation.

But he still had the black box that could turn the little king into a monster; it was his last trump card.

As long as this bargaining chip remains, Enoria won't dare to actually kill him.

The problem is that he is currently bound by the Demon-Sealing Shackles and has lost all his magic power. If Enoria really goes mad and tries to torture him at all costs, he will have no chance to resist.

"Tick."

The sound of water leaking from somewhere was unusually clear in the quiet cell.

Less than half an hour had passed since Enoria left.

Suddenly, Lynn felt a very slight tremor in the ground. It wasn't the violent shaking that felt like an earthquake, but rather a vibrant, life-giving tremor, like plants sprouting from the soil.

Lynn suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the obsidian floor in the center of the cell.

"Click"

A tiny crack appeared on the extremely hard obsidian surface.

Immediately afterwards, the cracks expanded rapidly, spreading out like a spider web.

"boom!"

A piece of shattered obsidian was suddenly pushed aside and rolled to the side.

Several vines radiating emerald green light emerged from the ground. As if they were alive, they quickly intertwined and coiled on the ground, forcefully creating a hole large enough for a person to pass through.

Lynn narrowed his eyes, his body tensing instinctively.

The next second, a slender figure leaped lightly out of the hole and landed steadily on the cell floor.

She wore a once-gorgeous court dress, now covered in mud and dust, the hem torn in a large tear, revealing her pale calves. Her long hair was somewhat disheveled, but her delicate face showed no panic or fear.

What was most striking were her eyes. Those eyes, which were originally clear as water and always carried a hint of timidity, were now burning with two faint yet extremely pure emerald green flames. They were the embodiment of the authority of life and nature, carrying a supreme divinity.

Alice looked around and her gaze instantly locked onto Lynn, who was leaning against the headboard.

When she saw the demon-sealing shackles on Lynn's wrists, which emitted a faint, dark light, the emerald green flames in her eyes flickered, and a chilling killing intent instantly filled the entire cell.

"Lynn."

Alice walked quickly to the bedside.

“I knew it was you!” She crouched down, gripping Lynn’s arm tightly with both hands, her eyes slightly red. “They locked me in that room full of barriers. That vicious woman came to me and said she had captured an accomplice who was trying to rescue me. She told me to obey her or she would tear that accomplice to pieces.”

Alice took a deep breath, but her tone was unusually firm: "I knew it must be you from the start."

Looking at the girl before him, whose demeanor had drastically changed yet who still relied on him so completely, Lynn felt a surge of warmth in his heart. He smiled, flicked the shackles on his wrists, and they clinked together crisply. "I'm perfectly fine, aren't I? But you, how did you get out of here? And how did you find this godforsaken place?"

“I can sense the life force flowing through the earth’s veins.” Alice raised her head, the emerald flames in her eyes flashing with a determined light. “The palace’s barrier only sealed off the sky and the surrounding space, but it ignored the fact that this land itself is alive. I followed the roots of the earth’s veins and heard a heartbeat coming from deep underground. I know that you must be imprisoned in the deepest and darkest place.”

Lynn had to admit that Alice, who had gained the power of authority, was no longer the timid girl who needed his constant protection.

"Now that you've escaped, hurry up and leave." Lynn's smile faded, and his tone became serious. "Although Annihilation is gone, there are still many high-level mages and knights in the palace. Your power is not stable enough yet. Once you are surrounded by them, you really won't be able to escape."

“I’m not leaving.” Alice refused resolutely. She stretched out her hands and directly grasped the demon-sealing shackles that emitted a ghostly light. “If we’re going to leave, we’ll leave together. Since I was able to crawl out of here, I can take you with me.”

"Don't touch it!" Lynn immediately stopped them, his voice tinged with anxiety. "These shackles are made of Starry Mithril, and they have an extremely complex backlash array engraved inside. Forcibly breaking them will trigger..."

Lynn's words were abruptly cut off before he could finish speaking.

Because he saw that Alice's hands, which were gripping the shackles, had ignited that emerald green flame of life.

The seemingly indestructible Star Mithril, which even high-level mages were helpless against, began to melt silently the moment it came into contact with the emerald green flames, just like ice and snow being exposed to the scorching sun!

"This..." Lynn stared in shock as the dark gold metal gradually turned to ash.

“This is deprivation.” Alice looked at the rapidly melting shackles. “Everything has life, even inanimate objects have their own vitality and the laws that maintain their structure. I have only deprived this piece of metal of the vitality to maintain its own form.”

As the last wisp of Star Silver turned to ashes and fell, Lynn felt a lightness in his wrist, and the cold aura that had been suppressing his magic power instantly dissipated.

The long-lost magic surged through my body like a flood bursting its banks, and a sense of abundant power returned to my body.

Lynn took a deep breath and moved her wrists, which had been marked with red welts.

"How are you feeling?" Alice asked with concern.

“Excellent.” Lynn stood up and cracked his neck. “So good that I want to leave this place right now.”

Alice stood beside him, her emerald green eyes showing no fear, but rather a eager excitement: "Okay."

Lynn looked at her and couldn't help but laugh.

This girl, after awakening her powers, not only became bolder, but her personality also became so... wild.

Lynn walked to the edge of the cave and looked down into the bottomless vine tunnel. "But since we're already here, we can't just slink away like this. That woman, Enoria, has taken very good care of me these past few days. It would be a shame not to give her something in return for all the trouble I've suffered these past few days."

Alice keenly caught the unspoken meaning in Lynn's words. She frowned slightly, a hint of tension flashing in her eyes: "What did she do to you? Are you hurt?"

Lynn involuntarily recalled the image of Enoria straddling his lap, her face flushed and panting heavily. He coughed twice to cover his embarrassment: "Cough... It's nothing, just some mental torture. Let's not talk about it."

He turned to look at Alice and quickly changed the subject: "Since you can control the ley lines, can you sense the location of specific items in the palace?"

“As long as that item has magical fluctuations or a life force, I can sense it through the extension of the earth’s veins.” Alice closed her eyes, and a faint emerald green ripple spread outward rapidly from her center along the cracks in the ground, as if countless invisible tentacles had penetrated into every corner of the palace.

“Find an eye,” Lynn said in a deep voice. “A metal eyepatch or something similar that is sealed with terrifying power. It’s a royal trophy and should be kept in some extremely secret treasury.”

This was the core of the task Nightingale had given him. Now that he was free and the palace was in chaos because of Alice's escape, this was the perfect opportunity to fish in troubled waters. As long as he got that eye, he could complete his deal with Nightingale.

A moment later, Alice opened her eyes and pointed to a certain direction above her head: "Up there, about seven stories above us, there is an independent space that is surrounded by an extremely complex magic circle. The roots of the earth veins cannot penetrate it directly, but I can feel an extremely cold power inside that makes me very uncomfortable."

“This is it.” Lynn’s lips curled into a cold smile as he took out a black invisibility cloak from his storage space and draped it over his shoulders. “Let’s go and take a look at Her Majesty the Empress Dowager’s private treasury.”

Alice nodded, and her hands once again ignited with emerald flames. Vines on the ground grew rapidly, intertwining to form a stable, ascending staircase.

Just as the two were about to step onto the vine-covered stairs to leave the cell.

"boom!"

The heavy steel door of the prison cell suddenly made a deafening crash.

Immediately afterwards, the entire door, like a fragile biscuit, was blasted into pieces from the outside by an extremely terrifying force.

Countless fragments of refined steel, mixed with violent air currents, raged through the cell.

Lynn reacted quickly, pulling Alice behind him and simultaneously erecting a thick earth-based shield in front of him.

Fragments of steel struck the shield with a series of muffled thuds.

Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, a tall and imposing figure slowly entered the prison cell.

It was a man dressed in dark red heavy armor, carrying a giant battle axe that was almost as tall as him.

Blood was still dripping from the blade of the battle axe.

Beneath the man's helmet, a pair of scarlet eyes were visible.

"It seems that rats have entered Her Majesty the Empress Dowager's dungeon."

Chapter 192 Death

"The security measures in Her Majesty the Empress Dowager's dungeon are indeed not very good, but the dogs she keeps have a very keen sense of smell."

Lynn pulled Alice behind him and stared at the towering man at the door.

His voice carried its usual mockery, but his right hand, behind his back, was already rapidly gathering highly compressed wind elements.

"Pretty stubborn." The man in red armor chuckled, casually hoisting the blood-dripping giant axe onto his broad shoulder. His dark red armor exuded a strong stench of blood in the dim light. "My name is Balk. Royal Warden. Her Majesty the Empress Dowager said that as long as you're left alive, that's fine. As for whether you lose an arm or a leg, that's up to me."

Balk.

The moment Lynn heard the name, he cast an Appraisal spell without hesitation.

A pale blue screen flashed across his retina, and Lynn's pupils contracted sharply the moment he saw the data.

[Name: Balk]

[Level: 70]

[Class: Bloodthirsty Berserker]

Level 70.

Lynn cursed under her breath.

In this underground cell of less than 30 square meters, encountering a level 70 bloodthirsty berserker is like being locked in an iron barrel, with someone throwing in a meat grinder running at full speed.

The more confined the space, the more terrifying the destructive power the Berserker class can unleash, because you simply have no room to maneuver or kite!

Countless solutions flashed through Lynn's mind in an instant.

Temple guards cannot be summoned in this kind of place.

Even if he dared to forcefully summon it, the sheer size of the temple guards would instantly collapse this underground cell. Hundreds upon hundreds of tons of obsidian and steel would crush Alice to death, even if she could communicate with the ley lines.

Unable to use powerful attacks, they can only rely on regular magic and the Sirens' minor skills to tough it out.

"Why are you so quiet now? Weren't you quite talkative just now?" Balk twisted his thick neck, his scarlet eyes sweeping back and forth between Lynn and Alice, finally settling on Lynn. "Delicate-skinned sorcerer, how many pieces will your bones shatter into if I strike you with my axe?"

"You can give it a try."

Before Lynn could finish speaking, Balk had already moved.

There were no fancy opening moves, no magical effects. A pure burst of physical strength instantly blasted a deep crater in the obsidian ground beneath Balk's feet.

His massive body transformed into a dark red afterimage, instantly covering a distance of over ten meters and appearing in front of Lynn.

The giant axe came crashing down with a piercing shriek that tore through the air!

"retreat!"

Lynn growled and shoved Alice aside, simultaneously raising his hands sharply upwards.

"Shield of the Earth!"