SLASH!
Jason suddenly appeared amongst the Machina with the [Death’s Mirage] pulled back, and a single slash from him was enough to take off the heads of nearly every single Machina in that circle! All the Machina died immediately, but Jason made sure to keep one of them alive, and he reached out and grabbed that one by the shirt!
"What did you do?"
Jason seethed in the Machina’s face angrily as he glared with imposing red eyes, but Jason was shocked when he saw that the Machina wasn’t even looking at him! The Machina’s eyes were glazed over, like it was under some sort of trance, and the Machina simply laughed with a hollow, empty tone before he spoke.
"May your world suffer the pain of a thousand extinctions."
The Machina’s mana suddenly began to swell, and before Jason could do anything, the body exploded in a burst of mana and metal! Jason put his hand up to his face as he was pushed back from the explosion, and Jason looked around and saw that all the other Machina he had killed had also gone through the same fate! They all blew up, and the mana in their bodies began to float up into the Ritual circle in the sky! The Machina had sacrificed themselves to activate the ritual!
Jason grit his teeth in anger as he put his hand out and resurrected the body of one of the Machina! Jason tried to search their memories to see whether he could understand what the Ritual Circle was meant for, but just like all the others, Jason realised that the Machina’s memories were fractured! The Machina only had memories up to a certain point, but they had no memories of how they had come to this world or why they were here in the first place!
"Azrael! Vana!"
Jason called out to his two smartest subordinates, and they both appeared from Jason’s Alternate Dimension immediately! Neither of them needed to be told what their king desired, and once they appeared, both Azrael and Vana looked up at the Ritual Circle with critical eyes as they began to analyse it! Jason also began to try to figure out what the circle was about! Even though this was a Ritual instead of a rune, the magic circle that was used in making it had a few similarities to the Aruna language! Jason could see a few marks that he had read during his studies, and he heard Azrael speak up from the side!
’My King, I believe this is a mana siphoning circle.’
Jason grunted as he began to search for what the Key could be. Vana spoke up from the other side while pointing at a certain region of the circle.
’It’s not just a mana-siphoning circle. There are unification properties within it. I think the Machina were trying to create a link between your world and another one out there.’
’A summoning circle?’
Jason’s eyes immediately narrowed as this thought crossed his mind! If the Machina were creating a link between two worlds, the only reason Jason could think of for something like that was if they were trying to summon something! Jason didn’t really know if that was the case or not, but Jason decided he couldn’t allow something like that to happen! Jason had seen the true demons and monsters that existed out there in the Primordial Expanse, and Jason didn’t want to imagine what would happen to Earth if a monster like Arcticus was summoned to this world! Jason spoke to Azrael and asked him how they could shatter the Ritual Circle, and Azrael actually grimaced at that!
’I’m sorry, my king, but such a thing is not possible.’
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Jason turned to Azrael angrily, and Azrael let out a defeated sigh. Azrael had done many rituals during his time in the Magic Academy back when he was trying to become the ideal Necromancer, so Azrael understood rituals better than most people! A ritual wasn’t like a rune that you could break at any moment! Unlike a rune that had a rune key and a foundation that could be decoded and torn apart, a Ritual didn’t have anything like that! A ritual was a manifestation of the desire of the ritualists, and bringing a ritual to life only requires the chant, the sacrifice, and the Ritual Element.
’If we had interfered with any of these three things, then maybe we could have broken the ritual, but right now, it is impossible to break it. The chant was already finished before you arrived, and the sacrifice must’ve been the mana of the Machina that died here. As for the Ritual Element, the Machina tied the ritual to one of the Mana Zones within your world. Doing something like that basically ensured that the world itself would see the ritual through no matter what. I’m sorry, my king, but at this stage, the only things we can do is allow the ritual to mature and try to deal with whatever appears on the other side.’
Jason cursed as he heard all this from Azrael, and Jason looked up at the Ritual Circle angrily. So Azrael was trying to tell him that he couldn’t just break through the Ritual Circle right now?
"What if I just throw some mana at it to break through? Or maybe a weapon?"
’That wouldn’t be possible. The Ritual Circle isn’t a physical manifestation. It was created using mana, so even if you threw a weapon or mana at it, the weapon would simply pass through the circle without causing any harm.’
Jason narrowed his eyes at this explanation, and the only reason Jason believed Azrael at this moment was because Jason knew Azrael would never lie to him. Jason turned to look around him at all the empty desert land. From what Jason could feel, the next town over was about two hundred miles away, and it was filled with thousands of people! If there was a fight here, then Jason knew it might not even reach that area, but Jason wasn’t willing to take that risk. Jason spoke to all the Pawns in his Legion!
’Evacuate everyone in that town. Take them to the Monarch Guild branch in Cairo and create a blockade to prevent any superhumans from coming towards this area. If anyone tries to stop you, you’re allowed to put them down. Just don’t kill anyone.’
The subordinates immediately flashed out from the Alternate Dimension and moved through the shadows as they made their way towards the town! Jason knew that the Egyptian capital had enough space to accommodate all the people, so he wasn’t worried about them, but Jason also knew that the superhumans would try to come here once they felt the mana surging through the air! It was impossible for them to ignore it, so it was better for his subordinates to create a blockage to prevent anyone from charging towards their own death!
Jason looked up at the Ritual Circle again, and he put his hand out and summoned the [Spear of Heaven] back to him. The Spear flew into his hand, and Jason immediately pulled back and threw it towards the Ritual Circle! And just like Azrael said, the spear simply flew past the circle without causing any damage, and the Ritual continued!
’Babe, is everything alright? I can’t sense you anywhere around here.’
Gina’s voice suddenly came through their mental link, and Jason told Gina that he wasn’t on the American Continent anymore.
’I’m in Egypt. There’s a problem over here.’
On the other side of the call, Gina was shocked by what Jason said, and Gina wondered what could have possibly dragged Jason all the way to Africa! Gina asked Jason what happened, and Jason thought for a few seconds before he gave Gina a simple explanation about what was going on.