(Time-Stilled World, Outside Castle Bravo Walls, Leo's POV)
Over the next 24 hours, Leo seriously contemplated whether attempting this mission was even worth risking his life over or not?
For although he wasn't the type of man to cower in the face of danger… This mission was still something else.
There came a point, he believed, where every warrior had to ask themselves whether the reward truly justified the risk, and whether there was any chance of success at all? Or whether they were being delusional and chasing rainbows that did not exist.
As for the first time in a very long while, Leo did not feel confident in the answer.
He'd watched, waited, and noted everything down in agonizing detail from his perch, and while there were moments where the castle seemed silent and passive, it was impossible for him to forget, how one Transcendent tier spectre that was much stronger than him, was completely erased from existence with a single attack from the silver armored guard.
Being a firm believer in the philosophy that no mission was worth dying for, Leo felt like this might be the one mission that was beyond his current scope of abilities.
But then… a sliver of possibility presented itself.
During his extended watch, Leo noticed something again and again, about how Grandmaster-tier beasts and spectres wandering through the walls were left unharmed by the silver armoured guard.
As even when the beasts went sniffing near the central building, walking up to its doors, or even when they howled or attacked each other in the courtyard, the silver-armored ghost inside the barracks never so much as stirred.
Not once.
As that gave him hope.
'So that's it…' Leo narrowed his eyes. 'The guard only moves against perceived threats. And anything below a certain threshold… isn't one.'
He concluded, as this turned out to be one of those situations where being too weak turned out to be an advantage.
Perhaps because he was weaker than a cockroach in front of the guard, it seemed like the guard would not be too keen to bother with him.
And if this really turned out to be the case, then perhaps, just perhaps, he still had a shot at completing this mission.
It wasn't much.
But it was enough to give him a slimmer of hope.
So, on the fourth day, just after the priest had gone back inside the central building after his morning round, Leo made his decision to enter Castle Bravo.
Not to rob it.
Not yet.
But to examine the only thing that could determine whether this entire mission was suicide or salvageable—the teleportation gate.
Because without it being functional, there was no escape plan.
And without a functional escape plan, there was no mission.
—-----------
Slipping down from the tree branch with silent grace, Leo made his way to the hole in the wall that the wolves had previously used.
His every movement was calculated, his breaths measured and shallow, his senses pulled so taut that even the imperceptible crunch of corrupted leaves beneath his boots sounded deafening.
As he stepped past the boundary—into the courtyard of Castle Bravo—he felt it immediately.
The pressure changed.
Not just in how suffocating it felt, but in nature, as though unseen eyes were now watching his every move.
The corrupted mana was denser here—heavier, slower, like it had been soaked in spiritual decay and left to rot for millennia.
Each step was a test of willpower.
'Yeah today might just be my last day alive,' Leo muttered inwardly, as he crouched low, one hand never leaving the hilt of his dagger while the other mentally traced the teleportation points of [Stormflash Traverse] to the nearest wall.
He etched it three times in his mind.
And again.
If anything even twitched, he would flash out of this place and not look back.
His nerves screamed, his heart pounded so loudly he worried it would echo through the courtyard, but somehow—nothing responded.
No priest.
No guard.
No flicker of awareness from the barracks or the central tower.
Step by agonizing step, Leo made his way across the cracked courtyard, ducking behind rubble, slipping between collapsed archways, staying low and close to walls until finally… finally, the ancient teleportation gate came into view.
It stood like a forgotten relic—half-buried in stone and soot, overgrown with sickly moss that pulsed faintly with mana, its circular frame cracked in several places but otherwise intact.
He crouched beside it, running his fingers along the etched symbols lining the outer rim, brushing off debris with careful, almost reverent motions.
'Let's see what we're working with…'
The runes were ancient and filled with olden time glyphs, some of which had fused into the stone itself due to mana corrosion.
But the gate's core matrix—the one that dictated coordinates and transit structure—was still recognizable.
Leo pulled out his notebook and scribbled quickly.
He traced the central glyph cluster.
Cross-referenced it against the teleportation theories he'd learned at the Conclave.
And after several long minutes, he exhaled sharply.
"It's not broken…" he whispered. "Just dormant….. with a new power core and me inputting the correct geological co-ordinates, this rusty thing can probably still take me out"
The mana intake crystal embedded near the base had long since cracked and dried up, no doubt the result of millenia of neglect, but the leyline veins still ran beneath the courtyard. They were faint, but present.
If he could replace the intake crystal…
If he could smoothen out the old mana veins and activate the old circuitry, fixing the old mana conductor.
And if he wasn't killed before doing it all…
'Then maybe… just maybe… I can activate it from inside the courtyard. Set the destination and use it to get back out at the perfect moment.'
He thought, as he scanned the courtyard again for signs of trouble.
His heart still beat loudly in his chest, as he did not feel at ease within the castle walls at all.
He felt like one wrong breath might be all it took for the castle to swallow him whole, however, once again, no threat approached.
'There might be some hope…. I need to think about this more carefully—' Leo concluded, as he escaped the castle in a blur and returned to his vantage point atop the tree to gather his thoughts.
The plan was undoubtedly extremely dangerous, and needed him to regularly leave his vantage point and repair the teleportation array over the coming days, however, it was possible….
He could theoretically fix it in time before the next plane came, and use it to escape if everything else aligned as well.
"What do I do? Do I go for this mission? Or do I leave with my life intact now?" Leo whispered, dragging a hand through his wet hair, as he felt a bead of sweat roll down his spine.
He knew that the dangers of attempting this mission were too high.
However, with the potential rewards being linked to him finally being able to reunite with his family, the thought of turning back after coming so far left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Fuck—" He cursed, clenching his jaw, as he looked at the castle and then towards the sky, as faces of his family members appeared between the gray clouds.
His body trembled, not just from fear, but from longing.
From the ache of being lost too long, as against his better judgement, he leaned towards making an emotional call.
"I didn't come this far to walk away," he muttered, the whisper barely louder than a rustle.
"I made a name off completing the impossible as 'TheBoss'… now let's see if I was ever worthy of it."