When Hadrian left that dull white space, he found himself in three different locations.

The brute vessel was in immense pain, having been teleported into the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Hadrian cut off his connection to the vessel.

He could have channeled elemental essence and made the earth move for him, but he did not have any other vessels that he could substitute to heal the vessel. The pain lingered even after the cut connection.

The main Hadrian and Alia vessels were in better, but still compromising situations.

On the dais, the sun shone on Hadrian's face, the wind making his black strands of hair restless.

Beneath him were dozens of mages in assembly of the ceremony. The Baron who'd been speaking fell silent as he observed Hadrian who'd just flickered some distance to his left out of nowhere.

Hadrian didn't pay them any mind, his eyes were on the metal box in his left hand.

It sent a pulse through Hadrian and he could already feel a buzz in his mind building up.

In his vision, the box and his hand zoomed, while the ground beneath him began to stretch.

Hadrian's pupils shrunk.

…

Alia found herself falling from a great height, the wind battering her face and hair as the world spun around her chaotically.

In between those spins, her heart tightened. She saw a figure in billowing black robes falling with her.

…

Seeing his vision being distorted by the box, Hadrian gave a glance to where the Baron and others were to his right and back, tossing it in their direction.

The Baron frowned, lifted his right hand, and brought it down.

A crushing force, like a mountain, descended on Baruch and the mystical box bringing both of them down.

Hadrian's face twisted in a painful grimace as blood came out of his nose.

Feeling the immense pressure on him, he could only channel the force path essence and augment his body.

If the intent had been to kill him, Hadrian imagined he would have been squashed like a bug in an instant.

However, he wasn't the only one being crushed, and he wasn't the only one who did not appreciate it.

In an instant, his distorted perception grew worse as the mystical box unleashed its intent.

Within two hundred metres, even the mages below the dais were affected.

For a moment, the Baron's pressure on Haldon faltered.

The ones on the dais, and closer to the box, were affected worse. The Baron was still a rank four mage and he fared better than the others, but he still struggled.

With a sigh, he focused on the box and lifted his pressure off the boy.

Bagdona came to his assistance, and together, they suppressed the rank five mystical artifact.

Feeling the pressure lift off of him and the disorientation effect subside, Hadrian took the moment as his opportunity.

He swapped the space path cores with the elemental path cores, and with sharp precise hand movements, he cut a piece of the rock off of the dais. It was about four metres long and half a metre thick.

After doing this, he swapped the cores again and used the space path cores to "carry" the rock slab.

Next, he aimed to get off of the dais and away from Bagdona and the Baron.

However, after taking only two staggering steps, his space path intuition flared.

Arching back, a blade wisped past him, missing his neck by inches.

The figure that had attacked him twisted and swung another blade aimed for Hadrian's clavicle.

It missed once more due to Hadrian's reaction, but managed to slice Hadrian down his right chest and stomach.

With a jump step back, Hadrian came to a stop. His eyes narrowed on the figure.

Haldon faced him back with a sinister grin.

"You wanted my head?"

…

Falling in the air, the pale skinned woman and her curtain-like hair fixed her gaze on the girl that was falling with her, some metres above her and to her right.

With a mental curse, she made the decision to not focus on her.

One of the advantages of being a sorcerer was that magic, irrespective of path, was accessible to you as long as you could speak the language of the world and knew the spells.

However, they were limited in the amount of times they could use it, and they also had a casting time that put them at a disadvantage compared to mages.

They were approaching the ground fast, and she judged it would be better to focus on saving herself.

Without her most powerful mystical artifacts, the box and the rusted chain that was made up of the previous Baron's cores, even if she had powerful spells, it would still be a risky gamble in their current situation.

When Alia got the chance to swap the space path cores, she stabilized herself.

The woman falling some metres below her to the right seemed to have chosen not to attack.

Alia pulled her gaze from the woman and her eyes narrowed on the fast approaching ground.

Snapping her fingers, a four metre rock slab appeared above her.

…

Seeing Haldon in front of him, Hadrian cursed.

He was at a great disadvantage, and the rank two sword seemed to have also been teleported to a random location.

So, he had no weapon and Haldon outranked him. Of course, he could use the rank two elemental path cores, but the Alia vessel needed them for what he was about to try.

He glanced over his shoulder, and called over the essence of the box.

He didn't imagine he would be able to grasp it. Back then, when he'd tried with the sword, he'd failed.

However, this box was displaying a certain level of awareness and targeted malice.

When he first went to Bagdona's office and tried calling Bagdona's rank three essence, he'd also failed, but Bagdona had still reacted.

Haldon, a rank two mage, and the other rank one mages reacted only after he'd actually grasped their essence.

Though it had only been one encounter, for now, he made the conclusion that rank three and above could sense his call even before he grasped their essence.

The box was rank five. If he didn't cut his call like he had done with Bagdona, he hoped it would stimulate it once more, and turn the situation back to chaotic.

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