Mage Manual
Chapter 492 - 404: In this lifetime, has your boss ever risked their life for you?

Chapter 492: Chapter 404: In this lifetime, has your boss ever risked their life for you?

"I had no idea overtime included a battle round."

At that moment, when dozens of mages suddenly appeared from cracks in the ground in the distance, Ash and Harvey, who were working overtime, dove into the nearby forest and ran for their lives. Ash donned a twisted face mask to avoid reconnaissance, and Harvey’s skin cracked rapidly like a corpse—making most conventional reconnaissance miracles ineffective for them.

"So you’re saying, if we get caught, the contract is terminated just like Hanna said?"

"Yeah, the contract requires Belladett to protect us, and if we get caught, he can’t fulfill that, so no ransom has to be paid."

"Damn." Harvey was a bit annoyed, "I should have spent all 950 shell points earlier..."

"If we can’t gather the ransom in one day, we remain Yvalin’s property that whole day, she’d be happy to have us work for free forever." Ash said, "Malicious redemption works like this, let’s experience it now, to be prepared when we sever ties with Hanna next time."

"Ah?" Harvey was a bit surprised, "I thought you were getting quite close to Hanna recently, I even thought I would have to prepare a coffin for you when it comes time for revenge."

"She wouldn’t yield on the Divine Lord’s wishes even if we are close." Thinking of this gave Ash a headache too, "Liss is the same..."

"So why do you try to maintain good relations with them?" Harvey asked, "In the end, it always comes down to a bloodbath for a finale... every bit of affection you feel now adds to the pain in your heart later."

Ash paused, staring blankly at the black-skinned necromancer: "Is that why you..."

"That’s right, as long as you only have feelings for corpses like me, you won’t face internal conflicts." Harvey said, "Come on, join me as a minion of Hagen Dazs!"

"No thanks, I still prefer the warmth."

Boom!

Suddenly, the shadows of the surrounding trees twisted into terrifying shapes, and both men unleashed their miracles to rush through—Ash’s charge, Harvey’s Mist Spirit—barely avoiding the strangling shadows.

However, as the entire forest area was cleared, their figures were completely exposed under the night sky!

"They’re here!"

The Shadow Faction... mages from the Mercury family!

"Hey, didn’t they say there would be only Red Hats...?" Ash looked back, "I see a lot of people not wearing hats... and Mercury isn’t part of Mongfera’s family either!"

"Hanna guessed wrong." Harvey said coldly, "Yvalin has no intention of showing mercy."

Days ago, Hanna had analyzed Yvalin’s next move with them. She had surmised that once they gathered the ransom and were about to leave Mongfera, Yvalin who couldn’t keep them would try to sever ties.

Protecting Ash and Harvey would mean offending most of the Gospel faction, making them a ’global enemy trigger’. If they could become her subordinates, so be it, but if not, she’d need to eliminate the negative impact—like, ’actively’ handing them over.

While according to the contract, Yvalin must not reveal secrets on her own, Belladett had too many ways around that. The most likely situation was that the Mongfera Red Hats would come chasing them, thus voiding the contract, freeing Yvalin from their protection, and allowing them to escape smoothly, ending like a brief marriage apart from Ash and his team working unpaid.

At that time, Liss had asked, "What if Yvalin goes for annihilation," but Hanna was very sure as she shook her head.

"Though Yvalin is a bit scheming, she’s not evil by nature. We’re on good terms, she wouldn’t be so cruel."

"Has Hanna underestimated Yvalin’s cunning or overestimated her own charm?"

"Watch out!"

Two legs couldn’t possibly outrun flying, as several mages quickly caught up. Just as Ash was about to summon the Emotion Sword to counterattack, a sudden explosion sounded nearby, and half the night sky was stained red!

Hell was unleashed!

The magma in the nearby Hell Zone erupted consecutively, spewing lava hundreds of meters high, like a meteor fire rain onto the flying mages. Although most mages dodged with their superb flying skills, several got drenched in a hot bath!

"Wow." Ash’s eyes brightened, "Let’s run along the edge of the specialized zone!"

"Ash."

The familiar voice entered his ears unhindered, causing Ash to shudder and turn back to see two Red Hat Elves mature ad graceful or delicate and quiet flying through the night sky.

"Qinna, Nona?" Ash exclaimed in shock, "What are you two doing here?"

"Of course, we are here to catch you and take you back," Qinna laughed, "Aren’t you our ’Master’ in the ’Family List’? Why are you running away?"

Hearing that, Ash wished the Gods of Four Pillars had given him six more legs so that he could run faster than Harvey. Qinna and Nona simultaneously drew their hand cannons, aiming at Ash—

Mist.

The mist, imitating the ’Sea of Knowledge Zone’ landscape Belladett replicated, suddenly surged over and enveloped the flying mages. The chasers did not hesitate; unable to aim from afar, they dove down to capture their target directly.

However, as Qinna dove, she ended up above the dense mist that nearly submerged most of the mansion.

"Spatial inversion lock?" Qinna laughed and cried at once, "Playing with space in front of a Holy Sanctuary Mage?"

This time, she activated Holy Sanctuary and dove down quickly, penetrating the mist to reach the ground and saw Ash and another person running into the golden light zone. Apart from her, the other four Holy Sanctuary Mages were also clear of the mist.

The chasers exchanged glances, knowing it was time to divide the spoils.

The five Holy Sanctuary Mages used their movement miracles and reached behind the duo in a breath’s time, employing various constraints to capture their prey—

Snap!

Ash disappeared with a snap, and Harvey collapsed into a pile of mush.

Substitute and corpse mud!

At the same time, the Sanctuary Mages realized they were near another scenic spot—Belladett’s replicated ’Flowing Gold River Zone’!

As the golden droplets lifted, the Sanctuary Mages found their magic power becoming incredibly heavy, their vast magic power turning into a burden preventing them from moving!

"Angel Inheritance, Belladett..." Apart from ’Crying Red Hat’ Cleos, a chill flashed through the eyes of the other four family mages, "Interesting..."

...

...

Elsewhere, Ash and Harvey successfully met up with the others.

Liss dashed and threw herself into Ash’s arms like an octopus;

Banjee drew a coffin from his suitcase, and Harvey clung to it like an octopus.

After calming Liss down, Ash asked, "How do we leave now?"

"We return the way they came, there must be a car stopped down there," Hanna said with a grim expression, "Even though Yvalin is holding them off for now, we don’t have much time—"

"You don’t have time left."

Along with the words, the sound of gun bullets whistling also rang out.

Three muffled groans, and Banjee, Harvey, Ash instantly fell, only Ash being unharmed while he held Liss and Hanna, whom he and Banjee protected.

"Liss, check for injuries!" Hanna instantly tore off her earrings transforming them into a submachine gun and fired, but the opposition used just one bullet to blow up her windscreen, sending all her bullets flying!

By now, the enemy had closed in, suddenly a whistling sound, and high heels swept across like a razor, Purple Moth instinctively dodged, raised her submachine gun to retaliate!

Dodge, elbow strike, positioning Hanna against a nearby tree with the gun muzzle aimed at her waist!

"Come quietly with me and I swear you won’t die," Qinna said calmly, "I’ll even help you get married."

"No way!"