It was already late into the afternoon when everything was ready. However, their return date was much earlier than the one that was predicted beforehand.

The large infantry transports were the first to go through the gate before the soldiers riding on monster mounts went through the gate. The soldiers which were garrisoned in Central Light City was standing on either side of the two gates and saluting their comrades.

Matheus was going to be left behind this time to manage the city. Once the last of the soldiers pa.s.sed through the gates, Yuna quickly closed hers before getting back on the Wanderer who was waiting for both Lucia and Yuna right in front of the other gate.

After the two got on, the Wanderer quickly went through the gate and arrived back at the Silvaria military base on the far side of the valley. Cecil quickly jumped down from the Wanderer and before he could even stretch and breathe in the fresh air of his family's kingdom, a loud explosion suddenly a.s.saulted his ears.

He immediately turned to look at the source of the explosion and immediately saw that it originated from two places. One was from the city while the other was from his family's estate. He recognized the first explosion to be one of the spell arrays he had placed around his family's home.

Cecil's eyes turned cold once he deduced that someone was trying to infiltrate into his home.

"Lulu, take care of the one from the city," Cecil said before disappearing with Blink.

"Wait, Cel—Ahhh, Quinn!!"

"Yes, Lady Lucia?" Quinn said from the side.

"Go after Cecil and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid!"

"...Yes Madam, but I don't think I can make any promises..."

"Just do it! Go already!"

"Yes, Madam," Quinn replied before chasing after Cecil.

"It's the branch families...isn't it?" Fatima said.

"Most likely... Cel and I had set up a large defensive magic formation around the family estate to protect mother and Serilla, but I didn't think they'd actually take action right when we get back home..."

"It's just a coincidence, and what's this about a magic formation?"

"Oh? Cel didn't tell you, big sis?"

"..."

Seeing the mildly annoyed look on her face, Lucia immediately answered.

"Well, before we left. Cel was very worried about Seri's safety so he set up a large defensive magic system composed of numerous spell arrays and magic formations—"

"Okay, so basically mother and everyone from the main family should be safe and secure, right?" Fatima cut off.

"Yes!"

"Alright, we'll let Cecil take care of things on mother's side. We go and deal with the situation in the city! Rowan, gather some men and let's go!" Fatima called out. She turned back to Lucia and asked once more, "Can you open up another Misty Gate for us?"

"Alright, where do you want me to open it?"

"Anywhere in the city's central district, the explosion looks like it took place somewhere near Luca's workplace!"

*****

On Cecil's side, he had already arrived in the air above the family's estate and immediately noticed the foreign looking people who were obviously not from his kingdom trying to approach the estate but were constantly hindered by the magic defense system's spell arrays.

The first one that triggered earlier had invoked Lucia's Explosion Spell while a few more triggered Mid ranked magic spells and a few of Lucia's originals.

Cecil sneered at how these ants were trying so hard to get into his family's home. They were obviously carrying ill intentions. He stretched out his hand and began channeling an intense amount of mana into his palm.

Quinn had arrived in the estate's compounds and quickly found Serilla, Anastasia, and a few members of the main family branch heading over to the source of the incessant explosions.

"Madam Matriarch, Lady Serilla!" He called out.

"Huh? Quinn? What're you dong here?!" Serilla cried out in surprise when she saw the butler.

"Milady, we were able to quickly end things on the warfront so we decided to quickly head back. We didn't expect something like this to happen right when we got back however..."

"If you're here...then doesn't that mean—"

"Master is...up there!" Quinn pointed towards the sky when he sensed the large amount of mana gathering together.

Serilla immediately looked up and let out a shocked cry.

"O-Oh no..."

"W-what's little Cecil doing?" Anastasia asked. All she saw was his son grasping a large golden orb in his hand.

"DARLING!"

Cecil didn't hear his wife's cry and coldly eyed the ants below him.

"Disappear..."

He sent a large concentration of mana volleys at the humans below him. Cecil had already sensed that these people weren't earthlings when he probed their bodies with his Mana Sense. Another big giveaway was the fact that they were using elemental combat skills and magic spells, something that earthlings had no ability to do.

The large volley of mana bolts immediately rained h.e.l.l on the people down below. They tried defending themselves using barrier magic but after being pelted with a large amount of mana bolts, the barriers were easily broken through.

Cecil could hear the cries of pain and agony originating from these humans after they were struck by his attack.

His family members from within the compounds looked up in the sky when they saw the rain of golden light bombarding the area outside of their estate.

"I-is that Cecil?"

"It's the Young Master!"

Cecil apathetically looked down at the destruction he caused. There were some people who had escaped from death before were too severely injured to even move. If no treatment was administered, these people would no doubt die sooner or later.

He spread his senses as far as he could and noticed that there were more non-earthlings hiding around the valley. He quickly locked onto them and once more raised his hand into the air and gathered another large amount of mana.

At Luca's office, he and a few members of the Goldenia family were currently in a meeting. The situation had developed to the point where Elder Kuran had directly introduced the Goldenia family to Luca.

Anastasia had already gotten wind of Kuran's activities and the fact that the Goldenia family was already inside their capital city. She ordered Luca to agree to a meeting and listen to what they had to say before reporting back to her.

However, during the meeting, the Faustus Archduchy's people had suddenly attacked. He and everyone who was present in the meeting were trapped inside the conference room. The Goldenia had taken this opportunity to try earn a favor from the Silvarias by saving Luca from this predicament.

For some reason, the Goldenias were able to use elemental magic spells through voice invocation just like the natives of Alterna.

Katya, Emilie, and the other youngsters of Goldenia were currently exchanging fire with the Faustus forces that had infiltrated the city. Luca took this detail into account since his family and everyone in the city couldn't use elemental spells.

He wondered just how the Goldenias had pulled it off, but right now, he was more worried about how his mother was doing. Even though Luca had already gotten some rea.s.surance from Cecil, he still couldn't help but worry.

"Dammit, just how did these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds even get into the city? We don't allow outsiders to even enter the valley!"

Luca frowned and began thinking. 'There must be a traitor in the family. Kuran was able to smuggle the Goldenias inside the valley and the city so he must be behind these people as well!'

"All I need to do is find proof of his crimes then we can do away with him! He's crossed the line now!"

'And these Goldenias... I don't trust them one bit at all. Is it really just a coincidence that an attack just so conveniently happened on the day of our meeting and now they're trying to 'save' me?'

The stalemate continued on for a while until another even louder explosion occurred. Judging by the sound, it occurred somewhere outside the city and the only place Luca could expect that it came from was his family's estate.

"d.a.m.n! If only Gabriel or Matty was here!" Luca cursed.

It was then that large golden orbs of light penetrated through the ceiling and walls of the building and struck the enemy who were locking down Luca and the others.

Luca was able to recognize from who that golden orb of light came from and he c.o.c.ked his head in confusion.

"Isn't that...Cecil's skill? Is he already back?"

The others in the room were still confused at what had just happened but Luca immediately rushed out of the conference room. His men called out to him in worry but Luca already knew that he didn't need to be worried about anything.

His little brother had already taken care of the hostiles. His men and the Goldenia's quickly followed after him. Luca started ordering his men to quickly search for survivors and get everyone out of the building.

Augustus also started ordering his people to look for survivors as well before following after Luca. On the way out of the building, they encountered many foreign looking people who Luca a.s.sumed to be their attackers. Every single one of them had a hole blasted through their bodies and all of them were dead or barely on their last breath of life.

Just before they could exit the building and take a look at the situation outside, Luca ran into Lucia, Fatima, and Angelia.

"Ima!"

"Luca, are you okay?!"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Since you're all here, that means Cecil is back as well, right?"

"Yeah, he went straight towards the family's compound when an explosion occurred just outside of it."

"I knew it. Are there anyone injured?"

"We haven't received any news on Cecil's end, but I a.s.sume nothing's wrong. Since Lucia said that the explosion originated from one of the spell arrays guarding the estate. How about you? Are there any casualties on your end?" Fatima asked.

"We're still tallying and taking into account our losses. For now, my men are still conducting a SAR inside the building, hopefully not too many were hurt..."

"Ambulances are already on their way here but we'll have our little healer perform first aid on the people who are severely injured."

Angelia immediately stepped up and said, "Leave it to me!"

Luca nodded and immediately said, "We should quickly head over to the residence and—"

Before Luca could speak any further, he was interrupted by a deafening blast of energy that soared through the air above them.

Upon seeing the golden beam of energy, Lucia immediately widened her eyes in shock.

"CEL!"

The golden wave of energy immediately struck the residential area where the Silvaria's branch families resided in.