The Adventures of Hulim Chapter 468 The Domain of Isolation

"Oh right, Irus—you lot look so dejected trudging back here. Did you run into so kind of trouble?"

"Yeah. A pretty tricky one, to be exact."

Irus told Laki everything that had happened earlier.

"What? That’s all it is?"

After hearing their story, Laki actually let out a laugh.

"Looks like I arrived just in the nick of ti then!"

Everyone in the room froze, then turned their eyes to the white cat-folk S-Rank Champion—who spoke with the air of an elder despite her youthful appearance.

"You have a solution, Laki?"

"Of course I do."

Laki nodded, then pulled sothing out from her pocket.

It was a gray sphere.

"What’s this......?"

Irus stared at the sphere in confusion.

"Just watch and see——"

Laki tossed the sphere casually into the air.

The sphere hovered in mid-air, then began spinning rapidly.

"I found this by chance in an ancient Mogalian ruin."

HUM!

The floating sphere suddenly shattered into countless tiny fragnts that scattered outward in all directions.

"It’s called the Domain of Isolation. Its function is simple—it creates a space within a certain radius that blocks all mana flow."

SWISH SWISH SWISH......

The fragnts reconfigured themselves in the air, forming a spherical barrier that enclosed the entire command hall.

"This isolation only affects mana. People can enter and exit freely—but precisely because of that, the barrier’s isolating effect is absolute."

With that said, Laki pulled out two small communication magical artifacts.

"Who wants to give this a test run?"

"I’ll do it."

Aralond volunteered himself.

"Hero~. Alright, first try contacting the other artifact from inside here." Laki handed him one of the artifacts.

Aralond took it and, following Laki’s instructions, activated it quickly.

As soon as his artifact lit up, the one in Laki’s hand responded in kind.

"Good. Now go outside and try again."

Aralond took the artifact and stepped out of the command hall.

The mont he crossed the boundary of the domain,

the artifact in Laki’s hand dimd instantly, its glow fading away completely.

"Hero! Can you still establish contact now?"

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Aralond tried multiple tis from outside, but received no response whatsoever. He sighed and called out,

"No. There’s absolutely no feedback."

"Perfect. You can stop the test now."

SWISH SWISH SWISH......

The fragnts floating around the hall converged once more, reforming into the original sphere and dropping back into Laki’s hand.

The instant the domain dissipated, the artifact in her hand lit up again.

"Huh? It’s working again." Aralond looked at the artifact in his hand in amazent.

He then returned the artifact to Laki and took his seat.

"I think you all get the idea now."

Laki said, holding the sphere in her palm.

"The enemy’s thod of threatening us with that enslavent magical artifact relies entirely on mana field transmission."

"As long as we use the Domain of Isolation to seal the Hero inside, the collar on her neck will beco nothing more than a useless trinket. Then we can take our ti removing it safely."

"......That’s such an amazing magical artifact! The ancients were incredible—they could create sothing like this!"

Prarlulu exclaid, her eyes shining with wonder.

"Of course they were, little Hero~." Laki grinned. "Himril was the greatest civilization this world has ever seen. Creating sothing like this was child’s play for them. In fact, that enslavent collar you’re all so worried about was just a common household item back in those days."

"That’s right. Our era still has a long way to go. Speaking of which...... Little Laki, I’m impressed you managed to get your hands on this. From what I know, even in ancient Mogalia, this was top-secret technology. You’d never find sothing this advanced in an ordinary ruin."

"Hahaha! Just got lucky, that’s all. And...... stop calling little Laki!" Laki shot Irus an annoyed glare.

"I may look young, but I’m a senior with plenty of years under my belt!"

"Hehe." Irus smiled mischievously. "No matter how senior you are, you’ll always be little Laki to !"

"You really are......"

"Alright, alright, I’m done teasing you."

Irus sobered up, her expression turning serious.

"Now that we have a way to counter their threat, we need to figure out our next move. There’s one crucial question we need to answer——"

"How do we lure the Bow Hero Hena out into the open?"

Everyone fell into deep thought.

Aralond mused aloud,

"......We can’t be the ones to make the first move. No matter what we do, the enemy will be suspicious of our motives. It might even backfire, making them even more reluctant to let the Hero show her face."

"So this task needs to be handled by a third party. A party that has no obvious connection to us on the surface, and is powerful enough to force the enemy to deploy the Hero to deal with them. Only then will we have our chance."

"Hero~. Your idea is too straightforward."

Laki shook her head, cutting him off.

"The only forces with no obvious ties to us are the monsters and the demons hiding sowhere out there. But we can’t control either of those."

"You’re right. There’s no way we can make that happen."

Aralond conceded with a sigh.

"Actually......"

Irus spoke up suddenly.

"There is a way."

"Huh? Are you serious, Irus?"

Laki looked at her in surprise.

"Can you control the monsters now?"

"Of course not."

Irus said, then turned her gaze toward Hulim Heyerar.

In an instant, every eye in the command hall followed her line of sight, locking onto Hulim.

Hulim—who had been idly tugging on Miko’s tail—froze mid-action. She slowly lifted her head to look at everyone.

"?"

A huge question mark floated above her head.

"......"

"......"

"Hulim——"

"It’s impossible!"

"Where is Ignir?"

"I can’t do that!"

"? Huh...... Wait, what?"

"Ignir???!!!"

......

Late at night.

Beneath a starry sky in the wilderness,

the fleeing remnants of Gulos’s faction finally stopped to set up camp.

The dwarven forces, tailing them at a distance, also pitched their tents—but their watchful eyes never wavered for a mont.

Inside the enemy camp, Inasil paced back and forth, his face twisted with frustration.

Suddenly, the tent flap was pulled open.

Fagu stepped inside.

"Lord Inasil......"

"Well? Did it work?" Inasil hurried over, his voice urgent.

"Still no luck......" Fagu shook his head, dejected. "They’re watching us too closely. Every scout and monster we sent out was killed. They didn’t even bother to take any prisoners for interrogation."

Inasil’s face turned livid with rage. He kicked the nearby table hard.

CRASH!

The table splintered into pieces, and shards of wood flew across the tent—so even hitting Hena, who was huddled in the corner. But she didn’t react at all, as if she hadn’t felt a thing.

"Dammit! Those damned dwarves! How dare they go this far! I’ll——"

"Shall we force a breakthrough, my lord?"

"I......"

Inasil’s words caught in his throat, and he fell silent.

Finally, he let out a defeated sigh. "What’s the point? It’ll just end like last ti. Besides, if we slip up and let them find out I’m the one controlling the collar, what if they launch a surprise attack on ?"

"This...... I’m deeply sorry, my lord. I was being foolish."

"Enough with the useless apologies."

Inasil waved a hand impatiently, then collapsed onto his seat.

"Tell —how far are we from our destination?"

"We’re not far now, my lord. We should reach it within two days."

"Two days......" Inasil muttered, then gritted his teeth. "Fine! Two days it is!"

"Once we make it through this, I’ll bury every last one of those dwarves——!!!"