Chapter 257: Entering the City

A few days later, the Arkaim Basin.

On a cliff, Azir pulled up his hood and pointed toward a city in the distance that looked like a small hill. "That is the Holy City of Arkaim. It is about ten kilometers from here. This land has been cast with powerful magic, and all flying objects are unusable. You must walk the rest of the way."

Murphy took a distant look at the massive city standing on the plains and couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion. Having been in this world for so long, he had finally seen a city with a hint of magic.

"With so much land around, why did everyone choose to hollow out the mountain to build the city?" a wizard beside Murphy asked.

To keep up the act, Murphy was accompanied by two Aurors from the British Ministry of Magic, assigned by Rasim to follow Murphy on a "secret official mission."

After all, proposing to the Empress of the Soviet Union was essentially an international affair. According to Azir, the other suitors were also followed by one or two civil servants from their respective countries' Ministries of Magic.

Therefore, they could basically be considered a small diplomatic delegation.

"This city gathers almost all the wizards of the Soviet Union. To protect the city's safety, countless great wizards set up numerous protective spells during its initial construction, the most powerful of which is the Wall of Saint Peter surrounding the city."

"It is a spherical barrier, solid as a rock and indestructible. To make it function at its best, people chose to live within the walls, and the city naturally became what it is today."

"Alright, let us part ways here. I need to return to the city first to make some preparations."

After Azir left, Murphy summoned an off-road vehicle from his trunk and spent twenty minutes arriving at the foot of the massive city.

Compared to the magnificent city walls and the equally astonishing barrier, the gates of Arkaim appeared much smaller.

It was only about ten meters wide. The high-hanging gate and the ancient stone road made Murphy think for a split second that he had returned to Hogwarts.

This city must be quite ancient.

They stopped the car to undergo entry inspection. Before them was a gorgeous carriage procession. Murphy heard them speaking what seemed to be French. A young man wearing a white wig stepped down from the carriage, exchanged a few words with the two soldiers at the gate, and produced something resembling an invitation. The latter then let them in, seemingly very casually.

When it was Murphy's turn, he took out the invitation from the letter the Empress had given him. The two soldiers opened it and took a look, and one of them said in broken English, "You are from England?"

"Correct."

The soldier returned the invitation to him. "Go to the customs office on the side to register."

Murphy frowned. "Why didn't that group before need to?"

"They have many people; they will register at the customs hall."

"Fine, where is the customs office?"

The soldier pointed in a direction for them. "Go right, keep walking."

However, after walking into the road on the right, they discovered it was a small path. On both sides, there appeared to be residential houses, and they were quite dilapidated, seemingly abandoned.

"Something isn't right," an Auror said.

Murphy was just about to release his crows to scout the situation when suddenly, several spells were fired from a nearby house.

Murphy reacted quickly and immediately blocked them with a Shield Charm, but several spells were fired almost simultaneously from an old house on the other side. One Auror couldn't react in time and was hit on the spot, falling to the ground with a thud, life or death unknown.

Seeing that the other Auror was about to be hit, Murphy raised his wand, and the stone slabs on the ground instantly turned into a wall, blocking behind the other person and intercepting the attack for him.

Then he flicked his wand, and another stone slab floated up, spinning at high speed; its four corners elongated and thinned, revealing a metallic luster until they became like blades.

The next instant, it flew out like a four-leaf propeller, suddenly smashing into the house, then drilling out from the other side. Two of the four machete-like blades broke, but the rotation speed didn't decrease; instead, under the reinforcement of Murphy's magic, it became even faster, smashing into another house behind him without stopping.

"No, it's going to collapse!" he heard someone shout in Russian.

Both houses had their support pillars destroyed by Murphy's "propeller" and were teetering.

Suddenly, several wizards appeared instantly before Murphy. There were six of them, two of whom were very young, wearing gorgeous purple robes with gold trim. The other wizards were older and looked very capable.

Murphy didn't wait for their Apparition to finish before pouncing on them. He waved his wand, slashing across the eyes of one of them, then grabbed a wizard's neck with his left hand and squeezed hard, crushing his throat.

Someone reacted quickly, attempting to fire a spell at him. Murphy instantly turned into lightning and flashed behind them, smashing a fist into the back of their neck, then flashed again in front of another wizard, plunging his wand into their eyes.

In just two or three seconds, the two young wizards had just recovered from the dizziness of being Apparated, only to find their companions either wailing on the ground or already unconscious.

They were terrified, but before that fear could turn into a thought of escape, Murphy flashed in front of them, grabbed both their necks with one hand each, and lifted them up.

"Who are you?"

"This attire, let me guess, Frederick?"

The two young wizards were still struggling desperately. They couldn't understand Murphy's question, but the next instant, Murphy used Legilimency on them.

George Frederick and Alexander Frederick.

The second and third sons of Ivan Frederick.

Good heavens, I haven't even gone to find your old man for trouble, and you've delivered yourselves to my door?

His own mission was to kill Ivan, but presumably, Sophia wouldn't mind two more deaths.

Just as Murphy was preparing to kill them to silence them and destroy the evidence, the Auror behind him called out: "Nizar, you're still alive!"

He had just used a counter-spell on his companion and found that the other person hadn't suffered fatal injuries; the spell that hit him earlier seemed to be just a Stupefy or something similar.

Murphy took another look at the wizards on the ground. The one hit in the back of the neck was unconscious; the one with slashed eyes would likely be blind; the one with the crushed throat was about to stop breathing; and the one with the wand in his eye was surprisingly still alive.

Thinking about it, he pressed the two young wizards to the ground and used the Command Voice, making his tone seem irresistible: "Now, tell me, why did you attack me?"

His public identity was that of a foreigner proposing marriage, a British envoy.

Even if his identity was different from the other suitors and might arouse suspicion, the Empress had never shown a clear intent to kill Ivan, so it was unlikely the Fredericks could directly determine he was there to assassinate him.

Then why would his two sons target him?

(End of chapter)