When the plot-skips players into the game world

Hearing the Guardian's words, the Stranger immediately felt an overwhelming sense of pressure bearing down on him.

Being gazed upon by the weary eyes of Avalon's Great Guardian, bloodshot from exhaustion, the Stranger felt his face stiffen.

...Did he just, kill all those people?

His pupils dilated with fear as he distinctly sensed the lingering killing intent on the body of the blonde Knight.

The intent to kill was not directed at him, but hung in the air like the residual smell of gunpowder after a shot.

"...If I say I want to go back, do you intend to kill me?"

After a brief silence, the Stranger softly countered, "To prevent the people of Star Antimony from gaining my wisdom and technology... to kill me here?"

He did not even know why he was uttering such perilous words.

He was neither playing a role nor speaking in irony to keep himself alive. Speaking these words was like cornering the Guardian and was actually contrary to his goal of "surviving."

—He just wanted to ask that question.

A strange sensation, like a premonition, compelled him to seek an answer to a question he himself did not fully understand.

After watching him for a good while, the Guardian smiled helplessly.

"No."

With lips dry from long periods without food or drink, the Guardian answered succinctly.

"...Why?"

"No reason... because you are a civilian."

Standing before the door curtain with an upright posture and a calm gaze, the Guardian said, "Also, because I am a Knight—I am a Knight bestowed with honor by Her Majesty the Queen, and I will protect her glory until death.

"It is impossible for me to harm a civilian, Master Nobel."

Moved by these words, the Stranger felt a mix of loss and the nagging feeling that something was missing.

The next sentence from the Guardian made the Stranger involuntarily clench his fists:

"—After all, you have no part in this war."

"...No part in it."

The Stranger laughed at himself mockingly.

The Guardian responded slowly and clearly, "It has nothing to do with your origins, nationality, or will. You have not participated in this war, you are not a soldier, so you are a civilian.

"Unfortunately, I can't escort you to Star Antimony. But I also won't take you back to Glass Island... since you've escaped here, you probably don't want to go back.

"I will leave two soldiers to take care of you, and you can continue on to Star Antimony. They will protect you and also keep you under surveillance. Because I must undertake a secret mission next... preventing you from possibly leaking secrets, if there is any offense, please forgive me."

"...Wait a minute."

The Stranger felt something was amiss, as if he had overlooked something.

Why would he tell me about a secret mission...

Soon he realized where the inconsistency lay.

The Guardian seemed so calm... but the Queen is dead, Princess Isabel is missing, the Hall of Silver and Tin destroyed by the Flame Demon, and Avalon's Royal Capital has already been invaded by the Star Antimony army.

Why is he still so composed?

Master Nobel is the expert in developing explosives. If his technology were controlled by the people of Star Antimony, it would undoubtedly become a weapon of slaughter on the battlefield...

...just like the technology he invented himself.

"Are you going to your death?"

The Stranger blurted out.

At his words, the Guardian frowned slightly, his gaze becoming solemn.

Just by doing so, the Stranger felt an immense pressure, leaving him almost suffocated.

As if his lungs had forgotten how to breathe, his chest unable to expand—his mind starved of oxygen, his cheeks flushed with the heat.

—The Guardian didn't even need to attack him. Merely by frowning and gazing at him, he was nearly choked to death.

And amid the near-death feeling caused by lack of oxygen, the Stranger's brain operated with abnormal speed—

"The Princess isn't dead!"

Immediately grasping the Guardian's intention, he cried out loud.

In that instant, the pressure dissipated.

The Stranger gasped for air, his fingers tingling as he looked blankly into space, feeling like cotton expanding within his head.

"What did you say?"

"Princess Isabel is still alive, the Grand Adjudicator has rescued her, and they are now heading to the Holy Nation!" the Stranger quickly added.

"That's impossible," the Guardian furrowed his brow, "The skies from Avalon to the Holy Nation are filled with Gargoyles. A mass so thick it's like a Dark Cloud obscuring the heavens."

The Stranger immediately guessed those must be Gargoyles raised from Star Antimony's ships.

Star Antimony had transferred the "stake" devices that energize Gargoyles to their warships—the energy stakes too cumbersome for land battles and enormous in size, could be easily moved at sea.

Gargoyles were cheap to produce, requiring at most a Rank Two Transcendent from the Path of Dusk and a Rank One Demon Scholar, using no more than three days to create one. He previously sensed that another army of Gargoyles should be in reserve on Star Antimony's rearguard... It seems now, they were all amassed at sea.

Since Gargoyles inherently possess anti-magic abilities, they can be used to neutralize a wide range of spells below Rank Two. Even though the flesh and blood exterior they wear lacks this power... as long as they fly in the air, they can seal the Gryphons' prideful ability for Elementalization.

If a Gryphon in a state of Elementalization accidentally collides with a Gargoyle, with its anti-magic properties, the Gargoyle will directly negate the Gryphon's Elementalization, hence revealing them and potentially mauling them at high speeds.