From Slave to King: My Rebate System Built Me a Kingdom With Beauties!-Chapter 235: Barrier’s Weakness?

The elves noticed something profoundly strange occurring at the barrier, an anomaly that sent immediate ripples of alarm through their monitoring stations positioned along the massive magical structure. There was something pushing against it from within the dark continent—not the usual ambient pressure of corrupted magic that had been constant for centuries, but something deliberate, forceful, intelligent. The barrier itself was responding with visible distortions, ripples of energy flowing across its surface like waves on disturbed water.

This had never happened before in recorded elven history, not in the centuries since the barrier’s creation, not during the countless generations that had maintained and reinforced it. The barrier was designed to contain, to prevent anything from crossing in either direction, to serve as absolute separation between the corrupted lands and the civilized world. But now something was actively testing it, probing for weakness, pushing with enough force to create measurable effects.

The elves monitoring the barrier knew immediately this had to be connected to the recent chaotic events—the dwarf’s appearance, the evolved goblin’s capture and impossible escape, the theft of their scout’s body, all the complications that had disrupted their carefully controlled existence. Nothing happened in isolation. Every action created ripples, and these ripples were now manifesting as direct threat to their greatest magical achievement.

The three strongest elves of the highest rank—Lysandra, Aetherys, and Seraphel, warriors whose power exceeded ordinary soldiers by orders of magnitude—rushed to the queen’s chambers without waiting for formal summons. The situation demanded immediate consultation with their leader, required decisions that only she had authority to make. They moved through the pristine corridors of the elven fortress with urgent purpose, Lysandra’s starlight armor dimming the torchlight around her, Aetherys’s silver hair flowing like liquid metal, Seraphel’s pure white hair a stark contrast to her battle-scarred features.

The queen received them in her private council room rather than the formal throne chamber, understanding that this conversation required privacy and directness rather than ceremonial protocol. She stood at a window overlooking the barrier in the distance, its shimmering surface now visibly fluctuating in ways that shouldn’t be possible.

She knew this development was deeply troublesome even before they spoke, had felt the disturbance through her own connection to the magical infrastructure their civilization depended upon. But there was only one fundamental reason why this, in itself, was even possible as a phenomenon they could observe and measure.

The barrier was objectively weakening despite all their efforts to maintain it.

But there was no logical reason for such deterioration considering their magic was actively upholding it, constantly reinforced through rituals and power transfers that had sustained it for generations. The barrier should be as strong as ever, should show no signs of degradation or vulnerability. Which could only mean one thing that chilled the queen to her core.

Their magic was no longer enough to maintain what their ancestors had built.

The queen knew with absolute certainty that the moment the goblin called Byung had been expelled from the dimensional prison, her seers had reported something impossible. They could observe through their scrying that he had somehow left the prison and returned to the material world—walked free from a containment designed to be eternal and inescapable. Something she had never personally seen in her extremely long lifetime, something that violated fundamental principles of how that prison was supposed to function.

And there was only one way to leave that particular dimensional space through conventional means. The prison itself must have actively expelled him, must have rejected his presence and forcibly returned him to reality rather than containing him as designed. This worried her far more than she’d initially admitted to her council, represented a failure mode she never thought was remotely possible.

The prison was supposed to be absolute. Beings sent there remained there until they died or went mad, whichever came first. But Byung had returned intact, apparently unharmed, his evolution and abilities somehow incompatible with the prison’s fundamental nature. What did that say about his true capabilities? What did it mean for magical structures they’d always assumed were unbreakable?

But it couldn’t possibly be a coincidence that the barrier began showing stress immediately after his impossible escape. The two events were connected somehow, part of a larger pattern she didn’t yet fully understand but knew threatened everything her people had built.

The queen didn’t regret her decision not to send her absolute strongest warriors after Byung initially. That would have been overreaction, would have revealed weakness and concern disproportionate to what a single evolved goblin should represent. But circumstances had clearly changed. The situation demanded reassessment.

"What should we do, my queen?" asked Lysandra, her ancient eyes reflecting centuries of service and unwavering loyalty.

"I am aware of what’s at stake," the queen said calmly. "The question is not what happens if we fail, but how we prevent that failure."

She looked at the three elves standing before her—Lysandra in her dimming starlight armor, Aetherys with crackling energy barely contained at her fingertips, Seraphel bearing the scars of forgotten battles. Her gaze settled on Seraphel, the youngest and objectively weakest of the trio, though still formidable by any standard.

The queen knew through her intelligence network that the dwarf had returned to hiding somewhere in his deep tunnels, disappeared from the surface entirely and become untraceable. And Byung was confirmed to be in a completely different region altogether, traveling with orc companions for reasons not yet clear. Two separate problems requiring different approaches.

She made her decision with characteristic decisiveness. "Seraphel, I’m sending you on a critical mission. You will locate the evolved goblin and bring him here to our fortress. Alive and unharmed—this is absolutely essential. I do not want him killed. He needs to be capable of answering questions."

Seraphel looked surprised at being chosen over her more powerful companions, her scarred face showing brief confusion. "My queen, if the target is dangerous enough to warrant—"

"You are not being sent to fight him," the queen clarified. "You are being sent to retrieve him. Lysandra and Aetherys will remain here to reinforce the barrier and prepare our defenses in case the situation deteriorates further. I want to know how Byung was able to escape the dimensional prison. That knowledge may be crucial to understanding what’s happening with the barrier itself."

"There are forces at work we don’t fully comprehend yet. The goblin may hold answers we desperately need. Bring him to me, Seraphel. Use whatever persuasion necessary, but he must arrive capable of communication."

"It will be done, my queen," Seraphel said, bowing deeply before departing to prepare for the mission.

The queen remained at the window long after they’d left, watching the barrier pulse and shimmer with unnatural energy. Somewhere in the dark continent beyond, something was pushing. Something wanted through.

And she feared they were running out of time to stop it.